"Interesting. They are such high profile people with so much power, and still, they do such things? Just how powerful is their leader?"
As Ryder read the first page, he was surprised. The first name was Cali Malium. He was the Military Chief of the United States.
Just one king was such an influential person; what about the others?
He was already surprised, and he had only read the name and the position of the person, not even more.
"The King known as Army King. He is known to be one of the most resourceful Kings and someone who thinks might can always win battles. Despite such a hard-headed personality, he does love his family so much. He has only one granddaughter as part of his family, and he cares for her a lot," Ryder said as he read the description.
"Interesting indeed. This is something I can use. First, I need to find out where his granddaughter lives and her number. I can use her," he thought as he came up with a plan to take care of this King.
He opened his phone and sent a message to Shu to find the details about the family of Chief Cali. He doubted if he was ever going to get the address and number through the internet. He needed a resource that was in a much higher position of power. That's where he thought Shu would help him.
As he finished sending the message, he returned to the pages at hand and skipped over to the next page.
"This guy, he didn't even write the name in order. First was the fourth King and now the Seventh King on the next page?"
Shaking his head, Ryder continued reading as he read about the next King.
"The King is known as the Lustful King. The heck? Isn't he the owner of the biggest fashion conglomerate? He owns most of the major fashion brands. Even he is one? Surprising indeed but not shocking," Ryder muttered as he sighed.
"I guess the name itself tells the weakness of this guy—the Lustful King. I can use his Lust to get him to his death. Still, I should read more."
Ryder continued reading about what was written on the page. The more he read, the more his expressions distorted.
Seeing the name, Lustful King, he had thought that the guy was lustful for women and stuff like that. But the reality was completely contrary to what he thought. The guy liked guys. But that was still normal. The strange part was that he liked dead guys.
He killed whichever guy attracted his fancy, and then he fulfilled his lust. Even reading about it was making Ryder vomit.
He wanted to kill this guy first.
Finished reading, he switched to the next paper.
"The First King, as I expected, this guy's order is really messed up," Ryder muttered as he read the first word, which was the title of the King.
According to Gander, the title and the number of the Kings didn't show who was stronger or who was weaker. The numbers weren't a proof of strength. Being the first King only meant that the King was the first person to be made a king.
After reading the title, Ryder moved over to the name.
"Jake Hallenfall? That name? I feel like I heard it somewhere," Ryder muttered as he read the name of the first King.
Soon, a look of understanding dawned on his face as he realized what it was.
"That's right! He's the Vice President! How the heck…"
Seeing the Army Chief being one of the Kings was still understandable but seeing the Vice President? Who was the leader then? Was the leader the president?
With such a high profile slate, didn't it mean they effectively had the whole country in their control? This didn't make sense. Since they always had such high-profile people and had the potential to rule the country from the shadows, why did they try to blow up the cities?
Why would they do it when they already owned it? This didn't make sense at all? We're they all just doing it for fun? That's what it seemed like at the moment.
"The Vice President. He has been single all his life and doesn't have much baggage. He has the cleanest reputation amongst all male politicians and only slightly less popularity than the president, only because he doesn't make much appearance."
"His family wealth is the highest amongst all the politicians mostly because of the wealth he received from his father."
"This guy is tough. He has no living family. As for his other weaknesses, those are unknown. He will be the hardest to handle," Ryder muttered as he finished reading about the First King.
One after another, Ryder kept reading about all the Kings. He was amazed at Gander for being so thorough. He knew so much; he was most certainly a very high-ranking member of the organization, probably closer to a King.
There was still a chance that Gander could betray Ryder, but that was also why Ryder took precautions when he left Gander alive.
One after another, he kept reading about the Kings, and soon, he reached the second last name in the list.
"Ah, the one who I killed. That old man. He was pretty rich too. Too bad he didn't have any family. All his wealth going in the hands of a stranger," Ryder thought as he placed the page in the end.
The guy was already dead. Ryder didn't feel like he needed to go through the information about the man since the man was already gone.
"It's such a disappointment. It would have been so amazing if I had absorbed the strength of that guy right there. This Janus, if he had told me, I would have brought the body with me outside."
"Next time, I'll try to find where that body is kept so I can absorb it. For now, I need to focus on what's near me. As for his strength, that will be mine soon as well," Ryder thought as he smiled wryly.
"You can't absorb his body."
Ryder had only spoken about absorbing the strength of the King he killed when Janus jumped in, saying that Ryder can't.
"Why can't I?" Ryder asked, wondering if there was a reason.
"Strength can only be absorbed before within a certain time period of the death. The body's time period has passed. You can't absorb the strength now. That's gone forever," Janus answered.
"Geez, you could have made me absorb it before if that was the case," Ryder replied, not knowing that Janus had a reason for not doing it. He didn't want to attract too much attention at that point in time.
"I had a reason. It was impossible to transfer the powers at that time," Janus replied sharply.
"Really? And why didn't you tell me to keep the body in inventory for the future then?" Ryder asked, rolling his eyes.
Hearing the question, Janus went silent. In reality, he had forgotten, but he didn't feel like telling the truth.
"It was because I knew that by the time you'd be qualified for transfer of powers, the time for that body would be expired," he replied.
"You could have at least been optimistic. It's not like losing one inventory space was too much?" Ryder asked, feeling like there were many loopholes in the answer.
"Focus on the mission at hand and stop wasting time. Don't die because of wasting time here," Janus said calmly before he stopped talking.
Shaking his head, Ryder went back to the next paper, which had the name and description of the last King.
"This name… The father of Bastion? He too? How the heck? Just why did he have to be one too? I need to kill his father too?"
Even though the last name wasn't as high in position as the army chief or the Vice President, it was the toughest and most shocking for Ryder since this was the name of his best friend's father.
…
A private plane landed at the airport runway from which came out thirteen well-dressed people, all of whom seemed to be of different ages.
There were a few who looked as young as teenagers while a few looked as old as the people in their sixties.
A few of them were even wearing masks since they needed to keep their identity a secret. One of those people was the Vice President himself. He didn't want anyone to know that he was here, or the commotion would have been much bigger.
Similarly, the army chief was also keeping his face hidden from the public view. Only a few were keeping their faces exposed, one of whom happened to be Aluren himself, who had donned a long coat that came down to his ankles.
His hands were in his pocket as he left the airport with his men.
Outside the airport, a few black luxury cars were already waiting for them to take them to their destination.
