Chapter 493
Wrath and Greed: The Second Mission Walkthrough
There are two ways for organizations to store confidential drug information.
The first type is paper archives, and the second type is electronic data, but the computer storing them is completely offline, physically preventing hacker intrusion.
These computers storing important data have two layers of security: identity verification and password. If either one is entered incorrectly, the computer will immediately initiate a destruction process that cannot be recovered.
For this reason, Aoyagi Akimitsu gave up on forcing the password out through violence early on. He wanted the person who knew the password to voluntarily open the computer.
So he chose Rum.
The higher a person's position, the less they want others to notice when they are unwell. More than concern and care, they fear others will exploit this weakness to attack them.
These are the words that Aoyagi Akimitsu said at the hospital that afternoon.
His words were not only directed at Chairman Takeuchi, but also mocked Rum.
The second-in-command is growing increasingly weak from the effects of radiation, and he will never reveal this to anyone. He will also become more paranoid, and until the cause of his illness is found, he will be wary of everyone around him, including his bodyguards.
This means that Rum would have to go through the vast amount of drug information and find out which poison he suspected he had been poisoned by all by himself.
The current base was built by Karasuma Mochizuki many years ago. After Gin and Rum took over, they focused their attention on the main laboratories in several major cities and temporarily neglected this small place.
As a result, this base missed out on the rapid technological development of the past few years, and its monitoring and other equipment are relatively outdated.
Therefore, whether it's external conditions or Rum's personal factors, this is a good place for Aoyagi Akimitsu to make his move.
At that moment, a stench filled the storage room located below the monitoring room. The smell of wild beasts and blood mingled together as a massive brown bear tore at rum on the ground.
Aoyagi Binguang turned his back to them, ignoring the commotion behind him.
Previously in the forest, he had observed the bears' feeding with great interest, watching which part of the Irish bear and the two ordinary lower-class bears were eaten first; now he didn't even glance at them.
Gu Shao couldn't stand the blatant brutality and stepped forward to shoot Rum.
The bear growled softly at the killing of its prey, but did not attack.
Aoyagi Binguang wasn't angry. He had anticipated that Gu Shao would make a move. He kept his head tilted back and focused on the screen.
Gu Shao walked to the computer. She wasn't angry, nor did she question Aoyagi Akimitsu about feeding the organization's members to bears. She only asked:
"Could there really be important information in this place that's been partially abandoned for several years?"
She had taken care of Shirley for a period of time and had some understanding of how and where important organizational documents were stored.
I'm not sure.
Aoyagi Akimitsu looked helpless.
“After my aunt decided to marry my uncle, Karasuma Mochizuki did not plan to stay in Tokyo any longer. Since she had often traveled to Gunma to visit her sister Yoko, she simply built this base in this area and worked here for a long time.”
"Around that time, the Miyano couple joined the organization. They also came to this base, so..."
Aoyagi Akihiro pressed a button, and a single lab report along with two signatures bearing the same surname popped up.
"……really."
He finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"The complete initial version of 'Silver Bullet' information is right here."
……
After Aoyagi Akimitsu's clone finished copying the data, Tani notified the main body, and then initiated the base's self-destruct program.
Even after she finished all that, her work for the night wasn't over yet, or rather, it would only truly begin after she left—she needed to create a replacement for Rum and have him deal with the two major events: the tragic death of the organization's leader's mother and the exposure of the family behind the organization.
Thinking about the workload ahead, she frowned slightly and was about to step onto the stairs when she noticed that Aoyagi Akimitsu was still in front of the computer.
As he pressed several buttons on the machine to seal off most of the doors in the base, he pulled out his phone and quickly dialed a few numbers.
"Aren't you going to run?" Gu Shao couldn't help but ask.
Aoyagi Akimitsu turned and walked to her side, so she heard what he said on the phone.
"Hello? Is this the police? I just heard an explosion... No, I'm not in Beika or Nishitama, I'm in Nagano."
"Me? I'm just a hunter. I heard about the bear outbreak nearby, so I came to hunt. But I got lost and heard an explosion as soon as I left the forest."
"...A suspicious person? I just saw a silver-haired man in black, he must have been a foreigner. He looked very fierce, I didn't dare go near him."
"Okay, I'll wait for you there."
Under the silent gaze of Tani no Sho, Aoyagi Akimitsu hung up the phone.
"Now that's settled, let's run."
He said this to her, and the two quickly walked down another road, leaving the crumbling base together.
Next, let's look at the main body.
Previously, he took the trader's phone and sent an email to the corrupt police officer surnamed Takeda, reminding him that foreign agents were investigating him for killing the international student, and that the investigation had already traced the case back to the trader.
Meanwhile, in the following hours, Rei Furuya suddenly disappeared from the Nagano Prefectural Police Headquarters, and the Public Security Bureau began an internal investigation.
Given the usual investigative practices of the Public Security Bureau, they wouldn't reveal too much to the headquarters police, at most mentioning his appearance. However, Furuya Rei's appearance is closer to that of a foreigner, which would further increase Takeda's wild thoughts and psychological pressure.
At that very moment, an explosion occurred in the forest on the border of Nagano Prefecture.
In any country, an explosion is an emergency that requires a large police force to be deployed. It is highly likely that Takeda, who is in charge of staying behind tonight, will go to the scene.
In the original story, this corrupt policeman from Takeda had committed the heinous act of shooting a trader in the street to prevent him from being betrayed, and when the brother of another victim sought revenge, he tremblingly begged for mercy.
What would such a vicious yet cowardly individual do after enduring hours of intense psychological pressure, when he suddenly sees the foreign agent, who is suspected to be mentioned in the email, at the explosion site?
—Could he genuinely want to shoot him to silence him?
……
Ending all memories, Aoyagi Akimitsu, soaking in the hot spring, downed the last bit of rum in his glass, put it down, and let out a sigh.
Although he hasn't felt the pain of breaking his oath yet, he's not sure if it really doesn't count as breaking it, or if the corrupt cop isn't considered a good party member and that killing him would have been fine.
...So, I guess I should try finding someone with impeccable political credentials?
Aoyagi Akimitsu left the hot spring, dried himself off, and put on a new set of clothes. He kept thinking about this question until someone next to him interrupted him.
"Mr. Aoyagi, your cat."
An employee was holding a Ragdoll cat that he had picked up from the street in the early hours of the morning. When he saw him coming, he quickly returned the cat to him.
Aoyagi Akimitsu took the cat and said thank you. He decided to put it aside for now and go to a nearby restaurant for lunch.
He walked towards the hotel reception, glancing down at his phone. He hadn't received a reply to the message he'd sent to an unknown email address when he woke up; he didn't know if the sender was simply too busy or was going to ignore him altogether.
Thinking of this extremely high possibility, he sighed helplessly.
Unlike this indifferent friend, Gu Shao sent a lot of updates about the organization in the temporary group chat, and judging from the time she sent them, she hadn't rested since last night.
The most recent one was posted just two minutes ago.
[Greed: I saw the news; I didn't expect it to be reported so directly.]
Aoyagi Akimitsu could tell at a glance that she was referring to Ireland.
[Outrage: That's normal. Local media have been following the bear outbreak closely. Seeing the police kill a bear and pull human tissue from its abdomen, they'd definitely report it immediately.]
When a report is made of a wild animal attacking a human, even if the police find out afterward, they will not deliberately suppress the news.
[Furious: It's such a shame about that bear.]
[Furious: I didn't summon it; it's the mother of the bear cub in the hotel.]
It followed the scent of its enemy, traveling kilometers to seek revenge, only to be used by him.
Actually, he only wanted to feed it something nutritious and see how long a person could survive in a bear's mouth. He never expected that it would coincidentally run into Morofushi Kagemitsu and the others after the meal.
He was genuinely saddened by the loss of that life.
The other side remained silent for a few seconds.
[Greed: I've been wanting to ask this before, you seem to really like bears?]
[Furious: I like it.]
Aoyagi Akimitsu chuckled softly.
[Furious: I've loved it since I was a child...]
It happened when he was about seven years old.
Anatoly was frequently hospitalized as a child, and his family needed money. So, while working as a coach, his mother would also help out at a friend's hunting grounds, mentoring novice hunters and earning a part-time fee each time.
Sometimes he would stay with his brother in the hospital, and sometimes he would go to the hunting grounds with his mother, and then they would go to the hospital together to visit his brother in the evening.
On one occasion, he went to a hunting ground outside Moscow. It was his first time there. At that time, he was not very sensible. Seeing that his mother was busy, he ran into the bushes next to him and wandered further and further away.
He found two bear cubs.
They were about the size of coin-operated rocking cars in an amusement park and looked very similar. At the time, Aoyagi Akimitsu thought they were also a pair of brothers, so he thought of taking them back to show his brother. He punched them one by one and knocked them to the ground, then dragged them back home one in each hand.
When he returned, the people his mother had brought had dispersed. She turned her head and saw him with the two teddy bears in his hands, and her eyes widened instantly.
That was the first time Aoyagi Akimitsu had ever seen his usually calm mother so surprised.
【greedy:……】
[Greed: And then what?]
Upon seeing her words, Aoyagi Akimitsu felt that the situation within the organization should be relatively stable; otherwise, she would never have had the time to ask about such gossip.
[Furious: Actually, they're not brothers; I mistakenly identified them. Their respective mothers, two adult brown bears, saw their cubs missing and attacked.]
[Furious: Then, to protect me... and incidentally, all the other new couples in the neighborhood, she killed them all.]
【greedy:…………】
He talks about it casually now, but when he was only seven years old, he was really terrified.
After a good cry, he picked up the two bear cubs and asked them what to do with them.
“They haven’t grown up yet, and they will die if they leave their mother’s care and return to nature,” Lyudmila sighed.
Aoyagi Akimitsu, who wasn't yet the enemy of his father at that time: "Where is their father?"
Lyudmila: "Male bears only stay with female bears during mating and are not responsible for taking care of cubs at other times."
Isn't this just like his father, whom he's never met?
Lyudmila had no idea what her youngest son was thinking. She looked at the two bear cubs, who were about the same size as her child, and said helplessly, "Besides, bears are very vengeful animals. If you provoke them, they will continue to chase you even if you run several kilometers away. You..."
She stopped before she could finish speaking.
Aoyagi Akimitsu grabbed the bear by the neck, continuing to sob as he tightened his grip.
"I'm sorry," he said apologetically, "but I still want to come to this forest to play with my mother and brother in the future. I don't want you to come and chase us down."
[Furious: Looking back now, I realize I wronged them. If I had been more careful, they wouldn't have died.]
Aoyagi Akimitsu did indeed regret it.
Due to negligence, he kidnapped two bear cubs; and fearing that the cubs would avenge their mother, he strangled them to death.
If it were him now, even if he made a similar blunder again, he...
Qingliu Binguang: "..."
...It seems he will still choose to strangle her directly to prevent future troubles.
Perhaps because he was reminiscing about the past, his heart was beating faster than usual.
One blow after another, powerfully pounding against his chest, a relentless assault that had never ceased since the disaster that struck him when he was ten.
Aoyagi Akimitsu put down his phone, and before he knew it, he had walked to the front desk.
The police officer he had seen earlier that morning was talking to the receptionist. When he saw him coming, his expression was somewhat subtle, but he still nodded as a greeting.
Aoyagi Bin could tell from his expression that something had happened, and it was most likely related to the organization, so he asked curiously, "What's wrong? Has anyone come? Or has another case occurred?"
The receptionist glanced at the police officer, then at him. After all this, Aoyagi Akimitsu's identity was no secret to them.
“A lawyer from Tokyo just came and said that his firm was recently commissioned by Chairman Takeuchi and came today to discuss the will.”
Aoyagi Akimitsu remembered that the Takeuchi family had indeed mentioned this yesterday, so he asked...
"what is his name?"
"Sugitani Yoshihiro," the receptionist said. "He seems to be returning from Canada; his passport fell out while he was processing his paperwork." (End of Chapter)