Chapter 927: 525 Puppets and Krook

“You must be Mr. Bell.”

After flipping through the documents and personal items on the desk to confirm the owner’s identity, Li Ang turned to the disheveled man held down by Alje and said calmly:

“Don’t worry—we don’t intend to harm you. We merely wish to use your status as a scholar from Zone 1 to help us with a task.”

“Hmph!”

Before Li Ang could even speak, the bearded man snorted angrily and glared at him:

“You’re the fugitives, aren’t you! So after attacking Zone 3, you’ve set your sights on Zone 1’s research district now?”

“Yes.”

“I won’t take you there. Don’t even think about it!”

The disheveled man stood firm, neck stiff, glaring at Li Ang:

“Zone 1 is the heart of the Krook Kingdom. Everything I have comes from the Kingdom—I would never betray it!”

“Mm-hmm.”

After muttering a noncommittal reply, Li Ang—who hadn’t slept all night—turned to Alje, who was holding the man down:

"Alje, senior, it's up to you now."

“Understood.”

At Li Ang’s words, Alje nodded slightly. His right hand, pressing on the man’s shoulder, instantly unraveled into countless threads finer than hairs, softly dangling over his shoulder.

“What is this? What are you… you planning to do?”

In the disheveled man’s terrified gaze, the strange threads resting on his shoulder began burrowing like earthworms, piercing his skin one by one and sinking into his body.

Before he could even react, the nearly transparent threads slithered along the gaps in his muscles and tendons, spreading through his limbs and bones.

In just a few breaths, the eerie threads had permeated his entire body, completely overriding his will—even his eyelids and tongue were injected with dozens of fine filaments each, leaving him utterly motionless.

“That’s enough.”

After checking the man’s earlobes and feeling faint ridges of threads beneath the thinnest skin at the back, Alje—whose entire right arm had vanished at the shoulder—nodded and said to Li Ang:

“Mr. Bell is under my control. If he shows any abnormal behavior, I’ll detect and stop it immediately—he won’t get a chance to call for help.”

“Thank you.”

After nodding to Alje, Li Ang, under the disheveled man’s terrified stare, rummaged through his pockets, pulled out his small notebook, checked his scheduled itinerary, then said:

“Let’s go. It’s time for Mr. Bell to start work. We’re leaving.”

Leave? You… what?!

Hearing Li Ang’s words, the disheveled man panicked—he felt as if another set of bones and muscles were activating inside him, and against his will, his hand turned the doorknob and his legs stepped out the door.

Behind him, the black-haired, black-eyed young man and the hulking man missing his right arm followed directly, walking openly onto the street without any attempt to hide.

Even stranger: passersby, despite seeing two criminals whose appearances matched the broadcast exactly—even dressed identically—showed no reaction whatsoever, as if they saw nothing.

How is this possible? Do they have invisibility?

As the disheveled man struggled to comprehend, Li Ang had already inserted the man’s identity card into a roadside navigation terminal, requesting transport to Zone 1’s research district, then boarded the hovering vehicle with the one-armed giant, sitting beside the man.

…

“Mr. Li Ang.”

Still uneasy, Alje spoke up once the hovering vehicle began moving:

“Are we really going straight there? Wouldn’t it be safer to use Mo Na’s [Path of Clear Sailing]?”

“No need. We’re going as planned.”

Sitting beside the disheveled man, Li Ang flipped through yesterday’s stolen documents without looking up:

“I checked thoroughly—Krook Kingdom’s technology doesn’t include anything like video surveillance. With [Secretive Tail], we can easily bypass ordinary checkpoints.”

“Considering the few large experimental zones carved out around it, Zone 1’s total area is over sixty square kilometers—not small. As long as we avoid the core zone and open spaces, the chance of detection is minimal.”

“That’s reassuring…”

Hearing Li Ang’s assurance, Alje relaxed slightly, then glanced curiously at the young man still poring over the documents:

“Mr. Li Ang, these stolen files are just ordinary data, aren’t they? You’ve been reading them all night—haven’t you finished yet?”

“No, I’ve only gone through about one-tenth so far.”

“Then… have you found anything?”

“A few things.”

Flipping through the thick volume of *Krook Mineral Resources Policy* alongside the *Annual Summary of Major Energy and Core Material Expenditures*, Li Ang’s expression turned cold:

“Krook Kingdom is small in territory, but its resource consumption is staggering. Just floating crystals alone—over 100,000 tons per year. Whale oil, coal, special ores, rare metals—each consumed in quantities measured in millions of tons.”

“Isn’t that normal?”

Alje frowned, puzzled:

“I don’t understand this, but I’ve heard Krook, though small, is like the Thousand Sails Nation of Saeo—a trade-based country. It exports massive volumes of goods. Isn’t such consumption expected?”

“The consumption itself isn’t unusual—even by Krook’s trade volume, it’s low. The real issue is where these resources come from.”

With his charcoal pencil, Li Ang circled several locations on the map in the *Mineral Resources Policy*. His brow furrowed:

“Though Krook’s official territory is small, the mining zones it actually controls—zones existing solely to supply Krook—are extremely numerous.”

“Each individual mining zone is small and scattered, but collectively, under short-term exploitation, semi-permanent leases, or outright purchases, they span nearly 400,000 square kilometers.”

“What?!”

Alje was stunned.

“That much? Our Olesong Kingdom spans over a million square kilometers! I thought Krook was just a tiny nation of twenty thousand!”