Before the two agents realise what happened, a bullet precisely hits the three grenades hiding in the hand of the body. With explosion in such close range, two night owl agents suffer from multiple grenade damage. The explosion waves emerge them.
[You deal 60*8 explosion damage to the enemy!]
[You kill night owl agents*2, 1500 experience obtained]
Xiao stands up from the grass. He looks terrible. His half body is burned black. He has only 50 HP lefts and is still bleeding. His stigma is nearly empty too. His life is like candlelight which may be put out in any second. The pain attacks his nerve. He has to focus on pressing it in case he faints. Xiao took the dead night owl agent body as a shield which helped him survived the grenade explosion. He put his own clothes on the body with pain and made a grenade trap with the three grenade from the dead agent. Then he quickly hided in the grass nearby like a hunter. Only silver blade found the trap and avoided it.
The blood obscures Xiao's view. He is trembling. He realises that he can't give silver blade time to step back to keep the distance. Silver blade just gets up, a bloody shadow rushes to him. "You are suicide!" Silver blade is furious and pulls out the dagger and stabs.
…..
Light from the helicopter shines in the forest. Haila slides down with string stair. The area under her foot is full of bullets' hole and traces of explosion. Apparently, there was a violent fight. The subject squad has found and search around here already. One's face goes black and he stays silent. Haila looks at the six bodies on the ground and she is shocked!
The 3rd Night owl squad was wiped out! Zero, No clue! The result is unbelievable! Haila losses her mind for several miniutes. She squats down to examine the bodies. Two were killed by explosion, one was shot dead, three were killed in close fight. The goggles of silver blade was broken into pieces and the glass pieces inserted into his eyes balls. She touches his body and feels that most bones were broken especially his under parts. The injury is obviously caused by a fighting master. There is no clue that Zero did it!
She is aware of Zero's close fight ability which is merely a bit better than normal people. Compared with well-trained night owl squad, Zero is like a rat. Fighting is impossible to learn in a second. It needs training. Zero had maximum half-year training! Haila won't believe it if she didn't see the results herself.
"Did he awake super power like me??" Haila regrets that she didn't pay more attention to Xiao. Maybe she could tell if he awake super power. When Zero fled, she happened to be away. This makes her gloomy. She is confident that she could catch Zero if she were there. Was it luck or Zero took the chance when she was away?
"The equipments of night owl squads are gone. But we find this" An agent brings the light powered arm which is full of blood now. A dagger inserted in the gear and broke the engine. "Take it back."
...
One day later. Many of the Sprout arrive at the Warki base. They study the remaining surveillance to search for clues. The leader comes too. The leader of the Sprout is in black coat, black mask and black gloves. There is rumour in the organisation that there are no more than five people know what the leader looks like.
"Where is Zero" The leader asks simply. "We lost him" One answers with shame, "If we have more time…" Before he explains, the leader rises his hand to stop him. The gesture is full of impantience and anger. One has to shut up.
The leader is furious. Zero was a trash several days ago. Now, the trash causes great loss and escapes! "A failed subject, killed over thirty guards, destroyed the experimental data, wiped out an elite night owl squad, killed Gramme and successfully escaped. Is it a fairy?"
Every one looks at others. No one dares to answer.
"I need to know when Zero come to resist and how he has such power!" The leader shouts.
"We studied the surveillance in the past half year and have some assumptions" A researcher steps out and replies carefully.
"Name it."
"Zero had dramatic change afeter the experiment. According to the report of human material team, the original name of Zero is Han Xiao, the third son of Elfmeira family's second hand." The surrounding are shocked. Elfmeria family, a famous warlord family, a partner of Peleus nation.
The human materials for Warki experiments are usually prisoners or stragglers. How could they get some one with background? "Third son of Elfmeira family's second hand? What happened?" The leader asked with doubt.
"From our intelligence, Xiao is a mediocre son of Elfmeira family's second hand. No awaken stigma. No outstanding leading ability. A awkward. We found him dying in a battle field. He was following his elder brother Hai Xiao. They were escorting some goods and materials and were ambushed"
"Go on. "
"At that time, Hai was commander and the attcker's target was him not the goods. Hai was born leader and would inherit second hand place of the family. According to our intelligence , this attack is an internal strife to get rid of the inherit of second hand. Hai forced his brother Xiao to put on his clothes and run separately. Xiao was hit by a bullet and Hai esceped."
"How could the intelligence be so precise?"
"Em. Hai didn't hide even about his enforcement. The death of Xiao didn't trigger any hate in the family. Their father said 'As long as Hai is safe, it's fine' You know that Elfmeria family admire power. Xiao is dispensable in the family. His relatives don't care about his death… And our search team found him dying."
The death of orginal body is nothing. No one cares. In the view of Elfmeria family, the death of a coward son in exchange for the life of an excellent inherit is acceptable. The benefit is greater than emotion. "Weak is orginal sin. Weak people don't deserve pity. I want to know what happen to him now!"
"We assume that Warki solution mutate on Zero. It brings Zero the talent on machine and incridible intelligence. Zero pretended to be harmless in half year which meant that he planed to escape half year ago."
"You mean the brain wash had no effect on him?" Haila can't help cutting the conversation.
"I am afraid so." Haila's face is full of regret. The research continues: "We wonder why a brain wahsed subject would like to resist or run away. There is only one possibility - the experiment brought him something. Zero's orginal body didn't posses any excellence. He being cunning indicates that a different personality is awaken."
"Are you sure?" The leader askes.
"No.." The researcher feels the pressure but he can't be sure. This is just a plausible assumption.
"Is it luck?" One can't help suggesting. The leader stares at him like looking at dumb. If you can copy Zero with luck, I will let you be the leader.
"By the way, the mechanical arm Zero used is studied. Although it's quite rough technic, it's quiet creative. We think that the most power of Zero came from this equipment. The weapon departement would like to modify it to equip our army. This might cost some money."
The first good news of the day. The leader is a bit chilled. "Money is not a problem if they can reproduce it." The resercher nods and brings the conversation back to Zero, "Whatever the reason is, Zero could be undetected in half year. With his talents in machine and fighting, he is a discreet and deadly danger."
Every one is thinking of this conclusion. "Zero is a special subjet with high research value. If we can have his body, live or not, the Warki experiment data could be more complete." Zero is like a hunter who hides in shadow for half year. Some one like him is scary but also triggers the desire to study him.
One's face goes black when he hears the praise the researcher gives to Zero. The last thing he could bear is lose to Zero. Since he was 'born', One knew he was the second subject. There is a Zero before him. He considered Zero as enemy in his mind all the time. When he thought he finally surpassed Zero, the fact is ruthless.
Something comes to the leader's mind, "By the way, before we figure out the hidden trouble of Warki solution, stop all experiments! Brain wash all subjects again! I don't want to see another Zero!" Anger in eyes, One feels his loyalty is insulted. He shouts "I would like to lead a team to get Zero back!" The leader glimmps at him. He pins a lot hope on subject squad and says "Could you?" "100%!" One feels the attention from the leader and he is determined.
"Great! Bring Zero back! Live or not!"