Otherworld Advance Team-Chapter 73 - 69 Encounter with Kali Again

73: Chapter 69: Encounter with Kali Again

73 -69: Encounter with Kali Again

Hearing Tangmo’s words, Luo’er immediately snapped back to reality, taking the letter handed to him.

After opening it and scanning its contents, he involuntarily furrowed his brow and lapsed into silence.

“What is it?” Tangmo asked from his side.

“Haven’t you read it?” Luo’er was perplexed by the question.

“No,” Tangmo shook his head.

“It’s a warning,” Luo’er inhaled sharply, “Tarute’s death has swept across the entire business network, it’s common knowledge now.

Headquarters wants us to tread carefully to avoid accidents.”

“Did it mention what we should do next?” Hu Daoke hastily asked.

“No,” Luo’er shook his head, his expression solemn, “Headquarters stated that they are still analyzing the intelligence we got, no further instructions have been given.”

“What if we pay a visit to that Count Ganet’s place to see if we can find any missing weapons?

We could then solve this case!” Hu Daoke suggested.

“No,” Luo’er shook his head in refusal, “Tarute’s death must’ve roused suspicions in Count Ganet.

If we go now, we might possibly fall into their trap.”

“So what do we do now?

We can’t just sit here and do nothing,” Hu Daoke spread his hands out helplessly, “We’ve been embroiled in this damn investigation for a while now, who knows if someone’s targeting us.”

“Headquarters haven’t given us new instructions yet, currently, it’ll be better for us to not take any action.” Luo’er carefully said.

“I have an idea!” Suddenly, Cheng Ziang, who had been silently watching the discussion from the side, chimed in.

“What idea?” Luo’er enquired.

“If Count Ganet truly has so many weapons, we could have someone report him to the Church Court.

Let them deal with him,” Cheng Ziang calmly suggested.

“Have the Church Court handle Count Ganet?” Tangmo couldn’t help but turn to Luo’er.

“Indeed, Count Ganet is stocking so many Earth weapons.

Once this is known by the Church Court, they will inevitably suspect him of intending to raise his own private army,” Luo’er concurred with a nod.

“Moreover, the most important factor is, Count Ganet is storing Earth weapons.

The Church Court despises Earth weapons since they symbolize heresy, and they are even more eager to deal with heretics rather than non-believers.” Cheng Ziang stated.

“In other words, if the Church Court learns about Count Ganet hoarding a large number of Earth weapons, he’s as good as dead?” Hu Daoke declared with enlightenment.

Soon, he raised a doubt, “But what’s in it for us?”

“The advantage is, once others get wary of Count Ganet’s fate, smuggling of weapons in Otherworld will significantly reduce.

At the same time, it could also serve to annoy a few people.” Luo’er explained.

“But are we certain that Count Ganet is indeed stockpiling a massive amount of weapons?” Tangmo queried, cocking his head to one side.

“True,” Luo’er muttered, “To ascertain if he’s indeed hoarding a large number of Earth weapons, the best way is to infiltrate Count Ganet’s castle.

But there’s a high likelihood that they’ve set up traps already.”

“I can go alone.” Cheng Ziang confidently volunteered.

“This…”

“Don’t forget how I performed during our competition.” Cheng Ziang confidently gave a grin.

“No, we’ll treat this as the last resort.

If all else fails, we might resort to this plan.” Luo’er turned down the proposal.

Luo’er rejected his proposal, leaving Cheng Ziang to withdraw his offer with a sigh of resignation.

“We’ll pack our stuff tomorrow and then head towards Count Ganet’s territory.

Once we find evidence of him hoarding weapons, we immediately report it to our superiors,” Luo’er instructed.

Having finished dinner, the group retired early.

Luo’er had had a nap during the day so he was quite energized.

He volunteered for the night shift duty.

At the break of dawn, they set off while it was still dark.

Count Ganet’s territory was west of the Holy Heart City, just two days’ travel from their current location.

Therefore, they scoped into the territory quite soon. freewebnøvel.com

Along the way, they would occasionally encounter squads of soldiers but they didn’t seem to notice them.

Fortunately, the recent days were peaceful with no assassination attempts.

According to the front-line headquarters, following the death of Tarute, the maid tied up in his room became the only lead.

She only knew some of the situation, and consequently, she was tormented to death under interrogation.

Upon hearing this, Luo’er could only sigh helplessly.

His original intention was to spare the maid, but she had died on his account regardless.

Indeed, he had no intention of killing the innocent, yet they died because of him.

Luo’er recalled how swiftly he acted, knocking out the maid quickly, so he could assure that the maid didn’t know many clues.

This was undoubtedly good news for them because this meant no one would suspect them.

The only remaining clues probably only known to the middleman of the assassin’s league.

Luo’er initially planned to silence them too.

But on second thoughts, relentless murder would only escalate the situation further, a method of the weak.

The middleman exposed Tarute’s identity, and Luo’er and the others had consequently killed Tarute.

Therefore, Tarute’s death was indubitably connected to the middleman.

Luo’er knew if the middleman gave them away, he would not escape implication.

Therefore, his best course of action was to grit his teeth and keep silent about the matter.

After several close calls on their journey, they finally reached a town under the rule of Count Ganet’s castle, found an inn and rested for a while.

Within the inn, they gathered to discuss their next course of action in light of headquarters’ response.

According to Luo’er’s arrangement, they split into several small teams, scouting the forces within the town, observing the gear and equipment of the soldiers stationed there.

If Count Ganet had purchased a large amount of weapons from Earth, he would not hesitate to provide his soldiers with superior weaponry.

The number of operating forces in the town was around 1,000.

They noticed that their equipment had not changed much.

Other than several antique muskets, they noticed a few military officers armed with pistols, while most soldiers carried long spears from the cold weapon era.

This situation left Luo’er puzzled, further deepening his suspicions about Count Ganet.

Inferencing from the number of soldiers at the castle, the total number of soldiers under Count Ganet’s territory should range from 2,000 to 3,000.

But according to Tarute, he procured at least 30,000 automatic and semi-automatic weapons for Count Ganet, far surpassing the count’s existing military strength.

So where had they used these weapons?

And if the core force guarding the castle could not equip themselves with automatic weapons, what was Count Ganet’s intention for purchasing so many munitions?

More importantly, as a mere count of Otland with no territory situated in commercial regions, where did Ganet receive the funds to purchase these weapons?

It is known that weapons exported from Earth to Otherworld were not cheap at all.

An AK automatic rifle, worth 200 USD on Earth, was sold for 200 gold coins in Otherworld, and people were still keen to buy it.

Luo’er found everything too suspicious and inevitably thought of Cheng Ziang’s adventurous plan.

Overwhelmed by curiosity, he desired to check the arsenal in Count Ganet’s castle to see what was happening.

They returned to the inn at night and holed up in their rooms, discussing their strategies.

Although quite a few soldiers came to inspect their lodgings, they managed to evade them without incident.

Tarute’s death seemingly made Count Ganet wary and jumpy.

With no way to ascertain the whereabouts of the weapons, Luo’er agreed to Cheng Ziang’s suggestion to sneak into the castle’s arsenal to track down the missing weapons.

Taking advantage of the night, Cheng Ziang left for the mission.

He climbed the secluded city wall using grappling hooks and ropes, and managed to slip inside.

Hu Daoke was in charge of his coordination from outside.

For precautionary reasons, Luo’er planted explosives at several secret locations in the town.

In case anything happened to Cheng Ziang, they would create chaos to distract the guards and then maneuver to rescue him.

Anxious, Luo’er stayed back at the inn with the two girls.

When they went out for a meal, he happened to catch sight of a familiar figure.

She was a frail girl, dressed in shabby adventurer-style clothing and carrying a brand-new short sword.

“Kali!” Luo’er couldn’t help but call out her name.

The girl turned upon hearing it and cheerfully waved hello on seeing Luo’er.

“Hello, half-elf!” Kali didn’t know Luo’er’s name, so she had to address him by his features.

The inn wasn’t crowded at the time, so Luo’er tentatively, accompanied by the two girls, approached her.

“Luo’er, who is she?” asked Tangmo, unable to hold back her curiosity when she saw Luo’er talking to a strange girl.

“Kali, a thief.

She was the one who told me about Dunuo’s whereabouts,” Luo’er said, failing to notice the jealousy in her tone.

“What are you talking about?” Kali cocked her head amusingly, misunderstanding their conversation as they were speaking in Chinese.

“What are you doing here?” Luo’er sat down in front of her and scrutinized her while questioning.

He noticed Kali was not wearing her usual ragged sackcloth attire, rather a rough, worn-out outfit, with an adventurer’s emblem pinned on her chest.

Her rickety little purse hung unchanged from her neck.

“I’m an adventurer now,” Kali proudly declared, her face beaming with unspoken joy.

“Did you sell that Otherworld weapon?” Luo’er enquired.

“Yes,” responded Kali excitedly.

She had sold the weapon to another adventurer through a familiar contact and split the 150-gold coin profit evenly.

This windfall was more than enough for a comfortable living, but she chose to join the adventurer’s guild using the money to buy clothes and weapons.

After paying the membership fee, Kali naturally became an adventurer.

She was currently carrying out a simple commission that paid only five silver coins.