They Hated Me in My First Life, But Now I Have the Love System
Chapter 313: Overconfidence and Oversights

Chapter 313: Overconfidence and Oversights

River Torrent was their best shot.

Elsewhere, deep inside one of the listening posts scattered across Marka, a group assigned to monitor all communications had been scanning phone lines for anything suspicious.

Their task was to intercept conversations related to the fleeing royals, but they had picked up far more than expected.

For hours, they heard call after call, plans for thefts, smuggling, illegal deals, so many that the eavesdropping agents eventually started forwarding the criminal chatter to the local police.

Though they weren’t law enforcement themselves, they couldn’t ignore the overwhelming flow of crimes pouring in through the airwaves.

Marka was clearly not the peaceful kingdom it pretended to be.

Then, just as fatigue began to weigh them down, and one of them had started nodding off, something unusual crackled through the speakers.

“Guys, are you all safe?”

The voice was quiet, hesitant, but unmistakably familiar.

“Hey, hey, wake up!” one of the men whispered sharply, nudging his half asleep companion. “That voice… doesn’t it sound like the Third Prince?”

The other sat up quickly, suddenly alert.

They turned up the volume and leaned in.

This wasn’t just another phone call.

This was the thread they had been waiting for.

They continued listening, straining to catch every word, hoping this would be the breakthrough they had been waiting for, the elusive crew’s next move.

“John, Ekene… remember that day we were playing basketball, and I made that dunked shot?”

There was a short pause. Then a soft voice replied, hesitant, “Uhm… yes.”

A stronger, firmer voice followed a beat later, “Yeah. I remember.”

“Good. That’s good. I suddenly had the memory. Switch off your phones. Anyway, you all know what to do next,” the Third Prince’s voice said.

And then, click. The line went dead.

The monitoring crew blinked at each other.

“…That’s it?” one of them asked.

“What was that supposed to mean?” the other added, baffled.

They replayed the clip, trying to decode the vague reference. Dunked shot? Basketball? Memory?

“I don’t know what kind of code that is,” one muttered, “but it sounds like an inside joke.”

“And we’re definitely not inside,” his partner added, rubbing his forehead.

Despite their confusion, they knew better than to ignore it. The Third Prince was smart, if he had said it that way, it meant something to the people he was speaking to. And that meant Assistant Michael had to hear it.

“Let’s take this to him,” one of them said, already copying the file. “Maybe he’ll understand it better than we do.”

“Or maybe he’ll throw another phone, my phone.” the other muttered under his breath as they both stood.

Either way, they had something.

Even if they didn’t know what it was.

After listening to the audio, Assistant Michael immediately stood up, his tone sharp and urgent.

“Track their phones. Now!”

The tech guys “..?”

“Uhm, sir… they all did as Prince Abuchi said,” one of the techs replied cautiously. “They’ve switched off their phones. We can’t track them.”

Assistant Michael “…”

Michael exhaled sharply, pressing a hand to his temple as he paced. Of course they had. Abuchi wasn’t just a loose cannon, he was a clever one.

The vague reference to a basketball memory wasn’t meant for the ears of outsiders. Still, Michael refused to believe the trail was cold just yet.

He turned to the team. “Is there any transportation station, maybe a train station, bus station, riverway, location, shopping mall, hotel, anything that connects to those words: basketball, shot, memory, dunked?”

“Let me check,” one of the tech guys said, already typing away at his terminal.

After a few tense seconds, the tech glanced back. “There’s a basketball court on the wealthier side of the kingdom. There’s also a Memory Park, but it’s on the opposite end. And, wait, there’s a river called Dunk. It’s used mostly for transporting goods… and it flows toward Truns.”

That last detail lit something in Michael’s eyes.

A basketball court? Possibly a red herring. A meeting point, maybe. But a river that transports goods to Truns?

That was a thread worth tugging.

Michael narrowed his eyes. “Forget the park and the court. Focus on Dunk River. It makes sense. These royals aren’t stupid, they know there are targets on their backs. They would be looking for the fastest, least monitored way out. And goods transport means cargo space… no questions asked.”

He straightened, his voice cutting through the room with clarity. “Send a team to Dunk River immediately. I want that place swarming with eyes before they make their next move.”

If this crew was slipping away, it would not be without a fight.

They were already at the border after all, which meant they were trying to cross over. Maybe they intended to use a river route, Assistant Michael finally concluded.

“Leave the people stationed at the transport hubs where they are. Get the rest of the team ready, we roll out in five minutes,” he ordered sharply.

—

On the other side, the crew of five, each from their separate locations, were making their way toward River Torrent as fast as they could.

About thirty minutes later, Abuchi was the first to arrive. As he approached quietly, he noticed several men in black stationed at the bus station nearby.

“Looks like my diversion wasn’t strong enough to pull all of them toward River Dunk,” he thought grimly.

Fortunately, the guards were focused solely on checking passengers entering and leaving the bus station, occasionally scanning the general area for signs of the crew.

But in their overconfidence or oversight, none of them were keeping watch on the river hidden behind the thick cluster of trees, which completely obscured it from the road.

Abuchi’s eyes narrowed. “That’s our window.”

He crouched low, mentally mapping his next steps while waiting for the others to arrive.

Abuchi hid behind the thick trees, waiting patiently for the others to arrive. One by one, they showed up, each of them scanning the area quickly as they gathered.

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