Chapter 98: Massacre

I could feel the violent tremors rock my Toyota, almost throwing the passengers inside about. Fortunately, I had strapped myself to my seat with a seatbelt so I didn't have to worry about being flung from my chair. The seatbelt bit into my shoulder as I was hurled against it, pinning me to my seat and preventing me from crashing my head against the steering wheel.

Ladies and gentlemen, this was why you always wear a seatbelt. It saved lives.

"Huff…"

I shook my head and tried to make sense of what had happened. Before I consulted the onboard AI installed in my car, I turned to Lily Ling and the rest.

"Everyone, are you all right?"

"I'm…okay." Lily shook her head. She had also put on her seatbelt and thanks to that, she wasn't hurt as she might otherwise be.

"No problems here," Brad Biao reported from behind. "Alan Shou and I are unhurt."

"Good." I sighed in relief and began consulting the onboard computer. A holographic screen fizzled, the blue light displaying a bit of static as I tried to bring it online. While I worked, Lily voiced the question that everyone in the car had in mind.

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure. I believe we were attacked." I glanced out of the window, but I could only see thick smoke and flames. "We were hit by something. Wait…my car's AI is running diagnostics now."

Numbers scrolled down, along with lots of data. I skipped through them because they didn't really make much sense. Rather, I was more interested in something more concrete and less abstract than numerical values. The high temperatures recorded outside my car were meaningless – just by looking, I could see that we were trapped inside a fire.

It didn't take long before I made sense of the data and came to a conclusion. Turning to Lily, I sighed.

"We were hit by a missile. Uh, well, someone launched a missile at us and blew the whole place up. We are the only survivors, or so it seems. The Toyota's sensors can detect bodies around us, as well as pieces of organic matter, but no life-signs. Evidently, everyone who was surrounding my car has been blown into oblivion."

"A missile?" Lily exclaimed, her eyes wide. "But who would shoot a missile at us?!"

"That's what I wanted to know," I muttered.

"Do you have anybody in mind, sir?" Alan Shou asked. "I mean, do you have an idea who might want to attack you? Any enemies?"

"I have way too many enemies," I grumbled under my breath. "But most of them don't hate me to the point where they would try killing me with a missile. I have no idea who. Previously, I would suggest Justin Han, but he's…dead."

Han Industries had collapsed after Justin Han's death and I acquired what remained of it, absorbing it into my own company. Though I was aware that there were many rivals and competitors who eyed my company with jealousy – the so-called enemies – I hadn't actually offended any of them. I mainly stayed out of politics and rarely bought out other companies or drove people to bankruptcy. I had no time for such nonsense.

My goal was to advance technology further and help humanity progress. My dream was to one day see us expand to the stars above and colonize other planetary systems. To build a star faring empire that spanned the entire galaxy. It was mankind's right to dominate the stars and crush all xenos, heretics and mutants under our heel.

For the Emperor!

Whoops…wrong universe. Whatever the case, that wasn't too far off from the vision I had for humanity. I was going to develop faster than light travel and terraforming technology…or I was going to die trying.

Apparently, there were people eager to help with the dying part. I wasn't sure why they were against my goals of developing space travel, but I guess jealousy and greed drove people to delusional fits of irrationality. It wasn't as if I was hurting other people. I honestly didn't understand why they were so obsessed with trying to kill me. I had never done anything to them.

In the first place, I didn't know who they were.

"I'm afraid I can't think of anyone who might want to kill me. This makes no sense."

"Given that your company dominates the military market and generate tons of income, there will be people who view you as a threat. Particularly rival companies who also want to participate in the military market."

Brad Biao had a point, but right now we didn't have the evidence to point the attack toward them. Furthermore, it didn't really help us narrow down who the culprit might be. So we had to start searching from all the other companies who were trying to break into the military market?

First things first. We had to get out of this mess before I could even entertain the thought of launching an investigation.

Typing a command into my Toyota's AI by running my fingers along a holographic touch-screen keyboard that floated in the air in front of me, I expanded the image to zoom into the area we were, making use of satellite imagery.

"No other signs of danger or imminent assault," the AI reported, much to my relief. Nonetheless, I kept my guard up and maintained the energy shield. If the assailant was still sticking around, he or she might launch another huge missile at my car the moment I switch off the shields. "Outside temperature still above safe levels. Recommendation: continue to stay inside the vehicle."

"Launch drone," I ordered. At my voice command, the car boot slightly opened and my aerial drone, the Falcon variant, took off and soared into the air. Making use of the sophisticated AI that I had installed into its metallic cranium, the Falcon hovered about and began mapping the area, searching for the culprit and identifying danger.

For now, however, it didn't seem like the attacker had decided to stick around. Nonetheless, I kept my Falcon in the air to watch out for anything.

"Oh, the police is here." I sighed a breath of relief when my Falcon spotted the convoy of police cars speeding across the junction, their sirens wailing. They would be here within the next few minutes. Then I could leave it to them.

At least that was what I thought, but to my utter surprise, the police cars all skidded about to form a ring around me. Police officers filed out and aimed their guns toward my Toyota. One of them took out a loudhailer and yelled at me.

"Get out of the car! Hands behind your heads! On your knees!"

There appeared to be a misunderstanding, but I decided to go along with their orders and cooperate with them for now. I nodded at Alan Shou and Brad Biao before I switched off the energy shield and stepped outside. Raising my hands, I then knelt and placed my hands behind my head. My guards mirrored my move, as did Lily. I kept my head lowered even as the police officers raced toward us. There was a clink and I felt handcuffs locking around my wrists.

"You're coming with us," the police officer said coldly. "And you can tell us why you killed so many people."

"Huh?" I glanced up, only to be cuffed across the face. I felt my lip bleed, but I gritted my teeth. "We didn't kill anybody."

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in court."

Oh, I knew my rights. I knew I would get a phone call and access to a lawyer. Looked like I would need to trouble William Wang to help me with this…

*

As it turned out, the police officer who manhandled my group was taken off the case and fired the next day. As much as I detested it, I was quite the…big figure, it seemed. And so the idiot who offended me with physical violence when interrogating me the whole night, trying to force a confession out of me, was publicly destroyed.

The military was nothing if efficient.

"Do you mind filling me on what's happening?" I asked the next police officer who replaced the violent one. This guy was a friendlier person named Jason Jing. He looked a little awkward, but he nodded.

"Sorry, but most of the information is classified right now."

"Just tell me what you can share and leave out the classified info."

"All right." Jason Jing took a deep breath, looking grateful that I wasn't going to cause him any trouble. He had witnessed his colleague getting fired and blacklisted firsthand, after all. To be fair, the moron was breaking the law by physically assaulting me during an interrogation and trying to force a false confession from me. My lawyer was already taking steps to sue the asshole into oblivion in court. The guy was going to sit in jail for a very long time once Lawson Fa was done with him.

Jason Jing gave me the gist of what had happened, most of which I had already figured out on my own. A cruise missile had been fired at my car…or at least they believed that I was the target. After all, Riley Rong was also present, so he could very well be the target for assassination as well. But why they chose a missile instead of a sniper rifle was still up in the air.

"It might be a terrorist attack," Jason Jing suggested. "At least some of my colleagues propose that scenario. It doesn't make sense otherwise. Missiles are so much harder to procure, conceal and launch. We found out that it was launched from a ship off the shore. But to organize an entire warship for an assassination seems unlikely."

Nobody survived the explosion, sadly enough. Riley Rong was killed instantly, his body blown to bits and his once handsome face incinerated beyond recognition. None of his fangirls survived too, all of them reduced to ashes when the cruise missile detonated. The majority of them had been at ground zero, and nothing remained of them.

"The video recording you gave us was useful, so thank you for that."

"It's nothing." I waved Jason Jing's gratitude away. Fortunately, my Toyota had recorded the whole event, the AI having stored the footage inside the console and cloud server. I had offered the police the video recording as part of my cooperation, but it had also served as evidence of my innocence. That I wasn't involved in the attack, that we were as much of victims as the deceased. It was only pure luck that we were inside my car, which I had modified heavily.

After all the assassination attempts, I would be stupid to not install an energy shield and sensors in my trusty Toyota. And people laughed at me for driving a "cheap" car. I bet my current Toyota was more expensive than a Ferrari or Lamborghini right now, what with all the hi-tech equipment and personal shield generator.

"Any clues on who the assailant is? You said the cruise missile came from a warship?"

"That's right," Jason Jing affirmed, leaning forward. "Unfortunately, we can't identify the warship or its owner. All we know is that the ship is registered under a global mercenary company."

In other words, someone had hired a bunch of mercenaries to take my life. AGAIN. Fuck this bullshit.

Jason Jing must have seen my expression, for he suddenly shook his head.

"Actually, right now we suspect that the attack was aimed at Riley Rong, not you."

"Oh, I see." Even so, I couldn't help but smile coldly.

After all, it didn't matter if their target was me or not. The fact remained that these mercenaries involved me in their assassination attempt. That meant war. I was going to get my revenge on them, no matter the cost. And they only had themselves to blame.

It was their bad luck for striking Riley Rong when I happened to be in the vicinity and involving me in their stupid stunt.