Chapter 23 Old Neil
When Angel walked out of the room with the contract and approval slip, Klein Moretti was chatting with Miss Roxanne outside the door. The girl was so amused by the conversation that she covered her mouth and laughed secretly, but when she saw the door open, she coughed awkwardly twice and resumed her serious expression.
Klein also noticed that Angel had finished his conversation with Captain Dunn. He smiled and asked, "Did you finish?"
Angel smiled and nodded: "Yes, the captain lets you in."
"Captain..." Klein was stunned. He glanced at the contract Angel was holding under his arm and instantly understood the meaning of the title. He extended his right hand to Angel. "Congratulations. Are we colleagues now?"
"Thank you!" Angel shook Klein's hand generously.
Without further greeting, Klein quickly straightened his clothes and knocked twice on the door. Only after Dunn's permission did he push it open and walk in.
This guy is quite polite...
Angel followed Klein's gaze until he was blocked by the closed door. Then he turned around and handed the approval slip to Roxanne.
"Ms. Luo Shan, the captain asked me to get some materials."
The brown-haired girl in the light green dress woke up as if from a dream. She said "oh oh" several times in response and took the note.
"You...really joined us too? I didn't expect that. I thought you were here to talk to the captain about something personal." She glanced at the contents on the note and asked while nodding slightly.
"Yes, the contracts have been signed." Angel raised the slightly thin contract.
The girl raised her head expectantly and asked again, "Is that a civilian job?"
As soon as she said this, she seemed to realize that something was wrong and hurriedly added, "I just thought that it would be easier for us to schedule shifts if there were more people." She waved the note in her hand and emphasized her tone.
Angel couldn't help but laugh at Roshan's excitement. While Captain Dunn seemed to have only asked her to craft some special bullets, he probably wouldn't let a Beyonder like her work as a warehouse manager.
I guess after the captain submits the report on this battle next week and verifies his identity, we will be able to make further arrangements.
Or maybe he discovered his fake identity and became a member of the Church Arbitration Tribunal?
Thinking of this, Angel suddenly felt depressed. She forced a smile and replied, "I'm sorry, the captain probably won't assign me to a clerical position."
"Eh..." The anticipation on Luo Shan's face instantly turned to frustration. "I didn't expect Mr. Moretti to be a civilian, but you are..." Halfway through her words, she seemed to react, her eyes widened, and she looked at Angel in surprise: "Could it be that you are already a Beyonder?"
Angel didn't hide it. After all, they would probably be colleagues in the future, and sooner or later they would know about these things. "Yes, before this, I was already, um, in your words, an unofficial Beyonder."
"Wow, that's amazing. Is he the Sleepless One, or the Secret Peeper?"
The girl's brown eyes shone with the light of a fan seeing her idol, and she looked at Angel with curiosity.
"……assassin."
“…”
There was an awkward silence between the two.
"That's...that's pretty impressive. Oh, by the way, I need to take you to get the materials. Come on, the warehouse is in the basement."
Miss Roxanne changed the subject abruptly, holding up the note.
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Angel thought the basement was to be entered from the first floor, but unexpectedly Miss Roxanne took her straight to the end of the corridor and into an office against the wall.
The room was bare except for a stone staircase leading down. The two men descended the spiral staircase, and after turning two corners, the sunlight from above completely vanished, replaced by the glow of delicate gas lamps on either side of the wall, casting a circle of shadows at their feet.
After walking around for who knows how many times, he left the stairs and entered a long corridor. Angel estimated that he was at least ten meters underground.
The aisle was paved with smooth stone slabs, and a large number of gas lamps were luxuriously installed on both sides. Angel also noticed that the holy emblem of the Church of the Goddess of Night was embedded on the wall. Scarlet Moon, who had only known her for a few days, could already make her feel a peace that went straight to the depths of her heart.
After walking through the corridor, we arrived at a crossroads. Roshan, who was leading the way, introduced the area, saying, "Ahead is Chanis Gate, where Mr. Fry is on duty today. The left side leads to St. Selina Church, and the right side is the materials warehouse we're heading to, where Mr. Neil is."
"Chaness Gate" was the place Leonard had planned to take refuge in during Madam Sharon's attack. It seemed to house some important Beyonder items, requiring constant Beyonder protection. And surprisingly, Saint Selina's Church connected directly to the Night Watchers' base, truly a force directly under the Church.
Angel followed Roxanne to the right across the intersection, recalling the location of the church.
"By the way, you haven't met Mr. Neil yet, right?"
Angel recalled Leonard Mitchell's detailed introduction of the Nighthawks members yesterday and shook his head. "Mr. Mitchell mentioned them to me, but I've never met him. So he's also a member of the team?"
"Yes, he's also a Beyonder, a Sequence 9 'Secret Peer'. However, he's old now and in poor health, making him no longer suitable for field work, so he's switched to civilian work." Luo Shan nodded and introduced as they walked.
Angel secretly memorized the name of the potion "Mystery Peeper". It should be different from the "Sleepless" of the others and belong to a completely new path.
The two men came to a half-open iron door and knocked.
An old voice came from behind the door: "Come in."
Roxanne pushed open the iron gate and walked in first, followed by Angel.
There was a set of tables and chairs in the narrow room. An old man in a black robe was sitting at the table, carefully studying a few yellowed pages of a book at hand, and writing something on a notepad beside him. Behind him was another tightly closed iron door.
"Hello, Mr. Neil, this is the new employee... um..." Luo Shan greeted the old man politely, but got stuck when introducing Angel - she forgot the name of her new colleague.
Angel stepped forward and briefly introduced himself, saving the reckless girl, but the latter's face was still red. She hurriedly handed the note to the old man and left.
Holding the note with the captain's signature and seal, the old man—Old Neil—lifted his gaze from the pages on the table. He squinted his eyes and looked at Angel for a moment. Then, with a grin, he said, "Are you the new guy who caused such a scene upstairs last night? And even killed a Sequence 7?"
Not sure what rumors he had heard, Angel could only explain: "I was just assisting from the sidelines. The main credit goes to Ms. Daly and..."
"I know, and that kid Leonard too. He told me everything this morning, and he also said that you used a special ammunition that is different from the 'Demon Hunter Bullet'." Old Neil said, and took out a brass bullet casing from the pocket of his robe. Angel looked at it in the swaying gaslight, and it was the 'Gathering Storm' that he used yesterday.
"It's a very strange pattern, similar to that of demon hunting bullets, but the details are different."
He stood the shell up on the table, put the note in his pocket, and took a pen and paper from the side. "It seems that the captain wants you to come and get the materials to continue making this ammunition?"
Angel nodded. "Yes, I need to hand over 80 of these bullets to him next week, so I need quite a bit of materials. Considering the probability of failure, I need at least 120 pistol bullets, preferably .45 caliber. I also need 300 grams of screaming grass, 100 grams of glowing lizard scales, 250 milliliters of alcohol, and at least 500 milliliters of etching solution. Yes, I can make this myself. Finally, 50 grams of star crystal."
She'd already calculated what she'd need on the way, and considering the success rate and material loss, she'd increased her requirements slightly. She still had some auxiliary materials in her basement, but she planned to collect the expensive main materials directly. After all, she was working for the government, so she couldn't afford to spend too much of her own money.
Old Neil dipped his pen in ink and wrote down everything Angel said on the paper, but he stopped writing when he heard the last word, "Star Crystal".
"I have as many bullets as you want. The alchemy room has all the other items, but the star crystal...it's the main ingredient for some potions. I need to go to Chanis Gate. I hope there are some left there."
After saying that, Old Neil stood up, took out the key from the drawer, opened the iron door behind him and walked in. Then there was the creaking sound of rusty hinges and the friction sound of drawer switches.
When the situation behind the door returned to calm, Old Neil came out holding several boxes of ammunition and closed the iron door with his foot. Angel stepped forward to help, taking the ammunition boxes one by one and placing them on the table. Among them were four cardboard boxes and two smaller metal boxes.
"Here are 120 rounds of pistol ammunition," Old Neil said, pointing to the cardboard box. "And 20 rounds of demon hunting bullets," he said, swiping his finger towards the iron box. "All 0.45-inch. I'm going to get the rest from the alchemy room. You just wait here."
Angel nodded and opened the box to examine it. Inside was a cardboard box filled with yellow copper bullets, the same ones she'd used before, but noticeably more meticulously crafted and well-maintained. There was even a hint of grease. Two iron boxes each contained ten silver-white bullets engraved with intricate patterns. They looked like silver ammunition, but could also be some kind of alloy.
After checking the ammunition, her eyes glanced at some yellowed papers beside her. Old Neil was reading these pages when she arrived.
She originally thought they were some private letters and didn't intend to read them carefully, but this glance made her stunned.
Although they were separated characters and looked like a child's clumsy imitation, she could still recognize at a glance that these square symbols were the writing of an Asian country, perhaps Chinese or Japanese, but at least she could confirm that these were definitely not some kind of writing symbols currently popular in the world!
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