However, around that time, Sofony used the last device redeemed freely from the shop to temporarily isolate the sounds from the first floor to the rest of the mansion. After that, Gio's men took care of everything. Not even ten minutes pa.s.sed and the mafia members' faces became the agents'.

As for what happened to the real group of lowlives?

Well, they got temporarily huddled and cuffed somewhere outside. Then after the real target was successfully captured, Gio personally dropped them in front of the nearest police station, using Sofony's devices to change their countenances into those of death-row wanted criminals. Of course, to prevent them from escaping their imminent fate, he ordered his men to knock them out using a system-provided drug, ensuring they would only awaken once identified as societal garbages that must be purged in the name of justice.

All the works did not really take more than an hour but due to the location being outside Alina City, the return trip took longer than two hours. When Gio arrived home, it was already past 3 am.

Unfortunately, it did not become a 'finally, home sweet home' scenario for him. There was only one reason.

Sofony was nowhere to be seen.

He had already checked every room inside the unit but the girl had really yet to arrive. This realization naturally made his face darken, making him think whether separating from her and letting her escort that woman into his cousin's laboratory had really been the wiser choice.

He took off his coat and draped it over the couch. After freeing his wrist from the cufflinks, he rolled the sleeves of his dress s.h.i.+rt up then plopped down on the sofa next to it, his eyes staring at the phone in his hands. To be exact, to the icon on his screen, waiting for the red call b.u.t.ton to turn into a call timer.

"She's not picking it up?"

More than a minute pa.s.sed yet he still couldn't connect to her phone. This made his face darkened more and he was about to make another attempt again when he received an incoming call.

He frowned. There was no name under the strings of numbers. However, he perfectly knew who it belonged to.

It was due to this that he pressed the accept b.u.t.ton and brought the phone to his ear, his mind asking why his uncle was calling at this unholy hour.

"h.e.l.lo?"

The unfamiliar voice not belonging to the Albarez family's head automatically caused him to scowl.

"Gio Albarez?" it continued.

He did not answer and only waited for the other party to speak again. But although he was indeed waiting, his feet were not idle. In fact, they had long brought him in front of his laptop. Within ten seconds, he had already turned it on and connected it to his phone. He also enabled the on-screen keyboard to avoid making loud noises while typing.

"Can you hear me?" The unfamiliar woman's voice paused for a bit. But her previous tone gave him the illusion that she was frowning, half-doubting whether there was really someone on the other line.

Not long after, she resumed speaking.

"I don't believe you're not hearing me. There's just no way you won't pick up Conrad Albarez' private line. There's only one possibility. You can hear me but you just don't want to reply."

The man who was busy tracking the caller's location, of course, remained silent, focused on his work.

Suddenly the voice laughed and said, "Hmm. I think I get it now. Though my hearing is not as great as my other aspects, I'm sure I heard something akin to tapping. It is faint, but I'm confident I didn't hear wrong. Oh. This reminds me, in both the underworld and the military world, you're also famous as a hacker. Let me guess... Are you trying to locate me?"

Gio's eyes narrowed, not due to the woman's words, but because he had already confirmed his uncle's safety through the sole spycam he managed to sneak into the main mansion when he was still living there.

'How did she just access this number?' his mind asked.

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Only he knew of this line as this was what his uncle had exclusively set up. There were numerous reasons for this but the main problem was how this person managed to use this number to call him.

When the woman was busy spouting bulls.h.i.+t to his ears and trying to appear genius by guessing what he was doing, his mind was occupied by this question.

And he only came up with one conclusion.

'It could only be another annoying whoever similar to that Dawson woman.' he thought, irritated. His fingers were still flying on the screen keyboard.

After realizing that, the man whose head was already cranky due to Sofony's absence became more irritable. His girl was currently not here because of that other b*tch and he was already not feeling good about that. Now there was another one trying to pester him?

On the other side, the woman couldn't stand his silence anymore so she cleared her throat and spoke again, "Ahem, Mr. Albarez. I suggest you stop now if you are trying to uncover my location. I'm very sorry but you won't be able to track me. After all, I'm someone like your current pet. Your great hacking skills won't get you anywhere and you perfectly know why. You're perfectly aware of what we can do."

In front of Gio, two programs were currently running. One was a wall of codes in white font and black background, the other was like a chat box. The name at the top of the latter was Old Gil's, one of Gio's people who has excellent computer and hacking skills.

"Well, since I know you won't reply, let me just go directly to the point," the voice added after an awkward laugh. Its owner must be annoyed because the person she was trying to speak with was not even letting her hear his voice.

This was why she sharply enunciated, "Listen up, Gio Albarez!"

"I want you to make your b*tch release my subordinate. Make her release Clarissa Guzman! And remember, you only have one hour!"

"If you don't make it happen within an hour, I'm telling you, Conrad Albarez' head will be delivered to you and I haven't decided yet where I'll throw his chopped body parts! But I'll stage it as if it's you who murder him! At the same time, I'll cause your trillion dollar conglomerate to fall! Even its subsidiaries and remotely related partners will not be spared!!"

"Don't challenge me, Mr. Albarez! I can do everything I have said! I'm totally way out of you and your witch's league!"

Gio momentarily paused. He squinted his eyes at the phone in his left hand, replaying the threats he heard from her in his mind. Of course, this made his expression quite bad, causing the glint from his eyes to be terrifyingly cold.

It was here again. He encountered another Clarissa again who dared to make threats against him while acting as if she was the queen of the world.

So stupid, and bothersome.

But of course, he didn't like it! He was a man who dislikes being threatened the most!

So what did he do? He put his phone on loudspeaker mode and placed it on the s.p.a.ce next to his laptop. Now, both his hands were free hence the typing speed became several times faster than before.

"The truth is, I'm not supposed to do this. Among us, I'm the type who rarely meddle with lower people's affair. However, that girl just happened to do something which forced me to move! So if something really happens to Mr. Albarez here, blame it on her!"

He ignored her words as the ongoing call was now only something he needed to continue locating the daring caller. A few seconds later, a grin appeared on his face as he stared at the coordinates he finally managed to unravel. His mind sarcastically asked,

'You said I am wasting time and effort locating you, female rat?'

'You're out of our league? And we're the lower kind of people?' he almost laughed, thinking this caller with a terminal stage superiority complex was more like a clown from a poor quality comedy show.

Unlike Sofony who was already aware of the 'Original-Secondary Host' concept, Gio doesn't know a thing about it. However, basing it on the att.i.tude shown by the two and this woman's attempt to make him release Clarissa, it was obvious that there was a relations.h.i.+p between them. If he was to take this one's words as the truth, then she was the dominant person in this relations.h.i.+p, a spot-on guess because the woman talking to him through the phone was Clarissa Guzman's Original.

He didn't know about the 'out-of-their-league' part because he was yet to see this person. However, he was doubtful about it because she couldn't even make her threats believable.

Bringing up his uncle's name? Trying to make it appear like she could hostage that kind of man? While also threatening him?

He fetched his phone and stared again at the strings of number. After raising a brow to the voice still babbling there, he decisively ended the call. Anyway, its purpose had already been achieved so there was no more reason for him to continue listening to that stupid trying-hard-to-act-mysterious woman's nonsense.

Gio paced back to the living room again, then onto the fridge to get a cold can of beer. His phone's screen was showing the red icon again, trying to connect to his Baby's phone. He was already dying to hear Sofony's voice which he preferred more than any other woman in the world.

...

Meanwhile, the supposed to be one of the lucky subordinates not chosen for the midnight operation was now sporting a sour face. It was the thirty-something-year-old guy his colleagues usually referred to as Old Gil. Woken up from his sleep, he hatefully stared at the screen with his red eyes, furiously working on locking onto the coordinates his boss gave him.

After doing so, he took a glance at their conversation thread and then phoned some other colleagues whom he wanted to share his unluckiness with.

"Hey, the young master said to raid that whatever Alina Victory Hall! He wants a result within one hour! Do you hear me, folks! Alina Victory Hall! I already sent the exact location!"

He then listened to the grumbling from the other who mistook his orders for a 3:33 am prank.

"What? Ejay said that's the place where some music compet.i.tion partic.i.p.ants currently stay? Uh-uh? Who cares? So what? I even sent a screenshot and voice record! What more proof do you need?"

"Jeez, dumba.s.ses! Stop asking questions! Just go, bring your team and do the tasks! Boss said he doesn't care whoever are there! But I just checked and the only one in that room is a girl so maybe she's the target!"

A second later, the one questioning him finally shut up. Old Gil knew the guys were already doing their preparation. However, he didn't disconnect the call yet as he still had to relay some more instructions.

A minute pa.s.sed and he heard some rustling noises and clicking sounds from the other line, at the same time, he also made out the laughter and nonsense let out by multiple people.

By now, he was sure the three or so people were already on their way to the said location, therefore, he finally chose to hang up, erasing the last nonsense he heard from his mind which was about the girl offending Miss Sofony and his boss trying to impress by taking extreme revenge for her.

...