Child of Destiny

“Those bastards!”

Manager Hong seemed to have ‘realized’ something after putting everything into consideration.

‘No wonder they are not too worried that we keep on delaying the deal. They are indeed plotting something on their side.’ He thought after contemplating the actions of the agents from the Black Serpent Mafia over the last few days.

“Where are those bastards now?” he asked with an extremely cold tone.

“This-…” Argus hesitated for a moment, especially when he could sense the extreme anger coming from the branch manager. However, he still braced himself and continued. “We-… we have lost track of them completely. And-… we can’t find any of their trances throughout the archipelago either.”

Boom!

This time, Manager Hong had truly lost it. “GO! Find them as soon as possible. The entire territory is under complete lockdown. Unless I give you permission, no one is to leave the premises.”

Argus immediately bowed and quickly made his way, afraid that he would be forced to take responsibility for what happened.

Ahem!

After a while, Manager Hong finally calmed himself and recollected his composure. He then turned at the projected image of General Howard and said. “I apologize for showing you such an unpleasant sight, General.”

The general smirked when he saw the sudden change in attitude of the other party. “Quite amusing, isn’t it? Here you are trying your best to keep your boat afloat between two rivers, yet get caught in the clashing waves.”

“What makes it even more interesting is that you have lost the rope that you are supposed to hold tight, and it is cut from the opposite bank.”

After mocking the opposing side, who was currently wearing an ugly expression, for quite a while, General Howard continued. “Given the expression that you are making, it seems like you require our help instead.”

Manager Hong gritted his teeth, suppressing his anger. He refused to bow his head, but the current situation was indeed not in his favor.

Right now, he was facing serious trouble, especially after losing the most important piece that they currently had within this base.

General Howard watched him for amusement for quite some time before smirking. “We have no obligation to help, but since we are both looking for the same people, I guess we can at least work together.”

“We will be sealing the sea route, so do your best in finding those people. As for whose custody they will be, I am sure that you are quite clear with the current situation,” he added with a commanding tone.

Manager Hong said. “This can’t be done.”

The general shrugged his shoulders as he answered. “We don’t care what they have stolen from you. All we want is the person in charge.”

Manager Hong gritted his teeth, accepting the terms. “We will sweep the islands while your people seal the routes.”

Click!

He did not even wait for the response and quickly ended the call, preventing himself from being further annoyed by the other party.

He then turned at everyone within the room and said. “You have heard everything just now, so I will not say anything else. Move your people and look for those rats hiding within the territory.”

“I don’t care what you do after. Just make sure not to leave any stones unturned,” he added.

The pirate captains and mercenary leaders frowned deeply as they were not too pleased with the outcome of the meeting, especially when a lot of things were not addressed properly.

From their point of view, this was no different from the Springfield forces dodging the responsibility and refusing to pay any compensation after dealing such damage to their bases.

Manager Hong had also basically admitted that they were working with the Black Serpent Mafia even after learning that the other party was working with the enemy of humanity.

It was understandable before that they were working with such a hegemon of the underworld. After all, they themselves were a party of underworld organizations.

However, they still had a bottom line, especially when it concerned the entirety of their livelihoods.

Unfortunately, they could not address all of this at the moment. They still had their priorities, so they had complied with the branch manager’s words and dealt with the other matters later.

At the very least, the forces that were bombarding them earlier ceased their attacks completely, giving them enough time to deal with the most urgent matters.

***

In the meantime, while both the forces based on the Coralara Archipelago and the Springfield forces agreed on a ceasefire, the targets of their ‘agreement’ were currently hiding deep within one of the islands.

Within an underground base deep within a mountain.

This base was the secret base that the Black Serpent Mafia had built right at the heart of the Black-Market Organization.

“What is happening? Why are we being hunted this time?” asked the person, who seemed to be in the middle of a call.

“We have been doing everything in utmost secrecy, so those people from the Springfield Family can’t sniff us out!” he added in full anger. “It must be those guys from the Black Market! They must have sold us out!”

“Take it easy, Primo. We are still unclear about the actual situation. We can’t just assume such things,” said the person from the other side of the line.

“You should know how much importance the higher-ups have put in this operation,” he added in a warning tone.

Seeing that the guy named Primo seemed to have calmed himself down, he continued. “Since the situation is like this, it is better to hide in that base until everything settles down.”

“They will not be able to find that location since it is equipped with a highly advanced stealth system that can avoid any scan from the military satellites.”

He then paused for a moment, glaring at the other party, before continuing. “Just make sure to keep the assistant professor safe and bring him back alive.”

They had sent this so-called assistant professor in preparation to extract information from Lawrence through their special methods.

However, they later learned from the Black-Market Organization that Lawrence’s mind and soul were protected by a powerful technique, preventing him from being brainwashed or subjected to any kind of soul-extraction technique.

Given the background that other organizations had, it was not strange for them to have similar means when extracting such sensitive information.

They might have doubted that the Black Market was not telling the truth, but there was also a high chance that what they claimed was true, since this was not the first time that such a thing had happened.

Regardless, the opposing side had the upper hand in the negotiations since Lawrence was in their hands.

At this moment, they could only delay until they found a way to deal with the situation.

They were planning to send one of their powerhouses to deal with the situation.

Unfortunately, the sudden appearance of the Springfield Forces had gotten them completely off guard, messing up their plans.

“The higher-ups will be launching a counterattack soon, so that they can attract the attention of those from the Springfield Family and forget about you for the time being.”

“Lay low for now and wait until the big bosses have given you the order,” he added before ending the call.

Beep!

Seeing the screen turning dark, Primo could only curse his luck for the current situation. “Damn it! Just when we are about to succeed in sneaking into the dungeon, those bastards from the Springfield Family have to-…!”

After multiple curses, he frowned deeply and mumbled. “No matter how much I think about it, everything feels too strange and coincidental. How are they able to find out our movements?”

He was sure that they had been moving in utmost secrecy, especially when he had brought the assistant professor with them.

This person was directly under the current ‘Professor’ of the organization, who also had quite a lot of information about the leading research projects that they had.

If something unexpected happened, and the assistant professor had been captured by the Springfield Family, the consequences would be extremely dire.

If the Springfields learned about this core information and these secret projects, the damage the Black Serpent Mafia would suffer would be unimaginable.

It was not something that he could take responsibility for.

Execution would be the least of his worries when it happened.

Bang!

“Shit! This luck sure is terrible!” he pounded the nearby metal table, crushing it completely, in frustration.

“Just when I needed those brothers, they suddenly disappeared!” he mumbled, realizing that even their guards had suddenly disappeared right before the earlier attack was launched.

Aside from bringing some powerful agents with him to be their guards, he had also commissioned some help from another branch within the organization, who were also quite troublesome to deal with.

Unfortunately, this pair of powerhouses was suddenly nowhere to be found when he needed them the most.

……