Night shrouded the city. A private airship, like a ghost, slowly descended from the night sky, steadily landing on the private airfield of a hotel in the city. The airship hatch opened, and only four people disembarked: Kevin, Begetto, Gu Gu, and White. White was the engineering man whose Nen ability could materialize a notebook. Apart from the four of them, the remaining personnel were left at the previous base. After all, there were still some loose ends that needed cleaning up.
Kevin never expected things to be so coincidental—or perhaps, so lucky. Just when they were at a loss, crucial information came from an unexpected place. According to the prophecy, Pairo went there personally. After the death of the Tedolka Family head, the people he brought found the information Kevin and the others had been desperately searching for in those two rooms. The key clue that provided this line of thought was the mountain of various specimens and collections piled up in the rooms. These were essentially just Tedolka's personal hobbies.
The group got off the airship and, guided, walked into a small conference room in the hotel. This hotel had been temporarily booked out. Pairo smiled when he saw Kevin. There was no one else in the conference room except Pairo, indicating that he had clearly been waiting a long time.
The conference table was piled high with various documents, as well as the Golden Chicken specimen and the golden egg specimen that Pairo had specially brought. Using "Gyo," one could clearly see a faint aura emanating from the Golden Chicken specimen, and wisps of Nen also floating around the golden egg.
Begetto picked up the two specimens, examined them carefully for a moment, and said, "This specimen shouldn't be the one from the previous auction, and the egg naturally isn't either." Kevin found it difficult to distinguish them due to their similar appearance, but Begetto had personally attended the auction and participated in the bidding, so he could naturally tell the difference. Therefore, he could confirm the differences between these two specimens and those at the auction.
Gu Gu directly reached out and opened the outer casing holding the specimens but did not touch them. Instead, she lifted the base and carefully examined the actual items stored inside from left to right. "These two specimens were made no more than a year ago." Saying this, she looked at Kevin and Begetto.
Upon hearing this, Begetto analyzed, "Then, barring any surprises, this should be what happened after the habitat of these Golden Chickens was attacked. What we need to confirm now is whether the organization that captured these Golden Chickens is the one we are investigating, and ideally, the place where these Golden Chickens were transferred is the storage base we are looking for."
From the files found in the previous hidden base, it could be inferred that the Golden Chickens' habitat was indeed attacked by people from this organization at that time. If nothing unexpected happened, they should have pinpointed their target.
At this moment, White, the engineering man, had already started flipping through the files on the table. Everyone also took their seats and picked up the files to examine them, trying to find useful information. Kevin looked for a while and then put down the files—he really couldn't understand them. The reason he couldn't understand was that he knew too little about the entire incident. Begetto eventually also put down the files, as his information was equally limited. They had merely accidentally destroyed an insignificant small base. From the beginning, Begetto was only involved because his research base was threatened by species released by the other party. Kevin was only helping him deal with the species threat in this matter.
The main person in charge of this operation was Gu Gu, one of the Twelve Zodiacs. No, to be precise, in the direction they were currently heading, the person in charge was Gu Gu. At this moment, she and White were completely focused on going through the files, trying to find clues.
Kevin looked at Pairo beside him, smiling and praising, "You did a great job this time."
Pairo smiled but couldn't help voicing his worries. "I'm still a bit worried about the other members of the Tedolka Family." He felt that the mafia would retaliate, which was very much in line with their nature.
"Don't worry about it. These guys are mafia. When one of the Ten Old Men falls, others will naturally step into that position. There are plenty of people eyeing it." Kevin comforted him. "The remaining Tedolka Family members might be too busy taking care of themselves. Just dealing with their current situation is enough to give them a headache."
Begetto listened from the side, roughly understood the situation, and nodded slightly. "Mafia, huh? Don't bother with them." Saying this, he pointed to the two people flipping through the files. "These two guys are swamped right now. They will definitely look into some internal information of the Tedolka Family later. These mafia members can't stop them and wouldn't dare to. After today, you won't have to worry about it."
After hearing this, Pairo looked at Kevin. He didn't know much about the Hunter Association, let alone its specific strength or the privileges these few individuals possessed. Kevin smiled, and listening to Begetto, it indeed seemed to be the case.
For the Hunter Association, and for Gu Gu who was currently representing the Hunter Association in handling affairs, a family of one of the Ten Old Men was completely insignificant.
At this moment, White had already connected a call and was speaking in a commanding tone. Not long after, some people in black suits arrived at the hotel. Pairo glanced at them and couldn't help widening his eyes slightly, because the person who came was the eldest son of the Tedolka Family. If the family were operating normally, he would be the successor. However, at this moment, he was sweating profusely, with a fawning expression. Looking at his expression, you could tell he was currently in a state of being overwhelmed.
White walked out. Clearly, he had used his channels to summon this person, with the purpose of learning about some of his family's "business" activities from him.
"See?" Begetto said with a smile from the side. At a time when they needed to deal with the aftermath of the family head's unexpected death, such an unexpected event occurred. Under the strike of various problems, it was impossible for them to regain the position of Ten Old Men. After this, they would have to use all their strength just to survive, let alone retaliate against Light and the others. They might not even be able to determine that Light and the others were the cause.
Soon, White obtained the target location he wanted.
"Let's go. I'll take you to broaden your horizons." Kevin looked at Pairo, said with a smile, and then took him onto the airship, flying toward the coast.
On the airship, the group chatted while Kevin pondered. The group was organizing collected information and talking to each other. He roughly guessed how this secret organization transported things into the hidden base—through the underground channels of the Tedolka Family, which controlled this port city, by means of smuggling. This was, after all, a port city, and an important one for V5 members. The daily cargo throughput was extremely large, and there were many smuggling routes. Mixing items into countless smuggling routes made them difficult to discover.
As the airship flew over the port and headed toward the target.
"We have trouble." The engineering man suddenly opened his computer and said. The people on the ship all turned to look at him. "News from the Hunter Association internal network suggests our actions may have been detected, and the Black Bird mercenary group might be following us."
Gu Gu frowned and started thinking. They prioritized speed of action and didn't think too much about subsequent issues, but as expected, some annoying politicians were indeed causing trouble behind the scenes. These people who supported the [Spiral] organization may not know where the storage warehouse was, but they could also determine the approximate area and direction based on clues. So, waiting for the rabbit was enough. After all, the Hunter Association handling this matter was the one that needed to urgently find the warehouse and seal it as evidence.
"What kind of mercenary group is so arrogant?" Begetto asked, somewhat confused. What kind of setup did they have on this airship right now? Which mercenary group would dare to accept such a mission? Weren't they tired of living?
The engineering man looked at the computer and said in a somewhat strange tone, "This mercenary group has a total of over thirty people, but only three are Nen users... Perhaps they don't know that there are multiple Hunters heading to the target location. Otherwise—" Saying this, he shrugged helplessly. Clearly, either the employer concealed some information, or they simply didn't know the situation. But everyone clearly leaned toward some information being concealed. It was common practice. People in the mercenary business had long been used to it. Isn't it precisely because they had secrets and it was inconvenient to act themselves that they sent others? Otherwise, why would they hire them?
"We land first, and the airship will mislead them according to the original route!" Gu Gu gave the order decisively. This was not the time to create extra complications. She then took the group to the landing hatch.
Opening the window, strong winds howled in. Gu Gu whistled loudly, and soon, several huge eagles with large bodies soared down from the clouds in the sky. Gu Gu jumped onto one of the giant eagles without hesitation, and the others followed closely. Kevin's face showed an excited smile. He lifted Pairo and also jumped up, landing steadily on the back of a giant eagle. These giant eagles were clearly specially trained and flew very steadily.
Everyone rode on giant eagles, flying over the sea against the sea breeze.
"Yahoo!" Kevin shouted excitedly—this novel experience thrilled him.
At this time, the airship in the sky was still flying forward according to its original route. Looking from afar, on the sea behind the airship, there seemed to be a ship quietly following. Midway, the giant eagles suddenly changed direction, plunging into the clouds and disappearing.
As dawn approached, the giant eagles landed on a seemingly ordinary small island. After everyone jumped off, the eagles flew away directly. Watching them disappear, Kevin couldn't help wondering what exactly the Nen ability of this Zodiac member was. The only thing that could be confirmed at the moment was that she could control birds—pigeons and eagles. Could it be Manipulation? It was impossible to be certain.
"Is this the island?" Begetto asked. From circling in the air to landing, he hadn't found anything special about it.
White didn't speak, sitting down cross-legged on the ground. The materialized laptop appeared in his hand again. He pulled out a connection cable from thin air and actually plugged it directly into the ground.
"That's amazing," Kevin marveled inwardly. It seemed this Nen ability could not only probe memories but also gather other information this way. Just from its usage, Kevin could roughly guess how powerful White's ability was in intelligence gathering.
"It's right here. Northwest direction, underground one kilometer away," White said, pushing up his glasses. "If nothing goes wrong, we should have already been discovered."
Everyone was mentally prepared for this—after all, this was enemy territory, and it was reasonable for it to be full of various monitoring and detection systems. They weren't sneaking in secretly but landing ostentatiously from the sky on conspicuous eagles. They were ready for a battle with Nen users. However, according to Gu Gu's intelligence from other directions, there shouldn't be strong enemies here.
Everyone passed through the sparse woods and arrived at the location White had mentioned. Along the way, they could feel someone watching, and White also found some camera surveillance devices. But they encountered no obstruction and arrived here unimpeded. The problem was, how could they find the base's entrance if the other party didn't actively expose it? None of them could burrow through the earth.
Begetto looked at Gu Gu. Gu Gu pulled out a handful of seeds from somewhere, attached Nen to them, and scattered them on the ground. These seeds instantly merged into the soil, and then the ground cracked open. One plant vine after another broke through the soil, growing wildly in both upward and downward directions. The few people quickly retreated a few steps. These vines constantly wove through and soon pried open the entrance buried deep underground, providing a direct path downward along the vines.
Kevin used "En," scanned downward in a straight line, and said, "Someone is waiting for us down there."
As soon as he finished speaking, screams came from below. The vines were still growing into the base, spreading along the entrance.
"Not anymore," Gu Gu said, leaping down. Begetto shrugged at Kevin and followed suit, and then everyone entered one by one.
Upon entering the base, they saw that in the entrance corridor, soldiers who had been holding guns were now tightly entangled by vines, struggling intensely. Walking further in, they saw several soldiers who simply dropped their guns and raised their hands. They surrendered directly and were not prepared to offer any form of resistance.
The arrival of several Nen users quickly took control of this storage base, with almost no fighting whatsoever. The whole process was much simpler and easier than they had imagined.
The person in charge of the base was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man, slightly pot-bellied. He held up his hands, a simple and honest smile on his face. This man was also a Nen user but seemed to have no hostility. He didn't even seem to have strong combat ability. Facing the few people, he said quickly, "I'm just a warehouse manager. Whatever you do has nothing to do with me."
"Take us to where the important items are stored," Gu Gu ordered directly.
However, the other party replied, "With all due respect, anything stored here is important. So what exactly do you want?"
Gu Gu didn't answer but looked at White next to her. At this time, White was still holding his computer. After typing a few keys on the screen, he said, "The Hunter Association people will arrive in one day, and that mercenary group has been led away by the airship. Hmm... If nothing unexpected happens, our mission should be considered complete, so there's no need to rush." After speaking, he casually pulled out a non-existent connection cable from the computer and plugged it into a nearby machine. Soon, the equipment throughout the base seemed to have been taken over by him.
This Nen ability was too useful.
"Now, we can take our time."
Hearing this, the person in charge of the base was visibly relieved. "It seems you are Hunters, but I must state that I am a warehouse manager hired by a legitimate company. I have not participated in any illegal activities and know nothing about them, so you cannot treat me like a criminal." After speaking, he pointed to the base under his feet. "This is also a legitimate storage base."
White next to him nodded involuntarily in agreement—he had checked this aspect when querying information just now.
"According to the information above, that is indeed the case. There are legitimate procedures and contracts, purchase and sales contracts, and tax lists." Clearly, this secret organization was well prepared.
Gu Gu said indifferently, "It doesn't matter. Kite can handle these issues." This was her specialty. She didn't need to think too much about this aspect.
The person in charge of the base waved his hand helplessly and led the few people to a screen. A large list of materials appeared. "Take a look—which area do you want to check? Most of what's here are biological samples."
Kevin saw the Golden Chicken clearly on the list, with the quantity marked as twenty-three, both male and female. Though he really wanted to go see these Golden Chickens first, he ultimately followed everyone else to check out the more important things. They had plenty of time and didn't need to rush.
Apart from the necessary living areas, the rest of the base was almost entirely storage facilities. They came all the way to the innermost area, where there was a huge warehouse. The shelves around were filled with transparent jars of various sizes. Each transparent jar was like amber, perfectly preserving the creatures inside, like transparent crystals.
"Your Nen ability?" Begetto looked at the person in charge of the base and asked curiously.
The middle-aged man smiled and nodded, a hint of pride on his face. "How is it? Pretty good, right?" It was precisely with this Nen ability that he got this high-paying job. His Nen ability was to inject a special preservation substance into specially made sealed jars, thereby completely sealing the creatures inside.
"But they cannot be opened rashly. Once opened, the sealing effect will disappear, and secondary sealing cannot be performed," he directly explained the limitations of his Nen ability.
At this time, Kevin, Begetto, and Gu Gu were already fascinated, their eyes never leaving the various sealed jars. A Phantom Beast Hunter, a Conservation Hunter, a Plant Hunter—how could they not be tempted by these jars? The jars not only contained biological samples but also various rare and unique plant samples.
"This thing is extinct, right? There's actually a live sample," Begetto said excitedly, standing in front of a jar as tall as a person.
"Is that so? I don't know," the storage manager clearly didn't understand these things and shook his head. He wasn't a researcher.
Kevin also saw several creatures marked as extinct in the outside world, perfectly preserved here. However, not every one was alive—he also saw several creatures that were sealed but clearly corpses.
But more important among these were the large jars in the very front, which clearly contained Calamity Dragons—these artificial war creatures. These Calamity Dragons seemed to be juveniles, each with a different number, all two-digit—a total of six. In addition, there were various insects marked with numbers. Clearly, these numbered creatures were created through genetic engineering. Both their appearance and numbering style were the same as the biological weapons of the Spiral organization.
After seeing these, everyone dispersed and toured the entire warehouse. This storage warehouse built underground on the island was vast in scale, storing various items of that secret organization.