novelraw Chapter 38: Clean-up
Chapter 38: Clean-up
Sure enough, ten seconds later.
A faint rustling started up inside the woods.
Whoosh—one by one the black-skinned assassins burst out, and led by their leader, they scattered in all directions.
But as soon as they rushed out, they ran into the Defense Bureau operatives blocking them.
Because the Defense Bureau had received an advance warning and were mentally prepared, they showed no panic at all, and the two sides collided immediately.
“Huh?” The leader’s heart sank.
As the person in charge of the Truth Society’s operation to hunt Qiao Mingyuan, when he was driven into the woods by Xia Country’s Defense Bureau, he realized this mission had not only failed, it might be impossible to return alive.
Why had the Defense Bureau forced them into the woods instead of pressing the attack?
The leader of the assassins didn’t need to think long to know the reason.
They were simply waiting for reinforcements, planning to overwhelm them with absolute force to capture them while avoiding any meaningless casualties.In that situation, the leader knew their only chance was to break through before the Defense Bureau reinforcements arrived.
If possible, they had to catch the enemy off guard—then their chance of escape would be much greater.
But now it seemed the Defense Bureau was prepared; they showed no weaknesses when the assassins suddenly burst out.
“I still have that trump card, I’ll get out alive...”
The leader steadied himself and immediately engaged the Defense Bureau operative blocking him in fierce combat.
......
Not far away.
Captain Chen Hai quietly watched the fight.
Although the black-skinned assassins launched an all-or-nothing charge, smashing everything like a final desperate effort,
under the tight encirclement it did little good. In less than a minute the assassins were once again at a disadvantage—some were dead, others fell injured.
Chen Hai did not feel calm. His gaze flicked to the laptop beside him.
In truth, the alert on the laptop—“They’re going to rush out”—only served as a warning.
Even without that line of text, the assassins would not have broken the cordon.
At most there would be some casualties.
What puzzled Chen Hai was: how did the person who sent that warning know the assassins were going to break out?
Had someone already done a detailed psychological profile of these assassins and predicted their next move?
Chen Hai knew many psychologists could analyze behavior patterns and make reliable predictions from a mental profile.
But how had the warning-sender infiltrated the laptop so silently?
Too many questions crowded Chen Hai’s mind.
At that moment,
Chen Hai’s peripheral vision caught new text being typed across the laptop screen.
“Left-lower area of Sector C battlefield, everyone retreat immediately...”
“This...” Chen Hai’s pupils shrank.
Sector C... To simplify the cordon around the woods, Chen Hai had divided the perimeter into zones marked A, B, C, etc., for easier command.
He immediately looked toward Sector C.
At that spot six assassins were under attack; the one leading them was the strongest among the group, the one Chen Hai had identified as their leader.
“Bad!”
Chen Hai suddenly realized something and ordered everyone in Sector C, “Everyone, fall back!”
No hesitation—those Defense Bureau operatives in Sector C instantly retreated violently toward the rear.
The next moment,
the leader produced a fist-sized black orb and slammed it down to the ground.
Boom—
A terrifying flame erupted and spread forward.
If Chen Hai had not given that last-minute order, at least five or six Defense Bureau operatives would have been engulfed by that heavy flame.
Buzz—taking advantage of the slight breach the fire made in the cordon, the leader wasted no time and escaped through it.
......
Magic City, Villa 66.
“The flame orb the Truth Society used can severely injure a Transforming Force grandmaster...” Su Yuan thought casually.
That flame orb was the black sphere the leader of the assassins had thrown at the end.
If Su Yuan hadn’t issued the warning, the Defense Bureau on South Sea Island would have suffered severely under that orb—five Hidden Force operatives dead and one Transforming Force grandmaster gravely wounded.
Strictly speaking, this flame orb was produced using technology the Truth Society obtained from an alien force, which explained its devastating power.
......
Outside the woods.
Captain Chen Hai’s face looked grim.
It had come so close—if not for his warning, he couldn’t guess how many casualties would have resulted.
“These flames...” Chen Hai swept his gaze and saw the leader disappear after using the flame orb to break the cordon.
“Got away?”
Chen Hai followed the direction where the cordon had been breached. That path led into the urban area of South Sea Island.
“This is trouble.”
Chen Hai frowned. Once the leader melted into the city, it would not be easy to locate him.
South Sea Island is a major tourist destination with many international visitors; as long as the leader kept a low profile, tracking him down would be difficult.
Thoughts swirling, Chen Hai looked back at the laptop screen.
It had been Su Yuan’s warning that made him aware the assassin leader might have a hidden escape trick, which is why he had ordered an immediate retreat.
And it had indeed turned out that way.
Yet how did Su Yuan know?
Just then,
more text appeared on the laptop screen.
“Go to Tongxin Hotel in the southern district of the city and wait.”
Chen Hai read the line, thought briefly, and immediately dispatched his best operatives to lie in wait at Tongxin Hotel in the southern district.
Now Chen Hai was basically certain that the person who had hacked the laptop had good intentions; otherwise there would have been no reason to warn them.
If the intent was good, they could be trusted.
......
Inside South Sea City, the assassin leader crouched in the shadows of an alley.
“I finally... got out...”
He drew a deep breath. The flame orb was indeed the trump card the Truth Society had given him.
“Once I’m in the city, it’s nearly safe.”
He planned to head for the rendezvous point.
The rendezvous point was a clandestine location the Truth Society had set up. If he could get there, he could leave Xia Country without trouble.
But the leader was extremely cautious and didn’t go straight to the rendezvous. He circled South Sea City, avoided all roadside cameras, and only then slowly approached the rendezvous.
It was Tongxin Hotel in the southern district.
“Safe.”
His mood improved.
The reason he had circled the city first was to make sure he was not being followed.
As a professional killer, the leader was certain no one was tailing him now.
That meant he had successfully shaken off Xia Country’s surveillance.
Satisfied, he strode into Tongxin Hotel.
......
Magic City, Villa 66.
“Done.”
Su Yuan’s face was calm as he began the final clean-up—
deleting the login record of the highest-privilege account he had used, exercising the South Sea City Defense Bureau’s top-level permissions.