"Mr. Cheng, we meet again."

Cheng Shanshui, anxiously awaiting the outcome, looked up at the greeting. Standing before him was a man, a hitman he had once approached and been rejected by, code-named Larson, a formal Scorpio-level assassin.

"Ah, it's you. What's the matter?"

Larson said blandly, "I have some free time recently and can accept your commission."

Cheng Shanshui's eyes lit up, then dimmed again. He gave a wry smile. "I'm sorry, someone else has already taken my commission."

Once a contract is established, it cannot be changed. This is the rule of the Blood Contract Association.

Larson was slightly disappointed.

He was a Red Maple person. This trip to Hai Xia was to visit a friend and travel along the way. He hadn't intended to take on any tasks. Cheng Shanshui had approached him, but Larson had refused outright due to the low reward.

However, after a few idle days, Larson was itching for some action. So, he decided to do some simple commissions nearby, immediately recalling Cheng Shanshui, whom he had rejected. He hadn't expected that in just one day, someone else had beaten him to it.

Although frustrated, Larson knew he couldn't break the rules and had no choice but to walk away, ordering a drink at a nearby bar.

He had just taken a couple of sips when his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID, it was an old client who had commissioned him before, Yue Youzhu.

"Hello, Larson," a man's voice came from the other end of the phone.

"It's me. What can I do for you, Mr. Yue?" Larson said casually.

"I have a commission for you."

Larson's eyes lit up. "Tell me about it."

"I want you to eliminate someone for me."

"Who?"

"The information has already been sent to you."

This was a side job, so there would be no confidentiality.

Larson took out his tablet, abruptly looking up at Cheng Shanshui in the distance. That was the target!

"What do you think?" Yue Youzhu asked. The sound of people descending stairs came through the phone.

"I'll take it," Larson said blandly.

"Good, I'll have someone send the down payment to..."

"Bang!"

Suddenly, the sound of someone falling to the ground came through the phone, followed by the faint sound of a gunshot. Larson's body tensed. He recognized the sound of a sniper rifle. Immediately afterward came a burst of panicked shouts. Yue Youzhu never spoke again. Larson immediately understood that Yue Youzhu had been taken out.

"To kill a target with over a dozen bodyguards with just one shot, that's a very skilled sniper." Larson frowned slightly, understanding the situation. It seemed Cheng Shanshui's commission was to assassinate Yue Youzhu. The two were enemies.

"Cheng Shanshui is waiting for someone. Soon, I'll see who that assassin is." Larson's eyes flashed.

...

Using the information provided by Cheng Shanshui, Han Xiao found a high-rise building several hundred meters away from Yue Youzhu's business stronghold in advance, aiming down from a high vantage point. Originally, he had planned to snipe Yue Youzhu from a window, but he noticed that the target walked out of the gate, making it even easier for him to act.

Yue Youzhu was surrounded by more than a dozen bodyguards, but to Han Xiao, they were as good as nothing.

The [Shuttle-shaped Piercing Bullet] he had recently manufactured had extremely strong penetration against non-metallic targets. The bullet pierced through a bodyguard's body, its momentum undiminished, accurately hitting Yue Youzhu's heart.

One shot, fatal.

Assassinating an ordinary person was too simple for him. There were no unexpected twists or turns.

The commotion here would attract the police. Han Xiao had already changed his appearance with a simulation mask, easily slipping away. Afterward, there was no way to trace him. It was simply an escape artifact.

...

Back on the twenty-third floor of the Vitalia Hotel, Cheng Shanshui, who had been pacing anxiously, immediately stood up, looking tense.

"It's done."

Cheng Shanshui relaxed completely, subconsciously looking at his watch. From the time Han Xiao had set out until now, it had only been forty-five minutes. Subtracting the travel time, the actual assassination had taken less than ten minutes.

Too fast!

"Pay up."

"Uh, alright." Cheng Shanshui looked at him in awe, taking out a briefcase containing one hundred thousand, and handing it to Han Xiao.

[Assassination Commission (Cheng Shanshui) Completed. You have gained 25,000 experience.]

Cheng Shanshui left, his footsteps light, as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

Han Xiao pressed the table bell, calling the waiter, preparing to continue accepting the Rose Armed Forces' bounty. Suddenly, he sensed something and turned to look to the side.

"Someone is watching me?"

At the bar, a man was looking at him with a scrutinizing gaze. Han Xiao didn't know who this man was, but the other party was clearly carrying a hint of appraisal and provocation.

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. He had no reservations now and didn't want to let others look at him with hostility, so he suddenly mustered his momentum, throwing back a cold gaze, conveying a simple meaning understood around the world:

—What are you looking at!

Larson stiffened, feeling locked on by a terrible hostility. A strong premonition of danger crashed over him in waves. He hastily withdrew his gaze, and only then did that sense of crisis suddenly disappear.

In just a few seconds, cold sweat appeared on Larson's forehead.

"What a dangerous aura, this guy is not to be trifled with!"

Larson quickly dismissed some of his thoughts, hurriedly paid the bill, and left, not wanting to stay any longer.

...

"We meet again."

Han Xiao gave the waiter a chuckle.

This was the first time the waiter had seen a newcomer become a formal member so quickly. He clicked his tongue inwardly, saying, "You have officially become a Scorpio-level assassin. More advanced benefits will be open to you. You can receive junior VIP treatment at Vitalia Hotels in other cities."

Han Xiao suddenly said, "What's my ranking on the Dark Net Assassin List?"

The waiter said helplessly, "Only the highest-level assassins can be ranked at the top of the list. Your current ranking is at least outside the top thousand."

As he spoke, he opened his handheld computer, pulled up the assassin leaderboard, and showed it to Han Xiao.

Scanning it, Han Xiao nodded secretly. At this time, the assassins in the top ten of the list were around level 40 on average. Their strength wasn't top-notch. Only the top three assassins were more terrifying, their levels close to the 1.0 version's upper limit. The assassin list looked at the mission resume and achievements. For players, that meant doing missions to get on the list. There was also a mercenary list next door, which worked the same way.

The martial power level of Aquamarine Star was not high. In the early stages of the public beta, players would hardly encounter experts above level 40. Those level 50 and 60 experts were the top combat power of Aquamarine Star. They were basically leaders of major forces, hidden secret weapons, reclusive loners, or super criminals doing evil. They generally did not appear before the public (and players), forming another circle of experts.

Only through missions, or by becoming stronger, would one have the opportunity to meet them…

These thoughts flashed through his mind. Han Xiao clicked on the bounty column, pointed to one of the bounties, and said, "I want to accept the Rose Armed Forces' bounty."

"Okay, the commission is being processed, please wait."

The waiter wrote it down on a piece of paper, tore off that page, rolled it up, put it in a special metal cylinder, came behind the counter, and inserted the cylinder into a round metal pipe. The entrance was just the right size to fit the cylinder perfectly.

With a *poof*, the cylinder was suddenly sucked into the pipe.

The cylinder traveled through the pipe at high speed, passing countless intersections, occasionally passing other cylinders. Before long, the cylinder reached a new exit.

This was a spacious room, the layout similar to a customer service call center, with rows of desks. Each row of desks had several computers. Office workers sat in front of the computers processing documents, with a cylindrical pipe next to each desk.

A black-clothed man working in the office extracted the piece of paper from the cylinder, tapped on the keyboard, and quickly entered the contents onto the computer.

"Bounty Target: Rose Armed Forces (armed organization)"

"Requirements: Annihilate the target"

"Initiator: Chaslord Family"

"Location: Somal Desert"

"Initiation Date: November 17, 685"

"Bounty Amount: Three million Aquamarine Coins"

"Difficulty Assessment: Difficult"

"Mission Record: 685.11.27, Code Name - Hall (Dark) [Deceased]

685.12.11, Code Name - Bloodhand (Dark) [Deceased]

686.3.10, Code Name - Enchantress (Dark), Freeman (Dark) [Deceased]."

...

"Mission Intelligence Update: Current members of the Rose Armed Forces number between 80~120, with four Superhumans. Leader: Luo Qing (Esper Ability Type), Instructor: Dorothy (Martial Artist), Instructor: Guihu (Martial Artist), Unknown (Suspected Mechanic), Active Range: Somal Desert."

"Authorizing… authorization passed."

"Mission record updated."

"688.4.1, Code Name - Mr. Black (Scorpio) [Result to be recorded]."

...

At the same time, Han Xiao triggered a new mission.

[You have triggered C-Grade Mission [Bounty Hunter (Rose Armed Forces)]!]

[Mission Prompt: Many forces are entrenched in the Somal Desert, wandering settlements, armed mercenary groups… But why can this barren area attract so many forces? Perhaps it is related to some past events. Maybe you should explore it.]

[Mission Requirements: Annihilate the Rose Armed Forces, Time Limit: Fifteen Days]

[Mission Reward: 150,000 Experience]

[Special Reward: 250,000 Experience, Unknown Reward]