Neck Right Twist

The rain was falling harder and harder, and Qin Suishou’s voice sounded thin in the shushing downpour, receiving no response at all.

He cursed under his breath, but the gun in his hand was held even more steadily.

Finally.

He caught a hint of inconsistency.

Deep within the rain curtain, something was approaching at high speed.

He couldn’t make out its outline, barely able to discern a vague humanoid shape. As it moved, the trajectories of the surrounding raindrops all underwent subtle deflections.

“Got you!”

Without thinking, Qin Suishou raised the muzzle and pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Tongues of flame spat out; hot shell casings cooled instantly as they ejected into the rain. Bullets locked onto that blurry shadow from three positions.

And at that moment, he saw it clearly.

It wasn’t invisibility. It was a kind of optical camouflage that blended completely with the rainwater—military-grade high-tech.

His marksmanship wasn’t top-notch, but it was decisiveness that gave him an edge.

This burst of bullets wasn’t meant to kill, but to suppress, to force the opponent to move.

Yet, just as the bullets were about to hit that figure, the space behind Qin Suishou suddenly caved inward!

A figure emerged from behind, throwing a single punch.

Pfft!

Qin Suishou was sent flying.

The gun slipped from his hand instantly.

He tried to lift his head to see who it was.

But a large hand grabbed the back of his neck. The force wasn’t like a human hand—more like an iron clamp, yanking him off the ground until his feet dangled.

“How naive.”

A voice, impossible to tell if male or female, sounded behind his ear, tinged with mockery.

“If you could be dragged into a place like this, why would we leave any holes for you to see through?”

The voice seemed about to show off a few more lines, but it was cut short by another voice— lower, more impatient.

“Enough chatter. The barrier can hold for ten more minutes. Clean it up within ten.”

“Fine.”

The owner of the androgynous voice replied.

Qin Suishou strained with all his might to turn his head, even just to glimpse one of their silhouettes, but a powerful force clamped his skull in place.

“Don’t struggle. You’re dying today. Neck snap!”

Crack!

The clean sound of breaking bones was quite clear even in the heavy rain.

Qin Suishou’s body slid to the ground.

The one who had snapped his neck shook his hand, looking down at the special gloves he wore, which were rotting and peeling at a visible rate, revealing scorched black skin beneath, emitting wisps of dark smoke.

“Tch. This ability is really disgusting. Good thing we came prepared.”

At that moment, another person stepped out from a fluctuating patch of space.

He was entirely wrapped in a large raincoat, the hood pulled low, making his face impossible to see.

He crouched down, reached out a finger, and lightly traced it across Qin Suishou’s still-warm forehead.

A wisp of gray light was forcibly drawn out from the skull.

“Alright, got the Rot Force.” The raincoat man held the gray light in his palm, and the light sank into his skin, vanishing without a trace.

The first man roughly grabbed Qin Suishou’s corpse, ready to stuff it back into the driver’s seat.

“Hold on!” The raincoat man suddenly spoke.

“What now?!” The one doing the dirty work sounded extremely annoyed.

“There’s a black box inside his body.”

“Troublesome!”

The man cursed but kept moving. He ripped open the corpse’s abdominal cavity, reached his hand straight into the still-warm stomach, and stirred. Soon, he fished out a special capsule that hadn’t yet been dissolved by stomach acid.

Just as he was about to crush it to dust, the raincoat man stopped him again.

“What a waste to destroy it.”

“It’s just a recorder. Planning to keep it for New Year’s?”

“Let me modify it a bit.”

The raincoat man didn’t explain further. He took the black box from the other’s hand. “Leave a little surprise for whoever comes to collect the body later.”

Soon, the black box was stuffed back into Qin Suishou’s stomach.

The man even bothered to painstakingly repair the torn clothes and skin, so that at least from the outside, no one could tell anything was wrong.

“Your hands look like you just fished them out of a septic tank. Stay away from me.” The raincoat man glanced at the other’s still-smoking hands and stepped back half a step in disgust.

“Shut your mouth!”

Having finished all this, Qin Suishou’s corpse was neatly placed in the driver’s seat, head leaning against the car window, expression serene—as if he had just fallen asleep, exhausted on his way home late at night.

The figures of the two uninvited guests vanished completely with the final ripple of space.

Eight o’clock in the morning.

Lin Mo stretched lazily. It was meaningless, but it felt good.

In just one night, he had completed a third of the problems.

These questions were indeed highly complex.

Mainly, they involved enormous amounts of calculation.

But morning had come, and it was time to grab a bite to eat—not because he was hungry, but because he craved it.

The best thing about the training base was the sheer variety of food. To accommodate people from all over the country, the flavors were diverse, too.

Lin Mo ate a breakfast from the Jin region today. Since it was mostly wheat-based dishes, a carb bomb breakfast combo was quite satisfying.

But he noticed that there were too many eyes on him, and most belonged to members of Yan Huang Awakened.

Something was off, so he extended his spiritual sense.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty much. Isn’t that what the black box recording said?”

“What do we do next?”

“Wait. You think people like us can take down Lin Mo on our own?”

This came from a conversation on the other end of the dining hall.

They thought that, from this distance, Lin Mo wouldn’t hear them.

Lin Mo, however, was puzzled.

What exactly had happened? But the next second, he was almost certain that it was all directed at him.

Still, he wasn’t flustered. He ate his noodles slowly and deliberately.

He had ordered the food, so he had to finish it. Besides, he could gather information while eating.

As he ate, his phone rang. It was Dongfang Shuye.

He hadn’t expected Dongfang Shuye to call him at a time like this.

His spiritual sense flared out instantly, pinpointing Dongfang Shuye’s location.

Right there in the Yan Huang Awakened base.

“Morning. What’s up?”

Lin Mo’s tone was steady, but Dongfang Shuye’s voice on the other end was grim.

“Qin Suishou is dead.”

Dead?

His spiritual sense scanned the base and quickly located Qin Suishou’s corpse.

Sure enough, he was dead.

“So, what now? You guys don’t think I killed him, do you?”

“The Bureau Chief and I don’t think so. But there’s a small complication. Qin Suishou swallowed a black box before he died, and it has some things in it that aren’t favorable to you.”

“Wait for me. Let me see who’s trying to frame me.”

“Alright. I’ll wait for you at the base entrance.”

Lin Mu speeded up his noodle-eating.

Still, he found it strange. Qin Suishou had been alive last night, so the incident must have happened between last night and this morning.

How did everyone in the base already know?

Did Yan Huang Awakened have no confidentiality protocols?