Atticus’s Odyssey: Reincarnated Into A Playground

Chapter 1516  A Favor

Moments later, he returned with an armful of files, dumping them onto the table. The trio immediately got to work, flipping through each one.

“Have your people made any headway in solving this?” Atticus asked without looking up.

“N-not yet, my lord.”

“How long has this been happening?”

The commissioner paused, counted on his fingers, then said,

“Three days!”

‘That’s a long time.’

Time moved differently inside the territory. Three days here might as well be months. And yet they had made no progress.

‘Incompetence? Or whoever is responsible is simply good at covering their tracks.’

Either way, Atticus intended to find out.

They finished reviewing the documents in moments.

“This is everything you have?” Anorah asked again.

The man nodded quickly.

“W-what are your orders, lord? Your most loyal subject is ready to do anything you command!”

Atticus barely acknowledged him. He exchanged a glance with the others, then vanished from the office without another word.

According to the files, exactly 189 children had vanished without a trace in the past three days. The police force questioned their families and every relative they could find, but no one had seen anything.

Most of the disappearances happened at night, parents waking in the morning to find empty beds.

Only now did Atticus fully understand the anger of the masses. Unexplained disappearances almost always pointed to an unseen hand. And with him as the only absolute figure of power in the territory, he became the easiest target the moment the rumor surfaced.

Atticus hovered high in the sky, Anorah and Whisker beside him.

“Tell me again…” Whisker said, brows raised. “How exactly do you plan to find them?”

“The children are likely dead.”

The words tasted bitter, but he couldn’t afford to ignore the possibility.

“So?” Whisker pressed.

“So, no one can enter or leave this territory without my consent. If there are any remains… they’re still here.”

Atticus looked at Anorah. Her expression had tightened. Fake or not, children were still children. One had to be truly sick to target them.

He closed his eyes and expanded his senses. The entire territory lit up like a painted canvas in his mind. Every sound, every movement, every heartbeat. He saw everything and scrutinized it.

After glimpsing far too many people either taking a shit or bathing, it became clear the city didn’t hold what he was looking for.

Atticus pushed farther, through the vast unoccupied lands of forest, mountains, and sea.

He stopped, then opened his eyes.

“I found something.”

They vanished instantly, reappearing above the middle of an ocean.

Atticus focused. Waves quivered, then rippled outward as multiple objects rose from the depths across different points of the water.

The moment Whisker and Anorah saw them, their expressions darkened. Atticus’ own features hardened.

‘Insane…’

A large number of rotting, waterlogged corpses floated up before them. They were child sized, with limbs swollen and discolored. Their forms had been held down by boulder sized rocks tied to them with thick, frayed ropes. “They’re sick for doing this!”

Anorah’s fists trembled, her eyes burning with anger.

Whisker said nothing, but the coldness in his demeanor spoke louder than words. It was easy to dismiss rumors. It was different seeing something like this with your own eyes.

“I need a favour, my star actor,” Whisker said quietly. Though his voice was calm, Atticus could feel the simmering rage beneath it.

Atticus nodded. “Leave the capture of the people responsible to me.”

“Can you handle it?”

Whisker’s smile appeared dangerous.

“I’ll make them regret their life choices.”

…

Three hours. That was all it took for Whisker to return with news. By then, Atticus had already gathered the others and explained the situation.

“I found them,” Whisker simply said.

Atticus stared at him skeptically. Even Anorah looked doubtful. Without Atticus’ omniscience, how could he possibly have found them that fast?

“I’ll show you.”

Whisker took them far from the city, deep into the middle of a forest. There, the earth was soaked red.

Dozens of men and women lay barely conscious, bodies shredded with wounds and lacerations. Flesh cut away, eyes gouged from their sockets, even their limbs and… more sensitive parts hadn’t been spared. It was brutal.

Whisker walked across the bloody ground like he was taking a casual stroll.

“I took the liberty of questioning them. Tough nuts, these ones… took me about two hours.”

He struck his foot down on the throat of one man. The victim convulsed, choking violently as he gasped for breath.

A detached glint flashed in Whisker’s eyes as he gazed down at him.

“I enjoyed every moment.”

‘He’s different…’

Atticus studied him silently. He had always known Whisker hid something beneath the playful exterior, but this… this was a glimpse into a side he’d never seen before.

Still, something else shocked Atticus even more. From Whisker’s own words, he’d spent two hours torturing them, meaning it had taken him only one hour to find them in the first place.

“How the hell did the lazy man find them?” Ozeroth muttered, frowning. The idea of Whisker actually being competent clearly offended him.

“That shouldn’t be our focus,” Anorah said. “You said you got them to talk. Who’s responsible?”

“Good one, star actor’s woman,” Whisker grinned. “Getting some really makes thinking smoother.”

“Huh? What is he talking about, bond?” Ozeroth asked, confused.

“Getting… some?” Ozerra repeated, eyeing Kiara.

Kiara, mortified, whispered, “It means getting… rewards, my lady.”

Ozerra narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, then nodded as if she understood everything.

Meanwhile, Atticus’ glare could have cut through steel. Whisker just chuckled.

“Oops.”

Atticus felt Magnus’ stare on him and exhaled slowly.

“Just tell us what you found.”

Still smiling, Whisker nodded.

“These people are the ones responsible for kidnapping the children. But all of them were brainwashed by this one man.”

He pressed harder on the man’s throat, increasing the choking sounds as he thrashed weakly.

“He refused to talk despite my… persuasive actions. So I decided to use my will on his mind. That was when I discovered something… interesting.”

Whisker glanced at Atticus. Atticus focused on the man, scrutinizing every inch of him. His eyes narrowed.

‘Darkness.’

A cloudy, shadowy energy clung to the man’s mind, obscuring it.

He looked to Whisker, who simply nodded.

“The one truly responsible for this heinous act is…”

“The Abyss faction.” Atticus muttered.