Chapter 10

In the hotel room, Victor was leaning against the headboard with his eyes closed, resting.

His phone on the nightstand suddenly vibrated.

It was an encrypted message from Iron Wolf.

"Lord Shura, Veiled Syndicate issued an S-level kill order on you today. Initial assessment suggests it's related to the old case in Georgia three years ago. Do you need cleanup?"

A cold smile tugged at the corner of Victor's lips.

He hadn't even gone to settle old scores yet, and they'd already come knocking.

"No need. I'll handle it myself. Also, Veiled Syndicate taking this job—it's not just about that old grudge, is it?"

Soon, a reply lit up the screen.

"Correct. Veiled Syndicate's leadership seems to have discovered your power in the underground world. They intend to kill the king and absorb the resources."

"How greedy. Wonder if they have what it takes."

Victor casually tossed his phone aside.

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in," he called out.

The door opened, and Hayes walked in looking somewhat nervous.

"Victor, we've identified the assassin. He's from Veiled Syndicate. This really has nothing to do with the Martinez family."

Victor nodded slightly, his expression calm.

"Looks like the butler really was caught in the crossfire."

He opened the nightstand drawer, took out a black bank card, and pushed it across the table.

"There's three million dollars on the card. Consider it settlement money for the butler's family. Just say he had a sudden medical emergency—call it an accident."

"Victor, I can't accept this."

Hayes instinctively tried to refuse.

Victor looked up at him.

"He died because of me. I should compensate. Take it."

Faced with Victor's unyielding gaze, Hayes had no choice but to accept the card.

"Then I'll thank you on behalf of the butler's family."

Victor didn't respond, his eyes returning to his phone screen.

"Anything else?"

"No, nothing. Get some rest."

"I won't see you out."

Hayes had just turned around, his hand not yet touching the doorknob.

Victor's eyes sharpened as he barked out, "Get down!"

Hayes instinctively threw himself forward. Almost at the same instant, the floor-to-ceiling window behind him shattered!

If Victor hadn't shouted that warning, his head would’ve already been blown open.

Hayes was scared out of his wits.

Though he was part of the Martinez family, he'd never actually faced real life-or-death situations.

After quite a while, he barely managed to recover, asking in a trembling voice what was happening.

Victor didn't answer. His eyes had already locked onto the direction the bullet came from.

With just one glance, he pinpointed exactly where the assassin was hiding.

"Stay down. Move and you're dead."

After leaving him with those words, Victor leaped out the window in one swift motion.

The instant he went through the window, the assassin pulled the trigger seven times.

But those seven bullets couldn't even graze Victor's clothes.

Not because of poor aim, but because Victor moved too fast. The bullets simply couldn't keep up with his ghostly movements.

The assassin was hiding in a two-story building across from the Martinez Villa.

For an ordinary person, the safest tactic would be to circle around from behind the villa.

But Victor didn't play by the rules. He walked straight out the front door of the Martinez Villa, bold as brass.

During the brief moment he was exposed, the assassin fired three more shots.

A few seconds later, gunfire erupted again—ten shots in rapid succession.

But Victor's movements were too strange.

Before the assassin could adjust his scope, the target had vanished into thin air.

The assassin stared out of the window in shock, completely unable to understand how a living person could disappear so fast.

"Target lost. Repeat, target lost!" He immediately pressed his earpiece and reported in a low voice, unable to hide his anxiety.

"What? How could he disappear so fast?"

A muffled questioning voice came through the earpiece.

But the assassin would never get to hear the rest.

Because Victor had somehow appeared silently behind him.

"Are you looking for me?"

The voice was like death's whisper, making the assassin spring up like a coiled spring.

He instinctively tried to draw his gun and turn around.

But Victor's hand had already settled firmly on his shoulder.

That hand seemed casual, yet pressed down like a mountain, making it impossible for him to move.

As an elite member of Veiled Syndicate, he'd undergone extremely rigorous professional training. Whether reaction speed or explosive power, he was top-tier in the industry.

But this man before him had completely crushed him with just one hand.

This wasn't strength a human could possess.

The assassin's pupils contracted to pinpoints as a terrifying codename surfaced in his mind.

"Are you Shura?"

Victor ignored his terror, merely glancing down at the Barrett sniper rifle.

"Has Veiled Syndicate really fallen this far? Even trash like you gets a Barrett?"

"Lord Shura, I'm just following orders. Please spare my life—I can give you all of Veiled Syndicate's intelligence!"

Victor's expression was indifferent, his tone utterly calm.

"Nightingale, Viper, and now you. Veiled Syndicate has sent three waves in the past few days. Do you know how those first two died?"

The assassin trembled uncontrollably. Of course he knew how they'd died.

Nightingale, the top expert ranked seventeenth, had his neck snapped on the spot.

Viper, the organization's best marksman, had his skull pierced by an unremarkable pebble.

He'd never understood how two top experts could die so casually.

Until now. Now he finally understood completely.

Because what they faced was a monster.

"I'm really just an insignificant nobody. Veiled Syndicate's mission for me was to—"

"I'm not interested in your babbling. I only know your first shot nearly hurt an innocent person."

The assassin froze, remembering there had indeed been another figure in his scope.

"That wasn't intentional, I..." He desperately tried to explain, but could no longer make a sound.

Victor's palm had lightly touched the top of his head.

Powerful Qi instantly pierced through. Blood gushed from the assassin's seven orifices.

His skull shattered from within. His whole body collapsed straight down, completely lifeless.

Victor took out his phone and snapped a photo of the corpse on the ground.

He uploaded the photo to the dark web with the caption. "Welcome to everyone who comes to kill me."

After finishing this, Victor unhurriedly picked up the fallen earpiece.

Anxious calls were still coming through.

"Scorpion? Scorpion? Do you copy? What's the target's status?"

Victor brought the earpiece to his ear, his tone cold as frost.

"Scorpion is dead."

The communication channel fell into deathly silence.

After several seconds, a trembling voice came through.

"Who are you?"

"Shura."