abcnovels
Chapter 101: Z Package
Chapter 101: Z Package
Chapter 101: Z Package
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Adam followed behind Kang.
They entered the store's back room, and there, Kang flicked a hidden switch that opened up a secret passageway that headed down into the basement.
Through the spiraling staircase, they arrived at the dark basement with a lonely light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
It had a singular rope hanging from it.
Kang tugged on it, and a dim light stretched across the basement.
Adam looked past the hanging light bulb and saw that there was another door at the end wall of the basement.
It looked like it was part of the same stone wall as the rest of the basement.
However, there was a door handle on it, and its edges stuck out slightly from the rest of the wall.
"This is the center of our operations." Kang said and pushed open the door.
A sight opened to a very large underground room filled with monitors and computers.
In the seats, there were several people typing furiously on keyboards.
On the monitors, there were maps and live footage of various locations around the city.
Kang took a seat on a big meeting table, then pointed at the chair on the opposite side of the table.
Adam sat down on the chair Kang had pointed at.
"Sir." A man said from the monitor side. "There're some people lurking about outside."
"Is that so?" Kang raised an eyebrow and then looked at Adam, believing he had something to do with that.
Yeah." The man looked at Adam. "They seemed to have been following him."
"They've been following me from Dust King's Bar." Adam answered truthfully.
"From Dust King's Bar..." Kang chuckled. "That's at the center. I wonder why they didn't make their move sooner."
"Who knows." Adam shrugged his shoulders.
"Let's go straight to the business." Kang said and interlocked his fingers. "How did you find out about my business?"
"The word spreads around." Adam said. "One of your clients couldn't keep their lips shut tight."
"Hmm, yeah, that can happen." Kang said, but then chuckled. "I let your lie slip because I don't really care."
"I am not that bad of a liar, or am I?" Adam asked with a smile.
"Not necessarily, but what you said didn't make any sense." Kang said. "I only offer my services to a special group of people. I don't just help any common thug with loose lips."
"That's true." Adam put his baseball cap down on the table and leaned back in his chair. "I guess I was too careless with my lie."
"That's fine. Let's talk business." Kang said. "Z Package, was it?"
"Correct." Adam rummaged through his backpack and put several stacks of money rolls on the table. "50 thousand."
Kang waved his hand, and a worker of his came and took the money and put a blueprint on the table.
"I am not sure whether you'll know the full extent of the Z Package, but I'll explain anyway.
"It includes house reinforcement, trap installments, and a secret hideout. It will make the house a miniature fortress, impervious to any threats."
"I want to be the only one with access." Adam said. "Connect the access to my virtual reality pod as well. I can't always be in the real world to access it."
"Of course, we have done this for other "mercenaries" before," Kang said.
'I bought the same in my past life, but in the end, it failed as that Otherworld Killer still managed to bypass the security measures.
'I can only think of one reason why-that Otherworld Killer knew where I lived and knew all about Z Package's security measures, because that person also had it.
'Or someone did research about my living place and found out that I had Z Package installed in
my house. Either way, my death was well planned out.
'I just wish I would've found out who the fuck was he...
'Either way, Z Package failed me back then, but it is still the best thing that money can buy. It can protect me and my family from any outside threats.'
"Do you have any questions?" Kang asked.
"How confident are you in your work?" Adam asked. "If there are any weaknesses in the security, I need to know."
Kang silently tapped his finger on the table and then looked at the monitors that showed the entirety of the Red Thread.
"My family built this place," he said.
"Red Thread, it was all my family's doing. Ivycrest was built for one reason: to create Red
Thread.
"It was the creation of my family's brightest minds, and it was done two hundred years ago, when technology was nothing like it is these days.
"Am I confident in my work? I am."
"I heard... stuff—that one owner of Z Package was killed in their home." Adam said. "That's just a rumor; don't believe everything you hear, but if that happened, how could it have?"
"I haven't heard of anything like that happening." Kang said with a frown. "But it is disturbing to think about."
"I am still purchasing this product. I just want to know about any possible leaks."
"There's... one," Kang said.
Adam leaned closer with interest.
"The machine that oversees the house is programmed to be able to identify threats and friendly. A person identified as friendly can bypass the security measures and enter the house
without any issues."
"Hmm, interesting." Adam thought out loud with a frown. "Is it done manually or..."
"It can be done manually." Kang said. "Like, if you live with your family, we can program
them to be friendly, and then they can enter without any issues."
"What is that person who never did that?" Adam asked with a frown.
"The machine is also able to think by itself." Kang said. "Like, if you are guests, the machine can identify them as friendly based on how they and you act.
"Otherwise, if you hadn't put them as friendly beforehand, the security measures will activate and fill your guests with holes from head to toe. We can't let that happen now, can we?"
"So, the person, in theory, was killed by a guest of his?" Adam asked.
"How did the murder happen?" Kang asked.
"Apparently, the person woke up one day; there was a masked individual already there, and after an altercation, the masked individual ended up killing the person."
"I can only think of one way." Kang raised a single finger. "That masked person once visited the person as a friend. Therefore, the machine identified them as friends based on how they acted with each other.
"And when the masked person returned to kill him, the machine didn't activate the security measures because he was already registered as friendly."
"I see..." Adam said out loud with an enlightened expression.
'That narrows it down. I was only visited by a couple of people...
'Sapphira, Fleur, Dean, Perseus, and Kiernan. One of them is my killer...'
It hurt him badly.
They were one of his closest companions-they fought side-by-side for years, bled together,
and trusted each other with their lives.
'It's hard to remember...' Adam touched his head. 'Everything is so fuzzy. I remember that the attacker sounded male, but there're convincing voice changers, and based on its body type, it also seemed like a male, but that can also be faked...'
"Are you alright?" Kang asked.
"Yeah..." Adam wrote something on the paper and gave it to Kang. "This is the address. Can
you start as soon as tomorrow?"
"That can be arranged." Kang said and then looked at the monitors. "However, if you happen
to die, we won't do it since you can't finish the payment."
"I understand." Adam stood up and slung the backpack over his shoulder, then put the cap
back on. "We won't be helping you with them." Kang said. "It would be rather disappointing for a S- ranker such as yourself to die in the hands of such common thugs."
"I'll take care of myself, thank you." Adam nodded and headed to the exit.
"You have confidence in yourself." Kang stood up slowly and said, "However, the world is a
dangerous place, and you stepped into the heart of that danger. Be careful out there."
"Mm." Adam nodded and left the basement.
Kang walked over to the monitors and smiled. "Will he be able to get away?"