The First Order

In the gloomy bomb shelter’s black market, yellow tungsten bulbs hanging overhead every ten meters or so were illuminating the place dimly.

The reason the lighting was poor was that the air quality underground was really bad.

The black market definitely did not lack money since everyone was required to pay 10,000 yuan before entering. Logically speaking, they could clearly renovate the underground to make it a little better and brighter.

But the people at the black market did not do so. It was as though this place was specially designed so everyone had a chance of survival in the dim lighting. If no one could see each other’s faces clearly, it would be easier to keep their identities hidden.

Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were not pampered people. They had survived in worse environments than this before.

Yang Xiaojin whispered as they walked, “Although the Anjing House does not have a lot of official members, many people underestimate the number of A-rank hitmen in their ranks. Some of the A-rank hitmen are also members of various consortiums. They usually carry out missions to maintain their statuses as A-rank hitmen in order to gain access to some of the Anjing House’s intelligence. In the past, they generally did not show up for most of the operations. But this time, I believe many big shots of the consortiums will be interested in the No. 001 Experimental. So my guess is that a lot of people will gather here this time.”

“Since the Anjing House knows there’s so many spies within the organization, why didn’t they screen the owners of the cell phones more carefully?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Of course the Anjing House has its own screening criteria. There’s people specially monitoring each of the cell phones’ accounts.” Yang Xiaojin explained, “They don’t mind people from the consortiums infiltrating their hitmen teams either. Just like right now, these people might come in handy. As you can see, even B- and C-rank hitmen have also received texts this time. They’d rather have more people showing up than less. In any case, the Sacred Mountains isn’t the Anjing House’s territory. No matter who comes here to stir up trouble, it’ll be the Pyro Company that gets affected. Because the Anjing House is using what the Pyro Company has in their possession to attract everyone.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt the hitmen were just tools for the Anjing House to use.

With so many people attracted to the Sacred Mountains, the Anjing House was probably deciding to sacrifice most of them, right? After all, not many of these people could possibly make it out alive.

“How many black markets are there in the entire Alliance of Strongholds?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“A lot, but most of them don’t last long. The established ones are located outside the jurisdiction of the consortiums in no man’s land,” Yang Xiaojin answered. “Like this place where we are and the one in Luoyang City, they survive by operating in the gaps between the consortiums.”

“Did you come here because you hope to follow the Anjing House teams into the mountains? Are you gonna get recognized by anyone?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“No.” Yang Xiaojin shook her head and said, “I don’t interact much with the Anjing House. Even if there’s someone I know, they’re just the logistics personnel. Also, if too many people come here, they’ll definitely set off for the Sacred Mountains in batches. My aunt and the others will surely not appear at a conspicuous place like this.”

“Is the person you know… Dong Funan?” Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked. He remembered he had seen Dong Funan back at Luoyang City.

“That’s right, Dong Funan is one of them.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Even now, her teeth still haven’t fully grown back yet, so she can only serve in a supporting role for now.”

There were countless rooms sitting side by side in the bomb shelter. The rooms did not have any doors and were just covered up by a simple door curtain.

When they passed by a room, Ren Xiaosu happened to hear some people discussing on the inside, “That White Mask has appeared as well. And it seems he’s also very interested in annihilating the Pyro Company.”

Another person said, “After all, he was one of the main fighting forces against the Pyro Company when he appeared at Stronghold 73 and fought in the battle where East Lake caved in. It all adds up based on this logic. However, your intel isn’t particularly valuable. The entire time, you didn’t mention what superpowers he had, nor revealed his identity. You don’t even know the sniper’s identity. Besides, you must’ve heard of this from other people. Since you weren’t onsite at that time, this is just secondhand info you didn’t personally witness. As such, after discount, I’ll only pay you 10,000 yuan at most.”

“10,000 yuan? That’s too little!”

“Listen, aren’t you going to the Sacred Mountains with the members of the Anjing House? I’m guessing White Mask will definitely be there as well. At that time, if you can confirm what his superpower is, I’ll pay you 500,000 yuan. If you can confirm his identity too, I’ll add another one million yuan on top of that. The identity of the sniper is also worth another 500,000 yuan!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin who was beside him. Yang Xiaojin cast a glance at him and said in a low voice, “Are you thinking of selling yourself out?”

“Who’s eavesdropping outside?” When the people inside heard someone talking outside, they lifted the curtain and rushed out. “My info is priceless. Since you overheard us, you have to pay up!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. The people inside couldn’t possibly have heard what they just said. They only rushed out to ask for money when they realized that there were people standing outside. However, Yang Xiaojin simply handed over 10,000 yuan with a smile before turning around to leave.

“You gave them the money just like that?” Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “Why should we pay them!?”

“That’s the rule of the black market.” Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, “Since the rooms at the black market do not have doors, it leads to another kind of business, extortion. The people inside might have heard our footsteps, so they deliberately talked about some useless info for us to hear. As long as we hear it, we have to pay for it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to pay, but you can’t enter this black market in the future.”

“They’re using info to extort money…” Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips. “It really takes all sorts to make a world. You already knew about this rule, didn’t you? Why didn’t you warn me?”

Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, “It slipped my mind too, but never mind. Isn’t that person going to the Sacred Mountains as well? It looks like we’ll be traveling together, so it’s not like the money is lost yet.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at this girl from behind and thought she could sometimes be even more ruthless than him.

The two of them continued walking until Yang Xiaojin saw a marking in the hallway of the bomb shelter. Then they turned and went inside that room.

The marking was not complicated. It was just a triangular symbol formed by the intersection of three straight lines.

It seemed this was the mark of the Anjing House.

Before this, Ren Xiaosu did not know much about what the underworld was like, and Zhou Yingxue only had a passing knowledge. Therefore, when Yang Xiaojin led him into the bomb shelter, it was as though she had revealed another world to him.

After lifting the door curtain, Yang Xiaojin surveyed the room first. Before she continued on in, she had to be sure no one inside the room knew her.

The people in the room carefully sized up Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. But when they realized one of them had a hood over his head and the other was wearing a cap, they turned their gazes away since they could not see their faces clearly. Only one of the people in the room was still staring excitedly at Ren Xiaosu.

Yang Xiaojin said in a low voice, “I don’t know anyone in here.”

Ren Xiaosu was at a loss. “But I do….”

The Great Hoodwinker was sitting comfortably in the room and smiling happily at Ren Xiaosu with yellow teeth.