Leo took a moment to steady his breath, forcing himself to calm down.
Now that his memories had returned, a quiet confidence settled over him, because he finally remembered that this wasn’t the first time that the odds had been stacked against him.
It was just another battle in a long line of impossible battles, and like always, he intended to survive it.
"Tell me more about this scroll I’m supposed to retrieve, Fan… I assume it’s the final hurdle I need to clear before the Cult releases my family and picks me as their Dragon, or was that promise a lie as well?" Leo asked sarcastically, as Fan felt her stomach twist at the coldness in his voice.
Pressing her lips into a thin line, she took a moment to steady herself, choosing to ignore the barb as she replied with quiet sincerity.
"The scroll once belonged to the previous Dragon, Noah. He lost it during his final battle with Dupravel, and it’s been in the possession of the Black Serpents ever since.
According to our intelligence, the scroll is locked inside their Loot Vault— a place that’s nearly impossible to breach from the outside.
To retrieve the scroll, you will need to earn their trust by completing a mission that grants you unimpeded access to the vault, and only then can you attempt the heist." Fan explained, as Leo gave a small nod of understanding.
"Very well… I suppose I’ll dance for you again, play my part, and somehow find a way inside that vault.
However, I expect that you’ll train me on how to carry out a heist when the time comes…. For ’TheBoss’ is not a petty thief and doesn’t have experience carrying out robberies" Leo said coldly, as Fan’s frown deepened.
With his memories back, Leo’s old arrogant persona was also coming back to light, as she had not heard him refer to himself as ’TheBoss’ in a while now.
"Of Course… when the time comes, the Cult will provide you with all the help you need to carry out a heist," she answered, though Leo did not even do her the courtesy of looking into her eyes.
"Then leave. Your work here is done, and I have future missions to plan for," he muttered, turning away completely as Fan watched him in silence for a moment longer.
"I know I should’ve been honest with you from the beginning," she said softly, her voice tinged with guilt. "But I was under strict orders not to reveal the truth until now. Still, if it means anything… I have no intention of keeping things from you again.
And if you do ever find it in yourself to trust me… I promise I won’t break it."
With those words, she turned and left the room, hoping—perhaps foolishly—that something in her honesty would reach Leo’s heart.
—------------
To be fair, Leo wasn’t all that mad at Mu Fan to begin with.
It wasn’t her fault that she had been forced to act a certain way under orders, and he even acknowledged the fact that she had probably done her job as his overseer in the best way she knew how, while staying within the confines set by her superiors at the Cult.
Even so, the fact that she remained a loyal soldier of the Cult unsettled him, as he did not wish to place his trust in people bound by rigid hierarchies and doctrine, because loyalty to an organization could always eclipse loyalty to him the moment it became inconvenient.
And so, Leo quietly resolved to begin distancing himself from Fan—emotionally, strategically—and to treat every Cult member with measured suspicion going forward.
As although he was indeed allied with the Cult, he always needed to remember that it was an alliance of convenience and necessity, and not one born out of trust or choice.
"No point crying over spilled milk… it’s best I move on and focus on how to get into that vault as soon as I can—" Leo said to himself, as a few minutes after Mu Fan was gone, he headed out as well, with his destination being the mission’s hall.
—-----------
(Black Serpents Guild Mission’s Hall, Inner District, Twin Fang Planet)
Leo was surprised to see over a hundred people within the missions hall when he entered it, as although the missions hall was open 24x7, he did not expect to run into a thousand people inside it as late as 11 pm.
Assassin’s of all tiers and races who had somehow managed to become a part of the Serpents stared at the hundreds of mission postings stuck to the missions wall, as they contemplated whether any was worth undertaking.
Since the Black Serpents only mandated that people complete 2 missions during any calendar year, most left without showing interest in any mission when they found nothing suitable, as the Black Serpents remained one of the very few guilds in the universe that frequently received more jobs than what they could complete.
The missions posted on the wall were color coded into six categories: White, Green, Yellow, Red, Black, and Gold.
Each hue corresponded to a tier of difficulty and reward, and every assassin in the hall understood exactly what each one represented.
White missions were at the very bottom. These were handed out to fresh recruits or to those desperate to meet their yearly quota. The targets in these contracts were often petty shopkeepers, minor business rivals, or unguarded political voices. The payout was minimal, but the danger was nearly nonexistent, making them the go-to choice for those seeking to avoid unnecessary risks.
Next came the Green missions, which made up the majority of the board. These were considered the bread and butter of the Black Serpents, and typically involved targets like prominent martial artists or politicians surrounded by loyal guards. Only Grandmaster-tier assassins and above could accept them, as the margin for error was thin and a misstep could lead to serious complications.
The third tier was marked Yellow, and these missions carried a very real threat of death. Targets here were dangerous individuals—renowned killers, high-ranking cultists, rogue warlords, or beings enhanced by experimental technologies.
Only Transcendents and a select few Grandmasters with perfect track records were cleared to take them, and the rewards ranged from one to tens of millions of MP, but so did the number of casualties, which made even seasoned assassins hesitate before taking one.
Above Yellow came Red, and Red missions were simply cataclysmic. These involved assassinations of royal bloodlines, orchestrating military coups, or eliminating entire dynasties in a single sweep. Completing such a mission often meant going dark for years, as the fallout from such assignments was galaxy-wide and unavoidable. These were the highest paying jobs short of suicide, and only a select few assassins within the guild were permitted to attempt them.
And finally, at the apex, were the Black missions.
In theory, anyone could take them, however, in reality, only one man could ever hope to complete them, with that man being the guildmaster Dupravel Nuna himself.
These missions were widely regarded as impossible. No successful attempts had ever been recorded. And they were pinned to the wall like curses, their mere presence serving as a reminder of what true madness looked like.
However, aside from these five standard categories, there was a rare and unpredictable sixth—Gold.
Gold missions were outliers. Their difficulty fluctuated, sometimes as manageable as Green, other times deadlier than Black.
But the one constant was the reward— which was always astronomical for Gold missions.
These missions were also nicknamed as "Golden Opportunities," within the guild, as they were often unique tasks tied to specific time-sensitive events or strange cosmic alignments, and these missions often attracted dreamers and lunatics alike.
Once Leo read the color chart and its meaning, his gaze moved from one section of the board to the next, color by color, until his eyes landed at the far-left corner.
There, behind a layer of reinforced mana shielding, two missions gleamed faintly under soft illumination—one Gold, one Black.
---
[Golden Mission – Temporal Zone Expedition]
Objective: Enter and retrieve a particular item from a time-stilled world located in the Kael Vortex region.
Notes: The world’s time has been frozen due to an ancient anomaly. All previous teams have failed to return. No communications. No traces.
Threat Level: Unknown, presumed lethal.
Reward: 6.5 billion MP or one unrestricted item of choosing from the Black Serpents Vault.
---
[Black Mission – Terminate Evil God Soron]
Objective: Locate and assassinate Soron, Supreme Leader of the Evil Cult.
Notes: Divine-tier entity. Possesses reality-altering abilities. All prior assassination attempts have failed.
Threat Level: Maximum.
Reward: 551 billion MP or any ten items of choice from the Black Serpents Vault.
—--