Upon hearing the red-haired man’s question, Lin Huang smiled. “What, you’re so anxious to meet me?”
“That’s right.” The red-haired man was smiling too. “If we don’t meet you, we’d even lose our appetites.”
“It’s not that I can’t tell you where I am.” Lin Huang glanced over the three investigators. “But only three of you are here; it’s no fun with so few of you. I prefer more people to liven things up. We’ll talk about it when the rest of you arrive.”
“You’re not afraid to disclose your location, are you?” The red-haired man said with a smile, trying to provoke Lin Huang.
“I’m just worried that after I kill off the three of you, the other six won’t dare to come here. Since nine of you arrived, I ought to send all nine off together. I can’t leave a single one of you out.”
Buried Heaven and the rest of the Blood Sickle members felt their hearts quake when they heard what Lin Huang said.
They had not expected Lin Huang to be this unyielding when confronted by an upper-rank Lord. What made them speechless was that they felt Lin Huang’s tough attitude did not seem to be an act at all. He genuinely appeared to be that confident.
The red-haired man was furious, but he smiled instead. “You’re the one who said it. I’d like to see if you’ll still dare to share your coordinates once all of us have shown up!”
“Don’t worry, I’m a man of my word,” Lin Huang did not forget to issue a reminder, “Don’t forget to send me a video call request as soon as everyone on your side has arrived.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Huang immediately ended the call. The video projection of him instantly faded.
The red-haired man stared at the spot where the video projection had faded and growled in irritation, “This fellow…”
It had been years since he last lost a verbal fight to anyone. However, in his conversation with Lin Huang this time, he had not managed to get the upper hand at all. Lin Huang had even ended the call before he had, which also made him feel extremely out of sorts.
“Might there be an ambush?” The cadaverous man asked.
“Would an ambush even work? Judging by the entry restrictions Royal has set, this great world has no upper-rank Lords at all. Besides, we have three upper-rank Lords on our side. What’s more, Master Nine Snake is a peak upper-rank Lord. Even if this fellow could get help from hundreds of middle-rank Lords, he won’t be able to turn the tables.” The tall, thin man had full confidence in the team’s abilities. “He was just pretending to be calm earlier in the video call. When all of us have arrived later on, I’m sure he won’t accept the video call request.”
The red-haired man said nothing. However, he clearly felt that Lin Huang was merely putting on an act in the video call earlier. The reason for this was that he could not figure out what sort of methods Lin Huang might be able to use to extricate himself from this situation.
The investigators were not bothered by the fact that Buried Heaven and the rest were right there during their discussion. It seemed that as far as the investigators were concerned, there was no need to conceal anything.
The several Blood Sickle members kept their heads low and pretended not to hear anything. In their hearts, they were silently hoping that this band of murderers would leave Death Sickle as soon as possible.
Buried Heaven, on the other hand, looked depressed. He put himself in Lin Huang’s shoes right now and tried to think of a counter-strategy. However, he could not come up with any way at all to turn things around.
This was a hopeless situation!
He could not help feeling sad for Lin Huang.
“Send word to Nine Snake and the others, and have them come here as soon as they’re done with their missions,” the red-haired man ordered his two subordinates.
He then patted Buried Heaven’s shoulder. “Good job, all of you.”
After that, he headed straight for the conference room where they had been earlier.
The cadaverous man and the tall, thin man immediately followed suit.
…
Lin Huang could not help giving a faint smirk after ending the call.
‘I was originally wondering how to contact all those investigators. I never thought that they would show up at my doorstep on their own.’
Initially, he had only wanted to ascertain the situation with Buried Heaven and Death Sickle. If the opportunity presented itself, he would ask about the investigators’ movements.
He had not expected that there would be investigators standing guard at Death Sickle. What was more, they had used Buried Heaven to contact him.
Not only that, the entire exchange could be considered fairly pleasant.
‘So in that case, after this, where should I set my battlefield?” Lin Huang tapped open the star map and began choosing suitable battlegrounds.
…
In the evening, a man with snake eyes showed up in the conference room of Death Sickle’s headquarters.
As soon as he arrived, the six remaining people in the conference room immediately came to their feet.
“Master Nine Snake.”
The snake-eyed man nodded slightly, then turned his gaze to the red-haired man. “Scarlet Fox, why don’t you tell me the specifics of the conversation all of you had with Lin Huang.”
The snake-eyed man’s codename was Nine Snake. His position in the Raiders was higher than the other two upper-rank Lords. This was because he was a direct subordinate of the ultimate-rank Lord, Lonely Peak. He had even been called Lonely Peak’s right-hand man.
As for Lonely Peak, he was only half a step away from surpassing lord-level. Among the Raiders, he was one of several Lords with the most potential.
He had already received the message that Scarlet Fox and the others had sent, so he had a rough idea of what had transpired during the video call with Lin Huang.
The red-haired man—Scarlet Fox—nodded and began to recount the conversation he had had with Lin Huang. He did not leave out even the slightest detail.
Scarlet Fox had been dispatched here by Rose. To be exact, he could not be considered Rose’s underling; in fact, he was her lover.
Of course, Rose was not his only girlfriend; he had hundreds of other girlfriends and boyfriends.
His tribe was rather unique—they could change their genders whenever necessary.
Nine Snake narrowed his eyes slightly after listening to Scarlet Fox’s account of what happened. He directed an inquiry at Scarlet Fox only after falling silent for a moment.
“Do you think he’s pretending to be calm, or is he genuinely calm?”
“He didn’t look as if he were pretending to be calm, but I think his acting skills are excellent. I couldn’t see any flaws, no matter what,” Scarlet Fox admitted truthfully after thinking things over for a moment. “However, I did consider things for a good long while. If I were in his place right now, I wouldn’t be able to find a way out at all.”
Nine Snake turned his gaze to the cadaverous man and the tall man. “What do both of you think?”
“I think he’s just putting on a show,” the cadaverous man said expressionlessly.
“As far as I’m concerned, he was clearly pretending to be calm,” the tall man was even more certain of his answer.
Nine Snake gave a slight nod and did not dwell any further on the matter. He turned his head and looked at the only metal robot present.
This was a bright silver humanoid being. In appearance, he looked like a human formed from metal. His skin, as well as the clothes and shoes on his body, was bright silver like metal.
“Silver, will you be able to pin down his coordinates when we call his number later?”
“Only if the call is answered.” Silver’s voice sounded like it had been electronically synthesized.
He was a mechanoid. Although he was not from the same Electronic Tribe as Spy, he had taken the initiative to apply for the mission. His purpose for doing so was naturally to obtain Spy’s Goldfinger.
As an upper-rank Lord, he was also one of the three investigation team leaders.
“After the call is picked up, how long do you need?” Nine Snake followed up with another question.
“Given the size of this great world, I can lock down his coordinates in five seconds at most. The closer he is, the less time I’ll need,” Silver answered with complete certainty.
“What if he doesn’t pick up?” Nine Snake asked.
“Then there’s no way we can locate him,” Silver said very frankly.
Nine Snake’s expression immediately darkened. “Find a way even if there’s none!”
The meeting room instantly went silent.
“Alright, get Buried Heaven in here, and let’s give Lin Huang a video call!”
