Kane dragged his broken body away, step by step, from the hall of death he had personally purged.

  The wound on his left shoulder gaped hideously through the tear in his Basilisk Stone Armor.

  With every heartbeat, it felt as though a red-hot steel needle was stirring through his flesh. Yet, this piercing agony only served to pull the strings of his mind tighter, making him clearer than ever before.

  He avoided the main roads.

  Relying on his memory of the abandoned industrial zone's layout, he veered into a long-derelict underground sewage pipe. The entrance was choked by waist-high mutant weeds, and a sour, stagnant stench of ancient rust mixed with silt billowed out.

  He crawled inside. Darkness and filth swallowed him whole.

  The shoulder wound had to be treated. He fished a basic medical kit from his pack and twisted open a bottle of disinfectant spray. Without a moment's hesitation, he aimed it at his mangled flesh.

  Sss—!

  The searing burn instantly jolted through his entire system. The veins on his temples bulged, and his jaw locked tight; he didn't let out even a muffled groan.

  He wrapped a bandage around it several times with practiced speed, crudely stemming the flow of blood.

  Once finished, he carefully withdrew the S-Rank encrypted data core from his chest pocket. The cold metal felt as though he were holding a bomb capable of leveling Blackrock Town.

  He pulled off his jacket and tore a relatively clean piece of lining, wrapping the core layer by layer.

  Standing up, he felt the rhythmic throb of the wound as he looked toward the distant, dim yellow glow of Blackrock Town.

  Felix.

  The debt would be settled, entry by entry.

  Tucking the other, mundane mission core securely against his body, his figure vanished once more into the boundless night.

  When Kane pushed open the heavy wooden doors of the Hunter's Tavern, the boisterous, boiling hall fell into a sudden, eerie silence.

  Every eye in the room landed on him simultaneously.

  His Basilisk Stone Armor was in tatters, and dark red blood seeped through the left shoulder. A pungent odor—a mix of gunpowder, blood, and machine oil—spread with his footsteps.

  That aura of someone who had crawled out from a mountain of corpses was no longer hidden; it struck the senses of everyone present with raw intensity.

  He was a completely different man from the one who had left two days ago.

  On the second floor, in Felix's office.

  Felix was peering through the one-way glass, looking down at the crowd with practiced interest. When his gaze caught Kane’s figure, the playful smirk on his face froze.

  Incredulity.

  Finally, that shock settled into a bottomless, icy chill. He gave a slight tilt of his chin toward the muscle-bound bodyguard standing beside him.

  Downstairs, Kane ignored the prying, suspicious, and wary gazes of the crowd and walked straight to the bar.

  "Engine Coolant."

  His voice was raspy.

  The bartender blinked, then quickly mixed a glass of murky, pungent spirit.

  Kane picked up the glass but didn't drink. He tilted his head back, his gaze cutting through the noisy crowd to lock precisely onto that dark pane of one-way glass on the second floor.

  He knew Felix was watching.

  He raised the glass slightly, as if offering a toast to an invisible devil. Then, he threw his head back and drained the burning liquid in one gulp.

  The harsh liquor hit his throat like a ball of fire, crudely numbing the pain of his wounds and the exhaustion of his body.

  A moment later, Felix’s bodyguard appeared behind him. His tone was reasonably polite.

  "Mr. Kane. Boss Felix would like to see you upstairs."

  Kane set down his glass and followed the man toward the stairs leading to the second floor.

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  The door hadn't even been pushed open when he spoke. His voice wasn't loud, yet it pierced through the wooden paneling clearly, reaching every corner of the office.

  "What's the matter? Didn't expect me to come back alive?"

  He shoved the door open, pulled out a chair opposite Felix, and crossed his legs. The mockery in his gaze was undisguised.

  "Sorry to disappoint you."

  "Even though you gave me a load of horseshit intel, I’m a hard man to kill. I'm back."

  Felix sat behind his wide desk, fingers interlaced. His expression was overcast. He didn't believe Kane had actually finished the mission; he assumed the boy had merely been lucky enough to escape the monster's jaws.

  "Kid, I suggest you watch your mouth."

  Felix's voice was low, and a dangerous aura began to permeate the air.

  "Don't think that just because you had a stroke of luck and some parlor tricks that you can act out in front of me."

  The moment those words fell, the four burly bodyguards standing around the room simultaneously moved their hands toward the weapons at their waists.

  The energy cores of plasma axes emitted a low hum, and the cold metal grips of electromagnetic pistols peeked out from their holsters.

  The tension was a hair's breadth from snapping.

  Kane acted as if he didn't even see the threats leveled against him. He reached into his vest and slowly pulled out the mundane mission core.

  Clack.

  The core was tossed casually onto the desk, making a crisp sound. Then, he pulled out the strangely shaped The Cyclone.

  He didn't aim the muzzle at Felix. Instead, he pointed it directly at the data core on the desk.

  "You're welcome to try me."

  Kane’s lips curled into a cold, destructive smile.

  "My life is cheap. I don't mind taking someone down with me."

  "I just wonder—if this thing gets shattered, does your mission still count as a success?"

  Felix’s pupils instantly contracted to pinpricks!

  He stared fixedly at Kane, then at the data core, the muscles in his face twitching with suppressed rage.

  A lunatic!

  A complete and utter madman! He actually dared to use the mission objective to threaten him!

  Felix took a deep breath and waved his hand to signal his men to stand down. Every word he spoke sounded as if it were being ground out from between his bones.

  "What... do you want?"

  In that instant, the initiative had completely reversed.

  "Simple."

  Kane dropped the manic expression and holstered his pistol, holding up three fingers.

  "First: payment. Twenty thousand isn't enough. I want fifty thousand."

  "Second: Craig. That idiot who sent men to kill me. I want him alive. Now, immediately, bring him to me."

  "Third..."

  Kane leaned forward slightly, staring into Felix’s eyes, and asked syllable by syllable:

  "Tell me—who asked you to find this thing?"

  When the third condition was voiced, Felix’s dark expression finally cracked. He slammed his hand on the desk and stood up, roaring, "The first two are fine! The third is absolutely impossible! Kane, don't push your luck!"

  His reaction was so violent it was almost a primal rejection.

  "Fine."

  To Felix’s surprise, Kane nodded readily. The clean, decisive attitude made it seem as though the previous condition had been nothing more than a casual inquiry.

  He hadn't expected Felix to talk. This question was merely a probe.

  Now he was certain—behind this core lay an entity that even Felix feared.

  This level of directness only made Felix even more wary; he felt as though he could no longer read this young man at all.

  Felix exhaled sharply and sat back in his chair.

  He operated his personal terminal. A few seconds later, a crisp notification rang out from Kane’s device.

  50,000 Kunlun Credits—received.

  Simultaneously, Felix picked up the communicator on his desk and ordered in a cold, emotionless tone, "Bring Craig to the tavern. Alive."

  During the interval spent waiting, a bizarre silence settled over the office.

  Felix broke the quiet, staring fixedly at Kane like a predator sizing up unknown prey.

  "Aren't you afraid that after I get the item and verify it, I'll have you chopped into pieces and fed to the mutant worms anyway?"

  Kane leaned back lazily against the chair, returning the look with eyes that treated Felix like an idiot.

  "First, this is the Hunter's Tavern—the information hub of Blackrock Town. If you lose even the most basic trading credibility, the name 'Felix' will be on every hunter's blacklist by tomorrow morning."

  He paused, his cold gaze slowly sweeping over Felix, then over the bodyguards standing nearby.

  "Second..."

  "I'm not so sure you can kill me."

  He said it plainly, but with a sense of absolute certainty that brooked no argument.

  Looking into those eyes—as calm and deep as an ancient well—Felix actually felt a flicker of palpitations.

  This kid definitely had another trump card!

  Felix’s expression shifted through a range of dark emotions for several seconds. Finally, he burst into a loud laugh, though it held no warmth. "Good! Well played, Kane! You've got guts! I'm actually starting to admire you!"

  At that moment, the office door was shoved open violently.

  Craig, battered and bruised, was tossed inside by two burly men.

  He looked up and saw Kane sitting leisurely in the chair. He froze for a second before erupting into a localized fit of madness, screaming:

  "You! You hybrid bastard! You’re actually not dead! Just you wait, I—"

  Kane didn't even acknowledge the cursing.

  He stood up and casually plucked a fresh, white velvet cloth used for polishing glasses from a nearby liquor cabinet.

  Under Craig’s terrified and confused gaze, Kane walked over to him.

  Before anyone could react, he slammed the white cloth over Craig’s entire face!

  Zip!

  A muffled, suppressed sound.

  The muzzle of The Cyclone was pressed hard against the white cloth, now damp with saliva and nasal blood. The bullet passed precisely through the back of Craig's skull.

  Craig’s cursing stopped instantly.

  His body went limp and slumped to the floor.

  Kane let go, allowing the cloth—now mostly stained crimson—to flutter down onto Craig’s corpse.

  It was as if he were discarding a piece of trash used to wipe away something filthy.

  He turned to Felix, who was staring at the scene in stunned silence, and said, "I didn't feel like finding another place to handle it. Your place is convenient. Don't worry, I didn't get any on your carpet."

  With that, he turned and headed for the exit.

  As he reached the doorway, he stopped, though he did not look back.

  "Send me the contact info for that mechanic. I'll find her myself."

  "When I'm short on cash again, I'll come find you."

  As the last word fell, his figure had already vanished down the stairs.

  In the office, Felix looked at the data core on the table, then at Craig’s still-warm corpse on the floor.

  The shock on his face slowly faded, replaced by a mixture of wariness, anger, and an almost morbid curiosity.

  He picked up his personal terminal and clicked on an encrypted contact icon. His voice was kept extremely low, carrying a trace of irrepressible excitement.

  "I have the core... Yes, that kid..."

  "He completed the mission."

  " Alone."

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