“We at Blacklight Biotechnology would like to offer 120 million U.S. dollars to purchase the germanium mining rights in the county of Gaborone.”

A man whose complexion was a poor yellow and seemed utterly exhausted was seated at a negotiation table, looking proud as he spoke. Next to him, there was a professional negotiation team comprised of translators, secretaries, legal consultants, and other professionals.

This man was w.a.n.g Liang, one of the original members that came with Chen Chen back when Chen Chen had just arrived in Africa.

Perhaps it was due to how capable he was, Qian Wenhuan would always bury him with a mountain worth of tasks. Now, w.a.n.g Liang had finally become one of the senior members of Blacklight Biotechnology. This time, he was dispatched by Qian Wenhuan and put in charge of the acquisition of the germanium mine in Rainbow Nation.

The party on the other end of the negotiation table was none other than the Ministry of Mining and Energy of Rainbow Nation.

w.a.n.g Liang kept up a proud front as he waited for the translator to translate his message to the officials. He made sure to emphasize, “This is our highest offer.”

The group on the other end of the table discussed among themselves for a while before responding. Soon, the leading official who was a black man replied in fluent English, “Sorry, I'm afraid we cannot agree to this price.”

“What? Is it because it's not enough?”

w.a.n.g Liang frowned and became slightly fl.u.s.tered. “Do you know what the international market value for germanium is? A thousand U.S. dollars per kilogram. The germanium deposit in Gaborone has 300 tons of proven resources, which is 300 thousand kilograms. Even if we excavate all of them, they are only worth 300 million U.S. dollars.

“Now, doesn't excavation cost money? What about refining them? Doesn't transporting them cost money as well? Germanium metals are already a rare resource on their own. They are extremely difficult to excavate and not any easier to refine them. By the time the process is complete, the total cost expended is pretty much on par with the international market price. If you expect us to pay more, we'd rather just head straight to the international market!”

Despite his questionable att.i.tude, w.a.n.g Liang was more than competent on the business end of things. He had clearly presented all the positive and negative aspects of germanium ore mining without leaving them room for any nitpicking.

However, there was no telling just what the opposing party was concerned about. After another round of fervent discussion among themselves, the officials still gave the same answer, “Sorry, we still can't accept this price, we're going to need at least 150 million U.S. dollars!”

“What!”

w.a.n.g Liang became so enraged that he slammed the table with all his might and shot up. “I'm guessing you're not planning to sell then! In that case, let's go!”

With that, he left the table and furiously stomped out of the conference room with his crew trailing behind him.

Upon stepping out of the town hall, w.a.n.g Liang spat on the floor and exclaimed, “Bunch of uncivilized b*stards!”

“Director w.a.n.g, it's not worth getting upset about these people!”

One of the subordinates quickly stepped forward and produced a high-quality cigar for w.a.n.g Liang. This was quickly followed up with him producing a lighter like a magician and lighting the cigar for w.a.n.g Liang. “Director, don't worry about these b*stards, these people are crazy to ask so much for a small scale mine. If it doesn't work out, we can always go to the next one.”

“The main problem is germanium ores are few and far in between. Also, Qian Wenhuan issued strict orders for us to acquire this germanium mine at all costs…”

w.a.n.g Liang shook his head dejectedly. When he mentioned Qian Wenhuan, a hint of gloom met his eyes for a brief instant. He took another strong drag from the cigar before heading for the car. “Alright, let's not talk about this now. If it comes down to it, we'll just swing by the houses of these officials later tonight. As long as we can give them something good in return, the price should naturally go down tomorrow…”

With that, w.a.n.g Liang entered the car with his secretary diligently escorting him every step of the way.

After closing the door for w.a.n.g Liang, the secretary lapped around the vehicle and entered from the other side while the driver got into the driver's seat.

“Zhou Hang, I want you to find out the address of the minister this afternoon. I need it by evening, got it?”

“Understood, Director w.a.n.g. Are we returning to the hotel now?”

“Let's just head back to…”

As the two men continued their exchange, the driver started the engine. Just as the engine was started, a deafening explosion emerged and blew the car into smithereens!

In an instant, the vehicle along with its three pa.s.sengers was devoured by a ball of flame that continued to rage on fiercely in front of the city hall…

The remaining members of the negotiation team stood there with their mouths agape, their faces illuminated by the bright flame.

w.a.n.g Liang was dead.

After about ten minutes, Chen Chen who had just received the news responded with an immediate twitch of his mouth.

“Who did it?”

Chen Chen was almost speechless. “X, did we not pick up any intel on this?”

“Sorry, Sir G.o.dfather.”

Little X sounded almost ashamed. “I didn't pick up any intel at all.”

Chen Chen nodded and did not try to put the blame on Little X. He of all people was well aware that Little X had acquired all information related to Blacklight Biotechnology by a large database extracted from the Internet. Unless Little X had very specific search criteria, it would be impossible to thoroughly go through everything ranging from all kinds of chat software, dark web communications or even encrypted sources like radio signals.

It would be false to say that there was no blind spot on the Internet. Besides, this attack was not specifically targeted at Chen Chen, but just an employee of Blacklight Biotechnology instead, making it harder for Little X to notice it.

“Looks like you're going to need an upgrade to become a truly all-knowing ent.i.ty on the Internet. In this vein, the E Language and Gantz server machine seem like the ideal options.”

Chen Chen tipped his head at the notion. “Have you been able to find anything by following along the clues that we have now?”

“I've already extracted surveillance footage of the Rainbow Nation Gaborone City Hall and found a man in a black s.h.i.+rt.”

As Little X said this, the surveillance footage quickly appeared on the computer display in front of Chen Chen. Shown on the display was a large man wearing a black mask in a black trench coat. When the man walked past w.a.n.g Liang's rental car, he bent down slightly as if he was trying to tie his shoelaces.

Due to the angle of the camera, the man was s.h.i.+elded by the rental car. All Chen Chen could see was the man getting back up after about ten seconds and leaving after that.

Clean execution. The entire process took no longer than twenty seconds.

“This man didn't reveal his face at all so it's difficult for me to identify him. I also continued tracking him using surveillance footage but after he took a turn into the slums, he had effectively gone out of my range.”

Little X explained, “I'm not sure if it's intentional or not. Point is, the target has successfully evaded my investigation efforts.”

Chen Chen's expression grew darker when he heard this. He pedaled around slowly. “X, looks like somebody has noticed your existence.”

“Honestly, this isn't all that surprising.”

After giving it some thought, Chen Chen noted in a low voice, “There's the G.o.d's Forbidden Zone's Disciple Council, the ma.s.sacre case in Switzerland, then there's our routine purge of spies inside Eco Science City. When someone put all of this together, it's not difficult to figure out that we at Blacklight Biotechnology have access to some sort of nearly all-knowing information channel online.”

Due to the unique nature of Eco Science City, the city never had any shortage of lurking spies.

The demographic of spies was not just limited to the spies of the major pharmaceutical corporations, even the official spies of each major continent were involved. There were spies from the Mainland and spies from North America as well, since everybody was curious just how Eco Science City developed such advanced medical technology.

Most of the time, these spies did not pose any significant threat so Chen Chen just let them be. However, whenever they executed some operation that may endanger the security of the city, someone always erased them without a trace before they could begin.

This was both a way of issuing a warning and also a way of flaunting strength.

After enough occurrences, people would eventually get the message that there was more to the Eco Science City than it let on on its surface.

Chen Chen began to silently dissect the situation they were facing. “So, this means that our lurking enemies intentionally avoid keywords like 'Blacklight Biotechnology' and 'Chen Chen' when discussing online or perhaps they swapped them out with other codewords instead. There's also a chance that they used less mainstream communication platforms. This does minimize the chances of us noticing…”

“In that case, how do we deal with them?”

Little X asked almost restlessly.

“Well, let's just see how things progress from here, then we'll decide what to do from there on.”

Chen Chen answered. This response of his seemed to have caught Little X slightly off guard.

“Just because they didn't slip up this time doesn't mean they can keep it up the next time.”

When Chen Chen saw that Little X still had trouble grasping his meaning, he had to explain, “You still don't get it? One of these times, they'll slip up and expose themselves. What are the chances that they'll never make a mistake? Impossible!”

As Chen Chen said this, the side of his lips tugged upward to form a cunning smile. “X, have you ever played Pac-man? We're just playing a game of hide and seek with them. We're playing the seeker while they're playing the lone Pac-man in an enormous maze…

“I'd like to see just how many pellets of mine they can eat.”