Kakin! × Kakin!

Looking at the familiar design, Dio had an inkling of how to open the box.

But there was no hurry. First, he would check the two phones and see where the box had come from.

If it contained some cursed object that had to be kept secret, opening it recklessly could land him in serious trouble.

With that in mind, he switched on the two phones one after the other and checked their chat logs and text messages.

"...independent mercenary company...civil war..."

"...Lakshya...Marol and...Laka Buqier..."

"...a stone..."

"..."

Snap!

Dio flicked the flip phone shut, his expression darkening.

"Laka...Buqier?"

There was no mistake. The phone clearly displayed the name of the person offering the bounty-Laka Buqier. He still had a vague recollection of that name.

During that Secret Court session, the judge had pronounced Officer Sangli guilty of tax evasion. In the examination of evidence, someone with that name had played cards with Sangli and ultimately lost 1,700 Jenny to him.

Judge Bell had mentioned that he was supposedly a...foreign trade merchant?

Who had he been trading with?

Judging from what Dio knew now, it had probably been Kakin.

Because in the chat logs, when Lakshya had asked about his background, Laka Buqier had explicitly stated that he was a Kakin merchant living in the Minbo Republic.

There was little information left on the phones, just a handful of messages exchanging identities and negotiating payment.

After Cheadle had asked a Hacker Hunter to hack Laka's account on the mercenary website, he had apparently still managed to contact a mercenary company interested in the job.

But since he could no longer post bounties on the website, he had been forced to communicate through a private number. They had probably exchanged their real details to establish mutual trust.

None of that mattered. What mattered were the scraps of information revealed in their chat logs:

"...Fine, it doesn't matter whether those are your real names. If you fail..."

"...I've staked all my savings on this...if it doesn't work..."

Clearly, offering a bounty on Dio had not been Laka Buqier's own idea. It seemed more as though someone behind him...had been holding a gun to his head.

The pressure had even grown so great that he had thrown caution to the wind and stopped caring about anything!

"Who the hell is behind this, trying to kill me?!"

Dio lowered his eyelids halfway, staring coldly at the phone.

This alone was nowhere near enough to identify the mastermind. And judging by the deadline mentioned in the messages, the other side should have learned by now that the assassination had failed...

Brrrring-

It was Dio's Beetle Phone. He picked it up and answered, and a familiar voice came through:

"Hello, Dio? It sounds like something big happened in Yorknew City. Are you all right?"

"Oh, Ms. Cheadle. I'm fine. Actually, there's something I'd like your help with. Last night..."

Cheadle really had called at just the right moment. Dio quickly seized the opportunity to tell her what had happened last night and what he had just found on the phones.

To his surprise, after hearing him out, Cheadle said in a peculiar tone:

"What a coincidence...that Laka Buqier you mentioned..."

"He just killed himself."

Far away in the Minbo Republic, Cheadle had changed into a practical, sharp-looking outfit and tied up her long green hair. She held her phone as she spoke to Dio.

She was inside an abandoned building, with a corpse lying beside her. A pistol lay next to the body, its muzzle still smoking.

The fallen man's face still bore traces of fear and a strange hint of relief.

Cheadle briefly explained what she had done since discovering the bounty, from commissioning a Hacker Hunter to uncover the person's real identity and track his location to storming his hideout herself.

Locating him had been the most troublesome part and had taken a long time. If he had not still been communicating with the outside world, it would probably have taken even longer.

It was precisely because she had been busy tracking down the man who had posted the bounty that she had missed last night's news from Yorknew City.

Eventually, she had found his hiding place, but just after dealing with his security, she had heard a gunshot upstairs.

By the time she reached the scene, the man had already shot himself in the mouth.

Left with no other choice, Cheadle could only hope the Hacker Hunter could find clues on the computer he had left behind.

Unexpectedly, there really were some. The man had actually failed to wipe his computer before killing himself.

"He probably left those clues out of some desire for revenge before he died."

Cheadle narrowed her eyes as she read the secret records the Hacker Hunter had retrieved. Phrases like "Kill yourself if you fail" appeared more than once.

They used a kind of military cipher, but it was a widely circulated one, not a code reserved for classified documents.

Cheadle's knowledge was encyclopedic. Though her understanding of military affairs fell far short of that of Botobai, her fellow Zodiac and a military expert, she still recognized the code.

With her astonishing reading speed and ability to organize and summarize information, Cheadle soon compiled everything worth noting.

It was then, as Cheadle took out her phone to tell Dio what she had found, that she saw the major news about what had happened in Yorknew City yesterday.

Knowing exactly where Dio's assignment had taken him, Cheadle was alarmed and hurriedly made this call.

"In short, there's not much usable information in the file. First, Laka Buqier wasn't using his real name, and there's no way to determine his true identity."

"Second, he was a professional spy working for a specialized espionage organization, but the information contains no leads on the other spies or his superiors."

"Third, based on certain grammatical patterns and some of the things they mentioned, we can be fairly certain they all came from...the Kakin Empire!"

On the other end of the call, Dio's grip on his phone suddenly tightened, then quickly relaxed.

"Kakin again...Why can't I ever get away from them..."

A multitude of thoughts flashed through Dio's mind, but Cheadle's voice brought him back to reality:

"Finally, the only lead we have on that organization is a name mentioned on the computer-[Zoo]."

The [Zoo]?

Knowing that word alone gave him absolutely nothing useful...

And if it was a professional espionage organization, it most likely had the backing of a nation.

As for which nation, the answer should already have been all but

obvious...

"Kakin...Kakin!"

Dio was not so good-tempered that he could remain indifferent after someone put a bounty on his head.

He would definitely make this organization pay. The problem now was how to find it.

Should I ask Cheadle?

The thought flashed through Dio's mind, only for him to dismiss it.

He knew Cheadle would not refuse if he asked, but having her investigate this matter might not work as well as his own approach.

A face with a serene smile, occasionally revealing a hint of childishness, drifted through Dio's mind. His gaze grew a little deeper.

"...Dio, don't panic. I'll take care of the rest..."

"Leave the rest to me."

Dio interrupted Cheadle before she could take responsibility for everything, then immediately switched to a warm, customer-service tone:

"You have your own things to do, Ms. Cheadle. Let me handle my own affairs."

"But..."

"Don't worry, Cheadle. I'm a Hunter too."

On the other end of the call, Cheadle hesitated. She had not wanted to agree, but she noticed the change in how Dio addressed her.

At that moment, Dio was speaking to Cheadle as a Hunter, not as her student...

Only after a long silence did she sigh helplessly and agree to his request.

Why do I always feel so at a loss when dealing with this student? He's almost like...

Someone flashed through her mind-a man she disliked, yet whose talent she could not help acknowledging.

No, surely not. At least Dio isn't quite that headstrong...