On the periphery of the Earthen Kingdom,
Inside a small cave, four capped figures were gathering here, three tall and one short, spotting himself with a beanpole.
"So, according to your scout, that Maggot is still in this forbidden forest's facility close to the titan iron mines?" A-995 sharply questioned.
"Yes, I have made a parasite slave and have him scout the capital city of the earthen kingdom and the forbidden forest to see the conditions there. I didn't dare to go myself, since it might alert the enemy if he was still there.
"Anyhow, the scout brought back grave news. Not only the killer of A-10000 rendered the entire royal family cripple and left the kingdom in chaos. It's clear he isn't aware that we already knew about his presence.
"So, he was probably planning to draw me in with this chaos. I think A-10000 might've revealed that I'll come back in a few days to pick up Titan Tears so he could escape torture.
"My scout had spotted him close to the mine setting up some traps, so I'm sure of it, he wanted to kill me as well." A-9999 respectfully replied, her arrogance was nothing in front of this small person, and she even feared him!
A-995 sneered coldly, "What an arrogant maggot. It seemed he might've contacted his superiors, and they wanted him to hinder our plan until they sent someone else as a backup.
"Or he's just a greedy native and here for more titan tears so he could increase his strength to a higher level, or there's also a possibility he wanted to capture you to gain our attention and then negotiate with us his freedom.
"There are other possibilities, but whichever his motive is, we'll just have to capture him to found about it.
"Since he wanted to reel you in his trap, let used this trap to reel him into our trap instead. He probably won't have the technology of our caliber, and we're already prepared, so there's no need to be afraid of this bumpkin maggot!
"Let's start at dawn and capture ourselves a maggot!" A-995 declared!
"Yes!" the three of them replied in unison.
---
At dawn,
Harrison, dressing as Jacob, was sitting calmly a few meters away from the bloody building where he massacred trolls three days ago.
Jacob had told him to wait here like this without any fear of any bullets or ambush until the 'agent' arrived and he had a match with him.
However, he had also set up many traps around to weaken his opponent by Jacob's order yesterday.
He was extremely confident in dealing with the 'agent' now and then winning himself a ticket to A rank.
After tasting the power, his previous belief crumbled, replacing new beliefs which were simple; power is equal to rule. He started longing for more power, and that's why he was willing to do anything to gain it.
Right now, he knew he could only gain power by following Jacob, and after following him to the Earthen Kingdom, he discovered Jacob was quite 'noble' despite his tyrannical image.
He had crushed the noble family of trolls, which was the biggest threat to humanity, and then this lab, which was also a threat to humanity, and now he was going to kill the mastermind behind the war.
Although Harrison admires Jacob's 'nobility', he doesn't agree with Jacob's method because he does it for 'free' and without anyone knowing it.
He didn't know why Jacob didn't want to tell everyone that he has gotten rid of such a huge threat alone, but he doesn't dare to ask because he didn't want to give Jacob the impression that he had changed from the past and now harbor ambition.
He was afraid Jacob would stop 'nurturing' him and won't pass on his secret to that dark liquid to him.
Jacob was extremely strong so, overpowering him for that black liquid was akin to court death. So, he decided to act just as Jacob wanted and win him over.
The more Harrison becomes obedient, the more thing Jacob gave him. Just like that green liquid that can quench his hunger and thirst, it was miraculous. So, he acted more submissively.
He also believed that Jacob wouldn't let him die after nurturing him to this stage!
At this moment, Harrison snapped out of his thoughts when his ears picked up faint footsteps quickly approaching him. His hearing also increased after he entered the B-rank, so he instantly became alert.
Five hundred meters away from Harrison's position, on a large three, a figure sat wearing a hood. In front of him was a three meters long heavy sniper rifle, completely black, resting on its stands on a thick tree branch.
Just the barrel of this rifle was alone two meters long, and a long scope was on top of it. The person was calmly looking through the scope toward Harrison and all the clear mining areas.
This person was naturally Jacob, who was prepared to kill A-9999 with his newly built titan sniper!
After Jacob used his knowledge to modify the titan sniper and created special bullets, he called it the Friction Killer. He brings some materials from the dark city that made it possible to complete this new titan sniper and bullets.
Jacob was quite confident in this new sniper rifle because it could now shoot bullets at Mach-10 speed!
However, with such speed, the rifle will be blasted apart after six shots, so to be safe, Jacob kept the limit to three or four rounds. As long as A-9999 didn't have an energy shield that could activate before the bullet blew her head, she was dead the moment Jacob pulled the trigger!
However, Jacob was completely vigilant because yesterday he found a troll loitering around the vicinity of mines. Harrison didn't notice him since it was quite proficient in hiding its footsteps sound, but how could Jacob miss him with his current hearing?
But he didn't kill that person and let him go after he scouted Harrison. He wanted to draw A-9999 in open, and if that scout was hers; he didn't mind revealing that he was there.
Because in Jacob's thought A-9999 still didn't know A-10000 was dead, and she might think he was holding him, hostage, so she will come out to test his motives.
That was why he didn't leave the earthen kingdom after thinking about the other three skulls in the uncommon region as well.
If A-9999 alerted the other threes and have them come here to overpower Jacob, they will still have to come in the open, and this was a chance he won't be going to miss!
Even if she came alone after overestimating Jacob and misunderstanding his motives, Jacob would still kill her and then hunt those three skulls down after raising his prowess.
In any case, Jacob mused, he didn't have to do much if he played his cards well and used Harrison as a perfect bait.
That guy had no idea what he was getting into, and he was completely blinded by benefits, and took Jacob for a kind, noble person, while the reality was completely different.
Jacob had long known about Harrison's change in nature at the tyrant mansion. He also sensed Harrison's ambition increasing, but Jacob doesn't stop him at all, and even encourages it and then manipulates the old guy with his own ambition.
From the start, Jacob was growing Harrison into a perfect bait that would be hard to not get noticed by a big fish.
'If that scout was sent by the dark elf. He had notified her that Harrison was setting up traps when he saw him, so she would be even more confident in approaching him while thinking she was completely prepared.' Jacob's lips curled into an astute smile as he heard faint footsteps from his position. 'She's deliberately making her footsteps loud enough to be noticed by me. She came prepared!'
How could someone like A-9999 make the rookie mistake of not hiding her footsteps?
Jacob knew if he wanted; Harrison won't even notice him before he slit his throat, so he guessed A-9999 really wanted to have a negotiation with him, or she was bait sent by the other three.
Whatever the case was, Jacob wanted A-9999 heart and blood!
At this moment, a capped figure appeared within the woods as it moved slowly toward Harrison, who had already stood up as his eyes shone with confidence.
This capped figure stopped fifty meters away from Harrison since the trap field was ahead.
A-9999's jeering yet coquettish voice sounded, "So, my dear Faceless Ancient, care to explain why you came back? Could it be you missed me?
"If you hadn't killed A-10000 I would've let you spend a night or two with me, but now that you did, you will still spend nights with me, albeit not in the pleasure chamber, but in the torture chamber!"
Harrison was baffled by these words and looked at the capped figure in confusion. 'Is she pretending to be an idiot to lure me out of the trap field?'
However, Jacob, who had heard everything, clearly felt his heart turn cold, 'They knew I killed that lion-head orc? But how!?'