Lu Gao En left less than two hours ago, meaning that he must have received Norsaâs intel just then.
Since Norsa had come directly to a.s.sa.s.sinate him, he must have tasked Lu Gao En with reporting the information back to their organization. Lu Gao En would definitely not have expected Han Xiao to know of him, so he would not see a need to deliver the intel with haste. Under such circ.u.mstances, the city pa.s.s that he would use would most likely be the one nearest to himâthe Northwest Pa.s.s.
However, it was still possible that he would choose to use either of the further pa.s.ses.
There was no way to tell.
âAy, Han Xiao, weâre here. What did you call us here for?â
Li Ya Lin, Zhang Wei, and Lambert arrived. They had managed to come on time thanks to Li Ya Linâs ride, a yellow convertible sports car.
âAn emergency mission. One of Germinalâs spies here acquired some important information. Thereâs a chance that he hasnât left the city yet, but he could be at any of the three pa.s.ses.â
Li Ya Lin wiped the playful smile off her face upon hearing the severity of the situation.
âDo you have a picture of him?â she asked.
Han Xiao picked up some sc.r.a.ps of newspaper around him and began to draw out a rough image of Lu Gao En from his faded memory. He then yanked the homeless guy from earlier on up and barked, âLook at this, does it look like Lu Gao En?â
âThe eyes should be lower⌠his nose is a little crooked⌠hair is shorterâŚâ
With the manâs help, Han Xiao was able to produce sketches of Lu Gao En with a 70 or 80 percent resemblance. He then pa.s.sed them to the trio and instructed, âLetâs split up and get the security officers to keep an eye out for this person. Li Ya Lin and I will take her car to the furthest city entrance, while each of you will go to the other two.â
Zhang Weiâs face twitched as Han Xiao gave them the orders. âAm I still the leader of this team?â
Nonetheless, he let it slide as it was an emergency.
As they set off, Han Xiao immediately hopped into the driverâs seat of Li Ya Linâs car.
âHey, itâs my car!â grumbled Li Ya Lin immediately. âIâll drive.â
âYou drive too slow.â
âYou donât trust the driving skills of a top agentâ˝â Li Ya Lin was so outraged that her eyebrows were almost contorted upside-down. Unfortunately, she knew that there was no time to argue, so she grudgingly got into the pa.s.sengerâs seat.
âTighten your seatbelt,â reminded Han Xiao.
Li Ya Lin rolled her eyes at him, replying, âYou must be joking. Iâm a pugilist; Iâll be fine no matter how fast you go.â
âSuit yourself,â replied Han Xiao with a plain nod as he stamped on the accelerator.
âŚ
Half an hour later, a yellow sports car appeared at the South Entrance. Spinning almost full-circle, the car left four sizzling, black tire marks on the road as it came to an abrupt stop.
âBlearghââ
âHey, hey, I thought you were a pugilist?â
âYou⌠donât talk to me nâ bleeaarrghââ
Li Ya Lin puked non-stop as she leaned on the car door.
âHalf an hour, and 27 car accidents⌠or was it 28? My headâs spinning so much that I canât even count.
âWho taught you to drive?â
Han Xiao raised an eyebrow.
âDoes driving have to be taught?â
âD-doesnât it?â
âThe first driver didnât have anyone to teach him, did he?â
Li Ya Lin gaped in the face of Han Xiaoâs perfect logic. She was about to shoot back at him when, suddenly, the urge to vomit kicked in again, causing her to throw her head back to the side.
âReally? I only drove a little fast, thatâs all.â
âA little fast? I doubt the word âbrakeâ even exists in your vocabulary!â
âFine, fine, letâs stop wasting time.â
As Li Ya Lin tried to get back on her feet, she lost balance and almost tripped into her own pile of vomit. Fortunately, Han Xiao was able to provide support in time. Shaking his head, he began to drag her along with him toward the sentry post.
As they neared the post, the stationed troop yelled out, âStop! Show your ID!â
As Han Xiao reached into his pockets to take out his ID card, his expression froze as he realized that he had forgotten to bring them along. Without asking, he directly reached into Li Ya Linâs pockets to find hers.
Top pockets⌠none.
Bottom pockets⌠none.
âWhereâs your pa.s.s?â he asked.
As Li Ya Lin still seemed too dizzy to think straight, Han Xiao continued feeling around that dynamite body of hers for it.
âIâ Iâm being taken advantage ofâ˝â
âAh! I found it,â rejoiced Han Xiao. He then held the pa.s.s up toward the guard, who had been gulping at the show.
âOh, you guys are agents. Come on in.â
As Han Xiao took a few steps forward, he discovered that Li Ya Lin was still rooted to the spot, giving him a deathly stare.
âWhatâs wrong? Hurry up.â
Li Ya Lin took a deep breath to compose herself.
âGive me my ID back,â she said stiffly.
âWhy so fussy?â replied Han Xiao impatiently. He then casually walked back toward her and slotted the pa.s.s back into her rear pocket.
Li Ya Linâs eyes widened.
âIâ Iâm being taken advantage of againâ˝â
Han Xiao then strode toward the sentry post to give the military officer in charge of security the sketch of Lu Gao En.
âPlease wait a moment as the system performs a footage scan.â
Li Ya Lin entered the sentry post still biting her lips. The way that Han Xiao had felt her up did not seem to contain any ill-intentions at all. As such, she was having a hard time even getting angry at him. She was just very unhappy, for some reason, and she continued glaring at him.
âŚ
Lu Gao En worked for an intelligence organization known as Storm Eye, one of the many sub-groups that were secretly under the wing of the Germinal Organization.
In most cities, Storm Eye had one âhead contactâ in charge of relaying information back to the Germinal Organization, as well as a few covert agents who gathered intel and only reported back to the head contact.
One of Lu Gao Enâs agents had reported seeing someone matching Zeroâs description in District 7. While at first unclear of Han Xiaoâs location, Lu Gao En had discovered, after repeated investigations, that there was an area in District 7 that seemed to be cordoned off and watched closely by Division 13. It was most likely where Zero was hiding.
Upon finding out that transmissions leaving the city were being blocked, he realized that Division 13 must have gotten wind of him somehow. Hence, he decided to go offline and take his computer apart in order to prevent being traced before heading toward the city entrance to leave.
At present, Lu Gao En was blended in with a crowd of people approaching one of the cityâs entrances.
âNorsa must have completed the a.s.sa.s.sination by now.â
Suddenly, the great metal-fenced gate before him closed up.
âWhat happened?â
âWhy are we being stopped?â
âWe have orders to temporarily seal the exits,â announced a soldier, starting a commotion among the crowd.
âWhy would they close the gatesâ˝â Lu Gao En was shocked. âDid Norsa fail?â
Still, as he had been extremely careful for the past two to three years, he was not worried of being discovered.
âHeâs the one!â
The sudden shout from behind caused Lu Gao En to turn around. There was a bunch of troops walking menacingly in his direction. They were obviously after him.
âImpossible!â
Lu Gao En immediately looked around him to find an escape path, but it was too late. Not only was he surrounded by the crowd, there were simply way too many troops in the vicinity. As despair filled him, he allowed a soldier to pin him onto the ground without resistance.
As Han Xiao appeared at the scene, he sighed a breath of relief.
âWe made it in time.â
âYou really did!â Li Ya Lin was amazed.
âHow did you guys know it was me?â asked Lu Gao En as he raised his head to look up at Han Xiao.
Han Xiao looked back at him plainly. In Galaxy, Lu Gao En was the primary contact for all Germinal-allied players in the Western Capital.
As Lu Gao En resigned to his fate, he decided to activate the poison sac stored in his tooth. He would rather die than divulge any information regarding the organization that he had dedicated his whole life to.
Suddenly, Han Xiao pulled out his handgun to fire a shot at Lu Gao Enâs head, sending a trail of blood and brain matter spurting out.
_____________________
You have killed Lu Gao En (Lv.12), gaining 3,500 experience.
Han Xiao raised his gun up to blow off the smoke from its barrel.
âIf you want to die, at least give me the experience.â
âWhy did you kill him?â
Li Ya Lin was stunned by Han Xiaoâs sudden action. Division 13 could obviously have extracted a lot of vital information from him.
âThereâs poison stored in his teeth, his nails, and he even has some needles concealed in his clothes. We wouldnât have been able to stop him from killing himself.â
Han Xiao shook his head.
In any case, Lu Gao Enâs death was truly insignificant to him; he already possessed all the information that he needed. Nonetheless, things were getting a bit dicey.
âLooks like Iâd better speed things up,â he thought.