At this moment, an elven maid stood in the middle of an open area with a small box in her hand. Her face was pale with fright, as she had already guessed what this was all about.
Still, she was just a servant of a dark city with an extraordinary bloodline, so she had to obey the orders of dark nobles no matter what. No one would seek justice for her unless someone other than a dark noble harassed her.
Closing her eyes and prying in her heart, she quickly pressed the tiny button on the box, and it sprang open. Her heart almost stopped when she heard the 'click,' but nothing happened even after a few seconds, and she dropped to her bottom with relief.
When she opened her eyes, she was shocked because a towering figure had appeared right beside her, and the box in her hand was now in his.
Jacob's expression was solemn as he quickly stowed away the box and tossed a unique rank magic gem to the elf, "You did well."
He then vanished just like he appeared, leaving the elf dumbfounded with the magic gem. When she finally came to her senses, ecstasy filled her heart as he clenched the magic gem, which was worth ten years of her pay. She even felt grateful instead of resentment!
Even the butler looked at her from afar in envy, but he didn't dare snatch that magic gem from her since it would offend Jacob.
Jacob didn't care about what the servants thought. He appeared in another section of the mansion, in his lavish bedroom, and closed the doors. He also stowed away his star watch before the box appeared in his hand again, and he quickly covered it with his mana.
Because inside the box was something he was extremely familiar with—a Vermin Transponder—and on top of the small box were written two words, 'Contact Me!'
Now Jacob was 90% sure that this had to be someone from the ATLAS since only these guys could pull something like this off.
"Dark Rose, track this person and have him detained. I'm sure he's a Star Hacker," Jacob ordered sternly, knowing Dark Rose had eyes and ears on everything in the Dark City.
"The suspect has already committed suicide after exiting the estate, and his body has turned into ashes!" Dark Rose instantly responded, "Currently contacting the city guards and collecting the samples of life signature!"
Jacob's eyes became more solemn, 'A puppet?' He mused since he had done this thing as well.
Still, he was now even more curious about this person's identity, and he might also find out what the ATLAS was after. So, he created a powerful magic barrier to make sure Dark Rose wouldn't listen.
Even if it were useless, since he could also communicate with a mental voice like the star watch, it would be impossible to spy on him unless he was wearing the star watch. Moreover, as long as he kept the star watch within his pendant, he didn't have to worry about any tricks.
Jacob then finally activated the Vermin Transponder, and a static fake voice said, "You're a hard man to get hold of, Mr. Ancient."
Jacob coldly replied, "How about you come here so I can properly show you my hospitality?"
"Even if I wanted to, I'm afraid I couldn't enter the unique plains. You should know why. How about you come to me?" the?static voice replied.
'An expert of above unique rank?' Jacob's expression hardened.?"Who are you, and what do you want?"
"I'm Star Lord of Star Hackers. You have a pretty good idea about what I want, don't you?" Star Lord stated.
'I was right!' Jacob's heart sank as he impassively replied, "I don't understand. I didn't have any enmity with your organization, and I don't want to be your enemy, so I suggest you stop pestering me, and I'll take this all as a misunderstanding between us."
"I suggest you don't play dumb with me, Mr. Ancient. We have eyes and ears, everything and means beyond your imagination. So, I will ask you this once without any tricks or force: hand over the KEY.
"You will not only acquire the Star Hackers' friendship; I'm willing to pay you with the method to break past the Unique Rank and sign an oath contract to take you with me when the time to use the key arrives.
"Moreover, I'm even willing to give you a seat within the council of star hackers, which has never happened before. So, you should comprehend just how sincere I'm being right now," Star Lord revealed without beating around the bush.
Jacob fell momentarily silent as his mind worked at lightning speed. Now that he had confirmed that the Star Hackers knew about his connection with Free Sword, he had no choice but to admit he was too careless and made a huge mistake by using Free Sword's equipment from the Star Hackers.
'He's probably still not sure if I had the key and only reached this conclusion after confirming my connection with Free Sword. Furthermore, my rise in power makes him even more suspicious of me.
'But as long as I don't admit it, I can still keep them guessing. However, if I admit it, it would be akin to making them put all their efforts on me without any misgivings. I'm the only clue that could lead them to the Legendary Key. I better keep it that way, and I might be able to mislead them and buy myself more time before I leave the dark city…'
After thinking about it, Jacob was calmed as he finally replied, "The KEY? I really don't understand. But I think I know why you are making these assumptions. It has something to do with the Star Pirate Captain Free Sword, right?"
"Indeed." Star Lord didn't deny it.
"Then I think this is really a huge misunderstanding because I encountered Free Sword purely by chance when I was crossing the star ocean of the Epic Plains close to an island.
"I don't know why, but before I could inquire about anything, he wanted to rob me of my ship, so we had a huge fight, and I somehow managed to kill him after sustaining deep injuries.
"However, it turned out that what I killed was some puppet. From the puppet, I acquired two rings; one was just a rare rank space ring with useless items, while the other ring was something I had never seen before, with the name Free Sword engraved on top of the ring.
"But I was traveling with the Dark Marquis, and she told me what the Offender Ring was, so I naturally kept it and also learned about Captain Free Sword's background. Now, it appears that the ring is what has drawn your organization's attention.
"I have nothing else to do with Captain Free Sword. If you still don't believe me, I can even sign a Zodiac Oath Contract to prove it. I didn't want any trouble, especially when I had done nothing or had any key in my possession.
"If anything, I think this was Captain Free Sword's scheme to make me a scapegoat, as I mused he was probably running from you guys." Jacob lied without stopping in an earnest tone and even sounded like a victim.
He knew it was almost impossible to trick this guy, but since he had brought out the Zodiac Oath Contract, even if Star-Lord had doubts, he would be forced to think in the direction Jacob wanted him to.
As Jacob expected, Star Lord became silent for a while before he finally replied, "If what you're telling me is true, then if you can hand over that puppet and sign the oath contract, I'll leave you alone."
'Even you couldn't deny the authority of the Zodiac Oath Contract, huh?' Jacob's lips curled up in a mocking smirk before he quickly replied as if he had seen hope, "That would be great. I can hand over that puppet to you any time you want and sign the oath contract on the Star Network. But I won't be meeting you since I'm afraid of my safety."
"No problem. If you are telling the truth, you don't have to worry about anything. My men will be at your estate in two days. Hand them the puppet and sign the contract they will bring. If you dare to play any trick, then you'll witness the full might of Star Hackers!" Star Lord coldly declared before he cut off the communication, but towards the end, his static voice had a hint of confusion and uncertainty.
'This will give me enough time, or who knows, they might really believe me and leave me alone. It's a good thing I kept that puppet with me for research, and I even found one more intact puppet in his stash.'
Jacob's gloomy mood suddenly lifted. He was very optimistic about this, and he didn't think this matter would be handled in this manner. Now he has to wait!