New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1056: Inspection Team

Alexander joined him, crossing his arms to make himself seem bigger. It wasn't an easy feat, though, given he was only five-ten and was cut, not buff.

"Did you count all the crystals and stuff we brought back?" he asked David as they waited.

"Every last crystal and every weapon is accounted for, save for that sword you gave the smuggler in Finland. And I've marked every piece with mana for those who weren't already.

"If someone tries to pocket anything, I'll know immediately. No sticky fingers are getting off this plane with our property," David replied smugly.

"Good. No casualty or heavy wounded, but you can rough them up good," Alex said with a grin of his own.

"There will be no roughing of anyone, gentlemen," Killian interjected, reaching the cargo hold as Alex said this.

"Hey, butt out, tea-sipper. No one asked for your permission," David growled.

"Good. Because if you had, I wouldn't have given it. This comes from Kary. Keep it civil. I'll deal with any would-be thieves, and you can stand there and glare as a deterrent. But you don't touch them. We don't want to attract ire on foreign soil. Understood?"

Alex clicked his tongue, not amused that Kary asked Killian to chaperon them on this. But he wasn't going to tell her off, no sir.

He liked his head screwed onto his shoulders and giving her shit for this would result in his head getting unscrewed and probably shat in. It was a pass for him.

"Fine. You deal with them. But if any of them so much as twitch aggressively, I'm reacting in kind," David groaned.

"Aww. You'll have my back? How nice and uncharacteristic of you, corpse hugger," Killian mocked.

"Pfft!" Alex spat, trying to contain his laughter.

He immediately lost his "Imposing" posture, folding around his arms around his stomach as The balled out in laughter.

Killian smirked at David as the latter glared at him with a murderous gaze.

"Fuck you, asshole," David growled.

"Yeah, yeah. Fuck you too, wanker."

Footsteps started echoing next to them, and Alex had to force the laughter out of his system, trying to regain his composure, but he couldn't stop chuckling at the 'corpse hugger' comment. It sounded so trashy while being so close to accurate.

This was golden trash talk, as good as he remembered the ex-number-one gamer in the world to be.

As the first Chinese security officers started boarding their aircraft, Alex tried glaring at them, but it only ended up in him looking like he was making fun of them, while David looked at them like he was about to chew them out.

Killian maintained a polite smile, looking almost like a hotel greeter.

"Welcome to our aircraft, gentlemen... and woman," Killian said, before noticing a woman behind the first three men.

The woman nodded at his correction as the men snubbed him, passing directly by him to go to the passenger cabin.

The woman looked at Killian, and he frowned.

"I'll be the one performing your cargo inspection while the others verify that everyone is who they claim to be up front. Please start opening the crates," the woman ordered, looking at the three men in turn.

Although her accent was audible, her English wasn't a mess, and Alex was almost impressed. 'I get that they work for an international airport, but it seems so many people speak decent English nowadays. I wonder why?' Alex mused as he opened the cargo crates around him. He knew there was no point in arguing with the woman or giving her a hard time. As long as she didn't try to steal from them, there was no point in antagonizing her.

The woman inspected the weapons, marking everything down on her tablet and taking pictures of the items as well.

Her face changed a little when she saw a crate filled with bones, and Killian had to explain they were decorative bones taken from a souvenir shop. She accepted the explanation, but still looked at the bones with a shiver, before moving on.

She didn't bother counting the bones, as sticking her hands inside that crate was out of the question, and proceeded to the next crate that drew her attention a lot more than the others.

Stopping next to Alexander, right in front of a crate of mana crystals, she ogled the crystals like a woman at a jewellery.

"What are these?" she asked, her eyes glued to the gems.

"Energy crystals from a Korean Mudang. She said they would bring us good fortune and protection. My friend is very sick, and we figured we couldn't buy too much, right?" he joked, trying to get her attention away from them.

The woman's eyes briefly flitted in his direction, the explanation confusing her, but she couldn't keep her eyes away from the crystals for too long.

"You got ripped off," the woman said, extending her hand toward the crystals.

Alex grabbed her wrist, his eyes suddenly icy.

"Excuse me, but could you not touch them directly? The Mudang told us to handle them without direct contact, lest they lose their purity," he lied, trying to get to back off.

But the woman's gaze hardened, and she shook her wrist free from Alex's grasp.

"Don't lay your hands on me, laowai," she growled.

"Call me what you will, lady. But don't touch the crystals."

The woman shot him a snide grin, pulling out a pair of nitrile gloves from her pockets.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"I'll put these on if you insist, but I am counting those gems. Stand back," she ordered.

Alex grunted, but before he could argue with her, Killian stepped in front of him, pushing him

back.

"Knock it off, Alexander. Let her count the crystals. If she takes one, we'll know and can do something about it. Until then, don't interfere with her job," he whispered.

Alex glared at him but didn't reply, only clicking his tongue.

It was too late, anyway. The woman had already slipped on her gloves and was counting every mana crystal, one by one, looking at each one with scrutiny, making sure it wasn't smuggled diamonds or some other precious gem.

And she was being very diligent. Almost too diligent.