Chapter 5: Purge Squad
On the streets of Fuyuki City, although it was only nine in the evening, the streets were already deserted. The Fifth Holy Grail War had started ahead of schedule, and the Holy Church and the Mage's Association had carried out emergency measures. These empty streets were their doing.
Of course, not all Masters followed the rules. There were plenty of Masters like Emiya Shirou who knew nothing about the Holy Grail War.
At the moment, the Holy Grail War had just begun, and all parties were relatively restrained. The most active figure, Cu Chulainn, was only sent out to gather intelligence and find opportunities to assassinate other Masters, clearly a type left to his own devices.
If Su Xiao wasn't mistaken, Cu Chulainn's Master was the old schemer, Kirei Kotomine. In the Fourth Holy Grail War, the relatively young Kirei Kotomine was assassinated by Su Xiao, his throat slit with a knife during a meal. In the current storyline of the Blood Gate Adventure Group, Kirei Kotomine hadn't died; instead, he became an executor of the Holy Church and the supervisor of this Holy Grail War.
As the supervisor, Kirei Kotomine shouldn't have participated in the Holy Grail War, but this guy, who seemed to follow the rules, was actually the most unruly of them all. After completing his 'patricide achievement,' the demon in his heart was fully unleashed, and he clearly wanted to find that feeling of 'pleasure' through the Fifth Holy Grail War.
The young Kirei Kotomine was already an old schemer. Now that he had entered middle age, his level of scheming had greatly increased, and he wouldn't show himself easily.
Su Xiao walked along the cold streets. He wouldn't bother with those Masters for now. Settling old scores with Blood Gate was his top priority. This time, he was determined to eliminate this major threat.
Su Xiao had never thought he could completely wipe out the Blood Gate Adventure Group, because that was nearly impossible. A large adventure group with several hundred Fourth Rank contractors—killing them all by himself was a pipe dream.
Although he couldn't completely eradicate Blood Gate, Su Xiao only needed to kill Stan. Blood Gate was different from the Divine Emperor. With an adventure group like the Divine Emperor, if Su Xiao killed their leader, the Divine Emperor, it would be like poking a hornet's nest. The subsequent retaliation would be relentless, since the Divine Emperor had considerable personal charisma. He was even willing to give up his own opportunity to advance to Fifth Rank to improve the group's overall survival. Meeting a leader like that was the luck of everyone in the Divine Emperor Adventure Group.
Blood Gate was different. Stan was an iron-fisted leader. He single-handedly propped up a large adventure group. Once Stan fell, Blood Gate would collapse in a short time, possibly even quickly splitting into several medium-sized adventure groups.
In terms of personal ability, Stan was much stronger than the Divine Emperor. But in terms of personal charisma, the Divine Emperor had the upper hand over Blood Gate.
Both had their strengths, and Su Xiao's goal this time was to cut off the head of the sheep, Stan. But before killing Stan, he had to weaken the power around Stan as much as possible, meaning reducing the number of his subordinates.
Su Xiao's destination this time was an abandoned factory area on the outskirts of Fuyuki City. During the last Holy Grail War, this factory area was swept by magical power, and then various 'supernatural incidents' kept occurring, leading to its eventual abandonment.
Taking advantage of the night, with Bubu Wang leading the way, Su Xiao soon arrived near the abandoned factory area.
Concrete chimneys stood tall in the night, and the abandoned factory area below was deathly silent. This factory area originally housed a semi-automated production workshop, so its size was considerable. A conservative estimate put it at around 30,000 square meters, with numerous factory buildings.
The barbed wire fence at the edge of the factory area was already in tatters, with some colorful flags hanging on it, probably left behind by children from Fuyuki City who had played here.
Clang, clang, clang...
A faint metallic sound came from within the factory area. Due to the dense factory buildings blocking the view, Su Xiao couldn't see the source of the sound.
In the darkness, Su Xiao made a gesture to Bubu Wang. After hesitating for a moment, he looked at Beini. This cat hadn't run off to cause trouble, which was unusual.
Beini noticed Su Xiao looking at it and raised its little head, as if to say, "This cat is just here to watch the fun. Don't get any ideas."
Su Xiao made a few gestures to Beini. Beini looked at him with a confused cat face.
"Amu can go too."
Amu said in a low voice. Beini looked at him in disbelief, as if to say, "You actually understood that?"
Amu scratched his head. In his view, the meaning of Su Xiao's gestures was simple.
"Tactical C, coordinate 072, southward flanking to prevent the enemy from cutting off our retreat. Attack the enemy's rear when appropriate."
Beini was stunned. Su Xiao had only made three gestures, yet they contained such complex content. What was even more incomprehensible was that Amu had understood! And he executed it immediately. This made Beini wonder, with the dozen or so complex gestures Su Xiao had made to Bubu Wang, how many instructions were included?
In reality, this was tactical proficiency. There were many things Beini still had to learn. The coordination between Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, and Amu wasn't as simple as Amu tanking, Su Xiao charging in, and Bubu Wang flanking from behind.
Amu soon disappeared into the night. Beini was about to follow when Su Xiao grabbed the soft flesh at the back of its neck, signaling that it didn't need to go flanking together. One Amu was enough for the flanking maneuver.
A few minutes later, Bubu Wang sent intelligence. There were enemies in the factory building, 39 in total, with a 90% or higher probability of being Blood Gate members. They were torturing a contractor. The previous clanging sounds came from that suspended contractor hitting an iron can.
"39 people..."
Su Xiao hesitated. He still wasn't sure how many people Blood Gate had brought in total. Were these 39 worth his exposure?
Based on his experience advancing to Fourth Rank, a special derivative world like the Holy Grail World usually had about 200 contractors entering, at most no more than 300.
Even if Blood Gate used a World Key, they couldn't monopolize an entire world with just one adventure group. That would cause the difficulty of the Holy Grail World to skyrocket, possibly even forcing it up to Fifth Rank. Therefore, Blood Gate could at most occupy three-quarters of the entry slots, meaning no more than 250 people.
Assuming Blood Gate had 250 Fourth Rank contractors entering the Holy Grail World this time, these 39 people would represent nearly one-sixth of their combat strength. That was well worth the attack!
Thinking this, Su Xiao took out D·Assassinate. No weapon was more suitable for the current situation than D·Assassinate. As long as it wasn't a frontline warrior-type contractor, hitting them in the head would take them down in at most two shots.
Su Xiao passed through a large hole in the barbed wire fence. The Apostle's Eye floated above him, gradually expanding its detection range.
Soon, Su Xiao discovered the warning line at the edge of the factory building. It consisted of a dozen metal rods stuck in the weeds. These things had multiple types of sensing capabilities.
Su Xiao grabbed Beini and examined it. Finding its fur too clean, he sprinkled some grass clippings on it.
Beini was extremely reluctant, its clawing expression seeming to say, "This cat has a cleanliness obsession. Wait, no, don't push me into the mud..."
A moment later, Beini, looking like a stray cat, walked toward the enemy's warning devices, leaving a trail of muddy paw prints shaped like plum blossoms. Su Xiao hid behind a half-collapsed low wall.