45 Volume 2 Episode 39

[ Lindon Residence ]

[ One day earlier ]

Eric Lindon walked back and forth in his living room, with his hands behind his back as he was thinking about something. Lin Hamill was sitting on the couch and eating some fries, watching Eric walk around.

"So you're absolutely sure that you want to do this?"

Eric suddenly stopped walking, turned his head back to look at Lin for a moment, and asked. Lin nodded his head while eating the fries.

"Yes I am. Positive. You definitely don't need to worry about my safety, alright? By the way these fries are really good. Did you buy these?" He replied as he stuffed his mouth with fries. It seemed he really liked them.

Eric stood there without moving as he watched the teenager devour the fries.

"You do know what you're expecting from us, right? I mean, who knows this will even work? You may be sure that you want to do this, but how sure are you that this procedure will actually work?"

Lin stopped eating the fries, as he got up and walked towards Eric. He stood right in front of him, and stared into his eyes for a moment, and replied to Eric's question.

"Eric, you absolutely don't need to worry about this problem, alright? I am pretty sure that this will work, so just go and do your thing and stop worrying about this, okay?"

Eric, who wanted to say something in return, saw Lin's stare and immediately swallowed his words. He then looked at Anna who was also present in the living room and sighed.

"So Anna's the one doing the surgery?"

"Yeah she is. I taught her first, so I thought I might as well let her do the procedure. She says that she's gotten very good at it in the past few weeks."

Lin pointed at Anna, who smiled in return. Eric waved his hands at her in response and smiled.

"Once again, are you absolutely sure about this?"

Lin rolled his eyes at Eric's worried tone. Ever since he altered the guy's memories, he had been acting strangely like a mom who spoils her child too much. His attitude towards Lin reminded him of Luke's mother, who was well known for being too attached to her son. He grabbed a fry and tossed it into his mouth as he started speaking.

"As I said, you don't have to be worrying about anything, Eric. You're not my mom. I got this under control."

Eric nodded his head and walked towards the door, as Jason followed him behind. He then stopped right as he was about to exit the room, and turned around.

"And no, I didn't buy the fries. The chef made them. You can order him to bake some for you if you'd like."

Lin gave a thumbs up to Eric, and he walked out of the room, waving goodbye. Lin then motioned Anna, who was standing near the door to get ready, as they walked to the basement of the Lindon family mansion.

The mansion was extremely large, and so was the basement, which looked as if it was the size of a small arena. The surgical equipment and the rest of the materials required were already present, with few of the employees of the Lindons joining in on the procedure as helpers to Anna.

Lin took off his clothes as the others got their surgical gear on. He then walked to the bed and lied down as Anna and the rest surrounded him. 

"Are you ready for this Anna?"

"I am Mr. Lin. Ready as I'll ever be." Anna responded to Lin's words with confidence. Lin smiled and nodded at her. He then looked at the rest of the surgical crew standing around him and opened his mouth.

"You all know that you have to be extra careful about this procedure, alright? Remember, I will not be in danger as long as you avoid injuring any vital organs. My body can handle mostly everything else. What you have to do is open up my body to reveal my skeleton and coat them with the magic crystal solution, just like you did with the test subject yesterday. After that, close my body up and apply the healing potions. And don't forget to administer the painkillers after completing the procedure, alright? You remember how the test subject reacted when you didn't inject it, don't you?"

The helpers quickly nodded at Lin as they remembered his training procedure yesterday. They couldn't botch this up, because their boss's life was on the line.

Lin then moved his gaze back to Anna, who nodded at him and applied the sedatives to make him unconscious. She then looked at the helpers, who quickly got to their positions as she grabbed a surgical knife on her hand.

The procedure was about to start.

****************************************

[ Lin's Room ]

[ Present Day ]

Lin woke as the sun rose. His pain, which was reduced by painkillers yesterday, had returned in full force, as he hurriedly grabbed the pills on his nightstand and gulped it down. Only then could he take a breather.

Lin was already sweating even though he just woke up. He looked at his hands which were still shaking.

'Just got to handle it for a few more days.'

He told himself as he got up from the bed. The surgery had indeed been a huge success. His skeleton had fully been equipped with magic crystal coating, enhancing his body strength even more. But the pain of his body trying to reject the foreign object inside of it still persisted. Lin gave it approximately four to five days for the pain to go away completely. But he had underestimated the difficulties that came with carrying such an enormous amount of pain inside him.

'This is surely a problem. I hope it goes away completely before the finals.'

The finals of the tournament were set one week away from the semi finals, giving enough time for the finalists to examine and study their opponent. He was facing Roger Rodriguez in the finals.

'Roger. I could definitely beat him if this pain goes away completely. But if it doesn't, then I won't be able to react faster than him. And he's an electricity user, so that's what he specialises in.'

He started to strategize about how to defeat Roger if he couldn't get rid of his pain, but he was interrupted by a phone call from Eric.

"What?"

Lin asked as he put the phone on his ear, annoyed at the timing of the call.

"Lin, I've arranged a meeting with the Sultan of Nubia, Tanten the Third, after he heard about you joining in on the operation."

Eric's words puzzled Lin, who had been extra careful about his involvement with the Lindon family. Did he have eyes on him? Were there people following him? He had to know.

"How the hell did he figure out about my involvement with you?"

"I've got no clue. The government of Nubia is very powerful. They might have some agents keeping tabs on you. Better be careful about your trails."

Eric replied to Lin's question, advising him to be cautious, to which Lin stayed silent. He was definitely being spied on by the foreign superpower. The question was how much do they know about the relationship between Lin and the Lindons. He looked at his phone, and thought to himself: Was the call being listened to as well?

"Lindon, what are the chances of our call being listened to? As I recall, you specialise in selling information and everything related to communication networks, right?"

"Don't worry Lin. There's absolutely no way our phone conversation is being listened on. Our family definitely takes care in enabling a secure phone conversation, so that none of the information we obtain can be leaked."

Eric spoke of how his family is careful when it comes to phone security, but Lin still didn't feel absolutely safe talking over the phone, so he asked to meet up at the Lindon mansion once again to discuss the matter.

He then rushed to the mansion, where Eric's employees had already started sweeping for bugs and other listening devices that may have been planted. After a long time of searching, they came up with nothing, and Eric gave them the signal to leave. He then turned to Lin and whispered.

"The information might be from someone who's been following me around as per the request of the government of Nubia due to our business, and somehow saw you come into contact with me as a result. That might be the case, because the Sultan seemed to not know anything about your relationship with me. I mean, he basically asked me if you could be trusted."

From Eric's explanation, Lin figured out that they didn't have much information on him besides the fact that he and Eric work with each other, which made him relax a bit.

'But still, I have to be even more careful.'

The thought of a government spying on him definitely made him feel like he should be more cautious about his surroundings. He had to keep his secret safe. 

"When is the meeting scheduled?"

"Three days from now."

Lin nodded at Eric, as he thought about the new issue he had to deal with. He had never thought that an entire country would be hindering his plans, but it seemed that life had other plans in mind.