“No problem.” The warden nodded.
“What do you want to do with my father‽”
Sylvia was like an angry kitten with flames in her eyes. She bit down with all her might on Han Xiao’s hand, but not only was she unable to hurt Han Xiao, she was giddy from the shock deflected by Han Xiao’s arm. A ‘-13’ deflected damage appeared above her head, while the word ‘Immune’ appeared above Han Xiao.
“What do I want to do to him? That’s a good question. I don’t want him to look so good when he sees you, best to have lost an eyeball or an ear.”
Han Xiao curled his lips and walked into the cell alone. The metal gate closed after him and blocked Sylvia’s furious screams.
The light in the room was very dim. The cell was divided into two areas by a cage heated by electricity, and inside the cage was the actual cell. Langley leaned on the black wall covered in moss and dirt. There was stubble all over his face, and his eyes had no focus. He was much older and more decrepit than before.
When Langley heard a sound, he thought it was the guard, so he turned and looked over subconsciously, but what he saw was his nightmare that he could never forget. His expression became terrified, and he jumped up instantly. “It’s you! Why are you here‽”
“You’re very afraid of me?” Han Xiao walked to the cage with an expressionless face. “Shouldn’t you thank me? If it was the other mercenaries that got to you, they wouldn’t even have wasted their energy to pick up your corpse. Do you think you would be standing here with your full body like you are right now?”
Although there was a cage between them, Langley did not feel safe at all. He moved back hastily, and his back bumped into the wall. He swallowed his saliva anxiously, and the pain in his knees was becoming stronger. He could still vividly remember what happened—a group of armored mercenaries fell from the sky, killed his army like cutting through vegetables, and advanced into the heart of his stronghold. The mercenary that stood before him now waved his hands and summoned around a hundred cannons in an instant. At least a thousand people were killed by this person alone. He slaughtered his way through, marched up to him, and fired two bullets through his knees—that pain was almost suffocating.
Langley still had to depend on the nerves implanted into his knees to stand up.
“Cut the nonsense, I’m here for you,” Han Xiao said coldly. “Your daughter Sylvia. I don’t know what lies you told her, but she believed whatever bullsh*t you said and feels that you’re a great man and a liberator of the people. She wanted to avenge you and tried to assassinate me…”
“What!”
Langley face changed instantly. He pounced at the railings and grabbed onto the heated cage, not caring about the high temperature burning through his hands and the burnt smell that came out of it. His face could almost touch Han Xiao’s face, filled with anxiety and rage.
“Wha—what did you do to her‽”
“What else?” Han Xiao let out a sigh and said, “Of course I killed her. I shot her from below her jaw through his head, opening a hole at the back of her head. Her brain juice and blood splashed all over the wall. One of my subordinates thought she’s quite pretty, so he’s planning to skin her face and make it into a specimen for display.”
Langley almost fainted. His daughter was his only motivation for staying alive. His expression became twisted, as rage, regret, heartache, desperation, and hatred flashed past one after another. He growled like a beast approaching its death, and even his fear of Han Xiao was completely forgotten.
“I will kill you! I will definitely kill you!!!”
Han Xiao looked at the furious Langley calmly, and when his throat became hoarse from the screaming and could only stare at him while breathing heavily, Han Xiao said slowly, “Okay, enough jokes. Your daughter is outside the gate. I captured her. I brought her here just to see you.”
Langley froze and could not react to it. He felt extremely weak from the emotional rollercoaster. He collapsed onto the floor, pointed his trembling finger at Han Xiao, but could not speak a word.
Han Xiao squatted, looked Langley in the eye, and said, “You’re a smart person. Whether I kill your daughter or not depends on you.”
Langley’s expression changed many times. He lowered his head and kept silent.
“Speak, I don’t have the patience to wait for you to consider.” Han Xiao knocked the metal cage impatiently.
“I’m not a good person… but you’re eviler than me.” Langley’s eyes were filled with complicated emotions. He said with a hoarse voice, “I will do it. I will tell her everything about me. I was a high-level spy for another force from the start. I was controlled by someone else, and everything I did was to overturn the rules built by the New Phylen Alliance. I will tell her that I have been lying to her. I’m not who she thinks I am. I’m just a despicable traitor, an evil man who destroyed thousands of families for his own benefit. I will destroy the image she has for me and make her feel… completely disappointed… in me, her father…”
“You know what to do.” Han Xiao stood up.
Langley looked at Han Xiao and said, “This way, will you let my daughter go?”
Han Xiao did not bother to reply, he turned to walk toward the door and left him with one last reminder. “Anyway, if I do not like the result after the conversation, I will make what I said earlier a reality… This is the one and only chance I’m giving you.”
He opened the door and left the cell. He immediately saw Sylvia’s anxious face. She was staring at him with rage but could not control herself from glancing at the gap of the door.
“Go in, you have ten minutes.”
Han Xiao waved his hand and told Aroshia to let Sylvia go. Sylvia rushed into the cell and could not wait to see her father.
After closing the door, the warden turned on the surveillance footage and monitored Sylvia’s conversation with Langley. Sylvia’s change in her expression could be clearly seen.
She turned from anxious to stunned, then shocked, then there was an intense argument. They could even faintly hear Sylvia’s out of control howling through the thick metal door. In the end, tears gushed out from her eyes.
…
_____________________
[Lies] completed.
You have received 540,000 Experience.
_____________________
“It’s ten minutes.”
The warden opened the gate and brought Sylvia out.
She looked like she had lost her soul. Her eyes were out of focus, and there were still tear marks on her face. She lost all motivations and was like a walking corpse. Her energy from ten minutes ago was nowhere to be found. The strong belief that she had been holding onto had collapsed.
Only then did she know that the great image of her father in her heart was completely built from lies. She had been lied to for more than ten years. He was not a great man; everything he did was despicable, and he deserved every bit of suffering that he had now. Even without the mercenaries interfering, he would have been defeated by the army sooner or later. If not for Black Star, her father would not even have been alive.
Her world had collapsed. The warm and bright childhood images in her memories all felt different.
Everything was a lie!
She felt like her heart was being penetrated by a thousand bullets.
She could not even digest this information in a short time. Her vision started spinning, and all the sound became distant and faint like she was isolated from the world.
Plop.
Sylvia collapsed onto the ground and fainted.
Through the slowly closing gap of the door, Han Xiao looked at Langley for the last time.
This rebel leader looked like he was decades older, but his face was very calm. It even had a tint of… relief.
Han Xiao shook his head, grabbed Sylvia by her back collar, and placed this kid over his shoulder like a sack.
“Congratulations on growing up.”
Chapter 436 - The Start of Ten Y
ears
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Han Xiao and the others arrived at the resting lounge. The warden left after saying a few words, leaving Han Xiao and the others in the room.
The mission is completed. Next, I need to deal with her.
Han Xiao tossed Sylvia onto a chair. He looked at the fainted teenage girl and contemplated.
I made Sylvia hear about what her father has done. With reference to what happened in my previous life, she should change… but it’s not certain. Firstly, in my previous life, she only knew the truth after battling for many years; she was older and more mature, so she could adjust better. For now, she’s just a kid. Maybe she’ll still hate me or avoid it temporarily. Secondly, Langley died a long time ago in my previous life, but now he’s still alive, and this will impact her in an unknown way. It’s probably beneficial.
After some pondering, Han Xiao decided to make a decision after seeing Sylvia’s reaction.
From his perspective, it was definitely better to make Sylvia stay. An NPC resource delivered to his doorstep, there was no reason for him to let it go. He even thought of going through the history of the mercenary group to see if there were more chances like this.
Han Xiao was just about to slap Sylvia awake, but suddenly, he remembered that Bun-Hit-Dog was beside him, so he did not do it. Han Xiao took two steps back, turned his head, and told Aroshia, “Wake her up.”
Aroshia walked forward and slapped Sylvia on her face. Sylvia woke slowly.
“Hmm… My face is so numb.”
Sylvia opened her eyes. She could feel numbness on her face, and it hurt a little.
She looked around, and the moment that she saw Han Xiao, she was about the turn angry subconsciously when she suddenly recalled what had happened before she fainted, and her rage disappeared. Instead, her mood plummeted. She looked down at her toes, her face filled with gloom.
She had thought that her father was great, but the reality was, Langley was a traitor. Even without Black Star, her father would have been defeated by the other mercenaries sooner or later. Furthermore, her father only lived because Han Xiao held back, so her hostility toward Han Xiao vanished.
If the person that she was going to avenge was a traitor, even if that person was her father, she still felt that what she did would be wrong. Langley caused his own suffering, so there was nothing that she could avenge.
The glorious image of her father in her heart collapsed. Sylvia’s feelings toward Langley became complicated and conflicted. She believed that her father’s love toward her was true, but everything that he did was beyond her acceptable range. Her father had been lying to her all along. Of course, she despised him for it.
The doubt of Han Xiao forcing her father to say those things only existed for a split second because Han Xiao did it way too obviously and confidently without any disguise. She knew that it was impossible with just a little thought. After all, she was just a small girl that failed to assassinate him—why would the captain of a renowned mercenary group go through so much effort to lie to her? Han Xiao had captured Langley with his own hands. If he did not know her father’s real identity, why would he suddenly take her to question her father herself? Furthermore, her father had given a lot of details on the crimes that he had committed, and they were all real.
Maybe when she investigated back then, she had still held some hope in her heart and felt that those suspicions were all lies. Now that the source of these things had described those crimes in detail, all her fantasies were shattered.
Sylvia looked at Han Xiao with very complicated feelings. Although this mercenary group captain had been scaring her all along, his actions had truly helped her. After her father was captured, she had experienced both coldness and warmth between people. She did not know how to react to this kindness from a stranger, and she felt guilty.
When the flames of rage that burnt her senses away had extinguished, she finally spoke from her heart.
“Thank you. You’re a good person… And… I’m sorry, really sorry…”
Han Xiao raised his eyebrows.
Looks like the heart modifying operation was a success.
“Our captain is known as the Women Loving Mechanic Han, what did you think?” Bun-Hit-Dog laughed with his hands on his waist.
Han Xiao acted as if he did not hear it and sized Sylvia up.
This girl was not grumpy anymore; she looked quiet and pretty. Although she was a mess after being captured for so many days, the dust on her face could not cover how pretty she was. As one of the most popular targets in the parody industry in his previous life, he could already foresee Sylvia growing up to be beautiful.
“I don’t want to bother about anything else for now. Tell me, which organization helped you to know my whereabouts?” Han Xiao asked with a deep voice.
Sylvia did not hide anymore and spoke the truth.
“It’s an intel selling organization called ‘Mytar’. I used a part of my savings and told them to be mindful of your whereabouts, then bought this intel from them. The shapeshifting Esper that I hired is a freelance killer. He and I designed the assassination plan together. The poison gas and poison all belonged to him, but you have already killed him…”
Sylvia paused. She suddenly realized that Han Xiao had killed another person but not her.
Was it because he knew her?
Then she asked the question that she had been wanting to ask all along. “How did you recognize me? Did my father tell you?”
“Coincidence.”
Han Xiao gave a perfunctory response and pondered about that intel organization called Mytar.
Intel organizations were usually neutral. If the customer requested intel about someone or some organization that they could not mess with, they would refuse to sell. Not messing with people who were too strong was an unspoken rule for intel organizations.
Clearly, he was not on that list in the eyes of these intel organizations, unlike his boss Ames, who really could not be messed with.
Honestly, Han Xiao did not like the feeling of exposing his whereabouts, but he did not have a solution for it temporarily. This was an unavoidable situation. In order to solve it, he could only become stronger. Whether it was strength, influence, or fame, as long as he could make the intel organization feel that he could not be messed with, they would not sell his intel.
Looks like I need to keep working hard. Han Xiao placed this matter in his heart, narrowed his eyes, and asked, “What is your plan?”
Sylvia shook her head and looked lost.
She did not know where to go after suddenly losing her goal. The Galaxy was so wide, yet she had nowhere to go.
“Father, he… although he’s not a good person, he told me the truth. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to drag me down and does not want me to neglect myself because of him. He wants me to have my own life…”
After calming down, Sylvia sort of understood that her father did what he did to save her, or why would he destroy the image that he had been building in her daughter’s heart for so many years? Although she was still bothered by it, she had no other choice but to accept reality. She said softly, “The universe is so vast. I will probably go look at different places… hoping to find something else I can be determined on…”
“You want to leave?” Han Xiao said with an expressionless face. “Did I allow you to leave?”
Sylvia froze.
“The first rule of mercenaries, all jobs have to be paid. Our help was not free. Furthermore, do you think I’m going to let go of the fact that you tried to assassinate me? I’m in a good mood, so I don’t want to kill you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay a price. You have to compensate for all my damages.” Han Xiao crossed his arms and snorted.
“I—I have no money now,” Sylvia said embarrassedly and fidgeted uncomfortably. She had spent all her savings on this assassination, and those were the funds that Langley had left her. She truly had no money at all.
Sylvia’s eyes widened instantly. She blushed and stuttered, “Yo—You… I—I’m just a kid. I—I ca—can’t…”
The players were all shocked and looked at Han Xiao in disbelief.
Holy, I didn’t know you are this kind of Black Phantom!
We’re the same type of people!
Bun-Hit-Dog recorded it with glee. He was very satisfied; this was way too explosive!
Aroshia tilted her head and mumbled, “This should be the humans’ action of sending a mating signal.”
Han Xiao almost could not keep a straight face after hearing what Aroshia said. He narrowed his eyes and said, “What are you people thinking? I have no interest in your body; I want your freedom.”
Sylvia immediately breathed a sigh of relief. She looked at Han Xiao apprehensively. “Freedom? What do you mean?”
“You have to work for me for ten years.”
“Ten is too long. Can you make it a little bit shorter?” Sylvia made the hand sign of ‘a little bit’ as she spoke with a fawning tone.
“Twelve years.”
“No no no, ten years is good.” Sylvia hastily waved her hands.
“In these ten years, you’ll be my subordinate. If you want to escape or betray me, I won’t give you a second chance. Maybe you can escape, but your father has nowhere to run,” Han Xiao said coldly.
Hearing the threat, Sylvia’s face became serious for a second. She wanted to be angry but felt powerless to do so. With her emotions in turmoil, she lowered her head and said softly, “I won’t run from my own mistakes. It’s just ten years. I’m still young, so I can afford it… I don’t have anywhere else to go now anyway.”
Since Han Xiao had chosen to let Sylvia live, he definitely had to make use of her value and create more profit than killing her would. Sylvia was at least a grade A Super at her peak in his previous life, so she was quite a good potential stock. By recruiting her, he could consider it as having another high-quality officer. Furthermore, she was talented in the Mechanic class, which suited his abilities. She could become his assistant. Although she needed time to grow, it was worth the investment.
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