Chapter 16: Sea Without Light 16
Silverface entered combat mode, his aura freezing like a drawn blade, as his light pink eyes cautiously scanned the darkness beneath his mask. The mask itself was an equipped item with night vision capabilities; he activated the night vision mode, continuously searching for suspicious figures.
“Three o’clock, sixty meters away, in an abandoned residential building,” Silverface deduced the sniper’s position based on the trajectory.
He didn’t pursue because Kui Xin was not an Awakened; a single bullet could take her life, and no one knew if there were other assassins nearby. He had to protect her.
Kui Xin had an alloy skull; the other parts were flesh and blood, meaning she would bleed if injured.
“Use your Extraordinary Abilities and don’t let my blood spill on the ground,” Kui Xin reluctantly ordered Silverface.
Kui Xin’s biological information matched with that of the Investigation Bureau. If they obtained something containing her biological information, they could verify her identity.
Silverface spread his fingers, and the mask fragments and blood on the mask decomposed under his control, merging into the water. The blood flowing from Kui Xin’s fingers and down to her chin also floated in his control, not a drop touching the ground.
“With me here, they won’t get your blood,” Silverface whispered.
“Go pursue,” Kui Xin steadied herself, her vision no longer blurred. “Together, you focus on defense.”
The abandoned residential building had no glass windows, and the bullets had been fired from that building. In the impoverished and chaotic Harbor Zone, many streetlights were broken; without lighting, only technological devices could help see what lurked in the darkness.
Silverface’s body transformed into transparent water flow, while Kui Xin started to run.
The short-distance champion of the First World could complete a hundred-meter sprint in less than ten seconds, averaging ten meters per second, but Kui Xin’s speed was not far behind the champion.
She had never run this fast! The wind was left behind her.
Kui Xin’s foot hit the ground as she jumped to the windowsill on the first floor of the abandoned building for leverage, her arm hooked over the second floor. Like a gymnast on a parallel bar, she effortlessly pulled herself up.
Kui Xin heard footsteps; someone was frantically running down the stairs.
The sound echoed repeatedly in the empty building.
That person was very close to Kui Xin; she saw a shadow flash around the corner of the stairs.
Kui Xin quickly jumped from the windowsill, pried a rusted steel pipe from the decayed security window, ran two steps, and tossed it like a javelin.
Clang— the steel pipe hit!
“Ahhh…” The shadow fell to the ground, shrieking in pain, a bullet wound in his shoulder, and a rifle dropped from his grasp.
A water vortex appeared out of nowhere, ensnaring the enemy with the steel pipe lodged in his shoulder.
Silverface landed next to Kui Xin; a stream of water pulled the enemy’s body toward her.
This man, sporting a beard, collapsed on the ground, his shoulder bleeding from the wound, blood mixing into the water vortex Silverface controlled.
The man was disheveled, his beard tangled, writhing in pain, half-long hair covering his face.
An unknown person. Kui Xin confirmed.
She opened her wrist communicator to activate the camera function. Silverface used the water flow to clear the man’s hair, allowing Kui Xin to take a picture.
The man used a limited-range rifle; that was why he hadn’t sniped from hundreds of meters away, rather shooting from nearby. The Harbor Zone was poor, and most buildings were low with many obstacles, making it hard to find suitable sniping points. His sniping point wasn’t on the second floor; it should have been at least on the fourth. After firing, realizing he had missed, he fled downstairs, but he was caught off guard by Kui Xin’s speed.
“Have you learned interrogation techniques?” Kui Xin asked Silverface.
Silverface stepped forward and said gravely, “Leave this to me.”
He pulled the steel pipe from the man’s shoulder, controlling the blood so that it didn’t spurt out and cause him to bleed to death.
“Who are you? Who sent you?” Silverface asked.
The man gasped, his face contorted, but he did not answer. Silverface spread his fingers, enveloping the man’s head in a bubble of water. Bubbles escaped his mouth as he choked on water, his lungs convulsing violently as he struggled.
After a minute, the man’s struggles weakened. Silverface released the water and asked again, “Who sent you?”
The man coughed up water, fear evident in his voice, “I don’t know, please, I really don’t know!”
Silverface mercilessly kicked the man in the jaw, two teeth flying from his mouth.
Silverface asked again, “Who sent you?”
“I really don’t know!” The man replied in a panic.
As soon as he said “I don’t know,” his head was enveloped by the water bubble again. This time, Silverface let him struggle for a longer period before releasing the bubble for him to breathe.
“Do you still say you don’t know?” Silverface ground his foot into the man’s wound to keep him conscious through the pain.
“I’m a nobody, just a low-level assassin. I was drinking in a bar and followed a drug dealer into the restroom; I don’t remember anything after that! Please, I’m not lying!” the man said, his face turning pale. “I…”
Suddenly, the man went silent.
His eyes bulged, then exploded, two thin dark red tendrils emerged from his eye sockets, and a creature resembling a spider but with elongated mouthparts and a pair of limbs burst from his skull, stretching its appendages in satisfaction.
Half of his brain was eaten beneath the protection of his skull! Yet he was still alive, his limbs convulsing like a lamb having a seizure, blackened blood slowly oozing from his nose, mouth, and ears.
Even Silverface stepped back in shock at the grotesque scene.
Kui Xin raised her wrist communicator and snapped a photo of the unidentified creature. Evidently, her response was quick and timely because the next second, the man convulsing on the ground and the horrifying creature melted into a puddle of blood.
The man’s skin first oozed blood droplets, then shriveled, tightly adhering to the bones as if he were a mummified corpse. Finally, both the bones and skin dissolved, leaving only his clothes soaked in blood.
This process was swift and silent.
“Never seen this type of xenomorph before,” Silverface said gravely.
There were many types of xenomorphs; parasitic hydras were one kind, while the crimson spider-like creature they encountered was another.
Silverface had seen many, but this was his first encounter with this type of xenomorph.
Kui Xin caught a whiff of the nauseating stench of blood. She suppressed her discomfort, gripped the steel pipe, and poked through the blood-sodden clothes. Eventually, she discovered a glowing communicator inside a pocket, still transmitting.
Kui Xin and Silverface exchanged a glance, both unconsciously thinking of the same question—
Who was on the other end of the communicator?
Kui Xin crouched down and said to the communicator, “Your man is dead.”
In the next second, the light on the communicator went dark, the person on the other end hung up.
Throughout the process of capturing the killer and Silverface’s interrogation, the communicator had remained active.
This meant the conversation between Kui Xin and Silverface, as well as the interrogation, had been heard on the other end.
Kui Xin shivered. If she and Silverface had lowered their guard and said something they shouldn’t have, revealing forbidden identity information, the other side would know through the communicator, exposing her identity.
For the first time, Kui Xin felt the sensation of being plotted against.
The other party planned meticulously, controlling the assassin to shoot at her without revealing themselves, and this unexpected communicator made Kui Xin feel great apprehension.
Fortunately, after capturing the killer, she and Silverface went straight into the interrogation without saying a word, revealing no information. Moreover, her voice changer was firmly placed on her throat, so the other party would not have heard her real voice.
Silverface raised his hand to touch his mask, an invisible beam scanning the space. After reviewing the environmental data from the mask, he said, “No additional surveillance devices detected.”
Kui Xin said, “Silverface, wash the communicator and put it away; it’s evidence. The killer didn’t disclose which bar he met the drug dealer in. I need to clarify his details and frequently visited bars… that drug dealer might be the key.”
“What happened? How could someone ambush us?” Silverface pondered.
“We didn’t just ambush ‘us’; it was an ambush on ‘me,’” Kui Xin replied.
Silverface looked at her in shock.
“This killer had a clear target; he aimed right at me with the first shot instead of at you,” Kui Xin said. “I was his prey; you were not.”
Silverface said, “Maybe it’s a coincidence…”
“There’s no such thing as coincidence. Even if it’s a coincidence, it cannot be treated as one,” Kui Xin said, raising her wrist communicator again to take some photos of the pool of blood on the ground, clicking to zoom in and adjusting the image contrast to look for details not visible in the dark.
“And haven’t you noticed? After the assassin missed me with the first shot, he immediately fired a few more at you; you blocked them,” she analyzed bit by bit. “Put yourself in his shoes; if I had multiple targets to kill, after firing the first shot, I wouldn’t look for the result. I would quickly aim at the next target. Because other targets would be alert after firing at the first, to ensure a higher overall hit rate, it would be wise not to look back after the first shot and instead shoot at the other targets as quickly as possible. If the first target escaped, hitting the second would still count as success.”
“But his second shot wasn’t aimed at me; every shot was aimed only at you,” Silverface realized, “You are the main focus!”
Kui Xin quickly wrote a brief report of a few dozen words, attaching the photos and sending it to the Headquarters of the Mechanical Dawn.
She hesitated for a moment, then dialed Red’s communicator.
“Hello?” The background noise was a cacophony of music.
“I was ambushed; a new form of xenomorph appeared, and I’ve sent the information back to the headquarters,” Kui Xin said. “Come over, bring me a healing agent; I’ve sustained some injuries.”
“Damn!” Red said, “Wait for me; I’m on my way. Send me your location.”
Kui Xin sent her location and then called Thorn Rose’s communicator.
“Is there something wrong, Deputy Commander?” Thorn Rose said, the other side unusually quiet.
“Where are you?” Kui Xin asked.
“At the beauty salon on Linzhong Road, No. 56,” Thorn Rose replied. “What’s happened?”
Kui Xin asked, “Where’s Python Sphere?”
Thorn Rose cooperatively said, “He’s next door at Ruby Red Bar having a late-night snack, not sure if he’s finished.”
Without wasting words, Kui Xin directly said, “Send me your current location.”
Thorn Rose hung up the call, and the next second sent her location, showing she was indeed at No. 56 Linzhong Road.
Kui Xin immediately dialed Python Sphere’s communicator: “Send me your location.”
“Okay, Deputy Commander,” Python Sphere said, pausing his noise, and soon sent over his location.
The location showed he was near Ruby Red Bar, consistent with Thorn Rose’s statement.
In the next minute, Kui Xin called each member of the task execution team, asking them to send their location information.
She browsed all the locations and realized none were near her position. She opened the map, searched for bars, and marked all nearby bars in red dots.
“You’re making everyone send their locations for what?” Silverface asked, puzzled.
“Can’t you think, Silverface?” Kui Xin temporarily put away her wrist communicator, picked up the rifle dropped by the killer, and started ascending the stairs to the second floor.
Silverface thought hard and suddenly realized, “You suspect there’s a mole among us?”
“Yes,” Kui Xin touched the half-broken spider mask on her face. “We just finished a meeting and someone ambushed me on the way back. There’s no such coincidence.”
“Our comrades wouldn’t betray us!” Silverface exclaimed in shock.
“Then why do you think someone would want to kill me? Just me?” Kui Xin retorted.
Silverface fell silent.
He thought for a long time, “Because you’re an undercover agent?”
This was Kui Xin’s most special identity; she was the deputy commander for the Port explosion task, yet others also played important roles in this mission, so there was no reason for her to be the primary target. Being an undercover at the Investigation Bureau was the only unusual identity that stood out.
“I speculate that there’s a mole among those who attended tonight’s meeting, and this mole is connected to the Investigation Bureau. The mole gleaned my unusual identity in the meeting, thus deciding to assassinate me,” Kui Xin said. “But there’s another conflicting point.”
“What conflicting point?” Silverface struggled to follow Kui Xin’s reasoning.
“Part of the Investigation Bureau’s responsibility is to eliminate xenomorphs; how could they possibly use xenomorphs to control assassins?” she questioned.
The disgusting spider-like xenomorph had parasitized the assassin’s head. After the assassin failed to carry out the killing, the xenomorph immediately killed him, consuming his brain, causing his body to dissolve, leaving no trace, and the xenomorph also melted away with his death.
She had seen parasitic hydras, where humans parasitized by them became deformed, but tonight the assassin could speak normally after being parasitized until the xenomorph emerged from him, leading to his death.
Kui Xin had reason to believe the assassin was a puppet, controlled by a xenomorph. Someone had put the xenomorph inside the assassin’s body, so the assassin involuntarily committed all these acts under the xenomorph’s control.
Silverface expressed that he had never seen such a spider-like xenomorph before.
Who was controlling this xenomorph? Who put the xenomorph into the assassin’s body?
In deep thought, Kui Xin ascended to the third floor, checking the window edge. The view on the third floor was not expansive; the assassin hadn’t fired from here. Kui Xin circled the fourth floor, and when she reached the fifth floor, her instinct to avoid danger halted her footsteps.
Kui Xin thought for a moment and said to Silverface, “I’m going over; the fifth-floor windowsill is too exposed, and there’s no cover. Use the water screen to cover me.”
“Okay,” Silverface replied.
She ascended the steps and approached the window, looking down, where she spotted a bullet casing.
The assassin had fired from the second-to-last windowsill on the west side of the fifth floor. Kui Xin moved closer to search and found more bullet casings beneath the window.
Fortunately, the assassin was using a rifle; if he had used a high-performance K80 sniper rifle, a single bullet could penetrate her alloy skull.
Kui Xin stood in front of the open window, completely unguarded.
Suddenly, “Hazard Avoidance” was triggered again! A laser dot aimed at Kui Xin from an auxiliary firearm appeared on her.
Still suppressed, the bullet was fired silently. This time, Silverface was prepared thanks to Kui Xin’s reminder. The water screen extended instantly, and the bullet struck the water screen, spinning to a stop, losing its momentum.
Silverface’s water screen surrounded Kui Xin in a 360-degree shield, ensuring she wouldn’t be hit.
“An ambush within an ambush!” Silverface exclaimed in astonishment, “There’s actually someone lying in wait for you!”
Chills ran down his spine.
Kui Xin had been shot on the way, hadn’t died, pursued the assassin in the abandoned building, who was now dead, yet she was targeted again. If Kui Xin thought for even a moment after the assassin’s death that she was safe, she could have died right now!
“We need to pursue!” Silverface suggested.
“Did you see the red dot appearing on me? This time it’s not a rifle; it’s a sniper; it’s too far; we can’t chase,” Kui Xin coldly decided to abandon the pursuit. “The mastermind is very, very cautious.”
She and Silverface withdrew from the window of the abandoned building, finding a relatively safe corner to wait for Red’s arrival.
“Choose the person you trust most among everyone who attended the meeting tonight. Who would you choose?” Kui Xin asked Silverface.
“Red,” Silverface replied, “He’s one of the oldest members.”
“And the one you trust the least?”
Silverface said, “There are some I don’t know well enough to make a judgment.”
Kui Xin said, “They may not have betrayed us; they might have been parasitized and controlled. If xenomorphs have the capability to parasitize Awakened…”
Silverface’s gaze darkened. “The headquarters will figure out what that xenomorph is.”
Kui Xin pulled her hood tight, covering her face completely. The mask was broken, revealing only a small portion of her forehead, and tightening the hoodie could conceal her face.
In the night, with the shooter at a distance, night vision gear could outline body shapes but not facial features. Kui Xin didn’t know if her metal skull had been exposed when the first bullet hit and whether the mastermind observed her silently from the shadows or manipulated the action from afar. Did he guess how she blocked the bullet?
She understood that asking all team members to send real-time locations was not an absolutely rigorous method; locations could also be tampered with. A capable mastermind wouldn’t reveal themselves in minor details. Her phone call was meant to confirm everyone’s condition and intimidate the opponent; if the enemy made a mistake, she could lock down the mastermind’s identity.
Unfortunately, this time, the mastermind was a “high-end player,” hiding exceptionally well, even setting a layered trap.
Five minutes later, Red arrived, racing down the street on his motorbike, with the Bartender on the rear, both wearing disguising masks.
The Bartender got off first, his pupils turning red beneath the mask as he surveyed the surroundings. “No surveillance devices, no suspicious individuals carrying weapons, currently safe.”
Red ruffled his wind-blown dyed hair, sizing up Kui Xin before tossing her a healing agent. “Here, for topical use. Looks like it’s a head injury; quite eye-catching. This new type of medicine heals in three hours, so don’t worry.”
Kui Xin opened the medicine package and applied it to her forehead, “I’ve sent the report to the headquarters.”
“Did you catch anyone?” Red asked.
“Dead. While waiting for you, I was investigating the scene and was attacked a second time. I didn’t chase this time; the shooter was too far.” Kui Xin pulled up her communicator to show Red the photos she had taken. “All the photos are here; the physical evidence is a communicator and a rifle; Silverface is keeping the communicator.”
“A xenomorph I’ve never seen before,” Red said, grimacing, “You managed to take a photo of that disgusting thing; as expected of you.”
The Bartender leaned in to take a glance and frowned as well.
“The killer’s body is on the second floor… well, it’s now just a puddle of blood, so I can only take a sample. During the second attack, I used the abandoned building for observation; the shooter’s position should be between four and five o’clock… you should be able to find bullet casings and such now.”
“We have a traitor among us,” Red concluded his judgment without needing Kui Xin to elaborate. “This is too coincidental; such coincidences don’t happen…”
Though Red’s outfit was strange, his mind still worked well.
Kui Xin said, “Silverface and I deliberately changed our return route, but the enemy tracked me down.”
“How did the enemy track us? Human tracking? Micro-mechanics?” Silverface said heavily. “We are in a very dangerous situation.”
The Bartender added, “I didn’t sense any tracking devices; the opponent isn’t using technological equipment for tracking. As for human tracking, such primitive methods wouldn’t be missed by you or Lady Fortune. We cannot rule out that the opponent has Extraordinary Abilities related to tracking and surveillance.”
Kui Xin glanced at the Bartender, whose Extraordinary Ability seemed related to perception and could detect high-tech devices?
“Do not return home; it’s too dangerous. Before we understand the enemy’s means of tracking, going back might expose our address. Lady Fortune, you and Silverface should return to the safe house to rest,” Red instructed. “I’ll contact the headquarters shortly to have some external teams dispatched to investigate the scene.”
The members of the external teams were usually ordinary people without Extraordinary Abilities. They often performed logistical tasks like clearing the battlefield, assembling weapons, technical analysis, and so forth. Just because they lacked Extraordinary Abilities didn’t mean they were unskilled; each team member had undergone rigorous training and mastered specialized fields.
Compared to the Awakened, ordinary people constituted the majority of the Mechanical Dawn organization.
“I leave the rest to you; I have work, unlike you, who can arrange your time flexibly,” Kui Xin said.
“Alright,” Red confirmed, “You focus on dealing with the Investigation Bureau, and I’ll handle the traitor in the rear.”
A killing intent surrounded him.
“If you can capture them alive, bring them to me,” Kui Xin demanded. “I need to know who they are.”
…
Python Sphere trembled slightly as he lit a cigar, speaking softly into the communicator, “I’m out.”
“That ‘Lady Fortune’ is too perceptive; after the killer fired, it took less than thirty seconds… maybe even less, and she caught him. ‘Silverface’ beside her is at least a B-grade Awakened and might be close to A,” he repeated, “I’m out! I don’t want to die!”
“I overestimated you; I thought you would be braver,” a hoarse voice from the communicator came, masked by a voice changer. “I promised you a new identity once this is done, allowing you to leave Hei Hai City for another place.”
“Before I embrace a new life, I have to make sure I don’t lose mine first,” Python Sphere replied, “It’s too dangerous; damn it! I shouldn’t have been foolish enough to agree to kill Lady Fortune! Red’s methods are scarier than you can imagine; Lady Fortune isn’t easy to mess with. They’re starting to suspect me… they’re already suspicious of me! After Lady Fortune was shot, she called me to ask where I was; this guy must be testing me!”
Python Sphere was increasingly anxious, fear gnawing at him. “The risks I’m taking are far greater than you described; I can’t take the risk anymore.”
“Don’t shift the blame. The main reason for our passive position is that you failed to place sufficient scent marks on your teammates. If the scent marking was successful, we could have tracked everyone attending tonight’s meeting without issue, and we would have started cutting heads one by one. You wouldn’t have to be on edge,” that person said coldly. “But your scent marking only marked a few individuals, and the amount was insufficient; it dissipated in just two hours, making it hard to track them down.”
“If it weren’t for the tight schedule, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the ‘importance’ of Lady Fortune’s identity and role in the meeting, I wouldn’t have ordered you to act tonight. You know how much a trained undercover agent can erode a tight-knit organization. Lady Fortune must die. After tonight, the scent marking will be lost, and we won’t be able to track her! We don’t even know who Lady Fortune is! You didn’t kill Lady Fortune as instructed, and you didn’t collect a tissue sample; that was your mistake.”
“Red didn’t explicitly confirm that Lady Fortune is an undercover agent; without that confirmation, it’s just suspicion requiring deeper investigation. What’s the use of you assuming she’s the mole? I’m the one who has to bear the consequences of your hasty, misguided decisions,” Python Sphere argued. “And that scent marking… I had just taken out a cigar to smoke when Silverface put it out with water. What could I do? That was my only specially designed cigar; it’s ruined now, and I can’t light it back up.”
Bringing this up made Python Sphere weary.
He had smoked a cigar in the meeting room; that cigar was a special mission tool. The odor emitted when ignited could attach to people for a long time, creating invisible scent markings that only certain nocturnal insects would follow.
Python Sphere timed it perfectly; he lit the cigar before the meeting began, filling the room with smoke, marking everyone entering. At the meeting’s end, releasing the insects would indicate the direction of the marked individuals. The insects had also been specially treated; with night vision goggles, they could be seen emitting visible fluorescence.
Python Sphere had planned accordingly; he knew the Bartender’s Extraordinary Ability; no high-tech tracking devices would succeed.
Unfortunately, fate had other plans.
The moment he lit the cigar, Silverface extinguished it with a splash of water, extinguishing hope and Python Sphere’s plans.
Originally, a bit of scent marking had stuck to Lady Fortune and Silverface. After Python Sphere reported the meeting’s contents to the informant, they offered him a high price to kill Lady Fortune.
Python Sphere undertook a series of actions, releasing the insects, predicting the route, and went to the bar to find a few substitutes to implant parasitic xenomorphs to control them, thinking he was foolproof.
But the assassination mission ended in utter failure.
“I don’t want to take any more risks,” Python Sphere stated.
“If you don’t want to take risks, what do you want to do? You’re trapped now, do you want to stay with the Mechanical Dawn under their control, being mentally brainwashed by them?” the voice on the communicator replied. “Listen to me, lay low, and wait for the right time to arrive; I can let you return to your true self. Your name isn’t ‘Python Sphere’; you haven’t used your real name for so long you might forget what it is.”
Python Sphere fell silent.
“If you feel endangered, you can hold off on actions for now and focus on transmitting information,” the voice softened. “Lady Fortune’s existence is a threat to us, so I was in a rush to deal with it. I underestimated Lady Fortune and Silverface’s strength, which caused the mission failure; I share the responsibility; this is my mistake.”
Python Sphere remained hesitant. “But I…”
“I’ll add five million,” the voice in the communicator responded calmly. “When you leave, take this money and go wherever you wish.”
“I’m not lacking money; you don’t understand,” Python Sphere replied.
After a moment of contemplation, the voice on the other end continued, “I’ll add a vial of divine blood.”
Python Sphere was taken aback.
“Your talent has reached its limits; the path of the Awakened stops here; you will always be C-class, unable to touch higher levels,” the person advised gently. “When you can’t see hope on the path of the Awakened, you can choose a different path to start anew… you know which path that is.”
“Hybrid blooded!” Python Sphere’s eyes widened.
“Yes. Take the divine blood, become hybrid blooded, and you can become stronger,” the person said, “If you’re strong enough, the Mechanical Dawn can do nothing to you.”
“I’ve heard that hybrid blooded people can become monsters…”
“After the divine blood is diluted and filtered, its safety greatly increases, and the mutation rate decreases significantly. You can’t avoid all risks.”
Python Sphere remained silent for a long time. “Okay, I’ll continue being an undercover agent. Just like you said, I’ll only be responsible for transmitting information; I won’t be involved in anything else. Don’t think about asking me to kill for you.”
“Deal.” The person said amiably, “You need to provide me with more information about Lady Fortune: height, body characteristics, voice— the more detailed, the better.”
Python Sphere thought carefully: “Lady Fortune uses a voice changer, so her real voice is unclear. Height is approximately one seventy-five; gender is also uncertain…”
“Gender uncertain?” the person was taken aback.
“The gender implication of the code name ‘Lady Fortune’ is too obvious; it might be a smokescreen. Lady Fortune’s true identity could well be a man. You see, at one seventy-five, it can be either a man or a woman, and what if Lady Fortune deliberately wears a fake chest for disguise? There are many crazies in the Mechanical Dawn, and they often have quirks, like Red; his interests are quite strange,” Python Sphere spoke solemnly. “Based on my experience, even though Lady Fortune’s code name sounds feminine, one should never treat this person as a woman! Height can easily be disguised with shoe lifts or hollowed-out shoes. What if Lady Fortune’s Extraordinary Ability is related to disguise?”
“…the information you provided is almost as good as giving me nothing. I can’t lock down the target,” the person remarked.
“When being an undercover agent, one must think more,” Python Sphere said nervously.
“You used to think a lot, but never considered this much. Is it because Lady Fortune scared you tonight that led to your overthinking?” the person sneered.
Python Sphere was about to retort when he suddenly saw his communicator flashing; Thorn Rose sent a message.
“I have to hang up; my teammate’s looking for me.” Python Sphere closed the communicator, opening his wrist communicator and using the usual loud voice, “Hey, Big Sister!”
“Did you finish the late-night snack? If you’ve finished, hurry up and come work,” Thorn Rose said coldly.
“Right, right, I’ll be there! Just five minutes; Big Sister, you take a rest!” Python Sphere flattered.
After ending the communicator, Python Sphere patted his plump face, straightened his back, fully regaining a cocky, energetic state.
He left the spot, mounted his motorbike, and sped off to find Thorn Rose.
…
“This room is nice,” Silverface remarked, looking around.
Kui Xin opened a cabinet and found it filled with various clothing options, from hip-hop outfits to suits, with a complete array of cosmetics in nearby compartments, presumably for helping organization members with disguises.
She pulled out some clothes and knocked on the bottom of the wardrobe; the wood produced a hollow thudding sound. Lifting it revealed a secret passage. Red mentioned this passage led directly to the complex city sewers as an escape route.
They had returned to the Ruby Red Bar, this time to the safe house on the basement floor designated for the organization members to rest and recuperate.
Silverface tore open a can of fruit, sitting cross-legged on the floor to eat.
The emergency food supply in the safe house was all canned goods, with separate boxes for medicines and weapons supplies. Behind hanging paintings on the wall was a safe containing gold bars. The Second World was a cashless society, but gold as a precious metal still circulated; it served as hard currency in black market transactions.
“How are you going to get to work tomorrow morning?” Silverface asked.
“I’ll use the secret passage,” Kui Xin replied, sitting on the bed and reviewing the sewer route on the map.
She glanced at the time— it was three in the morning.
Continuing this cycle of night and day, she would eventually collapse from exhaustion.
“Where will I sleep?” Silverface inquired.
“On the floor?” Kui Xin suggested.
Silverface had no objections; during his stay at Kui Xin’s home, he had slept on the couch and never expected to sleep in bed.
After finishing the canned food, Silverface spread a blanket on the floor, lying down and rolling himself in it, preparing to sleep.
Kui Xin turned off the lights and lay on the bed.
Counting all the people she knew, surprisingly, Silverface was the most reliable one.
If Kui Xin had to choose the one among all those who attended the meeting who would be least likely to try to kill her, it would definitely be Silverface. His Extraordinary Ability was strong enough that he could easily kill Kui Xin with just a finger. Silverface was actually a pure person, not very cunning, which was why Kui Xin trusted him.
The second would be Red. Red understood Kui Xin’s identity and the tasks she undertook, knowing her home address and her position within the Investigation Bureau. It would be easy for him to kill her too.
If Kui Xin were to choose someone she found most suspicious… it would be Python Sphere.
Because he was too erratic and seemed too foolish.
Python Sphere didn’t show any signs of intentionally acting dumb; all his behavior seemed very natural, without traces of acting. Yet Kui Xin found him suspicious without reason.
Kui Xin lay in bed, unable to sleep, contemplating when she first started feeling uneasy about Python Sphere.
She recalled that she found Python Sphere’s smoking behavior most annoying.
Kui Xin hated the smell of cigars.
Lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, Silverface quietly asked, “Why aren’t you asleep yet?”
“Your breathing is too loud,” Kui Xin replied.
Silverface said, “…I’ll try to breathe quietly.”
Kui Xin calmly thought for a moment, picked up her wrist communicator, and sent a message to Red: “Red, focus on investigating Python Sphere; I feel something is off with him.”
Not long after, Red replied, “Got it.”
It was almost four in the morning; she needed to sleep.
The next day, Kui Xin would face new challenges— she needed to undergo a formal interview under the scrutiny and questioning of the group leaders at the Investigation Bureau.
The author has something to say: Silverface: Cat Squad did a great job!
