Chapter 1956: An Italian Side Job -Part 1
As Jin saw the Demon Exorcist Commandos being exorcised by their own JODE Chancellor for giving such a bad rep to the JODE's name, Jin started to walk off and when no one was looking, he was about to take his mask off until a voice came from behind him, calling him out.
It was at that very moment he sighed, thinking that he had to keep the mask on just to keep the pretenses on for a while longer. But when he turned his head, he found out that it was not just some random figure that called for him. It was the Italian Head of JODE, Diego La Pluma.
"You are none other than Jin, right?" Diego asked as he whispered the last part of his question and also noted that there was no one around before revealing the name out.
"Was I really that obvious?" Jin chuckled as he started to remove his mask and Diego could finally have his suspicions confirmed.
"The chi you emitted was rather unique. So pardon me for calling you out like this when you wanted to keep your identity hidden." Sir Diego apologised with a slight bow.
"Hahaha, just to the general public. Can't let most people know that the Dungeon Supplier is that strong to the public can I? I do not want trouble to come knocking to my way."
"I see, so if you give the illusion of strength through a masked face, then people might have suspicions and doubts about the allies of the dungeon supplier. That way, trouble does not come so directly."
"Sometimes, it is better to pretend to keep a low profile and let the enemy continue guessing. We are not living in a society where power is status. Surely, the strength of my cultivation does provide some sort of benefits but in this modern world, it's a mix of factors."
Jin explained and Diego understood where he was getting from since he too had been in that same position for several years.
"In any case, since you found me, do you want to find someplace to talk properly? I feel that talking with an esteemed person like you at a random corridor of a stadium is demeaning of your status."
"No, I do not mind at all. And rather, I prefer such a setup. It is easy to track who is coming from afar with just a glance and I am in safe hands to know that any CCTVs that have been installed are being controlled by the person I am talking to. So all in all, this is one of the few safest places to talk."
"I am at all ears," Jin said as he completely removed his mask and took out a jacket from the storage ring to cover his minor wounds but more importantly the shirt that he had worn for battle. It would not take a scholar to find out that the person Diego was talking to had the very same clothing as the fake Grade 4 Demon Exorcist.
"Thank you for sparing your time. It's the state of the situation since you left Rome. We had decided to track down the remaining Demons while ensuring not attract the attention of the Void Being that you warned about. However, as cautious as we were, it seems that some of our men did not listen to instructions and had suffered the irk of the very same void being we tried to avoid.
"He appeared? There is no news about it from the JODE societies." Jin responded with concern.
"No, the so called Spartakus that you had referenced, the Exorcists heard a loud terrifying ...and yet muffled moaning simultaneously to all the Demon Exorcists that were in the field of operation. At that point, we stopped all activities and returned to avoid causing more harm to it." Diego explained.
"We do not know whether that was really the sound of Spartakus or not as we have no other evidence of him. Even our Loremasters attempted to search through our libraries and even the forbidden sections, they do not have any records on Spartakus at all.
We did try to find everything we could about Spartacus instead and there was little to nothing that referenced him to possibly be the monster that you said he was."
"I too do not have much information about him and I only know that the only thing is that after dealing with a void being in the centre of China, the threat of containing and eliminating it is extremely tough. We were lucky that I had experts with me when we dealt with this unknown threat....also got lucky that the void being let down his guard."
"Will you think we have the same luck?" Diego tried to crack a joke knowing that it was not possible and Jin's shaking of his head reaffirmed it.
"You already said he made such a muffled moaning that he is aware of your exorcists' presence. If you have the consistent irritation of a thorn beneath your skin and you finally have enough of it, would you take your time to remove it? Not the best analogy but you get what I mean, right." Jin said and Diego grinned at it.
"But are the demon numbers consistently high or were they diminishing as time passed?" Jin asked.
"We are tracking the last few as we speak, or so we hoped," Diego said and could not give an exact number. "At the very least, they do not multiply according to China's Loremasters. So, if there is an increase in numbers, we would know it is through the manipulation of those rumoured Banned Emperor Terrorists."
"If I am not mistaken... your nation's intelligence services should be working on that front." Jin hinted and Diego was shocked that he knew about it.
"Your sources...are rather informative." Diego started to see a new light towards Jin.
"Indeed. As much as we talked about power, it attracts both unsavory enemies and favourable allies to their attention." Jin smiled and Diego did not have a nice good chat for a long time.
"Then I guess I can trust you a little more than I should have." The Italian Head replied as he took out a thin folder from his storage ring. "This is the current operation details that we have been thinking of. Take a look and perhaps, I can render your services a little."
"Render my services?" Jin picked up the folder and it had a great big 'top secret' stamped right in the middle of the folder like those spy shows.
"Well, to be honest, I am extremely impressed by the dimensional instance that you have done. All the rumours were true considering what I had seen today." Diego smiled while Jin continued to glance through the information that he was given today.
It was a treasure trove of information that Jin was not able to take in all at once and requested the System to take it all in right now. Even with his Inverse Eyes and more than decent photographic memory all thanks to his cultivation, he was not able to process the current information that was given to him.
There were redactions to certain lines making reading a pain in the ass but the most important part that Diego wanted to show was the proposal portion of the operation. It seems like Diego already had planned ahead and wanted to show Jin this but whether he wished to show it to Jin or not is another issue.
And the fact that now Jin had this in his hands meant that there was kinda no way out for him. He got to work at it but obviously, Diego did not do this without considering that Jin might reject it and hence all the redactions in the Top Secret folder so that he could not get the whole operation details.
However, with the aid of the System, it was easy to piece them together given the amount of time Jin had with that particular document. Of course, it did not share its findings with Jin at the moment as Jin was considering the 'services requested'. It was easy to see that the Italian Demon Exorcists were afraid of the repercussions based on what little information they had.
And it seemed like Kong Rong did collaborate with the Italian side as there were mentions of the fight of a Void Being in Shenzhen. They had too talked about how Jin's dimensional instance techniques had enabled the experts to do their job with ease and able to reduce the damage done.
Thus, they wished to do the same for Spartakus and hoped that Jin would be able to participate in it. Otherwise, they had to find alternatives but of course, why should they when they have someone with recent experience dealing with it?
That was why Jin had made it very simple after looking at the operation folders. Even without the System to analyse the issue carefully, it also knew that this was an opportunity that they should not pass, especially when it comes to relationships with international organisations.
"I will do it... But for the right price." Jin said and for some reason, Diego felt more relieved than anxious.