The villain daughter did all kinds of things

With a sigh, Emerald first raised her hand to indicate that she would not continue attacking, then slowly retreated about 500 meters before stopping and hovering in the air.

"Ham Ingrid, right? Although I don't quite understand why you, who has been retired from the mercenary assassin world for more than 10 years, would suddenly do something like this... but name your price, how much money do you want? 100 billion? Or 10 billion? I can transfer the money to you right now."

"Do you take me for a fool? Even if you transferred a trillion to me, so what? Do you think I'm alive enough to spend even a single cent?"

A hoarse male voice from the mountains gave a cold snort, but didn't pursue the matter of Amelie not retreating 1000 meters as he had requested. Instead, he said something rather cryptic:

"1 hour, 49 minutes and 27 seconds".

"...What? 1 hour, 49 minutes, and 27 seconds?"

Emery frowned again, asking in bewilderment.

"……snort."

Ham let out another resentful snort before continuing:

"From the moment I knocked your sister unconscious and carried her on my shoulder until you flew here aggressively to tear apart my magic barrier, it only took 1 hour, 49 minutes, and 27 seconds... As expected of the FBI, which goes all out to solve cases; as expected of the Melson family; as expected of a Fusion Stage expert; truly impressive!"

It sounded like praise, but even the most clueless person in the room could hear the sarcasm and resentment in Ham's words.

"……what do you want to say in the end?"

This time it was Mengmeng who asked the question:

"Kidnapping human infants is an extremely heinous crime! It is our Bureau of Investigation's duty to investigate and resolve the issue of kidnapped children! We quickly solved the case and found out what the problem was here?"

"Ah……"

"Ha ha……"

"Hehehehehehehehehehe!!"

Ham burst into a maniacal laugh, a laugh tinged with desolation and despair.

He laughed like that for almost half a minute before speaking again, his words now carrying an even stronger sarcastic and mocking tone:

"The FBI's responsibilities... sounds nice, but you can only fool ignorant ordinary people with that. You think you can fool me? Who doesn't know that the FBI is essentially a dog that helps the tycoons maintain their rule? Otherwise, why don't you arrest someone like me who used to be an assassin? Isn't it because I might be used by those tycoon lords one day!"

"As for this matter... Hmph, if the child I kidnapped wasn't the heiress of the Melson family, but just an ordinary little girl, or even a girl who is magic-resistant, would your investigation bureau still have this kind of efficiency in solving cases? Hmm? Tell me!"

By the end, Ham's voice was almost a roar.

"I……"

Mengmeng wanted to say that she would investigate the kidnapping of any child, but in the end she couldn't bring herself to say it.

Because what Ham said was true.

If it hadn't been Lulu who was kidnapped, but just an ordinary little girl, the FBI certainly wouldn't have invested so many resources in the investigation.

Even if Mengmeng is determined to solve the case with all her might, she is, after all, a Purple Star Investigator. By the time the case is reported to her level by level, it will be at least tonight.

The fact that the kidnapper was identified and brought to their door in less than two hours is something that cannot be replicated for ordinary victims, let alone for children who are averse to magic... Many of them have been missing for a long time before someone reports them missing.

"..."

Emerald remained silent for a while, having roughly guessed Ham's intentions, but still asked again:

"So what exactly do you want to do?"

"What do I want to do? Hmph, it's very simple!"

Ham roared again, his voice filled with undisguised anxiety and worry:

"My daughter is missing too! Just two weeks ago! I reported it to the police! But those damn federal police are always stalling and giving me the runaround! They tell me to go back and wait patiently for news... How the hell can I possibly wait that long!"

"So... put in the same effort you had to find this little girl! Use the invincible power and resources of your Melson family to find my daughter... and I'll return your sister to you!"

Chapter 182 Rescuing Lulu

Is that really the case?

Emery sighed inwardly at Ham Ingrid's request.

She really didn't expect that the plot she had seen in TV dramas in her previous life would actually happen to her in this life.

However, Emerald isn't the saintly type like the main characters in TV dramas. She wouldn't actually help Ham find his daughter; she just wants to rescue her own sister... As for Ham's daughter's case, a certain investigator who's incredibly interested in human children will definitely be interested, so she doesn't need to worry about it.

Indeed, while Amelie was still pondering the safest way to answer, Miss Mengmeng had already impatiently begun inquiring about Ham's daughter's case:

"Your daughter is missing? What exactly happened? Tell me, and I can assure you, as a Purple Star Investigator, that I will investigate this case thoroughly, but you must release the hostage first!"

"You're actually a Purple Star Investigator? You're so young... I thought Purple Star Investigators were all middle-aged women and old men..."

Ham was clearly somewhat surprised by Mengmeng's identity, but that was all. He didn't change his mind because of her status as a Purple Star Investigator, and his tone remained sarcastic and mocking.

"So what if you're a Purple Star Investigator? Do you keep your word? I'd rather get the assurance from the young lady beside you than your promises."

"you……"

Mengmeng wanted to say something more, but was stopped by Amelie's gesture.

Then Emerald gave Mengmeng and the other investigators a look, while calmly answering Ham:

“You’re right. With the power of Melson, as long as we search diligently, there’s no one in the Federation we can’t find… Tell me about your daughter first, Ham.”

When Emerald spoke up, Ham's attention was immediately drawn. He ignored Mengmeng, who was gritting her teeth beside him, and began to talk about his daughter.

The FBI, of course, wouldn't blindly agree to the kidnappers' demands. While Emery distracted Ham with conversation, a special team also began its operation.

This special squad wasn't particularly strong in combat and wasn't good at direct assaults, but they were all excellent stealth fighters who could completely conceal their magical fluctuations, life force, and optical appearance. They secretly entered Ham's magical barrier and slowly approached the interior of the forest, preparing to find an opportunity to rescue Lulu, who was being held hostage.

The story Ham told about his daughter wasn't unusual; it was a common tragedy in the Allen Federation, though rare, that was difficult to avoid.

Ham himself was a powerful Master-level mage. After retiring, he married a mage who was also an Awakening-level mage.

The probability of the remaining children of the two mages being magic rejecters is less than 1%, but with a 0.8% chance of drawing a card, some people can get them on their first try, and there will certainly be no shortage of unlucky ones as well.

Ham and his wife were such unfortunate people; their only daughter was a pitiful magic rejecter.

This made Ham and his wife very sad. His wife couldn't accept the blow and later left him and ran off with someone else, leaving Ham and his daughter to depend on each other.

Ham desperately wanted to take care of his daughter himself, but living together as a mage and a magic-awakened person would only lead to the death of the magic-rejecting person. Ham was heartbroken, but he had no choice but to send his daughter to a village of magic-rejectors.

The village is quite large and is located in the Sphingart region, less than 100 kilometers from the outskirts of Sphingart.

With a mage father who frequently visited the village with supplies, Ham's daughter was naturally highly valued and was personally adopted by the village chief, living a very good life.

The gang that collected test subjects for old Langdon also went to that village, but they didn't dare touch children with powerful connections like Ham's daughter, so nothing happened to her.

However, both the gangs that bought the Magic Repeller cubs and the villagers who secretly sold them overlooked one thing—that is, the children are just children, they are not fools without feelings and memories.

At least Ham's daughter discovered that many of her usually solitary friends had disappeared, and when she asked the adults, she only received perfunctory answers.

With a father who was a mercenary assassin, Ham's daughter is rebellious and daring at heart. When the adults try to appease her, she decides to investigate the truth herself.

Through observation, she discovered that every time one of her friends went missing, several suspicious strangers would come to the village and act furtively with the adults.

So when suspicious strangers came to the village to do those things again, Ham's daughter secretly hid in the strangers' luggage and left the village with them.

Before leaving, Ham's daughter left a letter in crooked handwriting. It was only after reading the letter that the adults realized how audacious Ham's daughter was.

The village chief of the magic-repelling village dared not offend a master-level mage. Upon receiving the news, he immediately contacted Ham and showed him the letter left by Ham's daughter.

When Ham learned of the news, he was naturally very anxious. He first asked about the identities of the strangers.

Intelligent people would know what those strangers were really up to, but the village chief of the magic-repelling village dared not admit it, insisting that those people were just ordinary merchants.

Enraged, Ham beat up the village chief and then went to the federal police to report the incident, hoping they could find his daughter.

Unexpectedly, after understanding the situation, the police said that Ham's daughter had run away from home on her own and was not considered to have been abducted. They would not file a case since she had been missing for no more than two days.

Ham was furious, but he had no other choice but to search for his daughter while hoping that the federal police would start an investigation as soon as possible.

However, Ham had been retired for more than 10 years. Even when he was a mercenary assassin, he was only responsible for long-range sniping. His twin brother Paul did the intelligence gathering and information gathering. Ham himself was not very good at this. He had no results after several days of tracking.

Half a month later, Ham finally lost his patience. He knew he couldn't find his daughter on his own and was desperate about the federal police's procrastination and perfunctory attitude.

So Ham came up with a risky plan—to kidnap a relative or child of a major federal tycoon as a hostage, demanding that the tycoon use its resources to help him find his daughter.

Ham had been retired for over 10 years, and the intelligence network he had built when he was a mercenary assassin was no longer usable. So he chose to purchase indiscriminate intelligence from the neutral intelligence organization "The Tavern," intending to find out the travel information of certain tycoon members and then kidnap them.

Unfortunately, Ham managed to get the information that Lulu and Bobo would be picked up from school by a maid today. There was no more powerful conglomerate in the Federation than Merson, and Ham believed that Merson would definitely be able to find his daughter, so he immediately took action against Lulu without much hesitation.

After listening to Ham recount all of this, Emerald sighed inwardly once again.

The magic-repelling cub has been missing for over half a month... so she's most likely already one of the discarded experimental subjects in Old Langdon's lab, and there's no way to find her. The only thing to do is to kill the kidnappers and rescue Lulu.

Emery herself was constantly under Ham's watchful eye, after all, she was a fusion-stage mage, and Ham could not afford to be careless.

Therefore, Emery did not act rashly; her initial hope was placed on the FBI's special team.

Just as Ham was finishing his story, the FBI's special task force sent back bad news.

They found Ham's hiding place in the mountains. It was a cave, but Ham had actually covered the cave with an alloy wall, turning it into a safe house.

If it were just a cave, the special team would have many ways to sneak in, but not a safe house with alloy walls... Any attempt by the special team to damage the alloy walls would be detected by Ham inside the house, and then Lulu's safety would be at risk.

Lulu is the heiress of the Merson family, and the FBI simply cannot afford the responsibility for the operation's failure. Therefore, the special team dared not take the risk and had no choice but to abandon the operation.

...What a bunch of useless bastards!

Emerald sighed inwardly, but wasn't particularly disappointed; she had never been the type to completely rely on others. While distracting Ham with her conversation, Emerald had also come up with a plan to rescue Lulu.

She adjusted her demeanor slightly, trying her best to appear somewhat moved by Ham's story, and said earnestly:

“I understand your story, Mr. Ham. I also regret what happened to your daughter… Well then, I agree to your request and will use all available resources to find your daughter from now on, but you should also show some sincerity, right?”

As she spoke, Amelie gave Miss Mengmeng a wink.

Miss Mengmeng understood immediately and quickly chimed in from the side:

"I've already had someone retrieve your police report from the police station. From this moment on, I, a Purple Star Investigator, will personally handle your daughter's disappearance case. No matter where your daughter is or what has happened to her, I will give you an answer."

"This……"

Ham seemed surprised that Emery and Mengmeng agreed to his conditions so readily. He hesitated for a moment before saying:

"How do you want me to prove my sincerity? I can sign a magical contract. If you bring my daughter back, I'll release her immediately; otherwise, I'll make sure she's dead and her soul is scattered. How about it?"

“That won’t do, Mr. Ham.”

Emerald's tone remained gentle, but her attitude left no room for refusal:

"To be honest, I'm not interested in your life or your daughter's life; I only care about Lulu. If I find your daughter but something happens to Lulu, what use is your death to me?"

"...So what do you want? Let's get this straight, releasing the hostage is out of the question! This is my only bargaining chip right now; I will not give up until I see my daughter!"

Ham shouted it out again.

“I understand your concern for your daughter, Mr. Ham, so I hope you can also understand my worries about my sister.”

Emery remained remarkably calm and gentle.

“My request is simple. All I need is for you to prove that Lulu is currently safe. I need you to take Lulu to a place where I can see her and let me take a look. Then I will help you find your daughter.”

"This is impossible!"

Ham immediately refused:

"I already told you... don't treat me like a fool! You're a fusion-stage mage, and your fused organ is your eyes. How could I dare let you see me? You'd definitely kill me with one look!"

After saying that, Ham paused slightly, then immediately continued:

"However, I understand your condition of confirming the hostages' safety... How about this, I'll let this little girl say a few words to you?"

"No."

This time, Emery refused without hesitation:

“There are too many ways to disguise a voice. I can’t be sure if the person talking to me is Lulu herself. I have to see her with my own eyes. If you don’t dare let me see you directly, then let me just take a look at Lulu.”

"No, I can't let you see her directly either!"

Ham remained unyielding:

"If your fused organ were something else, it would be fine, but it's your eyes... Anything that exposes you to their sight is too dangerous, I can't possibly agree to it!"

"...So you don't want to show sincerity?"

A hint of anger finally appeared in Amelie's voice. She deliberately pretended to gather magical energy and even changed into her magical costume:

"Then there's nothing more to say. Just wait to be torn to shreds by my rage!"

"...Are you crazy?"

Ham was stunned and immediately roared: