If Botobai sudden challenge left Moses feeling bewildered, then Gel's ambush in the hotel made him realize something was amiss.
From that moment on, every move Moses made was based on the assumption that other Zodiacs' members might also be involved.
So, after severing Gel's hand in the hallway outside the elevator, Moses didn't press his advantage.
This decision was made to preserve Gel's combat strength.
In this way, as long as the black tendrils grew fully, Gel would become a perfect hidden chess piece.
Later, Botobai's timely arrival and his order for Gel to withdraw actually ended up helping Moses in an unexpected way.
Moses was more than happy with this turn of events and cooperated sincerely with Botobai's arrangements, like a model citizen.
If there was a second person Moses had to thank, it would undoubtedly be the Triple-Star Terrorist Hunter lying on the ground, who prided himself on his honorable methods.
Otherwise, Moses might have had to face a sudden, coordinated attack from more than half of the Zodiacs' members while completely unaware of the situation.
In that scenario, even with the high margin for error provided by his Manifested Aura, Moses wouldn't have been able to handle things as effortlessly as he did now.
It was precisely because he was prepared that he could perfectly counter the joint sneak attack from Cluck, Ginta, Saccho, and Mizaistom.
And under these circumstances, the value of Gel as a hidden chess piece can be fully brought into play. Once she is revealed, she effortlessly took Cluck out of the fight.
Faced with the questions from her 'companions', Gel, who was caught in the illusion, naturally couldn't respond.
Though Mizaistom and the others heard Moses thank Gel, they couldn't rashly conclude that she was a traitor.
The special directive issued by Netero didn't strictly require all Zodiacs' members to participate.
While this granted them considerable freedom of choice, the directive also didn't explicitly demand cooperation among them.
The general idea was that they can do whatever they like.
This superficial approach was practically Netero's calling card.
Because Netero was the type of person who would do anything as long as he found it amusing.
So, he deliberately crafted the directive to create a vague sense of competition.
Even though he wasn't personally present to issue the orders to the Zodiacs' members, that deeply rooted image naturally emerged in the minds of the Zodiacs' members.
"This special directive requires the participation of at least half of the Zodiacs' members."
"That's right. I believe it'll take at least six Zodiacs' members working together to complete this operation targeting Moses."
"The difficulty? No need to say it, it's A-level, of course."
"You guys better do your best."
Therefore, after receiving the directive, the members of the Zodiacs had no intention of cooperating at all. They didn't discuss any plans during the preparation phase and instead acted independently.
Gel chose to ambush Moses in the hotel's elevator.
The result was: she suffered a crushing defeat and even lost a hand in the process.
In this situation, Gel had to rush to the hospital to reattach her severed hand.
So, in the eyes of Cluck and the others, Gel was effectively out of the game.
How could they have imagined that Gel would suddenly turn back and give up the chance to save her hand just to rejoin the fight-
Moreover, her target was Cluck.
There was only one possible explanation from this.
Getting no response from Gel, Ginta and the others quickly concluded that she must have been manipulated by a Manipulation-Type Ability. At the same time, they were secretly shocked by Moses's meticulous arrangement.
After all, not only did Moses calmly counter their joint assault in such a dire situation, but he also foresaw the possibility of using Gel to turn the tables, causing Cluck, who was supposed to be in the 'ambush position', fall victim to an ambush and was taken out instantly.
A brief silence fell over the scene.
Compared to Ginta, Saccho, and Mizaistom's tense reactions, Moses remained utterly composed.
To an outsider, it might have looked like Moses had the three of them surrounded by himself.
"Botobai said that if I defeated him, he would tell me everything."
Moses was the first to break the silence. He then glanced at Botobai, who was lying on the ground unable to move, and said calmly:
"But as you can see, he can't even speak right now. I'm afraid it's even difficult for him to breathe normally."
Having said this, Moses deliberately paused in order to observe Ginta and the others' reactions.
Seeing that the three of them showed no response, he continued, "What I mean is… can one of you explain what's going on?"
"..."
After Moses finished speaking, there was a brief silence in the scene again.
Ginta wasn't sure how to respond.
Saccho lowered his head and coughed slightly, and some bloodstains appeared on the ground.
Mizaistom furrowed his brow for a moment, then slowly relaxed it.
"I'll explain."
As he spoke, he took several steps forward, as if he was trying to get closer to Moses so that he could hear his words clearly.
In reality, he was subtly adjusting his position to better align with Ginta and Saccho, laying the groundwork for a potential coordinated attack.
Whether this small maneuver would pay off later, Mizaistom didn't know, but he wouldn't pass up any opportunity to create an advantage.
Using the act of explanation to naturally cover up the intention, Mizaistom stopped at a reasonable distance, then looked at Moses and explained:
"A few days ago, Chairman issued a special order requiring half of the Zodiacs' members to carry out a mission to restrain you on September 9th."
In this simple and concise explanation, Mizaistom still embedded a subtle twist.
He changed 'directive' to 'order'.
He also changed the information of 'at least half of Zodiacs' to 'half of Zodiacs'.
The reason for doing this was to make Moses think that all the Zodiacs' members involved in Netero's order were already present, thereby covering up the fact that Ging was also participating in the operation.
Whether such subtle maneuvers would prove valuable later, Mizaistom couldn't be sure.
He was simply adhering to his own operational style, planting two seemingly minor setups within his words and actions over these brief seconds.
After hearing Mizaistom's concise explanation, Moses's current mood was rather complicated.
'Just to stop me from going to his duel, the old man actually mobilized six of the Zodiacs to deal with me...'
'Well… that was exactly the kind of thing the old man would do.'
'And I'm afraid it's not just to stop me, but more because he thought it's fun to do this kind of thing.'
'Who knows, maybe he is also hiding somewhere right now, watching this mess unfold...'
Moses sighed in his heart and had nothing to say about Netero's character.
But at the moment-
He chose to solve these troubles first.