290 Unfamiliar World 2 (2/2)

Thinking of the three-year-long separation, the man's voice unconsciously lowered to a scary degree. Everyone around had the illusion that an ice age descended upon them.

”You're all telling me this city lost all tracks of Sofy? Search her! Use face recognition technology! Pair it with the satellites! There are countless ways to do this. Are you waiting for me to list them all down to you all?”

Old Gil and the other felt heavy but did not dare contradict him. ”My apologies Sir, we will triple-check it now. Please give us some more time.”

The man, of course, did not say a thing, letting his glare speak for himself.

He himself went through the footages in and outside the building, hoping his ability to sift through videos and see the things only people in contact with the system could see. However, he was met with disappointment when all he witnessed was Sofony's mysterious disappearance.

But he knew the place where she last appeared though. And he was sure it was not coincidentally at the same spot as her adoptive sister.

Gio's tone reached an all-time low when he confronted his uncle face to face.

Without going round about it, he asked with gritted teeth, ”Uncle, be honest with me. In this country, who else can erase traces and make it appear like there was no transfer or space-related kidnapping that happened? Who else can fulfill the condition above while also being related to Sofony? And why would he do this, huh?”

Conrad was in his villa, sipping tea and unwinding from the roller-coaster mess he got himself involved in the past years when his nephew made an unexpected visit while wearing a grave face. The man almost spits his tea upon hearing the question.

'What happened again?'

'Fred's daughter disappeared?'

'Gio is suspecting Fred?'

The Business King of Alina City really had no idea about the mad doctor's action this time so he was dumbfounded upon being stared at by his nephew as if he was a very hated enemy. Countless thoughts flashed across and when he realized the reason, a bitter smile hung on his lips. He waved a hand to make everyone else withdrew from the scene. ”Leave us. My butler, make sure no one comes near within ten meters from here.”

”Yes, Sir.” The old driver slash assistant slash butler bowed and led everyone else out there.

Once they were the only ones remaining in the activity room of the opulent mansion, Conrad looked at Gio and hesitantly replied, ”My dear nephew. Did something happen? Although, I can somewhat guess the answer in your mind, aren't you easily jumping into a conclusion? This is not so like you. I suggest you conduct thorough research this time. My good friend Fred has done several trips outside and I don't think his colleagues there will tolerate it. I think you should try to consider whether outsiders have come.”

Gio strode forward with a momentum akin to a red-eyed tiger. ”Uncle, I am being considerate of you when I came here to confirm this to you.”

”Somebody took away my fiancée and it was someone who can erase traces of magic used in teleportation. There is no image whatsoever captured even through outside CCTVs and satellites. I can see through the system's interference so as long as there's a seemingly deleted part, I would be able to check the truth. Yet there is none this time. What do you think happened?”

Conrad frowned, placing down his cup that was still half-full.

Then he said with absolute calmness, ”Giovan, I understand why you're acting like a tiger whose tail got stepped on. But you should still check if outsiders have sneaked in and caused this. You ought to remember that the broadcast your fiancée willfully started could have attracted many malicious eyes from the other countries. It's impossible that you're not aware of this fact.”

Gio stared at his uncle for a long time. A minute later, he narrowed his eyes. The man was the famed Adonis and Devil of Alina City, but before his titles came into being, he was a rational special ops commander in the military. He immediately regained his reason and then calmed down.

Yet this did not mean that he never erased Fred, that annoying geezer, as the perpetrator who caused Sofony's disappearance. It was already a solidified fact in his mind.

The only thing that changed was him closing in on the truth, guessing that somebody tried to bring Sofony somewhere else, and this person must be stronger than her, but weaker than Fred.

'Level 7…' When he spun on his heels and left without saying goodbye, the man was preoccupied with the thought.

Although not truly sure of what happened in the process, he was quite certain that Fred either brought her in another ice-isolated region… or the Layers… His steps as he left there hinted that he now knew what to do next.

…

Apart from Leo's AI, there would probably no other artificial system intelligence that would ever come close to 98's great naivety and kindness to its host.

Before Chris could even learn from Gio or the media people that Sofony Silver vanished, it was already reported to him by his system AI.

”Host! It's bad! Somebody attacked 237 and teleported her out of the surface world!”

The actor was with Alessa and checking on the kid from C-Empire's desert camp when the news reached his ear. The actress was just surprised upon noticing Chris' dumbfounded expression. When she saw that it turned into a grim one, Alessa asked him in a worried tone, ”Is there something wrong?”

With a cold face, the young man exhaled. He chose not to answer the actress from the time-being as the matter was obviously very heavy and worrisome. After hesitating for a moment, he pulled the woman's hand and left the boy with her two assistants for Ever Victorious.