Chapter 349 Meal Time

By the time everyone arrived at the venue, the sky had completely darkened, the clouds hung low, and the brilliant lights of the main building's dome illuminated the only sacred place, as if to hatch some strange thing from this oppressive atmosphere.

Before departure, Eoubs' senior management granted each attendee the highest level of authority. Hamilton spent a long time choosing and finally boarded a sightseeing elevator that was nearly 50 square meters in size. The interior was similar to the one that went to the 29th wave level, with sofas and wine cabinets, thin alloy walls on all four sides, and several LCD screens.

"Don't look like your whole family has died. It's not bad to look at the introduction and advertisements here."

Stanford stood in the corner, making small talk.

Hamilton acted as if he hadn't heard him, and immediately turned off all the screens around him. In an instant, the walls turned pitch black, making the entire space appear illusory, like an abyss.

The man shrugged, still standing in a corner of the elevator, leaning against the wall, studying the meeting room list and the menu of dishes and drinks sent to his terminal, completely unconcerned about it.

A while later.

"candidate?"

Hamilton suddenly asked.

Stanford glanced at him, gave him a strange smile, pulled a mint from his pocket, pointed to the other man's chest, and said, "It should be written on the list that He Yu and I are among the original candidates."

Hamilton listened expressionlessly, nodding as the illusory light flickered between his face and the cabin.

Then, he continued, his voice chillingly cold: "Coincidentally, I also got a candidate position."

"But it's not as powerful as your understanding of 'death.' You've really gone from sparrow to phoenix. Not only did you resurrect Chris, but you also became the head of the South African headquarters, and now you're a candidate for fucking."

Hamilton sighed dramatically.

"You're getting fucking harder and harder to kill."

Stanford crunched the candy, making a sound between his teeth, and looked at the other person coldly, his posture equally arrogant.

He said, "Yes, you're different. How come you're getting easier to kill?"

“Don’t be so smug, honey.” Hamilton smiled at him. “I know you’re incredibly arrogant right now, even your sister who’s been dead for years has come back from hell. You’re such a good brother.”

"This violates the principles of fairness."

"You think I haven't gotten any new gadgets?"

"I've learned how to control the trigger point of mental power in the last few days—'garbage dump'? It's indeed a safe haven for trash like you."

“You understand ‘death,’ but I understand… ‘life.’”

Upon hearing this, Stanford's expression turned as if he wanted to devour him alive, and he made no attempt to hide it.

Hamilton looked at him meaningfully, then chuckled, his voice sending chills down one's spine.

I was so excited that my face became distorted.

"In the end, you still have to pay back those debts. Right now, you feel like you're basking in the sunlight, like life has suddenly become wonderful, like Eoubs is saved, and like the future of humanity is bright again."

He stared intently at Stanford, his eyes burning with fanatical fervor.

"But I will destroy you."

“Just like Sergio did before, I’m going to bite you off piece by piece and chew you for a while. I’m going to make you cry and beg me to let you go, and your sister too… I’ve already figured out how to break down a bastard who’s come back from the dead, believe me—that show will be hilarious.”

"Even if you are one of the original candidates for that piece of shit, I will make you pay the price, you bastard."

After Hamilton finished speaking, he sighed contentedly, leaned against the alloy wall, and slowly and elegantly took a cigar from his pocket, snapping his fingers at Stanford: "Now, can I borrow a light? Future hero."

He looked into Stanford's eyes and thoroughly enjoyed what was in those eyes at that moment.

It is hatred.

Just as the atmosphere was about to turn into an unrestricted brawl, the elevator shook a few times and then came to a complete stop.

The door opened.

Stanford wasn't looking at him; instead, he turned his gaze toward the door, where countless dazzling lights swirled in his eyes like a kaleidoscope.

"Oh, now everyone on the list has finally arrived. Can we start eating now?"

From the innermost part, a rather young-looking woman came out, beckoning to the two with a bitter and resentful expression, urging them, "Stop spacing out, you two. Everyone's waiting for you. I'm starving."

"Sorry, I ran into an idiot on the way. Sorry to keep you all waiting."

Stanford nodded, glanced back at Hamilton, who walked out of the cabin as if nothing had happened, ignoring them and heading into the meeting room.

"Anyway, let's eat first."

...

...

Gathering such a large group of people for a meal and maintaining order at the scene is no easy task.

But once everyone was gathered around the long table, they weren't really in the mood to care whether the dishes that were coming up would suit their tastes, or whether any fools were planning to cause trouble.

Even if you count all of Euubs' branches across the continents, it would be difficult to assemble such an impressive and awe-inspiring lineup—the 'Silent Land' Dorui, ranked first in combat strength at the Americas headquarters; the 'Quantum Mastery' Sandor, ranked second; Bell, a conceptual ace whose overall strength is still unproven; Misaka Main, the 'Head Balloon', the biggest trump card at the Yingzhou headquarters; Hamilton, the Grand Knight Commander of the European Knights; Doug Garr, the representative of the General Council; Cagalli, whom Euubs calls the contemporary 'Heavenly Witch', who even holds a projection of the Wings of the Archangel, a forbidden ACE item; Les Triven, the earliest A03 operative of the Russian Federation; Sterling, the 'Oblivion Melody', an ace who has single-handedly completed hundreds of ACE forbidden item retrieval and execution missions, and also the former head of Oceania.

And, the three original candidates and the organizer of the banquet—Roy Anderson, the former Chief Executioner of the Americas.

Many other operatives, each with impressive individual strength, remain behind the scenes as supplementary resources to the main combat force, ready to be deployed at any time.

Sheen and Yu Yu exchanged glances, both feeling deeply uncomfortable with the arrival of the other people at the table.

Almost every well-known operative in the Eoubs network was summoned, ranging in rank from A02 to B02. They were all invited by the head of operations to come here.

For Roy, several of the people present were former colleagues. Although they weren't particularly close, they were at the level where they could meet and have a few drinks together.

However... apart from him, the others all had some personal grudges that hadn't been settled.

"What a fucking bad luck, forcing me to eat with idiots. A lunatic like you can represent a branch? It's hilarious."