Chapter 256: Un-Redacted
Alex had no idea who the system was warning him about. After all, he had not managed to track down the last heroine in this arc. But the Queen of Hearts had told him that there was a surprise heroine as well, meaning she must have been hiding her information from being purchased within the in game store.
Because of this, Alex had no idea just who wanted to kill him, or why. And while the Zetas information network was large, La Madre was more concerned with forcing the Mexican Government into submission, as well as mopping up all the smaller gangs and cartels in Mexico that had a chance of challenging her for power.
Since this was the case, Alex could really only ask one other person he knew of who might be able to help him. Until now Alex had not contacted the mysterious hacker known as redacted. They had always contacted him. But since he had some form of contact with whoever was behind the screen, Alex decided to send them a message.
“I need help to identify someone… I honestly don’t have much information that would be helpful, but I’m running out of options. Are you able to assist?”
Hours passed before Alex received a message from the user who went by the name of “Redacted’ and when he did, the response was simple.
“Send me what you know, 1 million USD is my price. I know someone like yourself can easily afford that. If I can’t figure out the identity of your target within two weeks, I’ll refund your money.”
Alex immediately agreed to this and transferred the funds to Redacted’s international account. Once the money cleared, Alex sent what little he knew. Where he received a surprisingly quick response.
“Odds are the person you’re looking for is Agent Carmen Diaz from the DEA. She was recently assigned to the Taskforce that you eliminated, and before that, her partner was killed by La Madre in order to protect your identity. If there is someone who is genuinely trying to kill you now that the bounty is null and void, she’s the one who fits the bill…”
“And how did you find this out? It hasn’t even been thirty minutes since I asked you for help?”
Redacted immediately responded in a way Alex wasn’t expecting.
“I tasked her with saving Isabella, but you pulled through for me first. Besides that, I have been keeping tabs on her, and she has orders not to harm you in any way. But I think at this point she might be beyond the brink of sanity.
You are pretty much responsible for all of her friends being killed here in Mexico. Even if it is inadvertently so… I can look into the matter further for you, but just be aware I am like 98% positive she’s the girl you’re looking for.
I’ll let you know when I confirm this theory. Until then, try to keep your head on a swivel. Isabella would be sad if her knight in shining armor suddenly got taken out by a vengeful bitch…”
Alex left the matter at this. In the meantime, he decided to spend what points he had left in the in-game store to buy information on the last heroine. It turned out it was, of course, Redacted’s information, and not that of Carmen, giving Alex a clue about who this mysterious hacker was.
[Nina Flores]
[Age: 21]
[Background: University Student]
[Personality: Introverted]
[Likes: Nerds, Pretty Boys, Introverts]
[Dislikes: Extroverts, Jocks, Criminals]
Alex could immediately tell he was not Nina’s type. After all, he was an extroverted jock who was also a criminal. Not just any criminal a Drug Lord of Los Zetas. Thus, he knew tracking her down and convincing her to fall for him would be an extremely daunting task.
This, of course, just gave Alex a headache as he realized that his two remaining conquests outside of La Madre, and Maria were two women who either were incompatible with him or hated him entirely. But since this challenge had been thrown at him, Alex decided to not procrastinate.
Especially when he considered the fact that it would be some time before he could actually confirm that Carmen was his last heroine. And thus he began tracking down Nina’s exact location without her even realizing it.
—
Nina sat in her room. She had just cleaned her glasses as she looked in the mirror. It had been weeks since she had seen the light of day. This entire time, she had been hiding in her dorm room, not even leaving to do her own laundry.
None of her classmates had come to check up on her, and if not for food delivery under a false identity, then she would have starved a long time ago. Despite the fact that her clothes were dirty, she managed to keep up with her personal hygiene.
In fact, just now she had exited the shower and gotten dressed. Because of this, her purple hair was still damp. Like several of the other girls in this arc, Nina had brown skin, with purple hair and matching eyes.
Like most of the heroines in this world, her unique appearance was no doubt the result of being in a literal manga. And because of this, nobody ever batted an eye at her strange hair and eye color. One could definitely say that her hair was messy… As aside from washing it daily, she had not bothered to actually groom her hair recently. Because of this, the young, and petite woman looked rather unkempt.
But Nina did not seem to remotely care about her own appearance, instead she typed away on her mechanical keyboard, which made an audible click with each press of the button. Although the threat to her life had mostly passed, what with the collapse of the cartels who she had previously fucked with.
Nina was still timid by nature, and quite paranoid about the everyday dangers that faced her in this world. Let alone the fact that she had angered some seriously powerful and dangerous people. Because of this, she still hid inside her room, refusing to open the door unless it was for her delivered meals.
With this in mind, she continued to search for information on Carmen being the woman Alex was looking for. And sure enough, after searching through the woman’s chat logs. She appeared to have gone absolutely silent when her superiors kept requesting her to return to the USA.
She even missed her extraction point, and was caught on a security camera purchasing a sniper rifle and some armor piercing ammunition. This led Nina to believe that she was indeed targeting Alex. Since this was the case, the petite beauty quickly sent over the information she had collected to Alex along with a single text.
“Good luck. You’re going to need it!”
Yet Alex did not respond. In fact, for some time he did not respond, causing Nina to become a bit worried as she texted the man again. However, when she texted him this time around, a buzz could be heard from outside her door. Causing the young woman to look over her shoulder in complete and total shock.
She was just about to panic when a knock resounded on the door. Followed by another, and another. The more she pretended like she wasn’t here, the more the knocking occurred. It was slow, and patient. But it was abundantly clear that whoever was on the other side of the door knew she was inside.
Ultimately, her worst fears were realized when Alex finally texted her back with a simple message.
“I know you’re in there, so open the damn door already!”
Nina had no idea how Alex had tracked her down, but she felt deeply afraid of confronting him in person. After all, although she had helped him in the past, and had just done so yet again. She felt as if by sending Alex that information she had used up her usefulness.
And now that she was no longer a use to Alex, the fearsome Drug Lord would obviously take her out. I mean, she knew too much already. Obviously a loose end like her could not be allowed ot live right?
Because of this she adamantly refused to answer the door, and instead hid jumped into her bed, and hid under her covers, afraid that if she were to even peak her head out, then the boogeyman would get her. Nevertheless, Alex’s next text forced her hand.
“If you don’t open up, Imma kick that fucking door down!”
With no choice, Nina mustered the courage and opened the door, ready to face her death. In fact, she closed her eyes while bracing for the gunshot. But the bang never came, instead she felt something warm be placed upon her head.
When Nina opened her eyes, she saw Alex standing there with a smile on his handsome face, having just placed a paper bag on her head. His next words were a kindness the girl was not expecting from one of Mexico’s most notorious killers.
“I picked you up something to eat on the way. I hope you’re hungry! What? Why do you look so perplexed? You didn’t think I was going to kill you, now did you?”
Contrary to what Alex was expecting, the young woman immediately fell to her knees and broke out into tears. Leaving Alex in a state of complete and total bewilderment.