Chapter 225: The Bounty Mission That Went Wrong

A Black male concierge from the Continental Hotel approached Muni Fisher and whispered, "Manager, there's a problem in the lobby."

Although he spoke in a low voice, those with keen ears could still hear. This was because Muni Fisher disliked others getting too close to her; if one wanted to lower the volume further, one would have to get even closer.

And the current volume and distance were the limits this lady could tolerate, tested by countless concierge staff of the Continental Hotel.

If it were any quieter, the lady wouldn't hear; if anyone got any closer, the flowerbed fertilizer would be sorted out. Plants wouldn't care whether the fertilizer was chocolate-flavored or milk-flavored.

The downside was that the management of the Los Angeles Continental Hotel found it hard to keep secrets; any sign of trouble would be noticed by those with keen ears nearby. Those who 'heard' would involuntarily get dragged into the events they overheard...

So it was hard to say whether such behavior was intentional on Muni Fisher's part.

Henry was also one of the hooked fish. Except he wasn't a contract gunman; he was just a medical service provider. So when it came to catching public duties, trouble usually didn't fall on him.

On the other hand, in this world, apart from the time spent locked in the basement, he had already been mixing around for three or four years. To say he initially wanted to avoid trouble and live like a true salted fish, but now he himself would join in the fun.

It was almost like a personality trait deep in the bones; if there was a commotion and one didn't go take a look, it would be a disservice to oneself. Even just watching from afar, eating melons and watching the show, was fine.

Hearing that trouble had arisen in her territory, Muni naturally couldn't continue pretending to be completely unconcerned. She slightly furrowed those beautiful willow eyebrows and asked, "What's going on?"

"Is it that there's a problem with the bounty on that tiger?"

"What kind of problem could there be? Was the bounty not paid? Or did the tiger die?" Muni Fisher asked while lifting her leg to walk toward the lobby.

Several busybodies silently followed behind. Henry, appearing casual, also went with the flow. At the same time, he took a moment to ask a familiar face nearby who also loved a good show. "Buddy, does the Continental Hotel still take this kind of job? I thought they were all—"

Henry didn't say it outright. But he made a gun shape with his fingers and pretended to shoot himself in the temple.

The person being asked replied, "How do you know what those rich people are thinking? As long as they can offer a price and someone is willing to do it, even dancing naked in the street, the hotel won't interfere. It's just that to post a bounty at the hotel, the minimum bounty starts at one hundred thousand dollars."

Alright. The Continental Hotel was just an intermediary platform where money was the dividing line; they didn't deal with bounties for whatever nonsense.

It seemed he could go study the bounty list; maybe there were some weird missions he could take to earn some extra cash. Henry thought this.

The Black concierge followed behind Ms. Fisher and explained, "The bounty money was fully deposited into the hotel's escrow account when the bounty was posted. Once it is confirmed that the contractor has completed the mission, the bounty is paid.

"The mission objective was to capture a tiger cub under one year old alive, regardless of gender; that part, of course, has no problem. The problem is the person who posted the bounty is dead, and no one is taking the tiger..."

Muni raised her voice and asked, "Dead! How did he die? Who did it?"

"It's said he went to Africa to hunt buffalo, but was gored by a buffalo horn. He couldn't be sent to the hospital in time and died from infection."

... Weird people always have weird ways of dying; this has become nothing unusual. Don't think that rich people all die of old age in their beds and get grand funerals; many of their deaths and funerals are unimaginable to ordinary people.

Has anyone ever heard of the head of a prominent family dying and remaining unburied for over ten years!

But the matter still had to be resolved, so Muni asked, "What about the bounty poster's family? Just send the tiger to them."

"The bounty poster's family won't take it. They don't request to cancel the bounty mission and retrieve the bounty, but they also don't want the tiger. They told us to dispose of it however we like."

This situation hadn't happened before either. Anyway, the mission objective was already completed; only after the bounty poster said to cancel the mission would the Continental Hotel not obediently return the posted bounty, but instead pay out the bounty.

Don't say the rich are the bosses. Missions posted on the Continental Hotel bounty board are either life-threatening or life-selling.

Those contract gunmen didn't know what huge price they paid to complete a mission. Only when claiming the reward did they say the mission was canceled and the bounty wouldn't be given. Guess who would go crazy?

Letting armed killers go crazy, who would be the one to suffer great misfortune? Do they really think these people are just low-level cattle and horses of a normal company, that whatever the capital says, they only have to comply? Do another group of bosses with power and influence think they are invincible?

After similar incidents happened a few times, the Continental Hotel knew whose side to stand on when such things occurred.

Did they really think cleaning up the aftermath required no effort? Those guys who thought they were rich, if they offended someone, they offended them; who dared to cause trouble for the hotel?

If it's this kind of bounty mission targeting an object, and the poster cancels it and won't take the item, the money certainly won't be refunded; at most, the target object is just thrown into a warehouse. If it has value, find another buyer.

But... the tiger is alive! How can you throw something like that into a warehouse? You can't possibly raise it inside the Continental Hotel, right?

No matter what, the tiger, as a member of the top predators on Earth, cannot be raised casually. Even without considering legality, a qualified keeper, a suitable enclosure, and feeding costs would be a huge expense.

Not to mention California doesn't care about these things at all. As long as the raised animal doesn't hurt people, even if someone wants to turn their home into a zoo, there is no law to stop them.

Or maybe use abusive methods, lock it in a small cage, feed it just enough meat to keep it from starving to death until the tiger collapses on its own? Or just euthanize it directly?

Muni Fisher, encountering this situation for the first time, was already considering the classic method of the island nation across the ocean: sealing it in a cement barrel and sinking it into the sea.

Entering the lobby, she saw a crowd gathered around something, chattering noisily. As soon as everyone saw Muni Fisher, the hotel manager, approaching, they consciously parted to make a path.

As expected, the thing being surrounded by the crowd was indeed a tiger cub locked in a cage. Although called a juvenile, the size of the cub was already larger than many adult small dogs; it looked weaned, meaning it was at least two months old.

The weight was hard to say; a dog of similar size would weigh nearly ten kilograms. This young tiger would only be heavier, not lighter.

Most importantly, the cubs of any animal come with a certain aura of charm that makes people unable to help but become fascinated. At least after Muni made eye contact with this young tiger, the idea of cement-sealing and sinking it into the sea was gone.

She asked, "Where is the person who brought this tiger?"

The Black concierge asked others nearby and then awkwardly replied to his manager, "That person seems to have taken the bounty and run away."

"Walter! Who is it? Can he be tracked down?"

"It seems he was a poacher from out of town who came to Los Angeles upon hearing the news and took this bounty."

This left Muni Fisher speechless. And when she looked at the cute eyes of the young tiger, she was even more speechless.

(End of this chapter)