"I'm really appreciating all of your help offers but for the hard work such as breaking the stone, I have a personal slave... I mean assistant for it." said Chris as he pointed at Bob who is hiding behind the entry door for no obvious reason.
"I see, but I will be glad to help out as well." said C-760.
"Ah... If you really want to help... Here, catch this! Help me remove the outer shell from it, I didn't expect much from this though." said Chris as he casually throws the stone that cost Sky a ten thousand bucks to C-760.
C-760 hastily caught it and gently placed it on another working table...
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Meanwhile, the hostess bar again...
"Wait! What? Seriously? What a risky yet amazing strategy you two had made. No wonder everything looks so smooth... Well, almost everything except for that blood curse. Mr. Chris looks like he was in great pain when I watched his match from the audience seat." said Sheriff as he poured a mug full of beer into Sky's mug.
"For your information, I rejected that absurd plan of him but he rejected my reject." said Sky as calmly lifted up the mug and drink it.
Then, Leah walked out from the counter with a tray of colorful cocktail shots.
"Ah... Those shots are not drugged, right?" Sky asked, partially teasing.
"No, these are just some normal delicious rainbow shots. I am really sorry about what I did... But... Why would you drink it despite knowing that it's drugged?" Leah asked.
"Well... Once, there was a lady who tried to drug me but I noticed it, so I switched up the drugged drink with hers. But then, things happened, she died a few weeks after that." said Sky before chugged down the remaining beer in the mug.
"Ah... That's a rather unexpected reason... Eh? Ah! Welcome to Sweetheart Hostess Bar!" said Leah as she stood up and greeted two uniformed men.
Sky and Sheriff recognize them as members of Alliance.
"Good evening Sir, I'm here to deliver a message from Colonel K. Colonel is requesting for your assistance in the investigation of some important matters regarding the Royal Guards." said one of the men.
"Okay... Can you tell me what is that important matter?" said Sky, a bit reluctant to accept that request of K.
"It's regarding a vast kidnapping of contestants." said the man.
"Eh?"
Hearing this, Sky and Sheriff stared at each other, they realise that they have to get involved in this matter no matter what.
"Can I join him for that quest?" Sheriff said.
"Yes, please follow me." said the man.
Then Sky and Sheriff exited the bar with the two men...
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Meanwhile, Alliance's forging room.
Bob had broken the boulder into small pieces as instructed by Chris. Then, Chris picked up a slightly darker piece of the broken pieces, he examined it for a while and smiled.
"I knew this thing will be good. Seriously, all those stone collectors will never understand the value of this. Bob, gather all the pieces with this kind of texture and color, I will prepare the furnace." said Chris, who sounds rather excited.
On the other side, C-760 is still carefully removing the shell of that jadeite ore that cost Sky a ten thousand bucks.
"Sargent, you don't need to be this careful, just cut off the whole thing, the only valuable part will probably only that little purple spot around the opening." said Chris which makes C-760 a bit confused.
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Sky and Sheriff followed the Alliance's officials to a rather hidden district of the town. They went into a strictly secured building that is surrounded by electrifying wires. The alliance officials led them into the building and straight towards a locked room at the far-end corner of the building.
"Colonel, Sir. Vlansky is here with the leader of team 'Yeehaw'." said one of the men to a communication panel on the door. After a while, the door opened.
K is inside of the room, working with a huge and unique machine. The center part of the machine is a board that tilted at an angle of forty-five degrees, on the board is a person that is tied up and connected to the machine, Sky took a closer look and realise that it's an adult man.
"Uhm... K, who is that person?" Sky asked.
"He is Augustine III, the leader of Royal Guards as well as the son of the disowned king of this place." said K, in a serious tone.
"So he was a prince, unexpected but reasonable. Anyway, let me go straight to the point. I would like to know about that kidnapping issue in detail." said Sky.
"Alright... As you can see, this machine is used to hypnosis a person in order to force out any information from them, a moment ago, he somehow murmured about how he locked a whole group of other team's contestants in an underground basement, followed by a burst of evil laughter. I have a feeling that it might be something really serious, but I can't leave my interrogation process right now since there are a lot more of things that need to be dug out from him, so would you mind helping me out with that?" K asked, in a formal tone.
"Yes, and for your information, we are actually looking for some contestants that gone missing in the middle of the tournament, I believe these two matters are related." said Sky.
"Brilliant. Here. I had sorted out some possible locations for the underground basement." said K as he turned on a screen with a map...
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*Something out of the story
Sky: "Dear readers."
Chris: "Hmm?"
Sky: "This chapter is meant to be released for webnovel.com."
Chris: "Oh! This matter. Yes, if you're reading this chapter on another platform than webnovel.com, know that it's an illegal copy diffused without the Writer's authorization."
Sky: "As what Chris said. Right now, this story is free on the authorized platform, so please read it from authorized platforms as mental support for the writer."
Chris: "Mhm... There are two authorized platforms. One is webnovel.com. And another one is that messy and half-dead Weebly site that she uses for draft and backup... But not recommended."
Sky: "Ah... Haha. Yes, as Chris said."
Chris: "But look out, those scums might change this note to their own website link. So, be cautious.
Sky : "By the way, if the cover page is the old cover page that shows two stickmen, stop reading it, it's cursed and might caused the writer to stop writing."
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