Phantom

Lin Ke—who was holding the gold ring—seemed to know where this thing had come from now.

Outside, the enraged voice echoed in the corridor, and Lin Ke kept the ring happily. He would just take this as compensation for Forbes's emotional distress the previous night.

"Well done! The meat you ate last night didn't go to waste."

Treasure Hunter Rat's eyes narrowed into slits as it enjoyed Lin Ke stroking it.

To Lin Ke, this was really an unexpected surprise. Lin Ke had initially been wondering where he was supposed to earn the last few tens of thousands of Wasteland Coins so that he could have a total of $200,000. From the looks of it now, he didn't need to worry as long as he had Treasure Hunter Rat with him.

Lin Ke got up from bed, washed up, and began to fret over the family's 'livelihood.'

"Forbes, don't go out during the day. I'll leave Sand Condor and some of the army ants here in the inn to protect you. I'm going out to get something done."

The moment Forbes heard that Lin Ke was going to abandon him and do something by himself, he thought of how he was all alone in Sand City and unfamiliar with the place and immediately panicked.

"Boss, bring me with you. I won't make any trouble at all. I'll strictly follow your instructions and firmly listen to your commands!"

Lin Ke patted Forbes on the shoulder and comforted him. "It's not suitable for you to show yourself in public during the day. I still need you for fishing at night."

The fishing method could only be utilized a maximum of two times. The moment they did it too often, people would take notice.

Although quite a few dark-skinned fatties existed in Sand City's slums, there weren't that many who had Forbes's simple-minded and naive appearance.

If they played the trick too often, people with ill intentions would easily set their sights on them. In such a situation, Lin Ke might be able to save his own skin, but it was hard to guarantee Forbes's safety.

Lin Ke couldn't guarantee that he could stay by Forbes's side 24 hours a day, so he would stop after having just a slight taste of the benefits. At the very least, he had to prevent Forbes from becoming a target.

Forbes became downcast and disappointed after hearing Lin Ke's explanation.

"Don't worry, just stay in the inn. I'll be back before noon."

Lin Ke had three main objectives during this morning trip. The first was to create an identity, and the second was to open a bank account and get a bank card. The last was to offload the raw gold and the large gold ring.

As the amount of cash on them increased, it became more and more inconvenient for Forbes and Lin Ke to go out.

Thus, it was time to get a bank card. Freedom Federation's financial markets had integrated with one another, so bank cards issued in Sand City could be used anywhere within the Freedom Federation's borders.

It was also fairly easy to get a bank card. When one had the money, getting a legal identity wasn't an issue. Although Sand City was part of the Freedom Federation, the whole place actually operated on Wastelands rules.

In this city—with a population of five million—ultimate power and authority were still concentrated in the hands of just a few people.

The whole city was like a cake. How much, or how little, profit one made wholly depended on how tough the 'knife' cutting the cake was.

After spending $500, Lin Ke had their legal identities settled. With an identity, it was convenient to get things done now.

He bought a cellphone and obtained a bank card done in one go.

Lin Ke wasn't the least bit worried about how safe the bank was.

Although one could call the bank one of the Freedom Federation's financial institutions, in truth, it was just the materialization of the game's 'monetary system.' It only existed to make the game look more realistic.

After doing all that, Lin Ke found somewhere to offload the 300 grams of raw gold, and the large gold ring Treasure Hunter Rat had 'found.' The place bought each gram of gold at a rate of 207 Wastelands Coins.

Soon, Lin Ke saw an SMS notification on his cellphone.

[On 17th April 10:45 a.m, 66,240 Wastelands Coins have been credited to your bank card ending with 2234. You have a current balance of 81,240 Wastelands Coins.]

"It's a pleasure working with you, Boss. I'll be back when I have things to offload again." Lin Ke left the goldsmith with a smile.

His bank balance would pass the $100,000 milestone as long as their harvest tonight was a little better.

As for clothes… It wasn't that Lin Ke didn't want to change them, but he just didn't want to waste any money.

After returning and having lunch with Forbes at noon, Lin Ke laid on the bed and stared off into space. He was currently thinking about when he should go and meet Moros…

If he hadn't received the A-level mission and didn't know the prince's story, Lin Ke would definitely have gone to look for Moros to complete the mission immediately after entering the city and settling down. However, Lin Ke had figured out the complete mission logic chain and understood the underlying plot line's hidden story after receiving the prince's mission—[Mandala's Revenge].

Moros Matt was one of the Desert Prince's seven servants. After conspiring with the others and jointly killing the prince, they had split the wealth and assets that originally belonged to the prince among themselves.

After he arrived at Sand City, he transformed into a billionaire. Nearly one-third of the entire Sand City's properties were under his name. He held Sand City's economic lifeline in his hands.

Water conservation, electric power, transportation…

There was a saying that described Moros's influence, and it went as such: "There are two things that one cannot avoid when living in Sand City—air, and Moros."

With just this, one would understand why a C-level pursuit mission would occur right after one returned the pocket watch.

When Moros saw the pocket watch, he must have thought of the events that had taken place in Howling Ancient Castle's tunnels 42 years ago. Thus, he sent professional killers to check out the player's background and investigate whether they had entered a deeper tunnel level and discovered the prince's remains.

In his past life, Lin Ke had been totally unaware of this. Therefore, Moros had sent him a big gift as compensation after he completed the C-level pursuit mission, and they closed the book on this matter.

However, Lin Ke wasn't sure what would happen when he went to meet Moros again since he now knew the inside story.

Aside from Moros, one of the other culprits behind the Desert Prince's murder was also in Sand City—Jean Alonso.

He was the battalion commander of Mandala's defense forces back then, current commander-in-chief of Sand City's defense troops, one of the three council members of the Freedom Federation, and Sand City's highest-ranking leader!

To put this into one simple sentence, killing Jean Alonso was tantamount to becoming enemies with Sand City and the entire Freedom Federation.

Between the two of them, one held military power, while the other held economic power. They practically had Sand City in their firm clutches.

Lin Ke rubbed his temples. As expected of an A-level mission, indeed.

There were only two of the Desert Prince's murderers in Sand City, too. If Lin Ke added the remaining five to the mix, he would practically become enemies with the whole world. However, although that might be the case, it wasn't like there was no way to salvage the situation either…

If he wanted to break out of the deadlock, a certain person would have to play a key role.

After musing for half a day, Lin Ke's tightly-knitted brows smoothed out slightly.

The time for raising one's head and freely imagining the future was already over. What came next was to lower his head and look at the present.

What Lin Ke needed to do now was to save up $200,000 as quickly as possible and unlock the Universal-type. It was only by doing this that he could implement his upcoming plans.

When night fell, Lin Ke and Forbes entered the streets again.

With experience from the day before, Forbes was a lot more relaxed today. It was just that he was still as loser-like as he had been the day before when he passed by the dance floor.

After they entered the subway station, Lin Ke looked back and asked, "You still remember the flow of events, right?"

Forbes nodded hastily and expressed that he was fine by himself.

"Alright, go by yourself today. I have something else that I need to do now. Remember to leave the black market at 9:30 p.m. If you're done before that, you can take a walk around the black market by yourself. You only need to keep in mind that nobody will dare to harm you as long as you don't go out of the elevator door."

Lin Ke glanced at the clock display in the subway station—it was currently 9 p.m. sharp. "Oh right, remember that the price for the microchip is $13,000 today."

Forbes nodded seriously and kept everything Lin Ke said in mind.

After Forbes left, Lin Ke also began to move. He needed to offload his spoils. Aside from a bit of money, he had also gotten three guns from the three local ruffians the previous night. It was just a shame that the Silver Army Ants had bitten off the triggers, so all three guns were now useless.

He had to look for a professional gun assembly store to get rid of them.

Lin Ke took the mechanical elevator punctually at 9:10 p.m. and left the underground black market. He clearly needed only ten minutes, yet he had told Forbes that he needed half an hour…

Lin Ke naturally had his own reasons for doing so.

He blended into the shadows where light couldn't reach and leaned against the wall motionlessly.

Treasure Hunter Rat and the Silver Army Ants left Lin Ke and scattered into every corner of the back alley. Every little movement and action inside the alley was within his grasp.

About ten minutes later, a series of shuffling footsteps drifted over from outside the alley. "Hurry up, all of you. He's almost out!"

Little Treasure stood guard beside the alley wall and openly reported everything it saw to Lin Ke. Squeak, squeak!

In an alley at night, a rat's squeaks were so harmonious when mixed in with footsteps that the few people in a hurry didn't even find anything strange about it.

It'd be stranger if there weren't any rats in a place like this!

Lin Ke leaned against a corner of the wall. He held his breath and concentrated, mentally ordering the Silver Army Ants to climb up the four people's bodies.

The four of them had learned their lesson. They didn't keep their guns at their waists but held them in their hands instead.

The leader standing under the light whipped out his cellphone and dialed someone's number. "Boss, we're in position!"

What followed was a series of sounds of acknowledgment like "Yes" and "Okay" before he hung up.

The four men's way of dressing and clothes were in the same non-mainstream style as the three men from yesterday.

It didn't take much of a guess to see that these four were also Jack Gang members.

As expected, this trick can only be played twice. Lin Ke was rather frustrated. If it had been a bigger gang, he might have been able to go fishing a few more times.

Jack Gang was a gang that couldn't get any smaller in Sand City. In fact, their member count didn't even reach 100. In this gang, most were local ruffians and gangsters.

There were quite a lot of small gangs like this that lived off the underground black market. Apart from collecting some protection fees in the streets, the only other thing they could do was try their luck at the underground black market. Whenever they encountered stupid and naive newbies like Forbes, these ruffians would devour them savagely by outnumbering them.

When the three men discovered Forbes the day before, they had also reported that they had found a big prey to the gang. However, in the end, they had died in the back alley after only a short while.

Jack Gang's boss had then looked at a video of the subway station's entryway and locked on to Forbes.

He originally intended to ask someone for a favor and get them to search for Forbes's whereabouts, but little did he think that the fellow would come again today… As such, he immediately arranged for some random thugs to intercept Forbes outside the black market's entryway and demand an 'explanation.'

"Look for somewhere to hide first!" shouted the leader.

The four men hid in the dark shadows at once, ready to ambush Forbes when he exited.

It was just that they didn't know they had already fallen into the big trap set up by Lin Ke yet at this point.

The army ants climbed onto them stealthily. Treasure Hunter Rat had the four men's precise locations in its grasp. At the edge of a residential building's rooftop was a burping Sand Condor, also keeping a close eye on the four men.

Lastly, there was the phantom-like and quiet Lin Ke.

One of the men hid behind an obstacle in front of Lin Ke. Since their target hadn't appeared yet, the man couldn't resist fishing out his cellphone.

Light from the cellphone screen shone on his face, making him look fairly creepy.

The person hiding opposite him cast a glance at his teammate. He saw his teammate's creepy face lit up by the light, as well as a hand and a silenced pistol—which had absurdly appeared above his head…

At 9:30 p.m., Forbes punctually returned to the subway station.

It was just that it was a little strange because nobody was actually following behind him today. He was the only one in the old, worn-out mechanical elevator.

"Did I perform badly today?" Forbes was rather nervous. He didn't know how he was going to answer Lin Ke later. He was the picture of a kid that hadn't scored well in an exam but had to bring the exam paper to his parents to get them to sign on it—nervous, helpless, and pitiful.

Ding!

Following the sound of the elevator coming to a complete stop, the indicator light changed from red to green.

When Forbes walked out of the elevator, he was stunned immediately…