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When Shin and Leonard arrived at their destination, the former slowed down the car while looking at the city.
"This place sure is a little unique compared to what I've seen in the past," muttered Shin as he looked at the houses and other establishments at the side of the road.
What he saw were houses made of wood and bamboo. The rooves were made of nipa or other dry leaves used for primitive ways of building houses. There were a couple of establishments that were made of bricks and cement but their rooves were practically the same.
Even the huge houses with more than one floor were made from a mixture of wood and bricks, which produced a unique design that Shin found interesting.
In the meantime, Shin could also see that they were very few people riding a vehicle. Most of the locals of the city were walking on the streets with a few who were riding a carriage. Some of the horses were pulling carts on the roam, carrying some products that were being delivered to the marketplace.
There was a designated line for the horses and carriages, which the other vehicles could not take. Shin could see signs that he would not only be fined if he drove on those lanes, but he could also even get in custody if it had gotten serious.
Shin whistled a little when he saw those signs before continuing to casually look at the surroundings while driving.
The few cars and other forms of vehicles that he saw were not only outdated. He could even see some vintage ones, which could make the collectors in the big cities droll on them.
Shops could be rarely seen, but the streets had different stalls on the side of the road. Some vendors were selling on a street designated only for stalls.
After going for a quick trip around, Shin briefly turned to Leonard before asking. "Let's go to the place that the military had prepared for us to stay before heading over to the 'information hub'."
"Information hub?" Leonard was confused at first before realizing what Shin meant by that. "Ah! You mean the pubs and gambling houses?"
"Why? Are there no such things in this place?" asked Shin after seeing the reaction of his partner.
Leonard shook his head and clarified. "The pubs are common, but you will not see any gambling houses in this place."
"Is that even possible? Not even some illegal ones?" asked Shin with a frown.
From his experiences and the things that he had learned from the past operations, such places were the best way to gather information since rumors would continuously flow about that place because of the people gathering there.
Pubs were usually places where most of the people have some fun while drinking all night while gambling houses were meant for another form of entertainment.
Usually, young people were forbidden to go to such places. But since the two were currently in their disguises, which made them look a little older than their real age, entering such places would not be easy.
As for their identification, the advanced watches that the military had provided would do the trick, so there shouldn't be any problem.
Shin always chose to head over to such places to gather some information by listening to the rumors that the people were talking about.
Rumors would always be rumors, which made it a little unreliable most of the time. But they could also be true at times. After cross-checking the rumors with the information that they already had, identifying the truth from the false information would be a piece of cake.
"It is not that there are no gambling houses here totally, but the form of gambling that they had here is a little different from playing cards or rolling some dice," said Leonard while furrowing his brows.
"There are only two types of gambling here. One is for races while the other is for brawls," he added after making sure that he remembered it correctly.
He paused for a moment as he tried to recall what he knew about the Mountain Sea Cit before continuing. "Races are big events, and they can only be held once a month. The brawls, on the other hand, are regular. It is always being held every night."
Shin ignored the races and focused on the so-called brawls. "Like underground boxing? Or something?"
Leonard nodded his head. "Yeah. But it is pretty much legal here. If I am not mistaken, it even becomes a sport or something."
He then looked outside the window and turned up to the sky. "It is already getting dark. If my memory serves me right, then the brawls will start at eight in the evening."
"Should we head over there and take a look?" he asked as he turned to Shin.
Shin thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Nah. Let's save it for tomorrow or on the other day."
"It will become too suspicious if we head straight to that place after just arriving here. We still don't know if there are people observing everyone that entered the city."
"Such places are the most ideal location where the organization is looking for talent. If we head over straight to there right after our arrival and someone is watching us, then our cover will be blown."
"It is not that we don't want it to happen. Pulling them out from the dark is still our main goal, much better if they also abduct us just like our seniors. But there is no harm in finding their main base ourselves if possible. Lowing the risk of this mission is still a better scenario."
"Let's take it slow and go with the flow. We will head over to where we are staying first, then head over to one of the pubs before calling it a day."
"We will be doing that for a day or two before checking on this brawl that you are talking about as we investigate."
Shin drove the car toward the place that was indicated on the map while keeping an eye on the places that were best to spy on them as well as the vehicles behind them, making sure that no one was tailing their car.
Not long after, they arrived in front of a simple house that was no different from the rest of the city.
Shin parked the car in the garage with great familiarity before stepping out.
The two acted as if they were returning locals of the place as they walked toward the house. Leonard walked to the door and opened it with the keys, acting as if he had already done it countless times, before entering and turning on a couple of lights.
Shin followed behind not bothering to look at their surroundings. It was as if he did not care about anything else at all.
At least that was what was on the surface. But in truth, his Spiritual Sense was actually spread out, checking the surrounding of the house. He was looking if there were people spying on them.
After entering, Shin also did the same, trying to see if there were other people inside. And after making sure that everything was fine, he went to different rooms of the house, putting a talisman on the walls one after another. If someone tried to break in, he would immediately know since these talismans would be able to sense it.
Some of the talismans were meant to set up isolation and sound barriers that would prevent anyone from eavesdropping.
After setting up everything, Shin went to turn off the lights before heading toward a shelf inside a study. He pulled one of the books and the shelf slowly turned, revealing a passage toward a basement.
He entered and the shelf closed on itself. After going down the passage, Shin saw Leonard already setting up a couple of devices.
On one of the walls, there were multiple screens that were showing the surroundings of the house. Meanwhile, on the wall adjacent to it were scenes that were showing everything on the streets of the city.
"Tsk! This is a lot. If they prepared these things for the operation, then why they can't send some professionals to operate them? And we can't monitor everything by ourselves, can't they be more considerate?" complained Leonard as he sat on a chair while looking at everything.
Shin walked over and looked at the screens while saying. "There are a few scouts monitoring everyone that was entering or exiting the city. The military doesn't know if there are moles in the ranks of police stationed here, so they can't send just anyone."
"But don't worry, they are going to send some support for this. They just have to finish their preparations," he added before sweeping his gaze at everything.
After a few moments, he furrowed his brows as he realized that it would be hard to monitor everything if they need to go outside to investigate. In the end, he had to ask some help from someone he knew, and they could trust.
He dialed a number from the secured line of his advance watch and called someone. After a few rings, the person on the other side of the call finally answered.
"Yo! Big Brother John. How is it going?" greeted Shin once the call was connected.
John Evans, the guy who suffered a lot due to Shin when they were trying to save Leonard before, rolled his eyes when he heard Shin's greeting before saying. "Cut the crap! I know that you are on a special mission. Commander Nathan already informed me."
"Oh! Is that so? Then I don't have to explain anything," said Shin before asking. "So, what are we going to do?"
John sighed before replying. "Yeah, yeah. I will send you a file – download and install it to the main computer there and I will handle the rest."
"We have a team here to do the job, so you don't have to worry about monitoring and just focus on your job."
"Don't put down the call yet so that I can make sure that you are doing everything right," he added with a tired voice.
Shin quickly nodded and started to work.
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