Arthur's Intelligence

They had only exchanged greetings, with no further interaction, as if it had truly been nothing more than a chance encounter.

Lin Qi left the company, took the nighttime public rail transit, and returned to the employee apartments.

"More people are protecting me in secret, but they haven't found any hostile gazes yet."

Through Psychic Vision, Lin Qi knew that Liu Heavy Industries had raised his security level.

This meant that the news Si Ying had spread to the Large Enterprise Alliance had already gotten out. He just did not know when those with designs on the Liu Group would make their move.

Time was somewhat tight. Lin Qi needed to prepare more trump cards for himself.

He returned to the apartment originally occupied by the bodyguards and entered the bathroom.

After checking carefully, he found no strange new devices in the room.

Greenland City's intrusion into private spaces was not as severe as Red Fruit City's. For now, the environment could be considered safe.

He opened the weapon compartment belonging to the Short Tang Dao and took out the Quantum-Locked Text Communicator, which resembled a wristband.

It was a device that could not connect to the network and used quantum entanglement for two-way communication.

The two devices were locked to each other. If either one was lost, both devices would be scrapped and could not be paired again.

Inside the wristband were only a simple transcoder and storage chip.

Through the wristband's screen, Lin Qi saw message after message.

The messages should have come from Arthur.

[Wizard?]

[Wizard?]

[Where are you? Why aren't you replying? Did you fail?]

The timestamps on all three messages showed 9:30 in the morning.

An hour passed.

[Where are you??]

[Reply already?]

[Big sis, you were the one who suggested getting in touch, so why aren't you replying to me?]

[Reply!]

Arthur was clearly anxious, but he had only sent these few messages. It seemed he was not that anxious either.

Lin Qi did not know that while Arthur had been sending messages, he was being hunted by a group of gang members.

The process of retrieving the wristband had been concealed by Guangleng, but after obtaining it, Arthur had exposed his whereabouts and fallen into the sights of gang members who had been searching for him.

Even before Lin Qi arrived in Greenland City, Arthur had already been in trouble and desperate to escape.

[Are you going to reply or not? If you don't, I'll throw the wristband away?]

[Big sis, can you reply already? Can't you show even a little credibility? Don't screw me over like this, okay?]

[Say something. What exactly did you contact me for? I'm in a lot of trouble right now. I need to find a new place to hide.]

[Aaaah! Reply! If you don't reply soon, I'll have to hide in Greenland City's drainage system!]

These messages had come much later, already at four in the afternoon.

In Arthur's mind, Lin Qi was a witch with the voice of an older woman.

Arthur's form of address matched what he should have believed, which meant Guangleng had not leaked Lin Qi's true identity.

Scrolling further down brought him to the time when Guangleng had emailed Lin Qi.

[I've already hidden in the sewers. Are you satisfied now?]

[Can you reply now? I asked Guangleng, and you've already gotten the wristband! Are you doing this on purpose? Are you an undercover agent planted in the organization by the gangs? You just want to screw me over on purpose!]

Seeing this, Lin Qi understood why Arthur was so anxious.

He had run into trouble, and the trouble came from gang members.

"Arthur should be in Greenland City's outskirts, and the trouble is coming from gang members? That doesn't make much sense."

Arthur was an Extraordinary Profession user. His profession was Knight, similar to a Martial Artist, but with additional Mental Power techniques.

Based on the information Lin Qi had gathered in the past, Arthur should have been a Third Rank extraordinary person and had undergone a certain degree of cybernetic implantation.

His combat strength should have been among the stronger ones at Third Rank.

Would someone with that level of combat power be restrained by gang members in the outskirts?

That was unreasonable.

"Perhaps the gangs aren't Arthur's most immediate problem. He might not want to expose his identity—or rather, his combat strength."

Lin Qi made his guesses. Greenland City was now a chaotic mix of all sorts of people. As an outsider, one had to hide oneself as much as possible, especially a mercenary like Arthur, who had clearly not entered Greenland City through legitimate means.

Once exposed, the Si Clan would become his greatest problem.

"Right, why was I establishing contact with Arthur again?"

"I remember now. I originally needed Arthur to help me acquire cybernetic equipment and obtain intelligence on the Assassin's League, so I could protect myself and Lin Xin."

Lin Qi recalled his original arrangement.

But after arriving in Greenland City and taking its circumstances into account,

Lin Qi could accomplish the goal of acquiring cybernetic equipment himself.

As for intelligence and ensuring his own safety to a certain extent...

Having accidentally become someone at the center of the vortex, Arthur was probably unable to help him.

After pondering for a moment, Lin Qi replied to Arthur.

[Sorry, I can't use the wristband during the day. I hope you can understand.]

Having delayed his reply to Arthur for so long, Lin Qi felt somewhat apologetic.

After apologizing, Lin Qi continued typing his response.

[I've also run into major trouble and can't get away to help you find a loophole in the Iron Curtain System for now. But since we're both in Greenland City, we can share some intelligence to make things easier for each other.]

[As a gesture of sincerity, I can tell you that I'm currently in central Greenland City and can't get away anytime soon. As for more information, I haven't been in Greenland City long enough to provide it for now.]

Arthur could not provide Lin Qi with much more help for the time being, but Lin Qi still needed to keep this secret communication channel.

After all, Arthur possessed top-tier Third Rank combat power. So long as no S-level or Fourth Rank battle erupted, Arthur could still influence the situation at a critical moment.

Lin Qi waited for a while before Arthur replied.

[...]

He first expressed speechlessness, then continued.

[Understandable.]

Arthur's helplessness was apparent, but with things having reached this point, he did not complain too much.

The messages had not ended. Arthur seemed to have tacitly accepted Lin Qi's request to share intelligence.

[I'm currently in the sewer system on the outskirts of Greenland City. My situation is not optimistic. At least a dozen gangs are searching everywhere for my tracks.]

[I stole an S-level Potion from Endorphin, Greenland City's largest gang and also a gang and Mercenary Group secretly supported by Si Pharmaceutical. They're hunting me down, but they haven't confirmed my identity yet.]

Arthur briefly described his current circumstances.

Then Arthur shared some intelligence with Lin Qi.

[You're in central Greenland City. I guess you've been drawn into the troubles between the Si Clan and Liu Group. You may need more intelligence about those two.]

[By chance, while gang members were hunting me, I overheard part of their conversation.]

[In a few hours, a massive explosion will occur in central Greenland City. You should avoid Enterprise Road and Wealth Avenue as much as possible. I suspect this explosion is part of a plan led by certain Mercenary Groups and carried out by gangs.]

[The true purpose of the explosion may be an assassination.]

Enterprise Road?

Wealth Avenue?

Lin Qi instinctively used his Brain to open a map of Greenland City.

At the intersection of Enterprise Road and Wealth Avenue stood the high-end employee apartments of the major companies.

The apartment building where Lin Qi lived was right there.