Chapter 893: Oriole
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: TheAlliance
(This is bonus chapter #2 for September for meeting Patreon goal. Enjoy!)
(TL note: The title is a reference to a Chinese idiom: The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.)
Shortly after, the exclusive ride of the Men in Black - a new but old-fashioned Cadillac - stopped around the corner. A man wearing a black suit and a poker face strode into the store.
This was Agent G of the Men in Black.
Every Man in Black must cut ties with their previous life before joining the agency. They must say farewell to their fingerprints, their personal information, their friends and family, and even their significant others. Like they said in the movie, they were the faceless shadows, they were everywhere yet no one could see them.
Agent G was no longer a young man. The wrinkles on his face were at least a centimeter deep. He could no longer pull out his gun agilely, nor aim too accurately. Even in driving, the frequency of his pedal hitting the floor was getting lesser. He would probably have to face the memory-deleting neuralyzer, nicknamed "janitor", in a few months. He would delete his own experience, then happily retire with a fake resume and a fake memory. Finally, like most Americans, he would head towards the embrace of the Lord.
When Agent G walked into the store, the first thing he saw was Jack's "corpse" - or, to be precise, the outer body he used to integrate into human society. Naturally, Agent G was shocked. Of course, he had to take a look at the thing, and rummage around to see if there were any notable clues.
But while Agent G's attention was fully focused on the part where Jack's body slit open, the floor suddenly cracked open with dust and wood chips flying about, and two hands suddenly extended forward, one left and one right, to tightly grip onto Agent G's hands!
According to Sheyan's analysis of the Men in Black, their biggest threat were the various kinds of high-tech devices they possess! And 99% of these high-tech devices were controlled by hand.
Neutralising their hands was tantamount to obtaining a reliable guarantee for his life. Agent G was old, and his physical strength and reflexes were far inferior to younger people, but his rich experience helped him react in a timely manner!
He quickly slammed the heels of his left and right shoes together. Two flames with strong propulsion power instantly burst forth from his heels. Agent G flew forward, dragging Sheyan, who was clamping onto his hands from below, out from the floor. They crashed wildly through the entire store.
However, by the time Agent G landed, he had already lost his life.
Sheyan had painstakingly planned this assassination. There was no way he could so easily escape.
When he seized Agent G hands, he pulled on them hard. The Men in Black relied on technology to battle; they do not possess insane physiques. Sheyan's grapple was extremely painful for him.
Then, when they flew out, Sheyan's hands grabbed onto his neck and easily snapped it. And thus ended the life of the aged Man in Black who was about to retire.
Of course, it also caused a huge uproar.
The moment Agent G died, Sheyan received some notifications:
[You have killed Agent G, a senior Level II agent in the Men in Black organization.]
["You are listed as an extremely dangerous person by the Men in Black organization."]
[You have entered their A-level wanted list.]
[You will be heavily targeted and hunted down by the Men in Black organization.]
[You are temporarily unable to alter your appearance through the realm. At the same time, your ability to alter your appearance will also be restricted (if you have such an ability).]
At the same time, the rest of the participants also received notifications regarding this incident. Almost everyone now knew that an unlucky bastard had killed a member of the Men in Black and was currently being hunted by the whole organization.
They would undoubtedly ridicule this idiot at first. But, after that, they would definitely contemplate further on the matter - could someone who was qualified to enter the Bloody World be a fool? What made him kill an MIB agent? Risk and reward were always proportional; this person was willing to take on the world, so there was certainly a great interest driving him!
Therefore, Sheyan's behavior had even led to a series of chain reactions, of which the most direct one was a huge coup attempted by a contestant ten hours later.
The magnitude of his feat was apparent in the numbers. He laid down a trap which killed 13 members of the Men in Black organization in one go! Among them, four were senior agents who were qualified to wear the black suits and drive Cadillacs, while nine others were peripheral members of the organization.
But for Sheyan, these kind of things had little to do with him - at least for now.
The most imperative matter for him at the moment was to see if he could get the key item he wanted from Agent G! First, Sheyan searched his body.
No luck.
He could already feel dread creeping into his heart, but fortunately he still had the last glimmer of hope - the key that Agent G dropped. Its grade was pretty low, merely a blue grade key.
After saying a silent prayer in his heart, he opened the treasure chest that the key summoned... and this time, he was not disappointed. Sheyan silently retrieved the object that he had been eagerly awaiting, and carefully, excitedly, held it tight!
However, just as joy washed over Sheyan like a tsunami, a cynical voice said lazily from his left rear:
"You sure look happy. What did you get? Care to share?"
Sheyan's pupils contracted. He turned his head and saw a thick-lipped black teenager wearing a no.10 Lakers jersey with a basketball at his feet. He was casually chewing gum in his mouth, and there was seemingly no hostility in his eyes.
However, as he spoke, the basketball at his feet glowed with a dense red light. The red light looked almost physical, like a fierce red ember burning strongly in the darkness!
The teenager looked at Sheyan and said with great interest:
"I've already observed you for forty-one minutes, and yet you never noticed my existence in those forty-one minutes. No one has ever been able to escape from me after I observe them for ten minutes. "
Sheyan looked at him with a calm expression and asked:
"So?"
"I'll give you 10 seconds to say your prayers," said the basketball kid in a very indifferent tone. "Then, tell me the purpose of killing the Man in Black. Convince me, and I'll let you die a quick death. Disobey me, the great Hakeem, and I'll let you live for 24 hours before you die."
(TN note: The author should have given him a Rockets jersey smh)
They choice of dying instantly or dying 24 hours later sounded a bit strange. Obviously, to live for an extra 24 hours should be more generous, but there were fates worse than death! Under certain circumstances, living longer was not necessarily a good thing.
Although the basketball kid's threat sounded boastful, cold sweat still drenched Sheyan's forehead. He knew that this guy had reasons to be arrogant! He was not just bragging.
That's because, 'Pestilence Monarch' had currently been extended to its maximum range. Sheyan could infect more than a thousand people at the moment, but he could not detect the existence of this basketball kid at all! There was only one explanation, and that is, the other party's Perceptive Sense crushingly overpowered his, and he probably also had other supporting abilities such as 'Interfere' or 'Mislead', thus he completely messed with Sheyan's eyes, ears, and even his brain!
Of course, Sheyan could choose to infect all the people within range - all 1000+ of them. That way, the basketball teen Hakeem was also bound to be infected too. But Sheyan knew that the consequences of doing so would be quite severe. The 'Stairway of the Sun' might even wilt from it.
Sheyan now realized that Hakeem's thoughts were not so simple. Everybody had their own way of surviving, but this boy had chosen a shortcut, and that was to guard a tree-stump to wait for a rabbit!
Jack was a guy who made an appearance in the movie, but he was not that eye-catching.Only people who had carefully analyzed the situation realised that Jack actually knew both the main characters, Agent K and Agent J. He had even known J before J joined the Men in Black. He also sold a lot of illegal weapons to aliens, so his role and his connections were pretty amazing.
Therefore, Hakeem unhesitatingly came to Jack's store to cast his net. Unfortunately, Sheyan was probably the first fish he caught....
"You've had 10 seconds," Hakeem suddenly raised his head and looked at Sheyan emotionlessly.
Right after the word "seconds", Sheyan suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis coming from the left. When he turned his head, he saw that the electric pole had turned into a Maxim 6-barrel heavy machine gun, which proceeded to fire six blinding shots!
Sheyan immediately threw himself to the side and used the special Cadillac left by the senior Man in Black agent as cover.
There were a few innocent passers-by around the place. The first to bear the brunt of the attack were naturally these unfortunate local inhabitants. In the face of the terrifying bullet volley, their bodies were turned into sieves! They were blown up into the air, their blood spraying everywhere and their limbs folding.
Sheyan squeezed as much value out of the local inhabitants as he could, although he usually did not like to do so. When the local inhabitants were all dead, he had already reached a corner where the shots couldn't find him.