Dropping Alice at her friend's house, Ryder left without waiting for even a second. Each second he was checking the position of the Kings.

He had expected them to be outside Shu's mansion in less than a day. That much was clear.

But he still needed to plan how to separate the Kings. And to know more about the Kings, he needed to get someone who could answer him.

Fortunately, he also had that person in his mind. His luck was great. Just today, he had met a person who he believed knew about that.

The owner of the betting arena Gander was a perfect target for this.

Since he still had some time before the Kings got here, he decided to approach Gander.

...

The sun had started setting as the night drew closer.

Unsure, Ryder hoped that Gander would be in the arena by the time he got here. If that guy had left, things would be delayed a bit too much since he would need to find that guy again. And for that, he didn't have enough time.

His car raced through the streets as he drove as fast as he could to get to his target.

Since Alice's friend's house coincidentally happened to be near the betting arena, it didn't take him long to get back to that place.

As he reached that place, he also happened to pass by the hotel where he had taken Esmi. There was still some regret on him about having to leave Esmi alone, but the circumstances were as such.

Driving past the hotel, he realized that her car wasn't there. She had left.

She didn't call him yet, though, which was something strange.

"I guess she is angry that I did that. I guess I'll have some making up to do after everything's over," he thought.

"You should think about the present first and the future later. Because your future depends on your present, especially on what's about to happen next."

As Ryder was talking to himself, he heard the voice of Janus, who was reminding him of the seriousness of the situation.

"Janus, I know this is serious. But I can't be all doom and gloom. In my mind, I have won. If I myself can't be certain about my victory, then how can I win? Let me be optimistic here," Ryder replied as he stepped closer to the building to step inside.

Unfortunately, as he reached closer, he saw the guards raising their hands as they told him to stop.

"All the races of the day are over. You should leave," the guards told Ryder.

"I'm not here for the race. I'm here to meet your boss. Tell Gander that Ryder is here to talk what he couldn't before," Ryder told the guards, hoping that Gander would be inside.

Through his message, he was sure that Gander would be ready to meet him. With the message, Ryder was trying to imply to Gander that he actually worked for Ryder and that he wasn't able to talk openly because of Esmi before.

'This should be enough to give him the assumption that I work for the Kings and meet me,' he thought.

Also, this was a good test to see if Gander was inside. If that guy were there, the guards would be willing to deliver the message. And if he wasn't here, then he also had a plan for that.

If Gander wasn't here, then it just meant the guards were going to get beaten until he received his answers from them. Fortunately, the situation didn't reach there.

The guards nodded as one of them went inside to deliver the message while others stayed behind with Ryder.

...

Gander was sitting in his office when he heard a knock on his door.

Opening the door, the guard informed him about the arrival of Ryder, who was asking for a meeting with him. The guard also delivered the message that Ryder asked to give him.

"Oh? He is here? Bring him to me," Gander commanded the guard who followed through as he went back.

...

"He will meet you. You can come in," the guard informed Ryder, who entered the building, smiling.

Gander was still here, which was something he found great. This meant a lot of his time was saved, and after dealing with Gander, he could still have some time left to plan and handle the rest of the stuff.

As he was escorted inside, Ryder didn't even feel the need to follow behind. He was walking right beside the guard as he already knew the path.

The two of them didn't talk much as they walked through the long corridor. Ryder did have a few questions about Gander that he wanted to ask the guard, but he controlled his urge since that had the potential to get bad.

The two of them reached the office of Gander. Ryder entered the office while the guard stood outside.

"Mr. Ryder. Welcome again. I heard you wanted to talk to me about something you couldn't before? What was it?" Gander asked Ryder.

"You talked about Kings. I couldn't say yes because I was with Esmi. She doesn't know about Kings, so I acted ignorant, but you're right. I do work for the Kings," Ryder said as he stepped closer to Gander.

Even though he lied, he did so with a straight face making it impossible for anyone to know that he was lying.

"Is that so?" Gander asked, smiling. "That makes sense. Since she doesn't know about Kings, you kept silent."

"Please have a seat." He told Ryder.

Ryder sat on the chair.

"So, which King do you work for?" Gander asked as he slowly opened the drawer.

Ryder didn't know that Gander was bringing out his gun from the Drawer as he talked to Ryder.

All because Ryder had messed up. Esmi knew about Kings, and Gander knew about Esmi knowing.

Since Ryder was saying that Esmi didn't know, that meant he was the one who didn't know about her. In that case, there was no way that he was on a level high enough to know about Kings.

Gander made it seem like he was opening Drawer to bring out something casual related to his work.

"Oh, which King I work for? I guess you'll get the answer if you look under the table," Ryder said with a calm smile.

"Huh?"

Gander was shocked to see that his gun wasn't in his Drawer. As for Ryder's words, they also made him a bit suspicious.

What was he talking about?

"Go ahead. Look under the table," Ryder said, calmly smiling.

"Or better yet, let me help you instead," he added as he raised his hand, which was placed under the table to reveal a gun that was pointing at Gander.

"T-that is my gun! How did you get it?' he asked Ryder, shocked.

"Don't stress on how I got it. Stress on what I can do with it," Ryder replied, seemingly amused. "You know, there are many who don't die with a bullet. I'm curious to see if you're one of them. Should I test?"

"Who are you?!" Gander asked, opening his eyes wide. He was sure that Ryder didn't know about the Kings and their Infrastructure. But he knew about the abilities of the organization members? How? Just who was this Ryder Flynn?

Also, he was right. Gander couldn't be killed with a normal bullet. Unfortunately for Gander, this gun was different since it had special bullets that could even kill people like him.

He couldn't help but sweat as he saw the gun face him. If there was an accidental misfire, he was going to be dead.

"Oh? Looking at your face, I guess you don't have that ability. Interesting. It's fine then. That makes things easier."

Seeing the worry on the man's face because of a gun being pointed at him, Ryder realized that he could be killed. He didn't know that it was because of the special bullets in the gun..he still thought that the gun was a normal gun.

"What do you want? How do you know so much about some things and so little about others?" Gander asked.

Hearing his question, Ryder sighed as he shook his head.

"My old old friend, I guess you're forgetting something. I have the gun and your life in my hand. Shouldn't I be the one asking questions instead of it being the other way around?" he asked.

"That's what I want to know. What do you want from me?"

"Simple. I want the answers to my questions and all the information about the Kings. And don't worry, I know about blowing up of heads. I asked another guy such questions and his head blew up just as he started answering. I guess it's the same with you," Ryder replied.

He placed a paper and a pen before the man.

"Instead of telling, you should write down the answers just to be safe," he added.