Jacob looked at the corridor coldly, and soon, a few tall giants appeared in dark armor and black masks; their burly bodies hid terrifying strength.
The giant at the very front, about 18 meters tall, looked at Jacob with a hint of surprise before he greeted with an impassive tone, "I'm the Dark Guard Commander of the Dark City's Dark Guards Regiment, and Dark Earl, Heath."
"Dark Viscount, Jack." Jacob nodded and impassively replied. He could sense this guy was a tier-9 unique rank, but he wasn't any threat to him despite being a giant.
Heath didn't show any emotions because of Jacob's lack of respect, as he could feel Jacob was extremely dangerous, and this small massacre was more than enough proof of his strength. Dark Noble Rank doesn't matter if you don't have the power to back it up or the background to support you.
Heath was already informed about the situation by Dark Rose, and he was shocked after finding out how Jacob was able to detect the intruders that even Dark Rose couldn't and even take them down like they were some flies. He even managed to capture them.
He wasn't sure if even the remaining Dark Marquis was capable of that, and besides, Jacob had already killed one Dark Marquis, so it was quite clear Jacob wasn't someone to be messed with, and having a good relation or not being his enemy was good enough.
"I have grasped the situation from Dark Rose; let me apologize on behalf of our Dark Guard Regiment for allowing such a disgraceful event to happen. I'm ashamed and have no excuse, but I would like to seek Dark Viscount's forgiveness and hope you'd have an open mind.
"After all, this was most likely done by Star Hackers since they only have the peculiar technologies that could hide them from an extremely powerful AI with all the magical technology that can't detect them. You should know even the SAAI is helpless against them.
"But don't worry, since they dare to target one of our people, we won't sit still and do everything in our power to root out those scourges within our city." Heath solemnly stated as he bowed in front of Jacob, and the five other giants behind him also bowed without hesitation.
Jacob was surprised a little as he didn't expect a Dark Earl and Guard Commander of the Dark City to apologize and even lower his head. He didn't show any arrogance or try hiding his incompetence.
"I understand; Dark Rose has already assured me, so you don't need to apologize," Jacob replied with a faint, forgiving smile.
But his thoughts were racing, 'It seems the Dark City is more untied and cleaner than the three hegemonies. But this also made them extremely dangerous and ruthless. These kinds of people would do anything for someone they are loyal to and even lay down their lives to make sure the organization will thrive.
'Now there are even more reasons to quickly leave this place until I find out why those lunatics are targeting me. But giving up on Dark Room, my progress will halt again, and I need strength more than ever now.
'I can also go to the unique plains dead zone and clean up the dark beings, but I've heard almost all of their unique rank dark beings are either within the trial or have already been killed or fled the unique plains after what I did to the Dead Faction territory. What should I do… I think there is a way…'
Heath nodded in appreciation as he had a somewhat good impression of Jacob now, and he then looked at two unconscious fellows with chilly glare. Jacob had already exposed their faces. One of them was a barbarian, and the other one an elf.
He asked, "Dark Viscount, are those two really alive? How do you achieve it if you don't mind revealing it? I'm just curious since I've heard that the core members of the Star Hackers have a way to commit suicide, and it's almost impossible to catch them alive."
"Oh, I'm somewhat proficient in poison. In the past, I'd acquired a very special poison that could knock anyone out for six hours. So, I used it on these two to knock them so we could gather information from them.
"But it's a pity that it was the last bit of that special poison I had, or I would've had to knock all of them to get more information." Jacob sighed ruefully with a very realistic expression of helplessness on his face.
Even Heath, who was an integration and investigation expert, instantly believed Jacob. After all, if Jacob had more such poison, why would he only have used on those two?
Furthermore, poisons that could knock a peak unique rank out were even rarer than medicine, and not many people practiced poison arts. Only a few races were proficient in poison magic, but they didn't pose any threat to peak unique rank experts.
The only poison that could terrify a peak unique rank expert was within the hands of Dark Beings and Dark Alchemists, who were also proficient in poison arts!
But Jacob also didn't look like a Dark Alchemist since any living practice of dark alchemy would have their appearances hideous and dark, like they were cursed because of using the dark arts of dark beings and refining their fellow living into medicines.
"Then I must thank you again for using such a thing to capture these two degenerates alive. You have no idea just how huge merit it is to capture a Star Hacker or their associates alive. If they have high-level information, you might even acquire a special achievement badge from SAAI." Heath sighed with envy.
Jacob was surprised a little as he didn't expect he could get an achievement badge. As someone who had already scored two such achievements, he knew just how extraordinary rewards from SAAI could be. So, he was now somewhat anticipated about it!
Heath suddenly turned serious and asked, "Dark Viscount, although you took the attackers down, you should know that this kind of force being used against you is no laughing matter. So, I hope you can tell me if you have some grudge against Star Hackers or if you have taken something or anything in your possession that could cause such a reaction.
"I'm not asking you to hand it over or anything. I just wanted to gauge how far they are willing to go for it. This way, we can even set many traps for them and kill those bastards. Doing this a few times will make them give up on you, and they won't dare to act in the Dark City again."
Heath's plan was excellent, but it couldn't be any more ridiculous in Jacob's eyes.
'If what I'm assuming is right and tell you I know where the legendary key is, I'm afraid it would be the Dark City setting up traps for me instead. But I have to tell them something, or if I decided to leave after this, then they might become overly curious, and if the ATLAS really knew that I have a connection with Free Sword and made it public, it would be even more believable at that time.
'But I don't want to leave because of the dark battle arena, and I don't think the ATLAS would give up so easily on acquiring the legendary key. At least they won't be stupid enough to reveal this to Dark City since there is a chance I'll hand it over to them for their protection, and that will be over for them.
'They won't reveal this to anyone until they try everything, or this all could be wrong, and they might give up after this. So, I should wait, and if they attack again, then the chances of them knowing about Free Sword and me will rise drastically.
'Or if these two knew about it, I could easily confirm my suspicions, but this would also reveal the truth to the Dark City personnel. If that's happen…'
Jacob suddenly realized that this wasn't good at all. He had captured these two alive to get some answers about why they were targeting him, but he had never expected they were from the ATLAS, and after seeing those rings, he suddenly thought about Free Sword.
So, now he was in trouble; even if ATLAS wanted to keep this a secret, those two might let the cats out of the bag if they were tortured.
'Even if there is a vague chance of this happening, I can't take this risk!'
A ruthless glint flashed past his eyes, but Heath didn't notice it since Jacob suddenly sighed sadly, "I think this has something to do with…"
Before he could, Heath was startled because the two unconscious fellows suddenly opened their eyes and when they saw they were captured, mana gushed out of their bodies, their reaction speed were almost terrifying.
Heath roared, "No good, the poison has worn off. Stop them!"