Bab 68: CH67: One City... Five Contracts... Seven Targets
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AUTHOR'S RAMBLING/NOTE
I'm putting this here so no one misses it. It's about the recent erratic updates of this novel. If you aren't interested, you can jump to the chapter below.
Q: Are you giving up the Novel?
A: No, I'm not. I enjoy writing and I will keep doing so as long as I can.
Q: So, why haven't you been releasing?
A: I have been busy. I started this novel at the time because I had free time on my hands and ideas I wanted to bring to life. There was a time I had the right balance between my real life responsibilities and writing. I was at 12ch/wk for my main novel and 7ch/wk for this novel at my high. I was even thinking of increasing it. But that has changed. My schedule in real life changed and I'm busier than ever. I'm even finding it difficult to release 7ch/wk for my main novel. I just didn't have the time for this novel.
Q: So, what's the future for this novel? When will the next release be?
A: Honestly, uncertain. My schedule is erratic. I'm sure I'll be busy for the next month or so. I'm trying to work things out so that I get 3ch/wk for this novel though. I think I can squeeze out the time during the weekends. I might spread the release over the week or just drop them during the weekend. If you've read the novel this far, then I believe I can say you enjoy it and this news might come as a bummer. I'm truly sorry and I hope you can bear with me.
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Okay, with the depressing stuff out of the way, here's your chapter.
Enjoy!!
CH67: One City... Five Contracts... Seven Targets
The Taxi carriage dropped me off somewhere in the administrative district at the city centre, from where I made my way to the Charwell mall in the nearby Commercial District.
I eventually arrived at the ThornyRose to meet up with Navia to receive the details of the contracts.
"You feel... different. Stronger...?" She said to meet after we greeted and she ushered me into the backroom.
"My month long training paid off then. But it's concerning if it's obvious." I frowned.
"Don't worry. No one will notice. I only did because of our connection. Your mind is stronger now. Its restraint on Emeka is stronger."
"Oh!"
I realised I misunderstood. The increase in strength Navia felt was in my mental faculties.
The Valhalla Will Manual, now part of my greater Tempering Manual, fortified my Will, mental strength and defences. I even gained conscious control over my Mental Energy.
That said, what I can do with the Mental Energy is still limited in scope at the moment.
"I'm done with what you requested."
Navia took off two pieces of leather equipment from a mannequin.
Anyone familiar with guns from my previous life would be familiar with these two leather items.
Gun hoists!
Specifically, a shoulder hoist and a waist hoist.
I removed my coat and jacket before wearing the two hoists. They were a perfect fit.
I expected nothing less from Navia who had great workmanship and new my body to a tee.
I opened the briefcase I brought with me to reveal my four beauties. Two Combat Masters and Two Colt Pythons.
By the way, the Sub-Blessings on {Instrument of Destruction} from Skoll and Hati activated when I bought the two pistols, duplicating them.
In other words, I essentially got a two for one deal.
Anyway, I slid the Combat Master pistols into the caps of the shoulder hoists and then hoisted the revolver into the waist hoist.
(P.S: Any self-respecting gunman knows never to put a long-barrel revolver into a shoulder hoist. That only works for pistols. Instead, revolvers should always go into a waist hoist.)
[A.N: This is the MC's personal opinion. Do with it what you will.]
Navia looked at my beauties with interest.
I had previously showed her what they could do and she was fascinated with them.
Who could blame her, right? Especially in this world dominated exclusively by cold weapons, mana or not.
Unfortunately, the guns only fired due to the [Firearm] Rune now hidden somewhere in my body and mind. I was the only one who could fire them, so Navia couldn't enjoy the privilege of firing them.
She treated them as Exclusive Artefacts.
Apparently, this was a thing in Arun. Aside Armament-type Pangea, there were Armaments and Artefacts that could only be used by the current owner.
Exclusive Artefacts serve their owner only till their death where, depending on how the Artefact is made, it may self-destruct to follow its owner in death or find another owner after the previous one dies.
So, should anyone ask me about the guns, I can just write them off as unique exclusive weapons.
That aside, Navia got to telling me about the contracts.
"The contract issued to you by the organisation." Navia passed a file to me. "The target is Quara Duemin. She is a high-priority target that the House wants removed as soon as possible."
I raised an eyebrow.
"What did she do to get this much attention? Says here she's just a businesswoman with Expert-rank strength even though she possesses 6 rings, a testament to her weak combat ability."
"She colluded with people from Blood Coffin on a contract leading to the deaths of two of our outer members. Two more died when they tried to send her a message for the transgression."
"The House tried to communicate with her?" I was surprised.
"Her referrer is one of the House's long time Clients. The organisation found out she was threatened. So, it wanted to give her the chance to write the wrong. I suspect she was a good client as well. But by having a hand in the death of the messengers, she burnt the bridge with the House, hence this contract."
"I see... Sending more outer members stands a risk of failure. More failures would cause the House to lose face. So they're moving a True member, huh. Outer and True Member missions aren't all that different."
"One carries the face of the House while the other doesn't." Navia pointed out.
"True." I shrugged. "Anything I should be on the lookout for?"
"Madame Duemin somehow continues to evade our search. Our scouts reports she's in IronWell, but they don't have an exact location. It's improbable for her to do this herself. She likely has help."
Navia passed another file to me.
"That's Lars Chernin. He's a recent addition to Lady Duemin's inner circle. We suspect he's the one responsible for turning the Lady against us."
"Handsome guy. So, Honeypot?"
"Honeypot...?"
I unconsciously used a term from my previous life.
"I mean, do you think he was sent to seduce her or things just happened?"
"I don't know. We don't have much detail on that. The contract also includes him though."
"Says here I'm to kill him if I get the chance."
"Yes. But Duemin is your priority."
I smirked to the lady. She smiled back at me.
The reason was simple. Priority or not, since they both were unfortunate to come onto my kill list, they were both my Priority.
"Any special conditions or requests?"
Navia held her chin.
"They've asked the death to have an air of mystery to it if possible."
"Makes sense. They want people wondering how they died. Humans fear the unknown. Anyone thinking of betraying the House like this would be left wondering if they'll die just as mysteriously."
"Can you pull it off?"
"Hmm... I don't know yet. Maybe I'll receive an inspiration once I'm on site."
"Well, they reiterated that it's just a bonus. What they mostly care about is that Lady Duemin dies."
"Understood." I nodded. "What about the other contracts?"
"I got four other contracts for you. That's the limit of the contracts you can take together at the moment."
"I don't mind. I could only take one mission at a time except on special occasions back as an Outer member. This is an improvement compared to that. So, tell me about them."
"I only picked missions from IronWell since that's where you are headed. There are five targets in total. The first contract is an underworld contract to takeout the leaders of two of the top gangs in IronWell. The client also wants you to cripple or ruin the gangs while you are at it."
"The first request makes sense but the second doesn't sound like something you'd ask an assassin to do. You sure the client didn't mistake us for law enforcement?"
Navia laughed.
"What? You can't do it? I thought you liked a challenge."
"There's no need to provoke me, my fair lady. What part of the grin on my face says I won't take it."
A contract to take down a criminal organisation?
This took me down memory lane.
A staple mission of Taskforce 47 was taking down criminal and terrorist organisations all the while still facing threats from enemy States. I happened to have extensive experience in doing this.
This request might be difficult for any other assassin, but it wasn't for me. It was an everyday activity for me as an operative in my previous life. There was always a terrorist or criminal element to take down back then.
"So, what do I need to know about these two gangs?"
"The Burning Crawlers and Blue Beards... The Burning Crawlers deal in drugs, smuggling, theft, illegal weapon sales and the likes. Blue Beards focuses on blackmail & extortion, prostitution, fraud and so on.
"The leader of the Burning Crawlers is Ander Poorstag. He's an IronWell native through and through. He grew his gang from nothing to what it is today by taking advantage of the loopholes in IronWell's abundant artisan and commodity markets. All artisan stores are related to the Burning Crawler in some way. He's described as a good but explosive man.
"The leader of Blue Beards is Garvin Adams. He was a Merchant in Skyrose but lost everything and was forced to join the gang. He rose up the ranks and was chosen to spearhead the gangs' expansion to the Bloodrose region. He's seen as a smart but sly man. He runs his gang like a business enterprise, probably trying to relive his mercantile days."
"So, we have a guy who joined crime to raise in status in society as opposed to a guy who joined crime to maintain his status. Their two gangs also reflect the personalities of their leaders." I commented. "This will be interesting indeed."
"Do you have a plan?"
"I think I do. But I'm not telling you."
"Why?!" Navia pouted.
"Because it would ruin the fun." I smirked.
"Fine!" She looked stunning even while puffing. "The second contract is an IronWell corrupt official, Kastor Fletcher. The client wants this done quietly. They also want you to recover his ledger."
"A government contract then?"
"It isn't. It's an individual contract. The Client paid for anonymity so all the Support Agent told me was that the person is in government, so you can treat as a government contract if you want."
"In that case, I hope the Intel is verified and trustworthy."
"Yes, it is. It's also pretty detailed."
I looked over the contract document.
"It's like the Client is afraid we'll fail or something. With this much detail, it will be more difficult not to succeed. I wonder why the person didn't just off the man themselves."
"Maybe they can't move for whatever reason or gathering Intel is what they are good at. Whatever the case, it's money for us, no?" Navia shrugged.
"True." I nodded. "Next?"
Navia passed me another document
"I specially chose this one for you."
"Oh? Now I'm curious."
"The target is Malcer Evenwood, a seed merchant. The Client wants you to make things look like a robbery. They want you to steal his entire special inventory. And the most important thing is that they don't care what you do with the stolen inventory!"
"What?! Really?"
"Yes. But because of that, the payment for the contract is lower than usual. The other true members didn't take the contract because of that. No one is sure how valuable the secret stash is, it might not be worth much after fencing the seeds through the House, so no one wants to take the risk. But that isn't a problem for you, right?"
"Yeah. I'm in need of seeds of any level and money doesn't matter much to me. The little merit points on the mission is a little of a shame, but since I'll be in IronWell anyways, it will be a disservice not to at least check it out."
"I'm glad you like it."
She passed another contract file. I noticed a little hesitation when she did.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm not sure if you'll want to take this contract. The pay and merit is peanuts. In truth, this should be a mission for an outer member, but I forcibly took it for personal reasons. I hope you take it. Think of it as a favour to me." The lady said hesitantly.
I look through the contract details. My mood shook a little but I quickly regained my calm.
"This isn't worth a favour. I would do it for free if I knew about it. Don't forget it affects me as well."
Realisation dawned on Navia.
"I forgot. I'm sorry. I-"
"There's nothing to apologise for." I shook my head. "Any special condition or request?"
"No. The client just wants it done."
"Alright."
"That's everything. Look over the details. Let me know if you need anything."
I carefully read through the five folders. I asked Navia to help me look into some details and any incongruity I noticed. Soon, an action plan formed in my head.
Of course, this was merely a skeleton plan. I would have to flesh it out onsite.
In the meantime, the month long self-torture still weighed on me. I needed a clear head to do a good job. Fortunately, I had Navia to help me decompress.
I spent the remained of the day releasing my pent-up frustrations onto Navia's soft, enticing body.
By the next day, I woke up feeling refreshed and alive. My spirit was clear and my thoughts flowed freely. I began to understand why martial artist from the east in my previous life emphasised the importance of dual cultivation.
A person shouldn't live on yang or yin alone. There's a need to melt and merge yin and yang from time to time.
However, while I was in an ecstatic mood, Navia was tapped out. She didn't wake up even from my tossing around on the bed.
I felt a little sorry for her so I made her breakfast in bed.
It wasn't until I had to leave that she woke up.
"When are you going to conquer Anastasia and Zora. I don't think I can keep up with you alone anymore. I need reinforcements."
I almost choked on my saliva. I wasn't expecting this would be the first thing she'd say to me in the day.
I know the Tempering Manual further enhanced my already great physique and stamina, but it shouldn't be that bad that she would kick me out, right?
"Shouldn't you be happy that your man can satisfy you?" I kissed her softly as she sat up on the bed.
"Too much sugar is bad for the body. This qualifies as well." She rolled her eyes. "I don't think I can get up till noon."
"Don't worry, you don't need to get up. I already made you breakfast."
"At least you still have a conscience."
I chuckled and brought the meal to her.
"I'll be leaving now."
I activated {Loki's Mask} and transformed into Alex Fury aka Agent Zero aka The Fool.
"Your Comms crystal is linked to the organisation's network. You can now use the portals below."
"That's convenient." I kissed her goodbye. "See you later."
"Don't take too long, Ok?"
I winked to her and left.
I took one of the organisation's portal hidden below the Charwell mall and arrived at Bloodrose city. From there, I took a train to IronWell.
(To be continued...)
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone