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    Ch.38Pursuit! (5)

    #038

    8 PM.

    In any other place, the streets would be growing quiet as people headed home, but Las Vegas was different.

    This was the Las Vegas Strip, a place truly deserving of the phrase “a city that never sleeps.”

    In front of the Sands Expo Convention Center, just steps away from the Strip, Dexter and Himena stood awkwardly.

    While Dexter appeared his usual self, Himena was somewhat different.

    With her head hung low, she was deeply contemplating whether she should enter the convention center or not.

    “What if we miss them while we’re standing here?”

    Dexter said as he put his arm around Himena’s shoulders. She sighed deeply and replied.

    “I guess we have to go in…”

    “Why are you so reluctant? It’s not like we’re heading to a slaughterhouse.”

    “I’m not reluctant, I’m just embarrassed…”

    “Come on. We’re both adults. Let’s go in already.”

    Dexter finally grabbed Himena’s hesitant wrist and pulled her into the convention center.

    “Wait, wait a second!”

    “There’s no time to wait. You’ll be the first one throwing a fit if we miss them.”

    “That’s true, but still… Ugh…”

    As soon as they entered the expo building, they were greeted by a swarm of people and blaring music.

    It was literally “bustling”—loud and crowded—but what shocked Himena was something else.

    The clothing people wore was so revealing it barely qualified as clothing at all, closer to underwear.

    Dexter was enjoying the view too, but afraid of getting scolded by Himena, he kept his reactions hidden while eagerly taking it all in.

    ‘Coming to Earth was definitely worth it.’

    But for Himena, it was torture.

    Whether she turned her head left or right, or looked straight ahead, she was surrounded by scantily clad men and women.

    “Ugh… If I get caught, I’m seriously going to kill him…”

    Finally, despite being indoors, Himena pulled out sunglasses from her front pocket and put them on, sticking close to Dexter as she followed him.

    “Hello, sexy guy.”

    Someone tapped Dexter’s shoulder. When he turned around, he saw a woman with a voluptuous figure that could rival Jesse’s.

    Wearing a high-leg bikini with her label’s name printed on the band and a leather belt, the woman looked at Dexter with sultry eyes.

    “You don’t look like an actor. Producer?”

    “No, I’m just here looking for someone. And you are?”

    “I just joined a new label. I’m here for promotion, but it’s my first time seeing a regular civilian like you here.”

    Instead of answering, Dexter raised one corner of his mouth in a slight smile.

    Seeing this, the woman took out a business card from the case attached to her belt, then pulled a pen from between her ample cleavage.

    Dexter, who hadn’t even noticed there was a pen there, almost gaped in surprise.

    But he quickly composed himself and maintained a confident smile as he looked at her.

    ‘Oh wow.’

    Though he showed no outward reaction, he couldn’t help but be internally impressed.

    The woman seemed to like how Dexter was looking at her steadily without gawking, so she increased her physical contact as she spoke.

    “I could put other things between them for you too…”

    As she ran her fingers over Dexter’s firm chest muscles, she glanced at Himena hiding behind him and said.

    “Looks like you already have plans?”

    Seeing Himena glaring from behind Dexter, the woman clicked her tongue, quickly wrote something on her card, and handed it to Dexter with a wink.

    “Call me.”

    When Dexter responded with just a nod, the woman lightly kissed her palm and blew the kiss toward him.

    ‘Destiny.’

    The label’s business card had a name that was clearly not her real one, along with a hastily scribbled phone number.

    Himena, who had been watching this exchange from hiding, slapped Dexter’s back repeatedly and said.

    “Ugh! Let’s go somewhere else, somewhere else!”

    “What’s wrong?”

    “Do you want to hang out with women like that? We’re supposed to be investigating!”

    “Come on.”

    Forced to leave by Himena pushing his back, Dexter carefully tucked the business card into his wallet.

    Dexter and Himena slowly looked around inside the convention center, but with an interior area of 900,000 square feet (about 100,000 square meters), it was like looking for a needle in the Nevada desert.

    Moreover, Himena was making the search more difficult by keeping her head down out of embarrassment and fidgeting nervously.

    “The place is crawling with people, and there are only two of us…”

    Anyone could see this was going to be challenging.

    “Don’t you have some equipment for finding aliens or something?”

    “I do actually…”

    Dexter’s eyes widened in surprise when Himena confirmed she actually had such a device, despite him asking casually.

    “Why didn’t you take it out earlier?”

    “Because its range is too small…”

    Himena pulled out a radar from her pocket that looked like a pocket watch with a green glass panel etched with grid lines.

    Recognizing the familiar design of the radar, Dexter pointed at it and said.

    “I’ve seen this somewhere before.”

    “It’s probably from where you’re thinking. I don’t know much about it, but the developer who made this radar was a huge fan of Japanese manga.”

    Dexter thought of a fighting race character with spiky hair that would require a whole tube of gel to maintain, who fought battles on a planetary scale.

    “Seems like it would be better at finding orange orbs than aliens.”

    “What? I told you I haven’t watched that manga. This is used to detect extraterrestrial life forms or items manufactured outside Earth.”

    “What’s the range?”

    “About 15 feet (around 4.5m), I think.”

    “That’s really narrow.”

    It was a radar that would be difficult to use unless they got very close to their target.

    When Himena activated the radar, a white dot appeared in the center, blinking on and off.

    “It’s supposed to only detect objects or life forms containing non-Earth materials… why is it showing something in the center?”

    As Himena was about to tap the radar with her palm to fix it physically, Dexter stopped her and said.

    “It’s because I have nanobots in my body.”

    Before she could ask why he was carrying nanobots in his body, Dexter continued.

    “So we’ll need to ignore the dot in the center of the radar.”

    Apart from the white dot in the center, nothing else appeared.

    Unfortunately, it seemed the succubus professor wasn’t within the 15-foot radius.

    “But why didn’t you use this good radar when you were trying to arrest that professor and researcher?”

    “Because I thought they were human, obviously? But I still think we should have used all available means to find them.”

    Himena said with a pout.

    It wasn’t the worst mistake in OSA history, but treating lightly a matter that required thorough preparation was the problem.

    Thanks to that, Dexter, a civilian, and Himena, a rookie agent, were now struggling in their place.

    Dexter was searching visually while Himena was busy checking different areas with her radar, looking for the succubus professor.

    “Eek!”

    “Oh my, that was quite a sound!”

    Himena stood with a startled expression, holding her buttocks, while a muscular skinhead man was grinning mischievously.

    Himena’s brow furrowed as she put the radar back in her suit pocket and said.

    “Why are you grabbing other people’s buttocks?”

    “Oh my, looking at that temper, you seem quite bold! Are you into role-playing?”

    Despite seeing Himena’s frowning face, the skinhead man, who still hadn’t grasped the situation, raised his hands pretending to tremble in fear and said.

    “Oh, I’m so scared! Are you going to discipline me with a whip and dripping candle wax next?”

    Himena was slowly pulling her foot back, preparing to kick the shin of the skinhead man who mistook her for a porn actress.

    Seeing this, Dexter stepped between them and said.

    “Look, friend. This person is an actual federal agent, not an actress. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do anything irritating.”

    “Cute little guy. What are you? Her pimp? Her boy toy?”

    The skinhead man started patting Dexter’s cheek.

    Normally, Dexter would have punched him right in the face, but with many people watching and not wanting to cause a scene, he gave the man one more chance.

    “Look at this guy.”

    Dexter lightly grabbed the skinhead man’s wrist.

    “Stop trying to show off in front of a woman… urgh!”

    Dexter started applying pressure to the wrist he was holding.

    “Why can’t you just listen when someone’s being nice?”

    Even without specific commands, the autonomous nanobots began entering between his muscles, enhancing Dexter’s strength.

    Himena was startled to see each muscle fiber becoming visible and Dexter’s forearm turning red as blood rushed to it.

    “You, you… wait… ugh, aaagh!”

    The skinhead man tried to stop Dexter but forgot what he was going to say as intense pain shot through his wrist.

    -Crack.

    As more force was applied by Dexter’s hand, which had swollen with muscles like a professional arm wrestler’s, a sound that shouldn’t come from a wrist was heard.

    People nearby started looking toward Dexter, Himena, and the skinhead man, drawn by the man’s screams.

    Even Himena, who was watching up close, seemed uncomfortable with the sound, as she looked at the skinhead man’s wrist with a grimace.

    “Ah… aaah!”

    “I told you to take your hand away. Why didn’t you listen?”

    “Mr. Hughes, just let him go. He’s a pitiful guy.”

    “Let him go?”

    “Hurry.”

    “Ugh… hnngh…”

    When Dexter released the wrist at Himena’s request, the skinhead man’s wrist was completely dislocated and dangling.

    “Ugh, I think I’m going to be sick.”

    Himena said with her hand over her mouth, still looking uncomfortable as she stared at the skinhead man’s wrist.

    The skinhead man was just trembling, holding his dislocated wrist with his other hand.

    “Go to the hospital quickly. If you delay, you might lose the use of your hand.”

    “Ugh, uugh…!”

    The skinhead man looked back and forth between Dexter and Himena once, then immediately ran out of the convention center.

    As people gathered around looking at Dexter and Himena, Dexter frowned slightly to indicate his anger and said.

    “That guy who just left was groping my girlfriend’s butt. Can’t believe the kind of assholes you see these days, seriously.”

    After Dexter gave this brief explanation with some cursing, people seemed to think it was no big deal and went back to focusing on the convention.

    No one had seen the skinhead man’s dangling wrist clearly, and they just thought of Dexter as a passionate boyfriend who had punished someone for sexually harassing his girlfriend.

    “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

    “Huh? Oh, no…”

    Himena was more preoccupied with what Dexter had said earlier than with his concern.

    ‘Girlfriend…’

    It was just a white lie Dexter told without much thought, but it affected Himena differently.

    Himena added another stack of affection for Dexter, who had revealed his hidden strength to protect her, even at the risk of exposure.

    While Himena’s heart was racing from Dexter’s unintended comment, Dexter himself was getting irritated as he looked around.

    ‘It’s too spacious, and unexpected things keep happening.’

    Moreover, his attention kept getting diverted by the women around him, and his lower body was starting to feel uncomfortable.

    ‘Good thing I’m wearing loose pants.’

    No matter how much Dexter pretended to treat Himena playfully and not see her as a romantic interest, it was difficult to investigate in his current state.

    ‘Is there a way to get more people to help?’

    Dexter thought he should consider this later as he took deep breaths to calm his lower body while slowly looking around.

    “…Mr. Hughes.”

    Himena, standing behind him, tugged at his collar and spoke in a small voice.

    “What is it?”

    “Over there.”

    Himena didn’t elaborate but pointed with her finger.

    Two women, presumed to be the succubus professor and researcher, were caressing the thighs of a skinny man whose hands they were practically restraining.

    “That’s it, that’s it, just like what happened to Officer Lawrence.”

    “Looks like we found them, right?”

    Dexter and Himena nodded at each other and slowly began approaching the two women with their victim between them.


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