Chapter 542: Meeting the Weakness
"I need to absorb all kings to have the strength to fight the leader of these people. So he"s at least as strong as all the kings combined? How can someone be that strong, though?"
"Whatever, I have no choice anyway. They want to kill me, and I have to kill them. Only one will survive, and the one dying won"t be me," he muttered as he stood up.
Picking up his phone, he called Gander, who was hiding in his room, wondering if the outcome was going to be Ryder"s victory or not.
...
"Ah, it"s him? It looks like another King is gone. Sigh, this guy is really clever to be able to take two kings out," Gander said as he looked at the name on the phone.
He didn"t believe that Ryder and the Seventh King actually fought since their fight would have meant that the whole building was destroyed. And if Ryder won without a battle, Gander believed that he used another sneaky trick like lady time.
But to kill two kings in one day, Ryder certainly was talented in his eyes.
"Maybe he actually has a chance of victory?" He muttered before he picked up the call.
"h.e.l.lo?"
"Gander, where are you hiding? Come, meet me in the office. I have some work for you," Ryder told Gander before he disconnected the call.
"Work for me? Sigh, one more luring out? Is he going to make me lure out all the Kings? How will it work? This time, there will certainly be suspicion," Gander muttered as he left the room and went to his office.
As he met Ryder in the office, his a.s.sumption was proven to be right. Ryder was alive. As for the Seventh King"s body, it was missing, just like the body of the last King.
"I guess this guy loves destroying the remains of the Kings," he thought as he sighed.
"Your next Target is the Twelfth King. You need to lure him out this time," Ryder said, just what Gander thought. It was as if all his predictions were coming true.
He hoped that the Prediction about the Kings getting suspicious wouldn"t come true, or he would be dead.
Worrying about his life, he insisted, "I can"t go this. Luring out the two kings was enough. The third would be too suspicious. I can"t do it. Please use someone else."
"No one else can do it but you," Ryder said firmly.
"I can"t do it either. Use some other method, then. Or just run away, far from the kings. In any case, this risk is a bit too much. I"m leaving," Gander said before he started leaving without looking back.
"If you took a step out of this office without intending to help me, you"ll be dead. No matter what you think, helping me is the only option left for you. You can either oppose me and go to the kings who will kill you since you took part in a scheme which caused two of the kings to die, or you"ll be killed by me."
"You are really evil; you know that?" Gander asked, frowning as he stopped just one step before the exit.
"First time I"m hearing it," Ryder replied as he raised his hand innocently. "Anyway, don"t waste time. Get him here fast. The faster we kill all, the faster we can get done with it."
"On the other hand, the slower you are, the riskier it will be for you since they"ll have more time to figure things out. So we need to kill them all in two days," he added before Gander went far away from them.
As Ryder sent Gander to bring the Twelfth King here, he had also put another plan in motion.
....
He left the office and walked outside. Stepping inside his car, he drove it to the south of the city.
As he reached a certain empty place, he stopped the car as he stepped out.
The whole place was entirely empty since the place he stopped in was an abandoned neighborhood.
He looked all around to make sure that no one was there. After making sure, he changed his clothes to a hoodie and black jeans.
He also covered his face with a full-face pollution mask, making sure that his hair and his face were covered.
As he made sure, he started flying high in the sky, leaving the neighborhood.
The place he actually wanted to reach wasn"t very far from here, and it only took him a short while before he landed on the roof of a small and ordinary looking house.
Even though the neighborhood had some cameras, since he came from the sky, no cameras recorded him. As for the house, it had no security guards either.
Looking at the house, no one could have imagined that the daughter of United States Military Chief Cali Malium was living in this house.
"Even though I had to try a bit, I did manage to find out a lot about the Fourth King. With this weakness, he would have no way to escape," Ryder said as he smiled.
He broke inside the house and walked around, trying to find a person, which didn"t take long since the person he was looking for was inside the main hall, sitting on the couch, watching the TV.
Ryder could see the back of a girl facing him as she laughed at the jokes being told in the movie.
"The girl who is the grandfather of the Army King. His only living family member and his weakness. Even though it"s sc.u.mmy to go after someone"s family, I have no choice," Ryder thought as he stepped forward.
As he reached the girl, he brought out his gun and placed it on her head.
As soon as the gun touched her head, the woman turned back, surprised as she hastily stood up and turned back.
"Why so serious, Mr. d.i.c.key Mouse?" A cartoonist voice echoed in the room, spoiling all the serious atmosphere. The TV was still on, showing the live adaptation of d.i.c.key Mouse.
"Can you turn the volume down?" Ryder asked the lady who still had the remote in her hand.
The girl was still in a daze as she started pressing the b.u.t.ton on the remote.
"Gah! You"re not d.i.c.key Mouse! You"re his twin brother, Lickey Mouse! Betrayal!" The voice again came, this time even louder.
"Ah, miss, that"s volume increase, not decrease!" Ryder said, even vehemently, to make sure his voice wasn"t drowned in the noise.
The girl came out of the daze and finally looked down as she found the right b.u.t.ton. Instead of lowering the voice, she turned the TV off altogether.
"That"s better."
The girl couldn"t help but look weirdly at Ryder. Why was he talking like he was a guest here and she was the one annoying him? He was the intruder who was showing the gun.
"Who are you?" She asked Ryder.
"It doesn"t matter who I am. What matters is who you are? And you are the daughter of Chief Cali. You can call me his biggest fan. Anyway, please give me the number of your grandfather. I want to talk to him. No funny stuff, don"t worry," Ryder said calmly.
"A fan? Are you one of those psycho fans? Like the ones Hollywood stars have? The ones that do bad things, kill, steal, even sometimes break inside their houses, only to get the attention of their favorite stars?" The girl asked, surprised.
"That"s right. You can call me a fan like I guess. But I just want to talk to the man protecting our country once. Please give me his number!" Ryder told the girl, agreeing.
"If you let me talk to him, I"ll calmly talk to him and leave once I"m satisfied. And if you don"t let me talk to him, I"ll really become one of these psychopathic fans and kill. Please listen to me," he further added.
His words, which consisted of the Art of Bluffing he had received as a gift from Ja.n.u.s, made him lie so well that the girl actually believed his words.
"Sigh, alright. If you"re his fan and you want to talk to him, I"ll let you talk. I"ll give you his number," the girl replied.
"Wait, I just realized. I can"t call him from my number. He won"t even pick up a stranger"s number. Let me talk from your phone," Ryder said. "Unlock your phone and dial his number before giving the phone to me!"
The girl, kept at the aim of the gun, had no choice but to listen as she stared at Ryder.
She picked up her phone, unlocked it before she dialed her grandfather"s number, and gave the phone to Ryder without trying anything funny.
In any case, it wasn"t as if Ryder was asking her for something precious like money. It was just a short call which wasn"t going to cost her anything, she thought.
She didn"t know that this single call was going to write the death sentence of her grandfather.