Chapter 184: No One Can Resist Looking at the Commander

While the Triangle Squad was busy arguing, Mo Chen curiously asked Marian how she managed to spot the assassin.

After all, even someone as detail-oriented as him hadn't noticed the disguised Nikke right away.

But Marian's answer left him stunned.

"Because she didn't look at the Commander."

"…Huh?"

Mo Chen was completely baffled.

"Not looking at me? Isn't that normal? I mean, no matter how popular someone is, not everyone's going to be into them."

It's impossible for everyone to be staring at him, right?

"That's not it," Marian insisted in her sweet, innocent voice. "Here, no one can resist looking at the Commander."

"…What?"

Mo Chen was getting embarrassed now.

What shocked him even more was seeing Rapi and Anis seriously nodding in agreement.

He was speechless.

How is that even a valid reason?

She pointed toward Privaty and the others, who were still bickering nearby.

"They're secretly watching the Commander too."

Privaty's face turned crimson the moment she heard that, her ears burning as she stammered, "W-Who's secretly watching?! I wasn't watching! Don't say nonsense!"

Her guilty, flustered reaction made it obvious that Marian had hit the nail on the head.

But this wasn't the time to dwell on it.

"Alright, leave this to me."

Ignoring Privaty's now tomato-red face, Mo Chen picked up the unconscious assassin Nikke and carried her down the hallway.

Privaty stomped her foot in frustration, turning away angrily.

Mo Chen told Rapi, Anis, and the others to handle their own tasks while he dealt with this. Then he carried the assassin into a room.

Outside the door, Anis had a skeptical look on her face.

"A guy and a girl, alone in a room, and he won't let us in? You think… the Commander's got something in mind for that assassin?"

Neon stood firmly on Mo Chen's side.

"No way. That's impossible. I believe in the Commander—he's not that kind of person."

Anis rolled her eyes.

"If you believe in him so much, why's your ear pressed against the door?"

Neon awkwardly chuckled, pulling back from the door and straightening up with a cough, trying to explain herself.

"I'm just worried about the Commander, you know? That assassin's dangerous. Besides, what if a fight breaks out? We'd need to jump in."

Anis deadpanned, "Not convincing at all." Then she turned to the side. "Rapi, don't you think eavesdropping like this is—"

She froze mid-sentence.

Rapi was standing on her tiptoes, peeking through the side window.

Busted, Rapi's face flushed slightly—a rare sight—and she looked a bit flustered.

"I'm just like Neon. Making sure the Commander's safe."

Anis couldn't help but facepalm.

"Oh, sure. Safety. You mean protecting the Commander's virtue, right?"

Caught red-handed, both Rapi and Neon looked embarrassed.

Neon tried to defend herself, puffing up with righteous indignation.

"So what if that's the case? The Commander is ours. If he's gonna, you know, do stuff, we should at least be informed."

"…'Do stuff?' What stuff?"

"You know… that stuff."

"…If you're not gonna watch, just leave. I'll handle it myself."

Neon's self-righteous stance was so bold that even Anis, with her thick skin, felt a twinge of shame.

The three exchanged glances, as if silently reaching an agreement. Almost simultaneously, they leaned their ears against the door.

At that moment, the door suddenly swung open.

The three of them nearly toppled over.

Looking up, they saw Mo Chen standing there with a stern expression.

"No one's allowed to peek!"

With that, he slammed the door shut with a loud bang.

Back inside the room, Mo Chen sighed in frustration. The trio of chaos was giving him a headache.

"Always so nosy… Do they really think I'm that kind of guy?"

He walked over to the bed.

Lying there on the soft, luxurious down mattress was the assassin Nikke. Her breathing was steady, her expression serene—like a sleeping princess.

"Alright, drop the act. I know you're awake."

Mo Chen exposed the assassin's pretense without hesitation.

"You're the captain of the Perilous Siege Squad—D, right?"

In fact, he'd recognized her the moment he saw her face in the hotel lobby.

Not because they'd met in real life—but because he'd seen her in the game.

Even though D was wearing makeup and a disguise, it was almost identical to one of her in-game skins, making her easy to identify.

The assassin lying on the bed remained motionless, perfectly still, as if genuinely unconscious.

Mo Chen sighed in exasperation and stepped closer, poking her arm.

"No need to fake it anymore."

Her arm was pale and smooth, her skin delicate like silk—impossibly soft for someone trained as an assassin.

But just as his finger made contact, the assassin suddenly sprang up from the bed, her body lunging forward to close the distance in an instant. A dagger flashed from behind her, its blade slicing through the air like lightning, aimed straight for Mo Chen's throat!

Yet Mo Chen didn't flinch.

He didn't even attempt to dodge.

The dagger halted mere millimeters from his neck.

He could feel the faint sting of its razor-sharp edge brushing against his skin.

"Why didn't you dodge?"

D's crimson eyes locked onto Mo Chen, exuding an intense aura of danger. Compared to her gentle, demure persona at the hotel front desk, she was like a completely different person.

"Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"

Mo Chen wasn't fazed by D's killing intent. Instead, he casually brushed her dagger aside with his fingers and gave a faint smile.

"If you really wanted to kill me, you'd have done it back in the hallway. There was no need to wait until now."

The hallway, right outside the room—that's where Mo Chen had been ambushed by the other Nikke assassins.

As for why he wasn't worried about D killing him, the key was simple—his auto-dodge chip hadn't activated, which meant D had no true intent to kill.

He wouldn't gamble with his life: if his auto-dodge had triggered, he wouldn't have hesitated to strike back lethally.

Seeing Mo Chen so calm and composed, D realized her plan had failed.

Assassins excel at stealth and ambush. In direct combat, they're not as strong as Nikkes of the same class.

And she knew all about Mo Chen. The man who could single-handedly take on an army of Raptures, charge fearlessly through the battlefield, and even kill a Tyrant-class Rapture alone—he wasn't someone she could handle.

D lowered her dagger.

"So, what are you going to do with me?"

Mo Chen didn't answer immediately. Instead, he watched her with interest.

"I want to know why you didn't take the shot. Back in the hallway, you had the perfect chance, didn't you?"

D was silent for a moment before answering quietly.

"You didn't deserve to be killed."