"If we’re going to make a move, naturally we have to do it cleanly," the Hunter holding a laptop agreed. "Also, I’ve thought of a plan."

"What plan?" the other Hunters asked in unison.

"Aren’t the people from Sandthorn Rose in the convoy? We can just hire them to go after Candle Dragon... Once the first person makes a move, there’ll naturally be a second, a third... At that time, we’ll just wait to be the ones who reap the benefits," the Hunter holding the laptop pushed up the glasses on his nose, his slender eyes behind the lenses flickering.

"The people from Sandthorn Rose aren’t stupid... If they know the ones placing the order are Hunters from Dubhe Tower, do you think they’ll take action?" said the Hunter who was driving, shaking his head. "I’m just afraid they’ll take the money and then turn around and sell us out... Anyway, I don’t trust these women."

"Whether they act is not important. As long as they dare to take the money, I have a way to make the Hunters from Dubhe Tower fight them," the Hunter holding the laptop quickly tapped on the keyboard. "Remember those anonymous accounts I spent a ton of money on?"

To facilitate management by the Dragon City Hunter Administration Bureau, all accounts on the Hunter Forum used to require real-name registration — but after a site maintenance, people unexpectedly discovered they could register anonymous guest accounts. Although this loophole was closed in less than twenty seconds, some people still seized the opportunity to register a large number of anonymous guest accounts.

These anonymous guest accounts touched on the forum’s underlying code, and after operating for so many years, the underlying code had long become a pile of crap no programmer wanted to touch. So these "illegal" anonymous guest accounts were not deleted but started circulating in the forum’s gray market.

These anonymous guest accounts were almost all one-time use; if not used, it’s fine, but once used, as soon as the forum admin finds them, they’re quickly permanently banned. Yet, even so, these accounts still sold at high prices, sometimes reaching over twenty thousand a piece.

"Use anonymous accounts to place an order with Sandthorn Rose, then ’kindly’ remind those Dubhe Tower Hunters that Sandthorn Rose is going to take action?" said the Hunter who just had a knife at his throat, clapping his hands repeatedly. "Brilliant! You’re truly something, Glasses. Old Snake may be the top dog physically, but when it comes to cunning, it’s definitely you!"

"I’ll place the order with Sandthorn Rose now. As long as these women aren’t stupid enough to stab us in the back before reaching Nanhua Town, I have ways to make them fight the Dubhe Tower Hunters." Glasses Hunter said deeply.

"Ordering this early? Isn’t that a bit risky?" the Hunter driving asked worriedly.

"The longer Sandthorn Rose holds the money, the less they can wash off their suspicion," Glasses quickly tapped the keyboard. "I’ve dealt with those Dubhe Tower Hunters a lot. Don’t be fooled that they’re some official structure; they’re darker than us Free Hunters when it comes to action... You know what they say?"

"What do they say?"

"Better wrongfully kill a thousand than let one slip through."

"Seriously? That extreme?"

"Just last year, there was a mercenary group in Dragon City, said to be colluding with a Cult Organization, selling Mysterious Creature specimens from the exclusion zone to those folks who worship Mysterious Creatures as gods. Then that mercenary group was wiped out by a Hunter team sent by Dubhe Tower... Over fifty people in total, including four Mysterious Creature Hunters, not a single person survived." Glasses said heavily. "If these few people find out someone’s secretly offering a bounty on them, they’ll definitely drag out the people from Sandthorn Rose in the convoy... Unfortunately, I placed the order using an anonymous account. No matter how they interrogate Sandthorn Rose, Sandthorn Rose can’t name the employer... And with Sandthorn Rose’s character, they might choose to strike first even before we let the cat out of the bag... That’s what you call an open conspiracy."

"Glasses bro, you’re the man!" the Hunter in the back row gave a thumbs-up to Glasses Hunter. "By the way, how much did you pay those women?"

"Fifteen million."

"So, so little?!" The Hunter in the back seat’s mouth dropped open, even Old Snake’s eyes showed a trace of slight surprise.

"Fifteen million." Glasses Hunter pushed up his sliding glasses on his nose. "We can’t skimp on this money; I think even fifteen million is a bit on the low side for the heads of Dubhe Tower’s elite Hunters... If you only sent a million or tens of thousands over, anyone with eyes can see it’s a setup, it wouldn’t look convincing. The right price is necessary to convince the Dubhe Tower Hunters that someone really wants them dead."

"But that’s pretty much all we have." The Hunter driving frowned. "If something goes wrong..."

"Hunters surviving in the exclusion zone... those who encounter accidents have long died in the Gobi Desert." Glasses Hunter’s expression gradually became darker than Old Snake’s. "This time, either we lose everything or gain a huge reward... I haven’t pressed the payment confirmation key yet, you still have time to back out if you want."

"I’m fine with it," Old Snake said first.

"Damn it, I’ll gamble!" Another Hunter in the back row slapped his leg. "Go big or go home!"

"Since none of you object, neither do I." sighed the Hunter driving. "By the way, what about the White Tiger Mecha? Since the Dragon City Defense Army joined this operation, shouldn’t they rescue the Dubhe Tower Hunters?"

"It’s because the White Tiger’s involved that I’m comfortable with this gamble... I’ve studied the Four Divine Beast Mechas; their endurance time is pathetically short. Once a melee occurs, before killing these Hunters, it’ll run out of energy and become a pile of scrap... And from another perspective, we need the White Tiger to help clear out those ’competitors’." Glasses Hunter said.

"This figured in too?"

"Ha-ha... Truth is, the treasure is no longer important. If this deal goes through, the money we earn will definitely exceed that treasure — we don’t even know what it is. Once the dust settles, we can return to inland cities and live the good life..."

...

...

Meanwhile, in an all-terrain SUV thirty meters away, a woman with auburn killmat hair, dressed like a hyperactive girl, was cursing into her phone: "Dammit, if I find out who placed the order, I’m going to gouge their eyes out and shove them into the motherf**king pigeon! Isn’t it obvious they’re trying to screw me over?!"

"What’s wrong, Third Sister? Someone placed a hit order?" asked a woman beside her wearing a moon-white qipao, makeup and hairstyle quite demure — it’s hard to imagine how these two women ended up in the same vehicle based on their styles.

"Fifteen million to kill those few Dubhe Tower Hunters in the convoy, including one elite named Candle Dragon! This is so f**king crazy!" the woman dressed like a hyperactive girl tossed her phone to the qipao lady. "See for yourself! That dog placed it with an anonymous account; we can’t even refund the money. It’s clear they’re out to kill us!"

"Since it’s an anonymous account, we can just take the money and pretend nothing happened," replied the female mercenary from the passenger seat — she’s the only one among the four who dressed most like a mercenary: desert camo combat uniform, Kevlar nylon blend helmet, full-cover protective mask, plus a tactical chest rig packed with thick bulletproof plates, an assault rifle equipped with various tactical gear leaning against her seat, swaying slightly with the car’s movements.

"Take it, easy for you to say... What do you think, if the Dubhe Tower people find out we took fifteen million for their heads, what would they do?"

[P.S. I’m feeling numb, thought I was just weak from low blood sugar yesterday. Turns out I caught a chill going downhill, fevered to 38.9, completely muddle-headed, hot then cold, with a stack of debuffs, squeezing out four thousand words since noon...]