I wake up sideways, laying on my right arm. Shifting tiny bit, I start to feel pins and needles which instantly wakes me up.

"Ooh, that hurts, quite a lot actually."

I go through my morning routine and place at my phone, thinking about calling my mom. 'Oh wait, if its seven here then it's four there. Might wait a bit.' After I decide against calling mom for now, I decide to visit the Museum of Natural History. If she follows her usual pattern for her last several jobs where she works night shift on weekdays and day shift on weekends then since today is Saturday she should be working on the day.

I get dressed and grab my purse so I can go surprise my best friend for no reason whatsoever. Once I get on the subway car, I have an uneventful train ride for the first time in a while. Entering the museum, I walk up to the reception desk and ask for the location of Maddy.

"Is there an emergency?"

"No, I just want to surprise my friend."

"Miss, she's on the job, so you'll have to come back later."

"Okay then."

I don't really know what I was expecting, thus I left the building. However, once outside, I see a person sitting on a bench and she seems to be crying. Sticking my nose into their business while trying to be a Good Samaritan, I walk up to them.

"Are you okay?"

"H-Huh?"

"I asked if you were okay?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm just going through some things."

I sit down next her. "Do you want to talk about it? It might make you feel better."

"Umm, so…my son is missing."

"Uh. I don't know what to say to that."

"I told the police and they ran an investigation but nothing was turned up. So I tried turning to the guilds. The hero and adventurer guilds turned me away, and I'm not even going to try the villain's guild. Not that I know where they even are."

Oh, I remember now, this is the same woman who caused a commotion at the guild on the same day I registered.

"I-I don't know if I can even help with that."

"Don't worry, it's okay. My son is really the only thing left in my life. I'm not really on speaking terms with my parents after I became pregnant and wouldn't tell them who the father was."

"So does your son know about his father?"

"No, and I don't want him to know that scum anyway."

She then spoke again. "Thanks for talking with me, it really helped me clear my head. Sorry for spilling everything to you too."

"I hope your son is found soon."

"I hope so too."

After that conversation, the lady left. Oh wait, I never got her name. Hmm, it kinda isn't my problem, but maybe I can try and run my own investigation into this. But where can I get information on her?

————————————————————————————————————

Right now, I am currently at the security department in the Adventurer's Guild. If they did their jobs properly then they should have a report on her.

"Do you know this woman?" The guard asked me, the suspicion clear on his face.

"No, I met her outside the Museum of Natural History and am now taking on the case for her. However, I need information."

"My Observe skill is telling me that you are technically telling the truth, however my intuition is telling me that you are doing this without her knowledge. So take my advice and keep your nose out of other people's business."

"I'm doing this anyway."

"…Your funeral then." I hear him sigh and he gives me a file.

"That file is the request form she gave us. However, due to request restrictions we could not take this one as it is more of a hero's guild job. But…her name and contact information should be on it. Of course giving you this is a violation of privacy and I could get fired for this. Honestly, the only reason that I am doing this is because Emma and Robert vouched for your character."

"Wait, why did they do that.?"

"You walked in here, asking for a file on a random person. We are required to do a background check on all suspicious individuals."

"Thank you for your time then."

"Pleasure." He replies and then walks to a desk. Meanwhile, I head back to my apartment, file in hand.

————————————————————————————————————

I walk into my apartment and sit down on my bed. I pull out the file from my purse and open it only to see a few pages within the manila folder.

The first is a page that states the requirements of the request. So her son Dominic didn't come home from his school, he's an eight year old boy. A note left by the receptionist says, 'Lied about his friend circle, has no known friends.' Well, he's a boy that didn't know his father, so he's probably socially dissonant.

Continuing on is the address for his school and teachers. The second page is all of the lady's contact information. It includes her name, which is Hailey Lewis, her address, phone number, and her work place. There is also personal information like birthdate but that isn't important.

The third page seems to be a form for why her request was denied. The main idea was that she submitted a request that falls more under the job of the hero's guild. There was a final page and it had the insignia of the hero's guild on it, showing that the page came from them. This page was similar to the last and showed why her request was denied from there.

'Request is not of immediate importance and monetary compensation is insufficient for deficiency of media intervention. Amount missing: 1,000,000 USD' Basically a missing child can't get them interviews and she can't pay the amount to find him.

With all of this information, I put Hailey's address into my phone and find that she lives in the ghettos. If the hero's guild knew about this then they might have placed a high fine on her knowing that she can't pay it.

I guess I might try and gain some more information about Hailey's personal life.

I grab my stuff and head out the door.

————————————————————————————————————

Instead of heading directly to her house, I grabbed a couple hot dogs from a vendor and went to the roof of an abandoned building a couple houses down. Currently, I am straining my eyesight and ears with Enhanced Sense to see and hear inside her house. I might need to buy some eyedrops after this.

[ Through repeated actions you have unlocked the skill: Observe(Minimum, Passive) ]

[ Observe - Improves user's eyesight. Required for most eye skills. ]

Oh, that's nice, but why didn't I get a rank up for Enhanced Senses? Is it because I'm not using all of them? Oh well, this is an experiment for another day. With slightly less strain on my eyes, I continue watching her house.

After an hour, I see her come out of her house in a uniform of some kind. Following her for a while after that, she walks into a gas station and stands behind the counter. Hmm, so she works as a cashier. At least, she doesn't work in the sex industry given where she lives, but I might be stereotyping a bit. I wonder what would happen if I Inspect her.

[ Human - A creature of versatility. Capable of intelligent thought, and are general all rounders. Average in physical and magical ability. Known for their resilience in hostile environments and are capable of consuming several toxic compounds. ]

I'll be honest I don't know what I expected. I might have to give up for today.

————————————————————————————————————

Alright, back at it again at the slum area. I am currently stalk- I mean watching Hailey's house. Yeah, nothing suspicious happening here. At this moment everything is fine and then the world turned.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Standing right in front of me is a woman who wears a black mask with spaces for eight eyes and a white dress flowing down to her ankles. I recognize this person as the hero Space Weaver. I then realize she asked me a question.

"Uhh, I, uh, my name is Alice."

"Okay, and what are you doing here?"

"I met this person at the natural history museum and basically her son is missing so I am trying to find her but she didn't give me explicit permission to do this."

"So, you're sticking your nose into other people's business because you're concerned for them."

She let me down and continued talking.

"That's admirable but why didn't she just submit a request to the hero's guild?"

"The file said it wasn't worth the guild's time."

"Ugh, those bastards only care about the money. They don't care that a child is missing."

"Um, Miss Weaver?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you here?"

"It's my turn for patrol in the slum areas. Though I think the other heroes are skimping out on their duties. And even if they do come here, they just go to the Red Light District nearby."

"Oh, is it that close?"

"It's on the other side of this building."

"Oh, that is closer than I thought."

"So why did you decide to do this?"

"I just want to help. I feel like I want to make a difference in this world and if I can help this person then I'll make it just a tiny bit better."

"…"

"I. I want to be a hero. Someone unlike those people you work with. Someone who children and parents can look up too as a role model. I just need to help and get stronger to join the hero's guild and then…help."

After my spiel I sit down with my legs dangling off the edge of the building. Space Weaver sits down next to me and then she takes off her mask. Her face is unnaturally pale as if it was devoid of blood. Her skin and hair were basically white. Her eyes were strange as though she had four eyes with four pupils in each socket, each pupil could move individually. Her irises were a gradient between yellow and blood red. I finally noticed that she had two fangs.

Wondering what species she is, I tried using Inspect on her.

[ Skill: Inspect(Active) has failed. ]

"Don't try to use Inspect on me. You won't find out anything about my status unless I let you. Anyway, you won't be able to become a Hero. Even if you pass the guild requirements, the other Heroes can just evict you if they feel like it. They're mostly elitists here. There are a few good ones though. If you were a Hero's Disciple then you could join and only be evicted either by the Hero or by the Guild master."

"So, do you want to become my disciple?"