Chapter 484: Maybe You're Just Lucky
This was a very famous old-fashioned bar with a small stage where people would sing.
The entire place was decorated with raw wood, and massive wooden barrels—containing beer brewed by the owner himself—were placed all around.
It was this very beer that made the bar so popular.
Soft jazz music drifted from inside.
Young women in the traditional dress of Country N weaved through the crowd.
"Two more beers!"
"Four more for my table!"
It was only nine o'clock at night, but the place was already basically full.
Xiao Ye, in a simple disguise, walked up to the bar—the only place with an empty seat.
After sitting down, he recited the line he'd gotten from the assassin, "A Sky Whiskey, with a shot of nine-degree beer."
The bartender glanced at him, composed himself, and then passed over a menu.
Xiao Ye opened it and flipped to the very end. Sure enough, there was something extra hidden inside.
It was a piece of paper listing the most recent missions.
Each had a price and a difficulty rating listed. The mission to assassinate him was right at the top, price: one hundred thousand, rating: D.
Xiao Ye chuckled softly. 'My rating is only D?'
Even S-rank targets weren't as difficult to handle as he was.
"What are you laughing at?" the bartender asked.
Xiao Ye closed the menu. "Nothing here is what I'm looking for. I want the highest-level missions, understand?"
The bartender sized him up, clearly not believing the man before him could handle high-level jobs. "What's your rank as an assassin?"
"Top-tier."
No, even 'top-tier' didn't begin to describe him.
If he truly wanted to assassinate someone, he would absolutely succeed.
It didn't matter if his target was hiding underground or deep in some remote mountain forest.
"Then prove it." As the bartender spoke, he suddenly struck, at a moment when no one was paying attention.
Xiao Ye raised his hand, a hidden weapon already caught between his fingers.
It was a type of paint pellet. It wouldn't hurt on impact, but it would explode.
The bartender narrowed his eyes. He hadn't expected Xiao Ye to actually be this skilled.
He had thrown it with incredible speed. While others might be able to block it, most would use their palm, and the pellet would inevitably burst.
But the one in Xiao Ye's hand hadn't burst, which proved he had barely used any force to catch it.
"Maybe you just got lucky," the bartender said, attacking again.
Xiao Ye caught them one by one, without a single miss.
"Believe me now?"
"Your skills are indeed impressive." The bartender came out from behind the bar. "Follow me."
The two of them exited through a small side door, which led to another area behind the bar that looked like a brewery.
Inside was an office. The bartender sat down and took out a thick ledger.
"With your strength, you can take on some of the missions that have yet to be completed. If you succeed, you'll not only get the listed bounty but also an additional reward."
"Also, that first mission you saw—you can take that one, too. Its true rank is S."
Xiao Ye sat across from him, tapping his fingers on the desk. "So you disguise high-rank missions as low-rank ones just to send people to their deaths?"
"You're a top-tier assassin. That's not something you should be saying. They throw their lives away, one after another, to gather the final pieces of intelligence for people like you, ensuring your one-hit kill."
"In the world of assassins, weakness is the original sin!"
"I see. So that's how it is." Now certain that this man was the person in charge of this assassin agency, Xiao Ye made his move without any further hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, the bartender was sprawled on the floor.
Xiao Ye planted a foot on his back.
The bartender coughed, spitting up blood.
Xiao Ye noticed a safe nearby. "Open it."
"Impossible! Who the hell are you? You dare attack me? Kid, you let me go right now, or you're dead!"
Xiao Ye increased the pressure. "I'll count to three. If you don't open it, I'll send you to hell right now!"
"Three!"
The pressure from his foot intensified.
"Two!"
"I'll open it!"
The bartender didn't dare refuse.
He truly felt that Xiao Ye would stomp him to death!
Only then did Xiao Ye lift his foot. "If you'd just listened earlier, you could have saved yourself some pain."
The bartender was humiliated and furious, but he could only do as Xiao Ye said.
He opened the safe. Inside were stacks of files, along with some cash, gold bars, and other similar items.
Xiao Ye was only interested in the files.
He opened them to find a register of assassins and a record of completed missions.
"In a minute, I want you to find a way to contact every assassin you can reach, as well as everyone else at this agency."
The bartender froze, stunned by the request. But he quickly agreed, afraid Xiao Ye would change his mind. "Okay, I promise!"
'Perfect,' he thought. 'Once I call everyone over, I'll be out of danger.'
Xiao Ye knew what he was thinking and gave a disdainful smile, sitting down opposite him.
"Get to it. Don't try any tricks. If you can't get them here, you'll die too."
The bartender was more than happy to call over as many people as possible. He immediately took a cell phone from the safe and, following Xiao Ye's orders, sent a text message to every contact he had.
The message read: "Come to the back of the tavern immediately. Urgent mission."
The message was sent.
「At the same time.」
All across Country N, people received the text.
Those who were far away simply replied with a "2," meaning they couldn't make it.
But many more replied with a "1," indicating they were on their way.
Xiao Ye counted. There were dozens of them.
He figured they all thought they were the only ones to have received the message.
About half an hour later, people began to arrive in succession.
Xiao Ye dealt with them one by one.
A few short moments later, a pile of bodies already lay on the floor.
By one in the morning, all several dozen of them had arrived. Without exception, every single one had become Xiao Ye's captive.
"Who in the world are you, and what do you want?" the bartender asked, finally panicking completely as he looked at the people Xiao Ye had defeated.
He couldn't believe that so many people were no match for a single man!
And besides himself, everyone else had been beaten so badly they couldn't even speak.
"I'm warning you, our agency's boss is not someone to be trifled with! If you dare harm us, you'll be a wanted man by tomorrow!"
Xiao Ye didn't even glance at him.
'Not everyone is here, but this is enough,' he thought.
「4:00 AM.」
The tavern closed for the night.
A great fire quietly began to burn.
The tavern, which had stood here for over a decade, was completely reduced to ashes, and along with it, the members of the agency and their assassins.
Returning to his hotel, Xiao Ye had a good night's sleep.
He didn't wake up until the afternoon. He got up, opened his laptop, and posted a bounty on the dark web.
The target: the mastermind behind the assassin agency. The price: one million!
「In a luxurious villa.」
A portly middle-aged man listened to his subordinate's report, his face ashen.
"Someone really put a one-million bounty on my head?"
"It's true! See for yourself." The subordinate held up a laptop.
Cold sweat beaded on the man's forehead. As someone who ran an assassin agency himself, he knew exactly what that one-million price tag meant.