Muherr still remembered the first time he met Germain.
It was back in September 1998, during his time in the Kakin Empire.
At the time, Beyond, Saiyu, and Muherr had led a group of mercenaries to surround Germain and his team, who had refused to cooperate.
They had the upper hand.
Unexpectedly, Ging Freecss and his disciple, Kite, suddenly intervened.
Beyond, unsure of a guaranteed victory and unwilling to start a life-or-death battle with Germain and Ging right then and there, chose to retreat.
Since then, Muherr had never seen Germain again—at least, not face to face.
That being said, he continued to hear rumors about Germain from various sources, especially as Germain's reputation kept growing.
The Shadow Beasts, the Phantom Troupe, even the Chimera Ants...
All of them had fallen at his hands.
More and more, Muherr came to believe that letting Germain go back then was a terrible mistake.
He was becoming a major threat—one that would eventually come back for them.
Muherr had once held a grudge against Germain, but at this point, he had no intention of avenging those dead mercenaries.
More than anything, he just hoped Germain wouldn't come looking for him.
Fortunately, during the entire voyage of colonial exploration, no one had seen Germain or even heard a whisper of his whereabouts—let alone trouble from him.
That wasn't too surprising.
Beyond, Saiyu, and Muherr had all witnessed Germain's strange teleportation lantern.
If he wasn't on the BW1 ship, then he had to be on the Dark Continent.
Based on that, Pariston had already deduced Chairman Netero's plan—
To rendezvous with Germain's squad somewhere on the Dark Continent…
And forge a route from the Six Continents to the Dark Continent.
To sabotage this plan and prevent Germain and the others from succeeding, the best course of action was actually to expose Germain's teleportation lantern to the V6.
However, before doing that, they had to cooperate with Chairman Netero and also abide by the new "Blood Oath Shackles" created by Netero.
That's why everything had been kept secret until now.
Once Beyond set foot on the Dark Continent, the "Blood Oath Shackles" would be lifted, and all confidentiality agreements would be void.
So far, the chaos they stirred up was merely an appetizer.
The real operation—targeting Germain, Chairman Netero, and the rest—would begin once Beyond's group reached the Dark Continent.
But all of their original plans were based on the assumption that Germain was already on the Dark Continent.
Muherr never imagined he'd see Germain here, in this place.
Within less than fifteen minutes, the mercenary squad was utterly routed. Every single mech unit was destroyed.
The remaining members turned in panic to Muherr, too shaken to even fire their weapons.
We can't win.
Muherr fell silent for a moment. Then he sighed and tossed both his firearm and walkie-talkie to the ground.
"Surrender."
Seeing this, the morale-shattered soldiers around him let out a breath of relief. One by one, they dropped their weapons and raised their hands in surrender.
They had no desire to keep fighting those four unreasonable demons in front of them, only to end up being slaughtered like sheep.
When Germain and the others saw the remaining mercenaries surrender, they didn't insist on killing every last one. Their movements ceased.
Using "Telepathic Heart Voice," Germain quickly consulted with Bisky, Morel, and Shizuku. They soon reached an agreement.
Shizuku used "Blinky" to absorb all the mercenaries' weapons and gear, leaving them only in undershirts and pants.
Morel then used "Deep Purple" to form smoke ropes, tying them up tightly.
During the entire process, Germain and Bisky kept a close watch on the prisoners.
The moment anyone made a suspicious move, they would strike without hesitation—this time, showing no mercy.
Fortunately, none of the mercenaries acted foolishly. They all wanted to stay alive, so they complied with all of Shizuku and Morel's demands.
Once everything was done, Germain finally sheathed his Cleaver and holstered his flintlock. He stepped forward to face Muherr.
"I remember you," he said. "Last year in the Kakin Empire—you were standing beside Beyond and Saiyu."
Muherr lowered his head, looking a bit defeated.
"That was me. I'm Muherr, the leader of this mercenary unit. We were hired by Beyond to intercept and delay any pursuers here."
"And where are Beyond and the others now?"
"They left four days ago. They're headed toward the Boundary Gate, where the Gatekeepers reside. If you leave now, you probably won't be able to catch up."
"How long does the last stretch of the journey take?" Germain asked, not sounding particularly concerned.
"According to Beyond, if nothing goes wrong, it's two weeks. That's how long it took him last time when he traveled between the Transit Island and the Boundary Gate."
He was referring to Beyond's expedition to the Dark Continent half a century ago.
"What kind of members and equipment did they take with them?"
Muherr rattled off a list of names long enough to fill a full page. In short, the team included Beyond, Pariston, and Saiyu—among a total of twenty-five Nen users.
He shared everything he knew about their abilities and Nen-related intel with Germain.
However, Germain could tell that Muherr didn't actually know much. Some of the information was either incorrect or deliberately manipulated.
It seemed Pariston didn't fully trust this group of mercenaries either.
Later, Muherr mentioned the equipment taken by Beyond's expedition team.
Besides the firearms and mech suits specially made for Nen users, the most dangerous items were powerful explosives.
"They managed to get their hands on a batch of 'Poor Man's Rose,'" Muherr said quietly, his eyes dark and distant. "Normally, something strong enough to sink the BW1 shouldn't be allowed on board."
"But they have a Nen user with abilities similar to that glasses-wearing woman on your side. That's how they smuggled it in undetected."
The "glasses-wearing woman" in Muherr's words, of course, referred to Shizuku.
Germain understood now.
One of Beyond's plans for exploring the Dark Continent involved using the most direct and violent method—detonating explosives to deal with the "calamities."
"Thanks for the warning."
"So… now what?" Muherr gestured subtly with his chin toward himself and his men. "I've already told you everything I know."
"What are you going to do with us? Let us live… or execute us all?"
In truth, Germain didn't need Muherr to answer. Whether Muherr spoke or stayed silent, whether he lied or told the truth, Germain could still use "Telepathy" to sense the real answer.
In other words, even if Muherr tried to mislead or withhold information, Germain could piece together the truth on his own.
So Muherr giving up his intel didn't really count as a fair trade.
Still, considering that Muherr hadn't lied even once and had been cooperative from start to finish, Germain decided to show mercy.
"You're coming with us."
Muherr was visibly surprised. "You're not going to execute us?"
"You want to die that badly?"
"Uh, no… not really. We've got a ship stationed at a small harbor to the southeast. It was originally meant to rendezvous with Beyond's team. We can use it to leave."
"Alright, then, it's decided."
Germain exchanged a calm glance with Bisky, while Morel and Shizuku did the same, silently reaching their decision.
The group scavenged the supplies from the mercenaries and stored everything safely using Shizuku's "Blinky."
Afterward, they escorted the disarmed mercenaries to the harbor, searching for the ship that Muherr had mentioned.
Soon enough, it appeared before them — a massive deep-sea research vessel, remarkably huge.
On the coastline of the transfer base island, Germain left behind a teleportation lantern. This meant he still had eight of these lanterns unused.
Then, the group boarded the research vessel.
Germain instructed Morel to unbind the mercenaries so they could help operate the ship.
From there, they set sail northeast, embarking on a two-week journey.
Finally, on December 16, near the end of 1999, the research vessel arrived at the Boundary Gate Sea Area.
They witnessed the spectacular rising sea current stretching across the ocean's surface — like a gigantic wall soaring into the clouds, blocking all ships from moving forward.
*******
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