Chapter 121

The entrance to Louis's base is located in a medical building inside the prison.

From here, one can take an elevator down fifty meters underground; don't think this depth is shallow—in fact, a single floor is only three meters, so this is already equivalent to the height of seventeen floors.

Moreover, building a base underground and constructing a building above ground are two completely different things in terms of difficulty.

If not for the family's help, the financial resources required for such a base would be a rather staggering number.

Even so, most of the family's wealth was invested here, which is also the reason why the family told him earlier that funds were insufficient.

Sitting in the elevator, the two chatted quite relaxedly, but perhaps because both had the intention to open up the topic of the supernatural side, they soon steered the conversation toward it.

Unlike his eldest uncle Max, Second Uncle Arsen has a strong capacity to accept this aspect; according to him, while helping the family do dirty work and collect intelligence over the years, he has actually encountered some supernatural events.

It was just that most were so weak, much like having a mental illness, that they were difficult to identify, so he had always been skeptical.

It wasn't until a few years ago, when he went to England to obtain something for his father Karl, that he encountered an incident that completely reversed his view on supernatural events.

"Over there, I met a collector; do you know what he collected?"

"A gray vampire with wings like a large bat; it had no hair, was completely bald, and was terribly gaunt, with sharp fangs, claws, and fed on blood."

"According to him, this was obtained in 1897 by his father from a cargo ship named the Demeter, which came from the Tsarist Empire—before it was renamed the Mao Xiong country—and that vampire was given the name Dracula by him, fed only a small amount of fresh blood daily, and has lived until now."

"That was the first time I knew about vampires, and it completely confirmed the existence of the supernatural."

"Besides that, the collector also kept many things; although most were just ordinary collectibles, he was very interested in supernatural events, and there were some useful fresh novelties among them, which I saw a lot of at his place."

"Wait, Uncle Arsen, if their family is still keeping this vampire, haven't they tried to..." Louis was not surprised by the existence of vampires or the like; or rather, it would be strange if such classic monsters were missing.

He just thought that since they were already keeping a vampire, hadn't the collector's father tried to become one? After all, it extends life!

"You mean becoming a vampire?"

Arsen seemed to know Louis would ask this, and his expression didn't change in the slightest, "The flaws are too great; vampires aren't as elegant as you imagine, they are just a bunch of bloodthirsty monsters."

"That collector is a very rigid, ancient family, even considering themselves descendants of King Arthur, and they wouldn't deign to do such a thing."

"Of course, I think there must be other reasons."

But as for what the specific reasons were, Arsen didn't say.

"Since then, I have paid more attention to the supernatural and found that all kinds of plausible legends are everywhere, making them impossible to distinguish; if you really go looking for them, you will find that most are actually fake."

"Even those mediums, priests, and the like actually have limited abilities and don't have any truly magical powers."

"So I gradually relaxed my mindset."

"Until you appeared in our family, I really didn't expect..." At this point, Arsen shook his head.

Louis also disclosed some of his own background at this time, saying that what he knows has some connection to the other side of the ocean.

Hearing this, Arsen understood.

"Ancient bloodline, huh."

Louis's mouth twitched slightly; Arsen probably misunderstood, but why is the bloodline trend so popular in America just like over in Europe? They can even imagine that.

At this moment.

Click.

The elevator stopped, and the two walked out.

What met their eyes was a spacious and bright steel floor, with glaring incandescent lights shining above, along with dense steel structures all around, and an aura of raw, rugged temperament rushing toward them.

What?

The smooth sci-fi feel from science fiction movies?

It's only the nineties now, which is hard to achieve, and besides, the Kano family's financial resources aren't enough; even this underground base is only partially completed, not synchronized with the vast prison, and only occupies a part of it.

Even so, Louis was very satisfied.

In the early stages, he didn't need a large base anyway; he couldn't even gather enough researchers.

"This is the experimental area built according to your requirements, and it is also the most solid place in this building, containing liquid nitrogen, flamethrowers, electric shocks, sulfuric acid, and alloy walls; every room is an absolute cage, and at least one-fifth of the funds were spent on these things."

"Take a look."

"And ventilation... lighting... energy..."

Arsen gave a rough explanation, and Louis nodded repeatedly; it must be said that in this regard, professionals are indeed amazing, the design is very complete, and he was very satisfied.

Soon, in the underground base restaurant.

Although no staff had been recruited yet, the ingredients and such had already been arranged, and Arsen casually showed off a few skills, and several dishes that looked quite good were produced.

Large shrimp, red wine stewed steak, celery mashed potatoes, garlic pork chops...

"Louis, tell your Second Uncle about your future plans for this place?" Arsen asked, while cutting a piece of steak in his hand with elegant and meticulous movements.

Louis wasn't so particular; while peeling shrimp shells, he said, "I plan to use this place to store some more dangerous things, such as the Jason captured earlier—Second Uncle, you should also know that thing is very dangerous—and the doll music box that Grandfather wanted to use; the demon inside is also very strange."

"Besides these, when I practice my cultivation, I always have to make some big movements, which isn't appropriate outside."

Arsen nodded slightly, "How do you plan to handle the confidentiality issue?"

Louis explained his new version of the blood curse; there was no harm in telling others about this kind of thing, especially his own people, and he also brought up the rough, primitive version of the plan he and Lunca had, asking his Second Uncle to weigh in.

After all, regarding the upper echelons of America, his Second Uncle, a professional specializing in the dark side, would understand better.

Sure enough, his Second Uncle gave advice, and very seasoned advice at that.

"You can use this for recruiting staff; you need confidentiality here, and using this can provide a better guarantee, far more effective than a contract, but you had better adopt two schemes: first, go and recruit those who are living in hardship or have special circumstances."

"Use the principle of voluntary participation, screen those willing from among these people, then grasp the weaknesses that made them willing to accept the conditions, and later, through letting them make contributions, slowly lift the blood curse to cultivate loyalty; this group of people can be used as formal personnel."

"You can even screen them further to cultivate elites, and this part must be controlled by yourself."

"The second is those scum who are afraid of death; I shouldn't need to say much about these, you understand."

"I say these things to tell you that human hearts change too quickly; relying solely on this kind of demoncraft cannot control everything, and instead, it will lead to unexpected betrayal at some point."

Louis was thoughtful.

His Second Uncle made sense; sometimes, people can give up their lives for certain things.

This thing must indeed be used with caution; don't think that everyone can be controlled—that is too arrogant.

At the same time, Louis also thought of special individuals like Emma; for them, he was not prepared to lift the blood curse in the short term, and in fact, they didn't mind the curse; in a way, the blood curse was rather a tacit understanding between them.

A kind of deformed bond unique to perverts, evil children, villains, outcasts, and those of the Left Path...

At this time, his Second Uncle continued.

"It is best not to target high-ranking officials too much, at most just city councilors outside of those few prosperous cities, and try to keep it within Orlando or Miami."

"Don't think that just because you have means, you can disregard those high-ranking officials."

"The national level also has responses to these things; although when magnified to the entire country, it seems full of loopholes, the true masters of those countries should be prepared for this."

"Although I don't know what means they have."

"But as far as I know, even Father has some trump-card responses in this regard."

Hearing this, Louis's expression was strange.

Grandfather does indeed have trump-card means, but the side effects of those means are truly terribly great.

However, what his Second Uncle said reminded him of Grandfather's warning to him; it's true, as the largest violent institution, how could the state be inferior to private individuals?

And this country is the world of big capitalists; they are the true masters, and their power cannot be underestimated.

Even at the very worst, there is still the church there; there are choices.

Looking at it this way, it was he and Lunca who were impatient.

Louis's heart, which had recently become anxious due to encountering the remnants of the Erdiqi forces and unlocking the visualization map, was once again settled at this moment.

Grandfather was right; I am still young, why be so anxious? Being steady is not necessarily a bad thing.

Putting the last large shrimp into his mouth.

All the food was eaten clean; looking at the clean table, Arsen raised an eyebrow, "It seems my cooking is not bad."

"Haha, Second Uncle's skills are indeed good."

"Of course, I have a friend named Lecter; he is very good at cooking, and I learned a few tricks from him before."

"Then when I have time, I must..."

"By the way, what will the prison be called?"

"This, I discussed it with Max, let's call it Rebirth..."

"Rebirth Prison? Seems not bad."

"..."

After some small talk, the two left together.

Louis personally felt that he had benefited a lot from this conversation; incidentally, although he didn't see the ruthless and sinister side of his Second Uncle, he did see the side that was experienced and full of wisdom.

But now that the new base is ready, let's hurry up and get Jason and the others in; I believe they are also looking forward to their new home~

Soon, that night, a large truck drove in, and Jason was lifted down along with the iron cage.

All the way to the underground base.

(End of chapter)