"Hey, kid." William Green called out to the newsboy who was about to leave.

"Sir, is there anything else you need?"

"Where is this newspaper office—" He pointed to the Jeddi Brothers logo at the top of the page. "I suppose you know, right?"

"Of course! There’s nowhere in this city I don’t know!" The newsboy wiped his nose as he spoke.

"Good," William Green took out a five-cent coin and waved it in front of him, "Take me there, and this money is yours."

……

The Brothers Newspaper office wasn’t far from there.

After following the newsboy through the crowd for about fifteen minutes, William Green arrived in front of a five-story building.

"Sir, this is the place," the newsboy said.

"Not bad," William Green looked the building up and down. It was right at the head of a row of buildings, with streets on both sides. The ground floor was packed with all kinds of shops, making it a prime location in the city. "I just go in through the main entrance, right?"

"No, sir..." The newsboy raised his hand and pointed, but the direction was toward a small door next to the main entrance. "Go up to the top floor from there, and the first room you see is the one."

"Uh..." William Green couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth. If the boy hadn’t pointed it out, he would have thought it was a public restroom or something.

Passing through the rusty iron door, the light immediately dimmed, and the noise from the street was cut off.

The stairs were not only steep but also filthy to an extreme degree. He suspected that the place hadn’t been cleaned since it was built. Worse still, there was a faint smell of urine lingering in the air—God knows how many homeless people had actually used this place as a toilet.

There were no other side doors in the stairwell, as if it had been built solely for climbing to the top floor. As he reached the top, the newspaper office’s sign came into view.

William Green felt a slight sinking in his heart.

This was far from the "media company" he had expected. With such a shabby office address, how "generous" could that "substantial reward" in the paper really be?

Demons feed on wish power, but that didn’t mean he could live on air. In any world, money was essential—if he wanted to reduce his consumption of wish power, the most effective way was to use money to achieve his goals instead of his abilities. As the saying goes, money makes the world go round. If the reward wasn’t even close to what was promised, that was definitely not a good sign.

William Green sighed lightly, adjusted his expression a bit, and stepped forward to push open the wooden door of the newspaper office.

Inside, the room felt much more spacious. The first thing he saw was a hall of about thirty square meters, with five or six desks scattered around, each piled high with thick stacks of paper. The strong smell of ink instantly overpowered the filth from the hallway.

"Hello, sir. May I ask if you are here to..." A young man came up to greet him, his eyes sizing up William Green.

William Green took out the Brothers Newspaper and pointed to the missing person ad section. "Is Judy here?"

"I see," the young man replied immediately. "Please wait in the reception room, I’ll call her over right away."

The reception room was right next to the hall, furnished with just a coffee table and two lounge chairs. Judging by the casually tossed blankets and pillows, it was probably often used as a break room.

"...What? Someone actually came in person?" A small voice suddenly pierced through the wall into William Green's ears.

Clearly, the makeshift wooden partition wasn’t very soundproof, and the people talking didn’t realize there was a demon with extraordinary hearing sitting next door.

"Boss, isn’t this a good thing? Without Mr. Dean, we can’t even fill the paper with enough content."

"Nonsense, of course I want him back! But that girl insisted on writing about a substantial reward—where am I supposed to get that much money..."

"But she insisted, saying that if the reward wasn’t high enough, no one would be willing to look..."

The voice paused for a moment. "Anyway, don’t worry too much. Even the police haven’t found anything—how could an ordinary person find him..."

At this point, the voices gradually lowered until they disappeared completely.

William Green rolled his eyes. Things seemed even more complicated than he’d imagined. Not only was the "substantial reward" just a ruse, but there was even disagreement about the missing person case itself. The ad wasn’t placed by the newspaper boss, but was just Judy's own idea?

But at least wish power didn’t lie.

At least when it came to finding the person, the other party was sincere.

Before long, the door was flung open with a bang, and a twin-tailed girl rushed in.

"Hello! I’m Judy!" She gave a deep bow, then grabbed William Green's hand. "May I ask your name?"

"Chao." William Green answered briefly. "I’m a detective."

He looked completely different from a few minutes ago—about thirty years old, with sharp features, now dressed in a leather trench coat and a felt hat, looking every bit the capable professional.

"So you’re a detective, that’s wonderful!" Judy said excitedly. "I tried to hire a private detective before, but none in the city were willing to take this job..."

It wasn’t that they were unwilling, but that you didn’t offer enough money, right? William Green thought to himself, but outwardly he replied sincerely, "I’m not quite like them, whether in my methods or my style."