Volume 4, Chapter 46 – Assassin VII

Imperial Year 8070, Solar Year 2392.

No. 1886, Diyan Star.

The same year, the same planet, but different names.

The sky was as blue as ever.

The outer-space monitoring organizations were as peaceful as ever.

On Diyan Star, whose technology had only just reached near-planetary levels, people had begun to wonder whether, somewhere in the boundless universe, others of their kind existed.

They launched satellites, rockets, and deep-space probes.

They kept receiving all kinds of strange signals from outer space.

Then, one day earlier, they suddenly picked up a patterned signal.

Everyone excitedly began trying to decode it.

Perhaps it was a friendly message from beyond the stars?

What they did not know was that it was a course-correction signal from the Ninth expeditionary army of the Elimeria Empire.

“Habitable planet detected ahead!”

A day later, an enormous black starship appeared above the old capital of Zhi, the strongest nation on the planet, blotting out the sky.

Without a word, it fired a massively condensed cannon blast.

In an instant, the entire old capital was reduced to a crater, a scar Diyan Star would never forget.

There was life beyond their world.

But beings powerful enough to cross the universe with ease had no intention of speaking of morality to backward “primitives” “cooped up” on a single planet.

The giant ship and its cannons from deep space showed everyone on Diyan Star the law of survival in the universe.

The most prosperous Canyon Continent turned into a place like “Africa.” Before long, Diyan Star had fallen and been renamed No. 1886.

In Kezhou, in the southern hemisphere, which was still relatively intact, the Ninth expeditionary army transformed the land and erected three trade stations.

The Ninth expeditionary army did not stop moving forward. The main force continued deeper into space, while the remaining troops quickly followed after completing the task of establishing a new route.

Before that, all of No. 1886 had been stable.

But once it became clear that the Ninth expeditionary army probably would never return, the flames of rebellion quickly spread across No. 1886.

The first generation of the Morningstar Resistance struggled for five years, but in the end, when new visitors arrived at the trade stations, it was crushed once again.

After that, the Elimeria Empire and the Galactic Free Alliance fought an encounter battle involving thousands of starships.

On the Empire’s frontier, the Night Owls also sounded the call to rebellion.

The Ninth expeditionary army was urgently dispatched to suppress the uprising, and no longer had the energy to pay attention to No. 1886. Other than the flights that connected them to the outside world, the trade stations in Kezhou served only as suspended relay hubs for transporting supplies to the front lines.

A transport fleet would stop by once every month.

It had already been more than ten years since Morningstar’s last rebellion.

The vitality in Dawn’s voice was different from that of Morningstar’s previous old leader.

Something must have happened inside Morningstar, enough to completely change the way they operated.

They had gone from an ideal-driven resistance force to an anti-government, anti-human terrorist organization.

“Your name is Dawn?” Anran suddenly asked in return.

“That’s right.”

Even faced with such an offbeat question, Dawn remained remarkably composed.

“Then is your surname Johnson?”

“…”

“I’m guessing you used to be a very strong wrestler. And now, now you’re probably an excellent actor.”

“Anran, stop talking nonsense!”

The rebuke from the other end of the phone made Anran frown.

“Shut up, Heloise!” Dawn barked.

Huh, it was actually Heloise?

Why was she at Dawn’s side? Wasn’t she still in Yaxi City a little over ten days ago?

“You really are different from the others in Nine Songs.”

Of course I am.

“I admire you,” Dawn said. “As long as you join Morningstar, I can let bygones be bygones.”

“Leader!”

The middle-aged man lying on the ground was startled. “How can that work? She’s the one who destroyed our biochemical experiment plan! When that plan failed, how many of our brothers died on the battlefield because of it!”

“Shut up! Is it your place to speak?”

Anran ground her little foot down harder against the middle-aged man’s chest, and he immediately groaned in pain.

The sole of the flip-flop was very soft. He could even feel the shape of Anran’s foot.

“So? Want to think over my proposal? And…” Dawn paused. “If you’re willing to give yourself to me, I can give you more money than you could ever spend!”

“Oh?”

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Anran laughed. “Are you the protagonist of some novel or something?”

“Of course not. I am myself, and I am destined to make…”

“Then who are you even trying to fool? Where’d you get such a huge ego? Come closer and let me see if I can beat you to death.”

Anran pressed down harder, and the middle-aged man under her foot immediately cried out, “Ah, ah… my bones are going to break… stop…”

Dawn’s expression darkened at once. “Anran, don’t think killing a few bugs makes you impressive. Inviting you into Morningstar is me giving you face.”

“Wow. Did you grow up eating some kind of Face-Face Fruit?”

“…”

Dawn was thoroughly thrown off. He felt as though he and Anran weren’t even on the same wavelength, but her meaning was obvious enough.

“Very good. You don’t appreciate a favor. I hope you stay alive a little longer. Otherwise, this will be no fun at all.”

“Just you wait. Once I find out where you are, I’ll show you what the terror of a sea of people looks like!”

“With you?”

“Obviously not with just me!”

Anran clicked her tongue. With so many players around, how could she fail to mob him to death?

Only an idiot would personally charge at the front line.

“…”

For a moment Dawn had nothing to say. A whole heap of threats got stuck in his throat, and the feeling that he couldn’t force them out was driving him mad.

Couldn’t you just shout “With me!” already?!

When Dawn fell silent, Anran lowered her head slightly and immediately got angry.

“Where are you looking?”

She reached out her hand.

“Smack smack smack…”

“Ah, ah… stop hitting me… FMLh… ah…”

“Stop that right now!” Dawn roared.

“Smack smack smack…”

Anran hit him even more enthusiastically.

“Looks like you don’t want your little sister to live!”

From the other end of the phone, Dawn’s voice suddenly turned icy.

Little sister?

Anran quickly reacted.

Oh, he meant Aila.

She had never really seen Aila as a younger sister. If she had to define it, maybe “mother and daughter”?

Hmm, no, not quite that either.

“What do you mean by that?” Anran deliberately made her voice gloomy while stopping the beating.

The middle-aged man, his cheeks swollen, immediately let out a breath of relief.

He was seriously wronged here. He had clearly seen nothing. Who told her to come out wearing a swimsuit?

He was sure Anran had done it on purpose.

“Your little sister is really cute,” Dawn said, drawing out the words. “She’s by the beach playing with a watermelon right now, isn’t she? She’s already this cute while she’s still so young. I really wonder what she’ll look like when she grows up.”

“Are you threatening me?”

The fact that he knew Aila was playing with a watermelon meant there were his people on the beach.

But using Aila to threaten her was honestly kind of funny.

“No, no, no.” Dawn smiled faintly. “I’m not threatening you. I’m just reminding you that your little sister is about to become mine. As for you, we can take our time.”

“That really is textbook villain dialogue,” Anran mocked.

“Thank you for the compliment. You should worry about your little sister instead. Heh. If fate allows, we’ll meet again.”

Dawn directly cut off the call.

He hadn’t called through a normal phone line just now. The phone had another communication device installed inside it, so Dawn wasn’t worried about being traced at all.

After all that talking, Anran still hadn’t gotten anything useful out of him. All she knew was that he wanted to use Aila to threaten her.

Using Aila to threaten her, hmm…

“You still don’t want to say anything?”

Anran bent down and stared at the middle-aged man.

“Heh.” With his swollen cheeks puffed out, the middle-aged man glared back at Anran. “Give it up. I will never betray the organization.”

“Oh.”

Anran nodded and did not act immediately. She stuffed his mouth shut, dragged him along, and took him straight back to the earlier meeting room.

The moment the other bound men saw Anran drag in the battered middle-aged man, they were nearly scared out of their wits and started struggling desperately.

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Anran removed the cloth from one of their mouths and went straight to the point. “Through Morningstar, which alien power are you trying to get in contact with?”

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.” That person immediately shook his head, his body trembling.

Anran pulled out her mechanical switchblade. “I don’t have time to waste here with you.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she drove the blade into another man’s thigh.

“FMLh, FMLh…”

The stabbed man cried out in pain. Blood seeped out, and beads of sweat the size of soybeans rolled down his forehead.

He was both frightened and furious inside.

Damn it, he’s the one refusing to talk, not me. Why stab me?

“Well? Are you going to talk or not?”

The back of the blade slid lightly along his neck, and the man who had just been stubborn immediately caved.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” he shouted twice.

You!

The middle-aged man glared furiously.

“To be honest, I don’t really know that much either,” the man said.

“…”

“Heh. Then you’re useless.”

Anran, who had just started to feel hopeful, instantly got angry. Toying with me? Then go die.

“Wait, wait. I may not know, but I know who does.”

After blurting out something that sounded like a tongue twister, the man hurriedly shook his head, terrified that Anran would stab him to death on the spot.

“Who?”

“In our branch family, aside from Young Master Swin, the branch head knows. Oh, right, and the eldest young master knows too.”

“Good.” Anran nodded. “Write down their identity information.”

There was paper and pen on the meeting table. Anran loosened his ropes for him.

Having already seen Anran’s strength, this man didn’t dare resist. He obediently wrote everything down.

“FMLh, FMLh…”

The middle-aged man rolled around in fury, but since he couldn’t speak and was tied up, that was the only way he could vent his anger.

“Pfft.”

One stab later, the middle-aged man fell silent.

He was annoying to look at, and he still refused to talk, so he might as well die.

After questioning the remaining few one by one, Anran, being pressed for time, sent them on their way as well.

“Click click click…”

“Splash…”

Standing on the deck, Anran suddenly thought of something.

Other than her, there were no living people left on the ship. The one who had posted that task on the dark web had also been on board. If he hadn’t jumped into the sea and escaped, then hadn’t she accidentally killed him too?

Forget it. It wasn’t that important.

Swin was already confirmed dead, and the reward money had long since reached the dark web’s backend. In the end, the money would still be transferred from the dark web to her account. It would just be a little slower.

She should hurry and go find Aila.

Aila was strong, but if anything unexpected happened, that would be bad.

Anran was still genuinely worried.

She stuffed her things into the waterproof backpack, shoved in her flip-flops as well, and jumped from the deck.

…

The watermelon, which wasn’t very sturdy to begin with, had finally died under Aila’s torment.

Irregular cracks had appeared in the rind.

It was also because, while moving it, Aila had failed to control her strength for a moment. Then, with a crisp crack, the watermelon split open.

Aila stared blankly at the watermelon in her hands.

The green outer skin had split to reveal the crimson heart inside.

Butler No. 1 held up an umbrella. It was only a low-intelligence robot. Butler No. 1 couldn’t understand what Aila was doing, and it would not even begin to think about such a thing. It merely followed the command to hold the umbrella for Aila.

The beach had not calmed down.

More than half of the Aldington family guards had been killed by the Outlanders.

The whole incident had shaken South Island from top to bottom.

Emergency response measures were quickly put into place.

The police were hunting the murderous Outlanders everywhere, but at this very moment, more and more unfamiliar Outlanders were heading toward the coast.

“That’s the one, right?” Seven players stood behind a few reef rocks.

[Santiago·Holy Judgment], [Santiago·gururu], [Santiago·Inspector].

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Other than those three, the rest came from the guilds [Space Dive] and [Radiance of Divine Wings].

The one leading them was Holy Judgment.

He was a blond young man from America.

He wore his hair slicked back, had stubble on his face, and was handsome in a somewhat decadent, melancholy sort of way.

As a famous top player from the [Santiago] guild, he was also the person in charge of this operation to kidnap Aila.

Anran and Aila’s location had been exposed because of two videos.

For the sake of that assassination mission, the players who learned of it immediately became restless.

But they had also gotten a taste of Anran’s strength. A frontal attack by only a handful of people had no chance of success, so they had to take a more indirect approach. The first step was to kidnap Anran’s little sister, Aila.

Holy Judgment’s group was the kidnapping team.

The position of Chief of the Special Operations Division absolutely had to go to the Santiago guild!

Holy Judgment nodded. “That’s right. That little girl holding the watermelon is Anran’s little sister, Aila.”

gururu said, “She’s out on a mission and still brought her little sister along. I seriously don’t know what this NPC is thinking.”

“Who cares what she’s thinking. It makes things easier for us.”

“That robot is terrifying. Everyone be careful,” Holy Judgment warned.

“Relax. I’m great at tanking and pulling aggro.”

“Don’t let your guard down either. Once we hold off the robot and the police, we grab Aila and leave immediately.”

“No problem. Just follow my lead.”

Holy Judgment waved his hand.

The seven people who had come weren’t newbies. They were all technical players honed across multiple games.

There was a gunner, an esper, and even an engineer!

Their average level was 13. Holy Judgment, the highest-level one among them, was already level 15.

He ranked sixteenth on No. 1886’s level leaderboard.

A well-known gunsword fighter.

This is bad.

Orange Juice Candy quickly pulled her head back.

She leaned against a rock, with the guns she had just stolen laid out by her feet.

Originally, she had only been here counting her profits and thinking about how to fence the goods. She hadn’t expected to overhear something this explosive.

Kidnapping an NPC. These people really could come up with anything.

Then, after taking another look, she realized the NPC they were planning to kidnap was the little girl who had bought a watermelon from her earlier.

Hmm…

Nothing she could do. That little girl could only pray for her own luck.

Orange Juice Candy didn’t think she could do anything.

And even if she could, she wasn’t the meddling type.

If there was no benefit in it, why should she do it?

Right now, she was only worried about being discovered and being treated by that group as an enemy who had overheard them.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before she realized the seven of them had moved away.

“Disguise Costume Card ×1.”

A card suddenly appeared in Holy Judgment’s hand.

It was a one-time special card they had gotten as a drop while raiding a boss together.

It could maintain the disguise for half an hour.

Holy Judgment used it on himself.

Very quickly, he turned into a blonde bombshell with curves in all the right places.

“Damn, that’s kind of amazing.”

“Those boobs aren’t real, are they?” gururu walked over to Holy Judgment. “Hey, big-bro-with-big-boobs, let me cop a feel.”

“Bang!”

“Get lost!”

Holy Judgment punched gururu, so angry that he practically started wobbling.

“Damn, you hit hard.”

“Brother Holy Judgment.” Inspector walked over with a wicked grin. “I’ve only got one question.”

“Say it.”

“Did your greatest asset down there really turn into a liability?”

(╬｀??)?

“Don’t hit me, don’t hit me! This is scientific inquiry!” Inspector clutched his head and ran off.

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Holy Judgment took a deep breath and suppressed the sliver of anger in his heart. “At a time like this, you still have the mood to fool around? If the mission gets delayed, the guild leader’s anger is not something you can handle.”

“Yes, yes, yes. My bad, Brother Holy Judgment,” Inspector immediately apologized.

Transform, then approach Aila.

Holy Judgment calmed himself down.

The Disguise Costume Card had not only changed his sex temporarily, it had changed his clothes too.

Wearing a sexy swimsuit, he sauntered toward Aila.

“Get ready.”

gururu and the others hurriedly exchanged looks with one another.

One of them moved toward the police. One hid at a distance, preparing to snipe Butler No. 1. One edged closer, ready at any moment to step up and block Butler No. 1.

A moment ago they had still been joking around, but in the next instant they had already split up and begun carrying out the operation with clear roles.

Holy Judgment slowly walked up to Aila.

Under Butler No. 1’s unwavering stare, Holy Judgment was nowhere near as calm inside as he looked on the surface.

A robot that had mowed down more than forty players in a single burst of gunfire was no joke.

This NPC Anran was seriously strong. They were both Mechanics, yet ordinary player Mechanics were weak as hell by comparison.

Might as well just play a gunner account.

“What’s a little girl like you doing playing all by yourself?” Holy Judgment asked Aila with a smile.

“Hello, Auntie.” After giving the greeting the internet had taught her, Aila fell silent.

Au… Auntie?

“…”

“Are you waiting for your big sister?” Holy Judgment continued.

He crossed his arms. Because of the size problem, his arms could only wrap below those huge breasts.

His stance looked lazy, but the muscles in his body had involuntarily tensed.

As soon as the others made their move, he would pin Aila down at once and run with her toward the car parked by the beach.

Target’s muscles are tense.

Nervous?

That conclusion suddenly appeared in Aila’s thought center.

“Is Auntie very nervous?” Aila asked curiously.

“!”

Holy Judgment was startled.

How could this little girl’s powers of observation be so strong?

At that moment, gunfire suddenly rang out.

Butler No. 1’s body swayed slightly. Someone was attacking it from behind, triggering its automatic counterattack mode.

Its eyes flashed, and Butler No. 1 immediately turned around.

NICE!

Holy Judgment clenched his fist.

He no longer had time to care what happened to Butler No. 1, because gururu and another player had already charged at it.

Now it was his time to shine.

Holy Judgment suddenly reached out and grabbed Aila by the shoulder.

…

“Splash…”

By the reef, a wave rolled in. Orange Juice Candy turned her head and suddenly saw a fair-skinned girl rise straight out of the sea.

“Huh? Why is it you?”

Orange Juice Candy took a closer look. Wasn’t this the girl who had bought her watermelon and left a gun as collateral?

“It’s you.” Anran nodded.

Drip, drip…

Anran walked out of the sea.

Right.

Orange Juice Candy suddenly remembered what she had overheard just now. She had no intention of helping, but since the person concerned was right here, there was no harm in telling her.

“I just heard someone say they were going to kidnap your little sister. You’d better go take a look.”

“Mm. Have they already made their move?” Anran asked.

Orange Juice Candy shook her head. “That I don’t know. Go check for yourself.”

“All right. Thanks.”

Anran slipped on her flip-flops and ran off at once.