After Murong's group returned to Chen Manor, everyone resumed their everyday activities and busily prepared for the coming apocalypse as they had planned before traveling to Mount Taiyuan.

Chen Dong and Chen Yiren actively contacted several merchants to buy dry food, daily necessities, materials, weapons, and military supplies through the company's channels. Chen Jinnan outlined a proposal to submit to the House of Lords about their territory relocation. Chen Fang and Chen Dawei went back to their military/intelligent organization, trying to recruit trustworthy and capable people.

As for Chen Murong, he went through large piles of the Chen family's personal files and called them to interview one by one. He did this because he knew that there were spies among their ranks. However, he was not sure who they were. The spies have never revealed themselves. The only thing he could do was to lower the possibility of including the spies in any critical operations. He tried to select people who were also dead by the time he escaped with his big brother out of the capital.

So, apart from the attendants and the guards in the family, like every major family in the kingdom, Chen family also had their own military force in their territory and an army camp outside the capital. Actually, using the "army camp" term might be a little bit overstated. It should just only call a group of soldiers. Its size was only to ensure their masters' safety for a short time but did not large enough to be able to plot a rebellion against the royal family like the real army.

Nevertheless, Murong had no choice to make do what he had on his hands. Recalling people from their faraway territory with a noticeable number would take an unnecessarily long time and raised suspicion. So, Murong picked the soldiers only from the guards and their army camp. And after gathering about fifteen people, Murong also asked Dawei to accompany him to survey the Borderlands region.

Murong and Dawei, plus another fifteen soldiers, took the south-west line hyperloop train to Beidu station. This station was located in Beidu city, the closest large city before entering the Borderlands region.

When Murong and the gang arrived at Beidu city, Murong led the team to one of the large buildings in the city business area. Dawei looked at the sign and saw it labeled "Beidu Mercenary Guild."

Without ceremony, both Murong and Dawei went inside the building. When Dawei first saw the atmosphere inside this place, he was actually surprised. He had never thought that the mercenary guild still had this much high traffic. In the past, this might be normal. However, in the last five decades, mercenary professions were not that popular anymore.

Especially nowadays, multinational merchants around the borders, who used to be the biggest clients of mercenaries, decided to turn their caravans' security to the local government forces. The transportation routes that used to pass dangerous places were replaced by faster, safer, and government-controlled routes. This was due to the expansion of several cities in all directions over the years. So, the need to use mercenaries for caravans' security had drastically reduced. Now, most mercenary missions had been reduced to nothing more than simple detective jobs. Only the underdeveloped regime like Borderlands that mercenary was still playing a key role.

"Welcome to Beidu mercenary guild." The woman receptionist welcomed Murong's team with a smile. "What can we do for you?"

"We would like to go to Borderlands inner region. So, we are looking to hire some bodyguards..." Murong told the receptionist what he wanted but paused. After thinking a bit, Murong continued to ask, "Is the Drunken Spirit team available?"

"Drunken Spirit? Let me check." The receptionist typed the information on the keyboard to search.

When the team's information showed up on the screen, she looked surprised because this team was newly established, and the credibility rating was still quite low. It was rare for the customer to specify this type of team by name. However, Murong knew of this team. It was one of the famous teams in his past life.

"Yes, they are available. But, they are kind of new and inexperienced. Are you sure? Borderlands inner region is a dangerous place."

"Yes, I am sure."

"Ok. I will make an appointment with them for you." The receptionist told Murong. After that, she printed the information about the appointment on a small piece of paper and handed it to Murong.

"Thank you." Murong received and read what was on the paper. Then, he quickly led Dawei out of the building.

----------------------------------------------------------

At noon, Beidu city

Black Raven inn

....

If you asked people in Beidu city where was the most populated place during lunch in Beidu city, everybody could tell you right away that the answer was the Black Raven inn. The food here was cheap and delicious. There was also live music performing every day. This place was so great that it got recommendations from the local newspapers almost every other week.

This place also happened to be where all mercenaries would like to hang around after work because of its joyous atmosphere. However, if you looked inside the inn today, there was one man anxiously sitting on one of the tables, and he seemed not to enjoy the festive atmosphere of the inn that much.

This man's name was Robert Gonzalos, and he was the captain of the Drunken Spirit team. Today, he was waiting for his employer to contact him for quite a while now. He was super excited when the mercenary guild representative called him, informing him that there was a high-rating job available to them. Most of the jobs they had done so far were just low-rating jobs such as surveillance on people claiming disability or cheating on a spouse, working undercover at certain factories trying to investigate internal theft, or finding runaway pets. These were not the jobs that their team was looking for when they first established their Drunken Spirit team. In fact, these jobs were considered garbage ones for well-known mercenary teams. Both the pays and guild scores obtained from these types of jobs were negligible.

Robert's team would like to have adventurous tasks that could show their martial arts skill, and they had been waiting for the opportunity for a long time. So, when he heard from the mercenary guild that this mission was the high-paid one, he had high hope that this mission could be the one!

However, when he saw two teenagers entered the inn and walked straight to his table, he felt a little bit disappointed. Even though both of them dressed nicely, it seemed that this time employers were still quite young. They might not have a good mission. Hopefully, it was not just an upgrade from finding pets for high school students to spoiled young nobles.

"Well, at least, the pay should be good," Robert thought.

"Hi, are you two young masters that would like to hire us?" Robert asked when Murong and Dawei approached him.

"Yes, we are," Murong said with a smile on his face and reached his arm to shook hand with Robert. "My name is Murong, and this is my brother, Dawei. Nice to meet you."

"My name is Robert, head of the Drunken Spirit mercenary team. Nice to meet you too," Robert said in a friendly and courteous manner as he shook hand with Murong and Dawei. No matter what the mission was or how young the employers were, they were still big whale customers.

"So, as the agency said. You would like to hire us the whole team?" Robert asked for a confirmation.

"Yes, we would like to hire the whole twenty people team," Murong said as he was sitting down on one of the chairs.

"What is the mission?"

"Umm. Basically, general protection of our team through Borderlands inner region. Surveillance of the specific area when we were there. And, of course, non-disclosure agreement."

"Borderlands inner region? What is the purpose?" Robert curiously asked. There was no major city there in the Borderlands inner region, and it was well-known to be full of thieves and bandits.

"That is none of your concern. We don't bring anything values. We only would like to find something in the forest," Murong answered dismissively and continued to ask Robert back. "The only question is... will your team up for it?"

"Definitely!" Robert quickly answered. How could he not? This was the opportunity that his team was looking for. He even forgot to negotiate the fee as usual.

"Guarding and surveillance are simple for us. Do we need a non-disclosure agreement? That one, we have to do it at the city hall."

"Yes. It is our family's policy," Murong answered.

"Ok. I will draft our contract, and we could meet at the city hall in half an hour?"

"Sure," Murong confirmed.

"Then, let's hope for a good cooperation," Robert stood up and extended his hand to Murong.

"Yes. I look forward to our cooperation," Murong also stood up and shook Robert's hand. After that, Murong's couple and Robert went into separate ways. As Murong and Dawei were walking out of the inn, no one noticed the strange sparkle eyes from the inn maid who served their tea.

...

----------------------------------------------------------

Before Gondola period

Blue planet's calendar – 26th January 2024

??? – 80,000 kilometers from Beidu. - Secret soundproof room

...

"So, you confirm the news that we received?"

"Yes, my lord. Our informant said she recognized them from the picture and heard everything."

"Connect me to Hector then."

"Yes, my lord." The servant acknowledged the order and called the number that his lord just told him to.

"Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!"

"Hello? This is Hector speaking. Who am I talking to?" The old man on another end of the line responded to his coming call.

"Hello, Hector. My lord would like to speak to you directly. I will open speakerphone now."

"Hello, Hector. We haven't chatted for a while?"

"Hi, my lord. True. What could I be of service today?" Hector courteously asked.

"I have a mission for you. It is an easy one. Just kidnap a few kids."

"Kidnaping? Who and where are the targets?"

"The targets will go to your area soon. The details you could ask from Sebastien. As for who, they are the boys of the Chen family."

"Chen family! The noble ones?!" Hector exclaimed. Usually, they dealt with only the lower class of the society, not the upper ones.

"Of course. Which other family could it be?"

"But, my lord, if we kidnap noble family members, I am afraid the central wouldn't let us go. They may send the army here." Hector expressed his concern and continued to dissuade his superior.

"If we want ransom money, I think we could aim for wealthy merchants. It is safer that way, my lord." Hector added.

"I have my reasons for obtaining these Chen's boys, but I don't have to explain it to you. We have waited for so many years for this good opportunity. We couldn't let this opportunity pass. As for the protection surrounding these boys, I believe my plan and support that I will send to you will be effective. All that is needed is a little courage from you, Hector – courage you will find in yourself unless you wish to feel the full extent of my wrath."

"My lord! Or course, I don't dare but...."

"Enough! It is decided. I knew your devotion to me is nothing more than the fear of your neighbor thief villages. You wouldn't be submissive to me if you had other methods to obtain weapons. There will be no more argument regarding this mission."

"As you wish, my lord."

"Contact me when you get them."

Then, the communication stopped, and the phone screen turned black, leaving the old village chief, Hector, sweating alone in the cold night.