Vol 14: Chapter 16-2.

Gando sat on the ground. He looked miserable with a pale and swollen face. It was like when your face was roughly squeezed and kneaded by a bunch of men. Though if you were to look at the wounds closely you would see the round and swollen areas looked like stings by bees.

“What do you think? This is the second night already. Do you still think your comrades will come save you? Don’t kid me. They don’t even know where you are. Plus, will they dare to attack us in front of countless troopers? Stop being naïve. Everything in this world is based off of interests. Just say it. Tell me how many members are in team China, each member’s abilities and powers, their enhancements, and their face and names. Say it and we will be sure to let you go. We can even give you a rune word stone that allows you to survive negative points. How’s it?” Gando’s eyes were shut. A young man’s voice appeared directly in his mind.

He wasn’t an idiot. As someone who muddled his way in the underground through life, participated in illegal racing, and lived, he understood some things. Just like what the voice said, interest is the basis of everything in this world. What was his life worth? If they didn’t still have a use for him, this team would have killed him for the points and rewards long ago. He was new to this realm but not an idiot in the real world.

“You don’t need to say anything more. It’s my end that I fell into your hands. Just kill me as you want. I won’t reveal any information about team China.” Gando replied in a cold tone.

“You really think we will hesitate and not kill you? You would be right under normal circumstances but you underestimated the variety of abilities a team has. Remember the girl who attacked you? Her ability is witchcraft. She’s the heir of an ancient African tribe. The African bloodline enables her to learn witchcraft rapidly. She can control the souls of bees to create poison and the souls of trees to communicate with the dead. Of course, she isn’t skilled enough yet so there might be flaws. Information that she extracts from your soul might not be intact and goes against my plan. It isn’t that we can’t kill you but rather we don’t want to take the risk unless necessary. I will give you one more day. If you don’t say anything by the time the military generals arrive, I will resort to killing you. Think about it.”

A weight fell on Gando’s heart and he felt a chill throughout his body. This was something more horrifying than death. Even his soul would get manipulated. The surrounding fade into complete silence and darkness again after the voice disappeared. Ever since he fell unconscious after being bit by the bee, he hadn’t heart any other voice or saw any light. All there was left was the pain. His other senses vanished. The other team only communicated with him through their minds. He hadn’t even saw anyone from the other team.

Gando’s inner thoughts aside, Neos was devouring a box of chocolate in a room not farm away from Gando. He finished the whole box, sucked his fingers and frowned. Several people around simply stared at him the whole time. A Caucasian man said. “Just say what’s on your mind. Holding it like this makes us uncomfortable. What did that man said? Just kill him and let Aya extract his memory!”

Neos replied without raising his head. “Hawfor. Are you going to bear the consequence if we miss a person or two then get sneak attacked leading to the death of people in our team? Or perhaps you can be one of those who dies?”

Hawfor gave an awkward smile. “Don’t. Don’t. You see I was just worried about getting the information on team China. You are smarter than me so say what should we do?”

Neos sneered. He pointed a finger at his forehead. “Things are developing unusually smooth. Our captive isn’t a tough man. He’s merely acting. Someone who’s tough will try to delay us with rambling. We just need to wait. He will tell us everyone’s location. Furthermore, no one can find the place we are holding him unless they use psyche scan. Snow has masked the area. So they had to either show their psyche force user or had their whole team come out. We don’t have to spend the efforts to find them. We have absolutely advantage. But...”

“But? But what?” Hawfor asked curiously. Everyone else showed the same expression.

Neos exhaled. “I don’t know why. I can’t help but feel that something’s wrong. Things are going too smoothly, like we are walking into a trap they had set up. This feeling makes me uncomfortable!”

Richard said. “You mean they intentionally allowed us to capture this man? Then have him reveal false information to misguide us. When we reveal ourselves, team China will surround us?”

Neos shook his head. “I already considered several solutions. And this man wasn’t acting when he got captured. He was really unaware and unprepared. His strength is also that of a normal person. I am not worried about him. However, when all these events add up, something just isn’t feeling right.”

A mixed blood girl said. “Several events? What are them? Let us know.”

Neos nodded and pulled out a box of chocolate from the drawer. He picked one out and took a bite. “First. Why did that person from team China suddenly used his most powerful ability to establish dominance? I know Richard gave him a high rating but you should be aware that his actual strength isn’t as high as the video shows. That’s an ability like the ‘berserker’ you created. What made him display this strength to us?”

“Second. Why did he meet with Rose? I can think of two possibilities. One, Rose betrayed us. They use our lives to exchange for mercy. However, that’s not possible. They have the rune word stones, but how can they guarantee that team China won’t kill them? Even if their abilities are special and can trade one for one, that still doesn’t give them enough confidence to do so. The second possibility is team China became aware of my plan. This critical key to my plan is Rose’s military position and authority. Do they want to kill Rose? Threaten her? Draw her to their side? The question returns that Rose doesn’t have to do this. The two of them are still alive at this point. They didn’t give us any warnings or ask for help. I can’t understand this no matter how I analyze it.”

“Third. It was too smooth when we captured their member. So smooth that it makes me suspicious. Does team China know of my plan? Perhaps not the whole plan but they but speculated a thing or two. This is very likely.”

Neos muttered to himself. The others looked in silence as they listened to his analysis. After some time, Aya said. “So what should we do next? Stop the plan? Or contact team China for negotiation using the influence advantage we have?”

He bit off a piece of the chocolate and said fiercely. “We have no choice but to continue at this point. If they really are aware of my plan, then sending someone to probe already signified our failure. The only thing we need to do is continue. I admit there are people more intelligent than me but that won’t be in team China! It isn’t the one whose fighting with me!”

“Do as we had planned. Get him to reveal team China’s information before the military higher ups arrive. Snow will determine the truth of his words using psyche force. Then we will proceed as planned!”