Han Xiao nodded and accepted it.
As soon as Han Xiao entered the room, he checked every corner of it thoroughly. There had been three monitoring devices before he left, and now there was one more. He shook his head and used a program to crack it once again. After he was done with that, only then did he start reading the documents, from which he gained a deeper understanding of the original owner of his body. He was basically a nobody, and he did not hear about any NPC called ‘Han Xiao’ in his previous life either.
“Sigh.”
Han Xiao shook his head. He had made contact with Alumera to know more about the original owner of his body, and he had already achieved that. Whether it was Alumera’s attitude or their internal problems, none of that mattered to him because it had nothing to do with him, and his so-called hostility was just a form of showing his strong stand.
Alumera was already sucking it up and did not want to become his enemy, so Han Xiao would be stupid to kill their people in their headquarters. There was no benefit to creating another enemy for himself for no reason.
Once Alumera knows I’m ‘Xiao Han’, I wonder how they will react.
Han Xiao put the documents aside, lay on the bed, and closed his eyes. He planned to leave the next day.
…
At midnight in Darryl’s mansion…
“It’s all because of that asshole Xiao Jin that Alumera has been sucked into this. That asshole has been building on his power with no worries at all. He’s obviously trying to seize power. However, the North Faction is my ally, and Se Qi’s Red Island Faction has always been neutral. What does he have to be up against me?” Darryl clenched his teeth.
When Alumera was created, it had been peaceful internally, but when the size of the organization started to snowball, conflicts started to happen. As the master of the house, the Home Faction gained most benefits and were in the middle of the conflict. Although all the factions followed the orders on the surface, they all had the ambitions to take over and seize power.
Luckily, after all these long years of partnership, they were all connected to each other deeply, so none of them dared do anything too over the line. A murder was nearly impossible to happen. Even if there was one, it was planned in secret.
Xiao Jin posed the largest threat, and Darryl was the one who secretly planned the attack on Xiao Hai, which sadly failed. They had only managed to kill Han Xiao, who did not matter at all.
Who would have thought that after one year, the Han Xiao who nobody cared about would become a wanted person with an outrageous reward from the Germinal Organization and bring the family such a horrifying enemy?
Thinking back now, Darryl was filled with regret.
At this time, Darryl’s son, Lagos, walked in and said, “Father, Black Phantom has left Xiao Jin’s mansion. The meeting lasted for one hour and thirty-seven minutes.”
“Xiao Jin is becoming more unbridled. Now he even dares meet Black Phantom privately without my consent.” Darryl was enraged.
“What do we do, just let Black Phantom leave?”
“Don’t mess with him.”
“But he dared to be this arrogant in our territory.” Lagos was unconvinced.
“I said don’t mess with him!” Darryl slammed the table in a rage and shouted, “Get out!”
Lagos clenched his teeth and closed the door after he walked out. The moment he turned his head, his expression turned vicious.
…
As the sky started to brighten, loud noises woke Han Xiao up, who was in a light sleep.
He jumped out of the bed and looked outside through the window. Alumera members were yelling and rushing somewhere.
“What happened?” Han Xiao asked in confusion.
Footsteps closed in rapidly, and dozens of soldiers surrounded the room with guns.
“Black Phantom, don’t move!” one of the captains shouted.
These soldiers’ mission was to control him. They were all in a state of nervousness that could pull the trigger wrongly anytime. Han Xiao saw the people outside running in another direction.
Seems like something has happened, but it’s not about me. Han Xiao squinted his eyes and watched things unfold.
Not long after, the captain seemed like he had received an order. He yelled, “Come with us!”
Han Xiao wanted to know what had happened, too, so he followed the nervous soldiers. To his surprise, they went to Darryl’s mansion.
It was already extremely crowded; the high-ranking officials from all the factions had come. They were looking furiously at Han Xiao, and the latter was rather confused.
Han Xiao only discovered what had happened after he walked into the mansion.
In the office, Darryl sat on the chair with his head facing up, a bloody blue hole on his left eye, penetrating through the back of his head. The blood on the wooden floor had already coagulated, and the metallic smell of blood filled the room. The dead body’s hands hung from the shoulders, and the legs pushed against the table, holding him on his chair.
The leader of Alumera had been assassinated!
“Cause of death: gunshot. The bullet entered through the eye into the brain, penetrating and leaving through the back of his head. He would have died on the spot. From the size of the bullet hole, the killer used a high caliber handgun, and the leader did not show any sign of resistance. There are no clues at the scene that showed any signs of the killer ever being here.”
Han Xiao suddenly understood why the others were looking at him that way.
Darryl died in the night, and being the killer who came without invitation, he was the most suspicious. Also, the killer used a high caliber handgun, and the assassination-style was phantom-like.
There were too many coincidences.
He was being framed!
Han Xiao blinked. He took out a cigarette from the pocket, lighted it up, and inhaled deeply, blowing out a smoke ring in the face of the surrounding nervous soldiers.
“Now this is interesting.”
Chapter 206 - The Real Killer (One)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The soldiers surrounded the place securely. The high ranked officials had different expressions, the home faction was furious, Xiao Jin’s faction was frowning with confusion on their faces, Red Island Faction lead by Se Qi and the Northern Faction all had surprise on their faces, they couldn’t believe it.
“Get him!” Lagos’s face was twisted.
Xiao Jin frowned and stopped him, “there’s more to this, Black Phantom visited us in bright daylight, there’s no need for him to do such thing.”
“What if that’s exactly what he made us think!” One of the chieftains of the Northern Faction said.
“Then why did he have to visit us, it’s more discreet to assassinate him.” Xiao Jin said.
“Our guarding power is strong, he wanted to get in!” Someone said.
“He’s the killer, and you still want to find excuses for him?!” Lagos was emotional, he took out his gun and pointed at Han Xiao, Se Qi who stood on his side hurriedly stopped him.”
“Calm down, there’s no motive for Black Phantom to do this—”
“Motive?!” Lagos was enraged, he stared at Xiao Jin, clenched his teeth and said, “is there no motive?”
Xiao Jin frowned and said, “you’re overthinking.”
The Northern Faction and the Home Faction agreed they should first control Black Phantom who was the most suspicious, then get on to find more clues. Se Qi felt Black Phantom was too dangerous, and suggested to question Han Xiao on the spot, but was interrupted by Lagos who believed they couldn’t trust anything Black Phantom says, they were unable to come to an agreement.
The soldiers surrounded Han Xiao, many strong presences in the dark were locking their attention on him, and the high ranked officials also had their attention on Han Xiao even as they were discussing, they were ready to engage the moment Han Xiao does anything suspicious.
Han Xiao thought to
himself, “the result of framing me to take responsibility for the assassination is a conflict between Alumera and the Dark Net, only the third party will benefit from it. Could this be the goal of the people behind all this? If I start a killing spree, it would also fall right into his trap, it was planned for me to be in such a situation where my actions are very restricted.”
Han Xiao could kill his way out anytime, he didn’t care about making Alumera angry, but if he did it, it would be falling into the trap of the people behind this, as escaping would mean he admitted he was the killer, and killing someone creates hatred, he also could not just let them capture him. It seemed like the plan made by the person behind this had worked.
“I’ve only been here for one day, and they could make the assassination look like I did it, there has to be someone who’s an expert in assassination that has been here for a long time, and my arrival had given them the opportunity.”
Unless they could find the real killer, no matter how many things showed that Han Xiao had no motive to do it, he would still be the most suspicious person without any solid evidence that proves otherwise. After all, no one can truly know someone else unless they can read their mind, logical assumptions could not be taken as evidence.
“Wait, evidence—” Han Xiao had a flash of insight, it hasn’t been long since Delo was assassinated, the crime scene was not checked thoroughly yet, the killer might have left some clues.
This time, the discussion between the high ranked officials had come to an end, Lagos yelled, “Black Phantom, disarm yourself and surrender!”
Xiao Jin added, “if you didn’t do it, we will investigate clearly.”
Han Xiao smiled, “you know that’s impossible, how about you guys disarm yourselves?”
Both parties couldn’t trust each other, there was no way they would take the risk of disarming themselves, it was a problem that had no solution. However, Han Xiao had a thought, “there’s no point of continuing this argument, I can stay temporarily, and you can send people to monitor me 24/7, I will wait till you find the truth.” He said.
Han Xiao was very curious about who was framing him, he felt it was quite interesting.
“Well, that is one way to do it.” Se Qi said immediately, he wasn’t wishing for a conflict.
Before Lagos said anything, someone in the crowd suddenly fired his gun, Han Xiao reacted quickly and activated the Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor, the bullet was deflected.
However, this had made the soldiers who were all in a highly nervous state lose their control and all fired at the same time.
“Fire!”
Conflict broke out in an instant!
“Someone fired unexpectedly on purpose!” Han Xiao’s eyes became serious, the scene was chaotic, but he saw the person who made the shot clearly, it was an ordinary soldier.
Bullets emerged from every direction, Han Xiao had no choice by to deal with the shootings first, the enhanced Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor had an outstanding level of defence, the bullets only made sparks on the armor and couldn’t penetrate through.
Energy flow through his body and went into a circular metal plate on his had, the Compounded Magnetic Chain Split Blades was activated, seven sharp blades flew out of the pockets and shot out like a storm. Many soldiers’ gun muzzle was cut off, they backed off in horror and bumped into other soldiers on the exteriors.
The firepower of the enemy started weakening, just as Han Xiao was about to go for the soldier who made the first shot, the superhuman guards hidden in the dark acted.
“Hong!”
Suddenly, a fire appeared in the crowd, not one, but four. Three Pugilists, one Esper that could turn his entire body into fire, all pounced towards Han Xiao at the same time.
Fists covered in fire smashed down hard.
“Bang!”
Cracks spread out on the originally standing flow, the walls started to crack open as well, Han Xiao made it in time and jumped up in the air. Suddenly, Han Xiao faced a heat wave coming towards him, the person covered in fire straightened his arms, a snake-like pillar of fire flew towards Han Xiao.
Usually, one has nowhere to escape to during mid-air, but Han Xiao was an exception. He immediately switched on the [Mini Maneuvering Equipment]on his waist, the boxes on the edge of the belt made a turbo-like sound and shot out a jet stream of air, the belt emitted a strong force, almost like an invisible hand pulling Han Xiao to the side.
The fire snake slid by his back and hit the wall, creating a large scorch black hole.
“Level 46, 48, 49, three Pugilists, and one Esper at level 45, all Grade D superhumans, these should be the high tier power in Alumera.”
If it was before, he would have had some troubles, but now that all his skills were at max level, he was much stronger, it wouldn’t be much of a problem for him even if he didn’t wear his mechanical suit. In fact, he was more concerned about the soldier who fired first, but he realised that the young soldier was killed in the previous round of chaotic shootings.
Han Xiao felt a thump in his heart, he didn’t believe this would be an accident.
“Seems like the people who framed me are deeply rooted in Alumera, they saw me taking a step back and decided to attack me on purpose, to cause a conflict.”
With these thoughts, Han Xiao had more clues, he put the thoughts away and focused on dealing with the four superhumans and the soldiers. He spun his hands, the revolving blades covered him like a protecting storm, slashing almost ten times per second, inflicting wounds on the three pugilists who were just closing in. Everywhere he walked past, the weapons of the soldiers were cut into pieces, he used this sort of weapon in his previous life before, it didn’t need much practice, he was a pro in it instantly. He purposely held back and didn’t kill anyone.
Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor, Electromagnetic Skateboard Shoes and other equipment he carried around all the time, all went through [Precised Enhancing Modification], their attributes became much stronger. Han Xiao’s own combat power had also peaked due to all his skills being at max level. Han Xiao didn’t even need Viper·Modified to deal with these four superhumans that had a lower level than him, he only needed Compounded Magnetic Chain Split Blades as a close range combat weapon to defeat them.
Han Xiao’s health had reached 3800 points, not far from a Pugilist of the same level, and he also had the Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor, he was very tanky.
On the other side, members of the Bamboo Rain Guild witnessed Han Xiao defeating a group of soldiers and four superhumans, Bamboo Rain Guild recorded them with excitement.
“That, is a recording that has the potential to go viral.”
Bamboo Rain Fly said in surprise, “I thought Black Phantom was their guest, but from what they are saying, it seemed like Black Phantom killed their leader. I made a scan just now, all four NPCs that are fighting Black Phantom have a danger level of [Extremely Dangerous], what they say in the forums are right, Black Phantom is at the top tier in terms of strength even amongst the NPCs.”
Bamboo Rain Morning Wind rolled his eyes and said, “you don’t say, which NPC that gives main storyline missions are not strong?”
“Shhh——” Bamboo Rain Fragrance made a hand sign of asking them to keep quiet, she stared at the scene and said, “keep quiet and watch the storyline.”
…
The destruction power of superhumans far exceeded normal people, the entire mansion collapsed in the heated battle, the high ranked officials had already escaped in rage and nervousness. More superhumans were on their way here, they definitely could kill Black Phantom, if these four guards were able to stall him that is.
Blades slashed open the fire, iron fists clashed against the armor. Han Xiao moved around with horrifyingly high mobility, the four superhumans could only barely hit him despite putting in all their efforts. Han Xiao purposely faked an opportunity for them to attacked and lured one of the Pugilists to a close range, then used the Thermo-electr
ical Incisor Gloves to counter-attack and defeated one person first. He then used the blades to form a storm and slashed wounds all over the fire-controlling Esper, his Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor had very good heat insulating abilities, fire dealt very limited damage to him.
The two people left soon had an even harder time dealing with Han Xiao.
“Whoosh.”
The blades slashed open the flesh of the Pugilist and shot out through his body, causing blood to shoot out from the wounds, this Pugilist ended up twitching on the floor with heavy injury and was unable to move.
“Shit!” Lagos was shocked, Black Phantom defeated the four guards in much shorter time he expected before the backup could arrive. The scene was now filled with broken bricks and ruins, no one could stop Black Phantom anymore.
If he were to start a killing spree, many of the high ranked officials would die.
Whoosh! A blade hovered before Lagos, he backed up in terror, but the blades followed him like a shadow, till Lagos fell on the ground with afraid and anger on his face.
It was at this time Han Xiao kept the blades back, he wiped off the blood on his face and said coldly, “I can kill you people, but that would be falling right into the trap of someone else, our terms remain unchanged, I can stay till you find out the truth, but if you insist on capturing me, I don’t mind to gift you a few slashes.”
His fingers turned inwards as he was saying, the blades danced in the air and formed a flower shape, the motive of threatening was clear.
Chapter 207 - The Real Killer (Two)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“You—” Lagos clenched his teeth in anger.
Before he could say anything, Xiao Jin cut in and said, “we accept your terms, I personally believe the assassination had nothing to do with you, it’s a conspiracy intended to spark conflict between both parties.”
The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385 Page 116
