...

"Hah! I'm pretty sure that you will like this proposal of mine." said Nathan as take a more comfortable sitting position.

"Tsk, Fine, Fine. Stop mystifying it and tell it to me already." Elias clicked his tounge as he saw his friend's comfortable manner.

"Hahaha.... OK, Fine!..... You want to revenge your eldest daughter's death, right? I happen to come across with the information about one of the major hideouts of that Organization." said Nathan with a teasing face.

Elias face become tense with he heard that. Then, his mood turned solemn while his eyes become fierce. "Oi! You shouldn't joke with dead people, and respect their souls."

Nathan raise both of his hands up and say. "Oops! Sorry about that. Well here is the catch. I am here because I've made a deal with my friend. I've asked him to train Arthur, to improve that kid usage of his talent. In exchange, I'll do him a favor, and his favor is to raze a base of Black Serpent Mafia to the ground."

Elias knitted his brows and asked with a doubting tone. "Are you out of your mind? You have accepted that kind of offer? Destroying one of that Organization's base, in exchange of training Arthur? No matter what angle I look at it you are losing to much on this trade, isn't it?"

Nathan chuckles softly before explaining more. "Of course I'm not going to accept it if I'll lose to much on it. I've accepted it because this trade is quite worth it."

"How can you tell that it is worth it?" asked Elias suspiciously.

Nathan smirks and say. "Simple. It is because this time, attacking one of that organization base is a sure win thing."

Elias want to open his mouth to say something but he swallowed his words when he heard Nathan's next words. "I can assure you on this matter, because this operation involves some big names. Aside from me, the 'Sword Immortal Eugene White', 'Hundred Beast Joaquin Giovanni', and 'Snake Dancer Emily Colleen' are joining in this."

Elias face become twisted when he have heard that. "Now, Now. Isn't it an Overkill this time. Four Peak Class 'Domain Creation Stage Experts'? And all of you are in Half-Step reaching the 'Transcendent Realm'. Heh, Now I understand why you accepted that kind of offer."

"But even though that is the case, we are still talking about the Black Serpent Mafia here. That Organization is still have some experts of their own. If not because of those guys, do you think that my Family is just going to hold our horses down and wait for a right timing?"

Nathan clicked his tounge and said. "Tsk, enough with all of that. For now, I'm asking you if you are interested joining us or not. Isn't this a win-win situation for you? And don't worry about those guys, we have some people ready on our side especially prepared on dealing with them."

Then Elias replied in a reluctant manner. "Believe me. I really want to accept your offer so that I can avenge my daughter, but I currently can't join you because I still have some things that I urgently needed to do."

"On the other hand, Mom and Dad are currently in close door training. If I'm away for a moment, no one can protect my family if something unexpected happens. You should know that some other people are eyeing us from the shadows. I can't let our guards down. After all, we are not like you, who have a whole army under you command."

Nathan spend almost a day convincing his friend, but in the end he still can't convince his friend fully. After all, Black Serpent Mafia is one of the biggest worldwide underworld organization. What's more it is a part of the 'Shadow Alliance', a Colossal Organization that is compose of different underworld organizations.

And this Colossus can even contend with the 'World Government', which is the alliance of all the governments of each Continent.

All Nathan can do is to sigh helplessly and said. "OK, I understand. But if you ever change your mind, you can always contact me."

The moment Nathan stood up, he suddenly received a message. He looked at the sender to see who is it. And when he saw who the sender is, his brows were locked into frown. He immediately open the massage, to read its contents.

When he is done reading the entire message, he immediately bid farewell to Elias, before dashing out the Stuart Family's Mansion and fly to the horizon.

Elias felt that there is something amiss with Nathan's reaction, so took out his Advance Watch to call someone.

....

Soaring Continent, Main Region.

Central District, Capital City.

Few minutes later, after Nathan's departure at the Stuart Family's residence. The Dragon King descended on an empty space in front of the Headquarters of the Military Force of the Soaring Continent. And this headquarters is under the jurisdiction of the Springfield Family.

After that, Nathan immediately walk towards a building in front of him. When he got inside, he walked straight to one of the monitoring room, no one dared to block him because of his high Martial-Art Status and standing in the Springfield Family, and aside from that he also have a high contribution in the military.

The moment Nathan entered the room, he is greeted by a bunch of busy personnels. He walked straight to the center of the room, where some high ranking officers are shouting at the busy personnels.

When those people saw Nathan, they immediately give his a salute. Nathan saluted back and said. "Tell me the details."

One of the military personnel replied. "Reporting to Dragon King, Sir! We've got a report just recently that Young Master Shin had suddenly gone missing. And the most mysterious case on it is all of the traces that he had left behind were also erased by someone. Even the Recordings of the Monitoring Cameras across the district were have been wiped out. No, even the Recordings on some of the neighboring districts are also gone. Due to that, we had a hard time finding his whereabouts."

Nathan frowned his brows and said. "Can we restore it? No. More importantly is how did this happened? How can someone deleted the Recordings of the Monitoring Cameras without us knowing?"

All of the personnels in front of Nathan are looking on the ground, afraid of saying something that might trigger the Dragon King's wrath. Moment later, the leader of the group braced himself and said. "That maybe because of some inside job, Sir. Base on our current findings, this should only be possible if we were attacked inside. We were monitoring everything 24/7, so it is impossible that someone manage to sneaked in without us knowing. And more importantly, all of those datas suddenly gone missing simultaneously the same time that we gotten the report of Young Master Shin's disappearance."

Nathan is listening to the guy when one of the personnels in front of a monitor reported. "Sir! We discovered something! Someone used the Military Satellite unauthorized, few days ago. But the data log on when and where exactly it was used were already been deleted."

Nathan looked that person and said. "Look who is the user. And try to restore the data log if you can."

That person immediately engaged with his work and rapidly typing on his keyboard. Moment later, he replied. "Sir, The user is quite skilled and managed to erased his tracks almost perfectly, but we confirmed that it is someone from inside, since there is no signs or traces of breaching on our firewalls. And I don't know why, but the data log is currently restoring itself, and all we have to do is wait for few hours before it fully retrieved the deleted data. But we can't hasten its restoration because there is a bug on it, if we get involved all the datas on the data log will be deleted."

This time, Nathan suddenly felt something isn't right. 'Why would this skilled hacker didn't completely erased his tracks and let the military know that he is from inside, if he can also deleted it? And why would he let the system retrieved its deleted data, if he can left it deleted completely? In fact, he can delete all the data we have, if he desired to. After all we didn't detect him before he made his move. That was too fishy. This doesn't match with a lot of things. Whoever this hacker guy is, he is so much talented on this aspect, and aside from that, it is as if he is saying that he mean no harm, at the very least, that is what I felt.'

Nathan is in a deep thought when a sudden idea enters his mind. 'Wait! Could it be!?'

He look at the person that was reporting to him earlier before saying. "Can you estimate the time when the system can fully restore itself?"

That person replied almost immediately. "About 1-2 hours at most, Sir!"

'So that was it.' Nathan nodded his head and ordered. "Continue what you are doing and report it to me directly, if you manage to find something more."

After that, he whisper a few words on the leader of the group before turning around and walking out the monitoring room with a mysterious grin of his face.

************

At the same time, at Michigan City of the Red Lighting District, Prof. Digen just gotten a report from one is f his subordinates. "Professor, We received a word from our spies on the military that one of the Young Masters of the Springfield Family had gone missing."

Prof. Digen stopped what he were doing before looking at his subordinate and said. "Who is it? And since when he had gone missing?"

"From the report, Sir. It is Shin Kinghad the adopted son and of the Family. The exact time on when and where he had gone missing is currently unclear. Because all of his traces these past few days were have been wiped out by a certain someone." replied the subordinate.

Prof. Digen knitted his brows when he heard that, but few moments later, a smile suddenly formed on his lips. "Did you report it to the Higher-ups?"

The subordinate shook his head and said. "Not yet Sir. Since we are not clear about the situation, we haven't reported it to them."

"Good! Gather some of our guards to form a hunting team. We are going to send some people to join the search. And if we want to keep with the military, we need to send at least half of our security personnel." said Prof. Digen.

The subordinate hesitated for a few moments before opposing the idea. "But of we do that Sir, Our Security defenses are going to thin down. And that is going to become dangerous for us. We can just report it to the Higher-ups and let them do the search, since they have a lot more manpower than us."

Prof. Digen shook his head and reasoned out. "No, we can't. This is a good opportunity for us, since no one will know that we are the ones that manage find him if things go smoothly. And we can just put the blame on others is something goes wrong. What's more, some of our competitors are going to take advantage the situation if we reported it to the Higher-ups and got a wind of it."

"As for security becoming a little weak, you can put your mind at ease. Since we have a lot of spies inside the military rank, we can know almost immediately if they are planning to do something to us. And before that happens, we may already been long gone on this place."

The subordinate wanted to say something more buy he swallowed it back when he saw Professor Digen looking at him fiercely. All he can do is his bow his head and do what he have told to do.

************

Meanwhile, on the same City, and on the hotel where Shin his staying, the man in question just answered the call from John. "How is it John? Have you done what I've asked you to?"

"Yes I've done all of it, Young Master Shin. Even though I felt that I'm going to get beaten up by father, everything is going smoothly so far." said John in a mixed of anxious and exited emotions. Then, he reported in a more detailed manner. "Everything is going according to what you have predicted young master Shin. The Military is currently trying to find you, while some of the moles send some messages about this matter."

"That's good. Do you get who those guys are? Record it and we are going to report them after we're done here." said Shin while nodding his head. Then, added after. "How about on the other side?"

John is typing rapidly on his keyboard while replying. "Yes, I manage to know who they are. Even though I need to get out from the military database, so that they can't locate me, I'm currently behind enemy lanes without them knowing. So I also got the messages of the moles on our side. The enemies are also making their move, they are going to send some people to look for you, thinning some of their security personnels. They are also sending two of their 'Ethereal Opening Stage Experts' to hasten the process."

"Alright, All I need to do now is wait for those guys to get out the city and look for the right timing to sneak in. OK, Keep the line alive, I'm going to switch it on the 'voice call mode'." said Shin while putting an earpiece on his right ear, and closing the virtual screen. Then, went to his bedroom to prepare some things.

.....

On the other side of the call, John is having a different thought in mind, after Shin closed the virtual screen. 'Young Master Shin sure is scary. He just make one move, yet both of his friends and foes simultaneously responded with their own. What's more, that move have a lot of meanings behind of it.'

'By announcing his disappearance and erasing all his traces. Young Master Shin manage to call a backup without alerting his enemies or making them suspicious, he also manage to pick up some mole inside our ranks because of it.'

'At the same time, Due to the report of those moles, the enemies are going to send their own hunting group just to find him, which is also going to weaken their security defenses. And because of it, Young Master Shin is not going to have a hard time sneaking inside the lab, and the rescue of Young Master Leonard is going to become easier job, even for a little.'

'To add all of that, It is like 'hitting multiple birds with one stone'. Young Master Shin is going to become a scary strategist in the future, if he continue walking down this path.'

Then, John try to imagine Shin commanding an elite soldier troupes in a battle, which give him shivers on his back. 'That is going to become terrifying.'

...