Two days later, in the morning, Lin Feng sat alone in the conference room of the central hall.
Before him lay several documents, which were public information about the major forces of the First Sequence.
There was also a thick one, concerning his own force.
Up to now, Lin Feng had only interacted with three forces of the First Sequence.
The Second Force, Luo Yongtian, the Fourth Force, Edgar, and the Fifth Force, Jin Henry.
However, Jin Henry was gone now.
Four forces remained. The First Force was quite mysterious, with the fewest members, and naturally, the strongest overall.
Lin Feng recalled for a moment. During the selection, he hadn't noticed any particularly powerful contestants.
The rankings were noted, but Lin Feng wasn't very interested.
Their lack of outstanding performance in the selection was somewhat inconsistent with the records.
However, perhaps they were just hiding their strength...
The Second and Fourth Forces currently seemed to be on friendly terms with him. Lin Feng had met the leaders of these forces at the meeting a few days ago.
These people appeared calm on the surface, almost all smiling at him, and none of them tried to put him in his place with a dramatic display of power.
But what about the Seventh Force...
So far, the only force Lin Feng could definitively say harbored hostility towards him was the little dwarf from the Seventh Force.
Lin Feng couldn't recall ever offending him, and he couldn't understand the source of such intense animosity.
However, making a move against him wouldn't be so simple. Lin Feng disliked trouble, but he certainly didn't fear it.
Flipping through the documents, Lin Feng found no substantive information.
It was understandable; this was all public information and held little value.
The document regarding Lin Feng's own force, however, was much more substantial.
It included annual resource lists submitted by those below, the distribution of forces, the distribution of main planets, and the permissions and salaries of the leaders.
It had to be said, the treatment of leaders was excellent. Even doing nothing all year, they could still get a good number of missions for free.
However, as a force leader, the Black Robes below had a specified quota of resources to distribute each year, and they needed to complete the assigned tasks.
The total number and quality of missions, along with contributions, were also tied to the force's rank.
The higher the force's rank, the greater the reward for missions of the same level, and they could also have priority in selecting the types of missions each year.
To advance the force's rank, besides direct combat upgrades between leaders, the battles of the five subordinates in the Second Sequence were also taken into account.
To be precise, when the quality and quantity of completed missions met the promotion criteria, the force leader would, along with their five Second Sequence subordinates, challenge a higher-ranked force leader and their five Second Sequence subordinates.
The winning side would be promoted by one rank.
Conversely, the losing side would be demoted by one rank. It was that simple.
However, what was frustrating was that one couldn't challenge higher ranks directly; they had to climb step by step.
After looking for a while, Lin Feng put away the documents.
Breaking the Black Robe organization from within would clearly be much simpler.
Lin Feng now had two targets: the Seventh Force and the Fourth Force above him.
However, after some consideration, Lin Feng decided to target the Seventh Force first.
It wasn't because Lin Feng feared Edgar of the Fourth Force, but because targeting the Seventh Force first would yield greater results.
Lin Feng could only contend with the Fourth Force through a force rank upgrade battle.
Once his mission contributions were sufficient, Lin Feng could lead Li Xieqian and the others to challenge Edgar. After a successful victory, Lin Feng would be promoted from the Fifth Force to the Fourth Force.
But!
A promotion battle was different from a force contention battle. Promotion battles did not allow for killing blows.
In other words, Lin Feng couldn't kill the opponent!
On the other hand, the Seventh Force...
The dwarf from the Seventh Force inexplicably targeted Lin Feng, so Lin Feng could legitimately deal with him.
Moreover, for the Seventh Force to make a move against him, they would first have to defeat the Sixth Force before they could even touch him.
This process would take at least one to two years.
As for the rest, he would have to find other ways, to seek out points of conflict and provoke the dwarf from the Seventh Force to make the first move against him.
That way, even if he killed him, it wouldn't arouse any suspicion. After all, the dwarf from the Seventh Force had instigated the trouble first, right?
As for how to find the point of conflict, Lin Feng had already thought of it.
First, he needed to figure out why the little dwarf from the Seventh Force harbored such animosity towards him and tried to obstruct him!
Lin Feng narrowed his eyes, tapping the table with one hand and sipping tea with the other, his attitude exceptionally relaxed, as if he could already see the Black Robe organization crumbling.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. If he could eliminate the leader of one force and those few in the Second Sequence, his future would be much easier.
As Lin Feng mused, Ophelia, sitting not far from him, kept her eyes on her nose and her nose on her hands, idly twirling a pen.
She was seriously beginning to suspect Lin Feng had mental problems.
This was not the first time in three days that Lin Feng had displayed such a silly grin.
She couldn't help but wonder if following Lin Feng was the right decision.
Ah, the hardship!
*Clink~*
Ophelia, with a bitter expression, lost her grip on the pen, and it fell onto the table with a crisp sound.
"Hmm?" Lin Feng's sharp gaze swept over.
"Ophelia?"
This girl had been staying with him for three days, and the role of serving tea had shifted from a maid to Ophelia.
Her little life had improved considerably, at least she no longer had to take on missions forcibly.
After all, within the Black Robes, missions were mandatory for those below the Second Sequence!
"Are you bored staying here?"
"Go, and find out why the little dwarf from the Seventh Force is targeting me!" Lin Feng threw a stack of documents in front of Ophelia.
The boss of the Seventh Force was nicknamed "Little Dwarf," though no one dared to call him that to his face. Rumor had it that his race was indeed Dwarf.
Ophelia's small face became even more bitter.
"No way, Big Brother, the Seventh Force!"
"If I go there, I'll be considered espionage! Aren't you sending me to my death?"
This was madness, asking a mere Black Robe like her to investigate a First Sequence force leader?
Oh, this...
Lin Feng scratched his head. It did make sense.
Normally, their missions were done in teams with their own forces. Although they belonged to the same organization, there was always a degree of animosity among them.
"Can't you see things that others can't? Can this be difficult for you?" Lin Feng recalled the twins' abilities.
Ophelia wanted to cry upon hearing this.
"Big Brother, that's a First Sequence Boss! What can I possibly see?"
"I can't see anything right now..."
Ophelia slumped onto the table, lamenting her plight like a dried-out salted fish.
Lin Feng rubbed his temples with a hint of a headache.
Alright, he always forgot that this guy hadn't grown up yet.
Speaking of which, how should this guy grow? Would feeding him some Infinity Stones be useful?