As the sound of shattering glass echoed, Aubens’s expression changed in an instant. Figures in special uniforms burst in, broke the locks, and poured inside.
At that, all the traders inside panicked.
Even a fool could see that things were about to get ugly.
Upon entering, a man codenamed Red Lizard recognized Aubens and went straight over to grab him.
This was the arch-culprit the Governor wanted.
"Who... Who are you people?" Aubens shouted, his face contorted.
"Aubens, you have deliberately disrupted the international financial order and caused an economic crisis for the Xuanfeng Alliance. You are under arrest," Red Lizard said coldly, knocking Aubens unconscious with a single punch.
Even as he lost consciousness, Aubens couldn’t believe it.
’They’re from the Xuanfeng Alliance?’
’But how did they know I was here?’
’The location I chose was supposed to be completely secret.’
’And more importantly, I brought several top international hackers with me. With them here, it should have been impossible for anyone to find me by tracing my IP address.’
’Those hackers are the best of the best.’
’So what’s going on now? The Xuanfeng Alliance somehow found my exact location. And more importantly, do they even have jurisdiction here?’
’I clearly bribed the city’s director and bought his protection. Even if the Xuanfeng Alliance came to arrest me, he was supposed to buy me enough time to get on a plane back to the Beautiful Country.’
’That’s why I dared to come here in the first place—to get a close-up whiff of the economic battlefield.’
But Aubens had no idea that at this very moment, in the city director’s office, several people were sitting with their eyes gleaming, staring at the two tons of Gold before them.
Hadona watched the scene with a cold expression from the sidelines, then took his leave.
Their Xuanfeng Alliance was still weak and certainly had no jurisdiction here. But money talks, especially two tons of Gold.
Besides, they only needed an hour. Why wouldn’t the officials be happy to oblige?
...
After Red Lizard captured Aubens, his men checked the other individuals in the room. A moment later, they knocked several more people unconscious and carried them away.
Those men tried to resist, but how could they possibly be a match for special soldiers trained with Mutated Beast Bones? They were overpowered in a few swift moves and knocked unconscious.
These men were, of course, the internationally renowned hackers. No one knew their true identities, and they had been hired by Aubens to back him up.
After all, this was the internet age. A capital offensive like theirs required computers, so they feared interference from rival hackers. But their greatest fear was having their IP address traced while they worked. If someone showed up at their door, it would be game over. That’s why the hackers were also there—to mask their location.
Their capital operations could easily cause a regional economy to collapse, and the people in those places would undoubtedly hate them enough to want them dead.
Desperate people will do anything.
That was why very few financial tycoons were ever caught.
This unlucky bastard, Aubens, was probably the first of these tycoons to ever be captured.
As for the other traders, there was no point in arresting them. It was better to let them spread the word.
After this incident, it was unlikely any other financial tycoon would dare to make a move on the Xuanfeng Alliance.
"Those two tons of Gold weren’t spent for nothing. Take them away," Red Lizard said deliberately before he left.
The Governor had instructed him to say it. Although Red Lizard didn’t understand the reason, he followed his orders.
The brawny soldier might not have understood the meaning behind the words, but the traders who heard him stared wide-eyed. It seemed they all suddenly understood why these men had shown up.
’Mr. Aubens was sold out.’
’They spent two tons of Gold to find his location.’
Of course, this was all part of Lu Feng’s deliberate plan.
With Xiaozhi involved, traces of impossible technology were bound to be left behind, so it was best to create a cover story wherever possible.
A few moments later, Red Lizard led his men to the rooftop. Two transport helicopters quickly approached, lowered their ropes, and extracted the team, leaving the bewildered traders behind.
「An unknown amount of time passed.」
Aubens and the hackers awoke. When they saw their surroundings, the color drained from their faces.
They were in handcuffs, and the iron bars in front of them made it obvious: this was a prison.
They remembered what had happened before they blacked out. They’d actually been captured.
Aubens was in utter disbelief. ’The Xuanfeng Alliance was just supposed to be a warm-up! How could I have failed so miserably? How did I get captured?!’
"No! I want to see the person in charge!" Aubens shouted frantically, banging on the iron bars.
"What’s all the racket?" A man from one of the Eastern Countries appeared, rapping on the bars with a baton. He wore a short-sleeved guard uniform, his arms covered in tattoos, and he continued to strike the bars with his baton.
Chen Hao couldn’t understand a word Aubens was saying; he was just annoyed by the man and came over to shut him up.
’This guy opposed President Lu, got himself locked up, and now he’s still causing trouble and making a scene.’
’I used to be just a small-time thug in the Youcheng underworld, a nobody working under Boss Chen. I was just messing around, couldn’t even land a decent girlfriend.’
’But everything changed after Boss Chen started following President Lu.’
’Back in Youcheng, Boss Chen and I made a fortune with President Lu in the Gold business. Life was way better than before, at least.’
’Then I followed Boss Chen with President Lu to Tianzhou City, and that’s where things really took off.’
’Brother Ming even gave me an entire street to manage—a KTV, a bar, and a nightclub.’
’Everyone at all three venues had to call me "Brother Hao" respectfully, and picking up any woman I wanted was a piece of cake.’
’Back then, I realized that if you want to make it, you have to follow the right boss. After Boss Chen and I started following President Lu, our rise was meteoric.’
’And now, Boss Chen brought me here to help President Lu, and I’ve been made the warden of this prison. Just like that, I’m a man in power.’
’It really feels like an ancient bandit being made a government official.’
Aubens couldn’t understand Chen Hao either and banged on the bars again, shouting, "I want a translator! I want to see the person in charge!"
"What is this gibberish," Chen Hao snorted, then jabbed Aubens with the baton. Aubens howled in pain, and Chen Hao walked away.
In a monitoring room, Lu Feng, Red Lizard, Chen Bo, Hadona, Baguda, and Dali were all watching a screen that showed Aubens and the hackers.
Baguda and Dali looked at Lu Feng with even greater respect. This man was truly formidable; he could genuinely lead their people to prosperity.
The economy outside had now stabilized. With Aubens captured, there would be no more shenanigans. This meant their people’s wealth was about to double.
The crucial part was that this wealth had essentially appeared out of thin air. They and their people had done nothing at all. But wealth doesn’t just materialize—it was all a "contribution" from Aubens’s capital.
Aubens had thrown his capital away like skipping stones on water, and in doing so, he had benefited their people, allowing their new currency to be immediately accepted and to increase in value.
But both men knew this was no simple feat. In fact, it was something practically no one else could have accomplished. Otherwise, why would those financial tycoons be so widely feared?
Yet this Governor had succeeded. He seemed omniscient, as if he had calculated every variable, and everything was proceeding exactly according to his plan.
From gathering intelligence on Linda, to using the evidence to arrest her, and then to knowing Aubens’s exact location and sending Red Lizard to apprehend him...
It was all terrifyingly effective.
No one knew how the Governor had managed it.
Just then, Lu Feng heard Xiaozhi’s voice in his earpiece: "Master, I have taken control of the enemy’s accounts. All their funds are now completely tied up in the Xuanfeng Alliance. There’s nothing left for them to withdraw."
Lu Feng couldn’t help but smile.
This was the art of making wealth evaporate into thin air.
It was the very thing these financial tycoons were best at.
For instance, in the many places where these tycoons triggered economic crises, people who owned cars and homes would suddenly find themselves with nothing. No one understood where their wealth went; it simply vanished.
For the average person, this kind of capital manipulation was nothing short of a catastrophe.
So, to a certain extent, financial tycoons like Aubens deserved to die.
Now, Xiaozhi was using this same method against Aubens, essentially defeating the enemy with his own favorite weapon.
Xiaozhi continued, "Master, those hackers are all world-famous. They’ve done many terrible things and have access to a great deal of classified information. They also have a lot of money, but it’s scattered all over the world. Even the banks themselves don’t know they’re holding it. They’re quite skilled, I’ll give them that."
Lu Feng had to admit that hackers were indeed powerful. Otherwise, the major world powers wouldn’t impose so many restrictions on their activities.
"Master, I’ve secured all their data and money," Xiaozhi said, then suddenly made a proposal. "Master, you could just kill them. Then I could operate under their identities. We could have nations all over the world put out warrants for their arrest, but they’d never, ever be caught!"
Lu Feng was speechless.
’That’s... actually a good idea.’
With Aubens captured and his capital frozen, nothing could stop the Xuanfeng Alliance from stabilizing its economy.
The economic events in the Xuanfeng Alliance had been under intense international scrutiny, with reporters broadcasting updates in real time.
The exchange of hundreds of tons of Gold and Aubens’s capital offensive were like watching a battle of shadows and blades.
Countless people were watching, waiting for the crisis to break, wondering just how long the Xuanfeng Alliance could possibly last.
After all, the Xuanfeng Alliance was too weak. There was no way it could stop Aubens.
But what happened next left everyone in disbelief.
Because, against all odds, the Xuanfeng Alliance’s economy had become astonishingly stable.
How was this possible?
What about Aubens?
Had he given up?