"Who are you...?"
A flicker of fear crossed Ian Strala's eyes. His back was already soaked in cold sweat; clearly, he had recognized the visitor.
But he soon seemed to realize something else. After a brief inner struggle, he shouted, putting on a brave front:
"This is my workshop! Whoever you are, I'll press charges for trespassing!"
-Even his reaction to being caught was exactly the same.
At that, Jonas shook his head helplessly and said:
"It seems Mr. Ian has no intention of talking."
As those words fell, a bad feeling rose in Ian Strala's heart.
The next moment, he heard the man before him say calmly:
"Break both his legs first."
Hearing this, a fully armed member of the Wetting Conglomerate's Special Task Force drew the pistol at his waist, aimed at Ian Strala's thighs, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang! Bang!
Two gunshots echoed through the mechanical workshop, accompanied by the man's agonized screams.
"Aaaah!! My legs!"
The man's wailing did nothing to affect Jonas.
He looked at Ian Strala, his eyes reflecting the man clutching his bleeding thighs and howling in pain, and said:
"So, do you understand your situation now?"
"I-I understand. D-don't hurt me."
Holding back the excruciating pain, Ian spoke with a deathly pale face. His eyes were now filled with fear as he looked at Jonas.
Blood kept flowing from the wounds in his thighs. Apparently satisfied with Ian's reaction, Jonas said calmly:
"It seems Mr. Ian has calmed down a little. I imagine our negotiations will be much easier now."
As he spoke, he casually pulled over a stool and sat down before Ian, who was curled up on the floor, clutching his wounds.
Jonas's posture wasn't overbearing, but his ruthless actions had left Ian unable to muster even the slightest thought of resistance. From the look in his eyes, the heir to the Wetting Conglomerate didn't care in the least whether Ian lived or died. That realization extinguished his last shred of hope.
"What... do you want to talk about?"
Ian took a deep breath and asked the man before him.
Since the man hadn't killed him immediately, that meant Ian had something he wanted...
"Unless I'm mistaken, you just received an email from the Destiny Organization, Mr. Ian?"
Jonas's casual tone made Ian's pupils constrict. Countless possibilities flashed through his mind, and every one of them chilled him to the bone. He opened his mouth but couldn't make a sound. Only then did he hear Jonas continue:
"They asked you to go inside the Wetting Conglomerate and rescue Amau Sueko. Am I right?"
"You... how did you..." Ian's mind was a jumble.
He couldn't help thinking of the riot that had landed him in this predicament...
"All you need to tell me is yes or no."
Jonas's expression was calm, and that composure filled Ian with profound fear and helplessness.
It was the helplessness of a pawn placed on a chessboard, powerless to resist.
"What... what do you want me to do?"
The stabbing pain in his thighs brought Ian back to reality. He looked at Jonas, having completely abandoned any thought of resisting him.
"There's no need to agonize over it, Mr. Ian."
Seeing his expression, Jonas's lips curved into a smile, and he said:
"I'm going to hand Amau Sueko over to you..."
Ian jerked his head up, looking at Jonas in disbelief.
"Of course, in exchange, all the reinforcements the Destiny Organization sends next will meet their end here."
Jonas raised one finger and looked into Ian's eyes, finding emotions there that pleased him.
"I need you to serve as their guide."
-Into the graveyard prepared for them.
As those words fell, the wavering in Ian's eyes grew. Before it could consume his gaze entirely, Jonas spoke again.
Like a devil coaxing his prey, he said:
"I won't tell anyone about any of this..."
"And you'll leave safely with Amau Sueko."
"It's a win-win, isn't it?"
Meanwhile, in the dark confinement cell.
The girl curled up on the floor hadn't given up on escaping...
There was no electromagnetic jammer here. It was nothing more than an ordinary confinement cell.
Clearly, the heir to the Wetting Conglomerate intended to use hunger and fear to rob her of the will to escape.
Unfortunately for him, he had underestimated her.
Amau Sueko wasn't merely an excellent mechanic. She was an excellent hacker, too.
Her time in confinement hadn't driven her to despair. Instead, she had found a chance to escape within it.
The cell's access key code was encrypted through the E2-S System... and, as luck would have it, she was very familiar with that system.
An hour earlier, she had already breached the cell's firewall and hacked into its surface-level code.
In other words, she could unlock both the shackles on her wrists and the cell door whenever she wanted.
The only problem now was the security personnel constantly patrolling the building.
Through the surveillance system she had hacked, she had seen a map of the building's security deployment. Escaping its tight defenses alone would be all but impossible.
Her only chance of getting out was to hack deeper into the building's security system.
But achieving that alone, without any tools, was nothing more than a pipe dream.
Looking at the cracking progress of 0.004% on the virtual interface before her, Amau Sueko couldn't help feeling discouraged.
Just then, as though she had sensed something, her eyes lit up.
-Someone had backed up a video in the building's encrypted files.
Amau Sueko instinctively felt that the video might contain information that could help her escape.
She struggled to sit up and began carefully decrypting the video.
After all, her current presence in the building's system was effectively that of an unauthorized user. She could be discovered at any moment.
So she had to gather as much useful information as possible before that happened.
After roughly three hours, Amau Sueko finally decrypted the video.
But its contents left her stunned for a long time.
In the video, Jonas sat before a man curled up on the floor, and that man's face was very familiar to her.
-Ian Strala.
How could this be? Why had Jonas found him?
Amau Sueko's mind was in turmoil, but the conversation that followed plunged her into even deeper despair.
["Of course, in exchange, all the reinforcements the Destiny Organization sends next will meet their end here."]
["I won't tell anyone about any of this..."]
["And you'll leave safely with Amau Sueko."]
["It's a win-win, isn't it?"]
-Ian had betrayed the Destiny Organization...
The girl leaned against the wall. In a corner of the dark confinement cell, a spider spun its web.
An unsuspecting insect flew into the web. After struggling briefly, it lost the strength to resist.
Amau Sueko's hands dropped limply. Only after a long while did she take another deep breath.
-I have to stop him.
The insect in the corner of the confinement cell was ensnared in the spider's web.
Just like the girl's fate.
Before you continue