Chapter 13: Terminal
Su Xiao glanced at the two bundles, one large and one small, at his feet. Although his process of joining Asaka had gone smoothly, this was only to achieve the initial goal. Whether it was arriving at the Penitent Heights or joining Asaka, Su Xiao’s purpose was to obtain the Ashes Sprout.
“Codename: White Night. Age… just fill in whatever. As for strength and status…”
Xiao’s fingers tapped rapidly in mid-air, muttering under his breath as he filled in Su Xiao’s internal Asaka records. The fact that age could be filled in arbitrarily showed just how loose Asaka’s internal management was—or rather, that there was no such thing as internal management at all.
“No problem. From now on, you’re Asaka’s assassin, codename White Night. As a member of Asaka, you have the right to freely enter any part of the Penitent Heights. Of course, it’s best to avoid the central area. Those divine fanatics of the Ancestor are a real hassle.”
Xiao briefly explained the situation in the Penitent Heights before making it clear he was ready to see Su Xiao out. His expression practically screamed, “Now that you’ve joined Asaka, you’re of no further use to me.” Very realistic.
Seeing Xiao’s demeanor, Su Xiao seriously suspected that recruiting new members into Asaka came with a commission or something. In fact, Asaka really did have such a mechanism. As Su Xiao’s introducer, Xiao would receive a considerable reward once Su Xiao completed a few of Asaka’s assassination missions.
There was no such thing as a free lunch. Xiao wouldn’t go out of his way to seek out Su Xiao and invite him into a killer organization for nothing.
Stepping out of Xiao’s underground room, Su Xiao opened the two leather bundles, one large and one small. The contents weren’t much.
Inside was a very light black robe with adaptive adjustment capabilities, similar to the one Xiao had worn. Although this wasn’t equipment, it offered decent defensive properties and could achieve short-term optical camouflage.
In the Black Abyss, where most powerhouses had perception abilities, optical camouflage wasn’t particularly useful, but it wasn’t entirely useless either. It could avoid many troubles and had enhanced concealment effects at night.
Su Xiao was about to deactivate the equipment effect of [Wild Hunt Night] to try on the newly acquired black robe when, as soon as he picked it up, blue light particles flickered, seemingly activating an identification function. The robe in his hand suddenly dissolved into a sheet, climbing up along his arm.
A few seconds later, Su Xiao found that this standard Asaka garment had attached itself to [Wild Hunt Night], altering its general appearance while preserving the characteristics of the legendary-grade equipment.
Presumably, Asaka’s technical team knew their standard uniforms were mediocre. To avoid the awkward situation of no one wearing their iconic attire, they developed this clinging garment.
Su Xiao put on the black hood and then picked up a white mask from the bundle, placing it over his face. His appearance was now very similar to Xiao’s earlier look, differing only in aura.
Besides the iconic clothing, the bundle also contained a square, bulky terminal. Words couldn’t describe how clunky and ugly this thing was, but it was undoubtedly the most durable high-tech product Su Xiao had ever seen—bar none. Making a personal terminal as tough as a roughly purple-quality piece of equipment meant Asaka’s technical team were absolute madmen.
Apart from the clothing, mask, and terminal trio, the bundle only contained a map—a location map for an underground residence.
Half an hour later, in a small forest within the central courtyard area of the Penitent Heights.
“Are you sure this is the place?”
Lilis leaned against a tree, scanning her surroundings.
“Of course I’m sure.”
Su Xiao held the personal terminal, operating it somewhat clumsily. Though it looked outdated, this device was the linchpin of the entire Asaka organization. Through it, Su Xiao could accept or apply for assassination missions.
Asaka’s higher-ups didn’t need to show their faces, nor did they need to establish a headquarters. Members accepted killer missions through the terminal, and upon completion, received corresponding rewards. In most cases, Kurozawa helped deliver the payments, suggesting some cooperative relationship existed.
Of course, Asaka didn’t only handle assassination missions. Finding rare items, locating relatives abducted years ago—as long as the price was high enough, Asaka would accept these commissions too. Su Xiao even saw a protection mission on the terminal.
This was a commission from the offspring of some major race. This young master probably thought the Black Abyss was exciting and voluntarily came here. After just a few days, he learned what hell really meant. Now he wanted to leave, but he was near the Penitent Heights, and the nearest spatial teleportation device was about two days’ travel away. So he needed to hire a strong person to escort him out.
This young master was generous, offering 10 Soul Crystals (Complete) as payment. If Su Xiao didn’t have a promotion mission to complete, he might have considered escorting him—the price was too tempting.
With Su Xiao’s operation, the ground beneath his feet began to tremble. Moments later, a metal staircase leading underground appeared.
Su Xiao entered the underground room. It was very similar to Xiao’s—even though it was underground, thanks to polarizing devices, the window clearly showed the surface situation. Living underground wasn’t much different from living on the surface.
Finally having a relatively stable foothold, Su Xiao sat down on a single-seat sofa, letting out a long sigh of relief.
The first step was to establish a firm footing, and Su Xiao had clearly done this to the extreme. The current situation wasn’t just about standing firm—he had directly rooted himself in the Penitent Heights. Forget muddy waters; even a typhoon might not be able to sweep away someone located “underground.”
As for the second step, it was naturally to gather Bubu Wang and Sha as quickly as possible. Once Bubu Wang arrived, Su Xiao could begin large-scale exploration of the Penitent Heights. Unless it was one of those extremely powerful old-timers, the chances of discovering Bubu Wang were low.
What Su Xiao urgently needed now was to make a name for himself, to let Bubu Wang know he was here. The commissions on the Asaka terminal were the perfect way to gain fame. Moreover, the rewards for these commissions were substantial. Reincarnation Paradise even marked the quality of the rewarded items. One mission even offered an epic-grade sniper rifle as a reward.
There were too many good things in the Penitent Heights, but to obtain them, one had to rely on their own abilities. Take the Soul Vine Fruit, for example—its quality even exceeded epic grade. Yet Su Xiao had no expectations for that item.
If only the Demon Race had their eyes on that thing, it would essentially be reserved for Lilis, becoming the cornerstone of her growth. Su Xiao didn’t believe a local Black Abyss force could withstand the plundering of one of the Void’s overlords, the Demon Race.
Clearly, it wasn’t just the Demon Race eyeing the Soul Fruit now. Other overlord races from the Void were also after it. For such a rare treasure, a small-scale scuffle among these major races was perfectly normal.
As for competing with these Void overlords for the Soul Fruit—if he didn’t have the promotion mission, Su Xiao might have considered watching from the sidelines. Unfortunately, the current situation didn’t allow him to covet that fruit, even though it could be used to unlock a second talent, one that was innately awakened once, or even fully awakened.