An Individual Who Threatens a Nation (2)
Waiting for your turn to die truly drove a person insane.
Li Wei, the 4th-ranked member of the Chinese Communist Party, was spending his days trembling in fear inside a safehouse provided by the Party.
When the first assassination happened, he hadn’t felt this anxious.
But after the top Party officials began dying one by one in reverse order… from rank 7 down to rank 5, Li Wei immediately rushed to a secret safehouse and hid there.
However, Li Wei wasn’t the only one hiding in a safehouse.
Xu Tian, ranked 2nd, and Gao Xiu, ranked 3rd, were also hiding in secret safehouses.
The only exception was Wang Tao, ranked 1st. Because of various symbolic reasons and official schedules, he couldn’t hide in a safehouse. Instead, he summoned a magic user who could be considered the best bodyguard and kept him constantly by his side.
Since everyone was responding in their own ways, they expected the enemy would not be able to easily carry out the next assassination.
But…
That expectation collapsed in just three days.
Li Wei, who had been hiding in the secret safehouse, was found dead.
Once again, it was a perfect assassination where no one could determine who killed him or how.
After things reached this point, the remaining three were so anxious that they could barely sleep.
Xu Tian and Gao Xiu, although they did not have bodyguards at Wang Tao’s level, hired several ranker-level magic users… the highest level they could personally afford, to guard their lives.
The Chinese Communist Party officials burned with the determination that they would absolutely not die.
But no matter how they responded, Seon Yul… the one hunting them, didn’t really care.
The only thing that bothered him slightly was that he didn’t know the locations of all the secret safehouses they were hiding in.
[We’ve also sent you an additional list of secret Chinese safehouses we managed to find. But you might not even need the list.]
The person who had greatly helped in eliminating Li Wei, who had been hiding in a safehouse, was Cha Seong Hyeon.
Cha Seong Hyeon mobilized every intelligence asset he had planted inside China and discovered a large number of safehouses operated by the Chinese Communist Party. Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu then visited those safehouses one by one to confirm them, eventually managing to find Li Wei.
However, there were still many secret safehouses remaining in China. If Xu Tian or Gao Xiu continued hiding inside safehouses, it seemed likely this plan would take quite a long time to finish.
“Why? Did something change?”
[There’s information that Xu Tian and Gao Xiu have both hired quite a large number of ranker-level users. Xu Tian even hired a Chinese high-ranker called Overlord Chu as a bodyguard, so it seems like he’ll come out of the safehouse soon.]
Xu Tian and Gao Xiu both knew very well that they couldn’t remain hidden forever.
So the choice they made in the end was to hire a large number of extremely skilled bodyguards so that no assassin would even dare attempt an assassination.
“Oh… that’s good news.”
Seon Yul actually welcomed this response from them.
[I thought you’d say that, AbsoluteSafetyFirst.]
“Of course. It’s more annoying when they hide.”
After Cheon Li Yu, the person who understood Seon Yul best was Cha Seong Hyeon.
Seon Yul also didn’t hide his strength too much from Cha Seong Hyeon. Since he received a lot of help from him, it was simply more convenient that way.
[Then I’ll track their movements and inform you.]
As always, Cha Seong Hyeon accurately anticipated what Seon Yul wanted.
“Thank you as always.”
[It’s nothing. I’ll contact you again as soon as more information comes in.]
From Cha Seong Hyeon’s perspective, it was extremely fortunate that Seon Yul had responded with pinpoint assassination warnings instead of wide-scale provocation, so he was helping even more actively.
If the response continued like this, it would actually benefit the Republic of Korea Gate Management Bureau.
After finishing the call with Cha Seong Hyeon, Seon Yul waited with Cheon Li Yu for new information.
During the downtime, the two continued the training they had done in Hawaii. Perhaps because Cheon Li Yu had felt firsthand how much stronger she had become through the battle with the Ten Kings, she trained even harder than before.
After about four days had passed like that, Cha Seong Hyeon finally sent them the movement information for Xu Tian and Gao Xiu.
Surprisingly, both of them had come out of their safehouses and were carrying out official activities. He also reported that more than ten ranker-level users were guarding each of them extremely tightly.
“Hm…”
After receiving the information, Seon Yul thought for a moment before turning back to Cheon Li Yu.
“I think we’ll have to eliminate these two almost simultaneously.”
“Is that possible?”
“If we can pinpoint their locations accurately, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“Then we should go right away.”
“Yeah. Let’s go now.”
Now that they had the movement information, there was no need to wait any longer.
***
Gao Xiu had hired a total of eleven ranker-level magic users as bodyguards. All of them were quite skilled magic users with levels above 60.
‘Yes, this is how a person should live.’
Gao Xiu was currently staying at a hotel.
Even normally, he was notorious for his chaotic relationships with women. While hiding in the safehouse, however, he had not been able to properly meet his mistresses because the location of the safehouse could not be exposed to outsiders.
‘No matter how great that assassin is, it’ll be hard to break through this security and kill me.’
Eleven ranker-level magic users were guarding him in a tight formation, and even the ordinary security system had been raised to the highest level, creating an ironclad defense.
Even now, while he was in a hotel room with his mistress, three ranker-level magic users were standing outside the door, while the rest were stationed in the rooms on both sides, vigilantly observing their surroundings, ready to break through the walls at the slightest abnormal sign.
They were also worried about long-distance sniping, so all the windows had been completely sealed off to block the line of sight.
After blocking everything perfectly, Gao Xiu was enjoying his time with his mistress.
He lay naked on the bed while his mistress diligently provided him with a very intimate service.
“Haah… good. Yeah… right there…”
Gao Xiu was the type of man who couldn’t endure even a single day without having a woman in his arms.
Since he had stayed quietly in the safehouse for an entire week, it was only natural that this moment felt incredibly enjoyable.
‘This is the pleasure of living. I’d rather die than go back into that safehouse again.’
Gao Xiu glanced down at the mistress working diligently between his legs and smiled in satisfaction.
At that very moment.
On the rooftop of a high-rise building about 8 km away from Gao Xiu’s hotel, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu were standing.
The two were sharing Cheon Li Yu’s Divine Eye and watching Gao Xiu’s ‘happy time’ in real time…
The scene was so explicit that both of them looked slightly embarrassed.
However, work still had to be done, so Seon Yul spoke first.
“Ahem… Well, the magic users around him don’t seem to be extremely high level.”
“But if we open Absolute Space nearby, it still looks like they could react immediately.”
Like usual, opening a small Absolute Space near the target and eliminating him with a single shot seemed somewhat difficult.
“It looks like they’re concentrating with all their might so they can react instantly if even the slightest mana reaction appears… In that case, shall we try a very orthodox method this time?”
“Orthodox method?”
“Yeah. A very classic method that produces no mana power at all… a long-range sniper shot.”
Mana reactions could only be sensed when the distance was relatively close. Naturally, mana reactions occurring very far away could not be detected.
And most importantly, Seon Yul was not firing a mana-based projectile. He was literally just ‘sniping,’ so the mana users near Gao Xiu would never detect the mana reaction they were desperately searching for.
“Looking at the target’s position and the firing angle…”
Seon Yul spread out a map and thought for a moment before pointing to a location.
“Share your vision around here again.”
The point he indicated was a location that looked directly down in a straight line at the hotel room where Gao Xiu was staying.
Technically, it was just empty air, but since opening Absolute Space there would turn it into a sniping point; the fact that it was empty air didn’t matter.
Cheon Li Yu shared her vision exactly at the point Seon Yul wanted, and Seon Yul opened the entrance to Absolute Space there.
It was empty air about 1.5 km away in a straight line from Gao Xiu’s hotel room, and naturally, this location was impossible for the bodyguards to check.
Gao Xiu’s regular security team had thoroughly checked every possible sniping point in buildings around the hotel, but empty air with nothing there was obviously not part of their inspection.
They never even imagined someone could snipe from such a location.
But Seon Yul could.
Click.
Seon Yul mounted a Barrett M82 onto the small entrance to Absolute Space, opened in midair, and quickly loaded it.
“Li Yu, share the view inside the hotel room again.”
“Okay.”
Receiving the shared vision, Seon Yul looked inside the hotel room while preparing the shot.
When Seon Yul finished preparing, Cheon Li Yu moved beside him and lightly placed her hand on the Barrett he was aiming.
“You can designate the target, right?”
“I already designated both the projectile and the target.”
Cheon Li Yu designated the loaded bullet as the projectile and simultaneously designated Gao Xiu in the hotel room as the target.
In truth, even without target designation, Seon Yul was confident he could blow Gao Xiu’s head off with his sniping skill alone as long as he had the shared vision.
But since there was a more certain option that wasn’t difficult to use, he chose the safer method and accepted Cheon Li Yu’s help.
“Then…”
‘Powerful Strike!’
Lastly, he activated Powerful Strike to dramatically increase Barrett’s power.
And then…
Click, BANG!
He lightly pulled the trigger.
A single bullet shot out of the Barrett and instantly tore through the air toward Gao Xiu’s head.
Swoooosh! BOOM!
Of course, the hotel room wall stood between them, but it could not block a reinforced 12.7×99 mm armor-piercing round.
The bullet pierced through the wall and slammed straight into Gao Xiu’s head.
And naturally, Gao Xiu’s head…
Exploded.
BOOOOM!
“KYAAAAAAAH!”
The mistress screamed.
Bodyguards burst through the wall and rushed into the room.
Everything descended into chaos, but Seon Yul, who had completed the sniper shot, immediately closed the entrance to Absolute Space and moved elsewhere.
He planned to eliminate Xu Tian as well before news of Gao Xiu’s assassination reached him, and he fled back into a safehouse.
Unlike Gao Xiu, Xu Tian had gone to his office to deal with accumulated work.
And unlike Gao Xiu, he had placed the powerful magic users he hired directly beside him.
The magic-user bodyguards surrounded Xu Tian in a circle while he worked in his office, making it seem like almost any assassination attempt would be completely impossible.
Xu Tian believed in this ultra-close protection, which was why he dared to return to his office to work.
‘AbsoluteSafetyFirst, was it? No matter who he is, he can’t break through this security!’
Xu Tian wasn’t relying only on his guards.
His office was located in the center of Beijing, and nearby stood the rebuilt headquarters of China’s Dimensional Management Bureau.
Attempting an assassination here?
Even if the assassin succeeded, they would have to be prepared to be captured or killed themselves.
So Xu Tian believed the enemy wouldn’t even attempt it.
In particular, he trusted the Overlord Chu standing close to his right.
Overlord Chu was a level-90 high-ranker magic user.
His strength had already been proven many times, so as long as he stood beside him, there was no way Xu Tian could be assassinated without even reacting…
Swoooooosh, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Xu Tian’s office vanished in an instant without leaving even a trace.
Xu Tian could no longer ‘think.’
He had already been erased from this world along with his office.
And what erased him…
was a tungsten projectile fired from a railgun launched from a distance far beyond what anyone could even perceive.
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