17: Assassin Level

Eleven twenty-three at night.

The computer screen was illuminated with a faint blue light, displaying the "Dark Net" interface. After entering his account password, Arthur selected the withdrawal option.

[Withdrawal method: Express mail!]

[Recipient's name: ...]

[Shipping address: ...]

Arthur typed on the keyboard calmly, filling in the details for a resident at No. 305, 201 Beacon Hill Street. The timing of this cash withdrawal was a deliberate historical point he had chosen.

Not too early, not too late.

It had to be within these few minutes, adhering to strict logic.

Arthur muttered to himself, "If I had placed the order a few hours earlier..."

"The parcel would have been delivered by a different courier, at a different time, and the status of the final receipt would change."

"The storage location of the parcel in the security room would shift forward or backward!"

"As a result, the time those assassins have to discuss and make decisions would vary. Just a few seconds of difference, and their reactions at the abandoned factory, their speech, and their behavior would all change!"

"And my setup requires them to follow the deduced behavior perfectly!"

The more he understood the world, the more he felt that the underlying logic behind it seemed to determine everyone's fate.

Especially as he was fine-tuning this "accidental formula" himself.

He realized that by leveraging the underlying laws governing the development of events, he could achieve his objectives one step at a time.

This made him acutely sensitive to the logic behind everything.

"So now, I just need to wait patiently!"

"During this time, I can't engage in any actions that weren't part of the deduction process, or the butterfly effect might occur."

"And that could completely disrupt my entire setup!"

He found himself enjoying this state of mind—hidden behind the scenes, orchestrating the future, creating accidents that could fool the entire world, and ensuring that those who deserved it were punished by fate.

Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind, and he laughed to himself: "Actually, 200,000 yuan isn't much. If I used my deduction ability, I could earn even more money in other fields!"

But as soon as that thought appeared, a prompt popped up.

[Hint: Your infinite deduction ability is activated when you are registered as an assassin. Its purpose is to help you escape perfectly and successfully complete the mission when you are on a mission!]

[Hint: To prevent your ability from interfering with the normal development of the world's trajectory, you cannot use it to profit in other fields.]

Arthur took a sip of tea and smiled bitterly, shaking his head: "Guess it's not that easy!"

"But no matter."

"Worst case, I'll just take a few more big jobs on the dark web."

With nothing better to do over the next couple of days, he started browsing through various bounty listings on the dark web.

[Assassination]

[Kidnapping]

[Financial information theft]

[Sale of classified information]

[Threats]

[…]

As an assassin, of course, he chose the [Assassination] section. After all, he couldn't use an accidental formula to kidnap or steal confidential information.

[Threat] was an option, but threats alone probably wouldn't amount to much, and the bounty wouldn't be too high.

He browsed through the [Assassination] section, where numerous bounty quests caught his eye.

[TOP1: 120 million USD, task content: ***** (Sorry: your current permissions are insufficient, you cannot view this task.)]

[TOP2: 80 million USD, task content: ****** (Sorry: your current permissions are insufficient, you cannot view this task.)]

[TOP3:...]

Arthur frowned and muttered, "Insufficient permissions!"

He laughed sarcastically: "What's this about? Not letting me see it, huh? Do they think I can't handle it?"

As he scrolled further, he found that the top 100 quests were locked from his view, meaning he didn't have the clearance to access them.

But it made sense. Assassination is a highly classified operation, and such information wouldn't be casually revealed.

Especially for such large sums of money—those must be big targets.

Only assassins with the corresponding qualifications could access such missions!

[Your current account level: Newcomer (30 points)]

[Next level: Rookie (requires 100 points)]

[Hint: The more tasks you complete in the Assassin section, the more points you'll earn to level up!]

[Hint: The higher your level, the greater the rewards and missions that will be unlocked.]

[Hint: At your current level, you can browse assassination missions with a reward between 0-1 million USD.]

Arthur poured himself a cup of hot tea, crossed his legs, and browsed the tasks displayed on his screen. In reality, there were plenty of missions with rewards under one million.

He smirked and said, "Alright, let's pick the toughest one!"

He deliberately selected three assassination missions with bounties of one million, all within his clearance.

[TOP4121: 1 million bounty, no deadline, the target is a casino owner.]

[Mission: The target owns three private illegal casinos, using cheating and other tactics to oppress participants. He deliberately loans gambling funds, causing gamblers to fall into ruin, resulting in amputations, suicides, and imprisonment, repeatedly.]

[Task reminder: The target is often accompanied by two henchmen and frequents a bar every Saturday and Sunday to have fun.]

[Hint: For more detailed information, please accept the mission.]

Few people in the world are willing to spend such significant sums to hire someone for murder; only those with deep-seated hatred do so.

Often, the targets listed in the "Dark Net" are societal scum, people with corrupt morals.

Arthur narrowed his eyes and smiled slightly, murmuring: "Sounds promising. A casino owner? Illegal operations, loan sharking, deliberately pushing people into gambling at his own casino."

"How many lives have been ruined because of him, spawning more crimes?"

"Those in debt either commit suicide or engage in illegal activities to make money, creating even more victims!"

"This guy has surely made many enemies."

"Alright, you're the one!"

However, he didn't immediately accept the mission, knowing that any move now could trigger the butterfly effect.

He had to wait two more days.

After the planned collapse at the construction site, and once he'd dealt with the three assassins chasing him in the deduction world, he could free up his time and energy to plan his next target.

Arthur licked his lips, glanced at his watch, and said in a hoarse, low voice: "There are still 49 hours, 24 minutes, and 39 seconds!"

[Countdown to using accidental events to hunt the target: 49 hours, 24 minutes remaining.]