Star Rank Hunter

Chapter 140: If He Wants Money, Then We’ll Give Him Money

It was rare that the first thing this glutton said wasn’t about food.

“Something’s happening? Tell me.”

There were neither bodyguards nor listening devices around Cillin’s beach pavilion.
Perhaps it was because they knew that such little tricks were useless on him, so they did not bother to install any listening devices around Cillin.
Cillin also knew that it was a show of goodwill from Castella.

The gray cat pushed its head into the cup on the tray beside them and drank some water.
After it ‘pulled’ out its head and shook it for a bit, licking its paws and wiping its face, it finally jumped up Cillin’s shoulder and crouched slowly.

“There is a particular area inside the seawater that has unnatural dissolved oxygen.
While I was hunting for food, the dissolved oxygen there fell faster and faster.
Something is absorbing dissolved oxygen inside the sea.”

The dissolved oxygen was not falling inside a lake, but a sea.
It wasn’t falling around the coastal waters, but within the deep sea region, and it was a large-scale change no less!

There was no way the Feniers Family wouldn’t have picked up such a change, but the fact that they hadn’t taken any action until now meant that someone was manipulating things behind the scenes.
Either the data or the program of the monitoring device set inside the sea had been tampered with, and this tampering was not detected by the Feniers Family’s people.
The only ones who could do this were people inside the Feniers Family.

The gray cat continued to speak, “I checked out those devices before.
The temperature, pressure, ion density etc were all normal.
The only thing unusual was the dissolved oxygen.”

“If too many items were changed, then the chances of discovery would become higher.
As long as the tampering on the critical item wasn’t discovered, they would have achieved their goal.”

The gray cat balled its paws together and continued to speak to Cillin with exaggerated secretiveness, “I went to the bottom of the sea to take a look and found a few big guys down there.
They’re still sleeping, but they’re probably going to wake up very soon.”

“Big guys, eh…” Cillin sighed softly.
The kind of creatures who could be called big guys by the gray cat would definitely not disappoint.

Meanwhile, at a particular corner of the manor and inside Kirk’s private study, Castella and Kirk were conversing with each other in front of a table.
There was a screen beside them displaying every location of every person who came from the Binger Family, and they had tight monitoring on every such location.
However, up until this point the reports of their subordinates failed to satisfy them both.

“It’s too quiet.” Kirk said while frowning.

“Yes.
This isn’t like them.
They’re not someone who can restrain themselves, so they should’ve acted already.” Castella placed both hands on his knees while all ten of his fingers moved in a regular pattern, “This means that they have acted, but we weren’t able to detect what.”

Kirk did not object to Castella’s opinion, “That’s why I’m uneasy.
Why don’t we summon Tobo back to the manor? If anything happens and we aren’t able to react in time, then Tobo will be in danger.”

They originally thought that they would be able to trigger some activities by letting Tobo out to play, but didn’t expect to receive no results until now.

“Yes…”

While speaking, Castella’s communicator rang up.
This communicator would only be activated by an internal personnel during an emergency situation.

Both Castella and Kirk felt their hearts jumped as they matched each other’s eyes.
Could there be something going on?!

When the communicator was connected, Steele’s image came through.
Steele looked to be very anxious.

“What is it?” Castella asked.

“I have an important discovery to report!”

“Come inside the study first.”

After Steele had entered the study, he passed the e-book to Castella, “This is what Cillin showed me.
He said that the enemy has already acted.”

The book showed an amphibian parasite.
This type of parasite falls under the category of external fertilisation*.
The male and female would discharge a mature gamete out of the body, and once the sperm and the egg has combined outside the body, a new life would form and automatically seek out the closest host.
The fertilisation could happen in air, land, or water…

In other words, Emma and Rost were both carrying a gamete of this type of parasite on them, and assuming that they had been injected with a certain kind of medicine to prevent the gamete from birthing into a parasite inside their bodies, then the one who would suffer the greatest damage would be Tobo.

The close range and lengthy period of contact was no doubt the perfect opportunity.

Of course, the parasite injected in Emma and Rost’s body was definitely not the kind Cillin had showed them on the e-book.
The weather and the humidity of this place were all different from the habitat of the parasite stated inside the e-book.
The reason Cillin showed this to Steele was to remind them as to which direction they should be directing their thinking to.
Otherwise, when they finally realised it it would already be too late.

Fifty years ago, the research on parasites had enjoyed a golden age, but after that time the interest in such researches had gradually cooled down.
Currently, the most popular research was still extraterrestrial biological creatures, viruses and related medicines.
Therefore, most people would not consider this aspect from the start.
After all, a certain fundamental knowledge was necessary to be able to utilise a lifeform like parasites successfully.
Neither Castella nor Kirk could have imagined that their enemies actually had such a technology!

They had made a miscalculation.

While Castella and Kirk was reading the information on the e-book, Steele took out the bill Cillin had written and told them his requests.

“If it’s just money, then he may ask, and it shall be given.” Castella withdrew his gaze from the e-book and said in a heavy voice.

“Yes.” Steele paused for a moment before saying in shame, “We lost the gray cat following Cillin after it left the shore.”

This was one outcome Castella wasn’t too surprised about.
After all, there was no way the pet of a lieutenant commander could be ordinary.
He waved his hands and said, “It’s not your fault.
You may leave, and do wait for us outside.”

“Okay.” Steele bowed respectfully and left the study.

After Steele left, Castella inhaled deeply and let out a long sigh, “Kirk, do you know how that big thorn at Sector V, ‘Poison Fang’ was eliminated?”

Kirk shook his head, “I have no idea.” the majority of his attention was put in Sector H, and he wasn’t too familiar with the happenings of the thirteen backwater Sectors.
Naturally, his news in that aspect were slightly late.

“There was a Poison Fang base, and one hundred thousand people.
They’re all dead now, and the cause of it was parasites.”

When he heard this, Kirk could not help but inhale and feel the temperature drop around him.
Poison Fang was notorious.
He didn’t think that they would all be eliminated by parasites.

“The people who took out Poison Fang was Vanguard.
Since the news were processed by Vanguard’s A Squadron, there aren’t many people who knew about the truth.”

It was common knowledge that the crucial points of any news that went through the four great Hunter regiments’ A Squadrons would become severely distorted, and the truth blurred.
This was what the great four was capable of.

“The squad that took out Poison Fang was Vanguard’s Sixth B Squadron.
It is the squad Cillin is in right now.”

Now Kirk understood.
He thought that Castella’s attitude towards Cillin was a little strange since some time ago, and now he knew the cause.

“I know what to do now.” Kirk said.

Castella nodded, “I have a feeling that parasites would be facing another golden age after fifty years.”

Kirk was just about to send out an order to his subordinates, when Castella’s communicator rang again.
After he had looked at the display, Castella made a hand gesture towards Kirk, and Kirk immediately put down all the work in his hands.

Castella had given Cillin his comm number on this planet.
If there weren’t any important news, or if the situation wasn’t critical, then Cillin would not call Castella’s number directly.
It was just like how he passed the information through Steele just now.
While the parasite would affect Tobo, for the moment he was not in any danger.
But the fact that Cillin had called his number directly now meant that the situation had grown serious.
Castella had no choice but to treat this carefully.

When the comm came through, Cillin’s image popped up.

“I have news.” but Cillin did not elaborate on the exact nature of this news.

“Give me your price.” Cillin didn’t need to say anything this time.
Castella had asked for his price directly.