After Danitz entered the bar, Luo En did not immediately follow him.
He stayed in the shadows of a distant street corner, observing quietly.
"Listen—"
Soon, Luo En noticed something.
A faint gaze, filled with an exploratory intent, was observing the tavern from somewhere nearby.
An ambush!
Luo En's heart instantly tensed.
That person's strength is not weak; at least, it's comparable to mine.
They probably haven't realized my identity yet, so I can't act rashly.
Luo En remained still. To some extent, he and the hidden observer formed a subtle, distant standoff.
However, just then—
"Boom!"
A muffled explosion suddenly came from the direction of the bar!
Immediately after, a small burst of orange-red flame shot out from the side door, but it was quickly extinguished, as if forcibly put out by something.
Not good!
Luo En's pupils suddenly contracted. He immediately realized that he had been tricked!
That was just a "decoy"; the real attack happened inside the bar!
Indeed, moments after the explosion, he clearly perceived that the sense of being watched, which had been locked onto the bar, disappeared.
Luo En immediately took out the black "Silence" ring from his pocket and put it on his hand. A cold, absolute rationality instantly flooded his mind.
He cautiously made his way into the small alley beside the bar.
On the ground, there were still obvious scorch marks. The air was filled with a faint smell of gunpowder, and a hint of blood.
The Calamity premonition had become very weak; the enemy must have left.
Luo En activated "Spirit Vision" and scanned the area.
Then he took a coin from his pocket and tossed it high into the air.
"Danitz was ambushed."
The coin tumbled in the air, finally landing face up in his palm.
"As expected—"
Luo En looked at the result and murmured to himself.
"He was taken away—"
He glanced at the direction where the spiritual residue dissipated, and then at the marks on the ground.
"Very little time has passed since the attack. They—shouldn't have gone far."
Now, the problem before Luo En was no longer "should I save him," but "how to save him."
He knew very well that he and Danitz were now tied together. Whether it was the Vice Admiral of Disease or the Storm Church who took Danitz, if they managed to extract any information about him from Danitz, his own fate would certainly not be good.
"What a big trouble!"
Inside an abandoned warehouse.
Mithor's figure hurried in through a side door.
"Why are you only just arriving? I've already dealt with him!" A tall, dark-skinned man, like Steel, stood with one foot on the unconscious Danitz, asking in an unfriendly tone.
"Steel" McVeigh.
"Outside, I detected a sneaky little rat," Mithor responded casually.
"His accomplice?" McVeigh pressed.
Mithor shook his head and said, "Not sure. Maybe just an ordinary Hunter. After all, 'Flame's' current bounty is very tempting."
He ignored McVeigh and walked directly to the tightly bound Danitz, raised his hand, and with a "slap," a loud slap directly woke him from his unconsciousness.
"Eloquent Speaker—Mithor?" Danitz slowly opened his eyes, looking at the person in front of him with some surprise. Then, he turned his head and saw the man stepping on him.
"Steel"—damn it! You two actually teamed up!"
"Emperor Rosell once said, the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Mithor said with a false smile.
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his hand and delivered a heavy punch squarely to Danitz's face, knocking him to the ground.
"Ugh—" Danitz twitched painfully on the dusty ground.
"Do you know?" Mithor squatted down, grabbed Danitz's hair, and lifted his face from the ground, his eyes filled with venom.
"Because of your damned corpse, I—suffered so much!"
"I was almost killed by the Captain himself!"
Mithor seemed unsatisfied and delivered another hard kick to Danitz's abdomen.
Watching Danitz curl up in a ball on the ground, gasping for breath, he directly grabbed the other's hair, lifted him up, face to face, and asked word by word: "Now, tell me, what exactly is your Captain's plan? Is that guy named Monqi Brando dead or not?!"
"Damn it, I don't know—what are you talking about—" Danitz struggled to squeeze out a few words.
"Heh heh." Mithor delivered another kick.
"Ah—" Danitz screamed and then fell silent.
"The eight thousand pounds you promised, hand it over," McVeigh, who was standing by, looked at the unconscious Danitz and held out his hand to Mithor.
Mithor pulled out a money bag from his embrace and tossed it over.
McVeigh weighed it, and his expression immediately changed: "Are you playing with me? This bag has at most three thousand pounds!"
"This is the deposit," Mithor explained. "I must safely bring Danitz back to the Black Death before I can pay the remaining balance."
"The Official bounty and private bounty for 'Flame' add up to ten thousand pounds! Are you trying to fool me with such a small amount of money?" McVeigh sneered.
"I told you before, that seven-thousand-pound bounty was issued by us. Also, if it weren't for my intelligence, how could you have caught him so easily?"
"Hmph!" McVeigh snorted, still blocking Danitz's path, showing no intention of moving.
"How about—you come back to the ship with me and get the money in person?" Mithor suggested. "Do you take me for a fool!" McVeigh laughed. Go back to the Black Death with you? Would he even come back alive?
Mithor still had a smiling face on the surface, but in reality, he was cursing inwardly.
Cooperating with "Steel" McVeigh was an unexpected turn of events. He had gone to great lengths to find a contact point for the Iceberg Admiral, and thus teamed up with this guy, who was also looking for Danitz, to set up this ambush.
The so-called eight thousand pounds was just a lie he used to deceive this simple-minded fellow; he didn't have that much money.
As for asking the Captain for money? Forget it, the Captain not killing him directly was already a blessing.
If he were to ask the Captain for money again, he probably wouldn't have enough lives.
Just as he was about to use his specialty as an "Eloquent Speaker" to try and persuade the other party, a very slight unusual sound suddenly came from outside the warehouse.
Both their expressions changed instantly. "..."
McVeigh stepped on Danitz's chest, signaling Mithor to go out and check.
"Damn it!"
The Captain wants him alive—Mithor frowned, cursing inwardly.
But he still cautiously walked towards the outside of the warehouse.
However, he didn't find anyone, only a pile of scattered sundries and a few playing cards on the ground.
It looked as if stacked goods had collapsed. "Strange!" Mithor's gaze scanned around, but he didn't find anything unusual.
After waiting for a few minutes, with still no movement, he chose to return.
However, as soon as he turned around, he heard a crisp sound behind him—
"Click."
"Bang!"