Chapter 216: Reed Richards
Chapter 216: Reed Richards
Sarah huddled on the hood of the car, hugging her knees tightly, her head bowed, letting her long hair and knees obscure her eyes.
She wanted to ignore Yamato's actions, but the chewing sounds in her ears constantly reminded her of what was happening beside her.
Sarah feared Yamato, just as Ethan Blake had feared Alexander when they first met.
A fear born of power from another dimension and... cruelty.
After about ten minutes, Yamato finished his dinner.
In the past, when Yamato encountered such "good stuff," he would break it down completely and eat every part.
But now, Yamato was like a detestable nouveau riche, utterly lacking frugality.
He only ate the finest parts.
From the corpse of the Twenty-first Elder, he tore off a piece of fabric embroidered with a red moon and elegantly wiped his mouth with it.
His body was covered in blood, and his mouth and throat were stained crimson as well. His eating habits were anything but graceful.
While adjusting his attire and mask, Yamato spoke: "Honestly, I didn't want to take the task your master assigned to me.
This sort of second-rate character isn't worth my effort.
But these filthy people shouldn't have brought slaughter here, defiling the Sacred Resting Grounds."
From this statement, Sarah gleaned a lot of information:
First, this man knew Ethan Blake, and it seemed Ethan Blake might know many similar individuals.
Second, the old district wasn't as simple as it seemed. "Sacred Resting Grounds"?
Was there an even more terrifying figure here?
And what was the connection between this masked man and the Crying Ghost King mask wearer?
Was "Masked Man" an organization?
Yamato glanced at the young girl out of the corner of his eye: "Don't worry, I won't harm you. I'm very familiar with your master."
Yamato had two major hobbies:
Selling drugs and eating people.
After becoming a Hunter, his standards for food quality had risen, so he no longer ate people as often.
After consuming the Void Blossom, he became even more skilled in pharmaceuticals, and his addiction to selling drugs grew worse.
The outrageous part was his ability to seamlessly combine these two hobbies.
He liked using drugs to control addicts, making them eat people.
This was something Ethan Blake could never tolerate, even though Yamato was a Hunter.
Ethan Blake had always wanted to bring Yamato to justice, but Alexander was indifferent to the matter.
If Yamato could really be captured by Ethan Blake, it would only prove that Yamato was incompetent.
And if Ethan Blake died at Yamato's hands while trying to capture him, Alexander wouldn't care—it would serve Ethan Blake right.
After speaking, Yamato bent his knees, used the momentum to launch himself into the sky, and disappeared.
Sarah stared blankly at the spot where Yamato had vanished, her eyes dumbly scanning the street for something.
All that was left was a street littered with corpses and blood-stained security uniforms—nothing else.
Sarah began breathing heavily, fumbling for her phone in her pocket, and dialed a number.
"Hello? Sarah? What's wrong?"
As soon as Sarah heard her master's gentle voice, she could no longer suppress herself and screamed hysterically:
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
"Sarah! Sarah! What happened? What's wrong?!"
Sarah, tears streaming down her face, sobbed: "They're dead... They're all dead, Master!
The brothers from Team Three... they're all dead!"
Half an hour later, Ethan Blake arrived on the streets of the old district, his face grim.
Behind him, a convoy of a dozen security vehicles flashed their warning lights.
Forensic pathologists in white lab coats rushed to examine the bodies, while security officers shouted as they cordoned off the area.
Everyone was busy, except for Sarah, who sat blankly on the car hood, wrapped in Ethan Blake's coat.
Ethan Blake's gaze was complicated as he stared at the corpse of the Twenty-first Elder sprawled across the hood of the car.
The method of the attack looked all too familiar—it was the work of the "Starved Ghost."
What Ethan hadn't expected was for the "Starved Ghost" to be the one to save Sarah.
After spotting that group of "refugees" on the city wall, Ethan had feared that Sarah, who was patrolling the old district, might encounter danger. So, he posted a task on the Mercenary Guild app: "Protect Sarah."
He couldn't request the Mercenary Guild to protect the other officers, as having so many security personnel saved by mercenaries would expose the guild.
The rules didn't allow it.
Sarah, however, was an exception. Both Ethan and Alexander had long agreed that Sarah was destined to become a mercenary in the future.
"Master, who are they, really?" Sarah asked, staring intently at the distant blue and red security lights.
Ethan wasn't sure whether Sarah was asking about the "Starved Ghost" or the mysterious group of tattered figures.
"Sir, something's not right with these people," a security officer said as he approached Ethan, holding a tablet.
Ethan breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for the distraction.
The officer continued:
"These attackers have no records in the security bureau's database."
He hesitated before adding:
"I suspect they're from a supernatural faction."
Ethan had anticipated this answer. He merely nodded and gave a nonchalant "Hmm."
After a long silence, Ethan finally said:
"Award medals of valor to the fallen brothers. Triple the compensation benefits for their families."
The officer nodded, then walked back to the scene with the tablet.
As he passed by the corpse of a colleague, he couldn't help but sigh:
"Sigh! On New Year's Eve, of all days..."
The words carried clearly to Ethan's ears, and his expression grew even dimmer, like a dying star fading into the void.
At that moment, his phone buzzed. Ethan glanced at it—it was a message from the Mercenary Guild.
Task: Withdraw
Task Details: Instruct the security officers to clean up the battlefield quickly and evacuate the old district.
Task Reward: 10 points
Task Failure: Deduct 50 points
Ethan took out a cigarette, but his lighter stubbornly refused to ignite.
Frustrated, he flung the cigarette aside and turned to Sarah.
"Write a report and have it on my desk by tomorrow."
With that, he got into a security vehicle and drove off toward the new district.
The New District – A Luxury Apartment
It was already midnight, and fireworks lit up the skies outside the windows.
The apartment was well soundproofed, making the festive noise outside barely audible within.
Reed Richards didn't have the habit of setting off firecrackers.
In his words, firecrackers were nothing compared to guns and cannons—too feeble and feminine.
His wife brought out the last dish from the kitchen, and the family of three began their New Year's Eve dinner.
The table was unusually quiet. His wife and child sat upright, with no one talking, and even their eating was utterly silent.
Reed Richards's expression was grim as he kept pouring liquor into his mouth.
He had just received some troubling news.
The disciples of the Moon Worship Sect had been ambushed by security officers in the old district. In the end, only Sarah, that officer captain who had risen through connections, managed to survive.
The deaths of those meddling security officers didn't matter to him—they were just worthless lives.
As the bureau chief, Reed Richards was confident he could suppress the situation and prevent the city's administrative overseers from catching wind of it.
But why had the security officers fought so fiercely that they managed to hold back the Moon Worship disciples in the old district?
The report wasn't out yet, so Reed Richards had no clear understanding of what had transpired.
He assumed some of the Moon Worship disciples had been killed, while most had been driven back by the security officers.
Irritated, he gulped down another mouthful of liquor.
He had no idea how to explain this to the Moon Worship Sect. Worse, it made him feel like an utterly powerless bureau chief.
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