The Underground Black Market

The assassination plan was quickly presented to Olivia by the magic mirror.

Looking at the information displayed on the surface, Olivia frowned slightly.

'Fiona would be difficult to strike? Since she and I have had recent contact, if anything happens to her, I'll definitely become one of the suspects... that would bring me trouble. Hmm... Luca seems like a safe bet.'

Olivia fell into deep thought.

From the current perspective, she could only strike at Luca Fischer first.

The target had never had contact with her. In fact, from a normal point of view, she didn't even have a reason to know the man... his knowledge of her status as an undercover agent through organizational documents was something from a long time ago.

Therefore, Luca's death would absolutely not be linked to her.

As for the method to deal with Luca...

Looking at the plan presented by the magic mirror, Olivia couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

"As expected of you... magic mirror..."

A detailed plan was laid out before Olivia's eyes.

The time was tomorrow night.

The location was an underground black market for transcendents located in the South District.

It was only now that Olivia learned there was actually an underground black market in the South District.

Tomorrow night, this underground black market would open, and Luca would be one of its guests. At that time, she could naturally find a way to make Luca stay in that underground black market forever.

"What's the deal with this underground black market?" Olivia asked.

She hadn't expected the plan to hunt Luca would involve some kind of underground black market, which piqued her interest.

【This is a place involving the trade of various spiritual materials and items for the transcendent side. The founder is a transcendent who belongs to no organization and stepped onto the transcendent path by luck, named Earlban Frost. It has existed for over ten years. In the black market, various rare transcendent items are sold...】

As the magic mirror explained slowly, Olivia remained thoughtful.

In this world, although the existence of transcendents was not a secret, transcendent items were not something everyone could access.

Because being transcendent represented danger, and touching these dangers without sufficient power would inevitably cause unintended harm.

To prevent such situations, the Church prohibited all transcendent trade. Everything related needed to be conducted through the Church.

If someone wanted spiritual materials or even spiritual weapons, they had to buy them directly from the Church. The Church would audit whether a person was qualified to manage the risk before deciding whether to sell these things.

Furthermore, the prices were extremely expensive.

So, while independent transcendents existed, they weren't very common. Most transcendents tended to belong to various transcendent organizations or joined the Church or the Empire to become a part of them.

Under these circumstances, the underground black market was naturally born.

The existence of the underground black market provided a channel for many independent transcendents to obtain transcendent items. Even some organized transcendents would frequently visit such markets to get what they wanted.

Olivia watched, deep in thought.

Then she asked: "Does the Church know about this underground black market?"

【Yes.】

"They know and don't care?"

【For the Church, similar underground trading venues will exist regardless. Rather than an unknown underground black market popping up, it is better to leave one that can be controlled.】

Olivia understood.

There was actually the shadow of the Church behind this underground black market.

Was the Church using this method to understand some of the darker sides of the transcendent world, ensuring they could detect and control unstable factors early?

Impressive.

A very good idea.

She asked the magic mirror a few more related questions, becoming increasingly familiar with the situation of this underground black market and developing a strong interest.

"I wonder if forbidden artifacts will appear in the underground black market... well, if they do, the Church would probably buy them up. Regardless, I quite like this place."

Olivia smiled softly.

Once she had asked enough questions, she retracted the magic mirror back into the flesh of her palm.

...

The next day, not long after Olivia arrived at the cathedral, Melanie sent someone to find her.

In the Administrative Office.

Seeing Olivia arrive, Melanie told her the news with a smile.

"The issue you raised before has been resolved. The Church will conceal your performance in the previous incident to protect you. It's a very correct idea to want to keep a low profile and not be noticed by too many eyes."

Olivia already knew this information through the magic mirror, but she still put on an act of looking relieved.

"That's wonderful. There are too many heretics in Kaliron right now; I was really afraid the news would leak and I'd be targeted."

"No need to worry. When I was reporting this, I learned that the Church itself was already trying to conceal it. The Church hasn't ignored the issues you're concerned about."

Melanie offered a word of comfort.

Then she added: "Olivia, after your class rank was promoted to Sensate, there are new abilities you need to master. Regarding these new abilities, although I've explained them to you on paper before, I'll say them once more."

Olivia understood Melanie's intention; she was preparing to teach her how to master the new abilities. Having the guidance of a predecessor was naturally far more effective than self-study.

Olivia had no reason to refuse, but she asked in surprise: "Ms. Melanie, is that alright? You still need to handle administrative duties."

Melanie smiled slightly: "Of course. You might not know, but after the Twilight Council caused such a huge scene recently, other heretical organizations have actually... actually lowered their profiles. So, we suddenly aren't as busy as before."

Olivia was stunned.

Seeing Olivia's confusion, Melanie explained briefly.

The previous actions of the Twilight Council had undoubtedly enraged the Church. The Church naturally wouldn't turn a blind eye and had to launch a frenzied retaliation.

Similar situations had happened in the past. When the Church was determined to retaliate against a heretical organization, the power it could display was undoubtedly shocking.

That was why the Twilight Council had retreated so quickly, leaving Kaliron and disappearing from everyone's sight.

If the Church couldn't find the members of the Twilight Council, who would all that anger be poured onto?

It wasn't hard to guess.

So, the other heretical organizations had also lowered their profiles slightly, not wanting to suffer the Church's wrath in place of the Twilight Council for no reason.

"Of course, this is only temporary—it might only last for a few days. But even so, we can relax a bit during these few days," Melanie said with a smile.