"Who intercepted it?" Hearing these words, the noblewoman paused slightly, holding a cigarette between her fingertips, and asked slowly.

"I don’t know who took action right now," the man said sincerely, "These people are very well hidden, and they don’t typically buy supplies from the larger wanderer camps. Moreover, the attack was launched close to Ains, and the caravan escorting the corpses was caught off guard, ultimately having the bodies snatched away by them."

"Any other intel?" The noblewoman put the cigarette to her mouth and asked in a low voice.

"There’s no more accurate intel," the man said in a low voice, "However, based on some information I’ve received, those attackers who intercepted the bodies fled south. Given the current situation, the only place in the south potentially interested in these bodies is Dawn City."

"You think those interceptors were arranged by Dawn City," the noblewoman asked softly, "to seize those killed bodies?"

"I don’t know," the man shook his head, "But these protests against the consortium gentlemen originally stemmed from Dawn City, so it’s quite normal for them to be somewhat related to Dawn City."

"I’ve looked into all the intel dealers in Ains, none of them knew about this," the noblewoman took off her cigarette, exhaled a puff, the faint morning light shining on her delicately made-up brows, "How come your intel is so detailed?"

"Ma’am," the man smiled, stepping back a bit, "We who deal in intel, more or less have our own sources. Trading intel is fine, but asking for intel sources breaks the rules."

"I’ve heard you owe eight hundred thousand in gambling debt this time," the noblewoman pulled out a hardware wallet from her pocket once more, "Here’s three hundred thousand, tell me, what’s your intel source?"

The man raised his head, looking at the hardware wallet in the noblewoman’s hand, swallowed, his previous retreat slightly frozen.

After a brief pause, he said in a low voice, "To be honest, ma’am, I actually have some friends in that caravan escorting the bodies. After they were intercepted, they returned to Ains to recover, I chatted with him, and he told me."

"Lying won’t earn a reward." The noblewoman retracted her hand, held the hardware wallet fully, and coldly looked at the man.

The man paused slightly, then without hesitation, turned and ran towards the alley he came from.

The noblewoman watched his figure, coldly holding the hardware wallet, removed the cigarette from her mouth, wiped off the lipstick on the filter, extinguishing the entire cigarette.

In the dim shadows ahead, the man retreated from the alley and came back.

In front of the man, a few fully armed security personnel carrying Gauss Rifles slowly walked out from the shadows, aiming at the man.

"We’ve traded many times, and can be considered ’friends’," the noblewoman calmly said, watching the man slowly retreating, "How come, coincidentally, you have detailed intel unknown to everyone in Ains, and coincidentally contacted me to tell me?"

A tall security personnel stepped out from the shadows beside, handing over an opened, brand new rose cigarette box inlaid with blue gem.

The noblewoman stretched out her hand, plucking a cigarette from the box, and someone naturally lit the cigarette from the shadows.

The noblewoman took the new cigarette in her mouth, gazing at the man who had already returned to his original position, "You’re telling me, you want to use my mouth to pass this intel to the truly interested ’person’, right."

She lowered her head, coldly gazing at the man, "Tell me, who told you this intel."

Clap clap clap—

Just then, crisp applause suddenly sounded in the shadows.

The morning light in the sky had unknowingly completely faded, leaving only dense shadows covering the area thoroughly.

The fully armed security personnel seemed to have lost their senses, standing there blankly, unresponsive to everything around them.

——

Under the towering city wall

He Ao raised his wristband, glanced at the message on it.

It was sent by Medala.

Medala told him she obtained a key intel, but it needs verification, asking him to patiently wait and prepare to pay the intel fee.

He raised his sight, looking towards the grand city gate ahead.

An invisible force spread around the city gate flooded with morning light, spreading across the caravans queued to enter the city, also spreading in the wilderness outside the city gate.

It’s a warning network covering all of Ains, extending from inside the city to the wilderness.

At this moment, this warning network seemed more sensitive than when He Ao last came.

Even slightly using higher power, even not being an Angel, would trigger this warning network, attracting the attention of Ains’ Higher Being.

This means He Ao couldn’t use Super Memory power to directly blur the consciousness of the City Defense Army and officers, and mix into the city.

And Skewis seemed to further tighten Ains’ vigilance, even consortium caravans require thorough inspections, verifying every document and checking every cargo item upon entering Ains.

Including tech checks and Extraordinary checks.

He Ao already saw Stars Pharma and Note Intelligence caravans being driven out, separately inspected due to unexplained issues with their cargo list.

Skewis’s firmness towards the consortium surprised He Ao, seeming deliberately aimed at the consortium.

However, whatever the reason, the usual plan of mixing into the consortium caravan to enter Ains couldn’t be used this time.

Nevertheless, He Ao has other plans.

He glanced down at Medala’s chat window, this plan Medala might also accomplish, but would likely require a lot of time, already somewhat beyond Medala’s capacity limits.

After a brief pause, He Ao raised his wristband and dialed a number.

After a busy tone, the call connected, a hoarse and old voice came through, "What’s the matter?"

"I need a Federation identity, the kind that can pass security checks to enter Ains." He Ao spoke directly without pausing.

There was a brief silence on the other end, before the hoarse voice finally said, "Isn’t it too early in the morning, aren’t you sleeping."

"Getting old, can’t sleep," He Ao replied calmly, "You can’t sleep either."

"I remember when I was little, every time I accompanied my father home to visit my grandfather," the old, slow voice sounded on the other end, "You would wake me early in the morning, before father woke up, take me to the street to buy snacks, play games, and fight with street kids,"

At this point, he paused and smiled, "And each time you got caught by our father, you’d say it was I who begged you to go, then father would beat me, and grandfather would beat you."

"I did beg you to go," He Ao paused, speaking with a touch of sentiment, his murky eyes traversing the vast wilderness, as if seeing through the long years to the children frolicking in the filthy streets, "I knew you wanted to go out and play."

"Bro," there was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, "Can you stop now?"

"I told you, Ed," He Ao said hoarsely, "I only have this one child."

There was another moment of silence on the other end of the line, and eventually, He Ao’s wristband vibrated, receiving a packet of encrypted files.

"All the identity information is in the packet. After extracting it, use the program inside to import it into the identity verification software; this is a real identity, the social security, driver’s license, and passport are all completely authentic." The old and slow voice on the other end slowly sounded.

"Hmm, thank you." He Ao nodded slightly and was about to hang up the phone.

"I’m in the north, in Kalanter," the other side seemed to anticipate his action, continuing hoarsely, "If you leave Ains, you can come to me."

"Alright." He Ao paused, then hung up the phone.

He looked down at the files on his phone; Eve had already unpacked the packet and imported the verification information into the Federation’s identity verification software.

An electronic driver’s license popped up.

The photo on this license bore an eight or nine-tenths resemblance to ’Hawke,’ but the identity was ’Byrne,’ with all the information differing from Hawke’s.

This information exists in the Federation’s database and can be queried on the Federation’s official website. It’s completely genuine information.

In other words, with this identity information, on the Federation’s level, He Ao is not ’Hawke’ but ’Byrne.’

This is somewhat similar to when He Ao previously had Eve use the system loophole in Kaye City to register a fake driver’s license, except now, carrying a Kaye City identity into Ains would certainly arouse suspicion, and the identity wouldn’t be completely genuine, unable to withstand inspection.

The identity Ed provided to He Ao, however, is completely genuine.

And obtaining such a ’real’ identity isn’t something that can be resolved with just a few words on the phone.

Most likely, as soon as Hawke had an incident, Ed was preparing such a false identity for him.

Looking at the fully unrolled identity information on the wristband, He Ao sighed lightly and walked towards the pedestrian passage of Ains’s city gate.

Through Jess’s character card, upon seeing Lockville Energy Group’s CEO Skavi for the first time, he had already gleaned the key information Skavi held through memory.

Skavi indeed colluded with the Church of the Grim Reaper, but the actual executor of this affair wasn’t him; it was a Rockville Energy Group employee named Des.

This Des is also a suspected believer of the Grim Reaper, and a powerful Transcendent.

Des provided Skavi with some special ’Extraordinary Artifacts’ and, through long-term effort, earned Skavi’s trust.

Skavi delegated all authority to this Des and seldom questioned what Des did, intervening only when it was necessary to persuade the board, providing some support.

It was this Des who led the cooperation with Wild, the pursuit of Hawke, and the incident of escorting the remains.

In a certain sense, this Des is the core figure in all events related to the Church of the Grim Reaper this time involving Rockville Energy Group.

He Ao raised his head, gazing at the towering ’Ains’ artistic font on the city gate.

And this Des, is currently in Ains.

——

Dawn City · Glorious Palace

"Wait, so, what does this mean?"

The assistant stood behind the desk, looking at Christos, scratching hair that was already somewhat disheveled, "Deputy Mayor Sett rallied a group of armed men on the wilderness to intercept the caravans of Rockville Energy Group, transporting the remains of those large-scale protest organizers killed in Ains back to Dawn City,"

He raised his head, "And they’re almost here?"

"Not that quickly," Viktor cautiously corrected from the side, "According to the latest news, their team encountered interference from the Consortium Mercenary Corps, at the earliest they’ll arrive outside Dawn City by tonight."

"Tonight is quite soon already!" The assistant looked up at Christos, "And your meaning is to hold a ’welcome ceremony’ for these remains, and it’s best to publicize it to let the citizens of Dawn City know."

He rubbed his temples, "Wait, did I get it wrong, are you crazy or am I?"

"You got it right." Christos replied calmly.

"Do you know what this means?" The assistant looked at Christos, "This is the equivalent of issuing a statement to the entire Federation that the parade in Ains was our instigation, even if it wasn’t, we’re still implicated. Otherwise, why would we make such a fanfare to bring back the victims’ remains?"

He stared blankly at Christos, "You know, by doing this, you’re giving Ains all the ammunition they need to attack you, this will make your situation even more difficult, even the consortium and Gray Stone Palace might use this as a reason to further politically attack Dawn City."

Hearing this, Viktor also turned his gaze to Christos.

"I know," Christos looked at the assistant and nodded calmly, "I know, our situation is dire, these things, they won’t make it worse."

"This, this, this." The assistant looked at Christos in a daze, momentarily at a loss for words.

"Imagine," Christos looked at him and calmly continued,

"If it were you who orchestrated the rallies supporting us, who organized parades fighting for the citizens’ benefits, and ultimately were suppressed and killed, even the remains were controlled by the consortium, unable to rest in peace, and finally, fortunately, transported back to Dawn City, only to be consigned to a hasty burial, how would you feel?"

He looked at the assistant, paused, and continued, "What if you were a family member of these kids? How would you feel?"

The assistant looked at Christos, bewildered.

"These kids were fortunate enough to be intercepted by Sett, preserving their remains," Christos looked at him, "Across the entire Federation, there are many more who were similarly killed by the consortium, without even leaving complete corpses."

He paused, speaking hoarsely, "We were powerless when they sacrificed, we can’t let their remains remain in silence as well. They are heroes of the Federation, and the blood of heroes should not be covered by silent snow."

He looked at the bewildered assistant in front of him, "This is difficult, but we must do it."