Chapter 59: Chapter 42: Treasure Hunter
As Sariel was enjoying the cheers of the entire city, the news of Chun’s escape was like a big lump of rat droppings, ruining the festive mood! Seeing his name aligned with Chun’s on the announcement was utterly disgusting.
The announcement was reported by a treasure hunter, and it just so happened that the Silver Sea was teeming with treasure hunters, which instantly triggered Sariel’s sensitive nerves!
Sariel looked at Black Iron Flower Fafnir, whose facial expression was obviously off, and doubted even more, so he directly asked, "Lady Fafnir, you have the authority to handle exile matters. This escapee was exiled under your charge, wasn’t he?"
Fafnir replied through gritted teeth, "Yes! What a superficial and ignorant fool. I hope this foolish escape can be stopped in time and doesn’t cause any disastrous consequences."
A superficial and ignorant fool? It’s rare to hear so many demeaning words in one sentence, such a low evaluation is uncommon. However, it’s impossible for someone who can associate with the City Flower to truly be incompetent.
Sariel wanted to continue asking, but seeing her upset, he could only console her, "I’m sorry, I asked questions I shouldn’t have, making you angry..."
"Do not misunderstand, sir, what angers me is this fool..."
Just then, the butler announced, "Sir, a call from the Shenqian Consortium."
Sariel chuckled, "Seeing me gain the whale, he has thoughts, doesn’t he? But I’m not going to give it back."
So he took the call with interest, "Mr. Shenqian?"
The Young Master respectfully said, "Congratulations on the brilliant victory, sir. I’m here to report the investigation. Various signs indicate that the disappearance of this whale is related to Chun."
Sariel’s heart sank, "What signs?"
"Chun didn’t stay at any regular task point during the entire public test... On the first day, he left through the sewer secret passage, suspected of colluding with nobles and dancers in the sperm whale spice smuggling..."
Sariel’s eyebrow twitched, "So, is there a problem with this whale?"
"Don’t misunderstand, sir, it’s only natural for you to obtain the whale. I’m just reminding you of some details."
Sariel laughed, "Thank you for the reminder, I will take note."
"Apologies for the disturbance, sir."
Ending the call, Sariel then asked the butler, "What does he mean?"
Without hesitation, the butler replied, "Sounds like he’s trying to disassociate himself from the whale, denying any harmful intentions toward you. But what he said also makes sense. The safest approach might be to read the whale’s memory data."
Sariel frowned, "Developing mind reading, huh? That’s Gabriel’s and the High Tier Nightmare Demon’s ability, but Gabriel is still far off, and my privilege points are insufficient to mobilize a High Tier Nightmare."
The butler said, "Actually, I also temporarily suggest you not spend precious privilege points in this area. Just as Mr. Shenqian never cares about the loyalty of company employees, as long as they can work and maintain operations."
Sariel snorted coldly, "Actually, I do care."
...
After ending the call with Sariel, Young Master Shenqian lay back on the sofa, feeling a mix of emotions.
Although he was mentally prepared for the whale’s disappearance, seeing it captured was indescribably distressing. All he could do was push Chun out as a scapegoat to clear the relationship, while also hoping to use others’ privileges to investigate what exactly happened.
Of course, purely by intuition, Chun is the biggest suspect. But if Chun really did it, it would be terrifyingly incomprehensible. How could an ordinary player achieve this?
Or, is Chun himself just a front? Is his task to trigger various announcements to attract attention, thereby covering for his real team working behind the scenes? But the entire Black Iron City has been closely monitoring 300 leveling task locations since the public test. Who would be on his team? Or did they leave the city early through the sewers, finding a secret task leveling location...
At this moment, another shocking change occurred in the Water Prison team, "The Crystal Bat has killed too much, it evolved!"
The Young Master was stunned! It was already so dire without the evolution, only relying on sending bodies to buy time for other teams to dig the collapsed passage, now evolved, there’s not even a sliver of chance?
However, a team member reminded, "Young Master, evolution is actually a good thing! This will trigger the adventurer association’s strong ones to come down and kill it. So let’s stop digging the passages, concentrate all manpower on continuously sending bodies to the bats, causing further evolution, while consuming the bats’ physical strength until the strong ones appear."
The Young Master snapped back to reality, "Then let’s do that!"
Yet, spending such a high price just to let NPC strong ones swoop in for the kill also left the Young Master quite displeased. Given this, might as well find an NPC with some connection and gain favor.
The Young Master said, "Sakamaru Noto, continue to seek out Count Ramir Khan, tell him we found an evolved bat at the bottommost level of the water prison, let him send someone to kill it."
Sakamaru was troubled, "Young Master, my unpleasant meeting with the Count should make it difficult."
The Young Master decided to take the plunge, "Just say there are valuable magic stones in the water prison! Let him hire professional treasure hunters. I want to know the true capability of this Count."
Sakamaru said, "Young Master, I suspect that just magic stones and evolved bats might not succeed. After attending Baron Fepeng’s spice feast, this Count seems to have some thoughts on the source of the spices."
The Young Master tightened his brows, "Are you suggesting revealing information about Spice Island to him as well?"
"Yes!"
The Young Master was also helpless, "Then reveal it. Be sure to fully persuade him."
Not receiving a big gift, losing the leading edge makes it really hard. Fortunately, my strategy wasn’t entirely reliant on the big gift either.