Chapter 287: Killers
"So, care to tell us now, Mr. Sterling?" Arnie asked, looking at Mr. Sterling’s expression.
Mr. Sterling was the culprit behind the previous incident. He was responsible for replacing the former supervisor to General Marcel.
Mr. Sterling looked left and right. He kept scratching his arms.
Arnie couldn’t help but furrow his brow. All this time, Mr. Sterling had been showing signs of anxiety.
"You don’t know a thing. You don’t know who they are." Mr. Sterling bit his lip.
"If that’s the case, you can start by telling us who they are. Who are the ones responsible for this organization?" Arnie asked calmly.
"I don’t know. I want my lawyer."
"Lawyer, eh? Don’t you know what kind of facility this is? If I execute you here, then no one is going to say anything."
"They can make you lose your job with a single phone call."
"That’s interesting. There is only one person in this world who can make me lose my job in a single phone call. And that is the president of Esfrata. Are you saying that the president is involved in this?" Arnie narrowed his eyes.
"..." Mr. Sterling looked away, clearly showing signs that that wasn’t what he meant.
"An adjudicator doesn’t report to anyone, especially the chief adjudicators, other than directly to the president. We may receive missions from all over the country, but it looks like you don’t understand what it means to be a chief adjudicator. We don’t do politics."
Arnie stood up. "Well, think about it, Mr. Sterling. The best I can give you is a fair trial if you confess. At least, I will push it back until the elimination of high-ranking people in this organization. This way, no one will be powerful enough to execute you. The police or anyone can’t bring you away without my authorization unless that call comes directly from the president.
"But the president has never called me even if I do something bad. He knows precisely that politics doesn’t have any place here."
Mr. Sterling still looked left and right as if he was scared of something.
"I’ll give you some time to think about it." Arnie stood up and left.
"Sir." Jennifer nodded with a serious expression. "Will this work?"
"Yeah. I’ve seen plenty of these people, especially in this era. There are a few tricks they like to use." Arnie smiled. "Follow me."
Jennifer was wondering where Arnie was taking her, but it turned out to be another room that wasn’t far from the interrogation room.
She didn’t understand why Arnie was doing this, but it actually only took them a day before something happened at the entire facility.
The electricity was cut off, plunging the facility into complete darkness.
Obviously, Mr. Sterling panicked, thinking that his life was over.
To his surprise, the first thing he heard was Arnie’s voice. "Yep, I know this is going to happen. A classic move."
"..." Mr. Sterling widened his eyes in shock. After all, he saw Arnie standing in front of him, stopping an unknown guy who had been about to kill him.
Jennifer came into the room, reporting, "It’s been fixed. Congrats, sir."
"They never change their tactics." Arnie shook his head.
"Aaaahhhh!" The unknown guy suddenly grabbed Arnie’s hand and fell to his knees as though his wrist was in pain.
Arnie simply knocked him out with a single punch. "Jennifer, bring this guy to the other side."
"So, this is what you mean by ’the organization will send a killer?’"
"Yeah. Just look at how scared he is, the organization must look scarier than us. In other words, that organization will definitely use everything in its power to erase its tracks, which includes this guy. We just have to catch the one they send and extract information from them. Just do it until one of them cracks. Besides, I love cracking tough guys.
"Anyway, I’m going to interrogate that guy. Make sure that he isn’t carrying any poison or anything like that."
"Understood." Jennifer nodded with a serious expression as she dragged the guy away.
Arnie glanced at Mr. Sterling. "In any case, I can only say that I can protect you just like this. You will still go to jail no matter what. Even if you make a deal, the best you can get is to avoid the death penalty from me. However, you can at least retain your life.
"Just tell me their information. If you don’t provide any information to me while that guy or any killers that come after him have given me what I want, I’ll just kick you out of here. The organization should already know about you, so I don’t even have to kill you because they’ll be the ones to do the job." Arnie shrugged.
Arnie didn’t care about him anymore, as he had just walked out of the room.
Mr. Sterling’s body shook. He extended his hand as though he were trying to reach Arnie, but he hesitated.
Arnie went to another room where he could see all of Mr. Sterling’s movements.
Standing beside him was Jennifer standing next to the unknown guy.
"Oi, wake up. Enough with the acting." Arnie kicked the unknown guy.
"Ah! We done?" The unknown guy asked. "Will it work? You watched too many movies, Arnie."
Arnie shrugged. Mr. Sterling, on the other hand, stood up and looked at the camera. "Hey, I know you’re watching me. Please come back, I have something to say."
"Like clockwork." Arnie smiled. "I’m off."
The unknown guy scratched the back of his head. "Seriously?"
Jennifer sighed. "Senior told me that an organization like this would usually send a killer, but if we let them send one, they might be able to outsmart us in one way or another even if we’re prepared to stop them.
"So, rather than waiting, it’s better to stage one ourselves. This way, Mr. Sterling will think that we’re reliable. In his heart, he will know we’re able to protect him.
"What he doesn’t know is that all this is staged. In any case, he will provide us with information, thinking that the killer will give that information to Senior Arnie.
"This way, we will be able to get information before the organization sends a killer to clean up the mess. That’s the story, Chief Adjudicator Danea."
The unknown guy, who turned out to be one of the three chief adjudicators, couldn’t help but chuckle. "Oh boy, I like that strategy. He should have told me about that. It’s something I want to try myself. It’s fortunate that we’re adjudicators, not normal law enforcement. This kind of trick won’t work in court."
"I know. There are no limits here, so we can be creative with our work." She nodded. Of course, Jennifer didn’t mention everything.
She still remembered Arnie’s messages.
"He told me the organization could dismiss me from this position with a single phone call. I’ll pretend I believe it."
"But don’t you report directly to the president? No amount of politics can lobby the president to cut you off. At the very least, this regime is strong enough to oppress the opposition so that even if businessmen or influential people pressure the presidential palace, they won’t succeed." Jennifer frowned. "I’m just worried it will cause incidents all over the country."
"No, it won’t. That might happen in other countries, but even if they freeze the adjudicator system, we still have Joker and the Relesha family."
"Ah!" Jennifer forgot the hunting dogs of Esfrata. They were loyal only to the country. As long as Mathias Relesha was still alive, the president of this country could order the Relesha family, but he couldn’t force the Relesha family to stop acting for the good of the country.
And the one who made that judgment was Joker. In other words, these two would never be corrupt, which meant they would remain a safeguard for the country.
"However, I believe that the organization has a connection that can force the president. At least several people can threaten my position, even though I will prevail no matter what.
"Hence, I’m going to call a few people to act as killers. I will need you to play your parts, feeding different information to them."
"I see." Jennifer had never thought about this method. "So, depending on the organization’s methods..."
"Yes, we will know who their mole is." Arnie nodded. "I’m not exactly clean myself, but I will never side with terrorists."
"Understood. I will cooperate, sir."
"Very well." Arnie smiled. What Jennifer didn’t know, Arnie was also saying a different thing to Jennifer. After all, Jennifer was one of the few people who could threaten his position.
Although Jennifer was still new, she could still sabotage him from the inside after all.
Even Maya would say the same thing about the job. Those who worked as adjudicators would find themselves dying from the inside as they lost the ability to trust anyone.
Nevertheless, it was precisely for this reason that Arnie could solve a lot more problems than the others.
...
Meanwhile, Katarina couldn’t help but chuckle as she was reading Auric’s chat.
[Look at this, a new review. It looks like someone is going to promote it.]
[Is this why you’re so rich?]
[I’m not rich, not yet.]
[You’re going to be soon. The profits the Moon Store will generate might be more than the Sun Store for a certain period. But when all the people in the world have it, you will have a hard time profiting.]
[I know that. I’m preparing a few other things, such as improvements so that high-ranking people like you can catch up quicker. There are a few other plans or new items, but that’s just for later.]
[You are now making me curious. What kind of wave are you going to make this time?]
[That’s a secret for now.]
[Fine, but at least, you’re glad that you changed the business model slightly, right?]
[The password one?]
[Yep. By giving the key to unlock the book, it will limit the amount of people who can view it. Even if you share it, it will be limited to a small number of people. At least, you can get more money this way.]
[Won’t it feel too restricted?]
[Not really. You’re already kind enough to only charge that much for the book. If you do more, might as well do a charity at this point.]
[I understand. For now, I’ll just wait and maybe write more techniques.]
[Yep. Oh wait, I’ve got a surprise for you. Someone’s just joined the Moon Cult.]
[Moon Cult?]
[*Moon Temple]
[Seriously? I bet that was intentional. Also, you really created the group.]
[Hey, it’s going to be created sooner or later, so I might as well create one and become the leader.]
[Oh, wait, I just got a message from a customer.]
[This person didn’t chat here, though.]
[Never mind, they’re giving me a contract. Take a look.]
Auric sent the contract. Katarina remembered Auric’s stance about it.
[So, are you going to accept it?]
[No.]