Lung didn’t bring many people with him. Just like he said before, he wanted to keep a low profile this time.
There were two people in the room besides Lung when Cillin first showed up. However, both men only shot Cillin a glance before returning to the games they were playing to the pass the time. Including Big Rock, he had only seen three Andrea Family subordinates so far.
Old man Berzett hadn’t come with Lung either. Berzett was Lung’s butler, and many people believed that it was easier to predict Lung’s movement via him than it was to predict the unpredictable man himself. They were right, which was why Berzett had stayed behind to pull the wool over people’s eyes.
“Is this everyone?” Cillin asked.
A few years ago, they had visited the infamous Sector S alone and relied mostly on good equipment and good sense to protect themselves. Sea Paradise was even more dangerous than Sector S, however. Not even the Great Four was willing to brave its dangers for the vast riches it hid beneath its depths. Even for Lung, three men was too few especially considering the Andrea Family’s modus operandi.
Lung gave the bird nest that was his bed hair a scratch before replying, “Nah. Not including you, I’m bringing ten men in total for this adventure.”
The ten men he chose were completely trustworthy, strong, and had the best chance of surviving Sea Paradise’s environment. They might not be able to beat the Andrea Family’s top fighters on land, but it might be a different story in the sea.
However, Lung glanced at Czedow and Wheeze before saying, “But why do I get the feeling like my ten men are less reliable than your companion and your pet?”
The two gamers immediately looked up from their devices and stared at Czedow and Wheeze. Even Big Rock had temporarily stopped tidying whatever it was he kept in his briefcase.
Three pairs of eyes lasered onto Czedow and Wheeze, but Czedow continued to read the newspaper quietly as if nothing was going on, and Wheeze was still gobbling down its fish biscuits with all the grace of a messy eater. The only sign that it heard them at all was its ears twitching once when the three men looked in its direction.
It was at this moment another three men entered the room. They were one of the ten people Lung had chosen for this mission. They had gone out earlier to make a couple of purchases.
Cillin recognized one of them as a trainer that he had clashed briefly in the past. The trainer had shown great speed in the sea, and he was no standard human being. Cillin distinctly remembered seeing a tentacle or two while the man was zooming around in the waters.
Pascado immediately sensed that the atmosphere was odd when he entered the room. There were two new faces in the room, and one of them were being scrutinized intensely by his companions. For some reason, there was also an ugly cat on the ta… huh? Was it just him, or had he seen the cat before?
Pascado’s expression grew odder and odder until finally, he asked Lung, “Young master, is that…”
Lung beckoned him and his companions over before saying, “Introductions are in order, I see. This guy is my brother Cillin, that guy over there is Czedow, and this cat is Wheeze.”
Everyone rolled their eyes at the same time. That’s it? You give us their names but nothing else?
At least they knew who Cillin was. Everyone here had served under Lung for quite some time and were privy to some of his contacts, and Pascado most definitely remembered Cillin now. Czedow was definitely an unfamiliar name though.
Pascado had fought Cillin before, so he didn’t think that he or his companions would be dragging their feet at Sea Paradise. However, the two gamers and Big Rock didn’t share the same knowledge and thus were extremely displeased with Lung’s comment.
What do you mean the ten of us don’t compare to one man and a cat?
Why is he demoralizing us before the mission?
His two companions and even Pascado himself shared more or less the same opinion after learning what the trio were so miffed about. He might be the weakest fighter of his group, but he still didn’t believe that he would lose to the guy reading the newspaper.
“So, do you guys want to train together for a bit? To build rapport and improve teamwork,” the guy next to Pascado suggested.
Everyone voiced their agreements, and Lung shot Cillin an inquiring look. The latter nodded.
“Sure, why not? I need to speak with Lung though, so count me out. Let’s go somewhere more private, Lung.”
“Sure,” Lung replied while pointing at a room. He said to his men after stepping inside, “Keep it down, okay?”
“Will do, young master!!” The guys answered while doing some quick stretches. They obviously couldn’t wait to “train” together with Czedow already.
Lung knew they didn’t understand what he really meant, but he left them to their fates and closed the door. They often thought too highly of their own abilities and could use the wake-up call anyway.
“Well? What’s this mystery about? Did the media movement from before affect you or something?” Lung pulled over a chair and sat down. He would rather sit if he didn’t need to stand, and lie down if he didn’t need to sit.
“No, it’s regarding the Aurelio’s Cage.”
Lung subconsciously straightened his back and turned serious the moment he heard the two words. He hadn’t told Cillin in detail why he was heading to Sea Paradise, so he was surprised to hear Cillin bringing up the Aurelio’s Cage himself.
Cillin took out a star map fragment from his ring, and Lung immediately jumped to his feet.
“Holy shit! You have a star map fragment of G-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-god’s Tear!? I can hardly believe it!!!”
Lung carefully took the star map fragment from Cillin’s hands before asking, “Are you really going to give this to us?”
“Yes. This fragment is very valuable to your family, but not to me,” Cillin replied.
He had become allies with the Andrea Family from the moment he became staunch friends with Lung. Assuming that he might need to call on their aid in the future, they were sure to provide it especially if he made the request through Lung. However, Cillin would rather prove to the Andrea Family that he and the Eleventh Squadron were worthy allies in their own right. By giving this star map fragment to Lung, he would be helping a friend and showing the old fox behind the Andrea Family that the Eleventh Squadron was an ally they should strive to keep.
After making some changes to the room so as to minimize the risk of detection, Lung took out a different star map fragment from his subspace container. The Andrea Family had come into possession of this star map fragment for a very long time, but their search for the other star map fragment hadn’t yielded any fruit. That was why they had set it aside until now. If GAL’s future wasn’t growing more and more uncertain everyday, Lung wouldn’t have made the decision to search for God’s Tear using the incomplete star map.
Before this, the Andrea Family guessed that God’s Tear might be hidden in Sea Paradise, but couldn’t be certain because the star map was incomplete. In fact, Lung himself was just gambling on the possibility that it might be there. No one, not even the old fox, Andrea Fergus himself believed that Lung would actually find anything.
After learning that Lung was going to Sea Paradise to search for God’s Tear, Fergus had given him a time limit of one hundred days. If he couldn’t find God’s Tear in one hundred days, he would leave Sea Paradise immediately and return home. Big Rock was Fergus’ subordinate, and he wasn’t just here to support the search mission and protect Lung from danger. If Lung exceeded the time limit but still refused to leave, then it was Big Rock’s job to take him home by hook or by crook.
“Who would’ve thought? Seriously, who would’ve thought?”
Most of the core members of the Andrea Family were aware that there were only two God’s Tear star map fragments in the entire galaxy. Unfortunately, it also meant that finding the last star map fragment was about as easy as finding a needle in an ocean planet. Lung had never thought that he would be able to see and even hold the last star map fragment his family had been searching for god knows how long until now.