Vortex of Intrigue

Luo Jun took a heavy drag on his cigarette and glanced at this man he had just met.

Assassins would not ask each other about their pasts.

Since neither asked, Luo Jun didn't inquire either, as long as they both agreed on escaping the Mysterious Island.

He knew this guy was probing to see how much intelligence Luo Jun had about them and their ship.

It was a test.

"Damn it, you should be the one asking me that since you've been on that ship."

Luo Jun bluntly exposed his probing.

Jones gave a mocking laugh, flicking ash from his cigarette like an old smoker with his mutilated fingers.

"To tell you the truth, the two of us have no chance of getting on board, and besides, they're repairing the ship. We don't have much time left. Five days from now, whether they find that so-called metal or not, they'll leave this place. To get on that ship, there's only one way."

Hearing this, Luo Jun narrowed his eyes, his gaze flickering towards Jones.

"What method?"

"You kill their snipers. They can't just let you on the ship easily, you have to pay a price," Jones said.

"You mean let me help them find that mysterious metal like you survivors did?"

Luo Jun shook his head. "No use. They'll just kill me once they're done using me. And they wouldn't let us bring anyone else off the island anyway."

"It's not that simple. They didn't complete the mission this time, so they'll have to wait another six months before they can come back to the island. But each time they land, it can only be for twenty days at most."

The amount of information Jones revealed was overwhelming to Luo Jun's mind.

"Wait, why six months? Why only twenty days of stay, is it because of insufficient food supplies?"

Luo Jun fired off three questions in a row.

Jones spread his hands with an expression of wanting to know too.

"Who knows? Apparently there's some international treaty about this Mysterious Island where any country has a chance to land once every six months. But in the past century, the first ten countries that came in had people never return, so no country has set foot on this island for over fifty years."

Hearing Jones' words and recalling that monster, Luo Jun felt a shiver run down his spine.

There were too many secrets here.

"Is there some virus on this island?" Luo Jun asked.

"Unclear. If there was a virus, those mercenaries sent by the Papal Organization would definitely be quarantined when they returned, or even incinerated or used in viral experiments," Jones said.

"It's so bizarre. If they just came to find metal, why couldn't they use high-tech reconnaissance? Or satellite monitoring and searching?"

Hearing Luo Jun say this, Jones looked at him like he was an idiot.

"You don't know?"

"Know what?" Luo Jun felt a bit embarrassed.

"Damn it, I thought you knew. If you didn't know this intelligence, why didn't you interrogate one of those two snipers you shot and leave one alive?"

Jones found it unbelievable that a top assassin would make such a mistake, for gathering intelligence is an assassin's first principle.

"As you said, I did interrogate one of them, but what he said was so unbelievable that I didn't believe it at all. This island really interferes with electronic devices?"

As Luo Jun finished speaking, his expression became strange.

For him, this was truly bizarre, but recalling that monster just now, it somehow made sense again.

"This island can block all electronic and physical surveillance. Even satellites can't see it. Otherwise, this island would have been flattened into a Roman road by tanks long ago."

After speaking, Jones took a deep drag on his cigarette and tossed the butt outside to be extinguished by the rain.

"Is there any scientific explanation?"

Luo Jun felt goosebumps all over, never imagining such a place existed in the world.

"A hundred years ago, scientists came here like discovering a new continent, and then one by one they either went mad or became foolish when they returned. Eventually they died off from various causes. Afterwards, they exhausted all means to monitor this island, but none worked. Later, a Spanish military ship accidentally entered the island by chance. Although they quickly left, those soldiers became infected when they returned to Spain, and it spread throughout the country and then the world, infecting five billion people and causing nearly forty million deaths - and this was a hundred years ago when the global population was only 1.7 billion!"

As Jones said this, Luo Jun gasped.

He knew Jones was referring to that human plague which people called the Spanish Flu. It took twenty years for British scientists to first isolate the H1N1 virus from the human body, but the cause of death is still unknown to this day!

In other words, this island was a prohibited zone for human life!

"Why aren't they afraid of those viruses now? Why are they so determined to come here and find some metal on this island?"

Luo Jun felt utterly baffled. This concerned the survival of humanity - how could they so easily let people in?

Or was the Papal Organization's power too great, controlling everything?

"The world is already plagued by viruses now, isn't it? Those politicians don't care about so much. They have these new viruses as cover - even if they bring out some new virus from intruding on this Mysterious Island, it would be hard to pin blame on them. They can just say it's a mutation. Those mercenaries are completely clueless about this, otherwise they wouldn't be so stupid as to come here."

Jones said indignantly.

He had participated in the Furious Sea Island virus mission with Pan Long, so he knew what those cunning politicians were trying to do.

Although Luo Jun did not take part in the Furious Sea Island mission, he was also aware of some reasons behind the outbreak of such a large-scale virus in the world, which had something to do with the new government in Sri Lanka.

And it was said that the virus called "Jyun" currently spreading across the world was created by a biochemist from the Land of the Rising Sun and the Fort Detrick Laboratory in the United States (content from Jurassic Island 1).

As for the political motives behind it, Luo Jun was unaware.

"So, you mean for me to work for them in exchange for passage onto the ship?"

Luo Jun brought the conversation back on track.

"Exactly. They need people like you. The mercenaries on the ship are no longer willing to go ashore, but they really want to complete the mission. Someone like you would be useful to them. So if they can't complete the mission in these five days, they'll come back again in six months. But each time they land, it's only for a maximum of twenty days. So you can agree to join them, and then you'll become one of them. Before the mission is completed, they won't lay a hand on you. You can also propose conditions for them to take your people off this island!"

After hearing this, Luo Jun still felt something was amiss.

"The ship leaving from here can still return to land, right? Those military people will probably want to eliminate everyone on board. By getting us on the ship, aren't you just pushing us into the fire pit? Your idea is flawed!"

Luo Jun shook his head, rejecting Jones' suggestion.

Jones smiled. "That's just a condition for us to board the ship, not to really go back with them along the same route."

Hearing this, Luo Jun had an epiphany.