Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 513 Group Departure
On the third night, we were still in the camp.

There was a large group of people sitting or standing around a campfire.

They are the last bit of assets of this ranger organization, so the "combat meeting" before departure has become very important.

"It looks like everyone is here, let's get started."

Soon, a middle-aged man in his forties with a beard and a tough look stood in the middle of the crowd and spoke in a tone that was neither humble nor arrogant, neither high nor low...

"Let me introduce myself first. I am... Von Campbell Hewitt Manuel, and I am considered an 'old man' of this organization. Many of you here should know me, or at least have heard of my deeds." Old Von paused here, slowly looked around, and then continued, "Right now, the elders hope that I will preside over this meeting. Do you have any objections?"

In his opening remarks, he first mentioned his qualifications and then stated that he had the endorsement of the elders, so naturally no one would have any objections.

In fact, even if he didn't say anything and just started hosting, there would be no problem...

After all, this ranger organization is "loose" in nature, so there aren't so many intrigues or power struggles. Anyone who can respond to the elders' call and come here are all knights who are willing to help you voluntarily, and most of these people are not particular about details.

"Okay, let's get down to business, Lao Feng. Once we're on the road, you'll have plenty of time to show off your 'deeds'." Two seconds later, a short and stocky man who was about the same age as Lao Feng, but looked more rugged and sloppy, spoke up by the campfire in a teasing tone.

This guy is actually almost as famous as Lao Feng, because he is Lao Feng's partner, known as "Zhuangke", which means "drunk"...

To have this nickname, he is obviously a skilled person. Just look at his behavior: he holds a bottle of wine in his hand all day long, his face is always drunk, he has a red nose, red cheeks, and a big beard that almost covers his chest. The food residue in his beard is probably enough to feed dozens of different insects.

This person, who can become a partner with Old Feng, who looks mature and steady and whose name sounds like a descendant of an aristocracy, must have strong fighting power.

"Okay, okay." Lao Feng didn't want to argue with him. He was used to his partner undermining him, so he just continued talking as if nothing had happened, "Then... I'll start from the beginning."

He paused for a few seconds, sorted out his thoughts, and then continued: "It all started when the organization received a letter asking for help from someone named 'Belmondo'."

As soon as he finished his first sentence, people began to talk.

"Yes, it's that 'Belmondo', but the authenticity is questionable." Lao Feng continued, "After all, there has been no news about their family for many years, and there are even rumors that their bloodline has been cut off long ago. But no matter what, the content of the letter still seems to be true.

"The letter said... In the past two months, there have been a number of cases of girls going missing in a village in the mountainous area on the border of Transylvania. No one has found the bodies of any of the girls, alive or dead.

"The villagers in the village inquired and searched for a long time, and basically ruled out the possibility that he ran away on his own or encountered bandits or wild beasts. So someone remembered... there was a castle abandoned for many years on a cliff a few miles away from the village. Only that place had not been searched.

“But everyone in the village knows that the castle was burned down by a fire many years ago, and many parts of it collapsed. Even the castle gate was blocked by collapsed building debris. That possibility should not exist.

"But with the mentality of trying everything possible, the village chief organized some people to investigate. As a result, they were surprised to find that the castle had changed without knowing when.

“I don’t know what’s going on inside the castle, but the ruins of the building at the gate are gone, and the iron gate is intact and closed.

"The villagers then called more people and took ladders and tools to try to cross the moat, open the gate and go in to take a look.

"What happened next... the letter didn't say anything, it just said that many people died and that he had already rushed to Transylvania to investigate, hoping that the organization could send some people to assist him.

"At the end of the letter, there was only a surname, 'Belmondo', but no name was left."

When Lao Feng said this, a short man sitting in the front row asked, "Could this letter be a trap?"

"This is indeed a possible hypothesis, but it has not been verified so far." Lao Feng continued, "Because after receiving the letter, the organization sent three teams to Transylvania in half a year, and each team had more people than the last, but they all went without returning, and no news was sent back.

"Afterwards, the elders discussed and decided to gather all the elite troops that the organization could mobilize at that time, which was the 'Fourth Team' that came before us.

"That team was led by 'Nicholas', but... they were gone for a long time and there is no news from them till now."

When Nicholas' name came up, the look on Tyrell's face changed noticeably.

If Lao Feng is an old senior that many people have heard of, then Nicholas can be said to be a big star in the organization that everyone knows.

But even he is now in an uncertain state of life and death, which is indeed disturbing.

"That is to say, the few of us left now have to clean up the mess for all the people in front, right?" Zhuangke continued in a summary tone.

"Our first priority is investigation, followed by rescue... Of course, if there are still survivors." Lao Feng continued, "Assuming that we still have energy left after completing these two tasks, we will consider eliminating the culprit that caused this crisis." He paused for half a second, "But judging from the situation of the first four teams, I am not optimistic about this... Realistically speaking, I think it would be good if we can complete the 'investigation' this time, and we can only give up the 'rescue' if necessary."

"How can we do that?" Tyrael was excited. "Are we going to sneak back here without caring about the people who can be saved?"

Hearing this, Old Feng turned his head and looked at him: "Yes, if the situation forces us, we will have to do that." He also sighed and said, "After all, the power of our organization is still limited. If we find that the threat we face is too strong... then we can only complete the 'investigation' mission, and then bring back the intelligence and hand it over to other stronger organizations to let them solve the matter.

"Of course, that is the final option. If we really do that, our organization will actually be 'dead in name only', so if possible, it is best for our team to resolve the matter."

"Let me ask you something..." At this time, Huang Donglai, who was squatting in the crowd like a minion, finally spoke up, "What if our group of people can't come back, that is, we can't complete the 'investigation' mission, what should we do?"

“If we lose contact with them, the elders will simply declare the organization dissolved and hand over everything in the organization to the church,” Lao Feng replied.

As soon as these words were spoken, there was an immediate chorus of dissatisfaction among the crowd.

"What? To those guys in the church?"

"How about that..."

"Is there no other choice?"

"Fuck it, are you risking everything? Suicide Squad, right?" Sun Yixie cursed when he heard this, but he was not like the others who had any hostility towards the church, nor was he unhappy out of some sense of honor. He was just timid and complained when he heard that the trip was very dangerous.

"Heh... a bunch of cowards, thinking about failure before you even go. If you're so afraid, why don't you just not go?" Only Zhuangke, still drunk, was standing there making such mocking remarks.

"Hey! What do you mean by that? Buddy!" Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, someone was irritated by him and stood up.

The man who stood up was a giant with a height of more than two meters. There was nothing special about his attire, but on his head was a small sack with two holes on it, which were just big enough to reveal his eyes.

This guy is also a powerful character, known as "Ugly Bob", an old Londoner who was born and raised in North America.

It is said that this guy was born extremely ugly, and when he shows his face, he can scare monsters and demons, so he wears a sack on his head all year round.

Originally, Ugly Bob was supposed to join the Fourth Team of the organization's elite, but he happened to be sick during that time and was unable to go, while his two fellow countrymen partners... Terrence and Philip both went, so Bob's mentality this time was similar to Tyrael's, and he also hoped to rescue his companions.

"I'm not your buddy, guy." The strong man didn't look at Ugly Bob in a good mood and responded indifferently.

"I'm not your guy or friend either!" Ugly Bob retorted again.

"I'm not your friend, buddy!" The strong man became excited for some reason.

You can probably guess what Ugly Bob said next: "I'm not your buddy! Guy!"

This trick is actually a special ability of Ugly Bob. When he is arguing with someone, he can put the other person (and himself) into this strange loop. His partners Terrence and Philip also know this trick.

Moreover, the launch of this tactic is often uncontrollable. When they are arguing with others, sometimes it happens naturally during the conversation... Of course, it is not difficult to stop it, as long as there is a third party to pull the two parties apart.

From a certain perspective, this move could be considered "forced control" if used properly, but at the moment... it was obviously launched accidentally, so several brothers who knew about it quickly dragged away the troublemaker and stopped this farce.

"Hmm..." Seeing that his foul-mouthed partner had finally left, Lao Feng spoke again, "Where were we just talking about? Oh, right, anyway... 'Investigation' is the minimum task we have to complete, and in order to better complete it, I suggest that we make adequate preparations before we set off, and not just go on the road like the previous team did... It's best for us to hide our identities to avoid attracting the attention of certain threats in advance during the journey, which is safer."

At this point, Lao Feng looked at everyone again and said, "Do you have any good ideas for disguises? Feel free to tell me. Of course... I won't be thinking about 'disguising as a caravan'."

Everyone understood what he said, because the trick of pretending to be a caravan was too easy to be discovered, and even if you pretended well, it would increase the threat of plunder from bandits and local lords.

Then, this bunch of rough guys started "brainstorming", or "collecting ideas"... Anyway, they came up with all kinds of ideas, some even suggested dressing up as robbers, and they were basically all funny suggestions.

But as the saying goes, three heads are better than one, and when there are many random ideas, a reliable one will emerge - how about we put on a circus?
Everyone thought about it and it made sense.

A circus is a traveling group. Not only is the number of people flexible, but the composition of the personnel and the luggage can be very diverse... Not to mention cold weapons, you can also bring cannons and wild beasts with the convoy, and there will be no suspicion.

Moreover, the circus is not very afraid of robbers, because this business is about "performing" rather than "selling goods", and there is generally not much profit to be made. The circus's resistance is much stronger than that of a caravan.

The most important thing is that these guys in the organization all have "unique skills". They may not be able to act like businessmen, but if you ask them to show off some special skills, can't they do it easily?

In short, the more everyone thought about this idea, the more reasonable it seemed. So they just started to work. That night, everyone worked together with the tailors, blacksmiths, leatherworkers and others in the camp to make the big tent, performance costumes, performance props and other necessities.

The preparations took several days, and during these days, these "rangers" gradually became familiar with each other and everyone had thought about the roles they would play in the circus.

There are animal trainers, knife throwers, trapeze artists, and magicians...

Of course, there has to be a clown too.

I don't even need to say it, everyone knows that there are two people who are very suitable for the job of clown.

As we all know, there were quite a few black people, white people, Arabs... in Europe at that time, and ordinary people had seen them all, but people from the Central Plains of China were really rare.

In this ranger camp, most people are used to it, so it's no big deal. But if they really go out to perform and let Sun and Huang, two Han Chinese faces, appear in public, there will probably be some unknown risks.

Well, once they put on the clown makeup, there’s no problem. They all have white faces and red noses, and they wear either wigs or hats on their heads. Who can tell where they are from?
As for the work that the clown has to do, like performing some acrobatics, doing some body language moves, livening up the atmosphere and so on... wouldn't that be the same for two people who know martial arts?

Just like that, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai, although a little reluctant in their hearts, eventually became the only choices for the two clowns in the circus.

To make a long story short, a week after Shuangxie arrived at the camp, finally... all the preparations needed for the team's trip were ready. Their huge "circus" convoy, led by the team leader Lao Feng, officially set off westward.

(End of this chapter)