"Beep, beep, beep!"
"Heh."
Locke let out a short laugh at the sudden, rapid busy tone coming from the phone and lowered his hand.
It would have been fine if you hadn't answered at all. But did you honestly think that just because you answered and hung up, I wouldn't be able to find you? Are you overestimating yourself, or are you underestimating me?
The corners of Locke's mouth curved upward slightly.
Although the only thing heard over the phone was the voice of that apparent greenhorn, Locke had still caught the distinct sounds of New York traffic and the heavy breathing of an elderly man beside him.
Interesting, Locke thought to himself.
Ding!
[Quest generating!]
[Quest Name: "I Found You"]
[Quest Rewards: 20,000 Achievement Points, 20,000 Potential Points]
[Quest Description: Someone actually tried to buy you. Although they didn't succeed, it has undoubtedly caught your attention. You are very eager to find that person and ask them face-to-face exactly how much you are worth.]
[Quest Note: Your interests are the driving force behind my quests. I will provide the fuel to ignite your passion!]
[Accept / Decline]
...
Looking at the quest note, Locke's brow twitched slightly at the phrasing.
He suspected this ridiculous system was doing it on purpose. But he had no proof, and frankly, he didn't care to find any.
However...
Locke chose to put the quest on hold for now. He hadn't come here to do quests today; he had simply come to see what an auction was like. Who could have guessed things would turn out this way?
"Oh?"
Locke picked up the phone again, mimicked Earl King's voice to speak a few words to the other end, and then tossed the device onto the body of Tyler King, who was staring blankly into nothingness at his feet.
Looking at the two generations of the King family laid out neatly before him, he couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.
"In the end, you're just like everyone else—you all love courting death."
He had originally thought the King family managed to pass their legacy down from generation to generation by relying on a heart that could control its own desires and a cautious attitude, acting like tyrants internally while remaining exceptionally careful toward the outside world.
But who would have thought...
The only reason the King family had survived until now was simply because they hadn't crossed someone they couldn't afford to offend before this.
And now?
Locke shook his head with a trace of helplessness, starting to wonder what else in the criminal underworld could replace the King family's auctions. After all, there were still plenty of valuable oil paintings hanging in that outer lounge.
Just then, a maid who seemed to be bringing in more drinks walked through the door. The moment she entered, her eyes fell upon the corpses scattered across the floor.
She froze in shock, and the tray slipped from her hands, shattering loudly against the floor. Immediately following the crash, a piercing, high-pitched shriek erupted from her throat.
In an instant!
The guests who hadn't left yet, or those waiting to collect their auction winnings, reacted immediately. Under the cover of their respective bodyguards, they began retreating and sprinting toward the exits.
Following that, a torrential downpour of gunfire instantly echoed throughout the entire manor.
A short while later.
By the time Locke appeared at the entrance of the manor, apart from the dozen or so additional corpses of bodyguards loyal to the King family left inside, there wasn't a single living, breathing creature left in the entire estate.
"Sigh."
Adjusting his sunglasses, Locke looked up at the sky. The moon was quite round.
"A dark night and a high wind, perfect for a slaughter... But I literally just came to attend an auction. How on earth did it turn into this?"
Feeling somewhat speechless, Locke stepped out of the manor.
Behind him!
*Boom!*
The moment Locke walked clear of the building, a massive explosion erupted from the underground facility. Carrying waves of fire and a tremendous shockwave, it blew the entire manor sky-high right then and there.
With a sharp whistle, a flash of golden light that had completed its demolition task darted out from the rising fireball, landing squarely in Locke's hand. It transformed back into a gold ring, resting once more upon his finger.
Half an hour later.
Locke arrived at an abandoned factory near Jersey City, which was at most a thirty-to-forty-minute drive back to New York. By this time, the battle inside had already drawn to a close.
*Boom!*
Not far away, a downed helicopter was engulfed in roaring flames.
"Wow."
Locke walked inside, looking at the black-clad corpses scattered all over the area, every single one of them cleanly executed with a precise slit to the throat.
He then looked toward Rosa, who had shed her purple gown and returned to her attire as a medieval assassin. Let out a low whistle, he praised, "I actually thought you might need my help over here."
Rosa stood up, gestured to the masked assassins around her, and walked toward Locke. "They were just too stupid."
Locke nodded. "I can see that."
Since these people came to steal the Fruit of Eden, they should have known Rosa belonged to the Brotherhood. Facing the Brotherhood, instead of using overwhelming firepower to wipe them out, they thought they could handle things quietly through stealth.
Wasn't that explicitly discarding their own strengths to compete against others using their weaknesses?
Wait.
Come to think of it, why did the enemies on his end seem fairly clever, while the ones on Rosa's side looked completely brainless?
Could it be a difference in ranking?
Locke thought to himself, remembering the two clients who had expressed a desire to purchase him, the Peerless Assassin. It wasn't that he hadn't considered waiting around to ambush them, but there was no need.
First, it was already very late.
Second, he wasn't about to lose sleep over two cowards who didn't even dare to answer his call.
Rosa pulled out a satellite phone on her end.
"Callum..."
"Yeah, handled."
"Good, received."
"Alright, I got it."
Rosa lowered the phone and looked back at Locke. "Callum succeeded on his end."
Locke raised an eyebrow. "He led the team to the King family's actual castle. He's already back?"
Rosa gave an affirmative grunt, a smirk appearing on her face. "Half an hour ago, the King family's financial managers stated that a sum of nearly one hundred million dollars was wired into an unknown offshore secret account."
Locke raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"
Rosa smiled. "Yes, the financial managers confessed that Earl King personally called to order it. However, if Earl King had realized something was wrong, he probably would have transferred all the funds out of the accounts. There was a full five hundred million sitting in there."
Locke let out a laugh. "Didn't you say you were short on funds?"
Money was something that was fine as long as it was enough to use. Besides, Locke had packed up every single valuable oil painting inside that manor. When the time came, finding a reliable auction broker to fetch a good price wouldn't be an issue.
Furthermore, Locke smiled.
"I am also a member of the Brotherhood. Consider it part of my duties."
Just then.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Not far away, from the wreckage of the shattered helicopter, a Western European lady who had lost both her lower legs and all of her cold, elegant composure dragged herself out, struggling across the ground.
Rosa glanced over, then turned her head back.
Locke smiled slightly. "You're not going to give her a final send-off?"
"No."
Rosa's expression was icy. "I prefer to let her bleed out and die slowly."
Locke shrugged. These people came looking for trouble with Rosa; how they were handled was her business and had nothing to do with him.
"Heading back?"
"Yeah, I need to head to the Hilton Hotel in New York. Are you coming?"
"I'm afraid Lynch might misinterpret things."
"...Callum's daughter and son are at the hotel. It will take some time to move everything from the King family's side, so I need to go keep an eye on things there."
"Oh, forget it then."
Locke opened his car door and smiled at Rosa standing outside.
"It's late. Nothing good ever happens when you're still awake at two in the morning; that's something I've always believed. Night, Rosa."
In any case, in another two days, once this weekend ended, school would start. Whether Callum was truly Magneto would be revealed soon enough. There was no need to rush things; going to the Hilton Hotel with Callum's woman in the dead of night felt a bit strange no matter how one looked at it.
*Vroom!*
Locke started the car, and in an instant, the vehicle shot forward like an arrow.
Meanwhile.
Two ghost-like figures darted rapidly through the woods, suddenly coming to a halt. Their gazes fell upon the manor, which had completely turned into a ruin, collapsing into a deep crater.
*Sniff, sniff!*
One vampire's nose twitched like a hound's. He opened his blood-red eyes and looked at the vampire beside him. "Dead."
The other vampire nodded. "We need to inform Lord Laurent."
With that, the two vampires exchanged a nod, took one last look at the ruins where firefighters were already arriving on the scene, and turned around. With a swift rustle, they vanished once more into the dense blanket of night.
Back at the abandoned factory near Jersey City.
By this time, Locke had been gone for half an hour, and Rosa had already departed with her people as well.
As for that Western European woman?
Just as Rosa had said, she deliberately left her behind to await the arrival of death.
But...
The Western European woman, Gazelle, possessed an exceptionally ferocious will to survive. She managed to spend over ten minutes dragging herself clear right at the exact moment the helicopter underwent a secondary explosion, forcefully saving her own life.
Just then.
A distortion appeared in the air, and a row of fully armed men in black suits and helmets appeared silently beside Gazelle, weapons in hand. Three of the black-clad men held their weapons alertly, guarding the perimeter, while two others lifted Gazelle from either side.
Her lower legs were missing, blood still flowing continuously, her face completely pale as they carried her toward a stealth fighter that was slowly materializing under the cover of night.
"Ah!"
The young woman couldn't help but let out a agonizing scream, tightly gritting her teeth as she watched a glowing, red-hot iron cauterize and seal the wounds on her legs, leaving her drenched in cold sweat in someone's embrace.
"It's fine."
A hand gently stroked the stump of her leg, the tone exceptionally soft. "I will heal you, and I will make you even more powerful."
***
Bonus chapter
You can support me and read 40 Chapters early on P-atreon.com/Redestro666