Several hours later, near midday.
Xiang Nan finally returned, looking quite pleased, carrying the Chimera Ant's corpse.
"We're heading back to Ininge City."
"You plan to bring that thing back to Kakin?"
Silent Cloud got into the car, glancing at the battered, incomplete Chimera Ant—goodness knows what it had experienced—and asked.
She fell silent in thought.
"Perhaps you've got some way to keep Kakin from trying to kill us?"
She was now deeply suspicious that Xiang Nan had had a plan in mind from the very start of the mission and was fully confident about it.
After all, they had discovered not just small or infant ants, but an adult soldier ant. This was clearly beyond anything the Kakin royal family had anticipated.
Frankly, if the existence of adult Chimera Ants were to become publicly known, even if it didn't directly implicate Kakin, it would definitely arouse some measure of scrutiny from every country and from the V5—potentially undermining the plan between Kakin and Beyond.
In other words, if the Chimera Ants had not yet grown strong as in the later storyline, and if someone managed to pre-emptively wipe them out…that would be a major blow to Kakin.
They might not just want to kill them; they might want to completely erase every person or piece of evidence connected with them.
"Did you get a call from that handler yet?"
Xiang Nan didn't directly answer, but instead asked another question.
"Mm…about half an hour ago, they rang asking about our progress."
Ever since they'd left the Kakin Empire, they'd been under continuous surveillance by the Kakin royal family. Even after arriving in the Mitene Union, someone would contact them every few hours for updates—clearly with the intention of confirming their location and ensuring they'd end up as the ants' food. If some unexpected situation arose, Kakin could step in and kill them off.
"And what'd you say?"
"I said…everything in Miera's ecological environment seems perfectly normal, and so far, we haven't found anything unusual."
The woman was quite clever.
"What about the other team?"
Xiang Nan drove on, eyes on the road, while Manman in the back seat was checking the video camera's footage.
"What about that 'Druid Master?' He didn't try to get in touch either?"
"No…keeps going to a busy line. No one is picking up."
"Mm…in that case, they've most likely already been dealt with. They never wanted to conduct any real investigation, just planned to forge some data using their knowledge of the storyline… But to be dispatched so swiftly and so precisely is somewhat surprising," Xiang Nan remarked calmly. "Given the Druid Master's cunning, he should've taken some precautions. If even he couldn't make it out alive…that leaves only one explanation."
"The enemy players are quite strong—and they've also been hired by Kakin."
"Seven people…taken out so easily. With Druid Master's scheming mind, I'd have expected him to at least slip away. Perhaps he did survive, just avoiding contact with us to keep from inviting disaster onto himself."
"But from the looks of it, the opposition is probably a Nen-wielding squad."
Xiang Nan let the wind blow in, wearing a light smile.
"Huh? Aren't those players presumably hired by the V5 or the Hunter Association? Under the system's notion of two opposing factions…"
Silent Cloud looked startled.
"He was just speculating that possibility—don't get bound by the logic he fed us. Chimera Ant secrets are huge. Kakin wouldn't allow any possibility of a leak. If someone in the V5 or the Association had realized something amiss this early on, things in the storyline wouldn't have developed the same way. In short, the real mover here is Kakin.
"Moreover, the other group was finished off too neatly, too conveniently. They must have intended to head back to the Kakin Empire once they'd faked their data. With Kakin's resources, it was trivial to pick them off. That Druid Master group? They were labeled for disposal from the start.
"And it's not as if we can rely on Mitene's government. This small nation definitely has arrangements with Kakin's side, so the airports, roads, and seaports all fall under thorough surveillance. Even the hotel we stayed at is likely under watch."
Xiang Nan's tone was still casual.
"So effectively, the moment we try to return to Kakin, we'll get ambushed by hostile players. And given the earlier mention of a seven-man group, you see how it ended for them…"
Silent Cloud felt a chill spread through her body.
"Then…what do we do?"
Even at this juncture, Xiang Nan could still crack a joke. He put the pedal down, speeding toward their destination.
A few days later, Xiang Nan's group of three returned to Ininge City.
Inside their room, Silent Cloud was writing up the text portion of the report, the materials they'd compiled from their investigation. She was indeed good with words. Having basically been carried by Xiang Nan and Manman throughout the entire operation, this was her only chance to contribute.
Yet the more she wrote according to Xiang Nan's instructions, the more frightened she became.
Because the report, aside from not mentioning Kakin's hidden involvement, laid bare almost everything else about the Chimera Ants, including speculation about the nest's location. It came with illustrative photos, near-complete documentation of how these ants posed a massive threat to humanity.
This would be enough to spark a global uproar if placed on any world leader's desk.
And if Kakin's King Hui Guo Rou caught sight of this, he might literally spit blood.
Some time later, the woman, exhausted, put down her pen and looked at Xiang Nan.
Everything—documents, photos, video—was ready.
Now all that remained was how to hand it over to the Kakin royal family for the quest's completion.
Frankly, the woman was feeling quite despairing. This investigation's content was so damning there was no way Kakin would let them live.
But at this point, it was too late to back out. With only three members in their squad, her words alone carried little weight, so she could only trust Xiang Nan.
And her instincts told her…Xiang Nan likely had a plan.
"Call the Kakin contact. Let them know we've wrapped up the investigation. But don't say we're returning to the empire. If they ask for our location, tell them the truth."
Xiang Nan smiled faintly.
Silent Cloud, numb, took out her phone. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel⸺fire.net
Meanwhile, Xiang Nan turned to Manman, who was happily eating dessert, and said:
"Quit eating. Time to get to work."
Manman wiped her mouth and put down the cake, well aware that "get to work" in their context likely meant fighting—indeed, killing.
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