Chapter 65: Placing a Disposable Pawn

Bellamy knew Neon Town all too well.

It was the place his predecessor had grown up in. Having inherited all of the Hyena's memories, Bellamy knew every back alley, every hidden corner, like the back of his hand.

Even carrying the two troublesome kids, he weaved through the network of lanes without anyone detecting their presence.

Like this, Bellamy slipped unnoticed into the black market's intelligence shop.

The moment he entered, he dragged the shop's owner straight out from behind the counter.

"Hyena! What do you think you're doing?!"

Seeing Bellamy, the owner immediately tried to turn tail and run.

Unfortunately for him, there was no way his speed could possibly match Bellamy's reach.

"Where's Eddy right now?" Bellamy demanded.

In the black market, nearly every storefront employed numerous thugs, just in case.

As soon as the intelligence broker was grabbed, a large group of them rushed out from the back.

But the moment they saw it was Bellamy making trouble, they froze, not daring to step forward.

The Hyena's ferocity and cruelty were infamous throughout Neon Town.

These thugs, mostly former street thugs themselves, wouldn't dare act recklessly in front of him.

Still, they were getting paid; they had to do something.

"Bellamy, let's talk this out properly. Let the boss go first," the head thug ventured, gathering his courage.

"Go. Find me the bounty hunter, Eddy. I'll give you ten minutes."

After speaking, Bellamy twisted the intelligence broker's arm, snapping the bone.

"AAAAHHH!!" The intense agony was unbearable for an ordinary person; the broker nearly fainted on the spot. His mind raced, but faced with such a vicious brute, he couldn't think of any way out.

Caught in Bellamy's grasp, his only choice was temporary submission.

"Quickly! Go find him! Now!"

Hearing their boss's order, the thugs breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Who in their right mind would want to provoke this mad dog?

Ever since Bellamy, short on cash, had casually killed a few pirate captains in a tavern, practically everyone in Neon Town gave him a wide berth.

Bellamy had arrived suddenly and acted swiftly; his surprise attack hadn't actually caused much commotion in the black market yet.

Only after the thugs had all scattered, searching frantically for Eddy, did others begin to notice something might be wrong at the intelligence shop.

But in a place like the black market, apathy ran deep. Most people here only cared about their own affairs, subscribing to the philosophy of 'sweep the snow from your own doorstep'.

In fact, many probably hoped someone else was in trouble, just so they'd have some excitement to watch.

If the black market had one major advantage, it was perhaps its extensive network.

In less than ten minutes, the thugs had actually managed to find their man.

And even after all that time, most people in the black market still didn't know it was Bellamy causing trouble inside the intelligence shop.

Eddy, utterly bewildered, was forcibly dragged into the shop by the crowd of thugs.

Just as his heart began to pound with dread, Bellamy spoke. "Since you've brought the person here, you're no longer useful."

"Run. Run for your lives."

If you can get out of my sight, you might just live.

The thugs didn't quite understand what he meant. Why did they suddenly need to run?

The intelligence broker hadn't understood what the Hyena was planning either, initially. He surreptitiously glanced upwards at Bellamy's face and was instantly drenched in a cold sweat of terror.

That expression… he only looks like that when he's about to kill someone.

In that instant, the broker understood everything.

Driven by the primal urge to survive, he completely forgot the searing pain in his broken arm, spun around, and bolted towards the door.

Bellamy watched this unfold with a blank expression, even finding the spare moment to 'educate' the two kids he held. "The people in the black market, especially these shop owners… not a single one of them is good."

"Why do you think he ran the moment he saw me?"

Bellamy scoffed, then spun, unleashing a Tempest Kick.

A vacuum blade sliced through the air, instantly cutting everyone in front of him clean in two.

In the blink of an eye, the intelligence shop transformed into a scene from hell.

"Now guess," Bellamy continued calmly, "why those Marines tied you up and put these chains on you?"

He gestured towards the chain still on Mani's arm, then turned his gaze towards Eddy.

Feeling Bellamy's eyes on him, Eddy nearly wet himself on the spot.

"Boss Bellamy! It's a misunderstanding! A frame-up!"

"I absolutely didn't sell you out! How would I dare?!" Eddy wailed bloody murder.

"Enough. I need you for something else."

"See this lock?" Bellamy lifted Mani and dropped her in front of Eddy. "I don't care how you do it. Open it."

Hearing this, Eddy breathed a huge sigh of relief.

He just wants me to pick a lock? Scared me half to death!

"Leave it to me, Boss! This is my specialty," Eddy declared, puffing out his chest confidently.

He wouldn't dare make such a guarantee to Bellamy if he didn't have the skills to back it up.

The shifty-looking little man produced a thin metal wire from somewhere and fiddled with the Sea Prism Stone lock casually for a few moments.

Click.

With a soft sound, the lock sprang open easily.

The Sea Prism Stone chains, which had been a massive headache for Bellamy, weren't even a minor nuisance in Eddy's hands.

It just went to show the value of specialized skills; sometimes, a petty thief could be incredibly useful.

With the chains unlocked, the main objective for this trip back was complete.

Bellamy nodded, quite satisfied. "Not bad. You've got some talent."

"Eddy, right? How about coming to work for me?"

When he left this time, he might never return.

He needed someone on shore to gather intelligence for him, handle miscellaneous tasks.

Upon receiving Bellamy's invitation, Eddy felt a profound bitterness well up inside him.

Surrounded by dismembered corpses... did he dare say no?

"It would be a true honor, Boss Bellamy!" he exclaimed, even as his insides trembled.

Following a guy like Bellamy... I won't even dare walk alone at night anymore.

"Excellent." Bellamy couldn't care less what Eddy was actually thinking; he just needed someone to do the job.

"You leave through the back door shortly. Get off Minion Island immediately and head to Tern Island."

"Nobody knows you there. I'll give you a sum of money. Recruit a few people and focus on gathering intel from the seas."

"Whether you set up an intelligence shop or continue as a bounty hunter, I don't care."

"Just pass messages to me regularly."

It wasn't that Bellamy didn't want to establish a proper intelligence network; he simply lacked the time and, more importantly, the energy.

He was already so busy he wished there were 48 hours in a day; how could he possibly find the mental space for these miscellaneous affairs?

But intelligence was something he couldn't afford to ignore. So, for now, he had to resort to setting up this makeshift, somewhat dubious structure.

Recruit some people first, get the framework in place. When I have more leisure time later, I can deal with it properly.

"Oh, right. Under no circumstances are you to tell anyone you work for me."

Bellamy emphasized this point heavily to Eddy. "Even if someone bullies you, you cannot expose our connection."

"You'll die very, very miserably."

If I don't die in the future, I intend to turn these seas upside down. A disposable pawn like Eddy wouldn't be able to withstand the storms to come.

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