Somewhere at the head of a trestle bridge in the old river harbour on the Rhine in Cologne, old Theo propped his upper body on the railing and watched the waterfowl fly by and watched a barge from Holland sail by. The modern buildings along the bank were residential and commercial office buildings that had been renovated from the old warehouses in the river harbour. It was a beautiful day and there were many walkers along the river, couples strolling hand in hand and children screaming and running. Normally, Theo would be enjoying the weather and the scenery.
But today was a little different than usual.
On Old Theo's work schedule, a ship would be docking at ten o'clock tonight at the trestle he managed, and he would be doing his usual job of signalling, helping the ship to dock, tying up the cables, etc., securing the treads, and so on.
But old Theo had added a note to the plan he had written down for the night: to ignore any strange happenings, not to call the police, and just to do the same work as usual.
This note was written by Theo himself after receiving a phone call from his boss to send him to work.
The boss had instructed him in the phone call to just do his job tonight and not to care about anything else, even if he saw strange people or things.
Old Theo had worked by the Rhine for most of his life and was extremely familiar with the surrounding grass and trees. Over the past thirty years he had watched the old warehouses next to the river harbour go from busy to depressed, and from abandoned warehouses to modern style flats.
He was even familiar with the people who strolled along the river. That middle-aged man with his dog would appear every day around four o'clock in the afternoon, and that slim middle-aged woman would run past in her running clothes every day around five o'clock in the afternoon. That middle-schooler would pass by on his bike with his headphones around 4:30 p.m.
"As God is my witness, I even saw a water demon in the Rhine once." Old Theo thought to himself, "I witnessed the water demon rise out of the water and brood over the moonlight that bright moonlit midnight many years ago."
But today, Old Theo saw something that didn't belong here.
It was not yet six o'clock in the afternoon when the first car drove up to the edge of the Rhine harbour and stopped in the unloading area. The people in the cars didn't come down and sat in them for an hour.
At seven o'clock two more cars drove up, six people came down from the cars, and two people came down from the car that came before, and several people converged and then dispersed, patrolling the river harbour area in groups of two along different directions.
"These guys are like ... like those agents in the movies, but not dressed and rowdy like government departments." Theo thought to himself, Theo Sr. couldn't tell what these people were, but he knew that they must have something to do with the ship that was arriving tonight.
At about eight o'clock, a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance, dressed like a countryside civil servant slipped near the trestle bridge, watched Old Theo work for a while, and struck up a conversation with Old Theo with great interest: "Nice weather huh."
The middle-aged man's German accent is a bit strange, the old Theo while busy with the work in hand while responding: "It's okay, I heard it's going to rain in the second half of the night."
The middle-aged man looked at the clouds in the sky and said to himself, "Luckily it's the second half of the night, it shouldn't be raining at ten o'clock."
Old Theo stopped what he was doing and said impatiently, "Hey, I say man, whatever you and those guys walking around are, don't bother me with my work. At ten o'clock tonight, I'll get my work done, and the rest has nothing to do with me!"
That middle-aged man said with some embarrassment, "Sorry to disturb you mate, I hope your work goes well." After saying that the middle-aged man slipped and walked away.
"Weirdo!" Old Theo muttered and went to eat at a small hut near the trestle bridge.
It was still light because of the season. Shaun and Lola were sitting at a café seat two hundred metres away from one of the trestles drinking coffee, watching Richard strike up a conversation with Old Theo and then slowly walk away again.
"Does Richard have any legendary exploits in the agent's circle??" Shaun asked.
"No, he is considered a relatively low-profile existence in the agents, it's rare to hear about him in the Mutual Aid Society, it's related to his personality, I guess. But the fact that the spirit realmassigned him to handle this incident in this form shows that he has extraordinary strength, at the very least, his ability is very suitable for handling this incident." Lola said.
"Shadow Secret Stone, Swiftness Secret Stone, Secret Stone of Force, three effect-based Secret Stones can advance to upper shinobi, it feels like a very strong ability, this Uncle Richard." Shaun said as he sipped his coffee.
Before coming to the old river harbour by the river, Shaun and the other four people met up in front of the Hohenzollern Bridge abutment. The large iron bridge was a railway bridge named after the Hohenzollern family, a German royal family during the German Germany period, and was considered one of the landmarks of Cologne.
One more interesting thing about this bridge for tourists is that the iron railings of the bridge are densely covered with concentric locks, especially at the end of the bridge near the cathedral, where they have been hung until there is not a single gap left.
The four of them converged on this café and sat down at one of the top tables.
After ordering drinks, Richard asked, "Did everyone have dinner earlier? Might need a lot of stamina for the evening."
Shaun nodded along with Lola and Chloe.
Richard said, "In that case then, let's talk about the night. Everyone can take a look at that trestle two hundred metres away, where the ship Beyer was talking about will be docked at ten o'clock tonight. In charge of that trestle is Theo, a sixty year old labourer." "Before we get into my plan, let's communicate our respective abilities. Knowing the abilities and weaknesses of your teammates is important for dealing with resilience in the event of a fight."
"I'm a level 4 with the ability:Shinobi." Richard introduced himself first.
"Upper Shinobi!?" Shaun nearly spat the coffee out of his mouth at that moment, surprised by the name that was full of secondary emotions.
"Yes, I didn't come up with the name of course, but the name does fit the abilities. Concealment, mimicry, sneaking, assassination, and godly martial arts, very much like a high level ninja." Richard explained.
"So I'll make up as Theo, the old river port worker, and look for an opportunity after the ship docks." Richard said his plan.
"Which secret stones are stacked on top of the Shinobi's ability?" Shaun was very curious.
"Oh, I was lucky, although I had a repeat experience of getting the Swiftness Secret Stone, but then I got the Secret Stone of Force and stacked it to become a Kung Fu Master. Three years ago, I found the Dark Shadow Secret Stone, so I gathered the Dark Shadow, Swiftness and Force Secret Stones and advanced to become an upper ninja."
Shaun's face was full of envy as he said, "I just got the Secret Stone of Fire yesterday, and have some ability to manipulate fire, I tried it myself today, and the furthest effective manipulation distance of a fireball is fifty metres, and I haven't experimented with the other skills yet."
Richard said, "As far as I know, your skills in controlling fire include at least the skills of Flame Missile, forming a high-temperature Flame Blade by covering your palm with flames, and Fire Shield Protection. With both long and short range attacks, within all the single secret stone abilities, the ability of fire is considered very strong."
Shaun nodded and hesitated in his heart, but still didn't say anything about the Magic Spirit Power for fear that Richard's three would misunderstand him. He wanted to try not to use the Magic Spirit Power skill as much as possible, and if the situation was urgent and he had to use it, then he would wait until afterwards to explain it to Richard and the others.
Chloe nodded: "I'm a level 3 agent, my ability is:Water Demon, Water Secret Stone stacked with Shadow Secret Stone. I'll be in the water when the time comes, Richard or Lola, Shaun, whoever gets something just throw it in the water, that's my area."
It was still the same cold look, but Shaun knew it was a sign of goodwill that she didn't wait for Shaun to ask, and took the initiative to say which Secret Stones the ability was stacked by. And through his attitude when facing Beyer Shaun already admired this Spanish girl.
Lola said: "My ability is a third level botanist, I can control plants to attack or entangle, the limit distance is fifty metres."
Richard said: "Very good, we have two people who can attack from a distance, it just fits my plan. Chloe and I will be at the side of the boat, Lola and Shaun will take over at fifty metres, pretending to be a couple is the best disguise. Our goal was twofold, one was to get the stuff on the boat and sabotage Bogonov's plan with the gangster alliance. The second is to snipe those who come to grab the stuff, including the Demon Spirit Agents and the monsters created by Genesis."
"But be careful, with something that the Gangster Alliance values so much, there must be very powerful and strong people escorting the ship. Chloe and I will try to co-operate as well as we can, and try to take the things away unnoticed, without making a move against the people escorting them. If any Demon Spirit Agents or monsters appear, let them have a firefight with each other first, and we'll try to keep a low profile and snipe the monsters."
Seeing everyone nodding in agreement, Richard added: "The most important point:Keep in mind, if you can't beat them, run."
"The purpose of our operation is to teach Bogonov a lesson and figure out if what the Gangster Alliance is transporting involves public safety. There's no need to fight to the death unless a demonic agent or a monster from Genesis' side appears."
With those words, Richard and Chloe got up and started moving.
Shaun and Lola sat at the coffee seat for some time longer, watching Richard walk over to chat with Old Theo and then walk away again.
Shaun knew that Richard had observed how Old Theo worked, but Shaun was curious as to when Richard would replace Old Theo.
"Probably now." Shaun watched as Old Teo entered the hut and thought it was an opportunity. "Upper Shinobi, sounds like an amazing ability."
"What can a water demon do? Sounds a little spooky." Shaun asked Lola, who was sitting across from him.
Lola's eyes looked in the direction of the river harbour trestle and her voice was slightly deeper as she said, "Breathe under water, spray high-pressure water beams, and emit high-energy pulsed sound waves."
Shaun asked, "Do you know Chloe well?"
Lola gave him a cold look and said, "You have the curiosity of a woman."
Shaun smiled sarcastically and thought to himself, "You and Chloe look like men."
Lola was silent for a moment before looking away again and speaking:"Chloe is two years younger than me, but she had been an agent for three years when I became one."
Lola paused for another moment before continuing, "She was once captured by a mission target when she was a level one agent."