Asura in Arknights

Human trafficking, smuggling contraband, seizing patents... the crimes committed by the two men are enough to warrant execution hundreds of times over, and many senior executives in the company are their accomplices.

However, most of these people had already perished with Adams in last year's accident, and those who were lucky enough to survive had long since fled. No wonder Li Ang knew nothing about these matters, and the internal investigation after the reorganization did not find any clues.

Even if they become the third largest shareholder of Rose Newspapers, it doesn't necessarily mean they can suppress such explosive news.

After all, they are only the third largest shareholder, with two other shareholders ahead of them. The news of the riot at Plot Zero a few days ago had already given them a setback, and the secretary wouldn't fall into the same trap twice.

Since Destreet was able to find out this information and possess solid evidence, it means that many people in the Business Federation also have this information, and those people are no less capable than Destreet.

If these shady dealings had been exposed earlier, such as when Li Ang had just reached an agreement with the Grand Knight and taken over Pol Pharmaceuticals, it would have been a fatal blow to them. Pol Pharmaceuticals at that time was not able to withstand the slightest storm.

In Li Ang's view, there may be two reasons why they have been slow to act and allowed Boer Pharmaceutical to recover.

On one hand, it was to curry favor with the Grand Knight Commander. After all, Adams was indeed a member of the Commercial Federation's board of directors, and given the messes he had made, if the Grand Knight Commander used this as an excuse to make trouble, the Commercial Federation would inevitably suffer heavy losses.

The pharmaceutical industry is not the most profitable sector for the Great Knights, so losing it is no big deal; their focus remains on the 'Knights'.

Another reason... is Li Ang's own military deterrence.

Kane Ross didn't believe in superstitions, so both he and his son died, and their bodies have never been found. Although there is no conclusive evidence, anyone with a sound mind can guess who did it.

Li Ang didn't touch their cake, and they wouldn't be foolish enough to come here and seek their own demise.

Now that Li Ang has discovered these hidden dangers, he certainly has no reason to pretend he doesn't know them.

After a moment's thought, Li Ang came up with a reasonably feasible solution—to directly make a righteous separation, proactively hold a press conference, and expose these matters.

On the one hand, they were not the ones who did these things, but on the other hand... it's obvious that someone is already watching them. Rather than waiting to be caught off guard, it's better to detonate this landmine in advance.

In the short term, Pol Pharmaceuticals may pay some price, but in the long run, it will all be worth it.

After all, they didn't do it. As long as they hire enough online trolls, they can clear their name sooner or later.

Li Ang planned to call his secretary as soon as it was light to discuss this matter, as he needed to consider her professional advice.

That was all the information about Boer Pharmaceuticals. It didn't take Li Ang long to flip to the end of this part of the notes. However, the next moment, an unexpected name appeared in his field of vision.

"Radom Hometown Association?"

Li Ang's voice sounded extremely surprised. He couldn't help but look up at Destreet sitting opposite him. "You spent the whole day yesterday investigating this?"

“…Yes, I tried to contact the Flametail Knights again that day and got the name from them,” Daisy nodded in response.

Perhaps out of respect for Leon, after the misunderstanding was cleared up, Destle and Sona's second contact went relatively smoothly. They successfully obtained a key clue from each other and continued their investigation along that clue.

Then she actually found out something that brought her a deadly disaster.

"This shouldn't be happening..."

Li Ang was completely baffled. He thought Destle had caught some big fish, but it turned out to be this old acquaintance again.

Even if the Radom Hometown Association is a black glove for some big company, their reaction was a bit excessive. Who would just rush over and overturn the table like that?

After carefully reviewing the intelligence that Destreet had gathered, Li Ang found nothing particularly unusual.

This group of people arrived in the Great Knight Territory three months ago. Their original home town, Radom, was a town composed entirely of Vaivaans.

This ethnic group is mainly distributed in Sargon and Victoria, and is quite rare in Kazimierz.

Compared to most races in Terra, the Vayvans have a natural advantage in physical attributes. Early on, Oripathy had little effect on them, and after entering the Great Knight Territory, they quickly seized a piece of territory in the no-man's-land of chaos.

Somewhat strangely, these people did not use their physical strength to compete in knightly tournaments, but instead engaged in smuggling.

Destreet obtained several photos taken in the port area, but what they were smuggling and where they got the goods from was not something that could be determined in a short time.

In fact, the fact that Desmond Desmond was able to uncover so much inside information in just one day already demonstrates her extraordinary abilities.

Li Ang read it over and over again, but he still couldn't find anything noteworthy.

"Is there anything you'd like to ask?"

Seeing that Li Ang had already flipped to the last page of the notebook, Destreet asked somewhat nervously.

"What do you find strange about this hometown association? Anything is fine, just say it."

Since there was really nothing else to ask, Li Ang casually brought up this question.

With that, Li Ang handed the notebook to Adele, hoping she might make some new discoveries.

"A strange place..."

Daisy frowned, desperately searching her memory.

After a long pause, Destreet said somewhat uncertainly, "Now that you mention it, I just remembered something."

“My informant seems to have mentioned to me that those people’s behavior is not like that of ordinary people, it’s more like… soldiers? And none of the members who have shown up are elderly or children. It is said that the weaker people have all died in natural disasters, but my informant always felt that something was strange.”

"soldier?"

“I’m not entirely sure, because I haven’t seen them in person either,” Destreet said, shaking her head slightly apologetically.

Li Ang silently memorized the clue provided by Destreet.

Soldiers... that's an interesting guess.

Recalling the information Destreet had gathered, the Radom Association's modus operandi did indeed show a hint of military influence.

Uniting hundreds of people is no easy feat. While hometown ties might offer a weak explanation, the military's explanation seems more plausible.

Rhine Lab's secret army? That was Leon's intuition.

Let's just assume they are. However, this would raise the threat level of the Radom Association by several levels. After all, a group of refugees and an army disguised as refugees are two completely different levels of opponents.

"Wouldn't this put Sona and the others in danger?" Leon suddenly thought of this possibility.

If even Destle's discreet investigation was detected, then Sona and her group could very well be noticed as well.

...We must remind them; hopefully it's not too late.

"Could you give me that informant's contact information?"

Without much hesitation, Destreet gave Leon an address, a code for the rendezvous, and a detailed description of the informant's appearance.

It's said that the man swindled a lot of money from Destreet, and if it weren't for the fact that he occasionally provided some important clues, Destreet would have reported him long ago.

"That's all I wanted to ask. It's getting late, so you should all continue to rest."

It's already 5:30 in the morning, and there are only a few hours left until dawn.

However, apart from Li Ang and Shuiyue, who are both freaks with physical abilities far exceeding those of ordinary people, Destle and Adele, who are both ordinary people, clearly need to continue to rest.

While reading Destle's notes, Leon noticed that Adele quietly yawned a few times, clearly looking like she hadn't had a good rest.

"That room is unoccupied; you can use yours first."

Li Ang pointed to the room deep in the corridor, "The collection here is very rich, you can use it however you like."

"If you need anything, you can tell us. In short, I don't recommend that you leave here."

“I understand, I won’t leave here easily.”

Destreet nodded very solemnly, then stood up and bowed deeply to Li Ang and the others.

"Thank you so much for saving me, I'm truly grateful."

"And... I'm so sorry, it's my fault that you lost an arm. If there's anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to ask."

The following sentence was spoken by Desmond to Watermoon.

"Huh? Are you talking about me? You've finally finished talking?"

Shuiyue had been sitting there in a daze since the conversation began.

He wasn't particularly interested in these things. If Li Ang asked him for help, he would do it. Shuiyue didn't have that much energy to think about conspiracies and schemes.

When Daisy mentioned herself, Mizuki finally came to her senses.

"Oh...you mean my arm. It's alright, it's alright, there's nothing for you to do." Shuiyue waved her newly grown right arm and said nonchalantly.

While waiting for the conversation to end, Shuiyue, bored, let her right hand grow back. It worked just as well as the original, without any discomfort whatsoever.

Realizing that Destle wasn't wearing her glasses and probably couldn't see anything clearly, Mizuki moved closer to Destle and showed her her perfectly intact right arm.

"Your arm... how is this possible?"

Destreet was stunned. She clearly saw Shuiyue's right arm being erased by an unknown attack, but what was she seeing now?

Could it be that she misread it at the time?

The thought of this possibility made Destreet a little anxious, and she subconsciously raised her voice, as if she were back in court.

"This is your right hand, so where is your left hand?"

Because she could only vaguely discern the different colored blocks in front of her, Daisy grabbed Mizuki's right hand directly to avoid being deceived.

Judging from the voice, the other person was very young, possibly even a few years younger than her.

Descartes felt incredibly guilty about the fact that her mistake had caused the child to lose her right hand.

It seems that Colombia has developed prosthetics for disabled people, but it's unclear how effective they will be...

While Destle was lost in thought, Mizuki scratched her head and simply placed her left hand in front of Destle as well.

"The left hand is here."

With that, Mizuki sighed, "Don't overthink it. Originium Arts, these are my Originium Arts!"

"My Originium Arts have limitations; I can only heal myself. However, non-fatal injuries like missing limbs can be healed quickly with a little time."

Shuiyue simply linked Haisi's regeneration ability to Originium Arts. Anyway, no one was forcing him to test it, and the effects of Originium Arts could be made up however he wanted.

After shaking Shuiyue's hands to confirm that what she was seeing was not an illusion, Destle said with a complicated expression, "That's really amazing..."

Limb regeneration... She had never even heard of this Originium Arts technique.

If Terra's healing magic wasn't limited to self-use, it might have reached a new level.

However, the medical community has little to do with her, and Destreet only thinks about it.

"Well, so there's no need to worry." Shuiyue yawned lazily. "I'm going to take a nap too. I've been busy all night and I'm almost exhausted."

Adele couldn't hold on any longer and returned to her room with Mizuki to catch up on some sleep.

However, after the two left, Descartes remained where she was, looking as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

"What? Is there anything else?"

Li Ang glanced at her. "Just tell me what you need, and I'll try my best to meet it."

After hearing what Li Ang said, Destreet seemed to finally make up her mind, and stammered out,

"Um... could you get me a pair of glasses?"

"Without my glasses, I can't see anything."

News of the year in Chapter Forty-Nine

Li Ang thought that Destle was hesitant and about to make some unreasonable request, but he didn't expect it to be such a trivial matter.

Normally, getting a pair of glasses would require Destle to go to the optician herself. However, for someone as severely nearsighted as Destle, she was already very familiar with the parameters of her glasses and simply gave Li Ang a long string of numbers.

This also saves a lot of trouble, preventing accidental exposure during the process of getting glasses.

Moreover... this also means that the lawyer still doesn't know Li Ang's exact appearance, and the disguise plan can continue.

Having fulfilled her final wish, the exhausted lawyer dragged her heavy steps and staggered to the room at the far end of the house.

Almost as soon as she lay down on the bed, before she even had a chance to turn off the cup, Destle's consciousness was engulfed by darkness, and she fell into a deep sleep.

The room fell silent again, save for the occasional rustling sound of Li Ang flipping through the notebook.

As dawn broke, the long night passed without any further incidents.

As the first rays of sunlight fall from the horizon, the city gradually awakens from its slumber, and a few signs of life begin to appear on the empty streets.

Those leaving at this time are either arena support staff, heading out early to prepare for the day's matches, or small vendors looking to make a quick buck from them; the number of them is quite substantial.

Everything in the Great Knight Territory revolves around the theme of 'knightly competition', and the businesses under Li Ang's control are no exception.

From everyday health supplements to emergency medications used in hospitals and even on the battlefield, while ordinary people also benefit greatly, in general, all of these are for the benefit of the 'knights'.

It seems no different from Kazimierz a hundred years ago. The knights are still high above, while hundreds or thousands of ignorant people toil for half a day just to fulfill a small request from the masters.

The only difference is that the knights have changed.

Even the Grand Knight Commander, who loathed all of this, had to admit that the 'Knightly Games' had injected new vitality into Kazimierz, giving this ancient kingdom of knights a new lease on life.

Times always move forward, and the 'Knight' just happened to be pushed onto the stage by this trend. Even if the Business Federation doesn't exist, it's just a matter of changing the protagonist on the stage.