'Either way, it's not my choice to make.'
Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, even if another Plan D branched out later on, it wasn't an optional list of choices that followed Leo's desires.
Instead, how the rest of the story unfolded would automatically pick the only viable plan. The only thing that Leo could do was give his all when dealing with the main route so that it would branch into the outco that he found to be the most favorable.
'For now, let's first catch the pest so I can reinvest all my focus into the next step.'
Beyond Leo's expectations, the ho invasion incident that he had early on wasn't a singular event.
Over the course of the last nine months, he jumped through several of his safehouses for convenience and stealth purposes, but half of the ti he was about to switch places, he would feel the presence of an intruder.
Even the few tis when he used a hotel room as a temporary base, that familiar presence would occasionally appear when Leo finished his hunt.
'It was sowhat fun until now, but I no longer have the ti to spare for this.'
Of course, Leo wasn't exactly a sitting duck either. Over ti, he analyzed the intruder's pattern and changed his movents in response.
It might seem like a dangerous problem from an outsider's perspective, but for Leo, it was nothing more than a harmless ga of tag.
The prospects of the ga were always changing in real-ti. At tis, it would be an attempt to choose a base that the intruder wouldn't find, at other tis, it would be an attempt at catching the intruder in action…
Unexpectedly enough, the intruder wasn't just good at stalking but also had a good intuition. Leo had many successes when it ca to picking a base hidden from the intruder's eyes. However…
'It wasn't easy considering the lack of information on my end.'
He never managed to catch anything more than the intruder's fleeting presence!
Normally, the universal thod of catching pests was to provide them with an easily obtained desire.
For flies, there were electrified light sources or sweet but sticky sheets. For rats, putting poison in food did the trick.
However, when Leo did the sa and chose an easy-to-find base, the ho invader stayed very clear of them instead of falling for his trap.
It didn't matter if the trap didn't look too easy either. It was almost like the intruder could sll anything artificial in place.
'But with a pattern in place, a trap that doesn't sll like a trap has beco possible.'
If Leo had to guess, the other side's great nose for traps had to co from analyzing his own movent pattern to catch fake outs.
In a way, this indeed constricted his actions, but at the sa ti, it provided him with the key to the answer.
By not only studying the intruder's movent pattern but also his own, Leo was able to create a trap that was as natural as a normal day in his hunting routine.
If he were to forget just one minor detail, even he himself would be fooled to forget that he set a trap in his place today.
That being said, despite how complicated it sounded, setting this up wasn't a very ntally consuming task, only ti was needed for the plan to fade into Leo's normal pattern.
And now, it was finally the ti to put an end to this never-ending ga of tag.
'Now.'
Originally, Leo was normally walking on the street, performing his usual 'recon' in order to catch his next target, but once the ti alarm he set in his mind rang out, he imdiately switched directions to go into the closest dark alley before disappearing into his own shadow!
If he didn't want this magnificent plan to turn into an incredible flop, Leo had to go back to his latest base as quickly as possible.
It was a bit too farfetched to think that the ho invader would imdiately realize the deviation in his route as soon as it happened, but either way, Leo didn't want to be late.
'Our well-disciplined stalker deserves special treatnt.'
The intruder's keen nose wasn't the main reason why Leo always failed to catch them. Rather, it was the fact that they made sure to never linger.
Leo himself wasn't sure what they were after by visiting several of his safehouses, but normally, most people lost their self-restraint once they reached their target… All except Leo's exceptional stalker.
As such, in order to catch them in the act, Leo couldn't take his ti either. Even if that sohow alerted the intruder about his deviation. After all…
'It would be too late by then.'
It was different when things appeared random at first, but now that Leo had a total understanding of the intruder's pattern, Shadow Movent guaranteed that he would always be one step ahead.
"Wow!"
Expectedly enough, after the minute it took him to get back to his place, Leo could now clearly see the face of his ho invader… Not precisely the face as it was covered up, but the Enigma signature was an even better indicator of their identity.
"So this is the external sword he uses for training, I can clearly feel the power of shadows lingering within the blade!"
'I expected this much as well, but seeing it upfront feels a bit embarrassing.'
For a mystical character that made no appearance in the novel's original text, their stalker-like behavior completely destroyed their mysterious image.
'Maybe this is why the author omitted their existence from the novel…?'
Regardless of his confused thoughts, Leo didn't forget to slowly release his Enigma into the room that the intruder was standing in. After all, it would be a sha to co all this way only for his prey to escape his net.
Thankfully, just as one would expect from a stalker, the intruder was completely absorbed in their own world, at least for the few minutes they took to do their 'thing', and naturally, that was more than enough ti for Leo.
"Oh!"
With a simple grasp of his finger, the spread-out shadow tendrils imdiately encapsulated their target. After finding their way out for so many tis, the little fly had finally fallen into the spider's net.
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