Caesar Zimmich rose lazily from his chair, stretching with a series of cracks echoing from his bones.
The room, his private bedroom on the eighty-eighth floor of the Rexler Building, was decorated in resplendent gold, the height of luxury.
BANG BANG—
Banging on the door began. Through the LCD panel above the door frame, Caesar Zimmich could see his father's trusted Blood Clan guards desperately knocking from outside.
"Tsk."
Calmly, Caesar walked over and casually asked, "What's up, William?"
"Young Master, someone attacked the Iceberg Club and wiped out all the Blood Clan guards stationed there by the Miller Family," William said hastily. "Your friend Felix Miller has gone missing."
"What?!"
Caesar Zimmich was quite astonished, even forgoing his usually composed and indifferent expression.
It was not that he was worried about Felix Miller's fate—the life or death of such worthless acquaintances was not his concern.
What he considered was who could have, and would have dared to attack an orthodox member of the Blood Race Nobility.
The Miller Family had been losers in Europe's power struggles and were exiled to the New World. Despite this, they still maintained a significant power base there.
Any entity, whether a demon hunter, Dark Creature, or Neo-ability Person, had to consider the immense trouble that would follow murdering a member of the Blood Race Nobility. This was not just a challenge to the Miller Family, but also a test directed at all the Blood Clan families in the New World.
Caesar Zimmich's demeanor turned serious in an instant, as he urgently asked, "Do we know who did it?"
This future star of the Zimmich Family had to set an appropriate example—for instance, by commanding the extermination of the unknown assailant who had harmed his friend—thereby gaining favor with the clan elders.
"We don't know yet," William answered cautiously. "The Miller Family has started to mobilize their combat teams and is determined to find the murderer. However, they have not yet issued a bounty in the Dark World, nor have they requested our assistance."
"Pff, suffer in silence all for the sake of saving face."
Caesar Zimmich snorted coldly. "Regardless of whether the killer was simply after Felix for personal revenge or something else, we have every reason to help the Miller Family find the murderer and maintain order in Frankfurt."
William nodded and pressed the wireless earpiece in his ear. After listening for a moment, he said to Caesar, "Young Master, the Master wishes to see you."
"Alright, I got it."
Caesar Zimmich nodded. Just as he was about to reach for the robe on his table, he saw William's face suddenly change. William shifted from human form to a half-man, half-bat state and lunged straight at him.
In the blink of an eye, Caesar Zimmich only managed to lean back. He was shocked, wondering when William could have turned traitor, while his mind raced, trying his utmost to transform himself into a swarm of bats.
BANG—
A 12.7 mm bullet flew from a great distance, easily penetrating the so-called "impregnable" bulletproof glass windows, and zipped towards Caesar Zimmich's head.
At the critical moment, William's desperate lunge caused Caesar Zimmich to deviate slightly from the bullet's original trajectory. The bullet smashed into his shoulder blade, blasting nearly half of his left arm into pulp.
The arm spun in mid-air, as if giving a thumbs-up to the 12.7 mm bullet.
SPLAT—
The unstoppable bullet struck William's head, exploding the half-man, half-bat creature's skull. The sound, reminiscent of a watermelon splitting, echoed inside the room.
Blood and bone fragments splattered onto Caesar Zimmich as he lay on the ground, his face a mask of confusion.
He had never felt death so close to him; all those so-called Blood Clan trials and gladiatorial combats seemed like worthless jokes at this moment.
When you're killed, you die, and the Blood Clan was no exception.
BANG—
The sound of gunfire rang out again as a bullet from a Barrett M82A1 sniper rifle once more pierced through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the eighty-eighth-floor room in the Rexler Building.
Caesar Zimmich, having undergone the Zimmich Family's rigorous training, transformed in the last half-second before the bullet arrived. He became a dense swarm of a hundred or so bats, sacrificing several of them to avoid death.
The shot missed.
FLAP, FLAP. The swarm of crimson-eyed bats flapped their wings with all their might. They flew through the blast-proof doors into the corridor, ignoring the bodyguards still in the room.
Safe, thought Caesar Zimmich. His vision, filtered through the bat swarm, was quite shaky—he hadn't transformed into this state in a long time.
If I can just escape this corridor and get to the Blood Race Meeting Hall downstairs, my life will be completely out of danger...
On the rooftop of a high-rise building across the street from the Rexler Building, Li Ang lay at the edge, his Barrett M82A1 sniper rifle propped up in front of him on its tripod.
"Didn't kill him directly, huh..."
Li Ang stood up and packed away the Barrett sniper rifle.
Miss Chai said disdainfully, "Your marksmanship has gotten rusty, hasn't it? So young, yet your body's already failing you?"
"How can I be blamed for that? I've never even touched this gun before."
Li Ang protested, taking out the Conscienceless Cannon from his backpack slot, which hadn't seen action in a long time. With a quick aim, he fired at the eighty-eighth floor of the Rexler Building.
The projectile from the Conscienceless Cannon traveled a long distance, easily shattering the floor-to-ceiling windows of that room. It caused several Blood Clan bodyguards inside to bleed from all seven orifices. They staggered to their feet and stumbled out, leaning on the door for support.
"Still, the power is too weak. It would be nice to have a railway gun."
Li Ang muttered to himself, taking a pillow-sized portable speaker from his backpack slot and strapping it to his back. He then had Miss Chai summon eight long, narrow arms. These supported him as he took a few steps back before he started sprinting across the rooftop.
TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP.
The Spider Claws dug into the ground, tensing and compressing violently like springs pushed to their limit, just an instant before he would have fallen from the rooftop.
Then, they suddenly sprung up!
Li Ang traced an arc in mid-air. Looking down at the ant-sized vehicles and pedestrians below, he pressed the button on the portable speaker behind him.
"As you unfold your wings to fly, please decide with resolve to never look back—"
The song "Blue Bird" from "Naruto Shippuden" played high in the sky. A nameless updraft rose from below him, allowing him to glide towards the Rexler Building like a dark crow.
Driven by the BGM skill, while the song couldn't make Li Ang take off on the spot, it significantly enhanced his gliding ability, just as it was doing now.
THUD—
Li Ang dove into Caesar Zimmich's room and rolled a few times to bleed off his momentum. Then, he sprung up like a carp leaping. His eight pale arms, each holding a firearm, extended naturally like those of a Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara.
This was the Chai Eight-Armed Naga Valkyrie Form.