Chapter 27: Extremely Awkward
The next morning, at the Execution Agency headquarters, the Deputy Commander’s office—no, it should be the Commander’s office.
“How did you manage that?”
Madam Nancy sat across the desk, her charming eyes fixed on Su Xiao. Right now, however, she was barely restraining herself from abandoning all ladylike decorum and lunging at him to scratch his face.
She, the rightful Commander of the Execution Agency, had gone to sleep at home and, for no apparent reason, woke up as the Deputy Commander.
“Watch your tone, Deputy Commander.”
Su Xiao frowned at Madam Nancy. He had a feeling... this woman was about to pounce and claw at him.
“Understood, Com-man-der.”
Madam Nancy took a deep breath to calm herself. As infuriating as it was, she was indeed the Deputy now.
“Is our previous cooperation still on?”
Su Xiao was referring to their arrangement: he killed the Specters, Madam Nancy provided equivalent gold, and she took the credit afterward.
“Of course... it’s still on.”
“Last night, His Majesty mentioned that Ignatz, due to his old age, wanted to resign from his councilor position. That leaves a vacancy.”
Su Xiao spoke as if it were an offhand remark. Madam Nancy’s eyes lit up.
“Really?”
“Who knows? At least that’s what His Majesty said. Awakened can’t become councilors, you should know that. Besides, I have no interest in being one.”
“A councilor is a fine position.”
Leaving that comment behind, Madam Nancy exited the office.
Su Xiao’s gaze shifted to the underside of the desk. Bonnie was hiding there. For some reason, after meeting a few times, Bonnie had developed a mysterious fear of Madam Nancy. She refused to elaborate on the specifics.
“What have you deduced these past few days?”
“A lot of things. For example...”
As Su Xiao listened to Bonnie’s account, he checked the notifications from Reincarnation Paradise.
[The Hunter has been promoted to Commander of the Execution Agency. Your chance of obtaining Codex Cards in this world increases by 12%. You have gained the temporary ability ‘Death Reversal (Three Uses)’.]
Death Reversal (Temporary Skill, X)
Effect: When a biological corpse has been dead for no more than 48 hours, you can reverse the death process of this corpse (the reversal process lasts five minutes).
...
When he first obtained this ability, Su Xiao was taken aback by its name. Death Reversal—what an overpowered ability. However, after reading the skill’s effect, he realized it wasn’t what he had imagined. It couldn’t reverse his own death; instead, it reversed the death process of a specific corpse. Still, this ability was quite useful, especially in the current situation.
The completion rate for the first phase of Su Xiao’s promotion mission had reached 31%. Once it exceeded 60%, he could attempt to complete this task.
For now, the Ghost Ring organization had gone into hiding. After all, many contractors had been hammering them hard recently. Just as Su Xiao was about to follow a merchant to track down the Ghost Ring, Beini suddenly sent a message.
‘Hey, poop-scooper, the dumb dog said the mission is about the Ghost Ring. I think I found their main base. There are tons of Specters here, at least a few hundred. Be careful, don’t die. Get ready before you come.’
Seeing Meow Beini’s message, Su Xiao was quite surprised. He quickly replied.
‘Take a picture.’
Soon, Beini responded.
‘Okay, give this kitty a few minutes.’
A few minutes later, the first photo Su Xiao saw was Beini’s cat face. This feline even knew to take the photo from below to make her face look smaller.
The second photo showed dozens of Specters lined up in rows. An old Specter with a yellowed visor was giving an impassioned speech.
The third photo was of a pitch-black metal pillar covered in eyeballs. Meow Beini had even annotated it with ‘So gross.’
The fourth photo showed a bare-chested man wrapped in bandages. His face was pale, and he was reading a book. This man... was Sin! A severely wounded Sin.
The advantage of having numbers was now apparent—well, Beini wasn’t human, but regardless, her treasure hunt had yielded an unexpected find.
According to Beini’s description, this place was on the east side of Zuer City, beneath a cluster of residential buildings.
“At least a few hundred.”
Su Xiao didn’t act immediately. He hesitated, considering whether to mobilize all the Awakened from the Execution Agency for a large-scale assault on the Specters’ main base. The problem was, if he did that, the risk would indeed be low, but the kill rewards and mission completion rate would be pitifully low.
“Underground...”
Su Xiao pondered for a moment, then stood up and walked out of the office.
“Bubu, go notify Amu.”
“Woof?”
“Beini found something.”
“Woof?!”
Bubu Wang was shocked. He had once suspected that Beini’s only mission upon entering a world was to wander around, with treasure hunting being secondary. How many worlds had it been? That dumb cat had only found some ‘junk,’ and the Paradise Coins she earned were less than what she lost.
...
East of the city, beside a river within the city walls. The water was clear, and naked children were playing in the river.
Su Xiao stood on a bridge. Based on his observations, the Ghost Ring’s main base was beneath the residential area ahead.
“How much longer until the Seventh Unit arrives?”
Reinhardt checked his pocket watch: “At most half an hour.”
“Tell them to hurry. Notify the nearby magistrates. In forty minutes, evacuate all civilians within a one-kilometer radius.”
Su Xiao jumped down from the bridge pillar. As the Commander of the Execution Agency, he couldn’t allow large-scale civilian casualties within the city.
“Understood.”
Reinhardt walked away with a calm expression. This time, Su Xiao had only brought the No-Eye Squad. He was going to take a big gamble. If it succeeded, the first phase of his promotion mission would be completed directly.
A gentle breeze blew. Civilians occasionally crossed the stone bridge, never imagining that beneath their homes lurked hundreds, or even more, man-eating monsters.
Just as Su Xiao was waiting for the Seventh Unit to arrive, four men and women walked across the stone bridge. Their eyes met, and Su Xiao immediately identified them as contractors. Contractors had a very distinct aura, especially the higher-ranked ones.
“Friend... meeting you here is fate. Our missions don’t conflict. In fact, we could cooperate, each relying on their own skills to kill enemies.”
A male contractor with earrings spoke with a smile. He was accompanied by two women and another man. The other man was bald and burly. Judging by their auras, one of the women was a healer, somewhat timid, while the other had a cold aura, likely an assassin type.
“Let me introduce myself. I’m Earring. This is Butcher. These two beauties are Elegy and Mandala.”
Earring still wore that smiling expression. After all, it was four against one. Even in a physical confrontation, they had the absolute advantage. As for the names, it was obvious they were fake, not even code names.
“Kukulin.”
Su Xiao wanted to know their purpose. If they had also discovered the Ghost Ring’s main base, then it would be every man for himself.
“Kukulin? Huh, brother, have you found any traces of the Ghost Ring? If there’s a ‘big’ Ghost Ring stronghold, we might as well cooperate.”
“There’s one right beneath our feet.”
As soon as Su Xiao spoke, the smile on Earring’s face faded.
“Then I’ll be straightforward. How about we cooperate and keep this secret? Once we gather enough combat power, we’ll clear this place out together.”
It was clear that Earring had no real hostility. Without conflicting interests, most contractors were willing to cooperate. Even in a war world, Su Xiao had cooperated with Solomon, Gulu, and others.
“Brother, since you’ve already discovered this secret, here’s our team’s contract. How about...”
Earring’s words came to an abrupt halt because he received two notifications from Reincarnation Paradise.
[Warning! You are attempting to invite a bearer of the ‘Team Slayer’ title to join your team.]
[Warning! The Team Slayer title is a special title obtained after killing the leader of a large adventure group. Please carefully consider whether to invite this contractor to join your team.]
Earring’s cheek twitched, as if he had seen a ghost.