"Yes, sir. Your Black Gold Member benefits will take effect after the payment is deducted. The contract will be upgraded under the existing terms, so there’s no need to sign anything here."

"The funds have been successfully deducted. You may select your exclusive Black Gold Member life-monitoring device via the official website. The device will be delivered to you within twelve hours."

"Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Lin Qi replied, "No," and ended the call.

He felt a pang of pain as he looked at the mere three-digit number of Credit Points left in his account.

Thankfully, the one million from Liu Xuan was considered company compensation. Otherwise, Lin Qi would have been under financial pressure for a long time to come.

’Next, I just have to wait and see. With a Black Gold Membership from the Intercontinental Stability Trauma Emergency Company, it’s like having a Mercenary squad no weaker than the Liu Clan’s security team in a crisis.’

’I’ll still have to pay them after the fact, but as long as I can stay alive, I can always earn the money back eventually.’

Lin Qi had made all the preparations he could. The only thing left was to adapt to whatever came his way.

...

On Fortune Avenue, heading toward Enterprise Road.

A cargo vehicle was moving slowly.

Inside the vehicle’s compartment, a lightly armed Mercenary Squad was gathered.

"Repeat the objective: Room 1313, Liu’s Heavy Industries Senior Staff Apartments. Mission requirement: kill the target."

"Intel states the target is an A-level Researcher for Liu’s Heavy Industries, with an incomplete L-Class Prosthetic Body implantation."

"The reward is two million Credit Points. We got lucky. Our base is inside Greenfield City, and now that the Iron Curtain has fallen, outside Mercenary Corps can’t get in. That’s how we managed to snag such a cost-effective mission."

"According to the mission briefing, chaos will break out in the target’s building in one hour and twenty-two minutes. We’ll launch a frontal assault then."

"After we complete the mission, we’ll pull out using the old method. Old Liu will be waiting for us in the S-Class stealth vehicle."

These few sentences were enough to reveal the Mercenary Corps’s true capabilities.

They were mediocre at best. At the very least, their intelligence-gathering ability was weak. They didn’t even know about the false identity Si Ying had pinned on Lin Qi; they still thought he was just an A-level Researcher.

In other words, the mission this Mercenary Corps had accepted was a setup.

The client never expected them to be able to kill Lin Qi.

The cargo truck drove on slowly. When it reached the intersection of Fortune Avenue and Enterprise Road, it was stopped for an inspection.

The checkpoint was manned by the Greenfield City Riot Control Mobile Unit, conducting a routine nightly patrol after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The driver produced an access chip and handed it over for verification.

"A-Class corporate access? That high?"

The clearance level was beyond the scope of their authority, and they were waved through without issue.

After passing the checkpoint, the truck headed straight for the Liu’s Heavy Industries Senior Staff Apartments and parked downstairs.

...

"They’re here."

The Mercenary Squad had entered the range of Lin Qi’s Spiritual Vision.

Lin Qi was a little puzzled.

’This Mercenary Squad seems a bit... pathetic?’

One of them was a full-body A-Class Implanter, but from Lin Qi’s perspective, most of the Prosthetic Body components were secondhand parts. It was a cobbled-together mess, and it was doubtful if its combat power could even reach A-Class.

The rest were even more worrying, mostly having L-Class Prosthetic Body implants, with one or two A-Class components at most.

Lin Qi felt he could probably take them all out without them ever knowing what hit them.

’An S-Class vehicle just arrived on the roof. It’s a stealth model. That thing alone is probably worth more than their entire team.’

’Looks like it’s their getaway plan? Is this their idea of putting their best resources to good use?’

Lin Qi was almost concerned by how weak this Mercenary Corps was.

Was he only worthy of being assassinated by a squad like this? 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

But soon, Lin Qi noticed something strange.

It seemed... a lot of odd gazes were converging in his direction.

No, they weren’t looking at him. They were looking at the room next door, Room 1313.

That was originally Lin Qi’s room.

’Lots of spectators. The Mercenary Squad downstairs is most likely cannon fodder,’ Lin Qi concluded.

The ones with strong intelligence-gathering capabilities were still observing, while the ones who dared to make a move were just reckless hotheads.

The heir of a major corporation wasn’t so easy to kill.

Even a T0-level Mercenary Corps wouldn’t choose a direct frontal assault.

All the gazes Lin Qi felt originated from outside the range of his Spiritual Vision, so he couldn’t identify them for now.

But based on the sheer number of wandering gazes and the wide range of their origins, Lin Qi estimated that probably every shady character in Greenfield City was paying attention to tonight’s events.

’The explosion King Arthur mentioned... when will it happen?’

The Mercenary Corps downstairs seemed to be waiting for something as well, not rushing to act.

"Nine minutes left."

Those words weren’t spoken by Lin Qi, but by one of the mercenaries downstairs, who was lying in wait.

’Nine minutes? An explosion?’

Lin Qi connected the keywords.

But he vaguely felt something wasn’t right.

What kind of decent explosion could an amateurish troupe like this Mercenary Corps possibly set up?

They might not even have had the ability to transport enough explosives.

But it seemed the explosion did indeed happen on schedule.

Nine minutes later, the roar of an explosion echoed from below.

The source of the blast was the sewage system, and the explosives used were ultra-high-temperature munitions.

It caused fires to break out on the lower floors of the senior staff apartment building.

The moment the explosion occurred, a communication request came in.

Lin Qi accepted the call.

It was the bodyguard who had swapped rooms with him. "Don’t leave the room. The company will handle it."

"Alright," Lin Qi replied quickly.

Lin Qi wasn’t panicked. He just felt that this whole affair had the air of a shoddy operation from start to finish.

Create a diversion with an explosion, then launch a frontal assault to kill the target.

Was this really a tactic used by a Mercenary Corps in the Cyber Era?

Lin Qi found it highly illogical.

But that’s what happened.

Within his Spiritual Vision, the Mercenary Squad poured out of the cargo vehicle at high speed.

In a formation that appeared extremely professional, they began their assault from the first floor.

That’s right, they stormed in from the first floor. Their vehicle wasn’t even a flying one.

What was the point of that? To be low-key?

Alarms blared throughout the apartment building. Among the bodyguards responsible for Lin Qi’s safety, a full-body A-Class Implanter rushed downstairs at top speed.

The building’s advanced surveillance system locked firmly onto the Mercenary Squad’s movements.

Lin Qi saw everything clearly through his Spiritual Vision.

Thirty seconds after the explosion, the mercenaries entered the building.

Sixty seconds after the explosion, the bodyguard met the mercenaries.

Sixty-seven seconds after the explosion, the A-Class Mercenary was instantly killed by the bodyguard. The weapons of the remaining mercenaries were completely useless against this bodyguard, who was fully implanted with a top-of-the-line A-Class Prosthetic Body crafted by Liu’s Heavy Industries.

Ninety seconds after the explosion, the building’s intrusion alert was canceled. The Mercenary Squad was wiped out.

No, not completely wiped out. The Mercenary on the roof, responsible for piloting the S-Class vehicle, still hadn’t realized what had happened.

’That’s it?’

From start to finish, Lin Qi hadn’t done much, aside from covertly manipulating things to momentarily cut off blood flow to the strongest A-Class Mercenary’s brain.

This incident was almost single-handedly resolved by the Liu Clan’s bodyguard.

’A grand explosion? That was it?’

Lin Qi still couldn’t figure out why King Arthur would use the word "grand" to describe the explosion.

...

About a kilometer away from the apartment building, a heavily augmented Implanter staring in the building’s direction seemed to "see" something.

"Confirmed Liu Clan full-conversion A-Class Prosthetic Body Implanter is with the target. Intel credibility exceeds forty percent. [Holy Light] is cleared for activation."

...

Within his Spiritual Vision, Lin Qi felt a disturbance in the surrounding Spiritual Particles.

A dazzling, milky-white light bloomed a hundred meters above the rooftop.