She did not care about the current circumstances around her. Even as the Bone Spirit Demon approached her, there was a sort of barrier to protect her. A dragon silhouette emerged out from thin air and bit the Demons’ head off. Jin did not understand a single thing that was happening right in front of him.
What did she mean about having the same chi as the inscription charm?
Was she a customer? Jin clearly recognised the inscription charm as his piece of work. That particular Panda Energy Beam inscription charm had been a limited stock during Christmas Day last year.
And he knew that only the Pandawans and a few other regular customers had purchased it because Jin had personally sold each and every one of them. Overall they had just sold twenty of those after Jin had collaborated with Octofussy who got the idea to try and make inscriptions of Jin’s fighting style.
For her to hold possession of one of those charms could only mean someone either gifted it to her or she stole it. It was unlikely that it was the latter when she was this powerful even without the charm’s help.
“Well I am done on my side. Since you seemed busy I thought I could alleviate your load while I tell you about artificial Loopa Ooofpa.” Kraft suddenly appeared, making the matters even more complicated.
Ryuli immediately exuded her chi into the atmosphere, shocking everyone, including the System on scene. They all recognised that the aura had the very same trace of chi signature Jin possessed and Kraft quickly turned his head.
“She’s really that KID, isn’t she?! And here I thought my satellite search was wrong or something.” Kraft asked, and Jin equally dumbfounded. “I must say, you either turned into a master in lying that I did not notice or someone altered your memories about her. Because she is clearly not a little child. Last I remember, a child is at least this short and not that powerful when it comes to chi manipulation, well unless the kid is some prodigal kid genius that would eventually terrorise the world.”
“Not helping!” Jin said as he saw Ryuli visibly get even more irritated. The long-coated gentlemen with a fox half mask who had appeared out of nowhere was talking about a kid, whichonly confirmed that the masked suit with a black hood knew something about her.
“You are obviously using the Panda Arts, according to the ridiculous suit you are wearing or holding. Just tell me who your master is, and we can continue to defeat this monster! Is that such a difficult question to answer?” Ryuli shouted irritated as she had been spending years trying to find the person who both blessed and cursed her with this particular power.
“That, my lady is actually a very complicated question to answer.” Kraft bowed with some manners, but Ryuli felt insulted instead.
“Woah woah woah, what is with all this ruckus?” A familiar voice was heard coming out from the side of the forest and noticed that Ryuli was in contact with a group of strangers. “Are they the enemy, L?”
“Wait a minute, isn’t that Mr Know-It-All?” Jin blurted out loud, and Agent K was mildly surprised.
“Boss Jin? Is that you in that suit of armour?” Mr Know-It-All chuckled at the absurdity of this situation. “Okay, now I can connect some of the dots together.” He stopped his chuckling and snapped his finger, and a couple of Bone Spirit Demons died right behind him while ignoring the Valgs.
“Holy shit. I told you that he was definitely hiding something big.” Kraft reminded Jin about his suspicions with glee and Mr Know-It-All just nodded his head.
“Should I say as expected from Boss Jin to have someone behind him, who could see through me?” Mr Know-It-All replied, and Kraft smiled in return. It felt like Kraft had just made a new worthy frenemy, one he would have fun playing against in the shadows of information warfare.
“But before that, protocol demands that I need to see some confirmation that you are not our enemy. I know that you are in the good books of the Snakes and Tigers, but I still need some proof you are here to help. Else, as a private contractor, I am obliged to treat you as an enemy.”
“Here.” Jin quickly pointed to the badge that Hou Fei had given him at the very last minute and also took out the one the Tiger General had given them.
“Very well, Agent L. Cease and desist your aggression towards him and his group. He is a private contractor too. Approved by not one but two authentic badges. There is no need to hurry in finding your master. If you think he is the key to your Master, I will bring you to his shop after all this is over.” Mr Know-It-All said after acknowledging their authenticity, and Ryuli stopped as commanded.
“You sure he won’t disappear?” Ryuli asked while glaring at Jin.
“That dungeon supplier shop in Shenzhen is his livelihood and pride. I trust that he won’t be going anywhere soon. At worst, I will spend some money to resurrect him if he ever dies in this skirmish.” Mr Know-It-All replied before turning his head towards Jin. “Also, Boss. Please go all out. I do not believe those monsters that you have summoned was the best of your ability.”
“How did you know?” Jin was surprised that his regular customer who never bothered to actually try out his dungeons would know so much about him, despite him never demonstrating his powers.
“I did not get the title of Mr Know-It-All for nothing, you know? Admittedly I pretend to know it all at times, and this was just another of those half bluffs. Still, we really need a miracle once in a while. So please Boss, do your miracle. I assure you that the Ministry of State Security (MSS) will cover your tracks and not bother you unnecessarily after this.”
“You know, I could just remove all traces of this current situation if you want to,” Kraft suggested as he shot a Bone Spirit Demon who did not understand the delicate situation they were in.
“Don’t. It will be nice to have the Ministry of State Security owe us a favour or two. Especially after their apparent misstep for not being able to detain the Banned Emperor assassin we sent them.” Jin said after recalling that seeing the Banned Emperor Assassin in the flesh at the forest.
“How did you…” Ryuli was surprised that Jin knew about the escape of the Banned Emperor, but Mr Know-It-All was mildly amused.
“Heh, let’s just say we did our very own investigation before handing him over to the ‘professionals’. But in order to not trouble Boss Jin, I have kept it under wraps because honestly, it was none of his business up until now.” Kraft commented as he tapped on Jin’s shoulders and his helmet display finally showed a number of stuff on the investigation he had extracted.
“Holy shit. It’s that grand?! Wait, doesn’t that mean you knew about this Monster Horde all along?” Jin was thankful for the helmet he was wearing since he could not think that he would be able to hold his expression away from them.
“Yes and no. They were smart enough to use a technique which deleted any relevant memories, but it’s not like his subconscious didn’t still have some puzzle pieces here and there. The things you saw from his ‘memories’ were the ones I managed to recreate after digging deep enough and combining them. Believe me when I say it was a pain in the ass.” Kraft spoke secretly in an exclusive System channel which he was sure the private contractors could not even detect.
“All I knew was that this Monster Horde was going to happen one way or the other. Had I intervened any earlier they would have just switched locations and one of their backup locations was Shenzhen’s coast. I am sure as hell you wouldn’t want them so close to your backyard, right?” Jin could literally hear Kraft grin with pride for not interfering.
“Anyways the ones to actually summon these creatures must have only arrived here recently. To be honest, according to what I found in his memories they must rank above him, so he didn’t have much on them. Fortunately, we should be able to capture quite a few of them this time around that is if you let them live. As I said, you were not ready to deal with stuff at such a level back then and frankly, you shouldn’t have gotten involved in it. But since you bravely chose to accept the burden, I am here to make sure I won’t have to start to address Hou Fei or someone else as Master in the near future.” Kraft turned to his boss and stuck out his tongue a bit. “Besides, you are too gullible and fun to work with.”
“And here I thought you did not have anything on them back then,” Jin replied as the Demons were once again converging despite the fact he had subtly commanded his Valgs to keep them out when they were having this really awkward conversation.
“Don’t make me laugh. You did not ask because you were too busy for almost everything else.” Kraft pointed out, as he looked at the two State Agents. “Though I guess you guys already found out some stuff. Like how all of this practically stems from domestic terrorism.”
“I am starting to like you and more, Sir Fox.” Mr Know-It-All smiled as he tipped his boonie hat towards him. “Am I correct in assuming you are the reason why Boss Jin was able to survive this long despite having so much interference from the Royal Families?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny that part without the boss’s approval.” His only follow up to the reply was a wider grin which Mr Know-It-All just took it for what it was.
“Agent L, new orders from your superior. We are to cooperate with them as best we can. Make sure you survive this so you can find out what you were looking for. Also, keep this conversation out from your subsequent operation report.” Mr Know It All commanded.
“I thought you said we ‘retired’ already upon taking this job? In any case, I will not die until I learn the truth about my Master.” Ryuli took a deep breath and turned to look at her boss and nodded her head.
“Retirement? Since when? State Agents never retire until they are banished from this world. They merely go on paid vacation.” Mr Know-It-All responded as he used his sword sheath and tapped on the ground. Suddenly the surrounding air veered slightly, and Jin could see a barely visible silhouette of a Chinese Serpent Dragon circling around them and the forest.
It immediately vanquished every single Bone Spirit Demons in the area, giving Jin the space to breathe and work his magic. “I cannot believe I am falling deeper into this world’s complex web of politics,” Jin complained as he took a card out from his deck.
“As you always do.” System commented.
