Asura in Arknights

"What? Could it be that person isn't a Azure Gold Rank member of the Unarmored Alliance? To obtain a composite bow without any production markings, and to require Flash Spirit to draw his sword to subdue him, such a person should only be a high-ranking member of your Unarmored Alliance... Could I be wrong?"

"No... She is one of the two Azure Gold Grandmasters of the Unarmored Alliance. Her name is Monique... I don't know if that's her real name or a code name."

Hinterlea covered her forehead, looking somewhat dazed, and said, "I was just... just too surprised. I didn't expect to see her here."

"It's good that we've confirmed they're remnants of the Unarmored Alliance." Li Ang nodded.

After taking a few deep breaths to calm her turbulent emotions, Hintraya finally asked, "Boss, you called me here specifically for more than just to confirm Monique's identity, right?"

“Of course.” Li Ang snapped his fingers. “I want to know why she came here.”

“I know that assassins are tough guys, and I don’t know any torture techniques, so I’ll have to trouble you professionals. If you can’t do it either, Hinterlea, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask Ioleta to find someone to try.”

"Ahem... I think I should be able to complete this task."

Hinterlea coughed lightly, revealing a slightly chilling smile. "However... I need some time to prepare."

"Please come, that's why I asked you to come here in the first place." Li Ang shrugged.

"Then leave it to me."

No one knew what Hinterlea had prepared. After a few minutes, Hinterlea went into the next room again and closed the door behind her.

However, the door's soundproofing was clearly not very good; both Leon and Adele could clearly hear Hinterlea's voice.

"Cough cough."

Hinterlea cleared her throat first, then spoke to Monique in a sarcastic tone, as if she were choking someone.

"Oh my, isn't this Lady Monique? It's been a long time! How did you end up like this?"

"Where's your lover, Roy? Why isn't he coming to save you? Oh right, I forgot, that idiot died in the natural disaster."

"You two really don't learn your lesson. To be honest, I feel sorry for you. You've failed twice in the same place. You truly deserve to be the Azure Gold Leaders of the Unarmored Alliance."

......

After a frenzied barrage of attacks, although we can't see how the Azure Gold Grandmaster looks, it probably isn't in a good state.

Meanwhile, Li Ang and Adele, who had overheard the whole thing outside, exchanged bewildered glances, neither of them expecting that their shrewd and capable secretary would have such a side to her.

It can't be called a deep-seated hatred, but it's more like a long-standing grudge.

Adele nudged Leon and whispered, "I think we shouldn't give her so much work in the future... Miss Heartlea is working hard too."

“I know, I know,” Li Ang replied sheepishly. “Once I finish these tasks, I will give her two months of paid leave, which should be enough for her to relax.”

So, when she said she needed some time to prepare, she was actually thinking about how to mock Monique, right...?

Hmm... Even the most honest person has their breaking point, and Li Ang even suspected that Hinterlea was deliberately doing this for him.

However, upon closer reflection, we were indeed exploited too much in the past. Now that we've passed the most difficult period, it's time to give our secretary a break.

Next door, Hinterlea was unleashing a torrent of taunts at Monique. She hadn't even removed the object from Monique's mouth; it was just a one-sided barrage of insults. It seemed that this anger had been building up inside Hinterlea for a long time.

Previously, Hintelia lacked both the power and the courage to do such a thing, but now she has finally seized the opportunity to kick a man when he's down and vent all the pent-up emotions in her heart.

But... isn't this just a simple venting? Does she think that as long as I curse that Azure Gold Grandmaster, she'll obediently reveal all the information?

Just as Li Ang was wondering how Hinterlea would pry Monique's mouth open, he saw Hinterlea walk out looking refreshed.

Li Ang: "?"

Was it torture to extract a confession? It ended without getting any information out of them?

Hinterlea had anticipated Li Ang's thoughts. She took something out of her pocket and waved it in front of Li Ang.

"Boss, don't worry, everything you want to know should be here."

Li Ang looked closely and realized that it was... the phone of the Azure Gold Grandmaster?

After capturing Monique, Shining also searched her phone. Li Ang originally wanted to see what was on the phone, but found that it was password protected.

Because he was worried about a setting that might automatically destroy all data if the password was entered incorrectly, Li Ang did not try it casually and planned to hand it over to the technicians for cracking later. He did not expect that it would be found by Xintelaiya.

With a few casual taps, Cintraya unlocked the phone.

"Tsk, they really didn't change the password?" Hinterlea clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction.

"..."

Well, I can barely understand that.

Cell phones are personal items that are generally not in the hands of others, so it's understandable that you don't change the password often.

If Hinterlea had wanted to, given her position in the Unarmored Alliance at the time, it would have been possible for her to find out Qingjin's phone password.

However, Hintel's next sentence made Li Ang somewhat doubt the professionalism of the Unarmored Alliance.

“Monique has a habit of keeping a diary before taking action. Let me take a look… I’ve got it.”

Keeping a diary? People still keep diaries these days? And judging from what Hinterlea said, Monique seems to be recording everything that happened... Is that like carrying a built-in indictment?

Speechless as it may be, Monique's unprofessional behavior did save Li Ang a lot of trouble.

Hinterlea knew about Monique's habit, which is why she dared to make a promise earlier, saying she was confident she could find out why Monique came here.

"Let me see... Monique came here to steal information from the lab, and her reward is... a box of pure Originium? She's really getting more and more out of touch... But what does she want that stuff for?"

Hinterlea scrolled through her phone and discovered that Monique had taken on quite a few freelance jobs recently, but all of them were asking for Pure Originium as payment...

The amount is enough to power the core reactor of a plot of land for a long time. What does she want so many pure source stones for?

Just as Hinterlea was wondering, she heard Li Ang say something.

"Just as I suspected... She was also after the Dream Project data. Was she hired by an organization called the Radom Hometown Association?"

"The diary didn't mention the name, it just said that a man named Lucifer commissioned her."

“That’s right. Lucifer is the leader of the Radom Hometown Association.”

It seems that Sona was just a decoy, and the real key was Monique, who was hiding in the shadows. Just like Sona even went in the wrong direction, unfortunately Monique still ran into Shining in the end.

In this city, those who can hold their own against Shining are mostly from Li Ang's side. Apart from them, perhaps only the three mysterious Xuan Tie Grandmasters can barely match Shining.

Monique was simply incredibly unlucky. Apart from Pol Pharmaceuticals, even if she went to cause trouble for the Securities and Futures Commission, she wouldn't have encountered such a formidable enemy.

Ioleta is getting old and rarely takes action personally. The powerful Silver Spear Pegasus Knights are also guarding the frontier. No wonder the Unarmored Alliance was so arrogant before.

After learning Monique's purpose, Li Ang lost interest in her. Since everyone was after the data from the Dream Experiment, one more or one less wouldn't make a difference.

After preparing, Li Ang handed her over to Ioleta.

No one knows the identities of the three Xuan Tie Grandmasters, one Qing Jin Grandmaster has died in the natural disaster, and the Bai Jin Grandmaster was saved by Li Ang. Monique can be said to be the only remaining member of the Wuzhou Alliance's high-ranking members, so the Grand Knight Commander will probably be interested in this Qing Jin Grandmaster.

But just then, Hinterlea suddenly said, "Is there a computer here? I found something wrong with Monique's phone and need a computer to process the data."

Li Ang didn't care that Hinterlea had discovered anything amiss; he casually pointed to where Shining kept her office computer.

Taking a laptop out of the cabinet, Hinterlea connected her phone to the computer and said, "Because of her personality, although Monique is a Blue Gold, she never participates in the management of the Unarmored Alliance. Monique leads the Third Squad of the Unarmored Alliance, which is the strongest squad in the Unarmored Alliance."

"When Roy was still alive, he was in charge of many of the security measures."

Although all the text messages and call logs on her phone had been deleted, Hinterlea knew that without Roy, Monique alone would definitely not be able to completely erase these traces.

"As expected, I knew it."

Looking at the few text messages and call records recovered using professional software, Cintraya couldn't help but narrow her eyes.

A moment later, she looked up at Li Ang and said, "Boss, I have some bad news for you."

"Roy is still alive."

Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Importance of Finishing Off

Roy? Who's that?

Li Ang was stunned for a moment before he remembered that this seemed to be the name of another Azure Gold Grandmaster of the Wuzhou Alliance.

He didn't rush to refute, but frowned and asked, "Why would you say that?"

Although he was busy fighting the agent of the Consciousness Empire, he didn't notice whether Roy had been killed by the aftermath of the battle.

Even if he were to escape unscathed, he could not possibly return to reality from the outside world.

If he had the ability to open up channels, he would have already punched the Securities and Futures Commission and kicked the Commercial Alliance. Why would he need to condescend to be a Blue Gold in the Undead Alliance?

"Because I found her and Roy's communication records on Monique's phone."

Hinterlea showed Li Ang some of the data he had recovered: "Three months ago, Monique and Roy had a phone call that lasted one minute and thirty-two seconds, and then a week ago, she received a text message from Roy."

"Why couldn't it be that someone else got another Qingjin's phone and impersonated him?"

“Because of the content of the second text message,” Hintraya said. “It said that Monique no longer needed to try to save him, and that he felt very sorry. Moreover, in the text message, Roy also left the locations of more than twenty private vaults and instructions on how to open them.”

"By the way, I've already gotten my hands on a few of those vaults, which is why I can confirm that this is the message Roy sent."

"......All right."

Li Ang rubbed his temples and sighed. "I didn't actually see Roy die. He was just trapped in a place with scarce supplies and no chance of ever coming back, so I assumed he was dead."

I never expected that guy to be so resilient... He didn't even die, and he even managed to send a distress signal to the outside world. Li Ang didn't know where to begin complaining.

“These are huge problems…” Li Ang murmured.

“Troublesome?” Hinterlea looked up at Li Ang with a puzzled expression. “Boss, you’re so powerful, wouldn’t you be able to slap a scumbag like Roy to death with a single blow? Why would you say it’s troublesome?”

“The problem isn’t Roy,” Leon shook his head. “What’s troubling me is another guy… If Roy could survive in that place, there’s no reason for that guy to die there.”

"Tsk... I should have just killed that guy with a single sword strike back then. Making him suffer more, making him pay for his crimes... wasn't that just asking for trouble?"

Now, Li Ang finally understands the importance of last-hitting.

The enemy, whom they thought was long dead, suddenly resurrected and jumped out. Although Li Ang's side suffered no losses, he still felt quite disgusted.

"Boss, the person you're talking about wouldn't happen to be...?"

After recalling the report from six months ago, Hinterlaya's expression changed slightly.

"Yes, you're right, who else could it be but Ayin?"

Upon hearing the name Ayin, both Adele and Hintria's expressions changed.

As they learned more about Ayin, they all realized just how dangerous he was.

Especially Hinterlea, who has been dealing with the mess left by Ayin recently, and no one knows better than her what kind of monster is hidden under that refined appearance.

After a moment's thought, Li Ang asked Hinterlea, "Can you find any other clues in your hands?"

“That should be all the information on the phone,” Hinterlea thought for a moment and said, “The most important thing should be the phone call from three months ago. Roy must have told Monique some very important information back then.”

"However, if we want to know what he said, we can only ask Monique to tell us."

Li Ang shrugged helplessly, "Besides... now that there's this additional factor, I can't let the Securities and Futures Commission personnel come and participate."

Upon hearing this, Hinterlea's expression became somewhat awkward.

She had just given Monique a good scolding, which felt great, but now that she needed Monique's help again, her actions were becoming somewhat complicated.

Hinterlea knew very well that she would never reveal a single word about Roy's information, even if it meant her death, unless Monique was willing to voluntarily disclose it.

After hesitating for a moment, Hinterlea still revealed this information to Li Ang.

"You mean, the two of them have that kind of relationship?" Li Ang asked, somewhat surprised.

"Not entirely, but they're just one step away from confessing. Roy even dyed his fur the same color as Monique's because of this. I really don't know what he was thinking." Hinterlea also took the opportunity to mock Roy's straight-male thinking.

That fur color was actually dyed? Even knowing this inside information, Li Ang was not happy at all.

Li Ang thought about it seriously for a while, and then said, "If Monique really values ​​Roy as much as you say, I think I should be able to talk to her."

Thinking about it carefully, there was no direct hatred between the Wuzhou Alliance and him; it was all just a scheme between that old man Kane and the Xuan Tie throne.

Unable to find where the three rats were hiding in the ditch, Li Ang simply pulled out all their teeth.

While those two Qingjin members weren't entirely without fault, they could be considered victims of the power struggles at the top. If they could see things clearly, Li Ang could indeed have something to talk to them about.

Moreover, Li Ang also possesses a trump card—he can forcibly open a passage to the outside world and drag Roy, who is trapped there, out.

Aren't you afraid she's lying?

She already said that Monique would even risk her life for Roy, so what is there that she can't do, lying is child's play?

"You don't need to worry about that. My Originium Arts can determine whether someone is lying. I'm quite confident in that."

"It has such a convenient capability?"

Hinterlea suddenly felt a sense of imbalance. If she had this ability, how much trouble could she have saved in the previous negotiations?