Uncle here isn't your average office worker!

"You hit a little too hard. Turn around, don't look."

Roy covered Sona's eyes with his hand while casually tossing a ball of fire that set the corpse in front of him ablaze.

He does know some of the most basic Originium Arts.

The bounty hunter was blown in the head by a piece of glass. Theoretically, this is a bit difficult, but Roy used some tricks. The [Heavy Mountain] module can turn any object Roy touches into a weapon that is threatening enough for a short time. To put it simply, it's like a furniture store god of war. To put it in a more sophisticated way, it's like flying flowers and leaves can all hurt people.

Most bounty hunters are thieves and bandits with some skill. Roy had dealt with them before and knew quite a bit about the trade. After instantly killing the leader to demonstrate the difference in strength, Roy casually grabbed a hunter who was trying to escape and asked him directly:

"Who sent you here? Who's the boss? Fire Lung, Yellow Smoke, or Toran?"

The captured bounty hunter hesitated for a moment before mustering his courage to answer, "It's Toran!"

Roy rolled his eyes. There was no need to interrogate him; this kid was definitely lying.

Roy had worked with Toran before and knew roughly the character of this Sarkaz bounty hunter. Although people in this line of work weren't exactly good and their hands were certainly not clean, they wouldn't stoop so low as to make a living by buying and selling people in the city.

Moreover, if he really did that, the first person to not forgive him wouldn't be Roy, but Marner.

Roy wasn't in a hurry to tell the truth. It was broad daylight, and the mall had plenty of windows, so the sunlight was glaring. Roy didn't care at all.

He released the hunter's hand, waved to the still-panicked infected, and said:

"Come here, one."

The infected looked at each other, and finally a young man stepped forward. He walked cautiously to Roy's side, head bowed, and asked:

"what happened?"

“Is your Oripathy serious?” Roy asked.

The young man pursed his lips and shook his head.

"Where is the lesion located?" Roy asked again.

The young man didn't know what Roy was planning to do, so he could only show the Originium crystal on his wrist.

Roy nodded: "Want revenge?"

The young man paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Of course."

Roy stretched out his hand, pointed at the hunter, and said, "Use your hands to give him a few big slaps, keep beating him until he's willing to tell the truth."

He glanced at the hunter, his smile like that of a demon:

"Let me share some basic knowledge with you. Skin contact with Originium crystals will not cause Oripathy, but if it comes into contact with a wound, the infection rate is almost 100%."

"You only have two things to do now. First, figure out who your boss is and whether you want to betray him. Second, beg this infected person you look down on to go easy on you and not leave a wound on the first hit."

"Let's do it."

After saying that, he turned around and walked straight to the next hunter.

"Wait, wait, I said... Ah!"

The pleas for mercy stopped abruptly. Roy seemed to have completely ignored the hunter's cries and then asked the next hunter:

"Who is your boss?"

Hearing his companions' screams and cries, the hunter was clearly terrified. He had never considered the infected as people like them, but he never imagined that one day he would suffer the same treatment, or even have to pin his future on the mercy and conscience of the infected. He couldn't help but sob softly.

But Roy showed him absolutely no sympathy.

He despised two types of people the most in his life: traitors and human traffickers.

They're all seasoned veterans; surely Roy knows Colombia inside and out. He knows exactly what would happen to these infected people if they were sold to Colombia. He's not the world's policeman and can't be at every crime scene every moment, but since he's happened to be there, none of these people will walk out of here unscathed.

"explain."

That single, cold word shattered the hunter's illusions, and he quickly replied:

"It's Dominic, Dominic! He's a soldier from Ursus. He was defeated in the war and fled here with a group of men, where he started his own army!"

"war?"

Roy frowned, and the man immediately replied:

"It was the war in which the Knights of Eternity led their army to hold off Ursus."

It's true.

One of the biggest problems in war is the rout of soldiers. Defeated soldiers, their morale shattered, easily turn into bandits. Possessing standard weapons and a degree of military discipline, they are often outmatched by ordinary police or civilians, making it easy for them to develop into large gangs. They generally have low moral standards and harbor immense malice towards the enemy, readily venting their anger over defeat on innocent civilians, often becoming the most dangerous group.

Although Roy managed to defeat the army group, he couldn't possibly control every single soldier. Perhaps for the entire Kazimir region, the escaped group posed no real threat, but for ordinary civilians, a band of soldiers and bandits could wreak havoc on the entire town.

Roy sighed. This was a legacy issue he himself had left behind, and he had to resolve it personally. He asked, "Do you have a map? Where is the base?"

The hunter instinctively raised his head and looked at one of the remaining seven hunters.

Roy immediately noticed this subtle movement, turned around, and waved:

"Come here. Do you have the map?"

The hunter nodded immediately.

Roy then turned around, ignoring the bounty hunter who was barely breathing, and stopped the infected man, whose eyes were clearly bloodshot, letting him return to the infected crowd. He then walked towards Sona.

"Don't you think I'm being a little too cruel?"

"No." Sona stubbornly raised her head, but her eyes still darted away.

Roy had anticipated this. After all, who would have thought that the Knight of the Ages, a dignified knight champion, would be so ruthless in killing, and even torture his enemies?

He wasn't upset that Sona treated him differently; on the contrary, he was surprised that she could remain calm and speak to him normally.

As expected of the leader of the Red Pine Knights, he's the kind of person who would dare to take on the task of pulling the power switch for the Business Federation in the future.

"Are you going to arrest that human trafficker boss?" Sona asked.

Roy gave an affirmative answer: "So I have to leave for a while. But the task of clearing out the criminals in Plot Zero can't stop. It's about Plot Zero. Go to this address and find someone; she'll take my place."

Roy took a business card out of his pocket and handed it to Sona.

This is Marner's business card.

Although he hasn't had a chance to visit the Rinko family's new house in person yet, Roy has already gotten his hands on the business cards.

As for whether it will be Margaret or Marna who comes, Roy thinks it doesn't matter.

"Ding Ding Ding-"

Just as he finished speaking, Roy's phone suddenly rang.

Roy pulled out his phone; the caller ID showed Dorothy, who sounded somewhat anxious.

“Mr. Roy? This is Dorothy.”

"Ferdinand succeeded, and Project Balrog was put on hold. However, a bigger problem has arisen."

"Hemer has been taken away by the commander."

Volume 1: Chapter 251 Conditions and Secret Talks

Columbia, Rhine Life, Headquarters Office.

For Rhine Lab, the Director was a remarkable figure. She almost never appeared in public except at the company's annual meeting, and few knew her specific research interests, yet her presence was felt throughout Rhine Lab. None of the department heads could ignore her authority.

She established a rule that research in each department should be independent and undisturbed, indulged a series of inhumane experiments, cooperated with the military, dealt with the government, and continuously expanded the scope of Rhine Lab's operations and research fields, but almost never presided over any specific research project.

If it weren't for her research papers on the sky and celestial bodies published in magazines and journals, which are still cited by scientists in Terra today, and if her parents weren't so famous, people would probably think she was just a scientist in name only, and actually just a rather special businesswoman.

Himer had only ever glanced at the Commander from afar before. This was the first time she had faced Christen head-on. She could feel Christen's scrutinizing gaze, her invisible pressure, and she could also sense that Christen wasn't truly focusing on her, but rather pondering or considering something.

In this spacious yet somewhat empty headquarters office, a tense atmosphere pervaded the air, with only silence spreading throughout.

Finally, the commander-in-chief seemed to snap out of his reverie and slowly began to speak:

“Olivia Hamer... a research intern, right?”

Himer nodded somewhat nervously: "Yes, it is."

"Have a seat." The manager held out his hand, gesturing to a chair beside him, indicating that Hamer should pull it over and sit down. He then stood up and walked to one of the few pieces of furniture in the office: a coffee machine.

"Want some?" she asked casually.

Just as Himer was about to answer, he saw Christen turn back around, so he shut his mouth and shook his head.

"Too bad, the coffee here is pretty good, Seria brought it back." Christen shrugged. "Let's get down to business."

She suddenly changed the subject, catching Himer off guard:

"Are you trying to take Ifrit away from Rhine Labs?"

These words sent a chill down Hermès' spine. She didn't know who had leaked the information, but she felt that everyone around her had become untrustworthy.

Thinking about it carefully, anyone could be the traitor. The two researchers might be doing it for a promotion, Saria might be doing it to continue covering up the truth, and even Director Dorothy, although she just joined Rhine Lab and promised to help her, could very well betray herself, a lowly employee, in exchange for more research funding or something else.

After witnessing Professor Palvis's illegal experiments and being caught in the act of spying on the Balrog Project information in his office, Himer had no more expectations for the moral standards of the Tremont scientists.

But the commander-in-chief unexpectedly sighed, looking at Himer with a somewhat bored expression, and tapped the table listlessly with his fingers, saying:

"No need to guess. I figured it out myself."

"This is still Rhine Lab, after all. Do you really think you can hide your little tricks from me?"

Himer looked up in surprise at Christen, his expression filled with disbelief.