Chapter 10: Puppy (Second Update)

Chapter 10: Puppy (Second Update)

"What do you need repaired?" Yan Wanqiu asked.

Xie Chi: "..."

Xie Chi started to speak, only then realizing that although he wanted reimbursement, he couldn't actually tell Yan Wanqiu what he needed to reimburse.

He pivoted: "It's the electromagnetic guns from the Night Owl Syndicate. I've already gotten the mechanic who repairs them under my control. Tomorrow night, while we're taking out Boss Ye, I can grab both the mechanic and the electromagnetic guns."

"It's just that about half of those electromagnetic guns are damaged, and repairs won't come cheap. I wanted to ask if the repair costs for that mechanic could be covered by the camp's budget."

Even Xie Chi thought the excuse sounded weak, and he guiltily looked away, not daring to meet Yan Wanqiu's eyes.

Luckily, Yan Wanqiu didn't push it. After thinking for a moment, he said, "When you bring the people and guns back, hand them over to the camp's mechanic for inspection first. If that mechanic checks out, I'll have someone take care of the rest."

Clearly, the Tyrant didn't trust the mechanic he brought back—he suspected everyone equally.

Xie Chi had no choice but to say, "Thank you, Your Highness."

Yan Wanqiu stared at him. "Anything else you want to ask?"

Xie Chi thought for a moment, then asked, "I also found the Night Owl Syndicate's armory, full of gunpowder weapons and artillery. Does Your Highness need regular weapons? I could grab more weapons—whether for the camp's soldiers or to sell on the black market, they'd come in handy."

Yan Wanqiu raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "What do you want?"

He'd only brought three hundred Personal Guards to Blizzard City, and most of the soldiers in the camp were conscripted locally. The black market was a melting pot of factions from various nations. Yan Wanqiu had money and energy but couldn't find a stable weapons supplier, so he really was short on weapons.

He just wondered what Xie Chi was after by bringing this up now.

Xie Chi smiled sheepishly. "Money."

Yan Wanqiu, who'd been bracing for a trick: "..."

That simple?

Seeing Yan Wanqiu silent, Xie Chi held up five fingers and said sincerely, "Just five hundred thousand, and I'll bring you the Night Owl Syndicate's whole arsenal. That's a steal."

Back in the day, he charged five hundred thousand for a single kill.

Yan Wanqiu: "..."

Yan Wanqiu didn't get it. Sure, Blizzard City was harsh and cold, but he'd never skimped on his subordinates' food, clothing, or pay.

What was with Xie Chi suddenly acting like he was obsessed with money? Where was he even planning to spend all that money here?

But either way, at five hundred thousand, even if Xie Chi only brought back a few dozen guns, it was still a good deal for Yan Wanqiu.

"Fine," Yan Wanqiu said. "If you can actually pull it off."

Xie Chi beamed, his thanks sounding much more sincere: "Thank you, Your Highness!"

Yan Wanqiu couldn't stand to look at his cheap demeanor. "If there's nothing else, you can leave."

"Yes."

Xie Chi acknowledged and, true to his word, didn't push it, turning and leaving without a hint of reluctance.

Yan Wanqiu sat on the throne, staring in disbelief as Xie Chi walked away.

He'd thought Xie Chi would keep asking about Ji Chou.

"Bang—"

It wasn't until the heavy wooden door clicked shut that Yan Wanqiu realized Xie Chi had really left.

And during this audience, not only had he not demanded to see Ji Chou, but even after Ji Chou's risky move of passing information, Xie Chi hadn't shown the slightest interest in checking on him. He'd completely forgotten how he'd once pretended to be deeply in love, and now he'd cast the man aside entirely.

This made Yan Wanqiu—who'd prepared his speech about executing Ji Chou and been on guard, waiting for Xie Chi to bring him up—look like a fool.

Yan Wanqiu let out a cold snort.

Heartless and money-hungry.

Yan Wanqiu felt inexplicably irritated and got up from the throne.

"Feeding a dog, and it all goes to the dog's belly."

.

Having met with Yan Wanqiu, Xie Chi got the green light to continue operations and solved his urgent repair-cost problem in one go.

Xie Chi suddenly felt the future looked bright and threw himself into planning the assassination with renewed energy.

Although his own weapons were useless, he could still request guns from the camp, not to mention the medicine stored in his terminal database and spatial ring.

Under the pretext of preparing for the mission, Xie Chi requested a standard pistol and ammo from logistics, rigged up a simple timed bomb, cleared space in his spatial ring, and requisitioned a large aircraft to haul supplies.

He also casually handled a few messages from Yan Baiyue, who was already closing in on Frost City.

Amid all the busy preparations, a day passed in the blink of an eye.

"Captain Xie, grabbing lunch?" Nie Huaiyi greeted Xie Chi with a smile.

Xie Chi returned a polite smile: "Yeah."

Although his house arrest had been lifted, he still didn't know the others in camp well and worried that too much contact might blow his cover, so he used the excuse of being busy with missions to grab his meal and head back.

All day, Ji Chou hadn't sent another message through Nie Huaiyi. Even though Xie Chi kept telling himself he couldn't put Ji Chou in the spotlight right now, he couldn't help worrying.

He lowered his voice and cautiously asked Nie Huaiyi, "The person you delivered food to earlier... are they doing okay?"

Nie Huaiyi was taken aback before realizing Xie Chi meant the person the lord had told him to deliver food to yesterday morning.

Strange—the lord had explicitly ordered him not to reveal who the food was for. How did Xie Chi know?

Nie Huaiyi was a bit puzzled, then figured the lord must have mentioned it when he summoned Xie Chi, so he lowered his voice and said cautiously, "I can't say too much... just the same as usual, I guess. Though lately, his condition seems to have improved quite a bit."

Xie Chi let out a sigh of relief. "That's good."

He thanked Nie Huaiyi sincerely. "Thank you."

Nie Huaiyi was startled and quickly waved his hands. "What's there to thank me for? I'm just the middleman. If you're worried, Captain Xie, just ask him directly after this mission."

Xie Chi smiled, his eyes curving. "Yeah, after this mission, I'll definitely meet him again."

He hadn't expected Yan Wanqiu to actually go easy on Ji Chou. The Tyrant was surprisingly true to his word.

Xie Chi happily carried his meal away, leaving Nie Huaiyi standing there looking confused.

"Strange..." Nie Huaiyi watched Xie Chi's retreating figure in confusion. "Why does Captain Xie look like he's in love?"

Date Yan Wanqiu?

Just putting "Yan Wanqiu" and "dating" in the same sentence made Nie Huaiyi shudder involuntarily.

That was way too creepy.

He had to be overthinking this. It was totally normal for the Monarch to clear up a misunderstanding with a subordinate and send them a meal as an apology...

Wait, no—!

Nie Huaiyi finally figured out what was wrong and jumped up like his tail had been stepped on.

Why the hell would His Highness send Xie Chi a meal!?

They'd caught so many traitors these past few days—even the ones wrongly thrown in jail didn't get this treatment!?!

.

That night.

"Yan Baiyue: A Chi, I've arrived at Frostbite City. Tomorrow I'll do a quick inspection around the city with the city lord, and I'll only get to Blizzard City in the evening to see you. Haven't you met up with the Night Owl Syndicate yet? Did something happen?"

Xie Chi glanced at the message on his smart device and did a final gear check.

He couldn't tell if it was the Personal Guard squad getting close to Blizzard City that was giving Yan Baiyue confidence, but lately the guy had gotten bolder, even starting to text him back.

"Xie Chi: Small hiccup at camp. I'll go see Boss Ye tonight."

"Yan Baiyue: Glad you're okay. I've been worried the whole way. See you tomorrow~"

Xie Chi was grossed out and turned off his smart device.

Thankfully, after he killed Boss Ye, he could kill Yan Baiyue too—every second with this guy counted as a work-related injury.

When he assassinated Yan Baiyue, he definitely had to find a way to make Yan Wanqiu cough up more money.

With that thought, Xie Chi stashed all his weapons in his storage ring, changed his terminal into a black half-face mask, and after putting it on, slipped out of the Blizzard City camp under cover of darkness.

Windcliff Village.

"A whole day, and you couldn't fix even one electromagnetic gun?" Boss Ye wiped his long blade, eyeing the trembling, bookish man in front of him with narrowed eyes. "Mr. Shi, I respect you as the top mechanic in Blizzard City. I've given you everything you wanted. You're not gonna be as ungrateful as Shouhou, are you?"

Shi Peijue stared at the bloodstained blade in Boss Ye's hand, his face ashen.

Shouhou, who'd talked him into taking kickbacks, had just had his limbs chopped off right in front of him, his belly sliced open and his guts yanked out.

Boss Ye suspected he was up to something too, so he'd dragged him out of his room and made him watch Shouhou get tortured to death.

Even though he'd heard about the Night Owl Syndicate's torture methods, seeing the bloody, violent scene in person made Shi Peijue gag and shake uncontrollably.

The stench of blood was everywhere, and Shi Peijue's stomach was doing flips.

He broke out in a cold sweat: "Those electromagnetic guns... they're beyond our tech level. I've traced the circuits, but most of these guns have dead lithium battery packs. Fixing them needs too many rare materials on one hand, and I also need to keep researching... I don't know what Shouhou told you, but repairing these guns will take at least two, one—one week..."

"BANG!"

Boss Ye's face darkened as he slammed the table hard. "A week? Do you know the Third Prince is coming tomorrow? If the Prince's plan gets delayed because of you, can you take that responsibility!"

Shi Peijue wanted to cry but couldn't.

Not to mention that killing god Xie Chi wanted him to stall for time—even without Xie Chi, with his skill level, even under threat of death and working around the clock, he'd need a day or two just to fully understand the lithium battery pack structure in those guns.

Now Boss Ye wanted him to perfectly fix these guns with zero loss tonight—how was that any different from asking a first-grader to take the SAT?

Boss Ye was still staring at him dangerously. "How much do you know about Shouhou's business? I've already sent people to search your room. You'd better come clean, or don't blame me for doing a body search."

Shi Peijue was already on edge, and at Boss Ye's words, his mind went blank and his body went limp.

Even though there was nothing incriminating in his room, he'd turned the terminal Xie Chi gave him into a necklace and was wearing it.

If anyone noticed something off about the necklace, he couldn't explain where it came from.

He was gonna get screwed over by those two bastards, Xie Chi and Shouhou.

Just as Shi Peijue was desperately weighing whether pissing off Xie Chi or Boss Ye was more dangerous, urgent knocking came at the door.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Boss Ye looked up impatiently. "What'd you find?"

The voice outside was urgent: "No, boss, it's the Third Prince's men. They've arrived and already gave the passphrase at the mountain pass, and they've been searched. Should we let them in now?"

Hearing this, Boss Ye forgot about Shi Peijue for a second, quickly straightened his clothes, and stood up. "Hurry, let him in!"

He said this while striding to the door, casually telling the guy who knocked: "Keep an eye on the mechanic in the room. I still have questions for him. Don't let him run off and blab to the Third Prince's men."

The guard said "Yes, boss" and after Boss Ye left, locked the door tight again.

"Phew—"

Shi Peijue couldn't hold it together anymore. He collapsed to the floor in a heap, wiping away a tear of self-pity.

Miserable. Just miserable.

All he wanted was to make some money with his skills. He'd finally made a name for himself under his master, and then his master died. He scraped together some cash to bury him, and just as he'd greased the palms of the small-time players in the black market and set up his own shop, the Night Owl Syndicate came and took it all.

Fine, they took it—at least the Night Owl Syndicate paid him a salary. But no sooner had he joined than he was handed a pile of weapons he'd never seen before, and then a killing god locked onto him.

Now look at him—not only had he made no money, but he was about to lose his life.

Where the hell did all these weird weapons come from? Was someone cheating or what??

—Oh, right.

Shi Peijue remembered the terminal on his chest. With shaking hands, he fumbled out the terminal necklace, desperate to find a way to contact Xie Chi.

There was no way he could fix the electromagnetic guns tonight. Either way, he was dead—might as well gamble.

He had to beg Xie Chi to save him.

The second he opened the terminal, Shi Peijue froze.

On the muted screen, a message sat quietly.

"[Unread message from main account] AAA Assassination Quote: I'm already at the bottom of the cliff. Pack your stuff and send me your location. I'll come get you in a bit."

The bottom of the cliff?

Shi Peijue's eyes went wide. He suddenly remembered what the guard had said earlier and scrambled to the window to look out.

Probably no one thought a scrawny mechanic like him would dare resist and run from the Night Owl Syndicate's stronghold, so Boss Ye had only left one guy at the door yawning, without even sealing the window.

Under the cold, pale moonlight, a crowd was bustling in from the entrance of Wind Cliff Village.

At the center of the crowd, surrounded by people, stood a tall black-haired youth. A black mask covered everything above his eyes except for his brows, leaving only a pair of cold, deep-set eyes visible.

Ye Laoda, his earlier ferocity completely gone, wore a fawning smile, sticking close to the youth's side and whispering eagerly.

The youth smiled back, his lips a vivid red, looking disarmingly agreeable.

Only Shi Peijue felt a chill run through him, a bone-chilling cold shooting from his feet to the crown of his head.

He saw the highly distinctive dimples on the youth's cheeks.

And the faint, fleeting glint of steel in the other's hand.