In the gloomy bomb shelter’s black market, yellow tungsten bulbs hanging overhead every ten meters or so were illuminating the place dimly.
The reason the lighting was poor was that the air quality underground was really bad.
The black market definitely did not lack money since everyone was required to pay 10,000 perak before entering. Logically speaking, they could clearly renovate the underground to make it a little better and brighter.
But the people at the black market did not do so. It was as though this place was specially designed so everyone had a chance of survival in the dim lighting. If no one could see each other’s faces clearly, it would be easier to keep their identities hidden.
Fortunately, Milo and Miriam were not pampered people. They had survived in worse environments than this before.
Miriam whispered as they walked, “Although the Silkshade House does not have a lot of official members, many people underestimate the number of A-rank hitmen in their ranks. Some of the A-rank hitmen are also members of various consortiums. They usually carry out missions to maintain their statuses as A-rank hitmen in order to gain access to some of the Silkshade House’s intelligence. In the past, they generally did not show up for most of the operations. But this time, I believe many big shots of the consortiums will be interested in the No. 001 Experimental. So my guess is that a lot of people will gather here this time.”
“Since the Silkshade House knows there’s so many spies within the organization, why didn’t they screen the owners of the cell phones more carefully?” Milo asked.
“Of course the Silkshade House has its own screening criteria. There’s people specially monitoring each of the cell phones’ accounts.” Miriam explained, “They don’t mind people from the consortiums infiltrating their hitmen teams either. Just like right now, these people might come in handy. As you can see, even B and C-rank hitmen have also received texts this time. They’d rather have more people showing up than less. In any case, the Sacred Mountains isn’t the Silkshade House’s territory. No matter who comes here to stir up trouble, it’ll be the Pyro Company that gets affected. Because the Silkshade House is using what the Pyro Company has in their possession to attract everyone.”
Milo suddenly felt the hitmen were just tools for the Silkshade House to use.
With so many people attracted to the Sacred Mountains, the Silkshade House was probably deciding to sacrifice most of them, right? After all, not many of these people could possibly make it out alive.
“How many black markets are there in the entire Alliance of Strongholds?” Milo asked.
“A lot, but most of them don’t last long. The established ones are located outside the jurisdiction of the consortiums in no man’s land,” Miriam answered. “Like this place where we are and the one in Bidara City, they survive by operating in the gaps between the consortiums.”
“Did you come here because you hope to follow the Silkshade House teams into the mountains? Are you gonna get recognized by anyone?” Milo asked.
“No.” Miriam shook favonovel.com head and said, “I don’t interact much with the Silkshade House. Even if there’s someone I know, they’re just the logistics personnel. Also, if too many people come here, they’ll definitely set off for the Sacred Mountains in batches. My aunt and the others will surely not appear at a conspicuous place like this.”
“Is the person you know… Donella?” Milo suddenly asked. He remembered favonovel.com had seen Donella back at Bidara City.
“That’s right, Donella is one of them.” Miriam said, “Even now, favonovel.com teeth still haven’t fully grown back yet, so favonovel.com can only serve in a supporting role for now.”
There were countless rooms sitting side by side in the bomb shelter. The rooms did not have any doors and were just covered up by a simple door curtain.
When they passed by a room, Milo happened to hear some people discussing on the inside, “That White Mask has appeared as well. And it seems he’s also very interested in annihilating the Pyro Company.”
Another person said, “After all, favonovel.com was one of the main fighting forces against the Pyro Company when favonovel.com appeared at Stronghold 73 and fought in the battle where East Lake caved in. It all adds up based on this logic. However, your intel isn’t particularly valuable. The entire time, you didn’t mention what superpowers favonovel.com had, nor revealed his identity. You don’t even know the sniper’s identity. Besides, you must’ve heard of this from other people. Since you weren’t onsite at that time, this is just secondhand info you didn’t personally witness. As such, after discount, I’ll only pay you 10,000 perak at most.”
“10,000 perak? That’s too little!”
“Listen, aren’t you going to the Sacred Mountains with the members of the Silkshade House? I’m guessing White Mask will definitely be there as well. At that time, if you can confirm what his superpower is, I’ll pay you 500,000 perak. If you can confirm his identity too, I’ll add another one million perak on top of that. The identity of the sniper is also worth another 500,000 perak!”
Milo looked at Miriam who was beside him.
Miriam cast a glance at favonovel.com and said in a low voice, “Are you thinking of selling yourself out?”
“Who’s eavesdropping outside?” When the people inside heard someone talking outside, they lifted the curtain and rushed out. “My info is priceless. Since you overheard us, you have to pay up!”
Milo was speechless. The people inside couldn’t possibly have heard what they just said. They only rushed out to ask for money when they realized that there were people standing outside. However, Miriam simply handed over 10,000 perak with a smile before turning around to leave.
“You gave them the money just like that?” Milo said unhappily, “Why should we pay them!?”
“That’s the rule of the black market.” Miriam smiled and said, “Since the rooms at the black market do not have doors, it leads to another kind of business, extortion. The people inside might have heard our footsteps, so they deliberately talked about some useless info for us to hear. As long as we hear it, we have to pay for it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to pay, but you can’t enter this black market in the future.”
“They’re using info to extort money…” Milo smacked his lips. “It really takes all sorts to make a world. You already knew about this rule, didn’t you? Why didn’t you warn me?”
Miriam said with a smile, “It slipped my mind too, but never mind. Isn’t that person going to the Sacred Mountains as well? It looks like we’ll be traveling together, so it’s not like the money is lost yet.”
Milo looked at this girl from behind and thought favonovel.com could sometimes be even more ruthless than him.
The two of them continued walking until Miriam saw a marking in the hallway of the bomb shelter. Then they turned and went inside that room.
The marking was not complicated. It was just a triangular symbol formed by the intersection of three straight lines. It seemed this was the mark of the Silkshade House.
Before this, Milo did not know much about what the underworld was like, and Olivia only had a passing knowledge. Therefore, when Miriam led favonovel.com into the bomb shelter, it was as though favonovel.com had revealed another world to him.
After lifting the door curtain, Miriam surveyed the room first. Before favonovel.com continued on in, favonovel.com had to be sure no one inside the room knew her.
The people in the room carefully sized up Milo and Miriam. But when they realized one of them had a hood over his head and the other was wearing a cap, they turned their gazes away since they could not see their faces clearly. Only one of the people in the room was still staring excitedly at Milo.
Miriam said in a low voice, “I don’t know anyone in here.”
Milo was at a loss. “But I do…”
The Great Hoodwinker was sitting comfortably in the room and smiling happily at Milo with yellow teeth.
