Chapter 268 The Black Knight
Ten days passed away but Song Yun was nowhere to be seen.
The Emperor sent thousands of soldiers to search all over the Imperial city; the six clan leaders, who are governing the provinces, were also notified of the matter; Mark was also notified of the matter and was offered security for Song Yue and his siblings but he refused it.
As the Emperor took this matter seriously, he called out for an all-out investigation as a seven-circle realm expert in on the loose. The Crown prince and his allies wholeheartedly supposed it, fearing that Song Yun might try to take revenge on them.
The investigators interrogated Song Yun's relatives, questioned Mark and Song Yue, Cheng Xiao, Elders of Song Clan, and everyone that Song Yun but the investigation yielded no results. Even the super powerful spy organization, "WEB" couldn't trace his whereabouts.
In the end, the Imperial palace was left with no choice but to officially announce a 50,000 gold coins bounty on Song Yun, dead or alive.
Meanwhile, Mark was also left with bitter feelings as Song Yun didn't come to the store as per the deal.
Mark seriously warned him that he wouldn't spare his life if the latter were to break the terms of the deal. But, in reality, he didn't implant any tracker seal inside Song Yun and neither did the system give him a quest to apprehend him or something. So, where should he go and look for him?
Considering how Song Yun had a hefty bounty on his head, Mark decided to give him an opportunity if they ever meet. If he won't become satisfied with the explanation given by Song Yun, without any hesitation, he would kill the former leader of the Song Clan and attain the reward amount.
But, for the current time, Mark can only continue to run the store as if the incident has nothing to do with him.
As for Song Yue, at first, she was displeased, but then, as a couple of days passed, she eventually put away the matter from her thoughts.
*
It was around noon. Everyone is having lunch together while a couple of butler robots are serving the dishes.
And just like the past few Fridays, the timer on the lottery wheel was roughly around 12 minutes. Everyone is comfortably enjoying the delicacy made by Alina but Mark was getting restless as he kept on glancing at the wall clock every once in a while.
Seeing that there was so much left in the bowl, Song Yue asked him, "Dear, is the food not to your liking, today?" Usually, she calls him by name but in the presence of Chang Bo and Shang Jiao, she had to address him that way.
Mark looked at her and shook his head, "No, I just…"
Before he finished his reply, Alina interrupted him with a look of displeasure on her face as if she was offended by Song Yue's remark, "There's no way Big Brother would hate my food, Lady Song."
Song Yue was living here for a while and was accustomed to Allen and Alina's behavior. So far, what she had witnessed is that Alina was too devoted to Mark and completely understands what he is thinking.
However, as she is a high-quality puppet with her own emotions, Alina gets tends to be happy or sad based on the situation, just like humans. Allen was cool. He would never get angry. He was always calm and understanding.
On the other hand, Alina was a perfectionist. Whatever job she was given, from cleaning the floor to training the butler robots, she does it without any mistake. And except for Mark, if anyone pointed out a mistake in her work, she would get triggered even if it is Allen.
Not intending to upset this puppet that completely resembles and behaves like a real human being, Song Yue apologized right away, "Sorry, I chose the wrong words. The food was incredibly delicious. It's just that Lu Zhen barely touched the food."
"Ah, Big Brother had a lot on his mind," replied the Android without disclosing the secrets of her master.
Mark then vaguely explained, "I'm leaving tomorrow morning for some urgent business. I was thinking about it."
Song Yue was curious about it but she didn't ask him because of the nature of the relationship between them. She silently ate the food.
Once the lunch was over and she returned to her room for a 10-minute nap while Shang Jiao returned downstairs, Mark started absorbing the luck points from the welpire (Chang Bo).
Upon absorbing three points to reach a temporary 10 points of luck, he returned to his room and locked the door.
Taking a deep breath, he opened the lottery wheel.
There were twenty blank spots and a green-colored potion. Last week, he got the useless reconnaissance satellite, which cannot be launched into space without the space rocket. Hence, he had to wait one whole week to earn the most precious reward.
Comfortably lying on the bed, he clicked on the spin button. With ten points of luck, there's no worry on his face.
Eventually, the arrow stopped on the target.
<strong>*Ding! Congratulations on acquiring the Peak Potion as a reward from the lottery wheel. The item was sent to the inventory.</strong>
The lottery wheel refreshed, displaying the third batch of items. Mark couldn't help but whistle as he saw the items. "Now, this is an upgrade… Good."
<strong>The seven items are: </strong>
Random Unique weapon
Random Bloodline
Rank-1 Android (Weapons Research Specialist)
Upgrade crystal (Superior grade)
Ungraded Main Battle Tank (Merkava Mark IV),
Peak potion
Mysterious box (????)
*
Mark liked the new items on the Lottery wheel. In fact, he was a little bit worried that the system would modify it since he was taking advantage of ten luck points to have a sure reward. But, thankfully, the lottery wheel was the same, making him let out a sigh of relief.
Anyway, once he was done with the lottery, Mark closed it and opened the Statue of Velkazar. The last time, two weeks ago, he received an upgrade of the dismantling technique, making it overpowered. Hence, he was now filled with expectations.
Unfortunately, even with maximum luck points, not everything went as he expected. Or atleast, that's what he thought when he looked at the notification.
<strong>*Ding! You received the blessings of the Divine Dragon Velkazar. Your agility stat is temporarily increased by 1 point.</strong>
"Ugh… what a useless reward."
Mark closed it and then opened the inventory to look at the peak potion. It was the same as last time. However, he was currently a 5-circle realm summoner. Hence, he could use it to the maximum potential.
Now, the only question that arises is whether the Amulet of Magic would increase his intelligence stat even after the consumption of this potion.
Once again, he was met with disappointment.
<strong>*Ding! Amulet of Magic is a gold-grade item, which loses its effect once your intelligent stat reaches 8.</strong>
"I guess I have to depend on my lightning clone, after all."
Having nothing else to do, Mark resumed the absorption of ether energy from the ether crystals.
But, there's a small change in his method.
Instead of absorbing each one and waiting for the system to refine that ether energy into his, he directly absorbed the crystals one after another without bothering to refine them.
During the past ten days, he discovered that his body could endlessly store the ether energy without worrying about the bottleneck and let the system refine it in the background, thereby, automatically increasing his ether points.
For the past few days, every night before sleep, Mark would absorb a bunch of ether crystals and then goes to bed. By the morning, they would be refined, and he repeats the process again and again.
As for why Mark couldn't just absorb all of those dozens of high-quality crystals at once, he just wouldn't want to check the progress every now and then during the day. It's just for his mental peace. No important reason behind it.
After absorbing the last batch of ether crystals and ores left in his inventory, Mark kept those white crystals back in the inventory instead of throwing them away, and closed his eyes to take a short nap.
But, not even two minutes passed away and he received a message notification.
<strong>*Ding! A message from Allen: A customer wishes to meet Big Bro.</strong>
"Who might it be, now?" Mark wondered as he got down from the bed and went downstairs. He appeared to be a little bit annoyed.
There were still 15 minutes left in the lunch break, and those who knew him well were aware that Mark would rather have a meeting during work hours than during break time. Not to mention, it's not a secret that weapon stores like Genesis would usually be empty during the afternoon and it would be the perfect time to meet.
Hence, Mark expected a stranger. And it does appear like one at one glance.
It was a person of average build and height, covered in shining black armor of platinum grade. The stranger was also wearing a knight helmet, which his covering his face entirely.
Upon seeing Mark, the stranger raised his hand. A lump of Ether energy escaped from his fingertips before transforming into letters, and then, into sentences. "Hello, Lu Zhen. I apologize for taking a long time."
The letters stayed for a moment before disappearing into thin air.
Upon reading the message, Mark recognized the identity of the stranger. But, still, for verification, he activated Sage Eyes and inspected the details. It's a certain 7-circle realm expert, alright.
Mark nodded with a smile, "I was waiting for your arrival, Mister. I trust that you will protect my fiancée with your life."
As Song Yun in disguise nodded in response, Mark then asked, "By the way, what do you wish to be called?"
As a look of curiosity appeared on Shang Jiao's face, the stranger wrote the words in the air, once again, "The Black Knight."