Inside the transport helicopter, Marqi surveyed the cabin's occupants. Four burly soldiers sat in their seats, eyes closed tightly, utterly silent. If Marqi hadn't been able to see their chests rise and fall, she would have suspected them to be dead. The other two soldiers sat directly opposite Marqi.
Marqi glanced coldly at them, then turned her gaze elsewhere.
By the time Marqi's transport helicopter arrived at the [Abyss] base, it was already dusk. The transport helicopter slowly descended onto the helipad deep within the mountain. The cabin door opened, and two soldiers led Marqi out.
"Follow us, the Chief Instructor wants to see you." The two soldiers called out to Marqi. They walked one in front of the other towards an elevator platform, with Marqi silently trailing behind. As for the other four Avenger soldiers, they headed in a different direction.
"There's such a massive base hidden underground?" Marqi followed behind the two soldiers, looking around, a sense of awe rising in her heart. "Did they hollow out an entire mountain?"
"And so many people." Watching the logistics personnel and soldiers moving about, Marqi felt a premonition of unease. Only now did she realize that Umbrella Bio-tech was merely the tip of Illumi's iceberg.
Unconsciously, she had followed the two soldiers to the elevator platform. She watched as the two soldiers placed their palms on a strange device on the wall to the left of the elevator door.
"Ding!" With a soft chime, the elevator door opened. The three entered, and she saw the soldier who had opened the door press the number D7 on the up and down buttons inside the elevator.
"Where are we going?" Marqi couldn't help but ask. She was curious about the numbers on the buttons, thinking they might represent some kind of zone division.
"D7F." The soldier standing to her right spoke.
Marqi's eyes widened.
"Clatter~!"
The elevator stopped, and the door opened. Marqi followed the two soldiers out. Marqi followed the two soldiers through various areas of the D7 floor, seeing many people in casual clothes moving about in lounges, libraries, gyms, and so on.
For a moment, Marqi couldn't tell if this was a secret base or a city. D7 was very large, and what Marqi had witnessed was only a small part. 70% of the D7 floor was dedicated to training areas, used for training soldiers.
Marqi and her escorts were heading to the D7 floor's new recruit training zone. Marqi observed along the way. First, she saw the sea training area. This zone was entirely filled with seawater and various artificial miniature islands, complete with rockeries and dummies.
A miniature warship passed by, a flash of muzzle fire from its cannon, and the rockeries and dummies on the island "boom!" exploded violently, sending shattered rocks flying and flames erupting everywhere.
There were also underwater training areas, where small submarines navigated underwater, weaving around numerous submerged obstacles, occasionally hitting a reef. There were also training areas for fast rope descent, landings, climbing, combat, new weapon testing, and so on.
The two soldiers led Marqi to an area that was relatively cleaner than the others the new recruit training zone. When she says "cleaner," it just meant that the new recruit training zone had fewer various equipment and facilities, making it appear more spacious and empty. When they arrived at the new recruit training zone, a group of soldiers in black uniforms were undergoing basic training.
The two soldiers led Marqi to a burly middle-aged man with white hair at his temples. They removed their helmets, stood at attention, and saluted with solemn expressions. "Chief Instructor, we've brought the person." Aimede, who had already noticed them, nodded lightly, gesturing for them to leave. The two soldiers saluted again, then turned and departed.
"This isn't our first meeting, is it?" Aimede slowly lowered his head, looking down at Marqi, who stood before him, his expression calm.
"I saw you once when I first arrived in Patilos." Marqi's voice was cold, and she met Aimede's gaze head-on, unwilling to show weakness. The Aimede before her was over 1.85 meters tall, wearing combat boots,
straight-leg pants, and a black T-shirt. His white hair was neatly styled and smooth, parted in a 7-3 split. What puzzled Marqi the most was that despite his hair being completely white at the temples, the roots were all black.
"The main purpose of bringing you to the base this time is..." "...to teach you to cultivate Nen, and to develop your own Nen ability." Aimede said directly.
"Nen ability?" Marqi was confused, but then her mind quickly flashed back to the peculiar abilities Illumi had displayed when he took her from Meteor City. That must be what they called Nen ability.
"It seems you've already seen it." Aimede read her thoughts from her eyes. He turned and left. "Follow me." Aimede led Marqi to a quiet room and began formally teaching her to cultivate Nen.
November 1st, Yorknew City, airport.
"Finally here. I need to get them to develop new flying vehicles as soon as possible." Illumi slowly walked out of the airship cabin door. It had taken a full forty days to travel from Patilos to Yorknew City, just barely making it for the auction. If they had a Boeing aircraft, this distance would only take a few hours. The time wasted in travel was enough to accomplish many things.
"Boss, the car is ready." At this moment, a middle-aged man in a suit with black-rimmed glasses approached Illumi, his expression respectful. He was Sheldon Hill, the head of the Yorknew City branch. Behind him followed four expressionless bodyguards in suits, all Nen users from the company's security department.
"Hm." Illumi nodded, walking towards a pre-arranged black sedan. Sheldon naturally fell back a step behind him, with the four bodyguards flanking them. The group of six, including four professional bodyguards, immediately attracted the attention of most people in the airport.
Among them was a burly man in a white Zhongshan suit and a large white-brimmed hat. As he moved, his cloak gently swayed. Butsidora noticed that everyone around him was looking in one direction. He couldn't help but follow their gaze out of curiosity.
"It's him!" But this one look made Butsidora freeze in place, a blurry face flashing through his mind. The moment he saw Illumi now, he immediately recalled everything. A year ago, the "Seven Deadly Sins" serial murder case that had shocked the entire nation Butsidora had been
investigating it ever since he saw Silas's and Illumi's faces in the victims' memories. But regrettably, no matter how he investigated, he could only trace it back to the Patagrosse United Nations.
A step further, and he had no leads. The two faces from the victims' memories seemed to have vanished from the world. Butsidora searched all over Patagrosse, but found no clues.
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