Chapter 500

Chapter 500: The Lost Horse of Sai Weng

Let’s not mention the Gold Coin, which secretly schemed without Lin Mo knowing; in a short time, Lin Mo couldn’t handle it.

As one of the permanent members of the United Nations, France would likely not take the attacks on its cities lightly.

Although some unexpected events are not truly what certain governments desire, powerful families that control a country’s lifeblood always possess their own privileges outside the law, doing as they please and even manipulating the government.

More often than not, the government merely acts as a front for these families, a shield to absorb public anger.

It’s common to see the government take the blame, earning the scorn of common people, while the behind-the-scenes powers quietly grow rich, continuing to exploit the poor working class.

When the government can no longer withstand public outrage, they simply replace the leaders, just as Old Fang would change the soup without changing the medicine.

Every country has these interest groups behind the scenes; blood ties serve as the best connection tool. After numerous intermarriages, families controlling vast resources emerged.

This has nothing to do with national systems.

Interest groups are neither socialist nor capitalist, nor anarchist; they’ve existed since ancient times and continue to thrive like evergreens, following social progress and development.

Even the so-called land of freedom, America, cannot stop the Jews who control the country’s economic lifeblood from using the power of the United States to support Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, even if it contradicts American interests.

This is evident from the composition of American economic magnates and the personnel at universities and think tanks. The Jews, besides their ties to Israel, hold an economic empire equal to a real nation, influencing the entire world.

To this day, America still does not dare to excessively suppress China, which is also a result of the goodwill formed during World War II when China sheltered many Jews; otherwise, China’s current situation might have been much worse.

Let’s not even mention the influence of families like Rothschild, DuPont, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Bush on the nation.

When Old Bush attacked Saddam, and Young Bush also targeted Saddam, it was no coincidence. Regardless, after several wars, many American soldiers died, yet the Bush family profited and possessed enough resources to elevate Young Bush to power.

One of the many streets in the Paris area leading to the Seine River used to be unremarkable, but just a brief meeting between Lin Mo and Sally triggered extremely serious consequences, almost resembling a small-scale, high-intensity war. The missiles fired, if not concentrated on the street, could have leveled the area.

Even so, the buildings on this street were already in disarray, a scene too horrific to behold.

With a loud clang, Lin Mo removed his magical-style knight armor and set it back in place. Mr. Henry Abel de Legoff, the shop owner who had been knocked unconscious by the shockwave of the cloud explosion outside, slowly began to wake up.

When he opened his eyes, he hazily saw a beautiful woman slipping a piece of paper into his collar.

Then, that woman was surrounded by a crowd and left.

What was happening?

After a while, as Mr. Legoff gradually came to his senses, he absently picked up the note and held it up to his face, only to find that it was a check for one million dollars.

One million dollars?

Legoff’s eyes widened in shock. Such a large check brought his spirit back; no, no, what was going on here?

“What is this?” Legoff suddenly jumped up from the ground, shouting loudly.

Outside, the sound of police sirens pierced the air, countless footsteps rushed toward this place, and the roar of armed helicopters, armored vehicles, and police cars blended in with the commands of soldiers and safety slogans for area searches.

Did I dream this? Legoff slapped himself hard; ouch! That hurt!

Looking around, the chaotic shop looked as if it had been robbed; fortunately, nothing was missing, and Legoff could remember every item in the store, but it seemed just a bit messy. Oh no, why were those damned shields piled up together? And the shelves—what bastard arranged them like this? Did they want to turn my shop into a stronghold?

My goodness, restoring order would take at least two working days, Legoff grumbled in his mind.

While he was muttering and complaining, Legoff suddenly turned and ran toward the center of the shop. My treasure, my prized possession! Although it wasn’t an antique, I treated it as a true treasure.

In his sight, that magical-style knight armor remained in its original place; thank goodness it was still there. Legoff rushed forward, as if caressing a lover, gently stroking each piece of armor, feeling the familiar grooves deep within.

He completely ignored the completely destroyed and unrecognizable shop door; at that moment, all he cared about was his prized possession.

However, as he touched it, he realized something was off. There were many new scratches. He stepped back in shock, focused his eyes, and couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

The originally bright and clean knight armor was now covered with countless intersecting scratches, with bullet dents embedded in it, almost penetrating the armor, and large dark scorch marks that looked like it had been scorched by gunpowder, as if it had just come from the battlefield.

“Ah… my knight armor! Oh my God! What happened?”

Legoff’s eyes widened as he let out a tragic scream. The brand-new armor had almost turned into a useless wreck.

Hearing the screams from inside the shop, footsteps rushed outside. A dozen soldiers from the French Foreign Legion, wielding FAMAS rifles produced by the St. Etienne arms factory, burst in, aiming their guns at the screaming Legoff.

Seeing the dense scars on the armor, it looked like it had just been removed from a battle-worn warrior. Suddenly, he remembered the gunfire from earlier outside the shop and the huge explosion that knocked him unconscious. Legoff shivered all over, as if he had realized something. His gaze toward the armor began to change, growing brighter, and the expression on his face shifted.

“Oh my God, this is a treasure, a real treasure!”

Legoff seemed to understand the value of this armor refined by war; he cherished it as if it were a precious gem, disregarding the soldiers’ guns, and rushed back to the armor, trembling as he stroked the scars. My goodness, those weren’t fake—they were real bullet marks, medals of honor from a fierce battle.

A lost horse may be a blessing in disguise.

Compared to those armors that had never seen battle, still maintained like they had just been forged, this magical-style knight armor took on a completely different meaning. Those scars were clearly the most genuine and exquisite works of art.

As for the check that he had accidentally dropped, he probably wouldn’t remember it for a long time.

“Don’t mind him; he’s the shop owner. Hurry up and clear the scene. Damn, many people have already died.”

One soldier from the Foreign Legion compared the newly received resident IDs, which were used to identify wrongdoers.

“Leave two people here to watch, and the rest continue searching!”

“Understood!”

At this time, the street outside was filled with soldiers from the French Foreign Legion.

Although the French Foreign Legion enjoys the best treatment and receives the toughest training, they are often sent to the most dangerous places to carry out the riskiest tasks for the French government.

Like here, it appeared as if a bomb had plowed through the area.

A military lockdown and curfew were immediately enforced within a radius of five kilometers. Each street corner was fortified with sandbags, with heavy machine guns and mortars set up. Besides armored vehicles and heavy-caliber dual-purpose machine guns on the street, combat mechanical soldiers could be seen as well.

Outside the five-kilometer radius, several Caesar 155MM self-propelled howitzers were set up and ready for action.

The French already knew that the cause of all this was the tracked combat mechanical soldiers and the appearance of large powered armor; thus, they specifically deployed powerful warfare to respond.

In the sky, armed helicopters continuously scanned the ground, while drones conducted reconnaissance over a broader area. The horizon-class destroyer, "Forbin," urgently dispatched from the Seine River, was conducting anti-submarine operations and search efforts.

The weapon system on the "Forbin" prominently focuses on air defense, while also covering anti-ship, anti-submarine, and electronic warfare operations. Its main weaponry includes the "Sylver" A50 vertical launch system, equipped with 48 "Aster"-15 and "Aster"-30 surface-to-air missiles.

Only Sally from the Dragoon Consortium remained at the scene to undergo a joint investigation by the French military and police, while the other party, Lin Mo, had already accompanied the action team from China’s Foreign Affairs Department stationed in France to evacuate before the French military and police completed the lockdown and curfew.

As the Special Forces responsible for domestic and foreign anti-terrorism and security, each soldier has a method to quickly communicate with their intelligence connections abroad, and everyone’s way is unique, allowing them to swiftly contact their own people in foreign territories to seek protection and assistance.

When their date was interrupted halfway, Sally and Lin Mo could only apologize to each other.

Both were trouble magnets, and today had been particularly unfortunate; their troubles unexpectedly collided with each other. Sally’s bodyguard team suffered heavy casualties, and even the team leader, Abik, was seriously injured.

“Oh? You’re back so soon? Did your date end? I thought you were off somewhere with that girl.”

Chen Haiqing, who controlled everything in the exhibition area and was still stealing glances at beautiful women, was quite surprised to see Lin Mo had returned early. He checked his watch; it was only three in the afternoon, and today’s exhibition was still ongoing. This guy, who had taken a girl out, returned alone.

Did something go wrong?

The truth is, he had almost been kicked by powered armor.

“Hi, date’s over!” Lin Mo responded, lacking enthusiasm, not wanting to continue sparring with Chen Haiqing.

Volume 11