IMAO Chapter 133

Night fell.

Mickey grabbed his favorite snacks and soda, ready to start his fun nighttime routine. Without a proper job, he lived an almost completely reversed schedule. He slept during the day and lived his life at night.

As he turned on the holographic TV and was about to switch channels, his movements paused.

Huh, there’s an interstellar livestream at this hour?

Strange, why were there two people on screen? What were they doing in that pitch-black area?

But soon, he was drawn in by the two figures on screen, completely forgetting what he had originally planned to do.

Entering the area they’d seen during the day, Jiang Yuan had already memorized the route from the hotel. Thanks to his familiarity with the path, the drive didn’t take long, and they quickly arrived at their destination.

Both wore night vision goggles and carried modified stun guns as weapons. The electrical charge was strong enough to short-circuit the mechanical guards’ systems, making them easy to deal with.

Time ticked by slowly, but the two mechanical guards remained stationed at the main entrance, motionless as statues.

“These mechanical guards aren’t moving at all. It’ll be hard to get in,” Ji Rong observed the surroundings and whispered.

“Hold these for me.” Jiang Yuan quickly handed his night vision goggles and modified stun gun to Ji Rong, then stepped out from the dark corner. The street lamp stretched his shadow long across the ground.

The mechanical guards didn’t attack immediately upon seeing the stranger, since Jiang Yuan wasn’t carrying any offensive weapons. Like during the day, they approached him with guns in hand. “Sir, this is private property. Please leave.”

Jiang Yuan took a step closer, reducing the distance between himself and the robots. After a few seconds of silence, he said, “I want to leave, but it’s too dark. I can’t find my way. Could you tell me which way to go?”

“Please show us your communicator, and I can send you the route to your-”

Before the word “communicator” was fully spoken, the indicator lights on both mechanical guards’ foreheads simultaneously went dark.

—

Mickey stared at his TV screen in confusion. Was this a new movie?

Damn, could this movie get any more ridiculous?

The protagonist just pulled out two wires from the mechanical guards, and they shut down like scrap metal!

Show some respect for mechanical guard mechs! Have some basic decency!

What garbage!

Trash movie!

While he was ranting, the other person accompanying the man emerged from the corner. The man’s voice was surprisingly pleasant.

“What just happened? You took care of these mechanical guards?” Ji Rong, who had been waiting in the corner, stepped out in surprise and asked.

“I just cut their two most important wires. Once those are disconnected, they’re just scrap metal.” Jiang Yuan chuckled softly.

Ji Rong looked bewildered. “There are so many wires in these things. How did you know which ones?”

Jiang Yuan took back his equipment from Ji Rong and said, “After we got back today, I looked up information about these online. I analyzed this type of robot. They have many wires, and cutting any random one won’t cause a short circuit. But connecting these two specific wires after cutting them will directly short-circuit the mechanical guard because it messes with the circuit board.”

Ji Rong: “…”

The viewers watching the TV were confused since Jiang Yuan hadn’t explained their purpose and was broadcasting directly without any subtitles or commentary. Everyone was completely lost.

Among them was a couple cuddling together watching the livestream. The woman leaned against her husband’s leg and laughed softly. “What new movie is this? That explanation is ridiculous! Honey, is this the worst your company’s products have ever been criticized?”

Unlike his wife’s dismissive snicker, the man was deeply troubled. Rather than criticism, this was a complete exposure of their product’s fatal flaw! As a developer who had done countless program optimizations for the mechanical guards, he knew the other party wasn’t talking nonsense. They were stating facts!

But this flaw in the mechanical guards was their company’s trade secret. Only a handful of people within the company knew about it!

Did someone leak their company secrets?

No way…

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Seeing her husband’s prolonged silence, the woman sat up and asked worriedly, “You’re not angry because they’re talking nonsense about your company’s products, are you? Don’t be mad! We can just ignore this trash movie!”

After a few seconds of silence, the man couldn’t help but correct her: “He’s… not talking nonsense.”

Woman: “What?”

The man helplessly repeated, “I said he’s not talking nonsense, it’s true… but, but this is our company’s secret. How does this person know? Tomorrow at work is going to be chaos…”

The woman couldn’t believe her ears. She turned to look at the holographic TV broadcast: “???” So this wasn’t just some brainless movie?

The camera was dizzyingly shaky, and everything ahead was pitch black…

…

Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong successfully passed through the gate and entered the private spaceport.

“The ship hasn’t landed yet. Let’s first find where they’re keeping the captured Omega, so we can sneak into the cabin later.”

Ji Rong nodded at Jiang Yuan’s plan. They quickly slipped into the nearest building, about five stories tall. For some reason, there were no security cameras inside. Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong entered the hallway and made their way in.

The building seemed nearly empty, with no one in sight. They could only search room by room.

They split up. Ji Rong went straight to the second floor while Jiang Yuan stayed to search the first floor.

After checking several rooms, Jiang Yuan frowned and spoke quietly through the communicator: “I haven’t found anything here. How’s it going on your end?”

“I’m heading to the third-”

But the person answering him was cut off mid-sentence.

“Bang!”

A gunshot.

The sound came through the communicator, deafeningly loud, making his head buzz.

Jiang Yuan could hear the gunshot from upstairs and instinctively looked toward its direction.

“Bang!”

Another gunshot!

Jiang Yuan rushed upstairs, biting his lip. He kicked open a hanging door and shouted urgently into the communicator: “Ji Rong, are you okay? Answer me! Say something!”

There was no voice in the communication, only crackling static. The sound pierced his brain like needles on his scalp, making his whole body go numb and his heart tremble.

“Ji Rong, Ji Rong, say something!”

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

Ji Rong didn’t expect the enemy to spot him first, but thankfully his reactions were quick enough. The moment the red dot aimed at him, his first instinct was to find cover to avoid the shots. The shooter didn’t anticipate his quick response, and the first few shots missed, but his communicator earpiece fell off during the dodge.

Jiang Yuan didn’t expect today to go smoothly, but he hadn’t expected Ji Rong to suddenly go silent. He could only run upstairs while listening carefully to the communicator. The continuous gunfire gradually faded until it completely disappeared the next second.

“I’m fine,” Ji Rong said while running and grabbing his fallen earpiece. Just as he spoke, four men appeared in the hallway. They were obviously alerted by the commotion. Each held a gun as they rushed out of their rooms.

Ji Rong held his modified stun gun and shot one of them in the body. Sparks flew as the hit man collapsed to the ground, knocked out by the electric shock.

Jiang Yuan’s movements also drew attention, and several people approached him. The next second, a bullet shot toward his face. Jiang Yuan fired a shot, beautifully deflecting the bullet mid-air, then fired again, directly hitting an enemy attacking from the front left. The man foamed at the mouth and collapsed the next second.

In the hallway, Jiang Yuan was attacked just as he entered, but his reactions were quick enough. As someone tried to grab him, he used his stun gun to shock his attacker.

Ji Rong was waiting for enemies in a room, gripping his stun gun. Whenever someone tried to rush in, he would stun them with one shot. Just then, another man in a suit rushed in frantically with a gun. The man instinctively tried to shoot, but Ji Rong was faster and more precise.

Ji Rong dodged the whistling bullet with a sidestep while pulling his trigger.

“Whoosh-”

After a painful cry from the enemy, Ji Rong called into the communicator: “I can handle this, take care of yourself.”

Ji Rong said this because he really believed he could manage. The next second, he raised his stun gun and shot at the lights inside and outside the room. The world plunged into darkness, but with the help of night vision goggles, Ji Rong could clearly see people approaching from outside.

“Stay away from me for now to avoid friendly fire.”

Ji Rong said in a deep voice.

Jiang Yuan heard the voice through the communication channel and gave a slight hum of acknowledgment. Going over there now could indeed risk friendly fire. It was better for them to each deal with their attackers separately first.

Both of them drew a wave of enemies, with more continuously arriving.

Jiang Yuan ambushed four people in the hallway within seconds.

If he hadn’t been using a modified stun gun, these people would’ve been dead by now.

The footsteps gradually faded.

Upstairs, the gunfire continued steadily, along with rhythmic flashes of electricity. After each flash came the sound of bodies hitting the ground.

“Bang bang bang!”

“Bang bang bang!”

“Bang-”

Ji Rong frowned as he waited for people outside, anticipating another assault, but they seemed to have gotten smarter.

Enoch pressed his body against the wall, trying to minimize his presence. His shadow compressed under the light. Although he was a little scared, he wasn’t terrified.

Even though his companions now lay scattered on the ground…

He was a security guard hired by the Berkeley family. He was mainly responsible for guarding this place. But apart from the mysterious cargo ships that docked periodically, he’d never seen anyone from the Berkeley family.

Although he’d always been curious about the ships’ cargo, he’d never been aboard. There was a special team for cargo handling, and they never communicated with the guards.

He’d long felt this private port was mysterious, but didn’t know exactly why. He had a feeling that if he could board the ship just once, he’d understand. But his contract explicitly stated his rights and duties, including ‘absolutely no unauthorized boarding of ships.’ So unfortunately, he’d never been aboard. After all, he was unwilling to violate his professional ethics.

These intruders must know something!

At first, he was scared. He even wondered if he might die here. But after carefully checking his fallen colleagues, he was now certain of one thing. Even if he was attacked, he wouldn’t die, just pass out.

Damn, it looked painful though.

He was tempted to just play dead.

But damn professional ethics! If he was going to pass out, it had to be from getting stunned!

He just hoped they’d go easy on him.

Enoch took a deep breath and strode forward, suddenly rushing into the pitch-black room. He fired his gun randomly twice, leaving two bullet holes in the wall before a flash of electricity instantly knocked him unconscious.

That really hurt!

Enoch thought as he blacked out.

The second floor was now completely silent, not a sound in the hallways. After waiting a while, the communication channel finally came alive. Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong confirmed their positions and met in the darkness. They expected to encounter others, but that battle had knocked out everyone in the building.

In a room on the top floor, they found another young woman bound by her hands. Unsurprisingly, the unconscious girl was very beautiful.

After carrying everyone in the building to one room and tying them up, they gradually woke the unconscious people, including Enoch, who was the last one Ji Rong had stunned.

Enoch tried to gauge how long he’d been unconscious, but the pitch-black sky outside made it impossible to tell the time. His communication device lay on the room’s table, or more accurately, all their devices were piled into a small mountain on the table.

Jiang Yuan got straight to the point. “When does the ship land tonight?”

The room remained completely silent.

“Not talking?” Jiang Yuan chuckled, picking up one of the discarded guns. His gaze swept the room before landing on someone studying him. He quickly walked up to them and asked, “Do you know?”

“N-no… I don’t…” Enoch stuttered nervously, shaking his head with a miserable expression.

Jiang Yuan shot Enoch in the arm. “Do you know now?”

“I really don’t know…” Enoch nearly fainted looking at his bleeding arm. At least the handsome man stopped questioning him. Handsome men were all ruthless! Must be true!

“Do you know?”

Seeing Jiang Yuan question someone else, Enoch let out a long breath, but his relief didn’t last—

“If I say I don’t know, will you shoot me like you just did him?” the questioned guard asked quietly.

“No.”

Hearing this response, Enoch nearly coughed up blood. Why did he get shot for not knowing, but others didn’t?!

Damn this discrimination!

“It’s fine if you don’t know. I’ll only ask five times. For every ‘don’t know,’ I’ll give him one shot,” Jiang Yuan pointed at Enoch on the ground. “First both hands, then both feet, and if no one knows by the fifth person, then…”

“Why should I die because they won’t answer?!” Enoch couldn’t help interrupting, eyes reddening.

His heart filled with indignation. Why should he die for others not answering?!

Shouldn’t those who don’t answer get shot instead?!

“Because I feel like it,” Jiang Yuan raised an eyebrow.

Enoch: “…”

Enoch felt utterly miserable, miserable enough to vomit blood. What had he done wrong for heaven to punish him like this!

This guy was a psycho, an unreasonable psycho!

So unfair! Wuu wuu wuu!

Enoch glared at his questioned colleague, his eyes clearly saying ‘if you get me killed, you’re done for!’ Making the guard uncomfortable, who thought for a moment and said, “I-I really don’t know, but Mr. Joshua definitely knows!”

Joshua, who was named, lifted his previously drooping head, clearly angry at being sold out. “What nonsense are you talking! I don’t know anything!”

Enoch looked at Joshua, who had graying hair. Unlike them, the outsourced security, Joshua was a Berkeley family servant who’d been here since long ago. He knew far more than them, and always handled ship cargo communications. The security guards were kept out of it. They were only responsible for guarding the place.

“So you’re in charge here. Tell me when the ship lands and everything about the situation on board,” Jiang Yuan said in a calm voice.

“I won’t say anything. Do you know who you’re going up against? Aren’t you afraid of dying?” Joshua asked.

“Isn’t it just the Berkeley, the first noble family of Rick? I know that, knew it since this morning. So what? Don’t try to pressure me with noble titles. Even nobles can’t traffic humans. People aren’t commodities!”

Enoch froze, looking at Jiang Yuan in disbelief, voicing the confusion in all the security guards’ minds, “Wait, what are you talking about? What human trafficking?”

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