Chapter 1104 You’ve Got Thirty Seconds—Get Out Here!

• Not long after Gale finished laying out the precautions for them— Knock, knock! The door sounded again. Gale and Emilia slipped to the window and vanished from sight. The man of the house stood up and went to open the door. Armed men stood at the threshold, guns leveled at them. “Your whole family’s here, right?” one of them threatened. The man nodded in a panic. “Everyone’s here!” “Then move it. You’re coming with us.” The armed men didn’t just take his word for it. They counted heads, making sure the number matched the registration exactly. Each member of the family clenched a bit of powder in their palm. If anything went down, they would do exactly what Gale had said—dab a little on the tongue and drop into a feigned-death state. … So far, everything was playing out just like the Viper Orchid Organization had expected. It took a long time to round these people up. The tricky part was that some family members had bolted before they even got there. That ate up precious time while they hunted those relatives down. Everyone had to be on-site. If the headcount came up short, they couldn’t be sure the assassin they were hunting was actually among them. And the two targets headquarters wanted stood out like a spotlight. One was a blonde, blue-eyed fair-skinned beauty. The other was a yellow-skinned East Asian. In a place like Kyushu, they were easy to pick out at a glance. But up to now, they hadn’t found either of them. It took almost two hours, but they finally gathered everyone here. Of course, the disobedient ones—some were shot on the spot. Drag the bodies over. Alive or dead, they had to be accounted for. The numbers had to match. While they were corralling people, the experts sent by headquarters had already reached Kandabel City by helicopter. After checking in with the local unit, they hovered right over the site. With those reinforcements here, the branch troops could breathe easier. Even if things went sideways, those experts would hold the line. “Everyone gathered?” The leader of the experts was a burly foreigner with a rough build and white features. His muscles looked explosive, ready to burst. The branch squad leader briefed him. “All present. Every last one.” “Then let’s start.” The big man wasn’t here to waste time. The branch captains barked orders, tightening the cordon and herding the residents inward. Pack them tighter—made the next step easier. Easier to hunt through the crowd. The experts from upstairs sat front and center, there to keep everyone in check. Overhead, an armed helicopter circled to stop anyone from breaking through and bolting. The Viper Orchid had sent a lot of people, but compared to these residents, they were still badly outnumbered. And their people formed a huge ring around the outskirts. If the residents rioted and punched through from one side, they might actually make it. That’s exactly why the chopper had to keep circling above—to lock the scene down and make sure no one slipped out and threw the whole operation into chaos. One squad leader grabbed a microphone and faced the several thousand residents. The mic fed straight to the loudspeakers mounted on the helicopter. “There’s an assassin among you. Vicious as hell. They’ve killed over three hundred of our Viper Orchid people!” “I’m giving you a chance. Step out on your own. Do that and you won’t drag innocent people down with you. If you don’t, we’ll kill one person every thirty seconds. There are a lot of you here. We’ll keep killing until you show yourself. We’ll kill till this place is a river of blood.” His voice blasted across the grounds, rolling over the whole crowd. It made everyone below even more terrified. The residents looked from one to another, desperate to flush out the so-called assassin and hand them over, just to avoid getting dragged into this. With so many people here, dying for nothing? No one could stomach that.