The Illicitor's Code #1

006: The Illicitor

"Wait, Mr. Damisch!" said Jin Miller quickly. The man now stood up from his chair and looked at them seriously. "May I speak to your brother for a moment?" The man looked so pitiable and desperate now, that Dim-Dim took pity on him.

Damian looked clearly ready to refuse, but Dim-Dim nodded beside him. "I will listen to you, Sir."

Jin Miller immediately looked relieved. The man rummaged his drawer for a moment, and then showed Dim-Dim a very complicated, colorful paper full of diagram that he couldn't understand. "Do you see the picture on it?" he asked, pointing to a circular diagram at the top right corner of the paper that was divided into three sections. "Black means mission failure, gray means mission success with casualties, while white means success without casualties."

Hearing that, Dim-Dim now looked at the diagram more seriously.

"Now, can you tell me which part of this circle is the biggest?" Jin Miller asked Dim-Dim-Dim.

"The gray one, sir," Dim-Dim replied. "That means there were many successful missions but with casualties."

"Good boy. And the smallest part?"

"The white one, sir."

"And that means...?"

Dim-Dim glanced briefly at his brother who was just staring at the diagram with a flat face, and said, "I see what you mean, Sir. There are very few successful missions without casualties."

"Smart boy," Jin Miller said, relieved. "And do you know which missions have been successful without casualties, young boy?"

"Missions did by S-class Venators, sir?" asked Dim-Dim hesitantly.

The man shook his head. "There are no S-class Venators... yet. Besides, 100% of successful missions without casualties are those done by teams that have an Illicitor on board." The man sighed. "I'm not going to lie to you, Kid. We don't have any more Illicitors in America. They're dead, because their superpowers are almost meaningless. But you're strong, kid. We desperately need you to join us as an Illicitor. You have the power to lure the monster away from the human settlement, and lead it to the Venator trap. The chance of mission success without casualties could be as high as 90%. Imagine, you could save many lives with the superpowers in your blood, boy. That's why I will give you an hour to consider this off—"

"I accept your offer, sir," without even thinking, Dim-Dim had already said the words.

He looked at his brother who seemed furious, and hurriedly added, "I'm willing to help Venator to lure the monsters, but I want to join my brother's team—"

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DECIDE!" suddenly his brother was looming beside Dim-Dim, and Dim-Dim gasped in shock. He had never heard his brother yell that loud to anyone. "YOU'RE JUST A KID! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT LIFE, ABOUT MONSTERS, AND YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING!"

Dim-Dim never expected Damian's reaction to be that bad. Tears filled his eyes from being yelled at, and for a moment he desperately tried not to cry in front of his brother.

"YOU CAN'T EVEN PROTECT MAMA! AND YOU THINK YOU CAN HELP PEOPLE?"

The door to the director's office slammed open, and Clarinassa and the rest of her team looked back and forth between Damian and Dim-Dim who looked like he was about to cry in his swivel chair, and looked shocked. "What have you done, Damian?" asked Clarinassa.

"SHUT UP, YOU EVIL WOMAN!" Damian now spun around to face Clarinassa. "YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW YOU'RE HERE TO ASK MY BROTHER TO JOIN YOUR TEAM AND BE YOUR MONSTER BAIT? SO THAT YOUR MISSIONS WILL ALWAYS SUCCESSFUL AND YOU CAN GET PROMOTED? Damn it!"

"No, you misunderstand my intention," Clarinassa argued. "I'm here to—"

Dim-Dim was no longer listening to anything and began to feel hard to breath. His chest hurt, his facial muscles ached from holding back tears. At first he didn't understand why. But slowly he finally understood. All this time he had idolized his brother, very much. He believed that no matter what happened, the world would still spin on its axis as long as Damian was around. He believed that his brother was so strong that he, his mother, and the world would be safe. But when it turned out that his brother was unable to protect them all, and the old Dim-Dim's world was shattered after his mother died, Dim-Dim still hadn't accepted the fact that his brother was not as strong as he thought. That his brother had only been forced to be strong.

All the sadness and regret led to one painful conclusion: he was just a burden in Damian's life. A figure who was unable to protect his mother, and thought that he could protect other people and acted like a hero.

Now, the office was so chaotic that many people came in.

"I QUIT, MILLER!" shouted Damian, his voice louder than before, and then suddenly came the sound of a slap cracking through the air.

Dim-Dim looked up from the hands he was using to cover his wet eyes, and found his brother being slapped by someone—not Clarinassa, but Oriyan.

Damian was stunned, and indeed everyone in the office was rooted to the spot as they witnessed the argument between the two Venators who were close friends.

"I know you're still grieving the death of your mother and don't want to lose another family member, Damisch. But it is ridiculous to show your back to the people in the world just because of that, especially since you are the best Venator the world has. So stop your silliness now and toughen up," Oriyan said coldly. The man paused for a moment, then lifted his chin to look at Jin Miller, and smiled sarcastically. "You might have to considered to increase our salaries, Boss. Because the cost of living in Safe City has increased tenfold from what we know. If there's no raise in the near future, I'll submit my resignation letter faster than Damisch. To hell with the world. Here I risk my soul every day!"

But before the man turned and left, Damian said, "Miller wanted to make my brother to become monster bait as if his life didn't matter, Parenzee. And my brother accepted his offer."

Oriyan now turned to Dim-Dim, and smiled sweetly and even warmly at him. "Well then, congratulations! And don't cry over your decision to join us!" he said cheerfully.

He had just approached the door when suddenly his phone—and all other Venator phones in the room—vibrated and emitted rapid beeping followed by the clear, loud voice of a female operator:

"Cautious! Three type A monsters have been detected in New Hampshire, United States. For the Class A Venators in the United States, please prepare yourselves right away and come to the location before the sunset. Please handle this dangerous situation carefully. For the Class B and C Venators please be careful while isolating the area from the innocents. Thank you."

"Three type A monsters in New Hampshire? I didn't mishear, did I?" Oriyan asked, surprised.

"I hope so, but you didn't mishear, Parenzee," Damian replied hoarsely.

Jin Miller sighed heavily. "Three class A monsters, so we need at least six class A Venators," Jin Miller said. Now he looked carefully at Damian and the other Venators. "But, for today we only have four Venators in America, so I ask Mr. Damisch, Ms. Clark, Mr. Parenzee, and Mr. Alexandrovich not to refuse this mission." He glanced at Dim-Dim for a moment. "I won't force you to work as an Illicitor, but this mission will be much easier if you join the team."