Chapter 386: Investigator Zero.
The central location pointed out on the map was a logistics company, which was in the same building as its large warehouse.
Once Blake dropped a few blocks away, he made his way into the alley and unto the top of the opposite building where he used Night veil to camouflage.
[This is quite tricky. There is a high chance that the warehouse robbers sold the merchandise to the logistics company.] The system said.
“Yes, but owning a logistics company is also the perfect cover for stealing and storing stolen goods.” Blake said as he watched the carriages moving in and out of the company’s compound.
“I think it is time to go in.” .
After half an hour of watching, Blake didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. So it was time to take a closer look.
He first left a spatial mark at the top of the building before entering the company’s compound with Night veil cloaking him.
…..
On passing the gate, Blake saw more than 10 carriages all around the compound. 2 carriages were currently in front of the building getting loaded with wooden crates of different sizes.
[Scanning… There is no one high enough to send your presence.] The system reported.
After making sure there was no one able to sense his presence, Blake walked into the building where he saw a female receptionist to the right attending to a customer.
‘From the looks of it, I think the workers have no clue of what is really going on here.’ Blake thought.
[Involving too many people poses high chances of the information leaking. So I would bet that the high-ranking staffs are the ones that know.] The system said.
Blake walked through different sections of the warehouse until he got to the wine section.
He began using the hot and cold spell of a locator, but after more than 20 minutes of searching, he didn’t feel anything.
‘This could only mean there is an underground storage unit.’ Blake said as he was thinking about his next move.
Searching for the entrance to the underground storage unit meant he would most likely get into a fight. The problem here was that Blake wasn’t yet sure if this was the right place.
If there was just 1 suspected location, Blake wouldn’t have had an issue with a fight, but with 5 other unconfirmed locations, he was afraid that they would get informed and evidence would be destroyed.
‘I have to check out the other spots before taking any drastic decisions.’ Blake quickly left the compound and began visiting the other spots.
2 of them turned out to be bars, 1 was a restaurant, 1 was a wine store and the last one was someone’s house.
‘It is clear that the logistics company was the one to distribute the merchandise, but from the looks of things the distributees have no clue that they are in possession of stolen goods.’
[The question now is, why would the logistics company this large steal some crates of wine just to resell it?] The system asked.
‘I have a theory, the logistics company wouldn’t gain anything from doing that, rather they want the merchant to lose.’
‘Think of it this way, if the logistics company was to rob the merchant’s warehouse multiple times he wouldn’t want to store any of his merchandise there again.’
‘He would look for a safer place that doesn’t get robbed, and that is the logistics company.’ Blake explained his thought process as the carriage was returning to the logistics company.
[That makes sense. Those who own warehouses are competition to them. So the owner of the company is trying to eliminate them.] The system said in realization.
[So what is your plan?] The system asked.
‘Bursting them down.’ Blake said.
Immediately after he got down from the carriage, Blake wasted no time in entering the large warehouse and using the hot and cold locator spell to search for the underground entrance.
It soon led him to one of the back doors with an ‘only authorized personnel sign on it’. Once the system confirmed that there was no one behind the door, Blake went through.
‘Eh?!’ He saw a staircase that went underground but was shocked to see no one guarding it.
With the locator skill active, Blake moved down the stairs to find different storage rooms with no form of magical or physical protection.
‘Seems I was right. A logistics company is the perfect cover for robbery and hiding stolen goods because no one has the time to check everything in their inventory.’
‘So whatever they have in their inventory is considered as theirs, that is why they don’t bother to hire guards to protect the inner section.’ Blake thought as he opened the 5th storage room to find the crates of wine amidst other items.
‘Time to call this in.’ Blake teleported back to the top of the building opposite the company.
“I have solved the case, and I would like to report my findings.” Blake said to the ash corps handler.
“Go ahead.”
After he was done reporting his findings, Blake requested that the ash corps send personnel to audit the inventory of the logistics company.
…
“Adventurer Zero is requesting personnel to the eastern part of the middle region for the audit of a logistic company.
It is suspected that stolen and illegal items are in their custody” The ash corp reported to Ashely.
“Adventurer Zero?! I thought he just received a mission today… Are you telling me he is already done with it?” Ashely asked in a shocked tone but already knew the answer.
‘How?’ Ashely couldn’t help but ask.
Nonetheless, she reported the news to Colonel Darius who immediately permitted to send out personnel.
…
In under 30 minutes, the ash corps arrived at the logistics company and began an impromptu audit of their inventory.
it turned out that they had robbed not only Mr. James’ warehouse but that of other warehouse owners and were also found in possession of illegal items.
The large warehouse was immediately shut down and the owner alongside other high-ranking staff was arrested.
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