Knight Lords: Infinite Simulation and the Path of Light

Chapter 202 Rotten Mushroom Tavern 3
Completely drunk, Aji felt like the whole world belonged to him, especially whatever he said to this new brother he had just met.

Yes, that's right. Aji has unilaterally declared that this young adventurer, whom he has only known for less than an hour and doesn't even know by name, is his half-brother, the kind of brother who is closer than the last. At this moment, Aji is even willing to give everything for his brother.

So when he heard his half-brother's question, Aji got excited and slapped his chest with his greasy hands, ready to stand up from the table and ask his brother.

Seeing that Aji was already getting a bit carried away, Haven quickly reached out and pulled him down. After all, given Aji's current state, it was unclear whether he could find out anything, but in his drunken state, the chances of him getting a beating were quite high.

"Don't rush, don't rush, Aji~~~~"

Having drunk too much, Aji's body was already somewhat out of his control. With a gentle pull from Haven, Aji sat down on the ground with a thud.

"Ugh... hiccup... Why did you pull me? I'll go ask for you right now."

After helping his friend, who had become a complete drunkard, to a seat, Haven shook his head helplessly. His alcohol tolerance was appalling; just one keg of beer and he was already like this. Anyone who didn't know better would think they'd drunk a lot of hard liquor. But oh well, it's for the best…

"Aji, Aji, don't rush. This is my first time here, and I don't know much about the situation here. Can you tell me about it? What do you know?"

Hearing his brother's question, Aji felt that what the other man said made a lot of sense. Indeed, as someone whose strength was slightly better than his own back then, venturing out into the world was not as simple as the bard's stories described. In the real world, acting rashly could lead to one's death at any time.

"Hiccup~~~ You've come to the right person. Let me tell you, I've been following Boss Marigolo Yang for five years now. I'm one of his confidants."

Aji proudly pointed to himself with his thumb, and fearing Haven wouldn't believe him, he quickly rolled up his sleeve to show Haven the tattoo on his arm, which looked like a very abstract skull pattern.

"See that? This is a tattoo design that only our insiders can get. If you ask me, brother, you'd be better off just working for our boss, Marigolo Yang. It's much better than being an adventurer."

Seeing that Aji's explanation sounded plausible, Haven became interested as well. After all, the investigation report showed that there were some problems with this place, but according to MI8's judgment, it was basically considered to be a small gray group, and there were countless such small groups in the capital.

But in Haven's eyes, this was a bit different. After all, if an organization can have something uniform in a certain form, it means that the organization has higher leadership and planning. After all, street thugs don't care whether the tattoos they have are uniform or not when they collect protection money from roadside shops.

"So what exactly does your boss, Marigolo Yang, do? I heard someone mention him at the Adventurers' Guild, but when I asked, everyone kept quiet. So I decided to come to the tavern to find out."

Aji, whose mind was already a bit numb, was completely unaware that Haven's question was now extremely blatant, and normally such a question would definitely alert all the staff in the store.

But now, Aji considers Havet to be the best friend in the world, and naturally, one should be open and honest with a friend.

"You said this..."

"belch……"

"Let me think. How should I put it, what we do is very simple. We do things for some organizations, and of course, sometimes we also do things for some big shots."

As he spoke, Aji leaned closer mysteriously and whispered to Haven.

"Let me tell you something~"

"Once, I accidentally discovered some of the boss's secrets while cleaning his office."

Seeing Haven's curious expression, Aji's vanity was greatly satisfied. What could be better than drinking and having someone listen to you brag?

"What secret, bro!"

Seeing that Aji had become agitated, Haven secretly cast a charm spell on him again. Aji, who already had little chance of resisting, was even less able to resist under these circumstances, and his willpower was directly judged to be negative.

Having already fallen under the spell, Aji immediately began to recount everything he knew.

"Cough cough~"

Aji glanced around at the other guests to make sure no one was looking their way before whispering:
"Brother, let me tell you something, I'm only telling you this secret."

"Our boss... he's with the Dark Alliance! You know the Dark Alliance, right?!"

Although Aji lowered his voice, his flushed cheeks showed just how excited the tavern waiter was, as if he were a member of the Night Alliance.

"The Alliance of the Night?"

Haven repeated the somewhat familiar-sounding name, as if he vaguely remembered hearing it somewhere before...

Aji looked at Havent, who was deep in thought, and thought that his brother didn't know what the Dark Alliance was. But that was normal. After all, such a behemoth that existed in the dark side of the empire was not something that just anyone could easily understand.

"You don't even know about the Dark Alliance? The Dark Alliance is... is..."

Under Haven's gaze, Aji stammered four or five times but couldn't get a single word out.

"Well, anyway, it's a really powerful thing. I think it's at least much more powerful than Captain Russell."

In Aji's mind, the most powerful and influential person he had ever met was Russell, the city defense captain in charge of this area. After all, his boss, Marigroyan, always treated Russell with exceptional politeness whenever they met.

"Russell???"

"Oh dear, it's not important, it's not important, we've gone off on a tangent."

Watching Haven act like a curious child, asking questions about everything he said made Aji feel very uncomfortable, as his desire to express himself was suppressed.

"Ugh...where was I??? *burp*"

"Your boss is a member of the Dark Alliance."

Seeing that Aji was slurring his words, Haven stopped interrupting him, otherwise these guys might suddenly pass out drunk on the table and he'd have to find the next target.

"Ah~~yes, brother, you're so kind. You really listened to me carefully."

"Hiccup~~ That's right, our boss is a member of the Night Alliance. One day, when I was cleaning the boss's office, I heard the sound of a cup falling to the ground next door. I was a little curious, so I peeked through the crack in the door. I saw Boss Marigolo Yang kneeling humbly on the ground, without any of his usual sharp aura. He didn't look much different from me."

Under the influence of multiple negative states, Aji had no restraint when it came to his words, which became increasingly frivolous. He took advantage of the alcohol to vent his daily frustrations.

"However, the indoor lighting was too dim at the time, and I didn't get a clear look at what the person looked like. Anyway, the masked man in black robes said that since we had joined the Dark Alliance, we couldn't refuse the organization's orders. *Hiccup*"

Haven was waiting to hear what happened next, but Aji let out a long hiccup and then fell silent, letting out soft snoring.

"Damn it, I fell asleep at this hour."

Seeing that Aji showed no sign of waking up, Havent conjured a thin arc of electricity on his finger hidden under the table. It turns out that Havent only just realized that the variant or superior talent of lightning is spatial talent, which allows Havent to summon lightning elements floating in space through some minor magical techniques.

"what!!!!!"

As if pricked by a needle, Aji suddenly jumped up from the stool, and the hair on his body stood on end due to the electric current.

A slightly bewildered Aji looked up at Haven, not understanding what was going on.

"Hey~~~ What's wrong, bro? I feel like I just got pricked with a needle."

In response to Aji's question, Haven replied with a smile:

"Ah, I don't know. You were just telling me about Boss Yang in Marigolo, and then you suddenly fell asleep. Maybe you drank too much~~~"

Hearing Haven's words, Aji felt deeply insulted. Like a defiant rooster, he stood up, neck stiff, and said:

"How could that be? How could I, Aji, have drunk too much? It must have been the stool that slipped just now. Yes, that's right, the stool slipped."

Seeing Aji stubbornly refusing to admit his mistake, Haven decided not to expose him and instead asked about the topic he was interested in.

"You just said you saw Boss Marigolo Yang talking to a masked man in black in a room. What happened next?"

"later?"

With his brain completely shut down, Aji wore a constipated expression. Clearly, his small brain capacity was no longer sufficient to support his thinking. After a couple of minutes, he finally slurred:

"After that, I didn't dare to eavesdrop anymore. A little while later, Boss Marigolo Yang came out by himself. At the time, I thought I was seeing things. Then, I used that thing as an excuse to go and look around. There was no one in the room, but there was indeed a broken wine glass on the floor."

After listening to Aji's words, Haven nodded almost imperceptibly. If what Aji said was true, then his thinking was indeed correct. It was not surprising, and even quite reasonable, that a small tavern in such a poor neighborhood would have a member of the Black Alliance.

But if you can figure out things yourself, and even easily extract information, then what's going on with MI8?

As he continued to investigate and understand things, Haven couldn't help but feel a strong sense of disconnect with MI8. He felt both professional and unprofessional, like a headless fly or a wild beast trapped in a cage, constantly feeling constrained.

This feeling is like...

How to put it? It's a bit like squeezing toothpaste. The person above says something, and it moves a little. The more they say, the more they move; the less they say, the less they move; if they don't say anything, they don't move. It's a very slippery feeling.

The problem is that MI8 is an intelligence agency, and the most important thing for an intelligence agency is to maintain its independent thinking, judgment, and style of operation. Now that it looks like a seasoned veteran, it's really hard for Haven to judge it.

Hearing the snoring coming from beside him again, Haven shook his head to clear his mind of the jumbled thoughts. Looking at Aji, who was fast asleep on the table again, he chose not to wake him up again, after all, a guy's knowledge of information is limited.

Moreover, and more importantly, people have already started paying attention to their side.

Out of the corner of his eye, Haven glanced at the bartender walking over from the bar, and immediately put on his dramatic act, taking a sip of his drink before patting Aji on the shoulder.

"Hey!!! Hey!!!! Are you trying to play the bear? If you don't get up, then I'll consider this a win. I already told you, you definitely can't beat me in a drink."

The only response to Haven was Aji's even and steady snoring. Perhaps he was dreaming of something wonderful, because Aji's mouth cracked open with a smile, and large drops of glistening saliva slid from the corner of his mouth and fell to the ground.

"Hahahaha~~~ I definitely won, you bastard! I only used half my strength..."

"Hello, sir. Excuse me for disturbing you. We'll get rid of this damn guy right away."

The guy who came up apologized to Haven while giving Aji a hard push, but the latter was already fast asleep like a dead pig.

"Hey, another new friend has arrived, hasn't he? Come and sing with me, come and sing with me, Aji~~ Aji guitar is no good."

Haven also pretended to have a lisp, and while speaking, he grabbed the new guy's arm.

'Hmm... this muscle firmness, this reaction... it seems like they didn't figure anything out, just a normal inquiry.'

Having confirmed that he hadn't been exposed, Haven became even more engrossed in his performance.

"Come on, come on, let's make a bet! Aji just bet me five silver coins, saying he could beat me..."

The new guy frowned slightly when he saw Havel's drunken state, and looked at Aji with disdain. So that's what it was all about. No wonder he was carrying such a big barrel of liquor.

He then looked again at Havent, who was about to pass out drunk, with a hint of regret in his eyes. If it weren't for the fact that Boss Marigolo Yang was about to arrive, he would never have let this opportunity pass him by.

It's a pity now. We can only deal with this place first, otherwise when Boss Marigolo Yang comes and sees this mess, he'll inevitably get a good scolding.

"Guest, guest, gambling is strictly prohibited here. Let me help you to rest..."

"What!!!! Gambling is prohibited? That won't do!!! That's so boring. If you won't play with me, then I'll play with them."

As he spoke, the drunken Haven pointed to a group of people gathered around a gambling table a dozen meters away.

(End of this chapter)