66: A Part of It

"Welcome, my favorite mercenary team. Was the trip here smooth?"

When Carl and the others entered the elevator code and rode up to a private room on the third floor of the Heavy Hearts club, Hanz was already waiting there. He spread his arms in welcome.

"Rare to see this, Hanz. You're actually meeting us with your real face?" Carl spoke first. Of everyone on the team, he had dealt with Hanz the most and taken on the most jobs from him.

"I thought Hansen's little dogs were everywhere in this club. You'd be more cautious."

As a fixer, Hanz rarely showed his true face to mercenaries. During ordinary holographic calls to arrange jobs, people could only see his hands and his obscured features. Rumor had it that his past experiences had made him maintain the necessary vigilance at all times, lest he invite trouble.

But for a mercenary of Carl's caliber, seeing Hanz's true face was nothing unusual, so he immediately recognized that Hanz had made no attempt at disguise this time.

That was interesting.

When Carl and the others entered the Heavy Hearts club, the guards at the entrance had been Barghest personnel. In other words, Hansen most likely had informants planted here as well.

Yet under such circumstances, Hanz still dared to appear in person and discuss plans detrimental to Barghest and Hansen with them. If nothing else, the fixer certainly lived up to his reputation in terms of courage.

In appearance, Hanz wore a full beard, trimmed rather neatly. It was black on both sides and white in the middle, matching the color of his hair. The hair atop his head was combed cleanly and sharply, making him look exceptionally tidy.

Both his hands were cybernetic. Clearly, the hands he usually displayed to ordinary mercenaries were