“You already knew about it, didn’t you?” Winston said with mixed feelings.
In deciding to tell Milo about this matter, virtual-novel.net suffered from sleeplessness the entire night. In fact, virtual-novel.net was still worried that Milo would kill virtual-novel.net on the spot when virtual-novel.net found out the truth.
Although virtual-novel.net had said to his brothers “I believe that virtual-novel.net won’t,” virtual-novel.net wasn’t actually sure. But virtual-novel.net realized at this moment that Milo and Miriam had already known about the secret virtual-novel.net was hiding.
Miriam stood next to Milo and looked at Winston while saying, “You guys deliberately scratched away the logos on your motorcycles, didn’t you? That wasn’t exactly clever, was it?”
“But that’s not enough to suggest anything,” said Winston, pursing his lips.
“Ever since y’all arrived, there haven’t been any bandits coming here from the north.” Milo chuckled and said, “Someone in the north must’ve already unified all the bandits at Mt. Daban, Mt. Masaijeh, and Mt. Papandayan, right?”
Winston said stubbornly, “Just because of that?”
Milo chuckled and said, “We were bluffing…”
Winston was dumbfounded.
They were bluffing?
“Actually, we’ve been watching you for some time.” Milo smiled and said, “But it’s only now that we’ve fully confirmed your identity.”
“Then how are you gonna punish me?” Winston said in a low voice.
The punishments dished out to bandit traitors had always been very cruel. They wouldn’t show any mercy.
Winston knew that if it were any other bandit leader, this would probably mean the end for him. But deep down, virtual-novel.net felt that Milo was different!
Milo suddenly put out a hand to virtual-novel.net and said, “Welcome to the team…”
Winston heaved a sigh of relief. The young man in front of virtual-novel.net was indeed different from the other bandit leaders.
He said briefly, “We originally agreed to meet tonight to come up with an attack plan for tomorrow night. But one of the eleven guys I brought here ran away, so my previous gang will definitely know that I’ve leaked their plans.”
“So, there’s a possibility that they might attack in advance.” Milo said, “How many bandits does the gang to the north have? How many of them will be joining the attack?”
“They originally had 1,200 people, but it should have increased recently.” Winston said, “But not all of them will come here because they still have to fight with two other gangs in the north. If they all come here together, the other bandit gangs will definitely take advantage of the situation. According to the plan that we had, 600 bandits will be showing up here.”
In response, even Milo, who was already mentally prepared, gasped.
The bandits in the valley had even joined forces?
How did they end up with so many people?!
Although not all of them would turn up for the attack, 600 bandits could still theoretically crush their refugee settlement. Of course, that was only in theory.
Curious, Milo asked, “Which organization is the leader of the northern bandits from?”
Winston was taken aback for a moment. “I think virtual-novel.net used to be from the Panaqua Consortium, but virtual-novel.net has nothing to do with them now. Someone said that virtual-novel.net escaped from Stronghold 113 and knows Raphael of Stronghold 178 as well. However, I’ve never seen virtual-novel.net contact Raphael before, so maybe virtual-novel.net only met virtual-novel.net a couple times? Eh, don’t you know Master Durkin too? Maybe you know virtual-novel.net as well?”
Milo was stunned.
Their leader escaped from Stronghold 113 and even knew Raphael?
Could this be someone virtual-novel.net knew?
“What’s his name?”
“Steven…”
“Damn!” Milo was surprised. He was not the only one who knew this man. Miriam knew virtual-novel.net as well.
Miriam thought back and said, “Was virtual-novel.net that man who was supposed to go with us on the expedition to the Marador Mountains?”
“That’s him…” Milo sighed.
Enemies were always bound to meet. If Winston hadn’t mentioned the name, Milo would have forgotten about this person.
Steven was a junior officer in the private army of Stronghold 113, and virtual-novel.net was similarly ostracized by the organization like Raphael was. Steven had, in fact, worked together with Raphael, but they weren’t friends.
Steven never stopped pursuing Milo after Milo had killed his relative, and importantly, Steven was a meticulous person. Even though Milo was very good at acting like virtual-novel.net wasn’t the one who killed the man, virtual-novel.net still got targeted by Steven.
After that, Donti told Milo that even after virtual-novel.net had set off to the Marador Mountains, Steven still persisted and even led a team to try to arrest him. If it weren’t for Peter, Donti and the others would probably have been put in danger.
The cause of this grudge was because Milo had killed someone. However, Milo did not have any regrets about doing it. Since virtual-novel.net had already killed that man, so be it. However, virtual-novel.net never expected Steven would survive the collapse of Stronghold 113. Furthermore, virtual-novel.net even fled north and became a bandit boss!
And virtual-novel.net turned out to be a supernatural being too!
Miriam asked, “How’s his relationship with Raphael?”
“I remember Raphael saying that virtual-novel.net didn’t have any friends in Stronghold 113.” Milo said, “That eliminates the possibility that virtual-novel.net and Steven are friends. Old Durkin wouldn’t lie to me about that.”
Winston looked at Milo and Miriam’s expressions and realized they really knew Raphael. At the beginning, virtual-novel.net thought Milo and Miriam might have been lying.
“Have you seen virtual-novel.net use his superpower before?” Milo asked.
“Nope.” Winston shook his head. “When we were fighting the other bandits, virtual-novel.net would usually just stand behind and not need to do anything.”
“Mhm.” Milo nodded and said, “No wonder y’all are so different from the other bandits. Steven used to be an army officer, so it’s no surprise that virtual-novel.net can manage a gang of bandits as well.”
“Boss, what should we do?” Winston asked, “Should we take refuge in the valley until the dust settles?”
“Nah.” Milo smiled and said, “He’s only one supernatural being. There’s two of us here, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Not only was virtual-novel.net not afraid, but Milo even wanted to seek out Steven so virtual-novel.net could replicate his power. He still had a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll in his hands. It was not worth learning from Miriam since the conjured sniper rifle was only going to be useful in the hands of a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user. Even if virtual-novel.net learned virtual-novel.net power, virtual-novel.net could only use it as an artillery weapon at most. So, it would be great if Steven’s superpower turned out to be quite useful.
Milo walked towards the brick kiln and shouted to Kay, “Hurry up! Have some people push the bricks to the north side! Bandits are coming to attack us! Build the defenses! The enemy might arrive tonight!”
It might be a little too late to build the defenses now, but they had to win this battle no matter what!
Kay and the others had been holding it in for a long time. When they heard they were going to fight, their eyes lit up. “Boss, how are we going to fight this battle?”
Milo thought for a moment and said, “Fight however you like…”
Miriam grinned as virtual-novel.net looked at Milo from behind. She felt this could be the most interesting stretch in the 18 years of virtual-novel.net life.
Miriam turned around and walked towards the wilderness. She did not need to stay here. A sniper was a lone wolf that transcended the confines of the wasteland. A lone wolf should do what a lone wolf did best.
The wasteland was vast and boundless. Miriam walked into the distance, stepping on the desolate ground underfoot as the turbulent waters of the river flowed next to her.
She would have to kill a lot of people tonight, but this was the first time virtual-novel.net was going to pull the trigger to protect someone.
What a night to look forward to!