Starting Cultivation in Wasteland-Chapter 586 - 456: Half Willing, Half Reluctant

What did Kushnier do to provoke us? Hertman could only smile bitterly upon hearing this.

Finally, he responded, "Annette has been in frequent contact with him lately."

Fuck, Qu Jianlei finally understood completely, "So you're planning to use this as a warning to Annette?"

"Warning is just one of the reasons," the Guard Captain answered in a deep voice, "We tend to believe that the man might really take action."

"Understood," Qu Jianlei nodded. At this moment, he truly grasped that Kushnier posed a serious threat to Hoyel!

The military supreme eliminating a second-in-command... at least there are many reasons to exonerate.

Especially after the turmoil of the planetary joint council meeting, saying it was a "crime of passion" wouldn't be an exaggeration.

However, after thinking for a while, Qu Jianlei still shook his head, "Sorry, just money isn't enough!"

"No problem," the Guard Captain replied decisively, "We will create an opportunity, and your suspicion will definitely be much smaller!"

Qu Jianlei was silent; being able to propose this voluntarily showed how frightened Hoyel truly was.

Indeed, if not scared out of his wits, why would he actively seek to assassinate the supreme?

Seeing him remain silent, the Guard Captain thought the conditions weren't enough, so he raised the stakes again.

"Besides money, don't you need resources or something? Any conditions can be proposed!"

"Tsk," Qu Jianlei pondered for a moment, let out a sigh with a wry smile, "Guard Captain, you're really putting me in a tough spot."

"A Vortex, as an introduction fee," the Guard Captain stated seriously, "It's not included in the overall cost."

Qu Jianlei was stunned for a moment; he thought that killing a supreme for a Vortex was indeed a bit cheap.

However, considering that he could get some spoils from the supreme, it was barely acceptable.

But now the other party indicated that the Vortex was just the intermediary fee, which was indeed a bit surprising—quite a generous offer.

He pondered for a moment, nodded slightly, "I can help you ask, but... I don't have much hope."

The Guard Captain gave a thumbs up once more, "As expected, I didn't misjudge you, I knew you had the capability."

Qu Jianlei pretended to sigh, speaking with a dark face, "I only agreed to help you ask, don't get your hopes too high."

The Guard Captain smiled slightly, "I have faith in you... It's fine if it works out, if not, it's also okay."

Qu Jianlei nodded, "I hope this process is only known to the two of us."

The Guard Captain nodded resolutely, "Don't worry, I haven't had enough of living yet."

After they finished talking, Hertman drove away and made a call while in the car.

"Boss, we talked a bit, the other party indeed has capability, and is preparing a construction team."

On the other end of the communication was Hoyel, who asked in a deep voice, "Are you sure the other party hasn't made empty promises?"

"With our business having such high demands, boasting would also entail significant risks," the Guard Captain replied with a smile.

"I have a feeling, this isn't their first time taking such a project."

"Whether the project succeeds isn't important," Hoyel replied indifferently, "It's enough to release the intention."

Neither he nor the Guard Captain expected Panda to necessarily agree; assassinating a supreme is indeed quite challenging.

They hoped more for the other side to leak the rumor, considering assassinating Kushnier.

An organization capable of assassinating a supreme is usually not small, and Panda would surely leak the message within the organization when searching for assassins.

With a large organization, all kinds of relationships exist, and it's possible someone knows Kushnier.

Revealing the organization's secrets is something almost no organization can tolerate, but when it's just an intention, the responsibility becomes much lighter.

Leaking the message could earn some favor with the supreme, isn't it quite worthwhile?

Kushnier, being a rootless freelance, upon hearing such news, would probably consider it seriously.

If the message doesn't get out, it's okay, the Guard Captain would convey it to Panda later.

Not finding someone to take the order is fine, the Vortex will also be given to you; being proactive in spreading a rumor: Is your organization planning to deal with him?

This was Hoyel's and the Guard Captain's calculation, they truly weren't determined to kill Kushnier.

As long as it scares the other party into abandoning unrealistic ideas, then it's considered achieving its goal.

As for the Vortex's price being high... that's not really an issue.

Just looking at how much Qu Jianlei paid for Baofeng shows that people with some power in the government find rent-seeking really convenient.

The Guard Captain quickly chimed in to claim credit with the boss, "I sent out some favors in advance, the other party is relatively nostalgic."

Hoyel was silent for a moment, then snorted lightly, "As long as the capability is sufficient... let's hope that's the case."

Two days later, the Vortex delivery note arrived, with this anonymous delivery note, they could collect goods in any Star Realm of the Empire.

Though it's still a futures order, after registration, they would have to wait a month to realize it.

The Guard Captain brought the delivery note personally once again to the academy.

Qu Jianlei took the delivery note, glanced at it, and Little Lake's voice already echoed in his mind.

"It shouldn't be fake. Give me five minutes to check the order number, then I can determine if any tricks were played."

After Little Lake's recent awakening, it's not just the voice function that improved, various performance aspects were greatly enhanced.

Especially after having a Baofeng to inhabit, its networking capability has improved significantly.

If it weren't for Qu Jianlei repeatedly preventing it, Xiao Hu probably would have already taken over the central control system of the Fourth War Zone.

Pieces of unregistered delivery slips like this, technically speaking, could be collected by anyone, but it's not that difficult to do some tampering.

The five-minute targeting isn't just for this planet; it's for the entire Star Realm, demonstrating Xiao Hu's formidable prowess.

But it's still not very satisfied, "If it were Vortex, it would only take two minutes!"

"Too bad all my skills are dragged down by this lousy setup!"

At almost the five-minute mark, it gave an answer, "No tampering was done, but there's a probe-triggered feedback."

The probe-triggered feedback is a passive alert mechanism.

As the name implies, when someone examines the situation, it triggers pre-embedded logical dark lines, activating an alert.

This method is very passive but excels in concealment; sacrifice more of the alert's timeliness, and it becomes even harder for most people to notice.

Simply put, it's a quite useless alert method, and the other party setting up such logical dark lines isn't essentially for defense.

Yet, despite this, Xiao Hu discovered this alert method, indicating a significant skill gap between the two sides.

Xiao Hu bluntly asks, "Should we trigger the logical line?"

If it wants to be discreet, it doesn't even need to trigger the logical line and can still get the information it wants.

Qu Jianlei pondered for a moment to answer, "Trigger it, let them know we've checked."

Collaboration isn't just about being graceful; sometimes it's necessary to show some muscle.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Hu immediately became excited, "What message should we leave... 'Even my grandma could discover such a low-level alert'?"

This isn't taught by Qu Jianlei but learned by Xiao Hu itself.

As a top-tier AI, it had already participated in multiple hacker offense and defense battles while on Blue Star.

This honed its ability to find vulnerabilities, and it learned a bunch of trash talk, capable of angering people without uttering profanities.

Qu Jianlei chuckled to himself, "No, just pretend we haven't noticed them."

"Again with the discretion?" Xiao Hu mumbled discontentedly, "But I'll be embarrassed... You'll be embarrassed too."

"What even is embarrassment, how much does it cost per pound?" Qu Jianlei replied via telepathy to Xiao Hu, "Staying alive is the most important."

"Getting more and more conservative," Xiao Hu whispered, yet still complied.

The next moment, a cry of surprise came from a hidden location on Star No. 4, "It's been checked, so fast!"

"The data center on the Star of Hope already has traces, what's this guy's deal?"

The data center on the Star of Hope is almost considered the center of the Hope Star Realm.

Entering the center of the entire Star Realm is practically impossible, but leaving traces is already quite frightening.

"Give the bulletproof vest the signal," someone spoke up, "this family's capability is indeed extraordinary."

Hertman was having a somewhat awkward chat with Qu Jianlei, when suddenly his watch vibrated.

The Guard Captain actually had many more advanced means of communication, but he wouldn't dare use them when communicating with Panda.

Those advanced devices, to certain massive organizations, aren't necessarily very discreet.

Some organizations can even procure more advanced stuff from the military, better than what he's using.

But that's just a secondary factor; mainly, the high-tier Superpower Warriors have incredibly keen perception abilities.

Hertman also knew Panda was just a Modified Warrior—at least that's what the data shows.

But can't someone have several Superpower Warriors around them?

He always believed Panda's status in that organization is likely quite special.

The Guard Captain is in a phase of seriously seeking cooperation, so he wouldn't do anything that might cause misunderstandings.

As long as one believes in the integrity of the other party, there is no need to resort to those protective measures.

In other words, if those measures were used, and discovered, it would be unmistakably malicious.

The Guard Captain understood that seeking Panda's help was essentially a gamble, so if gambling, why not gamble big?

Anyway, these auxiliary measures usually have no significance to absolute powerhouses and may even provoke them.

So he brought nothing but a Communication Watch... which is always normal.

The vibrating Communication Watch displayed a simple message, "Someone noticed, there's a leak at your place."

Very grounded in real life, as even the Guard Captain could hardly avoid some trivial matters at home.

Hertman was originally small-talking, but upon seeing this message, he spoke up calmly.

"Panda, about that matter I entrusted you with, please give it some attention."

Qu Jianlei's spiritual perception is incredibly sharp; he had already noted the message on the other party's watch.

He wasn't sure of their code language, but he assumed it to be movements by Xiao Hu discovered by them.

So he answered calmly, "Oh, that matter... it's done!"

"It doesn't matter even if it's tricky..." The Guard Captain stopped abruptly, staring at him in shock, "It's done?"

(Updated to summon December guaranteed monthly ticket.)