Dantu was brought out to the control room again when evening approached. Although the young boy was still watching Wheeze overcautiously, the fear and astonishment that had gripped him when he saw Cillin and the others for the first time was already gone. Maybe it was because he was born into a harsh environment, but it was clear that that he was more cool-headed and mature than a well-born peer on a peaceful planet. All things considered, his mental fortitude was praiseworthy.

However, Dantu’s cool facade cracked nonetheless when he saw the projection on top of a desk in the middle of the control room. It was a complete map of Dantu’s entire city. Nikki had slipped a couple of mini probes past the city’s defenses when an outgoing patrol was making its return. After the mini probes had entered the city, they split up into even tinier components before splitting up and performing a full scan on the metal city. Finally, the data was transmitted back to the spaceplane and joined together to form the map before their eyes. The city’s defense system was so backward that it wasn’t able to notice that a bunch of foreign probes had slipped past its security and transmitted information to an outside source at all.

Although Dantu had lived here for over a decade, the city’s complete appearance was an enigma to him until now. He was able to identify the iconic buildings in the projection immediately even though the map before his eyes was a miniature version of the real thing.

Dantu was afraid that these “aliens” plotting something sinister against the city. If both sides were to engage in physical conflict, that any victory they took would come at a terrible cost considering how wide the gap between their technology was. Worse, people at the lowest rung like him or his solitary neighbor, Grandpa An would definitely be used as cannon fodders in this war.

Nikki smiled at Dantu when she saw his reaction, “We don’t really care about your city; we’re just looking for someone who happened to be hiding inside your city. Their level of technology is the same is ours, and they’re the ones who called us over in the first place. We would have no reason to visit this ridiculously small and impoverished planet otherwise.”

Dantu relaxed a little when he heard Nikki’s explanation, but the mysterious person Nikki mentioned had piqued his curiosity. Who was the person hiding inside their city, and why would they do such a thing? At the same time, he finally had an inkling on the group’s true objective.

“I don’t know the person you’re talking about. I’ve never heard of anyone with such advanced technology in our city either.” Dantu said.

“I wasn’t expecting you to know,” Nikki pointed at the city-wide projection rotating on top of the desk, “We would seek them out ourselves. However, we do need your help with one thing.”

“What is it?”

“We need to borrow your home for a bit.” Nikki paused the projection and moved it in front of Dantu.

Dantu pursed his lips in silence for a moment. Then, he glanced at the group before asking, “Do you plan on harming anyone in the city?”

Sediya snorted when he heard his question, “Boy, we’re not begging you for help. There are other ways we can solve our problems without you. However, that also means that we may have to hurt someone in your city to achieve our goals. You wouldn’t like to see a fellow citizen get hurt, would you? So talk quickly, because our patience only stretches so far. There is a cunning wolf waiting for us to capture inside that city.”

“Relax, we’re no executioner. We won’t be killing innocents.” Chi Lafang intentionally emphasized his last two words so that Dantu understood that their no-killing rule didn’t extend to those who weren’t “innocent”. After all, anything relating to Black Viper must be dealt with caution, or they were the ones who would come out dead during the exchange.

Dantu hesitated for a moment before he walked toward the projection and pointed at his home. It was at the slums where most of the people living there were either alone or impoverished. Dantu lived in a six-storeys high metal building where the biggest available living space didn’t exceed forty square meters. Dantu’s own space was only ten or so square meters wide, less than one third of the size of this control room.

Rent was a huge problem for Dantu because he, as well as the people living there could only afford that much. Anything better, tougher, and with more facilities required a fee that was completely out of their reach.

After Dantu had told them where his home was, the probes hiding inside the city stealthily made their way toward that location. It didn’t take long before the entire building came under their full view.

In the projection