"There's an issue regarding the mining rights of the Red Nation who are engaging in oil-drilling activities at sea. We've basically reached a universal agreement but we need to take an action and warn the surrounding pirates to put them in order," said No. 5 immediately.

"Garen, I'll leave this matter to you, alright?" No. 1 looked at Garen.

"No problem." Naturally, Garen did not simply waste his few hundred years of living, he had a solid grasp on various rights and influences. Although he was not as influential as the others in terms of his large-scale forces, his rate of expansion was still abnormally shocking.

"Aside from that, I have a minor request," Garen resumed speaking.

"Speak." No. 1 nodded.

"I was recently hoping to purchase a batch of specialized metal nets, perhaps a quant.i.ty of more or less twelve tonnes. I don't have any qualms with the price," resumed Garen. These were his preparations to finish a product for a quest that was given to him during a forum with Lighthouse. The other side had mentioned that they wanted twelve tonnes of this specialized net. In most of the other worlds, this specialized net was a precious and rare metal. Fortunately, there was no shortage of it in this world. The only downside was that it was monopolized by the military and only the government had the right to use it, while other private forces were not allowed to possess it.

"Why are you going to use it for?" The old woman called No. 2 asked while furrowing her eyebrows.

"I have my reasons, of course." Garen did not explain further.

Both of them stopped speaking after that. After coming into contact with them for more than a year, despite being a purely individual armed force when he joined Vulture initially, Garen later developed a powerful influence and grasped a certain sharpness. This was particularly apparent after the battle with the Slayer, where he escaped unscathed and was instantly highly praised as the strongest individual who existed in Slann. He was also depicted as the banner of Vulture's military force which they held up high.

His speaking power had also increased significantly.

"That's fine." After considering for some time, No. 1 agreed swiftly while standing up. "Alright, today's matters will end here. That woman must be grasped within our palms. a.s.semble the troops and capture her immediately. We can compensate Nine-tailed Fox to a certain degree."

"Understood." The others got up gradually and looked on while No. 1 left.

The old woman called No. 2 only left the room slowly after that.

Both of them came from powerful backgrounds and received the backing of numerous forces and high-ranking officials. They were actually the powerful foundations that were truly supporting the existence of Vulture.

Meanwhile, Garen was the people's international banner of a.s.surance and the foundation of their military strength as well.

"I'll be taking my leave first, then." Garen smiled and became the third person to walk out of the room. His secretary Double-tailed Scorpion and two other bodyguards followed him closely as he walked across the corridor which was covered in white carpet and exited the room.

After leaving the meeting building, Garen walked straight toward a luxurious black limousine while Double-tailed Scorpion walked up toward him and whispered next to his ear at the same time.

"The plane has been arranged properly already and can take off at any time."

Garen nodded and turned back to glance at the lofty building. No. 4 and No. 5 had currently pulled open the curtains of the meeting room and were looking at him.

No. 4 and No. 5's authorities had been significantly reduced ever since he joined the meeting between the five people. Hence, the newly-appointed No. 5 did not have a favorable impression of Garen either.

"Is there a conclusion of the investigation of the skeleton of the White Crab Army's robot that was sent to Lawrence University?" he asked casually.

"There's one report already. They can improve the energy consumption issues that occurred when we modified our robots. The investigation report also showed that they could save us from another two years worth of scientific research and progress," Double-tailed Scorpion replied quickly, "I also think that the No. 1 Chief had considered this aspect before he agreed to your request so quickly."

"That's good." Garen took a long stride before entering the limousine. The front and back of this vehicle were flanked by convoys that were guarding it while the secretary Double-tailed Scorpion sat in the front row next to the driver.

"The exact whereabouts of Mind Reader has been determined at the Ocean Capital. We've already established good relations with Chief Executive Bob Crest there beforehand," continued Double-tailed Scorpion.

"If I'm not mistaken, that girl in the white dress probably possesses the strength of the Illusionist. Therefore, it's better to achieve the goals one at a time. We'll discuss this again after we've seized Mind Reader," Garen replied indifferently.

He did not want to waste any more time in this world. Since he had taken sufficient rest, it was probably time for him to keep moving forward now.

He had used the influence that he had acquired to complete a significant amount of quests during this past year. Thus, he had acc.u.mulated a good amount of Contribution Points. Once he entered Lighthouse, he could simply be compared to a veteran Transmigrator who had acc.u.mulated many years of experience.

***********************

After the brief meeting, Garen spent the following week making preparations to capture Mind Reader.

There were other people from Vulture who were paying close attention to Yuria over there. Meanwhile, Garen focused on hunting Mind Reader down. The best time to surround and seize Mind Reader would be the moment when he met Yuria.

Garen was not concerned about the strength of the Sacred Sigil. In fact, he did not care about any Forged Sacred Sigils either because he was only concerned about whether he could absorb its Soul Energy and obtain it.

Within the span of a week, Yuria had rushed to the Ocean Capital. Meanwhile, Nine-tailed Fox and the others saved that mysterious girl but were later encircled by Vulture which took the girl away to be examined. Nine-tailed Fox and the rest were unimaginably furious because of that.

Garen made a phone call to explain that he was powerless, for this was what the No. 1 Chief meant earlier.

However, Nine-tailed Fox, Li Hua, and the others had somewhat rejected Garen as an outsider after this recent incident. They did not regard him as a companion anymore.

Garen was not the slightest bit concerned. He secretly ordered several people to disguise themselves as members of the White Crab Army to ambush Mind Reader. However, his continuous efforts to dispatch numerous powerhouses was of no help. Although Mind Reader did not have the protection of a designated armed force, he could conceal himself within the vast sea of people in the Ocean Capital fully without being captured at all.

Transmigrators were indeed the best candidates to hunt Mind Reader down since Transmigrators were not affected by Mind Reader's abilities that could capture their surface memories. Therefore, they would not accidentally reveal their own intentions to seize them. Unfortunately, Garen had completely fallen out with Nine-tailed Fox and the others.

After a period of consideration, he decided to enter the field personally.

The Soul Energy's nourishment allowed Garen's qualities to nearly reach an average of eight points quickly to achieve a minor stage where his limit was increased. His current physical form did not seem to resemble that of a human anymore. As there were no unnatural powers in the laws of both this universe and world, the definitions of the basic rules here were very strict. According to the innate laws of things, since Garen had the strength and vitality to dodge bullets, he would naturally possess a larger ma.s.s to accommodate such powerful strength and vitality.

Within less than two short years, he was now over two meters tall and weighed more than one hundred and eighty kilograms. He had basically turned into an abnormally exaggerated giant.

His saber that was initially fine and slender had been smithed again into a longer and wider blade. It was over three meters long and as wide as a palm, making it look sharper and fiercer.

No one else could fully comprehend powers of this grade except Garen himself who currently could not seem to find an opponent in this world. A possible threat toward himself could only be produced if the Slayer used his trump card. Otherwise, he did not have to take anything else into account.

After making arrangements for a special plane, Garen flew straight to the Ocean Capital. He dismissed all of his other subordinates simultaneously and proceeded to look for Mind Reader on his own.

Meanwhile, the military exercises at sea between the Alliance of the Three Nations had started at the same time. They were military exercises on the surface. However, they were actually movements to counter the White Crab Army's terrorist acts in reality.

*******************

Ocean Capital

The sky was an azure colored sea that enhanced the beauty of the sky-blue ocean.

Gigantic buildings that resembled minarets stood beside the sea. They were connected to each other and were all completely white. They formed a continuous stretch of buildings that spanned more than ten kilometers.

A colossal stone pillar that resembled a flat tray stood upright near the ocean in the very center of the area. Rows of white castles with blue army flags that fluttered in the sky were built on top of the tray. Most of these castles were shaped like three-p.r.o.nged forks, while a few of them were detached units. Their doorways were all accessed from the bottom and were extended to the sea by a long suspended bridge.

The sunlight accompanied the whistling sea breeze. It would instantly feel very hot if the breeze was not blowing. White seabirds flew about in the sky, forming a flock. They were occasionally scattered everywhere when they were shaken by planes that flew past them.

Garen got down from the boat. The scenery of the distant sea from the port looked like a painting.

He inhaled a deep breath of fresh air.

"It's truly a great place."

"Of course. The Ocean Capital is the most popular scenic vacation destination among the Four Great Capitals. It attracts more tourists from more than thirty different countries every year," a man with a white beard behind him said while smiling.

"Just like me," said Garen happily.

"Yes, just like you." The bearded man laughed. "We have the thing that you desire here, as long as you have enough of 'this'." He reached his hand out and made a pinching motion to hint that Garen was rich.

"I'm just a tourist who merely came here to go sightseeing. Uncle, please don't lead me astray," Garen laughed quietly.

"Although you're a tourist, you're a man first and foremost, and only a tourist after that." The bearded man laughed nonchalantly.

A few other male tourists beside him laughed as well. Even though Garen was not interested, they gathered around him quickly to chat with the bearded man and ask him about the more private fun sites around here.

Garen stood on the deck of the boat and gazed at the Ocean Capital from afar. He did not bring his saber along this time. In fact, he did not bring anything aside from the essentials such as his identification card and bank card. He disguised himself as a normal vacationing tourist to avoid spooking Mind Reader and being discovered by him.

Garen did not know Mind Reader's exact ident.i.ty as he could even be a Transmigrator or someone else. Nonetheless, Garen had basically determined Mind Reader's intentions. As long as he still wanted to meet Yuria, he would definitely not leave the Ocean Capital. He could surely grasp his aims as long as he seized this opportunity.

His next task was to determine whether Mind Reader was still in this city.

Perhaps this would be a great difficulty for other people. However, for Garen who had obtained the Soul Ring, detecting the forces of his Soul Energy was enough to determine whether Mind Reader was here or not.

He was looking far into the distance clearly now. He could see two intense shrouds of Soul Energy forces that were faintly dispersing from the inside of the Ocean Capital now. One of them was permeating slowly and gently. They were the Soul Energy forces of Yuria the Savior.

Meanwhile, the other one was icy cold and tinged with fear. It was obvious that this belonged to Mind Reader who was feeling afraid after being surrounded and attacked.

"The range of the Soul Energy forces is a bit too wide, so it's slightly difficult to determine the location of a single person." Garen stroked his chin and thought of the countermeasures.

"Mind Reader's abilities are really troublesome. It's best that I avoid scaring anyone and hunt him down alone. I've already memorized his outer appearance, height, and other characteristics. But, I'm just worried that he uses certain means to use makeup or change his looks. The current Plot has become chaotic as well. This is really difficult to handle."

The information regarding Mind Reader swirled in Garen's mind slowly.

As the boat moved closer towards the Ocean Capital, his mind tentatively decided on a feasible plan.

Hum…

The boat made a loud blowing noise and approached the sh.o.r.e slowly before starting to put the disembarkation plank down.

The tourists got down from the boat using the railing-lined disembarkation plank before walking on the pure white, squeaky clean pier.

Garen held onto the railing while walking down. He allowed a pretty golden-haired, blue-eyed little girl to go down before him while her mother smiled at Garen in a friendly manner to express her grat.i.tude. Only then did he tread on the disembarkation plank slowly before walking towards the pier.

He took his cell phone out and made a reservation to stay in a hotel quickly. Next, he began to look for shop fronts that looked like they served delicious food in preparation to settle his dinner plans.

The time was 1600 hours now. It would be time for him to eat dinner soon.