Chapter 1168
While she thought that direct clashes over useless territory were probably the worst way to engage in a war, Velvet wasn’t going to tell anyone from the great powers that. Ultimately, it was best that they wore each other down. Over the course of a couple years, she had focused mostly on organizing local groups to be transported away, and only very rarely did she remove anyone from the land of the living. If she did, it was in a way that could easily be traced to the most visible enemies.
Soon, they would be reaching a threshold where extracting anyone else from the core of the fighting became impractical. Those who were going to die were mostly dead already. That didn’t count those still at risk as the warzone expanded, which it might as more subfactions got involved. Things hadn’t yet reached the disaster levels that had created something like the Bloodsoaked Nebula, but now that proper fighting was happening between the two great powers it was likely that things would go further than they had in centuries.
Shady back-alley deals weren’t anything new to Velvet, but she hadn’t previously done many where just a few kilometers away largish turtles were eating forests at approximately the same rate those forests grew, flailing at them.
“You’ll pass on the word to others who need to know, right?” Velvet said.
“Of course,” the man said. “I know just the right people to speak to.”
“Excellent.”
She made a show of walking away, slowly slipping into crowds. A small strand of her senses was stuck to her espionage target for the day, and once she thought it reasonable she doubled back and began to follow him.
Sometimes, people lied to her face and she would get rid of them. Other times, she had to let them go. This time, she just had to wait. He did know who he was going to speak to, but Velvet didn’t. So she was going to have to find that out. She assumed he didn’t keep a clear record of criminal associates in his pockets at all times.
Criminals weren’t all bad. There were plenty of reasons for people to be keeping a low profile in the current climate. But this guy was supposed to be helping gather people to take off world.