Chapter 9

Alex and Brittles went to the deck of the ship and the merchant's men looked at Alex. They asked him "What are you doing here? There is a storm incoming. We don't want our precious goods getting sick."

They concluded that Alex was part of a big merchant group or some noble family. They wanted to keep Alex with them and ask for a ransom.

Alex smiled and said "We were bored in our room and want you guys to entertain us." punching him in the face when he finished.

The man fell back on a wooden box, breaking it and alerting everyone. Everyone gathered to see what happened. The merchant came out and shouted "What are you doing when there is a storm approaching?"

He then looked at Alex and said "*sigh* this is not the time to be dealing with this idiot. Beat him up and throw him in his room. We don't have time for this."

Alex asked "Looking at the storm, I think we will die if we don't have a navigator. Who is our navigator?" and the merchant said "I am the navigator of this ship. Now go back to your room if you don't want your pretty face bruised."

Alex smiled and said to Brittles "Brittles, you heard the man. We just need three men and this merchant. The rest are useless."

Brittles also smiled back and jump kicked a man to his side while Alex delivered a punch to a man's gut.

Seeing this, others around them ran to them with swords and blades, intending to kill them. Alex shouted to Brittles "I guess we have improved a lot. These men seem too slow and weak." while snatching a sword from a worker and kicking his chest, sending him flying.

Brittles also screeched and picked up a sword from a fallen worker. Alex and Brittles were completely wiping out the merchant's men while he just stood there, shocked and terrified.

With blood and bodies everywhere, Alex looked at the merchant and asked "Do you know what to do now?"

The merchant was still in shock, but he immediately came out of the shock and nodded. He said "I have 10 million with me. I can give you another 10 million after we reach our destination."

"Now that's something I like." Alex said and the. looked at the sky. He said "It's pouring down, get to work." and the three men he spared immediately got to work, as they knew that they were alive only because they were of use to Alex.

Alex went back to his room and didn't do much the whole time. After a week, they landed on the lawless island and Alex didn't have much trouble on the island, as he decided to dress as a poor man.

No one wanted to waste their time with a poor man. He then headed to a brothel and when he entered, a woman with blonde hair greeted him and Alex didn't want to waste much time.

He said to her "I am here for the wine that glows in the dark." which is the secret code for buying information.

Alex was currently in a branch of the underground intelligence where the Cipher Pol memeber Stussy worked.

The woman said to Alex "Follow me" and led him to a room where there was a single woman sitting near the table.

When Alex entered the room, she said "You can leave your pet outside. Our waitress can take care of them." and this pissed off Brittles again.

Alex said to Brittles"Come on Brittles, you have to start getting used to it. They are going to assume that you are my pet." and then turned to the women in the room "He will stay with me, and I would like to get the information as soon as possible."

"Sorry for offending you sir. What kind of information are you looking for? If it is ready, we can give it to you. Or else, it might take time to gather the information." she said.

"I want information on all the scientist, mechanics and blacksmiths who can accept a big order." Alex said and the woman replied "We do have the information ready about that, but it is going to be a big list and will take a lot of time to organise. I would suggest you to rest here for a while, till we prepare what you need."

Alex agreed and both Alex and Brittles ordered food and wine. It took them over an hour to organise all the papers. Then, they brought out a huge bundle of papers and gave them to Alex.

"These are all the ones known to us, there might be more. We can investigate more if you want." she said.

"Wait till I go through all these papers first. How much for all this?" Alex asked and she replied with a smile "2 million beli"

Alex almost coughed out blood like the characters from Wuxia novels. The woman continued "It is because you asked for a lot of information and some of them are high profile people."

Alex knew that bargaining with them will only lead to disasters, so he paid the money, but his heart couldn't bear the pain of loosing 2 million at once.

He got 50 million after a lot of struggles. After paying them, he went to an inn and while Brittles was sleeping the whole night, Alex stayed up and looked into the papers.

The next day, Brittles asked him "Did you find anyone useful?" and Alex replied "Yes, he is also in the same island. I guess he also did something and is hiding here."

Alex and Brittles had their breakfast, and headed towards the location mentioned in the papers. When they arrived at the messy building, they opened the door and were hit with smoke.

From the building, a young man with messy black hair fell down coughing. He coughed for a while and said "Thanks for opening the door. I was starting to loose strength and couldn't even open the door knob."

Alex saw the scene and said in low tone "I kind of expected this to happen."

"I was looking for Taben. If you are that person, I would like you to make something for me." Alex said and he coughed before saying "Fine, wait till the smoke clears."

"No need, this is the plan. I don't know if you can make this, but get it ready as soon as possible. I would like it if you can make it in six months time. Also, the last plan, make as many as possible." Alex said and handed him a few papers.

They were the designs of the parts of a machine gun. He made sure to add extra things to a few parts, so that even when the plan is leaked, they can't assemble it on their own.

Still, if an intelligent person studies the plan deeply for a while, they can make the gun. He doesn't have a choice though. He doesn't have anyone he can trust and it will take years for him to learn how to make metal parts that small.