Hours before Lily found the players, Shino brought the latest news from Four Directions.
"The mission arrangements have been finalized."
"What mission?"
"A surprise inspection of the Dark Web's secret stronghold in Lynn."
Shino explained in detail.
On Origin Star, besides the five major forces like the Gene Primordial and the Truth Society, there are many smaller but equally formidable forces. The Makarov Family, the operators behind the Dark Web, is one of them.
The Makarov Family was a globally renowned mercenary organization before the war. After the war, the surviving family members expanded their business to survive, engaging in assassinations.
These individuals were highly skilled in their operations, never failing once in over a decade. After that, they simply transitioned to operating as a platform behind the scenes.
The Makarov Family had always been highly praised in the past for being "tight-lipped, never revealing client information." Therefore, the platform they established immediately attracted the attention of many assassins and those with a need for assassinations upon its launch.
To reassure these individuals, the then-head of the Makarov Family declared that agreements reached between assassins and employers on the Dark Web would be fully guaranteed by the Makarov Family.
Without prior negotiation, any party daring to violate the agreement would be considered a provocation to the Makarov Family and would be hunted down by them.
At the beginning of the platform's operation, the Makarov Family even introduced a "second one half-price" discount policy for some lucky clients.
Relying on this ingenious operation, the Makarov Family's platform overcame all obstacles, defeated all competitors, and has now become the sole true god of the assassination world, even becoming an official partner of several major forces.
"More efficient, faster, more powerful. For assassinations, find Makarov!"
Looking at the slogan displayed on the Dark Web's official website that Shino opened in front of her, Lily was momentarily speechless.
Good heavens, so it's a murder delivery service, huh?
Shino added, "The logistics team checked the radio tower communication records from the period before the assassin came to kill you, and found no abnormal signals. This indicates that the spy is most likely hiding in Lynn, and his communication with the assassin and the Truth Society was very likely conducted through the Dark Web."
Lily asked in confusion, "Didn't you say the Makarov Family is known for being tight-lipped? Will they obediently hand over the communication records? And wouldn't this mean we're breaking ties with the Makarov Family?"
"At a time like this, who cares about all that?" Shino pouted, "It doesn't matter if the Dark Web doesn't tell us; we can find the records ourselves. In fact, even if we don't find them, it's not a big deal. This operation is our official declaration of war against that spy. We're only giving him three chances!"
She held up three fingers.
"This is the first time. There will be one more operation. If he still doesn't show up, the Director's plan is to take you to Hai Du. Once you're there, it will be even harder for him to make a move on you."
"What if he always holds back and doesn't come out?"
No solution.
Shino spread her hands helplessly. If that truly happened, Four Directions would have no choice but to take a complete leave and not participate in any subsequent operations of the Intelligence Bureau.
Lily was deep in thought.
After Shino finished explaining the current situation, she received a game prompt.
"You have triggered the quest [Raid the Dark Web]"
"Quest Description: To root out the spy hiding in the shadows, Four Directions has devised a plan to conduct a surprise inspection of the Dark Web's stronghold in Lynn. They hope you, as the bait, will cooperate with the operation."
"Quest Objective: Find the Dark Web Lynn stronghold's database."
"Reward: 5000 experience points, 5 Gene Primordial faction reputation."
"Accept/Decline"
As a support personnel, just completing the quest would grant 5000 experience, which could be said to be quite generous.
But Lily was very dissatisfied.
After acquiring the Gene Primordial's psionic knowledge chain, she had already thought about leaving Lynn to collect psionic knowledge chains elsewhere. The only reason she stayed now was purely to see if she could get some high-reward quests from Four Directions.
Now it seemed she could almost dismiss that idea. 5000 experience was a lot for her before, but now it wasn't even enough to level her up by half.
"Still have to do it myself."
She definitely had to leave, but before leaving, Lily planned to first complete the [Shadow of Truth] quest triggered by the Truth Society increasing the bounty. That quest's reward included not only 30,000 experience but also an additional title.
The quest objective was to eliminate the new assassin, but currently, because she was under the strict protection of Four Directions, those assassins dared not show their faces for the time being.
"I need to find a way."
Lily set her sights on the players.
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