Hunter Guild (Part Two)

Lin Luo stopped flipping through the documents. With a profound look in her eyes, she slowly said:

"Ten years ago, the red moon descended, and the Transcendent era began. A tiny number of people around the world awakened special eyes and became Transcendents. Although there was no discernible pattern to these awakenings, a rough calculation based on our population puts the number of Transcendents in Great Xia at more than three thousand at the very least.

"And yet, to date, only a little over five hundred Transcendents have joined the Grave Keepers and Tomb Sweepers. Even if we include those who have files at headquarters but are unwilling to join the official system, the total is no more than eight hundred. In other words, there are a great many Transcendents of unknown identity within Great Xia.

"Su Bai, what do you think ordinary people would do once they gained powers beyond those of ordinary people?

"Would they be like the protagonists in comics, saying things like 'with great power comes great responsibility,' and then become heroes who hide in the shadows and lend a helping hand to the weak?

"No, they wouldn't.

"Because human ambition and desire often swell rapidly as one's abilities grow.

"For quite a long time, they satisfied their every desire through theft, robbery, rape, murder... and the like.

"Social upheaval, the collapse of order, people's hearts thrown into chaos-those were the greatest consequences the Transcendent brought upon human society.

"Then the higher-ups at headquarters began stationing five-person squads in cities to deal with one Transcendent crime after another.

"As a result, Transcendent crime dropped sharply. But those Transcendents, who were used to working alone, quickly banded together in just three years, spontaneously forming all kinds of guilds and gangs.

"The Hunter Guild I just mentioned is one of the somewhat larger organizations among them.

"These organizations control most of the black markets. In those markets, you can buy anything you want, including Bloodline Marks. Strictly speaking, Bloodline Marks are a strategic resource that cannot be controlled. Headquarters can only restrict their circulation by regulating the market, but that has never had much effect.

"Four years ago, the domestic market became saturated, so these organizations began expanding into overseas markets. That directly led to the leakage of strategic resources, something headquarters absolutely could not tolerate. For that reason, it has been cracking down hard on these organizations over the years.

"Although these organizations disappeared from sight for a few years, they've started stirring up trouble again in the last few months. Take the Hunter Guild we're investigating right now: they're hiding behind Heavenly River International, using its vast trade network to conduct their illicit business."

Su Bai sighed softly, feeling inexplicably wistful.

Before today, he had never imagined that, besides monsters, the Grave Keepers also had a great many Transcendents as enemies.

Perhaps...

The sudden arrival of the Transcendent era, the scarcity of strategic resources, the rapid shifts in social standing, and the reshuffling of the various factions had doomed the struggles between Transcendents to be more brutal than those between Transcendents and monsters.

Human nature was twisted, and the world was never kind.

It was a simple but profound truth.

Li Ming pondered for a moment, then asked, "Lin Luo, what does headquarters want?"

Lin Luo let out a soft breath and said slowly, "Wipe out the Hunter Guild at any cost."

Simple and brutal.

The next day.

Su Bai rode his bicycle to the Heavenly River International building.

Under the astonished gazes of several security employees holding batons, Su Bai parked his bicycle beside a red Mercedes, then walked over to the glass doors of Heavenly River International and stopped. As though looking in a mirror, he turned his head from side to side, lightly brushed nonexistent dust from his obviously oversized luxury suit, and carefully adjusted his slicked-back hair, which gleamed with wax. After all that, Su Bai spoke with satisfaction to the scrawny, sleazy pretty boy reflected in the glass doors. "Perfect."

"Hey! You little bastard, what are you doing?!"

A middle-aged security guard strode over, his face full of anger, and reached out to grab Su Bai and hoist him up.

Without a change in expression, Su Bai handed the middle-aged man the slip of paper Gu Jiuge had prepared for him. "I'm here to withdraw money."

The middle-aged man snatched the slip from him and looked down at its contents.

Then his straight back gradually bent, and the impatience on his face turned to fawning. "This way, sir," he said respectfully.

Su Bai curled his lip and followed the middle-aged man into Heavenly River International. Before the glass doors closed, Su Bai glanced to the side, his gaze lingering for a while on a watermelon vendor across the street.

Some might wonder what kind of magic a little slip of paper possessed to bring about such a great change in the middle-aged man's attitude.

In truth, the slip itself was quite ordinary. What was out of the ordinary was the string of hastily scrawled numbers Gu Jiuge had written on it in pencil.

Everyone knew that Heavenly River International operated a casino, but only regulars and insiders knew that many of the casino's major clients deposited their unused chips in its vault, using a string of numbers as a code.

At any time, presenting that string of numbers allowed them to draw on those gambling funds as they pleased.

A short while later.

The middle-aged man led Su Bai into an elevator and down to the second basement level.

It was a narrow corridor, only wide enough for a few people to walk abreast. Both walls were clad in uneven marble, and a long red carpet ran straight along the floor to the casino entrance ten meters away.

Two young men with stern expressions stood at the entrance. They were probably the casino's security guards.

The middle-aged man handed the slip to one of the young men. After reading it, the man repeatedly looked Su Bai up and down. Only after a long while did he ask coldly, "If Mr. Gu wants to withdraw money, why didn't he come himself?"

Su Bai shrugged. "He's playing Defend the Carrot. He doesn't have time."

Heaven could bear witness: those words were absolutely true. If Su Bai hadn't seen Gu Jiuge clutching his phone and screaming hysterically, "Hold it! Hold it for me!" he probably wouldn't have believed something so utterly ridiculous either.

The young man who had questioned him nodded and said to the middle-aged man who had brought Su Bai there, "Take the guest to the Heaven private room. Sister Hong would like to see him."