Although they were in the middle of a mission, the closer Mao Akai got, the more an evil heat burned within him. He reached out a hand.
"I must say, your look is truly disgusting." As if she had eyes in the back of her head, Mao Akai batted the hand away, turned her head, and looked at the big man with a beaming smile. The fat man standing nearby sensed something was amiss and wanted to say something, but before the words could leave his mouth, they were cut short by a shrill scream.
The fat man retreated two steps in terror, his heavy body collapsing onto the floor.
In a flash, Mao Akai's hands plunged directly into the big man's eyes, and then, spinning her body with a flick of her wrists, she forced the big man down onto the ground.
By the time he hit the floor, the big man had already passed out from the pain.
Mao Akai sniffed in disgust, stepping away from the big man lying in a pool of various fluids.
She turned her gaze to the remaining two.
"W-What are you doing?"
The bald man swallowed hard and shouted tremblingly, "We're comrades! You can't turn on us!"
"Comrades?" Mao Akai chewed over the word, a look of suspicious surprise crossing her face. "You actually call us comrades?"
"I-Isn't that what we are? We're partners for this mission!"
"Didn't Gin say, though, that only one of us can become a codename member?"
"I-It's fine, I can assist you." The man pushed his glasses up with trembling hands.
"I don't believe it, though. I certainly don't believe the words of a master con artist."
"What did you say?" The bespectacled man wore a bewildered expression.
"I said your cover is blown, Mr. Con Man." As she spoke, Mao Akai raised a hand, a razor-thin blade appearing between her fingers. She closed in, her fingers sliding lightly down the man's neck.
Yet the man, who had just looked frail, dodged with a nimbleness that defied his appearance. He cast a dark look at Mao Akai. "Why do this?"
"Why?" Mao Akai tilted her head, as if she didn't understand.
"Why turn on us? This mission is just a test to be promoted to a codename member."
Hearing the man's explanation, she wore a look of sudden realization. "Oh, so that's what you're asking about."
She broke into a brilliant smile. "Because I have to become a codename member, you see. So..."
Her smile faded, her gaze turning sinister. "Why don't you troublesome obstacles just drop dead!"
The bespectacled man hadn't expected Mao Akai's reason for attacking to be so absurd. He argued, "If you really want to pass this test, we can cooperate! As long as you don't kill me, I can give up the promotion after the evaluation ends."
"That won't do," Mao Akai murmured. "This mission can only be completed by one person."
"That's wrong! There are three people on the mission list. I've seen their profiles—they know each other. If you finish off one, the other two will know they're being hunted. This mission can only be completed through cooperation."
"You're wrong." Mao Akai looked at him with a trace of pity. "The other two are already dead. The target of this mission is just a pathetic wretch cowering in a safehouse."
"How can that be?" The man refused to believe it.
"And haven't you felt anything strange?" Mao Akai kicked the big man lying on the floor. "Don't you find it weird? We should be out doing our mission, yet this guy has been acting like he's controlled entirely by his lower half."
"This..." The bespectacled man's face turned ugly, cold sweat beading on his forehead. None of this made sense—how could someone like him, a master con artist, be spooked by a scene like this?
"Do you understand now? The locked doors, the strange drugs, and the single slot available—they want us to kill each other off. After all, The Organization doesn't keep useless trash."
Mao Akai's words were like a venomous snake tempting Eve to fall, and the bespectacled man couldn't help following her train of thought.
Right—this mission was unlike any other. It looked just like a cage of venomous insects!
Panic gripped the man, and he immediately backed away from Mao Akai.
Seeing the man's reaction, Mao Akai smiled triumphantly. Though she didn't know what Gin's exact plan was, from the moment she laid eyes on these three, she had never intended to let them leave this place alive.
The first man she had blinded was a serial killer who loved targeting fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds. By the time he was discovered, over thirty victims had perished, but he had vanished into thin air ever since. The bounty hunters' reward for him kept rising, yet no one had ever been able to find him.
The second, a frail and balding man wearing glasses, was a fraudster who had embezzled massive sums of money and was an internationally wanted fugitive. Yet he was extraordinarily adept at manipulating human hearts, escaping capture time and time again.
The third, an inconspicuous fat man, was actually a poison maker. Though his profile was sparse, his presence was hidden behind many poisoning cases. Just like the first man, he too had suddenly disappeared one day.
Mao Akai hadn't expected that all these "talents" had been acquired by The Organization.
She had originally been wondering what excuse to use to dispose of these three, never imagining that Gin would pull a stunt like this.
Locking them together didn't pose a threat to her, but it was utterly repulsive. If she had simply beaten them up the way she did Korn and Chianti, once this mission was over, these three would certainly never stand on Rum's side.
Unfortunately, Gin hadn't anticipated that Mao Akai had no intention of letting these people go.
She closed in step by step on the master con artist, a sweet smile on her face. "When you get to hell, be sure to remember: the one who drove you to this end is Gin."
"W-Wait!" The man stumbled as he dodged Mao Akai's attacks. "Actually, if we open the door, we can break this deadlock too! There's no need to—hisss!"
An opening was slashed into his arm, and blood quickly soaked through his clothes.
Mao Akai played with him like a cat with a mouse. She could have ended him with a single blow, but instead, she left gash after gash on his body.
As he lost more and more blood, the man felt his body temperature dropping. His hands and feet grew stiff, and his dodging movements became increasingly sluggish. Finally, after Mao Akai left a shallow mark across his neck, he shouted toward the fat man who had been slumped limply by the door all along, "Are you done yet? How much longer do you need? If I die, this madwoman's next victim is you!"
The fat man, who had been ignored by the other two, wiped the sweat from his forehead. His hands shook, but his movements were lightning-fast. "Almost, almost! Just a second!"
Hearing those words, the man wore a desperate, do-or-die expression and pulled a handgun from inside his jacket. "My marksmanship is terrible, but at this close range, it's enough to hit you."