Chapter 205: Assassination!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“You killed my foster son,” Xiao Jin suddenly said.
“This is a private matter chieftain Xiao,” Han Xiao replied. “Let’s discuss it privately.”
“Sure.” Xiao Jin nodded.
The crowd’s eyes twinkled. Black Phantom’s reply to the same matter was completely different.
Darryl showed unhappiness on his face but did not say anything.
Han Xiao turned his head to look at Darryl and said, “It’s late. You don’t mind if I stay the night, right?”
“Xiao Jin, take care of him, meeting dismissed.” Darryl stood up and walked out.
The crowd walked pass Han Xiao with different expressions on their faces.
A man walked up to Han Xiao, smiled, and said, “I’m Xiao Ming, a foster son of Leader Xiao. I will be taking care of you during your stay. Please follow me.”
Han Xiao looked around and realized that Ummil, who had brought him here, was missing. The internal conflict in Alumera is really very severe.
The tense atmosphere in the hall earlier on further proved his point.
With such thoughts in his mind, Han Xiao walked out of the hall. Suddenly, a dozen or so players surrounded him with excitement on their faces. They were all from the Bamboo Rain guild. Bamboo Rain Xuan enabled the recording functions.
“We want to learn abilities,” Bamboo Rain Fragrance said.
Han Xiao surely would not miss out on an opportunity to earn some experience points, so he casually opened the ability interface.
Xiao Ming, who was standing on the side, asked in surprise, “Do you know them?”
Han Xiao shook his head.
“Black Phantom seems to be very popular among the Inhumans.” The Alumera members who happened to pass by noticed this, and they were rather surprised.
The Bamboo Rain Guild wanted to trigger missions, but Han Xiao did not make any other interactions. He walked away after stopping for a few seconds.
“It’s an unexpected plotline, but there’s no mission.” Bamboo Rain Fly was confused.
“Seems like my recording has nothing of interest,” Bamboo Rain Xuan said in frustration.
...
Xiao Ming arranged a room for Han Xiao. Although Han Xiao’s attitude in the morning had made many of the high ranked officials very angry, he did explain the source of his hostility. Therefore, the atmosphere was not all that tense.
That night, Xiao Jin invited Han Xiao to his mansion with the purpose of discussing compensation.
Upon arriving at the place, Han Xiao realized that Xiao Jin’s children were all gathered around, including Xiao Hai and other brothers and sisters. However, the foster kids were not there.
Xiao Jin had the same expressionless face as he had in the day, unpredictable.
Han Xiao was looking at Xiao Jin and his children, and these people were looking at him, too.
“What compensation do you want.” Han Xiao looked at Xiao Jin and put on a smile that did not really look like a smile.
“It’s his bad luck that he died.” Xiao Jin’s expression was cold. To him, foster children were just assistants and tools.
“Then why did you invite me here?” Han Xiao raised an eyebrow.
“There are no bad sides to getting to know a famous killer.”
Han Xiao could not figure out Xiao Jin’s motive, maybe it was just to build a relationship, maybe there were other motives, anyway Han Xiao was interested in making more contact with the family of his original body owner so he could lure more information out of their mouth.
They chatted casually, talking about all sorts of things. Xiao Hai and his siblings said a word or two once in a while, and the atmosphere was peaceful. Xiao Hai was the leader of the siblings; one could feel a sense of adoration when the siblings talked to him, but Xiao Hai did not react to it, as if that was the norm.
One hour had passed without anyone’s notice. Han Xiao suddenly frowned and said, “I’m very interested in Han Xiao. Let’s talk more about him.”
The atmosphere suddenly turned cold. Xiao Jin put the cup down and said slowly, “He’s my son. He has always been incompetent, but I didn’t think he would become wanted by the Germinal Organization.”
“I thought he’s dead for sure,” Xiao Hai said. “No wonder they say scourges last for thousand years; he’s still bringing us trouble.”
Han Xiao pointed at himself and said, “You mean I’m trouble?”
Xiao Hai gave a cold laugh and said, “Are you not?”
With a light cough, Xiao Jin said, “It’s getting late,”
“Indeed, it is.” Han Xiao stood up and left.
Xiao Ming brought him back to his room. He passed a stack of documents to Han Xiao as he walked through the door. “This is Han Xiao’s information. Father had told me to give it to you.”
Han Xiao nodded and accepted it.
As soon as Han Xiao entered the room, he checked every corner of it thoroughly. There had been three monitoring devices before he left, and now there was one more. He shook his head and used a program to crack it once again. After he was done with that, only then did he start reading the documents, from which he gained a deeper understanding of the original owner of his body. He was basically a nobody, and he did not hear about any NPC called ‘Han Xiao’ in his previous life either.
“Sigh.”
Han Xiao shook his head. He had made contact with Alumera to know more about the original owner of his body, and he had already achieved that. Whether it was Alumera’s attitude or their internal problems, none of that mattered to him because it had nothing to do with him, and his so-called hostility was just a form of showing his strong stand.
Alumera was already sucking it up and did not want to become his enemy, so Han Xiao would be stupid to kill their people in their headquarters. There was no benefit to creating another enemy for himself for no reason.
Once Alumera knows I’m ‘Xiao Han’, I wonder how they will react.
Han Xiao put the documents aside, lay on the bed, and closed his eyes. He planned to leave the next day.
...
At midnight in Darryl’s mansion...
“It’s all because of that asshole Xiao Jin that Alumera has been sucked into this. That asshole has been building on his power with no worries at all. He’s obviously trying to seize power. However, the North Faction is my ally, and Se Qi’s Red Island Faction has always been neutral. What does he have to be up against me?” Darryl clenched his teeth.
When Alumera was created, it had been peaceful internally, but when the size of the organization started to snowball, conflicts started to happen. As the master of the house, the Home Faction gained most benefits and were in the middle of the conflict. Although all the factions followed the orders on the surface, they all had the ambitions to take over and seize power.
Luckily, after all these long years of partnership, they were all connected to each other deeply, so none of them dared do anything too over the line. A murder was nearly impossible to happen. Even if there was one, it was planned in secret.
Xiao Jin posed the largest threat, and Darryl was the one who secretly planned the attack on Xiao Hai, which sadly failed. They had only managed to kill Han Xiao, who did not matter at all.
Who would have thought that after one year, the Han Xiao who nobody cared about would become a wanted person with an outrageous reward from the Germinal Organization and bring the family such a horrifying enemy?
Thinking back now, Darryl was filled with regret.
At this time, Darryl’s son, Lagos, walked in and said, “Father, Black Phantom has left Xiao Jin’s mansion. The meeting lasted for one hour and thirty-seven minutes.”
“Xiao Jin is becoming more unbridled. Now he even dares meet Black Phantom privately without my consent.” Darryl was enraged.
“What do we do, just let Black Phantom leave?”
“Don’t mess with him.”
“But he dared to be this arrogant in our territory.” Lagos was unconvinced.
“I said don’t mess with him!” Darryl slammed the table in a rage and shouted, “Get out!”
Lagos clenched his teeth and closed the door after he walked out. The moment he turned his head, his expression turned vicious.
...
As the sky started to brighten, loud noises woke Han Xiao up, who was in a light sleep.
He jumped out of the bed and looked outside through the window. Alumera members were yelling and rushing somewhere.
“What happened?” Han Xiao asked in confusion.
Footsteps closed in rapidly, and dozens of soldiers surrounded the room with guns.
“Black Phantom, don’t move!” one of the captains shouted.
These soldiers’ mission was to control him. They were all in a state of nervousness that could pull the trigger wrongly anytime. Han Xiao saw the people outside running in another direction.
Seems like something has happened, but it’s not about me. Han Xiao squinted his eyes and watched things unfold.
Not long after, the captain seemed like he had received an order. He yelled, “Come with us!”
Han Xiao wanted to know what had happened, too, so he followed the nervous soldiers. To his surprise, they went to Darryl’s mansion.
It was already extremely crowded; the high-ranking officials from all the factions had come. They were looking furiously at Han Xiao, and the latter was rather confused.
Han Xiao only discovered what had happened after he walked into the mansion.
In the office, Darryl sat on the chair with his head facing up, a bloody blue hole on his left eye, penetrating through the back of his head. The blood on the wooden floor had already coagulated, and the metallic smell of blood filled the room. The dead body’s hands hung from the shoulders, and the legs pushed against the table, holding him on his chair.
The leader of Alumera had been assassinated!
“Cause of death: gunshot. The bullet entered through the eye into the brain, penetrating and leaving through the back of his head. He would have died on the spot. From the size of the bullet hole, the killer used a high caliber handgun, and the leader did not show any sign of resistance. There are no clues at the scene that showed any signs of the killer ever being here.”
Han Xiao suddenly understood why the others were looking at him that way.
Darryl died in the night, and being the killer who came without invitation, he was the most suspicious. Also, the killer used a high caliber handgun, and the assassination-style was phantom-like.
There were too many coincidences.
He was being framed!
Han Xiao blinked. He took out a cigarette from the pocket, lighted it up, and inhaled deeply, blowing out a smoke ring in the face of the surrounding nervous soldiers.
“Now this is interesting.”