The short man with the mustache didn't look particularly threatening, but the gun in his hands said otherwise.
Mark, who was standing next to Ning immediately started cowering at the sight of the gun. He didn't know what was happening, but all he knew was that he didn't want to die.
"Do-Don't kill me, please," the young man said with his hands in the air
"Shut up and take off your clothes now," the man said.
Ning scratched his chin as he wondered with a weird face, 'Surely this guy doesn't like young men right? That shouldn't be true.'
"What are you looking at? Hurry up!" the man shouted.
"Woah dude, chill," Ning said.
"Brother Ning, what are you doing?" Mark was terrified. Seeing Ning not do what the man was saying, he thought he could see death approaching.
"Don't worry," Ning said. Suddenly, the gun in the man's hand moved. The metal gun was crushed by something invisible and deformed to a point where it was unusable.
"What?" the man cried out in surprise.
"Yeah, that's what you get for trying to rob us," Ning said and walked up to the man.
"Don't come close—"
SLAP
Ning slapped the man and made him drop onto the ground. The man felt his cheeks burn from the pain and started tearing up.
Ning crouched and placed his hands on his head.
"Stop crying," Ning said. The man did what he said. "Who are you? And why are you here?" Ning asked.
"I am Gregory Jewels, Master," the man said. "I am here to take someone hostage."
"Take someone hostage?" Ning was surprised. He turned around to look at Mark. "You're here for him?" Ning asked.
The man turned to look at Mark and said, "I don't know who that is. We are not here for him."
"Who then?"
"We are here to capture prince Felix," the man said.
"Prince? There's a prince here?" Ning questioned. Just then, he remembered the young man that had 4 or so bodyguards around him.
'Could it be him?' he wondered. 'But he had black hair. I don't see how that prince could be significant to the kingdom at all? I guess he would still be a prince in the end, regardless of his hair color.'
"Prince Felix, that's the firstborn of the Emperor, right?" Ning asked. The man nodded.
"Yes, Master," the man said.
"You guys think you can bypass his bodyguard? He's a prince you know. His bodyguards shouldn't be normal people," Ning said.
"No, master," the man said. "Prince Felix might be the firstborn, but he doesn't have as much importance in the empire as the 2nd or the 5th prince. The guards he gets aren't comparable to those two."
"Also Prince Felix is a person who stupidly takes pride in his weak Aether powers, so he doesn't keep strong guards around him, or so we've heard," the man said. "That makes it easier to get close to him."
"Mmm, I don't know. Still sounds impossible given that the guards would have been chosen by mister Tim, and he wouldn't let just anyone be a guard for the prince," Ning said.
"We have strong people too, master," the man said.
"Oh," Ning said with a surprised face. "How strong?"
"We have 12 Aether Grandmaster, 3 Aether Magister, and…" the man took a long pause before he said, "1 Aether King."
Ning's eyes turned solemn. An Aether King was a strong individual that could probably take on their entire guards.
"Hmm, if this is true then guards would be in danger now," Ning said softly.
"They won't be in danger, master," the man said. "They already are in danger."
"Hmm… what do you mean?" Ning asked.
"2 of the prince's guards were already killed before he even came to the zoo and replaced with 2 of our Aether Magisters. Once we take control of the Zoo, they will reveal themselves and handle the remaining 2 guards," the man said.
"Take control of the zoo?" Ning asked in surprise.
'Shit! Their plan wasn't just to kidnap the prince, it was to take hostage of everyone in the zoo,' Ning thought.
Suddenly, Ning saw something move behind him. A mop came right for him and hit him on the back of the head.
Ning was pushed forward and he got angry. He immediately turned around to see Mark holding the mop.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked angrily.
"Yo-You! You are with these bad guys, aren't you?" Mark asked.
"What?" Ning asked angrily. "Didn't you see me beat him? Didn't you see you interrogating him?"
"Y-yeah, I did," Mark said. "But I also heard him call you Master. You must've planned this."
Ning was about to get angry again when he realized what had happed. "Sigh, how do I explain this?" Ning thought. There was no explanation he could give that would make sense for a criminal to call him Master, and him not be the bad guy here.
"Screw it," Ning thought and stood up. He grabbed the mop that Mark attacked with again and threw it to the side. He then grabbed Mark's head but didn't use Supreme Domination. He didn't want a loyal servant out of this young man.
Instead, he asked the system, "Erase the last 5 minutes from this kid's mind."
<Confirmed>
A slight glow appeared beneath his hands that disappeared just as quickly. The youth involuntarily closed his eyes and opened it back up again.
"What… huh?" he was super confused.
"Mark, are you okay? Are you alright?" Ning asked as he violently shook his body.
"What… what's going on?" he asked.
"Ah, thank god you're okay. You just fainted when you saw this guy point a gun at you. Be careful, he's a kidnapper. Hide in this room, I will go out and take care of them, okay?" Ning asked.
This was way too much information for Mark to handle at once. "Huh? What?" he asked.
Ning grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him up. "Just stay here, and hide. I will come to get you later on okay?"
With that, Ning left with the man and walked out.
