Bloodline Evolution: I Can Choose Opposing Paths-Chapter 82: A Lead Underground

"They said the harvest was going smoothly," Emily said after a moment.

Daniel frowned. "Yeah... and they’re extracting something from the crowd."

Aren leaned back slightly in his chair, his brows furrowing.

"Through Miu."

The other two looked at him. He tapped a finger lightly against the table as he thought. "If they’re harvesting something during the concert... and she’s the common factor..."

Aren exhaled slowly. "Then it really has to be her Bloodline."

Emily pushed her glasses up slightly.

"If the machine is regulating something, then her Bloodline must normally be unstable," she said. "Or at least dangerous without external control."

Daniel folded his arms.

"But we still don’t know what it actually does."

Aren frowned as he thought about it. They were just one step away from figuring out the entire thing, but just that one last puzzle piece was missing.

Miu’s image shifted as the advertisement cycled through another animation, a picture of her in a perfume advertisement.

"We can’t exactly go to Star City and look through the entire place to find the one illegal awakener," Aren muttered. "That may or may not have the documents to begin with."

"Yeah, that sounds like a nightmare," Daniel said, leaning back in his chair.

"Even if the guy’s still alive, you’d be digging through ten years of shady back-alley rituals."

"Illegal awakenings rarely come with proper paperwork anyway," Emily nodded faintly. "Most of those operations disappear the moment they’re done."

Aren leaned back slightly in his chair.

"Exactly."

For a moment, the three of them fell silent again. Then Daniel suddenly snapped his fingers.

"Well... unless someone else kept records."

Aren glanced at him.

"What do you mean?"

Daniel scratched the back of his head.

"You’re thinking too legally," he said. "Sure, the government wouldn’t have anything on it. But that kind of stuff?"

He shrugged. "People in the underground love collecting information."

Emily tilted her head slightly.

"Black market archives?"

"Exactly," Daniel said with a grin. "You’d be surprised how many shady researchers and smugglers trade stolen data down there."

Aren considered it for a moment. It wasn’t a terrible idea.

If Aetherion had ever studied Miu, or if the illegal awakening had attracted any attention, there was a decent chance that information had leaked somewhere.

Daniel pushed his chair back and stood.

"There’s an underground market a few districts over," he continued casually. "Not exactly legal, but you can find all kinds of things there."

Emily stuttered slightly as she started to sweat.

"Th–that might actually work," she said slowly. "But, yo–you guys go without me, I’ll provide support from here."

Daniel turned around with a big grin on his face, "You scared, goody two-shoes?"

Emily’s face went red as she stammered.

"No—no! It’s just that we shouldn’t be there at all! You know how harsh the laws are!"

Daniel opened his mouth, another tease already locked and loaded but Aren held him back before nodding

"...Alright, please provide us with intel from here."

"You got it, Junior!" she said excitedly, probably because she got to stay back.

Though as they stood to leave, one thought quietly lingered in the back of his mind:

How does Daniel know about a place like that?

But he didn’t say anything about it. With the best course of action in place, along with some time to kill before the concert started—

They started to head toward the ’Market District’.

***

The Market District looked no different from any other evening street in the city.

Rows of small stalls lined the sidewalks as people yelled their prices all over the place. If Aren hadn’t known better, he would have assumed it was just another morning market.

Daniel slowed slightly before stopping near a rusted iron grate set into the pavement between two vendors. Most people stepped around it without even glancing down.

Daniel tapped it twice with his shoe.

"Entrance."

Aren raised an eyebrow.

"...You’re joking."

Though Aren knew that he wasn’t. Black markets weren’t especially rare, as Aren himself has been to multiple—just not Imperial City’s.

Daniel crouched and slid the grate aside with ease. Beneath it, a narrow metal ladder led them down to pitch darkness.

"After you," Daniel said.

Aren stared down the shaft for a moment before groaning and began to down. Daniel followed right behind him, pulling the grate shut above them. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The city noise faded quickly as they descended. By the time Aren’s boots hit the bottom, the sounds of the street were little more than distant noise.

They stood inside what was clearly an old sewer tunnel. Brick walls. along with a low ceiling overhead and mold growing everywhere. A shallow stream of murky water trickled through a channel running along the side of the passage.

Daniel brushed his hands together.

"Welcome to the real Market District."

Aren glanced down the tunnel.

The sewer system stretched forward into darkness, but he could hear faint voices somewhere ahead.

After several turns through branching tunnels, the passage suddenly opened into a massive underground chamber.

Stalls had been assembled out of scrap metal tables and wooden crates. Strips of cloth hung from the ceiling to form makeshift shop fronts while cables ran across the ground to power anything electronic.

Tables were filled with objects that no legal shop would ever dare display: crystalline vials filled with ether, bundles of strange dried beast organs floating in liquid, and rusted weapons of unknown origins.

They spent the next several minutes drifting between stalls, asking a few cautious questions. Most vendors either laughed or shook their heads.

Eventually, Daniel let out a quiet sigh.

"Yeah... figured this might happen."

Aren was about to turn away when a vendor from a nearby stall spoke up.

"You two asking about that idol?"

Both of them stopped.

"You mean Miu Harmonia?" Daniel asked.

"There was a woman down here earlier shouting about her," the vendor nodded. "Kept rambling that she made the girl who she is."

Aren’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"Where?"

The vendor jerked his thumb toward a narrow corridor leading deeper into the tunnels.

"Somewhere down there. If she hasn’t gotten herself thrown out yet."

Aren didn’t say another word. He turned and began walking toward the corridor.

Daniel followed after him with a faint grin.

"Well," he muttered.

"Looks like we found our lead."