Gun of Ashes

Chapter 341: Chapter 22 Stowaway

After a brief darkness, a faint light turned on, the information broker sat in the middle, holding a few black rats in his arms. He had long expected Lorenzo’s arrival, with an indistinguishable smile on his face.

”Hello, Mr. Holmes,” he said directly.

Lorenzo sat down before him, curious and puzzled, while Kamu went outside to wait. Only the two of them were in this strange room.

”Are you the information broker?”

”Yes, is there anything you want to ask?”

Upon hearing his affirmation, Lorenzo’s curiosity grew even stronger. But soon his gaze fell into the darkness behind the information broker, where something was wriggling. With the eyesight of a Demon Hunter, Lorenzo saw.

It was a swarm of rats, countless rats crawling and moving in that dark corner. There were many holes on the wall for these rats to traverse, some of which had chains on their tails, seemingly a symbol of information transmission.

”Do you all seem to recognize me?”

Lorenzo did not rush to question, instead, he was curious about this point. Kamu and the information broker here, how did they recognize him immediately?

”Of course, you are the famous Mr. Holmes.”

The information broker said.

”In the Lower City District, Bola’s information is very valuable, let alone you are his close associate. We all know who you are, even though we’ve never met you.”

Lorenzo nodded, ”You do look like an information broker now.”

”Actually, we didn’t want to entertain you, guests related to Bola are not ones we wish to interact with,” the information broker continued.

”Why is that?”

”Because Bola is somewhat... strange,” the information broker said without any concealment.

”Oh? Tell me about it?” Lorenzo’s interest in this information broker grew even stronger.

It seemed he deliberately sparked Lorenzo’s curiosity, but Lorenzo had to admit he succeeded. Amid chasing smugglers, he still had time to listen to the information broker’s explanation.

”Mr. Holmes, do you know how we Inferior Rats exchange information?” The information broker revealed this commercial secret easily.

”It’s countless messages, omnipresent spies, passing them on during meetings, one to ten, ten to hundreds.”

”But they are just vagrants, many more confidential places remain out of their reach,” Lorenzo said, acknowledging the limitations of such power.

”Yes, but we can deduce hidden stories through minor events.”

The information broker’s eyes glowed.

”Think about it, Mr. Holmes, actually many different events have hidden connections, the simplest example would be what your mother does in the evening.”

Lorenzo sat up straight, listening carefully to his narration.

”Based on your family’s economic situation, market food discounts, your family’s tastes, etc., things that are unknown can be specifically speculated to a certain extent.”

”But this is still inaccurate, merely theoretical,” Lorenzo said.

”Therefore it’s just speculation, not prophecy, inaccurate speculation, but worth referring to,” the information broker answered.

”This is what we’ve been doing, collecting a vast number of trivial details, then sieving through this enormous information bank when needed, with certain deduction...”

”Weave a story close to the truth,” Lorenzo said slowly.

The information broker confirmed, ”Yes.”

”We can deduce a reasonable story from various angles, at least reasonably within a certain scope, but Bola is different; his story is special, not reasonable, perhaps hiding something, enough to warrant caution and fear.”

Lorenzo didn’t speak for a moment, carefully contemplating these, silent for a few seconds before speaking again.

”Theoretically what you said is feasible, but practically it’s extremely difficult, even impossible.”

Not to mention, that enormous information storage and retrieval is a huge issue, even the Purification Mechanism lacks such execution capability, but... what if they truly can do it?

Lorenzo thought of something and asked, ”So, like the rumors say, somewhere underground, is there really an archive built by your Inferior Rats? Filled with people’s gossip?”

The information broker didn’t directly answer this question, instead talking about something else.

”For deeper secrets, you could ask the Rat King. I’m just an information broker.”

Lorenzo’s pupils slightly contracted, the implications of this sentence were numerous.

”So the Rat King truly exists?”

”Otherwise, without his instructions, do you think I would tell you so much?” The information broker said leisurely, continuously stroking a large rat.

”Mr. Holmes, you’re an interesting person, at least someone the Rat King deems interesting.”

”Why?”

”You’d have to ask the Rat King.”

”Where is he?”

”I don’t know.”

The conversation was brief and swift; the information broker seemed to notice Lorenzo’s displeasure and continued, ”If needed, the Rat King will come to see you, rather than you looking for him.”

”Now, ask your question.”

The chit-chat ended, the information broker released the rat from his hand.

Lorenzo looked at him, thought for a moment, and asked, ”Smugglers, recently some smugglers from Florence, I want to know where they are.”