A Prelude.
Somewhere in the Jiangsu Province, China.
"We have to hurry up."
"Don't rush me!"
"Click."
One code. 6.
"4 more to go."
"3 minutes left."
"8."
"2 more minutes left."
If they couldn't crack the code, they would have to abort the mission.
He started to turn the dial quicker.
"3. 7."
He cracked the next two codes in a hurry.
"1 minute left. Hurry up!"
He rotated the dial in a counter-clockwise direction. Using the stethoscope, he was able to narrow the digits between 1 and 5.
"10 seconds left."
He turned the dial with caution.
"Click."
It was 2. The door opened, and they grabbed a bunch of blueprints from the inside. They placed everything inside the bag.
"Towards the vent, now!"
Both of them ran towards the vent and climbed through it.
When they started to climb down, a man entered the room.
He looked towards the safe, which was closed.
"All clear."
He looked around one last time and closed the door.
He turned around to leave, but a well-placed blow from a baton incapacitated him on the spot.
Two of the robbers had taken him out. One of them placed his body inside the room.
"We are invisible, right?"
"Yes."
Someone on the outside had already taken care of the cameras. More of the personnel would be arriving soon, so they had to hurry.
According to their escape route, they first ran downstairs. Fortunately for them, the personnel weren't here yet.
"That room."
One of them pointed towards the door. The Safecracker had grabbed the ID from the security guard, and he scanned it through the device to open the door.
"Close it."
They entered the door and closed it from behind.
The leader proceeded to open the window. They were on the 20th floor.
"Give me the gun."
The safecracker handed him a long gun with something resembling a plunger on its end. He tied the bag filled with the blueprints to the neck of the plunger.
After that, he looked through the window with its scope. He saw a mark on a wall far from the building.
He aimed the gun upwards and shot the plunger along with the bag.
After a few seconds, the bag reached its mark.
"Let's leave."
The safecracker looked at the leader and said.
"Sure."
They both moved towards the door.
"Bang!"
Right through the head. The leader had killed the safecracker.
The noise alerted the guards. They came running towards the room.
The leader pointed the gun towards the base of his skull. When they entered the room, they saw the man smiling for a moment and whispering something.
"Bang!"
He fired the shot. A moment later, his body collapsed on the ground.
On the outside, a man took the plunger off the wall and took the bag. He opened it and checked its contents.
He looked towards the van and said,
"We have the blueprints."
"Get inside."
The man stepped inside it, and the van drove into the darkness.
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"Finally."
"Reaper Curse inflicted. Permanent injury applied."
Alex had been trying his skill on beetles for hours. Mei was gathering them, and he was using his fingernail to scratch them.
"Like I said, Useless."
He crushed the beetle in his hand.
Mei walked in with another batch.
"Here, more beetles."
He looked at her and said,
"I won't need any more of them now."
"Is your experiment done?"
"Yes."
She placed the box filled with beetles on the ground and said,
"Did it fail?"
"Kind of."
926 beetles. And one positive result.
"Don't be disappointed. Now that your experiment is over, you can go and visit master."
Alex looked at her and said,
"Why?"
"Your mission is here."
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"Lei, you know how tight we are on funds. Can't you lower your asking price a bit?"
A man was talking to the Zhao family head in the main courtyard.
"My price is fixed."
Lei said with confidence. He loved his country, but he loved his profession more. And he was not going to let up in front of the Special forces general out of all people.
The 52-year-old Tai Zhong sighed. He didn't like the Zhao family. They were a group that held too much power, and their contributions were based on their whims.
"You can't go inside."
Outside the courtyard, a man and a woman were guarding the entrance. When Alex appeared, they both blocked him from getting inside. They both realized that he wasn't Chinese, so they used English to warn him.
"The family head is waiting for me."
He responded.
The woman chuckled and said,
"You?"
Alex smirked at her and said,
"If you don't believe me, go and ask him."
The man approached him and said,
"He is in a very important meeting right now."
They both stood firm.
"Fine then."
He walked towards the entrance.
"You should listen to your elders, kid."
'I should be saying that to you.'
He kept walking.
"Fine. You leave us with no choice."
The woman was the first person to strike. She aimed for his neck.
"Go to sleep!"
Alex yawned. He slightly moved his body out of her trajectory and said,
"Slow."
The man was not too far behind. As soon as the woman missed her attack, he jumped in with a punch towards his stomach.
"One directional."
He dodged the punch and kneed him in the stomach. The man spits out some saliva, but he used the same leg to send him flying immediately after that.
The woman turned around to attack him once again, this time with a claw strike to his head.
"Die!"
She had lost a lot of composure. They were getting humiliated by a kid.
"Weak."
He swatted her hand away with his palm. After that, he punched her in the face.
She went crashing towards the ground. Both of them had been defeated swiftly.
"I'll be inviting myself in."
He stepped in through the entrance.
As he entered the huge courtyard, he could see Lei and some old man talking to each other. Lei looked towards him and said,
"He will be taking up the mission."
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