The young man smiled and said, "We've finally arrived."
He struggled to push off the pedals and made it ashore!
The young man hid the little duck boat among a pile of coconut leaves and slowly walked inland. The place where he landed was very close to the place where Qing Chen had landed.
Before he had gone far, he saw several hovercraft rapidly descending in altitude.
A voice came from the airship: "Lie down, cover your head, and stop resisting!"
The young man muttered, "I didn't resist either."
He obediently lay down and covered his head.
On the airship, combat personnel descended via ropes, pressed their knees against his neck, and handcuffed him: "Who are you?"
Because of the Joker's successful invasion, Storm City has now firmly sealed off the entire coastline, with more than 500 drones and 24 airships patrolling the skies every day to prevent people from the Eastern Continent from smuggling over.
The young man just happened to be in the line of fire. He sighed, "What bad luck! Everyone else managed to infiltrate safely, so why did I fail?"
At this moment, the young man spat out a mouthful of sand, smiled without anger, and said in English, "I don't know who's in charge here, but I can let you know that my name is Zong Cheng, and I'm a puppeteer from the Eastern Continent. He'll be very interested in me."
"Because we share common interests."
Chapter 900, Aria
For the past few hundred years, the puppeteer has kept a low profile, and no one even knew that he was still alive.
Until recently, he began to reappear on the stage of power, and he has been making frequent moves ever since.
He was the one who wanted to assassinate Qing Chen at Qing Zhun's former residence.
He was the one who went to the Mindset Dojo and informed Kamishiro about the Knight's life-or-death situation.
He was the one who destroyed the possession device on Ginkgo Mountain.
He was the one who arrived on the Western Continent in a small duck boat, seeking cooperation with the royal family.
He seems to have puppets in the Qing, Kashima, Kamishiro, Chen, and Li clans, with tens of thousands of tentacles infiltrating the power cores of the Eastern Continent Federation.
However, no one noticed him before he became active.
This person suddenly appeared, at what he considered the right time.
If he had told the Roosevelt royal family a year ago that he was a puppeteer, they would have been completely baffled.
But things are different now.
At this point, after Storm City's combat personnel captured him, they put him in a solitary cell, guarded by four genetic warriors at the door.
After reporting the matter to Duke Storm, the airship commander did not return to Storm City but flew directly to the Central Royal City.
Zong Cheng lay on the bed in his private room, humming a country tune leisurely, completely unperturbed.
A person who has tens of thousands of chances to die has no reason to panic.
He said to the gene warriors outside the door, "Hey, could you give me a virtual reality headset, the kind that lets you enter a superconducting world? I heard a lot of people are playing with it, and it looks really fun. You guys should report to your superiors that I want to try it out."
More than ten minutes later, a genetically engineered soldier opened the door and handed him a pair of virtual reality glasses with a complicated expression.
When they reported the prisoner's request to Duke Storm, the duke surprisingly replied: "Let him play."
Such special treatment.
After a 12-hour journey, the airship finally arrived at a military base outside the central capital. The soldiers at the base conducted a thorough inspection of the airship and, after confirming that it was not carrying any dangerous items, continued flying into the central capital and landed directly in the palace.
The king did not appear, but Duke Storm had been waiting there for a long time.
The airship opened its door, only to find Zong Cheng standing at the hatch with his hands bound by vines.
Duke Storm did not approach him, but calmly asked from a distance of twenty meters, "What can you give me?"
Zong Cheng smiled and said, "Duke of Storms... I've seen your information. I can currently give you the names and birthdays of 12,329 core members of the Parents' Association. If we cooperate well, I can even give you the names and birthdays of two members of the Daytime Association. Of course, that's not all. There are also the names and birthdays of some important figures from the Chen, Li, and Qing families. I can even get hair and blood samples from some of them. You know, although they're not that cautious, it's still very difficult for you to get these things with your zero-foundation intelligence system."
The towering Duke of Storms was somewhat surprised.
The reason why the masters of the Western Continent do not use their real names or tell others their birthdays is because their ancestors have been punished by the Fate Masters, Arbitrators, and the God's Disciples organization for generations.
Many skilled practitioners even install a filter in the bathroom when showering to prevent their hair from getting into the sewer and being collected...
Everyone was very cautious.
But the Eastern Continent is different. No one can curse someone just by knowing their name. That kind of ability only exists in legends. Hair is only used for paternity testing at most, so there's no need to be so cautious.
They are also easy to collect.
As for its name, it can be seen everywhere in the news.
For birthdays, some people post on social media, and even some big shots can occasionally find out where they hold their birthday parties.
Hair is a bit more complicated, but it's not too difficult if you put your mind to it.
This information, along with the hair, was given to the Arbiters, who could kill tens of thousands of people within a month of arriving on the Eastern Continent.
If the number and ability of the adjudicators weren't limited, they could have killed everyone who provided Zongcheng with information within a single day... The curse takes effect within 24 hours.
Therefore, after learning about Duke Storm's abilities, Zong Cheng immediately sent him a great gift.
And this was just a small gift to mark the beginning.
Duke Storm became serious: "What do you want? Why do you want to help the Western Continent?"
Zongcheng smiled and said, "I don't want much. Just hand over the Joker to me... or any knight will do."
Duke Storm could not determine whether what the other party was saying was true.
It's like a guessing game for each other, where each person chooses the conditions that are most advantageous to themselves, and then releases some information to create confusion.
They all knew that neither side had good intentions in their cooperation, but they chose to keep it a secret.
Duke Storm laughed: "No problem."
"So it's a deal?" Zong Cheng pointed to his brain and laughed, "I can write down some of the information about the parent-teacher association members right now, it's all in my head."
Duke Storm nodded and said to the Virtuoso beside him, "Take him to the secret prison and have him write there."
Zong Cheng didn't seem to care, as if he had long known that this puppet was destined to become a prisoner.
The genetic warriors on the airship took Zong Cheng into the secret prison, but just as they locked him up, the Fate Master who had been following them from a distance suddenly attacked and killed people.
He took out four short daggers from his sleeve, swung them in the air, and the four daggers pierced the hearts of four genetic warriors.
The Fate Master walked out: "Don't touch their corpses. Drag them out and burn them. Remember, no one is allowed to approach the room where this person is. Eating and getting things must be done by robots. Don't give him any chance to continue learning about the Western Continent."
The prison doors were made of glass, while the main structure consisted of bright alloy walls, and a soft, technologically advanced white light emanated from the ceiling.
Zong Cheng asked through the cell, "Are you worried that my puppet will spread throughout the Roosevelt Kingdom? Then you'll have to kill quite a few more people."
"No need to remind me."
At the same time, a war robot entered the airship, closed the cabin, and then activated the airship's airtight system.
To the astonishment of the airship crew, white poisonous smoke billowed from its chest.
Smoke mixed with neurotoxins drifted through the ship's cabin, killing everyone inside in just five minutes!
This wasn't the end of it; the soldiers at the military base who were responsible for inspecting the airship were also all shot dead!
This series of executions is enough to show that Duke Storm is wary of the Puppeteer.
Because a terrifying puppeteer once existed in the Western Continent. If it weren't for the Fate Master's precognitive abilities, this kingdom would probably not belong to the Roosevelt family now.
Inside the secret prison, Zong Cheng revealed a strange smile.
A new game has begun.
The countdown has reached zero.
...
...
Countdown 168:00:00.
At midnight, Qing Chen slowly got up... His deep, bone-revealing wounds had not yet healed.
The training base was as deserted as ever.
He stepped out of the room. Alice was still drinking coffee and browsing the web on her laptop in the living room. She looked up at Qingchen and said, "You don't look well."
Qing Chen smiled and said, "It's alright. I'll be away for a few days. Please tell Coach Sores that he can have a good four-day rest."
"Where are you going?" Alice asked.
Qingchen thought for a moment: "Let's go to an island that's actually a whale and attend a funeral."
“Excuse me, is this your friend’s funeral?” Alice asked.
“Yes,” Qingchen nodded with a smile, “We’ve known each other for a long time, but we’ve only been friends for a few days.”
"Why?"
"Because I had many misunderstandings about him before."
Alice asked curiously, "What kind of person is he?"
After thinking for a long time, Qing Chen smiled and replied, "He is a very skilled swordsman."
Just then, the sound of a car engine came from outside the training base. Qing Chen walked out, and Alice followed.
More than ten black cars were parked at the entrance. Someone opened the back door for Qingchen, and he got in.
The convoy arrived quickly and left quickly.
This convoy... was clearly waiting at the foot of the mountain all along, just to protect Qingchen alone.
Alice stood on the cold Alps, arms crossed, watching the convoy drive into the night as if it were sailing into the deep sea.
Book 6, Chapter 6 of the Night: