13 013 Target, Leipzig

Phone calls in the United Kingdom were not cheap, so Leonard Ethan decided to drive to the Emerald Antique Store to talk with Pierce face-to-face. When he arrived at the store, he saw a red shipping container truck parked in a nearby parking lot.

"Good morning, Uncle Murphy." Upon entering, he was surprised to find not only Pierce but also his father, Old Pierce, in the store.

"Good morning, Lawrence." After greeting him, Old Pierce walked towards the door. "You two talk first, I'll go check on that truck. After all, it's crucial to have a reliable vehicle for long-distance travels."

"I thought your father said he was retiring. Why is he going on this trip too?" As Old Pierce left the room and closed the door, Leonard couldn't help but ask the curious question to Pierce behind the counter.

"There was no other choice." Pierce shrugged. "To transport the spoils of war back without selling them at a low price on the spot, we need a large truck, but neither of us can drive such a big vehicle."

"Considering the secrecy of this operation, I had to call my father in. Fortunately, when he was doing business back in the day, he traveled all over Western Europe, so he knows the roads well and has the relevant driver's license."

"That's incredibly lucky. By the way, why would the butler lend you this truck? No one does something for nothing."

"Relax, it's mainly to compensate for the last time when we were swindled by that Russian tycoon." Pierce spread his hands in explanation.

"After all, he introduced us to that job and never expected them to be so ruthless. Under such circumstances, to restore his reputation, he was willing to make certain compensation to us."

"To us, the auction qualification of an East German National Reserve Warehouse and the rental of a shipping container truck are crucial, even career-related, but for the butler, this expenditure is far less than the reputation of their family."

"In other words, it's a mutual benefit." Leonard finally relaxed upon hearing this explanation. "When do we set off?"

"Let's say three days from now. Although the European Union is unified now, it's not too troublesome to drive from here to Germany. But after all, it's a long-distance trip across several countries, so it's best to make some preparations."

The straight-line distance from London to Leipzig is about 860 kilometers. On a plane, it might take less than an hour, and even if they drove the truck non-stop, one day would be enough.

However, due to having only Old Pierce as the driver and the complicated border procedures, it wasn't until the next day at noon that Leonard and the others drove their truck into the city center of Leipzig.

Under Old Pierce's guidance, the three of them effortlessly parked the truck in a rest stop for long-distance truck drivers on the outskirts of the city and began planning their next move.

"The auction isn't until tomorrow, so I think we can go check out the warehouse today." Leonard said while browsing the map on his mobile phone after parking the truck.

"I checked the map, and the warehouse area is located next to an abandoned railway branch line. It's only over 700 meters from here and we can walk."

"It's so close!" Upon hearing this, Pierce immediately leaned over to look at the map on Leonard's hand. "In that case, it's a good idea to check it out beforehand, so we know what to expect."

"Alright, you two young men go ahead, and I'll stay here to watch the truck." Old Pierce said after hearing their plan. "Oh, and remember to take the stuff from the toolkit when you leave. Also, make sure to be back before dark."

"Understood—" Leonard and Pierce said in unison, then each took a steel bar the length of a forearm from the toolkit behind the seat and tucked it into their clothes.

Before, they had already noticed when driving on the road that after entering the eastern part of Germany, the overall situation around was much worse than the west.

Furthermore, the walls around this parking lot were covered with various graffiti. So when they left the car, they naturally prepared for this issue.

"There's something not right about this place." Looking at the dilapidated houses around and graffiti on the walls, Leonard subconsciously lowered the brim of his baseball cap quite a bit. Because he found that many of the graffiti on the streets were related to Germany during World War II.

"You're right. This must have been an industrial area with various living facilities in the past." Pierce made the same gesture by pressing down the brim of his cap. "But now it's been abandoned, and it seems to be occupied by some far-right individuals."

"Yeah, this place clearly isn't very friendly to me." Leonard looked at Pierce, who was almost covering his face, and frowned. "I'm of Asian descent; naturally, it's dangerous in places like this, but you're a genuine European."

"Europeans are different from Europeans. We Irish people are at the bottom of the European disdain chain, about the same level as the Polish. In the eyes of those bastards, our status may not be as high as you Chinese descendants."

Fortunately, although the surrounding environment looked bad, there was not a single person on the road as it was close to lunchtime. So the two arrived at their destination very smoothly.

The target was a warehouse with a large area, located next to a railway line overgrown with weeds. However, when the two came to the faded black iron gate, they found that even the big lock on the gate had rusted to death.

"Is there nobody inside?" Pierce asked. After circling the warehouse wall, they could not find an entrance. And after knocking on the door for a while, there was no response from inside.

"There shouldn't be." After looking through the door crack for a long time, Leonard thought it was very likely that the door had not been opened since the end of the Cold War.

Because through the door crack, he found that even the area that should have been cemented was covered with a thick layer of dirt, and even grass had begun to grow in several places.

In the beginning, Leonard planned to use Card for reconnaissance. But it turned out that the warehouse was built like a fortress, and even the nearest wall to the warehouse was more than 5 meters away from the main structure, which was well beyond the range of Card's reconnaissance.

"This warehouse might have belonged to the East German military in the past." Once Leonard realized that Golden Finger was of no use for now, he carefully observed the surrounding environment. Soon, his enhanced observation skills led him to discover some clues on the iron gate.

That's because after wiping off the mud and ash on the iron gate, he found that there was a layer of black paint on each of the two iron doors.

After wiping it off with a cloth dipped in a small bottle of gasoline he carried with him, a wheat ear and a black, red, and yellow ribbon appeared beneath the paint.

"A military warehouse, no wonder—" Pierce showed an expression of understanding.

Just now during the reconnaissance, he also found that the height and thickness of the outer walls of this warehouse were much larger than those of normal railway warehouses, and steel bars could even be seen from the damaged parts of the wall.

"It seems like this is good news." On the way back to the parking lot, Leonard said, "At least we can confirm that the warehouse is strong enough and had a high rank back in the day. There may be many valuable items preserved inside."

"Exactly," Pierce nodded in agreement. "Most importantly, no one has been in there for a long time, so those good things should not have been taken away."