Quadruple split.

The unevenness at the level of Chapter 2860

"After all, if they weren't colluding with the murderer, I really can't imagine why [Gold Coins and Dancers] would have more detailed information than my [Nightless District Inn]."

……

As soon as Junwu finished speaking, everyone's gaze immediately and subconsciously turned to the smiling Mr. She. Although they all remained calm on the surface, a hint of apprehension inevitably crept into their eyes.

Mr. She himself remained as gentlemanly and calm as ever, smiling as he asked Jun Wu, "So, Mr. Jun, do you mean that I, personally, or our [Gold Coins and Dancers], collaborated with that 'Sword Tester' to murder more than one hundred of our comrades in the past week?"

"I simply conducted a basic analysis based on the facts."

Junwu adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and said in a calm and elegant tone, "After all, everyone here should know very well that when it comes to intelligence work, apart from our Wanderer's Inn, only the Thieves' Guild has a significant advantage in this area. Considering that the branch I'm in charge of has always been doing quite well in our [Nightless Zone], in terms of short-term intelligence gathering efficiency alone, it's probably even a notch above the Thieves' Guild. Do you agree, Branch Manager Dybala?"

"..."

Suddenly called upon, the Dark Elf Dybala Mist-Eyes, the branch leader of the [Nightless Zone] Thieves' Guild, draped in a gray cloak, paused for a moment before speaking slowly: "From my personal perspective, although Boss Jun is young and promising, he has only been in the City of Freedom for a short time, and has only been in charge of the Nightless Zone Inn for less than half a year. So even in terms of short-term intelligence... I don't think you can be so comprehensive and meticulous as to grasp every little detail of what is happening in every nook and cranny of the [Nightless Zone]."

Clearly, the thief guild branch leader, who had been inexplicably shot and subjected to a powerful mockery of Junwu's core business in front of everyone, did not give the former much face and even retorted with a sharp and veiled retort.

This is actually quite normal. On the one hand, Junwu had no interaction or business dealings with Dybala before this rather rushed meeting, and had not communicated even a single word about the [Sword Tester] incident in advance, so the latter was caught off guard and was kicked out of the room by a single sentence. On the other hand, it is because the businesses of the two parties have a certain degree of overlap. The relationship between the Wanderer's Inn and the Thieves' Guild is very delicate. Although they often cooperate, they are generally in a state of mutual competition.

Of course, as a seasoned veteran who had been in the Free City for countless years, Dybala wouldn't risk offending Junwu, the hostel's key prospect, with just a few words. So he immediately followed up with a smile: "However, I also believe that someone as outstanding as Boss Jun will definitely achieve remarkable results given a little more time. Unlike someone like me who has no ambition and only wants to do my job well, it's very likely that it won't be long before you're transferred to a high position at the hostel headquarters and become a big shot that I can only dream of."

It's clear that he spoke very cleverly. First, his attitude remained neither humble nor arrogant, which prevented him from losing his momentum and even gave him the air of a senior and pioneer. Second, every word he spoke was true, especially his judgment on Junwu's future, which perfectly matched the hostel's expectations for this rising star. So, putting aside those who were unaware of the situation, at least the person in question would find it very pleasing.

Unfortunately, although Dybala's words were impeccable, Mr. Jun didn't seem to like playing by the rules, and so—

“I remember that the Dybala chapter president seemed to have been investigating something recently.”

Junwu leaned back lazily in her chair and said in a light tone, "That person should be your right-hand man, the elite one codenamed 'Wolf Scorpion,' right? The one who disappeared shortly after being sent there to support an exploration mission and hasn't returned since. You've reluctantly declared him 'permanently missing.'"

Dybala, who had persisted in investigating for over two months before reluctantly giving up on 'Wolf Scorpion,' widened his eyes and whispered, "Could it be that you, Boss Jun, are..."

"Let's get to the conclusion first. That 'wolf-scorpion' brother is indeed not coming back. The only thing that needs to be changed is that he didn't disappear, but rather 'died' in the literal sense."

Despite it being her first time attending such a large-scale meeting, Jun Wu remained calm and composed, and said with a slight smile, "As for the reason, you can understand it as follows: their group found a secret realm in the Dark Swamp, but because the things inside were too unpredictable, almost everyone died inside."

"This……"

Dybala looked at Jun Wu with suspicion and uncertainty, his expression unusually stiff. After a long while, he took a deep breath and asked slowly, "Mr. Jun, can you guarantee the authenticity of this information?"

"sure."

Junwu nodded with an air of matter-of-fact, and then said, "By the way, the reason why the last batch of people you sent out to gather intelligence didn't come back is because they found something real, and were dealt with by the [Queen Bees] under the command of the regent of the Violet Empire."

This time, Dybala finally lost his composure. His pupils suddenly contracted as he stared intently at Jun Wu's calm and handsome face, and asked in astonishment, "You mean the special operations force under the regent of Violet? Why...?"

"Don't worry, Branch Master. I can assure you that at least you don't have any conflict of interest right now. As for the fact that your people were silenced, it wasn't a provocation, but a premeditated murder out of desperation. So you can understand that the Regent didn't have any intention of targeting you, and his [Queen Bees] didn't consider you and the Thieves Guild Nightless Branch as enemies."

Junwu shrugged and chuckled, "Of course, if you still send people to Violet to gather intelligence even after you already know these things, especially intelligence that His Highness Regent Xiu Blaisen cares about a lot, then how he will react... is something that a nobody like me can't possibly guess."

Dybala clenched his fists: "Boss Junwu—"

"The rest are mostly paid content."

Junwu interrupted him lightly, saying leisurely, "If the branch leader is interested, you can come to my shop sometime later. As for now, let's get back to the main topic. Where were we... Oh, right, it was about the fact that my Nightless District Inn might have a lot of room for improvement in intelligence gathering?"

Dybala chuckled dryly, then took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "I can personally guarantee that, at least compared to our No Nights Thieves' Guild, Boss Jun is definitely much stronger in terms of intelligence. As for how much of a difference, I don't know."

"You are too modest."

Junwu smiled at Dybala, then turned back to Mr. She, who maintained a calm smile, and said softly, "In short, as I said before, given that even our inn struggles to obtain such accurate information, Mr. She's detailed and specific 'supplementary explanation' just now seemed rather strange, to the point that I had a stress reaction due to an extremely strong sense of crisis. I'm truly sorry."

Boss Jun, who seemed completely unconcerned about the crisis and even looked like he wanted to laugh, patted his chest and bowed his head, as if he were apologizing.

"Haha, Mr. Jun, please don't say that." Mr. She immediately returned Jun Wu's bow and smiled, "I completely understand your thoughts, and I can responsibly assure you all that neither I, the Gold Coin Merchant Guild, nor anyone from [Gold Coins and Dancers] have participated in the murder of any of the victims in the past week."

Junwu nodded slightly and said in a light tone, "I believe you."

"but……"

However, Mr. She changed the subject and said seriously, "But Mr. Jun is right about one thing. The information I told everyone before was not collected through normal channels, but was bought from someone else last night."

"Bought it?"

Carter Hammer's eyes widened, and he hurriedly asked, "Where did you buy it? Could it be from the Lord...?"

"Of course it couldn't be from Boss Jun's place."

Mr. She casually interrupted the man who was testing him, and who was acting with a sense of righteousness because he had just paid money, and said crisply, "I bought it from the real culprit."

【? ! 】

In an instant, apart from Carter who directly probed, most of the 'bosses' around the long table were also completely bewildered, staring blankly at Mr. She, all looking like they wanted to say something but didn't know what to say.

Ultimately, it's because the "Gold Coins and Dancers" club holds a rather unparalleled position in the 13th Street of the East District of the "Never-Night Zone," making it a place where few can afford to offend it.

This isn't because the Gold Coin Merchant Guild is more powerful than forces like the Wanderer's Inn or the Thieves' Guild; it's simply because their administrative ranks are different.

In short, the Gold Coin Merchant Guild has more than fifty branches of the same scale in the entire Free City, and its branch leaders are at a similar level to Junwu of the Wanderer's Inn and Dybala of the Thieves' Guild.

The "Dawn and Dusk Zone," which encompasses the areas of No Night, Gray Day, Deep River, and Red Rust, has an additional branch located in a prime location within a neighborhood, making it a "Regional Zone," a level above the "Neighborhood Zone."

As for Bella Street, where the Caeves Mansion is located, or Cammy Street, where the Pighead Butcher is located, they are the lowest-level streets. Even if they can control the discourse power of the entire street, their influence is still among the lowest in the Free City.

The East District Thirteenth Street, which literally belongs to the eastern part of the Nightless District, is a "street-level" area, which is below the "community level" and above the "street level". At this moment, the East District Thirteenth Street is in a state of leaderlessness, so much so that it does not even have the qualifications to represent the street in the community-level meeting to share the pie.

In summary, the representatives attending this meeting can be divided into three categories:

The first tier consists of 'neighborhood-level' leaders like Junwu and Dybala. The main reason these people are here is to attend as witnesses and to give Mr. She, who organized the meeting, face. As for the matter itself... to be honest, a mere 'neighborhood-level' benefit is not enough to make these people go to great lengths to engage in any conspiracies or tricks.

However, it is worth mentioning that Junwu is currently still in the 'internship period' in principle, so the hostel headquarters has not given him much authority. Even though he is nominally a 'community-level' manager, his influence is actually limited to the 13th Street area of ​​the East District. If he wants to grow bigger and stronger, he will have to find another way besides gaining seniority. So, it is not unreasonable to doubt him.

The second tier consists of street-level leaders such as David, the leader of Cammy Street; Carter, the leader of Spike Street; and Cole, the leader of Bella Street. This group is also the biggest victim and suspect in this incident.

Finally, there is Mr. She of [Gold Coins and Dancers]. The reason why this gentleman has a superior status is that the Gold Coin Merchant Guild has only opened four high-end clubs in the entire Free City. They are [Gold Coins and King] in the 'Gemstone' administrative district, [Gold Coins and Young Master] in the 'Moonstone' administrative district, [Gold Coins and Princess] in the 'Garden' administrative district, and [Gold Coins and Dancers] in the 'Glass' administrative district.

In other words, as someone who has influence in [Gold Coins and Dancers], this Mr. She can almost be considered a big shot at the 'governing district' level. Although the club is indeed located within the 13th district of East Street, his status is completely incomparable to those present.

As for Carter's provocation, its purpose was singular: to confirm whether Mr. She had organized this meeting in his personal capacity or in his capacity as the head of [Gold Coins and Dancers].

The result of the test was obvious: Mr. She's act of openly robbing Cartel of nearly 300,000 gold coins without hesitation proved his position.

In this situation, Carter unhesitatingly chose to compromise with a "naive and impulsive" attitude, showing no cunning whatsoever, perfectly controlling the situation within the scope of "the provocation of a naive and impulsive gang leader," rather than stepping into the red line he had deliberately set out to test whether the other party was the head of the administrative district.

The reason is simple: they are different in nature.

When thugs cause trouble and run into a tough opponent, all you need to do is make the thugs bleed a little, break their teeth and swallow it, lose some face, and that's it.

But if they were to pick a fight with an administrative district-level official, openly test them, and put on a show of taking things easy and casually, paying for their advice... then the Black Axe Brotherhood would probably be wiped out completely tomorrow.

As for those three hundred thousand gold coins...

Is it worth the money?
It's just a joke, just forget about it.

Chapter 2851: The End