296: Chapter 290 Do Not Subscribe (Anti-Theft Chapter) — If the subscription situation doesn't improve after this chapter, I will stop using anti-theft measures.

"Fifty thousand each."

The second and third brothers were instantly stunned.

The jacket-wearing kidnapper stopped his groaning. He felt bewildered; the three of them had lived hand-to-mouth for over a decade, and the gold coins they had saved up weren't even as high as the bounty on one of them?

If he had known this earlier, he could have just sent the third brother to the Law Enforcement Bureau to achieve financial freedom. At worst, he could have just raised the man's wife and children in the village!

After a long silence, the second and third brothers came to their senses and exchanged a subtle glance, instantly understanding the meaning in each other's eyes: He had no intention of letting them go.

Having made an accurate assessment of the situation, the two reached a decision. The next second, they turned and fled, rushing crazily toward the door.

Trying to run?

Li Wei raised his leg, hitting the jacket-wearing kidnapper in the chin with a knee strike to knock him out. Then, he channeled the magic energy in his meridians to accelerate, leaving a blur in his wake to block the other two.

"Fight him!"

Before the words were even out, Li Wei knocked them both down with two straight punches.

He kicked the two limp figures on the ground, and once he confirmed they had lost consciousness, he turned back to Ade and untied his ropes: "Hey, one hundred and fifty thousand Lites. We're rich..."

"When did you become a Magic User?"

"Huh? That's not important. One hundred and fifty thousand Lites! My monthly salary is only 4,000!"

Watching Li Wei, who ripped the hemp rope apart as if it were a nuisance, Ade's expression was inexplicably complex: "If I were a Magic User... never mind."

He stood up and stretched his stiff limbs from being tied up for too long, then pulled out the handcuffs from his back waist and crouched down beside the jacket-wearing kidnapper, preparing to cuff him.

"Bang—"

The dilapidated door was suddenly kicked open from the outside, and a group of law enforcement officers in black tactical gear, wielding standard-issue longswords, filed in.

"Ade?"

"You took down the kidnappers?"

After arriving near the wooden house on the outskirts of the Fog Forest, Luke had been planning a tactical strategy when he suddenly heard a shrill scream. Thinking his colleague was being tortured, he chose a head-on assault and charged straight in, only to find the thugs had already been subdued.

Luke stepped forward, used his foot to turn the jacket-wearing kidnapper's face toward him, and then his eyes widened in shock: "Sean?!"

The team members, who had been checking the scene, all swarmed over. After carefully examining Sean's face, a clamor broke out: "It really is him!"

"There's no mistake, I saw his face during the last arrest operation!"

Luke looked at Ade in astonishment: "You took down the Sean brothers all by yourself?"

"It was Li..."

Li Wei firmly pressed down on Ade's shoulder: "That's right!"

"Ade subdued all three of them alone!"

Chapter 3: How to Obtain Fate Points

Only Ade and Li Wei were at the scene, and the latter was a non-combatant. Although he found it hard to believe, Luke had no choice but to believe it.

After a moment of silence, he asked the two: "Do you have any reliable friends in other districts?"

"If you do, you should leave Weihai immediately."

To Li Wei's surprise, after the shock, Luke's expression suddenly turned desolate. He patted Ade on the shoulder and led his team out of the room.

He watched blankly as the group filed out of the door, dejected: "What's with them..."

Ade didn't pay much attention to the special operations team's strange reaction and calmly explained it to him.

It turned out that the reason the Sean brothers had remained at large was not only because they were truly powerful, but also because the Weihai District Chief had been obstructing justice.

The ordinary citizens at the bottom might know nothing, but most public officials working in government agencies knew a little something.

Those high-bounty criminals who could never be brought to justice were actually the District Chief's "black gloves," specifically helping him handle troubles that were inconvenient for him to address directly.

Of course, there were those who persisted in trying to deal with these malignant tumors, such as the former Director of the Law Enforcement Bureau who had planned the previous arrest of the Sean brothers.

Li Wei already knew what happened later: the operation failed, more than a dozen members of the special operations team were sacrificed, and that Director naturally didn't have a good ending.

"Then why did Sean capture the two of us?"

Li Wei carefully recalled the memories from the three days since his transmigration, confirming that neither he nor Ade had offended anyone, let alone provoked the boss of the Weihai District.

With an apologetic look, Ade scratched his head: "They must have been targeting me; you were just accidentally dragged into it."

"I have connections in the Imperial Capital. I'll write you a letter, and you can just take the train to the Imperial Capital later."

Based on when the annotations appeared, Li Wei guessed that the so-called "Prestige" was just "fame," similar to celebrities on Earth in his previous life—the higher the fame, the higher the income. Only for him, that income had turned into Fate Points.

Currently, the only protagonist he knew was Ade. If he died, there might not be any other protagonists. Even if there were, where would he find them?

The Phil Empire was now beset by internal and external troubles. Without sufficient strength, death was the only outcome!

Li Wei put on a determined expression: "I'll help you. I am a Magic User!"

"I really appreciate your help." Ade sighed, "But once the Weihai District Chief finds out you are a Magic User, he will definitely apply to his father to have a Magic User transferred here to kill me, and it likely won't just be one."

"So..."

"What are you saying? Am I, Li Wei, the kind of person who fears death?"

"I have faith in my heart, and I believe you do too. Instead of waiting for death, why don't we join forces to resist this filthy world!"

After a bit of persuasion, Ade was quite moved. He had been fighting alone, and Li Wei's words made him feel like he had found a companion.

"Okay!"

He nodded solemnly, but a moment later, he became troubled again: "But... how do we resist?"

"The Weihai District Chief will likely continue to send people disguised as criminals to assassinate us. Of course, those who practice Knight Magic are definitely no match for you."

"But if they keep failing, they will eventually discover the problem, and then they will send that Magic User..."

"Are you sure I'm weaker than him?"

"Yeah."

Facing Li Wei's questioning, Ade nodded affirmatively: "His name is Pisco. From what I can tell, his magic energy intensity is about the same as yours."

"But he has a non-graded Magic Weapon, a long-handled axe called Dals."

"Is it very powerful?"

"Very powerful. If you have equal strength using ordinary weapons, he can kill you instantly after using his Magic Weapon."

"The main thing is that the manufacturing technology for Magic Weapons has been lost, and the Core materials are also extinct."

"Currently, the highest grade of Magic Weapon known on the Hill Star is Blue. Its manufacturing technology has been lost, and the Core materials are also extinct."

"So even a non-graded Magic Weapon would never be given up by anyone. Otherwise, no matter the cost, I would help you get a suitable one."

Li Wei stroked his chin, pretending to be deep in thought, while his attention actually shifted to the two black-and-white weapon diagrams on the light screen.

【White Grade Magic Weapon — Steel-Breaking Sword, requires 100 Fate Points.】

【Legendary Grade Magic Weapon — Eternal Divine Spear, requires 10,000 Fate Points】

He looked up and confirmed the intelligence with Ade: "The District Chief won't send a Magic User at the beginning, right?"

"Of course. Magic Users are strategic resources. Besides, in their eyes, I'm a waste who can't even practice Knight Magic. Sending the three Sean brothers this time is already a sign that they take me seriously."

That's good.

Nodding secretly to himself, Li Wei had already roughly sorted out the plan for the follow-up.

The Phil Empire's rule was corrupt, leading to chaos in all aspects within its borders, and the Weihai District was chaos within chaos. Various crimes occurred frequently, and the massive number of ordinary citizens at the bottom suffered the most. And Ade was a law enforcement officer in the Weihai District.

Does this even need more consideration?

As long as he let Ade crack down on criminals—preferably wiping out all the criminals in the entire Weihai District—would he still have to worry about the citizens not supporting him?

Not to mention the "help" from the District Chief; it was highly likely he would continue to send his high-bounty criminals. Even if they weren't criminals, it didn't matter. He would just kill them and hand them over to Ade. If they weren't criminals, they would be!

As Ade's prestige grew, he would have the Fate Points to materialize a Magic Weapon. Pisco? Whoever comes dies!

Having simply sorted out the plan, Li Wei looked confident: "Don't worry, I have a way."

"What way?"

A sly smile played on the corner of his mouth as his gaze shifted to the three Sean brothers on the floor: "Are these three people notorious in the Weihai District?"

"Yeah, they've offended too many people. They rob everyone, whether they are from the lower or middle classes."

Isn't this ready-made prestige?

He patted Ade on the shoulder and said with a smile: "From now on, you are the hero law enforcement officer who captured the three Sean brothers!"