The Professional Rankings, in twelve volumes, each bearing the name of my lord.

Chapter 146 The bird has escaped its cage, let's begin!

three days later.

The Yunshan City Special Bureau is located on the shore of a lake in the city.

There are few residential buildings and no commercial development in the surrounding area; it seems to have been deliberately made to look rather desolate.

There is a toll gate here that leads directly to the wide road in front of the Special Bureau.

There's a small restaurant across from the Special Bureau.

Second-floor private rooms.

Dressed casually and wearing sunglasses, Zhao Wuji and Zhao Can, who had lost over 20 pounds and no longer had the plump appearance of a rich young man, sat in a private room having dinner.

Zhao Wuji's gaze kept drifting towards the window, towards the Special Bureau across the street.

Zhao Can, however, was somewhat afraid to meet his father's gaze.

"dad……"

"Don't call me Dad. You've been expelled from the Zhao family. You're no longer my son."

Zhao Can sighed.

"Dad, I was wrong. I shouldn't have stolen the experimental subjects... I just want to apologize to you for my arrogance and ignorance."

Zhao Wuji didn't say much, but simply put some braised pork into Zhao Can's bowl.

"Eat up, you haven't had anything good to eat lately, have you?"

Zhao Can's tears fell into her rice bowl.

Two months ago.

Through a channel introduced by the Black Guild, Zhao Can contacted the agent entrusted by the Night Owl Thieves and placed a commission order at a high price.

The task was to enter the ninth basement level of the Yunshan Life Science Institute and steal the items preserved in experimental containers from laboratory number 97.

The Night Owl Thieves: Mission Accomplished.

They're professionals at stealing.

Before long, they actually managed to steal it from Zhao Can.

That thing was the one that broke Yuwen Hao's leg bone, indirectly causing the invisible guy to be discovered and killed by the old man in the trench coat. It was a monster that looked like an alien but had no information panel.

"I thought I could control it, but I didn't expect..."

"Number 97's brain has not been fully modified yet; it can only accept machine instructions, not human speech instructions."

He can't understand what you're saying. You're lucky you weren't killed by him when he woke up.

This is a weapon of life that only knows how to kill!

"It was my fault……"

"Fortunately, this thing was captured by the Special Affairs Bureau not long after it escaped from your hands, preventing it from causing greater damage. Otherwise, it would have ruined the entire family's grand plan, and you would have had no choice but to atone with your death!"

Zhao Can shivered.

At that time, the mutant beast escaped from his hands.

He was terrified.

He knew that his family was involved in some big secret operation, which was related to this monster.

If they were exposed to the public now, the Zhao family might be in deep trouble!

Knowing he couldn't bear such responsibility, he went directly to Zhao Wuji, admitted his mistake, and revealed the location where the monster was lost, hoping the family could send someone to find it.

Unexpectedly, the Zhao family hadn't even left the house yet.

The undercover agent Zhao Jia had planted in the Special Bureau sent a message.

Experiment subject number 97 has been captured by Wang Miao!

It was thanks to this undercover agent that we knew the Special Bureau was going to relocate Number 97 today.

It was the Zhao family that commissioned the Black Guild to help them snatch the mutant beast from the Special Affairs Bureau.

However, they wouldn't be so foolish as to go directly to someone. Instead, they would handle things through shadow families in other places. Even if things were exposed in the end, the investigation would not trace back to the Zhao family.

Because of this incident, the Zhao family's higher-ups expelled Zhao Can from the family and removed his name from the family genealogy.

Even though Zhao Wuji is the head of the Zhao family, he can't help his son in this matter.

In fact, he was utterly disappointed in Zhao Can. In his fury, he wanted nothing more than to kill him, but it was the family elders who held Zhao Can back.

Now that his anger had subsided, Zhao Wuji felt a pang of pity seeing how miserable Zhao Can was outside.

"If we can successfully bring Number 97 back today, I will try to persuade the family to let you go back."

A rare glimmer of light appeared on Zhao Can's sorrowful face.

"real?"

"Don't be too happy yet. Even if you go back, you won't be able to enjoy the treatment of a young master. You'll just be an ordinary member of the clan."

That's better than sleeping in the park at night!

Zhao Can wept uncontrollably.

"Also, don't even think about going after Song Gua anymore. You stole the Soul-Devouring Pearl, didn't you?"

"I……"

"You've targeted him time and time again, but you've only hurt yourself in the end. Don't you want to think about why? Of course, your stupidity is part of the reason, but he's definitely not simple."

"Dad, if someone like that can't be used by the Zhao family, shouldn't we get rid of him even more? Now that Yue Sheng isn't in Yunshan City anymore, no one's protecting him!"

"Is Yue Sheng dead?"

"Well……"

"The biggest enemy of our family now is the bandits, and the biggest threat is the Xu and Lin families who are waiting for us to make a mistake so they can take advantage of our misfortune, not Song Gua."

Besides his impressive record-breaking skills in clearing dungeons, what else about Song Gua poses a threat to my Zhao family?

When doing things, you need to distinguish between primary and secondary tasks, and don't always let your personal interests get in the way.

Zhao Can also wanted to talk about Zhao Xin.

But when he thought about how Zhao Wuji would fly into a rage every time the topic came up, he decided to let it go.

"Dad, are those people you found reliable?"

"It's impossible for experts from legitimate guilds to participate, and there are very few third-class job advancement members in shady guilds. Unfortunately, the highest level among those participating in this operation is only level 50."

Zhao Can felt a chill in his heart.

This operation is likely to fail.

There are level 60+ third-tier experts in the Special Bureau!

Zhao Wuji took a sip of beer and said, "However, we have far more manpower than the Special Bureau's escorts, and with the cooperation of undercover agents, we have a chance."

"This... isn't guaranteed to succeed."

Zhao Can became worried about whether he could return to his family.

"Even if it doesn't succeed, it's still a two-birds-with-one-stone strategy that will give the bandits a run for their money."

"What does this have to do with bandits?"

Zhao Wuji kept it a secret and didn't elaborate.

Just then, Zhao Can saw the large iron gate of the Special Bureau open, and a convoy of vehicles drove out, heading straight for the toll gate of the city's expressway.

Zhao Wuji immediately took out an old-fashioned pager and sent a message.

"The bird has escaped its cage; prepare to capture it!"

Zhao Can looked around.

"Has the operation commenced? Where are the people?"

"How could we possibly operate in the city? It's too far from our lab. Even if we managed to steal it, we wouldn't be able to take it with us."

"That is..."

……

West Suburbs Cargo Airport.

The surrounding area is an undeveloped swampy wasteland, where in many places the aquatic plants grow taller than a person.

A wide road winds through the lush vegetation.

Somewhere on the south side of the highway, bandits lay in ambush.

"Why aren't we there yet? I'm being bitten to death by mosquitoes."