by Pegaz
“Fine, I’ll help, but I get first pick of the spoils instead of the reward, deal?”
The leader was silent for a moment. John was getting nervous. He was doing this to avoid suspicion, but maybe it was backfiring on him.
After what felt like ages, the leader nodded.
“Deal, but only three items.”
John smiled under his mask.
Chapter 55
*Spoiler*
John walked behind the leader, following him.
“Tell me more about the family. I need more information, since I didn’t go through the mission hub. Will there be any immortals?”
A person to John’s side answered instead of the leader.
“A total of 1,394 people. Highest ranked person in the family is a Rank 5. That’s why it’s a group mission. The leader and I will handle him while everyone else in the group kills the rest.”
“What about the family’s estate? How big is it?”
“There’s a big garden at the back. We’re going in the afternoon, when all the family will be there for a feast.”
“So, what did this family do to get targeted?” John was treading through dangerous waters, but it was a necessary question. “Or did someone just want them removed?”
The leader turned his head towards John.
“No idea,” he said coolly. “We just follow orders.”
And with that, John knew he could ask no further questions.
I can’t let these guys succeed. While there might be few family members with high Sin points who deserve to die, these guys are talking about the innocents and children too. How am I going to do this though? It’s best to surprise-attack them, but I might need help with this many people higher ranked than me. Maybe I can get their target to help me? But how am I going to convince them that I’m not with these people? There are too many variables in play!
Taking a risk, John looked over at the person who answered him earlier.
“How far is the family’s estate from here?”
“It’s 8 miles that way.” The person pointed in a direction. “It will take us twenty minutes if we hurry.”
John nodded and formed a sword from threads. He jumped on and hovered. “I’ll meet you there, but I won’t start without you. I’ll only scout the place out for us.”
Not waiting for a reply, he flew higher and then used the system map’s teleport. He arrived 7.5 miles in the direction of the estate. He continued his journey to his destination.
Before long, John arriving above the garden. His Scan picked up everyone in the area. The Rank 5 person whom the assassins talked about was with a group of people in the courtyard, John flew straight toward him.
The man noticed John and got ready for a fight, standing in front of a crowd of young ones. John put his hands up to show he meant no harm.
“I’m here to warn you,” he called down. “There are fifteen people from an assassin sect coming to wipe out your family. I will be with them, but I’m looking for an opportunity to kill them. I’ll have silver armour on when I’m with them, so you can identify me.”
The man’s eyes widened.
“Don’t get people to evacuate or else they’ll know something’s wrong,” John continued. “Get everyone in your family that’s Rank 4 or higher, and tell them to get ready but to act normal. I need their help to fight against the assassins.”
Without another word, John disappeared. He reappeared a few miles away, near the assassins walking towards the estate. While descending to the ground, the sword disappeared and John walked over towards them.
“I’ve scouted the place out,” he reported. “There are around twenty-five people inside the mansion, but the rest of the family are outside, including the man you need to team up against. When I was there, a few children were near, so if we attack soon, we can use them to distract the fighters.”
He described the size of the mansion and garden and told them where the guards were. The assassins took in the information and John felt a tiny bubble of success.
They arrived at the family’s estate fifteen minutes later. John changed the Daoist robes into his silver armour, then the group rushed into the estate. They were headed for the garden.
John kept track of the eight Rank 5 assassins. While they were running, he formed ten swords. There were two in his hands and eight of them 15 feet ahead of the eight people. The unmanned Swords then flew towards the assassins, taking them by surprise. Seven of the people couldn’t react in time and ran straight into the blades before they disappeared, but the leader had a much faster reaction. He blocked the sword just in time.
John swung his two swords at the Rank 4 assassins and killed six of the seven in just a handful of seconds. It left only the leader and a Rank 4 alive. Lowering his body, he launched forward towards the Rank 4 who kept running. Arriving behind him, John swung his swords at the person.
DING!
John looked at the sword that blocked his attacks, then looked at the person who blocked them. It was the leader, to no surprise. In retaliation, John tilted to his left and swung his right leg at the leader’s body, but missed. The leader had jumped over John’s leg, turning his body upside down so that his feet were in the air. The assassin spun to face John, landing behind him and swung his sword.
John’s still tilted with one of his feet off the ground. He couldn’t move out the way, so he created a shield of threads to make sure he didn’t get hit.
BANG!
The sword hit the centre of his shield, but could go no further. The said shield was big enough to block the leader’s view, so John teleported using the system map to get behind him. Seizing his opportunity, John stabbed his sword at the back of the leader’s head.
John had timed it, and even kept the shield in place so the leader wouldn’t notice John had moved. However, before the sword reached its target, the Rank 4 assassin from earlier rushed in to attack John from the side. John saw the attack out of the corner of his eye and was forced to swing his other blade to block, which made a loud clang sound.
The leader, hearing the clang sound, moved his body to his right and launched himself away from John. John removed the shield and created four swords and guns to kill the Rank 4.
BANG!
John turned his head to look at where the noise came from. The Gibson’s family member had finally come over and struck the leader, but the assassin had blocked it.
John shouted, “Stall him! I’ll finish this guy off and join you!”
A few other Rank 4 Gibson family members had arrived on the scene to help too.
John launched sword and gun attacks at the Rank 4 assassin for a handful of seconds before managing to deal a fatal blow. He even shot his opponent a few more times in case he managed to survive somehow. Looking over at the fight, John saw the leader of the assassins was being overwhelmed, barely dodging and blocking the attacks. Good.
John removed all of his thread swords and made more guns, nine in total. He then created a sword to put under his feet and flew in the air. Looking at the fight, he waited for a good opportunity. After a moment, he finally had a clear shot at the assassin with no Gibson family members in the way. But the leader dodged in time.
After a few seconds, a shot managed to hit the leader’s left shoulder. A few more seconds later, he hit his right leg. From that point onward, he got clear shots more frequently. After only a minute, the leader fell in battle.
However, the Gibson family didn’t put their guards down. They got into fighting stances towards John, since he had the same mask as the assassins. John put his hands high and opened his palms, making the guns in his hands fall and disappear.
The person who John warned earlier stepped in front of the family, looking over towards John.
“Why did you help us?”
“Because they’re my enemy.”
“But you’re wearing the same mask as them, and they knew you!”
John smiled under the mask. “I was one of them. They thin
k I’m dead, but with the mask on, they don’t know who I am.”
Before the man could ask another question, John continued.
“This assassin sect’s leadership has changed. They now take any contracts without having to do any background checks at all. They’re here because someone wanted your whole family wiped out, including the children. I would suggest moving to a different planet, since they will likely send in others.”
The man smiled, despite growing paler as John’s speech went on.
“We’ll have to have a family meeting to decide what to do,” he mused. “But thank you for your warning and for your help.”
The family turned around and started walking away.
Whoosh!
John heard a noise of an object travelling towards him, so by reflex he created a shield of threads.
Ding!
Looking at the object that fell after hitting the shield, it was a knife. John’s eyes darted up and saw someone walking towards him. When the person got close, he noted the green and red Anti-Assassin clothes. John checked the person out with his Immortal Eye.
Sarah Hughes
Rank: 2
Level: 9
Sin: 0
Sarah Hughes…? Isn’t that the woman I met at that king’s place on the balcony? She was part of the Anti-Assassin group? Did she know who I was before she approached me?
John descended, now facing Sarah.
Sarah stopped about 30 feet away from John and spoke.
“We meet again. This time I don’t have a mentor with me nor do you.”
“Wait,” John was stunned, words blurting out before he could think. “You’re the princess I let live?”
He suddenly remembered the naïve Anti-Assassin newbie he once fought with.
“Don’t call me princess!”
“What a… What a coincidence.” John’s shock melted away, and he began to laugh. “I would say, ‘What a small world!’ but we met on different planets in the universe. I don’t think that counts.”
“It’s not a coincidence,” Sarah growled. “They have tasked me to capture you.”
“If you want to capture me, what was with the knife you threw? That was aimed at my neck. That could’ve been fatal.”
“That was a hello from me,” a spark of playfulness ignited in her voice, “I knew you could dodge it.”
John then had a thought. “Last time, you didn’t want to talk this much. You’re stalling for something?”
The tension of Sarah’s pose increased, and her silence confirmed his suspicions.
“Oh, princess!” John laughed. “You’ve never schemed to capture or kill someone before, have you? Your stance says it all. There’s no need to panic when Plan A fails, you know. You just move on to Plan B or C.”
After pausing for a second, John continued.
“Since I know you’re stalling for more time, you might as well tell me. Save the suspense. Unless you have a Plan B, and—”
Sarah chose that instant to rush at John in full-force. Taken a bit aback, John formed two short swords and parried her dagger just in time. Of course, John didn’t want to kill her. He just wanted to stop her from killing him.
Every time she swung her dragger, he blocked with one of the blades and placed the other at her neck or other vital areas, uttering the words, “You died.”
The Gibson family members had long since left. It was then that a purple cloud formed around Sarah. John backed off to see what was happening.
Sarah laughed. “It takes a while to get this attack ready, this is the reason I was stalling.”
The purple cloud got denser around her, she then pushed both arms forward toward John.
It caught John off guard as the speed of the cloud was too fast to dodge. The mist completely covered him, clinging onto his skin like oil.
‘Ding!’
John read the message that came up from the system and stopped moving. He stopped breathing. He even lost the ability to think due to shock.
Sarah, too, seemed frozen in shocked. The purple cloud disappeared, and the two of them stood there, gawking at each other.
The two stared at each other and both shouted.
“You’re a Sider?!”
Title: Another Living Sider!
Afterword II
Hello! Thank you for purchasing and reading this book! I seriously hope you enjoyed John’s adventure!
Now I’m going to have to apologise to you because this book was actually supposed to be released in November, early December at the latest for the Christmas holiday sales. However, one of my editor’s laptop got stolen as she had finished editing the whole thing the night before! Because of that, the book got setback by a month and half and the editor had to do the work twice. The thief got a free copy too!
Sorry for the wait!
Now, be honest! While you might have saw Sarah as somebody who could fill the female MC role (still not confirmed yet either!), did you expect her to be a Sider? Me neither! I honestly didn’t have that idea until I thought about the ending of this book, and that was when I was 40-45 chapters in the story! The idea almost blew my mind!
Now, in the first book I’ve had a few reviews saying John is overpowered, like a bad one punch man! Though I don’t see it! In the first book he almost died at least 3 times, and if things didn’t go right for him during a few other fights then that number would be a lot more. However, because of these reviews I tried to make John more vulnerable. Granted he can kill rank 6’s with a lot of luck and a surprise attack, if it fails then John is guaranteed to get killed. That’s why he resorts to tricks like teleporting.
This is only the second book in the series (not sure how many there are in total), and if you enjoyed reading the series then there is a signup you can put your email in and I’ll send you an email each time the next book in the series is released. I hate spam mail so other than those emails, you won’t get another from me. The URL is at the very bottom!
Thanks again for reading!
Pegaz
The Idle System
Table of Contents III
Chapter 1: 3.9
Chapter 2: Helping Sarah
Chapter 3: Venom
Chapter 4: Black Market
Chapter 5: Sarah’s Past
Chapter 6: Taking Precautions Against Divinations
Chapter 7: Creating Cultivation Caves
Chapter 8: Share Skills
Chapter 9: Forbidden Technique
Chapter 10: Training
Chapter 11: Transformation
Chapter 12: Silver Skulls
Chapter 13: The Date
Chapter 14: Loophole
Chapter 15: *Spoiler*
Chapter 16: Fighter Puppets
Chapter 17: Arriving on Sword Sect’s Public Planet
Chapter 18: Meeting
Chapter 19: New Procedure
Chapter 20: Frank’s Father
Chapter 21: Getting Started
Chapter 22: The Library
Chapter 23: Tournament of a Decade
Chapter 24: New Technique
Chapter 25: It Worked?
Chapter 26: New Weapon Test
Chapter 27: The Result
Chapter 28: Sociopath
Chapter 29: How?
Chapter 30: Skimming
Chapter 31: Sword Sect’s Prison
Chapter 32: Human Testing
Chapter 33: Report
Chapter 34: Limiter
Chapter 35: Round One
Chapter 36: Sarah vs the Ruthless Man
Chapter 37: Light Punishment
Chapter 38: The Tournament Continues
Chapter 39: The Final Match
Chapter 40: Suggestion
Chapter 41: Forgiven
Chapter 42: Pressure Cave
Chapter 43: New Friend
Chapter 44: New Armour
Chapter 45: Workers
Chapter 46: Orders
Chapter 47: The Deal
Chapter 48: Old
Plant, New Surprise
Chapter 49: Summons
Chapter 50: Gryphon
Chapter 51: Elder Han
Chapter 52: Lightning
Chapter 53: Spies
Chapter 54: Revenge
Chapter 55: Destruction
Table of Contents I
Table of Contents II
Table of Contents IV
Chapter 1
3.9
Returning to a normal posture, both John and Sarah put away their weapons.
John was the first to speak.
“So, you approached me, knowing I was an assassin all three times,” he said, his voice almost shaking, “but you didn’t know I was a Sider?”
“Three times?” Sarah’s eyes were so wide that it felt like they were going to pop out. “We’ve only fought twice!”
“That’s true, but we talked before. Don’t you remember?”
“What are you on about?”
“Wait, wait, wait.” John was the confused one now. “You didn’t realise who I was when we met at the king’s feast? I was wearing the same armour all three times. Didn’t you notice?”
Sarah wasn’t moving. Suddenly, she screamed.
“IT’S YOU!”
John removed his mask.
“We meet again, Sarah.”
“How did you know it was me?” Sarah removed the mask.
“Secret skill again.” John answered simply.
Sarah was completely taken aback. It was her first time having somewhat of a connection with someone other than people who were using her. Tears formed in her eyes, sliding down her face.
“Help me,” she said, her voice croaking out as she let the tears fall, eyes still wide with shock.
“I didn’t kill you,” John spat, a sneer on his face. “That’s me helping you. As for anything else, why should I? You tried to kill me. Twice!”
“I did that to survive!” Sarah clutched her chest, almost sobbing now. John heaved a sigh of resignation.
“Let’s go to a hotel. I’ll listen to your story.” He held his forehead with his right hand, trying to calm his headache down. “Change your appearance with the mask first.”
“The mask?” Sarah looked at John blankly through her tears. “How? I’ve only used it as a mask...”