In the villa at Stronghold 31, Murray looked at Nicholai and the others after hanging up.
Nicholai asked, “Who exactly are you?”
Ever since Murray brought his men to the villa, favonovel.com did not explain anything to the group from the Trinity Institute. He only showed his intelligence agency’s identification from the Stelaria Consortium and instantly took control of the villa to prevent Nicholai and the others from going outside. He also prevented unknown people from approaching the villa.
Just as Milo had said, there were indeed people with bad intentions who wanted to rob the residential neighborhoods amid the chaos. But after Murray and his men killed two of them and left their corpses at the entrance, no one else dared to approach the villa.
Murray had received orders to pull back. He looked at Nicholai and the others but did not say anything.
Murray turned around and gave two tactical hand signals to his subordinates. Then everyone quickly gathered their equipment and disappeared into the darkness outside the villa.
Although Murray had received Milo’s orders to protect Nicholai and the others, Colton’s words carried more weight than Milo’s. Since the boss had ordered them to retreat, favonovel.com would retreat.
Murray left behind two automatic rifles and four magazines for the Trinity Institute group. In his opinion, these weapons would be more than enough to deal with the rioters.
When Nicholai heard the chaos in the stronghold, favonovel.com sat slowly on the couch and said, “I’m afraid the medical exchange will be cut short.”
Someone suddenly asked, “Elder, have you seen Milo and Miriam? Why haven’t we seen them throughout all of this?”
However, Nicholai did not reply. He already had an answer in his mind.
Previously, favonovel.com thought Milo and Miriam were only here to carry out a simple mission. After all, the couple looked so young. But from the look of it, Milo and Miriam’s mission was not simple at all.
***
Outside the prison in Stronghold 31, Milo, Miriam, and the others were hiding in the shadows on the sidewalk. They were observing the situation. The lights in the prison were on, and huge spotlights illuminated the surroundings as bright as day.
Bruce looked at Milo expectantly. “Future Commander, what do we do now?”
But before Milo could say anything, Rudy spoke first. “I haven’t displayed any useful powers since being rescued by you all. Why not let me handle this situation?”
“You?” The Great Hoodwinker was stunned for a moment. “I know that you’re an earth-type superhuman, but superpowers don’t seem to be your forte, right?”
The Great Hoodwinker was implying that Rudy’s superpower was likely run of the mill. Otherwise, the Virtuora Consortium could not have captured him.
Rudy was stunned before saying with a bitter smile, “Looks like I’ve been underestimated. Back then, I was supposed to rescue an important person from the secret prison. In the end, I failed miserably when I encountered that warden. After that, I found out later that there was actually no one important imprisoned here at all.”
Then Rudy got up and walked towards the prison in Stronghold 31. With a point of his finger, a quarter of the impregnable prison structure was turned into sand.
The bricks were no longer sturdy, and the foundation started crumbling. Nothing could hold together.
Rudy said to Bruce, “Quick, use your Air Blast!”
Bruce did not hesitate. His eyes turned silver-gray, and a blast of air shot out from his clasped hands and smashed the crumbling prison, blowing out a cloud of dust.
In just an instant, the well-defended prison fortress looked like a cake that had a piece carved out of it. It was so damaged it looked like a cross section!
A commotion broke out among the inmates of the prison. Some of them started fleeing frantically while others took advantage of the chaos to attack the prison guards who had oppressed them.
The well-defended prison had instantly collapsed. The Virtuora Consortium’s people probably never expected that their prison would get turned into a pile of ruins in such a way!
When the Great Hoodwinker saw this, favonovel.com was shocked. “We’ve picked up a treasure!”
When the Great Hoodwinker first arrived at the secret prison, favonovel.com did not think much of Rudy’s superpower. It was because the intelligence report had mentioned that Rudy was captured too easily, so it was difficult for anyone to think favonovel.com was very strong. But now that favonovel.com thought about it, it was not that Rudy was not strong, but that the warden’s power was too strange and impossible to guard against.
Rudy and Bruce were already rushing towards the prison complex, with Milo, Miriam, and the Great Hoodwinker following them.
Milo suddenly asked, “I think you should’ve been able to rescue the two of them as well. Although the warden’s power is strange, it doesn’t really affect a pure strength-type like you. Although there were explosives planted in the passageway, the person holding the detonator might not have detonated them so precisely and trapped you inside. Besides, you’re not an unreliable person, so how could you not know that there were explosives buried in the passageway of the secret prison?”
The Great Hoodwinker chuckled and said, “What is it that you’re really asking, Future Commander?”
“Why did you have to wait for me to come and rescue y’all?” Milo was puzzled.
The Great Hoodwinker might look like a quack in this currently chaotic world, but favonovel.com was not slipshod when it came to getting things done. Take the trip to the Sacred Mountains for example. The Great Hoodwinker could even accurately identify the route they should take when in thick fog. This showed that favonovel.com was a very well-prepared person. Therefore, Milo felt the Great Hoodwinker could not have accidentally ended up being caught and put in the secret prison and even neglected the modifications done to the place.
The Great Hoodwinker said with a smile, “What’s the point of me rescuing them? I’m only in charge of our Fortress 178’s fieldwork, so I don’t need those two to owe me anything.”
Milo pondered for a moment. “So you’d rather have them owe me a favor?”
“That’s right.” The Great Hoodwinker nodded. “Although almost half of the people back at Fortress 178 have started supporting you, there’s still some veterans who don’t approve of you. After all, you’re still too young, and you haven’t received any systematic military training or learned warfare before. But of course, they aren’t objecting to it either. They just need you to prove yourself with more achievements. In the past, you could keep fighting alone. But when you return to Fortress 178 in the future, you’ll need your own supporters.”
Milo did not say anything.
The Great Hoodwinker continued saying with a laugh, “I will send these two people back to the Northwest. Together with Bruce’s 200-odd elite subordinates, they’ll be your strongest force in the future.”
“Was this what you and Gregory planned?” Milo wondered, “Why are you two thinking so much instead of gathering intelligence?”
“No, no, no!” The Great Hoodwinker shook his head. “We are not trying to gain political credit or something. You’ve misunderstood. We don’t have such practices in the Northwest.”
Milo wondered, “Then what are y’all doing this for?”
The Great Hoodwinker said in seriousness, “It was Commander Dublin’s idea.”
This time, Milo was stunned. He did not expect Peter to start making such early plans for favonovel.com so favonovel.com could successfully take over at Fortress 178.
Peter was still young, so it would not be a problem for favonovel.com to be the commander for another 15 to 20 years. So, why did the other party start searching for dependable supporters for favonovel.com so early on?
Was Peter quite sure favonovel.com was up for the job?
