Chapter 204

Afterward, everyone noticed that the leader who had just been brimming with intimidation while bombarding “Xiaoba Jin” with questions was now, for some reason, staring blankly at Xiaoba Jin in a daze.

In his bloodshot eyes from pulling an all-nighter, there were wariness, doubts, panic, confusion…a jumble of weak and chaotic emotions. Coupled with his slightly graying temples, he looked unusually…

Aged.

Yes! Just aged! After this strange thought popped into their heads, the rebels in the room couldn’t help but be startled.

Their leader should not have yet reached fifty years old. Though his appearance showed signs of aging and his eyes often carried an inexplicable weariness, he was still in his prime.

Therefore, among these rebel members in the room, although some were dissatisfied with his unilateral decisions, others questioned his judgments, and some wanted to pull him down to take his place, no one truly felt that he was old.

But now…

“Leader大人?”

With a questioning voice trailing upward, the gazes of all the rebels shifted from the head of the long table to the “Xiaoba Jin” sitting at the lowest position.

This young man under twenty, though slightly thin, appeared very upright. Even sitting on a low chair without a backrest, his spine remained perfectly straight, showing no sign of slouching.

And it seemed like he hadn’t slept well last night either; his black hair was somewhat disheveled, frost clung around his collar, and his eyes held plenty of bloodshot streaks. However, those dark eyes remained lively and sharp, as if radiating boundless energy from their owner.

Especially when looking toward the leader at the head of the table, the intensity in his gaze gave off a captivating heat, like a young predator spotting a weak antelope, revealing its sharp claws to the prey with nowhere to escape…

Is this the “tiger” Tig mentioned? He really does resemble one…

Witnessing this stark contrast, except for Phoebe who sat on her chair sucking on candy, almost everyone in the room shared the same thought.

The leader… seems genuinely old already.

…

Unaware that his “desire to capture” middle-aged Joshua had been misinterpreted by the rebels as ambition, after waiting for half a day without the meeting starting, Leon couldn’t help but furrow his brow and urged again: “Mr. Nathan!”

“You first doubted my true identity, then questioned my actual abilities, wasting much unnecessary time. Now it’s time to continue the meeting!”

Hearing the loud reminder from “Xiaoba Jin,” the middle-aged man couldn’t help but tremble all over, finally breaking free from that strange sense of loss. But upon meeting everyone’s gazes, the topics he prepared all night yesterday became abnormally difficult to articulate.

“…”

I think I know what just ‘flowed away’ from me…

Feeling this inexplicable “sense of being dominated,” and seeing the increasingly strange looks from the group of rebels, the middle-aged man finally understood what he lost after the two rounds of exchanges.

It was the “right to speak” actively controlling the situation, the “trust” gained as a leader, even the “blind obedience” gradually cultivated from past correct judgments! And these things are the most basic form of power! ‘Though I haven’t read much, politics is essentially about making more people believe in you, trust your judgment, and willingly listen to you, thereby gathering enough strength to change the current state.’

Recalling the words he heard from “Xiaoba Jin” last night and comparing them to the scene before him, the middle-aged man couldn’t help but feel powerless all over.

So… Did Xiaoba Jin deliberately expose those two flaws to me so I would make two wrong judgments in front of everyone, thereby shaking the credibility of my words and seizing part of the right to speak? Could it be that he planned to seize the leader’s position from me before entering this conference room? Or… Were even last night’s questions a test for me?…

Carrying many questions and a huge sense of crisis, the middle-aged man had no other choice but to take a deep breath and start the meeting according to Leon’s “instructions”:

“Today… we need to determine our actions for the next period of time. First is Tig.”

Taking out several marked maps from the materials he prepared last night and pushing them across the long table, the middle-aged man stared intently at “Xiaoba Jin” with a deadpan expression:

“Your task remains the same as before, which is to set fires in the Lasher Arcade and the surrounding rich district, but the intensity and scope must continuously expand!”

Setting fires in the Lasher Arcade? Upon hearing Middle-aged Joshua’s words, Leon’s eyebrows couldn’t help but twitch slightly, recalling the task given by the Red-haired Bureau Director to investigate arsonists active in the Lasher Arcade. (Chapter 116) So the director did find the right target. If he hadn’t gone to rescue people from Rose Manor back then, he might have met the anomaly holder among the rebels earlier… Speaking of which, the rebels keep setting fires but never ignite a big one. Their purpose probably isn’t to attack the rich district, is it? “Good! This job’s pretty decent!”

As Leon frowned in thought, the burn-scarred man took the map, glanced at it, and then grinned coldly with icy eyes.

“When I worked at the smeltery, I almost got scalded to death by spilled molten material. Those bastard factory owners said they had no money to compensate me, but secretly they could afford such luxurious houses. I’ve been itching to set a big fire for a long time!”

Glancing at Leon, who didn’t raise any objections, the middle-aged man turned to look at the burn-scarred man and reminded him with a frown:

“Your goal isn’t to hurt more people but to create large-scale arson and cause panic, forcing the wealthy to pressure the Public Security Bureau. Try to divert as much patrol force from the Capital City as possible, making it easier for others to act!”

“I know, I know, isn’t it just being a target?”

The burn-scarred man waved his hand impatiently and said: “I’m familiar with this job. There won’t be any mistakes. Just tell me the next one!”

“…”

Having no way to deal with this reckless guy, the middle-aged man took another deep breath and began assigning tasks to the group of rebels one by one.

“Oliver will continue handling trades, but this time, apart from buying weapons from the Lane Family’s Arms Company, he must use the arms trade to focus on probing the locations of several armories.

During the chaotic period of power transition in the Military Department, we need to seize the opportunity to raid the armories and try to obtain some high-power weapons and bombs…”

“Next are Lucy and Luke. Your tasks have changed. Lucy will prioritize infiltrating the ‘Gears’ Shipping Company to investigate the conditions of private ships that don’t accept ordinary passengers.

Luke, on the other hand, needs to sneak into the Boarding Tower to check the airship schedules heading to the Crocodile Kingdom and bring the organization’s members who have retired from the army to plant bombs on important supports in the boarding tower!”

Not a single detail or content missed in 69 Book Bar!

“What?!!!!”

After hearing the task assignments given by the middle-aged man, not only did Leon sitting at the end shrink his pupils, but the entire group of rebels in the room erupted in uproar.

The corpulent Oliver stood up first, astonished and asked: “Mr. Nathan! Are you asking us to attack the boarding tower?”

“More accurately, it’s attacking an airship bound for the Crocodile Kingdom.”

After correcting Oliver’s statement, the middle-aged man calmly said: “Blowing up the boarding tower is just the last resort. What I truly hope is to kill the scent trackers from the Crocodile Kingdom and retrieve the data they hold regarding the mineral deposits in various counties of the kingdom.”

Scent trackers from the Crocodile Kingdom? Data on mineral deposits in various counties of the kingdom? “What’s the point of retrieving these?”

The diminutive Luke couldn’t help but stand up as well and questioned:

“We can’t even use those data, and besides, that’s the Crocodile Kingdom, the Mechanical Capital! The strongest country in the western world. The kingdom still hasn’t paid back the debts it owed them six years ago!

Regardless of whether this attack succeeds, if we eventually blow up the boarding tower and kill those scent trackers, under the pressure from the Crocodile Kingdom, the entire kingdom will hunt us down! Even if we successfully assassinate the king, the consequences might not be as severe as this!”

“I know, but we still have to do it.”

Facing the doubts from the group of rebels, the middle-aged man stated:

“The reasons I still cannot explain to you, but just like the countless correct judgments I made during crucial moments in the past, if we don’t do this, both us and the country will face worse results!”

“But…”

“No buts.”

The middle-aged man tapped the table and announced calmly:

“You should have some guesses about my true abilities. Now I can directly tell you, the ability to move between all the doors in the Capital City is merely part of my power. My true ability is… Xiaoba Jin? What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

Getting up from the chair at the end of the long table and walking to the door of the conference room, Leon reached towards the nameplate on the doorframe and replied without turning around:

“You keep talking, I’ll just touch.”

(End of Chapter)