Chapter 913: Ch 912: Not Playing

Hearing that, Ryo's expression shifted. "So there really are Arcadia members at the East?"

"Heh heh, so that is what you've been scheming about." Loki flapped its wings, snickering.

Ryo looked at Loki and said nothing.

Having his goal found out didn't matter much to him. He'd never planned to hide it forever anyway.

But confirmation that defeated Arcadia members were being held at the Ouroboros eastern base was a big deal. Until now it had all been guesswork. Now it was hard proof.

And nothing mattered more than that, because you can only rescue people who are still alive.

It also confirmed that the Ouroboros Authority factory really was in the East. That kind of intel would fetch a fortune if he dumped it on Thousand Eyes.

'Go ahead and think you're coming out ahead. I'm the one who never loses.' Ryo studied Loki with deep, unreadable eyes. "What's the game?"

"Ho ho, looks like you've already figured it out."

Loki flapped its wings with a snicker. It figured Ryo had realized this was a test from Krishna.

"The game's simple," Loki said, pulling out a black parchment scroll. There was a smile in its voice. "Think of it as a treasure hunt."

The raven handed the scroll to Ryo, who looked down and saw five arrows drawn on it.

"These are five 'supply' transport routes. The time window is tomorrow afternoon, 1 PM to 3 PM."

Loki glanced at him, then went on, almost lazily. "During that window, we'll hide two Arcadia members on one of the routes and assign three guards to watch them."

"Beat all three guards, or take the prisoners off them, and you win. Otherwise, you lose."

"And if you lose..." Loki raised its head and looked Ryo dead in the eye. "You can start thinking about leaving Arcadia and joining us for real. Oh, and you're the only one who can compete."

"Five routes, but only one has the hostages..." Ryo picked up the scroll and studied it carefully.

Two hostages. Five routes. Three guards.

And the rules only said that the competitor had to be him. They didn't say anything about non-competitors.

'They're tempting me to send people to hit the other routes, the ones with no hostages.'

'Looks like the Ouroboros faction running this transport doesn't get along with Krishna's people... Is she trying to use me as her hitman?"

"So, what do you say? Wanna play?" Loki asked with a grin.

The reason it was grinning was simple: it couldn't lose either way.

Loki didn't believe for a second that Ryo would leave those four shipments alone. And even if he couldn't get to them, the house still had a certain someone sleeping soundly on the couch. Would Shiroyasha pass up free loot like that? That'd be the real miracle.

So whatever happened, Loki's side got what it wanted. As for Ryo, if he wanted to save the hostages, he'd have to fight three rule-breakers alone.

That was Krishna's estimate of the lower layers' strength ceiling.

To win this for sure, Ryo would need something that exceeded that ceiling but was still within the rules. And in the lower layers, that almost always meant an Another Cosmology.

Loki figured it had read Krishna's thinking pretty accurately.

Ryo took one more look at the routes, then raised his head. "Sorry, I'm not playing."

The smile froze on Loki's raven face. "Don't tell me you're going to memorize the routes and just ambush..."

Ryo's eyes were laughing as he looked at Loki mockingly. "I don't like being told what to do. There's no sense of achievement in it. Besides, where I come from, we believe in strength in numbers."

"Hey, hey, if my side moves the hostages, ow! Ssss!" Halfway through the sentence, Loki went numb and bit its own tongue.

It had figured out what Ryo was thinking.

Krishna's faction and the Cross faction were on bad terms. If Loki suddenly asked to change the transport routes, the Cross side would be suspicious for sure. They'd gone to great lengths to dodge suspicion, using subtle methods to make the Cross volunteer for the job themselves.

That meant the Ouroboros members from the Cross faction had never given Loki the route map. The whole thing had been arranged internally.

If they asked to change the routes now, everything would be exposed.

And if they didn't change them... 'This bastard is going to call Shiroyasha, Athena, Sun Wukong, and everyone else and bring overwhelming numbers.'

All they could do was warn the Cross faction to send more people. Since the base could be deduced from those route maps with almost no effort, Ryo could strike any time he liked.

With one move, he'd flipped the board. Friend and foe were completely scrambled, and the water was muddy enough for Ryo to fish in.

Loki couldn't help snapping, "Why don't you play by the rules for once?!"

Ryo snorted, his tone full of provocation. "What I like best is saying 'no' to people who think they can arrange my moves for me."

Loki's beak twitched a few times. It looked at Ryo, speechless, then slumped. "Aren't you afraid something will happen to those two former Arcadia executives?"

"So what if something does? They've got three rule-breakers guarding them. They know the risks of a rescue. Since I'm willing to take that risk, do you think they'd want to sit tight?"

Ryo went on, his voice low.

"Don't underestimate the old Arcadia members. If they found out they could trade their lives for an Ouroboros rule-breaker, or should I say a Three Digit who downgraded his spirit rank, there's no telling how they'd react."

Loki went numb again, but he had to admit Ryo was right.

Back then, Arcadia had lost eighty percent of its fighting strength just to kill Azi Dahaka, a Last Embryo destined to threaten humanity in Little Garden. And that beast only had a three-digit rank.

But didn't Ouroboros threaten humanity too? Both of them were threats in Little Garden. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

Now, two executives could be traded for two Ouroboros Three Digits. Sounds like a good deal.

If Arcadia had known that back then, they'd have put Ouroboros out of business. There's a reason people called them the light of humanity.

Knowing all this, Loki gritted its beak. "If you do this, I have no choice but to report it. And then Ouroboros's upper ranks will definitely send people to hold off Shiroyasha, hold off Sun Wukong, even hold off Athena... Wait. Don't tell me..."

The key finally clicked. It stared at Ryo in disbelief.

"Is that your goal? You want Ouroboros to pay more, even if it puts you in danger?"

Ryo's eyes were as still as an old well.

Loki opened and closed its beak, and finally couldn't help exploding.

"You lunatic! You're going to regret this. You will absolutely regret this!"

Even as it flew off, Loki kept screaming. "Psycho! A genuine psycho!"

Ryo watched the raven go until it vanished from sight.

Then Shiroyasha's voice sounded by his ear. "You brat, how do you get crazier than me? I thought you were the type who'd take the lowest-risk option every time."

Ryo kept his back to her. "What makes you think this is high risk?"

Shiroyasha blinked, then grinned. "Oho, so you're done hiding?"

"Who knows."

With that, Ryo turned and headed for the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Shiroyasha called after him.

Without looking back, he said, "Back to Arcadia. I need to get my Cloth ready."

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