...…
Since Shin and Leonard would be getting assistance from John and his group, Shin decided to scrap his previous plan of vising the pubs in the city and saved it for the next day.
He decided to call it a day and rest. This mission would be a battle of nerve, so they had to always be at their peak condition to avoid making mistakes during critical moments.
After making sure that everything was running properly, he left the secret room alongside Leonard. And before going to bed, he made another quick round in the house, checking if all of the talismans that he had set up were working properly before finally collapsing inside his room.
*********
In the meantime, somewhere in the Mountain Sea City, there were silhouettes moving around a secluded alley in a secretive manner.
A moment later, the shadows in the alley suddenly moved and morphed into a group of people. The rest of the shadows also turned into a black cocoon that enveloped everyone.
One of the shadowy figures suddenly stepped forward and asked. "How is it? Did those people send more pests to bother our business?"
"We are closely monitoring everyone who is entering the city. There quite a few people who looked new, but we are already keeping an eye on them, so there shouldn't be much of a problem," said another.
That person paused for a moment before quickly adding laughingly. "We will be able to quickly recognize the locals, regular guests, and people who are here to investigate us. The superstitious beliefs of the people here are helping a lot in identifying those moles planted by those idiots in the military."
Hearing that, the first guy shook his head and refuted. "That is only for the branch stationed in the Eastern Sea Region."
"If the military forces under the Springfield Family or the instructors from the Top Military School, then we are going to be in serious trouble."
"Fortunately, the forces here in the Eastern Sea Region don't have a good relationship with the Springfield forces while the Top Military School are too far from us to send their people, so we are still fine for the time being."
"But once those two managed to deal with their situations and are able to send their people, then our situation will be more complicated."
He then paused and swept his gaze at everyone before warning them. "Don't let your guard down and keep an eye on everyone. The project is already at the most critical stages, so we can't afford to move our base of operation to avoid this problem."
"Are we going to stop our operations in the city, sir?" asked one of the guys.
The guy that seemed to be the leader shook his head and replied. "We are going to pause the abduction for the time being. You can also forget the guys in the brawl arena to avoid unnecessary problems."
"That place will be a hot potato in the eyes of the military since it was an obvious source of subjects."
"But since we already captured the elite students of the Magic Ace Academy, we will not be lacking in that area. We are not going to lose anything even if we stop picking out the potential subjects from the arena."
"Just focus your energy on monitoring the city and take note of any suspicious people. If they are making progress at tracking us, then eliminate them as soon as possible."
"But make sure that you are able to deal with them. If those people are actually the instructors of the Magic Ace Academy, then forget about returning alive. You better shut your mouths for good, instead of harming the organization."
"Am I clear?" he asked with a cold voice.
"Yes, Sir!" replied everyone as they nod their heads.
"Dismiss!" said the leader, making the others scatter and head in different directions. They would be heading to their respective positions and observing their potential targets.
In the meantime, the leader looked around for another time before stepping back into the shadows and merging with them. Following that, the black cocoon that enveloped the alley was suddenly sucked into the shadows before disappearing completely.
…
A few moments, that person arrived at the depths of the mountain range behind the city. He walked around with great familiarity before disappearing into the woods.
After a minute of walking, he arrived in front of a cliff wall. He stood in front of it for a couple of minutes before walking straight to the solid wall. But instead of bumping into it, he seemed to walk through it as if the wall was nothing.
He continued to walk in darkness for quite some time before arriving in front of a metal door. He waited for another minute before the door opened on itself.
Contrary to the darkness behind him, the other side of the metal door was too bright. It took a couple of seconds before the eyes of the mysterious person adjusted to the brightness.
He then resumed his steps walking through the corridor of a research facility.
There were a lot of rooms lined up on each side of the corridors. And looking over at those rooms, one could see that different research was taking place. Some were being conducted by a lot of people while the rest were just being monitored by a couple of personnel.
The mysterious person walked to the farthest end of the corridor, where a glass door was blocking his path. He paused for a moment before taking out an ID from his pocket. On it, the name Shaun Livingstone was written alongside a portrait of a young man in glasses.
After walking for a few more minutes, this guy with the name Shaun Livingstone finally reached his destination. It was a research lab with scattered and unorganized apparatuses and materials mixed together.
There was an old man in a laboratory gown sitting at the center of the room in a lazy manner, staring at the floating images projected in the air.
Hearing the door open behind him, the old man turned around and saw Shaun Livingstone walking over. "Your back? How is it outside?"
Shaun did not immediately reply as he tried to find the right path to reach the center of the room. When he arrived, he suddenly asked. "Can Sir clean your room from time to time? I can't imagine that you are able to work with such a mess."
The old scientist smirked when he heard that and refuted it. "Kid, you will never be able to understand."
He then paused and went back to his original question. "So, how is it on the outside? Is the academy sending their main forces already?"
Shaun shook his head. "I don't think they will be able to send their people this soon. They have to organize their forces first before launching a thorough search in the mountains. We still have enough time to finish the project."
"What I am more worried about is the forces of the Springfield Family. They are not showing any movements on the surface, but I feel that they are plotting something," he added after some hesitation.
The old scientist shrugged his shoulders. "We can't do anything about that. Those people are already on our tail since that incident years ago. If they managed to sniff us here, then there is no point in avoiding them any longer."
"This is the reason why we ask Butcher and Coffin Maker to assist us. It is to hasten our progress while also having powerful experts that will be able to protect us if the situation goes against our favor."
"But I must say, Coffin Maker really did a good job of stealing the data from the Hextech Laboratory. It hastens our progress by a large margin."
The old scientist paused for a moment before asking. "Have you followed the instructions that I've asked you?"
"Of course, sir! I ask everyone to halt our operations and just focus on monitoring the city," said Shaun.
"Good! You can leave now and go back to your post," the old scientist snapped with his fingers before asking Shaun to leave.
Shaun furrowed his brows for a moment before bowing and complying with the old scientist. He gave the old man one final look before leaving the laboratory. There was a clear displeasure on his face as he knew that the old scientist was still not trusting him enough even after doing everything that he did up until now.
The old scientist did not care about the thoughts that Shaun currently had. He made sure that the guy left before tapping a couple of buttons on the keyboard near him, locking the laboratory, and activating the isolation features that it had.
Even the glass door was covered by a steel door, thoroughly sealing the entire room.
Then the projected images in the air suddenly disappeared before being replaced by an image of a person.
That person had pale skin which was as smooth as jade while his eyes resembled a reptile, particularly a snake. His long hair was entirely black as he let it hang on his back.
"Sir Snake Head," greeted the old scientist as he stood up and bowed.
The person on the other side of the call slightly nodded his head before asking. "How is it? Is everything going smoothly?"
The old scientist lowered his body even further as he replied. "Everything is going according to the plan, sir. We only need the final testing, and we will get all the data that we need."
Snake Head smiled creepily before saying. "That is good. Send me everything that you have and proceed according to the plan. When you are done with everything, destroy that lab and head back to the main base."
The old scientist hesitated for a moment before asking. "I will make the necessary preparations, sir. There are a lot of personnel here, so we will need some time to move everyone."
"What personnel? I seem to remember that you are the only one that we have sent over there," said Snake Head in a casual manner.
Those words seemed to be said casually, but they sent an intense shiver down the spine of the old scientist. He knew what Snake Head meant by those words.
He gulped a mouthful of saliva before bowing even further. "I understand, sir. I will clean up everything."
"Good! Then I will be expecting the data that you are going to present to me," said Snake Head before ending the call.
The old scientist was sweating spontaneously as he maintained his bowing posture for quite some time. He knew that his boss was cold-hearted, but he did not expect that it would be to this degree.
After adjusting his mood for a couple of moments, he strengthened his back and started making preparations.
He had to move fast.
If Snake Head suddenly changed his mind and found the old scientist as a disposable piece like the others, then his end would be no different to the people of this research facility.
...…
New novel chapt𝒆rs are published on free(w)ebnovel(.)com