He had just finished handling the business at Scrapyard 7 and rushed back without a moment's rest, only to stumble right into this scene.

  As Andrew demanded that the Stoneborn hand over him and Crag, a buried memory surged uncontrollably into his mind.

  That day, the Kunlun Corp men had done the same, blockading the entrance to Old Tock’s repair shop.

  Those neighbors who had benefited from Old Tock’s kindness, those scavengers who called him brother—their faces had become twisted, fawning, and hideous in the face of profit and coercion.

  "Master Tock is inside!"

  "It has nothing to do with us, Officer!"

  Betrayal. Treachery. Taken for granted.

  Kane’s expression, hidden in the shadows of the sand dune, turned utterly void of warmth.

  He remembered the plan he had set for himself; the first rule was to silence all witnesses.

  The world was simply like this.

  He had even prepared himself: if Elder Granite allowed them in to search, he would turn and leave without hesitation.

  In this world, the only person one could trust was oneself.

  However, what he saw was Elder Granite’s unyielding, aged back.

  He saw ordinary tribesmen who, despite the fear in their eyes, gripped their weapons tight and shielded the women and children.

  He saw that big idiot, Flint, standing at the very front, using his own body to face Kunlun’s cannons.

  Not one of them retreated.

  For an outsider like him, whom they had known for less than a month, and for a comrade who had nearly died, they were prepared to fight to the bitter end against the hopelessly powerful Kunlun Corp.

  Kane’s heart, which had been completely frozen shut by Old Tock’s death, gave a sudden, sharp twitch.

  A strange warmth, one that almost felt like a sting, seeped in from beyond that line of defense.

  He no longer hesitated.

  He lowered his body, turning as fluid as if he had no bones, and merged noiselessly into the sand beneath his feet.

  [ Phase Burrow ].

  He bypassed the Kunlun Corp blockade in total silence, re-emerging from the ground beneath an unguarded cliff face at the rear of the canyon.

  The moment he appeared at the back of the settlement, several patrolling tribesmen spotted him.

  "Who goes there!"

  "It’s Kane!"

  The news quickly reached the ears of Elder Granite and Crag.

  Seeing Kane unharmed, a look of anxiety appeared on Crag’s obsidian-like face for the first time.

  "Kid, did you come back to die? Get out of here!"

  Kane ignored him. His gaze fell directly on Elder Granite, getting straight to the point.

  "You can’t afford a stalemate like this."

  Elder Granite nodded grimly. "I know. But we cannot hand you over."

  Kane looked at the stubborn old man, then at Crag, who had a "we die together" look written all over his face. The corner of his mouth pulled into an extremely faint, self-deprecating curve.

  Stolen story; please report.

  "Who said anything about handing me over?"

  He walked between the two of them. His voice was kept extremely low, as if gliding along the ground.

  "I have a plan. I need you to... put on a show."

  ...

  The following day, Andrew Zoe’s patience finally ground to dust.

  Pressure from the corporate higher-ups and concerns regarding the Valr front forced him to resolve this minor nuisance immediately. The final orders came down, cold and unyielding.

  "Go in and search."

  "If they resist, strike."

  "If you find nothing... you will bear the consequences yourself."

  Upon receiving the command, a cruel smile played across Andrew’s lips. He marched to the canyon entrance once more and delivered his final ultimatum to Elder Granite.

  "Elder, this is our final concession. Let us in to search, or war breaks out this instant."

  Right on cue, Elder Granite’s face contorted with a mixture of struggle, fury, and humiliation.

  He engaged in a heated, lengthy argument with the tribal elders behind him using the Stoneborn tongue. His aged voice was thick with grief and indignation, sounding as though he were making a harrowing choice concerning the very survival of his tribe.

  Finally, looking as if he had been crushed by the immense pressure, he gave a weary wave of his hand.

  "You... may enter."

  His voice was laced with bitterness.

  "But you had better find something! Otherwise, even if the Stoneborn must sacrifice our last man, we will go through the Gaia Coalition to demand an explanation from Kunlun Corp!"

  "Hmph."

  Andrew dismissed him with a sneer. In his eyes, this was nothing more than the final, pathetic bravado of the weak.

  With a sharp wave of his hand, squads of fully armed soldiers flooded into the Stoneborn settlement like a rising tide. They crudely shoved aside any tribesmen in their path, storming into every stone hut and ransacking their contents.

  The shrill beeping of metal detectors sliced through the tranquil silence of the canyon.

  Andrew stood in the center of the village, watching with cold indifference. He was certain the two targets were stashed in some corner of the tribe. As long as they detected the energy fluctuations of the power core, it would all be over.

  However, one hour passed.

  Then two.

  The soldiers had practically turned the entire village inside out—searching grain cellars and even the sacred ancestral grounds—yet they found absolutely nothing.

  "Report, Commander! No sign of the targets!"

  "Report! Energy detectors show no abnormal readings!"

  As the reports trickled in, Andrew’s expression shifted from confidence to confusion, and finally to a livid, iron-gray mask.

  "Impossible!"

  He snatched an energy detector from a soldier and personally charged into a stone hut.

  "They have to be here! Search it again! Dig up the floors if you have to!"

  He roared through the settlement like an enraged lion.

  Yet, the result remained the same: nothing.

  Crag and Kane seemed to have vanished into thin air, along with the now-depleted energy core. They were gone without a trace.

  The muscles in Andrew’s face tightened, his eye twitching uncontrollably. He knew he had been played.

  Just as he teetered on the edge of losing control, Elder Granite approached him, leaning heavily on his staff. In his hand, he held an ancient communicator carved from beast bone.

  From the device came a majestic, frigid voice—the voice of a high-ranking official from the Gaia Coalition, demanding an explanation.

  Using a flimsy, fragmented recording as an excuse to militarily besiege a member tribe and forcibly conduct a ransacking search was an insult and a provocation to the entire Gaia Coalition!

  Pressure instantly shifted from the Stoneborn’s shoulders onto the head of Kunlun Corp.

  Ultimately, to quell the Gaia Coalition’s fury and maintain the united front against the Valr, Kunlun Corp issued a resolution:

  Commander Andrew Zoe was to be demoted for professional misconduct and errors in judgment.

  Kunlun Corp would provide three high-grade "Ether Crystals" to the Stoneborn tribe as formal reparations.

  As the Kunlun Corp armored convoy beat a dismal retreat, the entire Stoneborn tribe erupted in earth-shattering cheers.

  Elder Granite watched the departing fleet, a faint, fox-like smile flickering across his aged face.

  This trade had been more than worth it.

  Two days later, hundreds of kilometers away from the Stoneborn canyon, at the perimeter of the Iron Hand Gang's headquarters.

  The area was an ugly jungle of abandoned factories and steel structures. Beneath the shadow of a massive, rust-caked gantry crane, two figures lay in silent ambush.

  It was Kane and Crag. Using the [ Phase Burrow ] skill, Kane had led the giant past the blockade unnoticed before trekking through the wilderness under the cover of night.

  They had been observing this place for two days.

  Kane’s personal terminal vibrated slightly—an encrypted message from Elder Granite.

  “Success. Crystals secured.”

  Crag leaned over to take a look. The two-meter-tall stone giant split his face into a simple, almost boyish grin.

  "Kid, you're something else!"

  Kane tucked the terminal away, his expression void of emotion. He pulled an old monocular from his coat and continued scanning every entrance and firepoint of the Iron Hand Gang's headquarters.

  Crag looked at the distant cluster of buildings, which resembled a steel fortress. He could sense the chaotic, tyrannical aura wafting from within.

  "Did you get their patrol routes down?" Crag asked in a low rumble.

  "Close enough." Kane lowered the monocular, his voice as flat as still water. "Three squads, six men each. They rotate every fifteen minutes. Eight firepoints—four fixed, four on mobile platforms."

  Crag nodded, his massive fist clenching until his knuckles popped like firecrackers.

  "How do we do this?"

  Kane turned to look at the "big idiot," who was now leagues more powerful than before. His lips curled into a cold, bloodthirsty shape.

  He picked up a small pebble and sketched a crude map on the oil-stained ground. Then, he pressed the pebble down hard on a single point.

  "Here."

  "Their armory."

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