Suren looked at the mysterious man before him, his eyes not relaxing their vigilance in the slightest.

Although the two were talking, killing intent was subtly hidden.

In the short span of a few breaths during their conversation, Suren's keen eyes noticed something unusual.

The black market had crisscrossing waterways and a humid environment, so it bred many mosquitoes and insects.

But when this guy appeared, the mosquitoes in the alley strangely fell to the ground. It was as if an invisible barrier of death was slowly eroding Suren.

The guy mentioned "x-serum," but he wasn't naively trying to reminisce; he was using those words as cover for a hidden assassin.

Suren had also guessed that since the other party recognized that his body had been modified with x-serum, his first reaction would definitely be to assume that people from Duke Raphael were coming after him!

Therefore, it made sense to try and kill him.

"Strange... it's not an alchemical formula, nor does it seem like a conventional toxin. What exactly is this method?"

Suren was a little curious, not understanding the man's attack method.

There was no sign of a condensed formula, or even any energy fluctuations.

It looked like he was manipulating some kind of deadly microorganism in the air?

This method was truly difficult to defend against for assassinations.

Therefore, Suren didn't probe, and directly asked the question: "What are you to Danny Banks?"

.......

When the mysterious man heard Suren's words, he immediately knew that the other party might have guessed his identity.

But why ask about his son, instead of directly exposing his identity?

A moment of confusion.

Suren wouldn't give this guy a chance to misunderstand, so he directly dropped a bombshell and stated, "I'm Danny's friend. He's not dead."

If there were no accidents, he guessed that this guy was definitely a direct blood relative of Danny!

There were many ways for humans to awaken their talents, but bloodline inheritance was the most common breakthrough.

Danny's awakened talent was the second-stage 【d-031-Enhanced Sense of Smell】. Suren had been found by him from a long distance away using this trick.

Now that someone else was using it, he naturally made the connection.

Knowing about "x-serum" and also having the talent for smell, there couldn't be so many coincidences in this world.

However, Danny said his parents had died in the explosion. All other relatives had also been secretly executed by Duke Raphael after the accident.

Suren was curious how this man had survived?

......

"What, Danny isn't dead!"

Sure enough, upon hearing this, the mysterious man was greatly shocked.

Even though he was wearing a cloak and his face couldn't be seen, his excitement was palpable.

He asked in a deliberately lowered, hoarse voice, "Who exactly are you?"

Suren glanced at his surroundings. The invisible barrier hadn't continued to approach, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

It was good that he hadn't attacked.

He said directly, "I told you, I'm his friend. He was lucky to survive the lab accident explosion, and then he came to the outer city from the sewers..."

Danny had told Suren a lot about his parents, so by mentioning some details about their lives, the other party would immediately be able to judge the truth of his words.

Upon hearing this, the mysterious man believed him. He seemed lost in thought, muttering excitedly and tearfully, "Danny is still alive... he's still alive..."

That kind of ecstasy of finding something after losing it could indeed cause someone to lose their composure.

Especially for parents.

Seeing his expression, Suren was certain that this guy was either Danny's father or his mother!

After a few breaths, the mysterious man asked again, "Where is Danny now, Old Lingdun? How is he?"

Suren said, "He's safe for now, he should be in the Lu Ying Imperial Capital. But his condition isn't good."

Hearing this, the mysterious man's tone obviously became more urgent. Without waiting for Suren to finish, he quickly interrupted, "What's wrong with him?"

It wasn't sensitive information, so Suren said directly, "After the lab accident, although he didn't die, he injected a half-finished 【Aberration Reversal Agent】 due to his mutation, so his lifespan has reached its end. If there are no accidents, he may run out of lifespan within a year or two."

"Gene mutation?"

The mysterious man murmured, "I see... so that's how it is."

Suren keenly caught the slight emotional fluctuation, as if he was relieved?

Thinking about it, it was understandable. The chief scientist who could research "x-serum" in Old Lingdun must have top-notch attainments in the field of contemporary biotechnology.

It wouldn't be surprising if he could solve that level of mutation.

But people who have lived in betrayal and conspiracy for a long time will always use the worst conditions to assume those who approach you.

This mysterious man was the same.

After asking these questions, his eyes suddenly returned to indifference. He sized up Suren and asked bluntly, "What do you want from me?"

This person had been following him earlier, obviously with a purpose, and may have been watching for a long time.

Now he was saying that he was his son's friend, so his motives had to be suspected.

"The technology of neural machinery."

Suren naturally guessed what the other party was thinking, and didn't hide his thoughts at all.

In this situation, if he were in the other party's position, he would be just as cautious.

Hiding it was not as good as telling the whole truth.

"Oh?"

Hearing this, the mysterious man was not surprised at all, but snorted coldly.

But his attitude suddenly became gloomy.

Even Duke Raphael might not know that he had mastered neural machinery technology, yet this person revealed it in one breath... This was quite intriguing.

Others might not be clear about the value of this technology, but he knew it very well.

That was something worth countless lives.

If it were taken out, the two great empires would risk their lives to fight for it.

Once this purpose was stated, all the previous words and motives seemed less pure.

Suren also guessed what he was worried about and said directly, "Before, I learned through some channels that Banner had been transformed into a full-body mechanical body, so I guessed that someone around him had mastered neural machinery technology. So, when I met you earlier, I took the liberty of following you."

"So that's how it is..."

Hearing this, the mysterious man understood some of his doubts.

So that's how he was exposed.

But he didn't ask any further questions, just sneered, "There aren't many people who know that Banner is a mechanical body. Let me think... Is it that Umbrella organization woman?"

Sabina's disguised identity was a gang boss, so it wouldn't be strange to guess the person closest to Banner.

Suren didn't hide it and nodded, "Yes."

Hearing that the information was obtained through the Umbrella organization, the mysterious man could no longer hide his indifference, and said with a sneer, "Hehe... you do have a condition that I can't refuse. Tell me, how do you want to exchange it?"

In Old Lingdun, he had seen too many dirty power struggles. Obviously, he had already determined that Suren had investigated everything and then wanted to use "Danny" as a condition to threaten him.

.......

Suren was not surprised that this person would misunderstand. He shook his head slightly and said directly, "I said, Danny is my friend. I didn't mean to use this as an exchange. I need neural machinery technology for some personal reasons, and it doesn't represent any power. Even if the transaction fails, Danny is still my friend. This will never change."

After a pause, he added, "Sabina did serve the Umbrella organization before, but she is my person now. And I..."

Speaking of this, he didn't continue.

He didn't reveal his identity as a member of the "Mirror Organization," nor did he reveal Danny's current situation.

This world had many strange extraordinary powers. Although he guessed, he wasn't sure that this person was definitely Danny's close relative!

Perhaps it was some special existence that carried the memories of Danny's close relatives?

Just like the fallen angel soul that once relied on Pestoya's soul.

Because Suren sensed something unusual.

He hadn't felt anything too strange before, but after sensing it at a close distance, he found that this mysterious man's aura was very wrong. The "halo" around him that killed the mosquitoes originated from the same source as the aura on his body.

That aura now sealed off the alley.

Obviously, he was ready to fight.

This mysterious man was not someone to be trifled with, whether in terms of temperament or means.

Continuing to contact him might backfire.

"Forget it, let's leave it at that for now. Let's talk about other things after we have enough trust."

Suren said, not planning to continue talking, and prepared to leave.

He really wanted to obtain the neural machinery technology, but not immediately.

Moreover, now that he had some contact with this mysterious man, there would be opportunities in the future.

"Not an exchange?"

The mysterious man looked at Suren's attitude and fell into contemplation.

He seemed to be hesitating whether to take action to keep this person here.

If he could capture him and threaten him with his life, the positions of the two sides would be reversed immediately, and he could also force him to reveal more information.

But looking at Suren's calm appearance, he knew that he might not be so easy to deal with.

.......

Suren didn't plan to stay any longer and turned to leave.

The unknown "halo" that sealed off the alley was indeed tricky, but it wouldn't be a big problem to use spatial displacement to get out.

He didn't plan to conflict with this mysterious man.

But just as he turned to leave, a soft shout suddenly came from behind him: "Wait!"

Suren glanced back, "???"

"How do I contact you?"

The mysterious man said, afraid of being misunderstood, and added, "What I mean is, I want to make some gene-repairing potions for Danny. I hope you can bring them to him."

He could wait, but Danny's body couldn't wait.

No one knew the effects of gene mutation on the human body better than he did.

He had also figured it out. If this person was from Duke Raphael, there was no need to say so much. Once they found out that he was still alive, they would definitely cut the grass and eliminate the roots, cutting off the possibility of technology outflow.

Could it be someone from the Lu Ying Empire, or from Martha?

But no matter what, nothing was more important than his son.

"Alright."

Suren was not surprised by his words at all, and even breathed a sigh of relief.

At least he was more certain that this person cared about Danny's safety.

If he had humanity, he wasn't a monster.

But he pondered for a moment, and instead of answering, he asked, "Before that, I have a question to ask you. Who exactly are you?"

"You should have guessed who I am."

The mysterious man didn't hesitate and directly revealed his identity: "I am Danny's father, Pikeman Banks."

After a pause, probably to make Suren believe his words, he lifted the hood of his cloak.

Suren listened and thought: As expected.

But looking at the non-human face in front of him, his pupils also shrank suddenly.

This was a face shaped like asphalt, with very distorted features. Two huge eyes occupied half of his face. On closer inspection, he could see compound eyes like a fly's eye, densely packed with thousands of small eyes. When he opened his mouth, there was a mouth full of dense sharp teeth.

No matter how you looked at it, this was an aberrant monster, or an alien creature.

Not a human.

After a moment of surprise, Suren asked calmly, "Danny should be very happy to know that his father is not dead. But sorry, I want to ask... how did you survive?"

Hearing this, the mysterious man sighed slightly.

He also knew that he had to explain something in order to gain the other party's trust.

He then slowly said, "Danny should have told you about the lab accident. At that time, there were actually some changes..."

........

The Banks couple were the leaders of the "Project X" project, but after discovering that Duke Raphael's experiment caused too many innocent people to die, they planned to terminate the project.

Suren learned the causes and consequences from Danny, and the version he heard from this person was not much different.

But there were also some twists and turns in that lab accident.

Originally, the Banks couple planned to slowly sabotage "Project X" by other means, but they were discovered in advance. When they were about to be arrested, they had no choice but to detonate the entire lab in a hurry.

They originally thought that their family would die together with the lab, but there was a small mistake.

The "Dr. Pikeman" in front of him was explaining how he survived, and he explained it in detail.

"The so-called aberration is when a living body can't withstand certain alien factors and mutates. More precisely, the essence of human aberration is that certain special factors change the original gene sequence of the human body and obtain the biological characteristics of alien genes. But in fact, those 'alien factors' are not all malignant. It's just that the human body is too weak to withstand them... This is also the purpose of our research."

"The larger the size and the higher the level of the creature, the more violent the mutation process it can withstand. But correspondingly, their reproductive ability is lower. This is the subtle balance point of living things in nature."

"..."

Suren's basic knowledge in the field of biological science was now solid, so he didn't listen to it completely confused.

From Pikeman's mouth, he also learned more secrets about "Project X".

It turned out that during the hundred years of archeology in Old Lingdun, the wasteland hunters had discovered many strange ancient objects. Even things that could prolong life were not just the 【Heart of the Fallen Angel】.

That was just a part of "Project X".

The mysterious man continued, "I was also working on another top-secret project at the time. We found a piece of abyssal creature tissue that still had activity. I extracted a cell from it that had very strong activity. It has super-strong division ability and repair ability. In some ways, the number of cell divisions determines the lifespan of a living thing. But in my research process, I didn't find the upper limit of its division times. Theoretically, this ancient biological tissue is an 'immortal body'. So, I called it the 【Eternal Cell】."

"I set up a new experimental project, which was to add a gene segment of this cell to the human gene chain to prolong life. But all experiments ended in failure. In the end, 'x-serum' became the main direction of research..."

"Well... I've said a little too much. I just want to explain that I'm not a monster. I have a completely rational mind. It just changed my gene chain, thereby affecting the physical structure..."

......

After listening, Suren automatically separated those professional terms in his mind, and then got a simple story outline.

After the explosion, Pikeman did die.

But the creature in the petri dish in the lab was also scattered in the explosion, and then merged with the corpse by coincidence. The 【Eternal Cell】 repaired his brain and body tissue, and then became what he is now.

As for the subsequent mechanical transformation of Banner, and some other coincidences...

So, the "Butcher" Banner looked like the fourth fleet's pirate squad leader, but in fact, this Pikeman was the real behind-the-scenes controller.

Suren listened to him speak with clear logical thinking, and didn't seem like a monster, or possessed by some will, so he relaxed a little.

However, it didn't matter whether he was or not.

At least he had no hostility, and communication would be very convenient.

After listening, Suren said, "I can help you bring the potion to Danny. After the potion is ready, you can put it in the 'Fire Dance Tavern'. I will pick it up then."

Pikeman nodded and didn't say much, "Okay!"

This method was good for both sides who didn't trust each other.

Suren didn't mention the "neural machinery blueprint" again, and the atmosphere became much more relaxed for some reason.

After speaking, the two disappeared into one end of the alley.

.......

Stepping onto the street again, Suren's expression also seemed very relaxed.

He recalled the previous conversation and thought of something, and said with emotion, "That ability to kill all the mosquitoes is really the ability to control microorganisms. Tsk tsk... this thing is even more bizarre than toxins. Besides, according to him, even injuries that shatter the body can be repaired by the 【Eternal Cell】, which is a bit exaggerated. His combat power is really hard to say..."

Now it seemed that "Pikeman" was probably really Danny's father.

Moreover, since he was willing to die together to terminate the experiment, his character should not be bad.

The risk of subsequent contact would also be very low.

Suren was just worried about whether his 【Eternal Cell】 would affect his mind in the future.

However, that top biological scientist should be clear about the situation himself, and he didn't need to worry about it.

After they had mutual trust in the future, the "neural machinery blueprint" would also be expected to be obtained. Suren's own mechanical golem army plan would also take a big step forward.

Moreover, it wasn't just a blueprint.

That Dr. Pikeman was a top scientist in the fields of neural machinery and biotechnology.

There was still a lot of room for cooperation in the future.

Suren felt that the beginning was good.

Unconsciously, he walked into a brightly lit alley.

This was a food street, with orange lanterns overhead illuminating the entire street. The shops on the street were lit with dazzling neon signs. The windows were filled with piles of food, red and plump large sausages, fish balls rolling in boiling soup, golden and oily roasted suckling pigs on the grill, live and kicking octopus teppanyaki, fragrant smoked turkey, fresh and tender deep-sea fish sashimi...

Diners were sitting on high stools, feasting.

The wonderful aroma of food in the air floated into his nose, and Suren also felt his stomach rumbling.

He stretched out his hand, and the trick costume change transformed his clothes back into his previous pirate outfit, and he strode over.

Pirate City's food was extremely rich, and it was inhabited by believers of various faiths. Their food also had the characteristics of various civilizations, with thousands of small snacks scattered around. This was an absolutely delicious taste bud journey that could not be enjoyed anywhere else.

Compared to those exquisite restaurant foods, Suren preferred these delicious street snacks that could give people a great sense of satiety.

He walked along the way, tasting fresh food and eating a lot of delicious food.

Experiencing food was also the meaning of traveling.

Appetite was also one of the most instinctive desires of human beings. Among these roadside stalls, it was not uncommon to see some great pirates.

The great pirate "Iron Nun" Susie Meyer, with a reward of 146 million Liso, the noble human trafficker "Poison Buddha" Kabi Price, with a reward of 255 million, the defector naval lieutenant colonel "Black Dragon" Nolan da Silva, with a reward of 89 million...

Suren had a good memory, and seeing those faces that he had once seen on wanted posters walking on the street was like seeing strings of walking bounties.

These characters who could only hide their heads and tails elsewhere could walk on the street at will here.

Suren ate all the way, which could also be considered as revealing his whereabouts in the city.

He knew that under this calm, there were the eyes and ears of various intelligence agencies.

Among pirates, there was no shortage of intelligence merchants.

.......

It was still early, and Suren planned to go to the geisha house to stroll around.

The formal geisha houses were not brothels, and geishas only sold their art, not their bodies.

The Mountain Hidden Country was very poor and feudal.

These geishas were official "labor export" personnel sent out to earn money.

Geishas were not bar girls, nor did they provide erotic services, but were truly talented women with outstanding attainments in etiquette, tea ceremony, martial arts, speech skills, poetry, calligraphy, and musical instruments.

They started learning art at the age of a few years old, and only officially went to sea at the age of sixteen. Geishas were also proficient in the art of conversation. It was said that they had the most complete intelligence from all over the pirate ship in their mouths, and they were also proficient in the art of conversation. They knew how to cater to men's self-esteem, were good at observing words and expressions, and understood the emotions of their guests. They could allow guests to enjoy a very satisfying spiritual enjoyment. It could be said that geishas showed the most beautiful姿态姿态 of young girls to their guests.

Suren hadn't experienced it, and thought that it was probably a kind of spiritual enjoyment?

Although it was expensive, it was really worth it in a certain sense.

The tens of thousands of dollars that the pirate group gave Suren could probably invite an ordinary geisha to drink tea and listen to a few songs.

Don't even think about oiran, you won't have a chance to meet them without a few million.

Don't look at the pirates being sloppy on weekdays, but they never stinged on enjoyment. It was common to see great pirates spending a lot of money in Pirate City.

As Suren walked, after crossing a wooden bridge, he suddenly smelled a faint fragrance of cherry blossoms in the air.

When he looked up, he saw a gold-lacquered wooden plaque of "Nagano House" hanging in a cherry blossom tree that was in full bloom.

In his impression, this was one of the most famous formal geisha houses on the pirate ship.

He didn't know how these guys transplanted the cherry blossom trees here, but they managed to create a winding and secluded feeling in this narrow group of buildings.

It had to be said that the sign alone made people feel very comfortable.

Suren walked over, planning to see it.

He didn't expect to meet Chiyo here.