Chapter 71: Let’s make an offer, shall we?

"He wanted to enjoy the feeling of the Evelyn Starling who is loved and adored by billions, grovelling at his feet, longing and craving for his attention—

He wanted her to abandon her pride and stardom for his sake and grovel at his feet every single day."

He explained, the more he talked, the more disgusted they felt.

"Where is she?"

Darius questioned, prepared to rescue her, but the man he captured looked terrified.

"I can’t. If they learn I was the one who sho—"

"Leave him be, I know where she is."

Lucian spoke up.

Darius looked at him, Lucian nodded at him, then he nodded back. Lucian took charge and rushed forward, the rest followed him. The group reached the far end of the corridor, where a stretcher was abandoned.

Half-conscious Evelyn was strapped to it.

The staff moving her panicked when they saw how quickly the guards on their side were falling and ran away, abandoning her here.

The stretcher was connected to a machine which was clearly bigger than the rest of the machines here, it wasn’t just a chair with fancy wires attached to it—

It was an entire system.

A white restraint bed, curved metal arms, thin gold-red wires, a glass core behind it, a screen above her head and the screen flickering with words—

SUBJECT: EVELYN STARLING.

ANCHOR TARGET: ORPHEUS.

DEPENDENCY PROCESS: 38% — PAUSED.

Lucian looked at her, at the star the entire world adored, even the students of his university constantly talked about her, some of them had made it their sole goal to meet her.

A woman like that, a woman who ruled over countless men’s dreams—

Now she was lying strapped to a machine, with damp hair, ruined makeup, pale lips and a throat bruised from screaming.

Mara moved to the machine, she could tell this one in particular was more important than others, so she instantly connected her tablet to it.

Within seconds, the connection was formed and Mara’s eyes shined—

"This system has records, patron links, dependency process, victim profiles, transaction records, everything."

"Can you recover it?"

Darius questioned with a more energetic light on his face.

This was it.

If he got these records, this mission would be a far bigger success than he initially thought, he would not only be able to shut this place down, completing his mission, he would also be able to put a tail behind all the patrons and remove the filth from the very core of their world.

This would be the biggest breakthrough of his life, one that would advance his career further, giving him access to more resources.

"I can try."

Mara nodded as well, she too, could see how important it was.

"Do it. This is evidence."

Darius nodded, but then—

"Shouldn’t we remove her from the machine before doing anything else?"

Lucian couldn’t help but question as he pointed at Evelyn still strapped onto the machine. Mara, however, shook her head.

"No, these people activated an emergency shutdown, the moment Evelyn is disconnected from the machine, the entire system would shut down and the data would be deleted."

Lucian nodded at those words.

He too, could tell how important the evidence was, so he decided to show patience.

But as if his patience was being tested properly today, suddenly, Lucian’s ears twitched and he looked in a particular direction with a grim look on his face.

"We need to remove her."

He spoke in urgency, Darius however, was already standing in front of the machine.

"No, we need the evidence."

He spoke with a serious look on his face, the party captain and the party newbie stared at each other.

"I am the Captain. You were told to follow my decision."

Darius reminded him.

"I was going to follow your instruction but they are—

Before Lucian could complete his words—

Slap Slap Slap

Soft claps echoed through the corridor, everyone turned and their eyes fell on the far end of the corridor, where a man in a perfectly fitted, clean dark suit stood.

His hair was silver at the temples, he had a handsome, polished face.

*Picture*

There were six guards behind him, their eyes glowed faintly with red-rebel light, their skin had thick dark lines under it—

Clearly, they were not normal guards.

They were...

"They are influenced by a demon, every single one of them."

Tomas commented with a solemn look on his face.

"They are not even hiding it huh..."

Ilyra commented with a grave look on her face.

As for the man leading these guards, he looked at the team and he—

"So you people finally made a move, huh? I was expecting you to move, just not this quickly."

He smiled.

Darius narrowed his eyes.

"You know of us?"

"Hmm? Is it that surprising?"

The man smiled.

"You didn’t think I would do my homework? People of the Enclave?"

"Well, that makes things easier for us then."

Darius shrugged as he looked at him and—

"You are under arrest for illegal dependency binding, emotional extraction, human trafficking, and demonic contamination—

Surrender yourselves."

He raised his baton towards him and spoke up. His words, however, made the man smile even harder.

"Come on~

I said I know of you people and that’s what you tell me? To surrender? You didn’t think I purposely came in front of you despite knowing who you are, when I had all the time and opportunity in the world to run away, just so I could surrender, did you? Even you cannot be that foolish."

His grin widened.

The calm air around him felt even eerier.

Darius and the others looked at him with solemn looks on their faces and he—

"Let’s make an offer, shall we?"

He spoke up as he looked at the woman bound to the stretcher and—

"You give her to me and I’ll...

I’ll let you all leave alive.

How about it? I think the price is much more than what your lives are actually worth, don’t you think?"