Chapter 40 Suspecting He's Iced Coffee [VIP]

That underground casino was close to the chaotic Nishino Ward, and while it was just as chaotic, it wasn't entirely unmanaged. Most of the people who frequented it were either wealthy or powerful.

The underground casinos are located in Dongye District, a relatively prosperous area. Most of the people who come here are those with some money and power, on business trips or for transactions. Those on business trips are often deceived by the casinos and bars here, ultimately falling into a deep abyss.

Before Cheng You even arrived at the underground casino, he didn't need to disguise himself at all; a bearded man grabbed him and squinted at him with lewd eyes: "Hey, little brother, want to make some quick money?"

"..." Cheng You pursed his lips and said innocently, "Sorry, I'm not here to make money." He couldn't agree immediately; he needed to fish out the other party and hopefully get more useful information.

"Oh?" The uncle raised an eyebrow. "You're either here to make money or to spend it, right?"

Cheng remained silent, waiting for the other party to take the initiative to smooth things over.

"We also have pretty girls here. If you don't know how to play, they can play with you. How about that?" the uncle said, squinting his eyes.

"Play? What kind of play?"

"Oh? What do you want to play?"

"Let's play billiards or chess," Cheng said with a smile.

"Ah~" The middle-aged man squinted his cloudy eyes, a smile etching wrinkles on his greasy face. "Of course we have it here." Young people are so easily fooled!

"Alright then, thank you, Uncle." Cheng You smiled. He blended in perfectly.

So he followed the man through a secret passage into the underground casino. This route was the same as the one provided by the quest giver, which reassured Cheng You.

Before even entering the casino, the smells of smoke, foul odors, noise, shouting, and the sounds of fists clenching and fighting were all mixed together.

Cheng couldn't help but frown.

The older man noticed the other man's expression and chuckled to himself: Young man, so what if you're suspicious? You're still being deceived. Soon, you'll fall into the abyss, hahaha!

"Hey, don't be afraid. There are many thugs here. We have bodyguards to protect us. Right now, the bodyguards are fighting those thugs," the uncle said.

"I see..." Cheng You's brows slowly relaxed, and he adopted a skeptical expression.

Seeing this, the uncle felt even more at ease. He was just an innocent young man, and a few words were enough to appease him. Haha, he patted Cheng You's shoulder with his big hand, which had been used to cheat many times and beat up many people, and laughed loudly: "Don't worry, look how lively it is here. Everyone trusts us."

"That's true." Cheng You smiled and went inside with the uncle.

The middle-aged man's smirk filled half his face as he watched Cheng You step inside, his smugness growing stronger: "Heh heh heh, once you're inside, you'll never be able to leave. Even if you realize it, it'll be too late..."

As soon as Cheng Yi stepped inside, several glamorous young women grabbed his arms, warmly welcoming him and pulling him towards the billiards hall: "Oh my, what a handsome young man!" "Come on, let us teach you how to play billiards!" "How about playing a card game with us later?"

"A card game?" Cheng followed them over, asking in confusion, "Is it a card game?"

"Hahaha," the beautiful lady chuckled softly, "more or less," she said, lifting Cheng You's chin slightly, "but it's even more fun than playing cards~"

"Ha, ha, ha..." Cheng gave an awkward laugh, then noticed that a lady in a red dress had quietly left.

Meanwhile, they had already infiltrated the underground casino through an undercover agent sent by the organization.

The girl in the red dress glanced flirtatiously at the three men carrying bass bags in front of her: "Wow, these are some handsome young men who've come to play~" She then whispered something.

This is a code.

The three men in whiskey exchanged a secret signal with the woman in the red dress. Their eyes met, and the woman in the red dress went to the counter to get a glass of red wine. She chuckled softly and said, "The boss has been very strict lately. Someone has posted a bounty on the Grey Fox Assassin website to assassinate our three gambling kings." The smile was just a facade; her tone was extremely serious.

Whiskey and his two undercover agents in the Black Organization had naturally heard of the website, but they had never obtained the URL. This was something that Bordeaux in the technical department had always been in charge of, and Bordeaux was mysterious and taciturn, never revealing any information.

However, everyone in the organization knows that the BOSS's attempts to win over Nifedi, the administrator of the dark web, seem to have been unsuccessful.

The police also attempted to infiltrate the website, but the requirements for joining were too stringent and difficult to implement. The police technology department also applied to join multiple times but was rejected by the administrator.

"I see... So there are other organizations here too?" Bourbon raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are there any suspicious people?" If they could catch the person who took the job, they might be able to follow the trail and find their way into the Gray Fox Assassins' Dark Network.

"No, not at the moment. They're all innocent people who were tricked into coming here." The woman in the red dress shrugged, handed a note to Scotland, and gave them a wink.

Whiskey instantly realized that the note must be a map showing the location of the underground casino owner and the layout of its facilities.

"We'll leave the person who accepted the bounty to us. It doesn't conflict with our mission, so let's not cause any trouble," Bourbon said seriously. Actually, he wanted to split up later and investigate the person who accepted the bounty himself.

“Yes, that’s what the BOSS wanted too, because the person who took this order—Iced Coffee—only took one order three years ago, and that’s the only one so far. That’s right, it was when Gray Fox Assassin Dark Network was first established,” said the woman in the red dress.

"The boss suspects this person might know Nifel, the administrator of the Gray Fox Assassin Dark Web. Ice Coffee was quite arrogant during that mission three years ago, and we don't know what he's up to this time, but it's best to avoid conflict." The woman in the red dress took a sip of red wine. "In short, the boss needs to cooperate with Nifel; there can't be the slightest mishap on this path. Understand?"

"..." The three undercover agents nodded vigorously. But in their hearts, they all wanted to meet with the iced coffee shop that had taken the order, to test the waters, and if they could disrupt the cooperation between Nifedire and the Black Organization's BOSS, that would be even better.

After the conversation, the group dispersed to do other things. Whiskey and the other two glanced at the note given to them by the woman in the red dress, understood it, and immediately burned the evidence and flushed it down the toilet.

The three of them, including Whiskey, began to consider how to go alone to find iced coffee.

“Let’s split up,” Ray suddenly said.

Bourbon and Scotland breathed a sigh of relief, but then Rye started to pry into Scotland's mind again: "Here's what we'll do, Scotland and I will go investigate the casino information, assemble the gun, plant the bomb, and find a safe way out. Bourbon, you go find the underground casino owner and come back to let us know."

Rye said this to avoid arousing suspicion from the other two members of the organization, because he knew that Bourbon wanted to act with Scotland, but Bourbon would refuse him, and then Rye could act alone without any problem.

Bourbon: "..." That works too. Investigating iced coffee might be dangerous; we can't let Scotland get involved. If Rye or that lady in the red dress finds out, the organization might suspect us of being undercover agents...

"No—" Morofushi Kagemitsu and Furuya Rei shared the same thought; he was also worried about the consequences Zero would have to bear if he failed while acting alone.

Before he could finish speaking, Furuya Rei interrupted, "Fine. But leave the bomb planting in the escape route to me. You and Scotland go find the underground casino owner and kill him while you're at it. That shouldn't be too difficult, right?"

Lai, whose scheme failed: "…………" My silence was deafening.

Cheng You played pool with a few girls for a while. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl in the red dress return. She smiled and said, "Handsome young man, want to play a game of cards?"

"Go now? But I still want to play some pool with you guys~" Cheng You thought to himself, feeling a sense of unease.

"Hmm, handsome young man, you might think the card game is boring before you play it, but you'll like it after you play it," a young lady said.

"Alright then." Cheng You finally agreed, thinking that once he got to the card game, he could figure out a way to assassinate the three gambling kings. He had already memorized their faces completely.

When he went to the card room, the lady in the red dress was gone. Cheng didn't pay much attention to it. With the help of several ladies, he sat down at a card table, in front of several fierce-looking men.

He's not a gambling king; he seems to be just an ordinary gambler. It appears that only by continuing to gamble can one have a chance to get close to the gambling king.

But... isn't being too good at gambling a bit out of character...?

Forget it, Cheng thought, let's pretend it's luck for the first few rounds and test the waters.

To get to the casino owner's lounge, they had to pass through the card room. As Scotland and Rye passed by the door, they heard a great deal of noise inside, with cheers and sighs.

The two paid no attention, their minds solely focused on their mission. As Scotland passed the doorway of the row of houses, he heard a familiar voice: "Sigh, it's all luck..." For some reason, the tone was so subdued. He glanced inside and immediately spotted a familiar white figure with the same unchanging fake smile on their face.

—Cheng You.

Why did he come here?

Morofushi Kagemitsu recalled L. Ryuzaki's conclusion: Cheng You's purpose was himself. Why? What did he want from me?

"What's wrong, Scotland?" Rye noticed Scotland's subtle expression and couldn't help but ask.

"It's nothing," Zhu Fujingguang smiled. "I think this card room is a bit strange. I'll go check it out." In any case, even if Cheng You has some computer skills, he is still too young. This casino is not a good place after all. It would be bad if Cheng You were cheated out of money or sexually assaulted, or even beaten up.

“Okay.” Lei had been wanting to go find iced coffee alone, and now that he finally had the chance, he nodded happily.

Morofushi Kagemitsu entered the card room. He glanced at Cheng You, who was dressed in clean white, and was about to go and take care of him, hoping to get him out of there when a beautiful young lady walked over with two glasses of iced wine. She handed him one: "Handsome, want to play?"

"Hmm..." In order to get closer to Cheng You and gather information, Morobushi Kagemitsu nodded.

At this moment, he noticed applause and cheers erupting again from Cheng You's table. Cheng You looked somewhat embarrassed. Zhu Fujingguang frowned: Had he lost? Had he been cheated by a group of people...?

"What's going on over there?" Morofushi Kagemitsu asked the young lady beside him with concern.

“Oh, over there, I don’t know when someone suddenly appeared, that guy in the white hoodie,” Miss Mei pointed at Cheng You, “He’s won quite a bit gambling all the way here, and he’ll be in the top ten of our card house soon. But judging from his posture, he’s probably going to have a showdown with our gambling king.”

Her tone wasn't pleasant, and she snorted a few times, "At first she was an innocent little rabbit, but now it seems she's just playing dumb to fool others, tsk." She'd originally planned to lure him in to fleece him, but instead, she'd been played by him. How awful. But the boss wouldn't let him leave the casino alive, she thought.

"...Gambling Kings?" Upon hearing this keyword, Zhu Fujingguang's heart skipped a beat. The bounty mission that Ice Coffee had accepted was to assassinate three gambling kings in an underground casino.

Thinking about it this way, everything in the past has its origins.

I recall L. Ryuzaki saying that Cheng You's goal from the very beginning was himself... or rather, that Matsukawa Yukiki and Cheng You had been secretly plotting this plan for a long time...

Zhu Fujingguang paused, as more details flashed through his mind. Cheng You was a technical expert; when they were searching for traitor N, Cheng You had hacked into the surveillance system…

Three years ago, the Grey Fox Assassin's Dark Network suddenly appeared, and Iced Coffee received its first order before disappearing without a trace. Matsukawa Yuki also went abroad around that time. He faked his death before leaving the country. When Morofushi Hiromitsu heard Hagiwara Kenji recount the scene, he didn't pay much attention, assuming that the other party was just hiding from Japanese enemies.

Looking back now, it was indeed to avoid or mislead the enemy, who must have been just as dangerous as the Black Organization.

And today, in this year, iced coffee is taking orders again. Cheng You also suddenly appeared during this period.

Although Morofushi Kagemitsu and Matsukawa Yuki hadn't known each other for long, he always felt that Cheng You and Matsukawa Yuki were quite similar in some ways, an intuitive resemblance, but this was hard to explain.

Zhu Fujingguang suppressed his doubts and thought about it carefully. Everything seemed too coincidental and unscientific.

Three years ago, Cheng You was only ten years old, a high school student. Was he really that amazing? Enough to shake up half of the Japanese yakuza on his first mission as an iced coffee?

Morofushi Kagemitsu raised his eyes to look at Cheng You. So, Cheng might have been deliberately tricked into coming here, deliberately playing along, in order to... get closer to those three gambling kings? Given Cheng You's meticulous approach, he would indeed approach them slowly, gradually figuring out the casino owner's tolerance level...

If Cheng Youzhen is indeed involved with or related to iced coffee, then his confrontation with the gambling king will be crucial.

"When would you like to play a game, sir?" the young lady asked with a smile, interrupting Morofushi Kagemitsu's thoughts.

"No, I am rather interested in that young man." Morobushi Kagemitsu smiled and declined.

Miss Beauty shrugged and left helplessly.

Cheng You won again, and laughed awkwardly with his opponent: "Oh, I'm pretty lucky this round too~ I'm so lucky today, hahaha." Playing around, he hadn't forgotten his goal. Even with his somewhat amateurish skills, which were now slightly disguised, Cheng You calculated in his mind that at this rate, he should be able to attract the gambling king in half an hour.

However, as the only white figure in the casino, and so flamboyant and attractive, after the three gambling kings and the casino's fat sheep got tired of him, they learned about him from a certain lady. The lady frowned and said, "Really, I don't know who brought this ancestor here. He looks well-behaved, but how come he is so capable?"

"Tsk, what a trick," one of the gambling kings said disdainfully, watching the other's technique from afar. "His technique looks like that of a beginner. I really don't know how he can win against so many people."

For these gambling kings, any method is rudimentary.

“Then you guys go and make the money back. It’s really annoying to watch,” the woman said.

“Take it slow, hey,” one of the gambling kings put his arm around the shoulders of his two brothers, “In a little while, the three of us gambling kings will show him what real strength is.”

From afar, Morofushi Kagemitsu saw the three burly men with their arms around each other's shoulders. Having done his intelligence work before coming on this mission, he recognized them as the three gambling kings of the underground casino, equally ruthless villains capable of murder. Based on the men's lip movements, Morofushi Kagemitsu roughly understood the situation.

Looking at Cheng You's methods, they were indeed not very good, but Morofushi Kagemitsu believed that Cheng You had real hidden abilities. Even if Cheng You was not able to win, even if Cheng You might be ganged up on by the gambling kings, Morofushi Kagemitsu was able to get him out of here safely without revealing his identity.

A note from the author:

Grey Fox Killer Dark Network Administrator: Nifeld

Cheng secretly uses the online alias "Iced Coffee" to take orders.

It's an alternate account created in Chapter 10, haha.