And now, this group was standing around, chatting openly as if he didn't even exist.
Listening to their conversation... One of them didn't even know what Heavens Arena was.
How could that be?!
Except in remote, signal-less wildernesses or abandoned places with no TVs, everyone in the world knew about Heavens Arena.
Wait… abandoned places?!!
The tall man's body stiffened.
"Meteor City..."
He murmured the name under his breath.
When it comes to abandoned places, the most famous in the world is undoubtedly that one.
And coincidentally, the people from that place had the best reason to come looking.
Tap.
Suddenly, a hand patted his shoulder.
The tall man instinctively looked up and saw a young woman with short hair looking at him.
"About this foundation..."
Pakunoda asked calmly: "How much do you know?"
"..."
The tall man opened his mouth, then quickly shut up.
As Risnorth's new secretary, he naturally came into contact with many secrets about the Mom's Help Foundation, including some about Risnorth himself.
But knowing was one thing; speaking was another.
He understood very well that the only reason he was still alive was because he had this information.
If he revealed it, then he'd lose all value and be killed immediately!!
To stay alive, he had to keep every secret locked tight inside.
"You're not going to tell me, are you?"
Pakunoda, seeing this, showed no sign of panic.
She simply kept trying to coax him: "You must have kept some evidence of your company's crimes, right?"
"Otherwise, if your boss ever decided to dispose of you one day, you wouldn't have anything to bargain with."
"Where do you keep all that evidence?"
The tall man stayed silent and simply clenched his jaw.
Although he felt a surge of fear in his heart, the other party had so easily revealed his previously hidden thoughts.
But the more he felt this way, the more he couldn't bring himself to speak out.
Keep your mouth shut to stay alive!!
He repeated it to himself over and over, forcing himself to calm down.
But just as he had regained his composure...
"I see."
The young woman before him nodded in understanding.
"Those pieces of evidence, you hid them separately under the floor beneath the sofa leg in your suburban house and inside the brickwork of the chimney on the roof of a small motel you invested in..."
The tall man: "...!?"
Whoosh!!
He jerked his head up, his eyes filled with terror and confusion as he stared at the young woman before him.
Why did she know it?!
"In there, there's more than enough proof that this company, and Risnorth, were involved in crimes against children, including the ones from Meteor City."
Pakunoda withdrew her hand and turned to Chrollo, who was walking toward her from behind.
"The evidence is sufficient."
"Thank you for your hard work."
Chrollo smiled and nodded at her, his eyes full of admiration.
He hadn't expected Pakunoda to develop such a useful ability.
By making physical contact with another person, she could retrieve memories from their minds.
And not just surface memories that one could consciously suppress, but the kind buried deep within the human subconscious.
At present, Pakunoda's standard procedure for activating her ability was to ask a question first, then, the moment she touched the target, she could read their memories.
The questions were asked to facilitate access to the deepest memories.
Thus, even if the target tried to think of something else, it wouldn't affect the memory extraction.
"I'll contact Shalnark later and have him collect some of the items we need from this company."
Pakunoda said, pulling out her phone.
"We can get away before the so-called police arrive."
Chrollo observed the scene calmly.
Everything at the site was being handled in perfect order.
He oversaw the situation from outside, while Uvogin, Nobunaga, Phinks, and Franklin acted as the combatants, knocking out all of the guards.
Pakunoda, through memory extraction, obtained key clues to the evidence.
Shalnark roamed the company, seizing anything that would be useful to them.
Inside, Luke confronted Risnorth directly, with Machi assisting from the side, and Feitan handling the interrogation and torture.
Altogether, their operation had gone remarkably smoothly, almost too smoothly.
"After completing all the preliminary preparations, we will swiftly launch the operation."
"We will leave the target no chance to breathe and end everything with lightning speed..."
Chrollo mentally reviewed the operation, silently memorizing every detail of the action.
Well, in the future, at the Yorknew City Arc.
Chrollo's actions also clearly demonstrated his decisiveness.
Don't be fooled by how calmly he stayed in the base later, or how long that story arc lasted.
In truth, those many episodes are just a few days.
Especially the Phantom Troupe raid on the underground auction, where Uvogin, Nobunaga, Shizuku, Feitan, Machi, Shalnark, and Franklin formed a seven-member team for the operation.
They launched a sudden assault, stealing all the auction items.
If everything had gone smoothly, they would have slaughtered all the mafia attendees, then had Shizuku clean up the bodies and traces that could lead to them, and escape by hot-air balloon, making it a flawless execution.
Unfortunately, due to Neon's fortune-telling ability, their first operation failed, and what followed spiraled into everything that came after.
Normally, under Chrollo's arrangements, they should have been able to quickly complete their mission and evacuate on the first night of their assembly, just like now.
And this would set the tone for their future operations: fast, precise, ruthless, and efficient!!
Chrollo quietly continued reviewing and recording everything.
Uvogin and the others chatted casually, but they didn't slack off at all.
They thoroughly searched every floor of the company building.
Well, there was quite a commotion here.
The workers working overtime on the lower floors had long since deserted the building.
This was originally a night operation, so there weren't many overtime workers.
After all, this was still the 1980s, long before the era of chronic overwork in the 2020s.
Soon, under Pakunoda's direction, Shalnark, the team's tech specialist, retrieved all the company's critical data.
Then they split into two groups.
Shalnark, Pakunoda, Franklin, and Phinks, led by Chrollo, went to locate the evidence hidden by the tall man.
As for the upper floors, after confirming that everything was complete…