[Luke's POV]
"So... what now?"
"This idiot messed up again, so let's help him... since we're friends"
Zack's words seemed like a war declaration in that moment. Pumping up some sort of adrenaline to the squad -which consisted of Mira, Vasco, Daniel, Zoe, Lucy and myself- as we follow his lead.
He went on explaining about why we had to take action and quickly so that we can save Jiho from trouble. I mean even we're a bit irritated at the fact Jiho messed up again, but I guess there were others more pissed off than us.
"Yo, Jiho, Just go and die you ass" Zoe scoffs at Jiho, her casual use of the d word making Lucy and I freeze.
"C'mon... everyone messes up from time to time, don't say stuff like that" Lucy drags out her words while stroking Zoe's forearm gently.
"As long as he knows where he went wrong, let's forgive and move along" I continue throwing a glare at the already nervous Jiho.
"Zack, is there even a way to do that? How will we find them" our lil' chocolate head Mira asks, confusion written all over her face.
You can clearly see why Zack's whipped for her.
With a confident smirk followed by what for that moment looked like a cool move, Zack pulls out a list of some names and explains his plan.
"I searched the numbers on the Hiphone X scam.. and these IDs popped up"
"They use multiple IDs with a single number, you see; if an account's blocked, they can just make another one, but burner phones have to be bought"
Is it just me or does Zack seem really cool and smart right now?
Guess not.. I conclude after scanning the faces of the squad.
"Let's split these up.. and search for them!" He announces dividing the names to each of us.
"I-I see!! If we search for those IDs.. then something might come in!!"
"Zack's actually pretty smart!"
"Bingo~" he replies in a sing song manner obviously feeling high and mighty cause of the praises.
"Sir! I couldn't understand any of that! Please repeat what you said!"
"Cadet you can just go home!"
Zack's reply makes everyone chuckle at our poor lil' macho man who looks so lost and stiff like a military officer without a command on the battlefield.
"Now... Let's do this!"
And with that we got down to work searching up the nicknames which got cut off one by one as the clock ticked away.
Countless minutes of keyboard taps and mouse clicks passed away only for us to end up at a dead end.
"Z-zack.."
"Nothings..."
"Coming up.."
Our kids who gave off the feeling of deflated party balloons mumble out at our much more depressed squad leader.
"Th-that's strange.. it should work.."
"If they made it to scam people.. there's no way they'd leave a trace" Zoe states crossing her arms.
"Th-that's okay, we're only just getting started what's the next plan Zack?"
"There is none"
Zack breathes out in an even more depressed state after the question from his crush.
"Hey, he's last in school. Don't expect too much" Zoe blurts out turning away from the deflated commander.
"Wh-what do I do then? Is there any other way??" Jiho bursts out in desperation.
"It's impossible for us.. we're not the police.."
"We have no choice but to.. run to the bank as soon as it opens"
Everyone loses hope and covers themselves into silence as Zack covered his face leaning on the tabletop.
I slowly peek at Jiho who looked incredibly scared and confused in that moment. If only we had a way to help him out..
And as if the universe answered my call we got called out by a familiar voice.
"Yo you dumbasses... I couldn't bear listening to you guys any more-" the purple head pops up from over the partition separating the computers, "-did you mess up again? I saved your ass last time too huh?".
"When are you going to learn? Grow up. Be a man! Why do you live like this?"
Kouji who came in like a saving grace, repeatedly takes shots at Jiho which seems to pierce the cute lil' brat right through his soul.
After his commentary he goes silent slowly scanning our squad as Zack's statement of not to be so rude falls onto deaf ears.
"Yo Jiho normally I'd take a fee... this time, I'll do it for free, I just need to find the culprit, right?"
His words lit up the spark of hope in each one of us as a smirk creeps onto his face.
"The real plan starts now" and with his declaration everyone huddled around him as he spun around a chair to show exactly how pros do it.
"Your biggest mistake was googling the fake emails from craiglist... there's no way those emails specifically created to be used to scam will lead back to them.."
"K-kouji but why are you on steam?"
"Just watch and learn" he shut down Jiho's inquiry and taps away on the PC before turning back to us with that wicked genius smirk of his.
"What do you think?"
"W-wow.."
"The information we couldn't find with google... came up! As his game ID!"
Damn that purple brat is fucking smart.
"You need an email address to make a game ID... and these guys have hundreds of email adresses"
"They might be useless everywhere else but.. it's perfect for smurf accounts"
"I-I see now we just need some bikini pics of Zoe to lure him"
"Hey what about Mira"
"No Mira won't do"
"You sick fuck"
"Stupid" Kouji's unamused comment stops he banter between Zack and Zoe as the former questions him.
"Hmm stupid?"
"That's so... your level" The purple head states fearlessly to the boxing genius as Jiho tries to hold him back from showcasing his sport.
"You little brat-"
"J-just ignore him Zack!"
"We don't have enough time to lure him... and what if it's a girl" Kouji explains in an unbothered tone. As many of us mumble around words of agreement.
"And now our first problem... do you know what illegal dumper are most afraid of?"
"What're you talking about?" Lucy's question floats around till it falls onto deaf ears.
"Witnesses" Kouji answers himself and went on explaining of how these illegal dumpers fear getting caught by person or surveillance systems and hence do it early in the morning.
I'm not sure I understood that explanation but oh well.
"But they throw away their tracable receipts too" he continues on with emphasis, "-that's how most of them get caught".
"And what I was looking for was similar to those receipts, a flaw in their plan, their game IDs"
"I see I always use the same IDs for my games too" Zoe claps her hands in realisation as everyone else agrees and understood what he meant.
Guess it's only me that's lost.
"On social media.. everyone's careful of their privacy... but in games.. people get careless"
"Since it's Power Gudam 2 it's probably a smurf... I bet his main is called Power Gudam"
"Ah.. then should we Google 'Power Gudam' ?" Jiho asks as he watches Kouji lean over him to tap something into the PC infront of him.
"We could do that... or since it's a unique name there's a better way.. Naver blogs"
"We'll set the search option to nickname and search.."
"Bingo"
Woah..
"This is that guy's blog.. and that's his real ID" he declares as his evil genius smirk runs chills down my spine.
He really found it... with nothing more than a nickname!
"What're you doing? We're just getting started.." he turns to us, the smirk vanished like he did something as simple as counting to 10 with the same unamused face.
"Use this ID to find his Kakao, Facebook and everything else.. there has to be a few things he forgot about" He spins around in a newly found chair grabbing ahold of a bag of onion rings as his commands send us searching throughout the sites for the perp.
"Let the hunt begin!"
A few more minutes which could have become more than an hour of searching for this culprit has lead us to another dead end as most of his social media accounts end up private with only one picture..
"...the only thing we could find was a photo used for his verification!" Zoe states which makes Kouji walks over to her leaning over to the PC, one hand on the table as he inspects the picture, deep in thought.
Okay but that pose.. is hella lit- I'm adding that to my list!
"What the hell midget you're no better than me" Zack remarks, hiding his disappointed tone to his best effort as the rest of the squad grew silent in defeat.
"Huh? I already found him" Kouji replies with the same unamused face as he munches on another onion ring.
"Huh? You did?"
"With what?"
Thanks for voicing my thoughts Mira and Zoe.
"I-I see! The photo! That verification photo! That's all we need!" Zack exclaims as if he had already found the culprit as well.
"The convenience store outside the Window! That means they were across the road from the convenience store! On the second floor!"
"Whoooo!!"
"Zack you genius!"
"You're amazing!"
The squad cheers for the comeback of our commander who seemed pumped up and back to his boastful ego.
BANG!
Like a flash with the loud slam of the door, Vasco vanished from the room.
"Ah Vasco!"
"Don't tell me he's going to look for all of them!"
Everyone panics at the sudden action of the Burn Knuckles leader.
"I'll go with him, you guys continue on here" I calm down everyone.
Sharing a small hug with a worried pink head I run after our clumsy yet brave lil' cadet.