The assassin from Dark Shadow Guild chuckled as he twisted the blade in my chest. To be more accurate, he actually stabbed me from behind, and the blade erupted from my chest after having pierced my heart. It was a fatal blow.
"Zhi Ming!" Lisa screamed, rushing over, but Lou Qian was quicker. She grabbed hold of Lisa and pushed her back.
"Nian Qing, take care of Lisa! Lei Shu! With me!"
The two of them raced forward, their weapons crackling with evolution energy. Pang Fei, who was next to me, was the first to reach my killer, gusts of wind billowing from his chakrams as he slashed at the assassin.
The hooded man ducked away, his blade flashing out and cleaving through the wind. His figure was shrouded entirely in a black cloak, probably to conceal his identity as much as possible. His face was hidden behind a mask, but I doubted I would recognize him even if his features were revealed.
Pang Fei continued to attack, but the assassin cut his wind blades apart before kicking the chubby wind evolver aside. My friend choked and hit the ground, rolling and clutching his solar plexus. Before the assassin could finish him off, a web of lightning and a barrage of icicles slammed down on him, forcing him to retreat.
The assassin turned to face the approaching Lei Shu and Lou Qian, then shook his head.
"My mission is already accomplished. There is no reason for me to stay and fight the other kids. I'm only paid to kill that Feng Zhi Ming fella."
"Oh, then you've failed."
"What?!"
The assassin turned around, only to realize that I had seized his ankle with one hand. I was lying on the ground, bleeding out from a mortal wound from my chest, weakened and grievously injured. But I wasn't going to die without a fight.
"How…? My dagger clearly pierced your heart!"
To be honest, that should have killed me outright. In fact, it would have if it was a week ago, before I unlocked my first Ability on the Evolution Tree, I would be 100% dead.
As it was, my Ability prevented my death. I did mention that it was a life-saving Ability, especially in the most critical of moments, didn't I?
The holographic window at the edge of my vision displayed everything. The Ability I had chosen was Hades: God of Death. The window below the grand-sounding name had the descriptions, though there were currently two parts to the Ability.
1. Cheat Death: Saves the user from certain death by a single lethal strike. Cooldown: 24 hours.
Right now, the cooldown was about 23 hours, 58 minutes and 49 seconds, though. About a minute and 11 seconds had passed since it was activated. I could still feel my half-entry into the underworld after that backstab.
"Impossible!" The assassin growled, and then raised his dagger. "Doesn't matter. If you didn't die the first time, then I'll kill you again! And again! Until you die!"
"Sorry to disappoint you," I replied sourly. My response wasn't simply to my would-be killer. It was also to the readers. I had gone past the veil of death and seen the existences beyond the fourth wall, or rather the comments they posted. Most, if not all the readers had posted nasty comments, cheering at the end of the previous chapter because they thought I was finally dead. They hated me as a protagonist, thinking I was pathetic and a loser, or weak and stupid and useless (which was ironic, considering that every protagonist in supposedly Chinese web novels always started out as "trash"). They wanted me dead, and were finally delighted when they saw that last sentence in the previous chapter.
It made me wonder why the hell they were still reading about my life experiences if they hated me so much. Were they expecting a new "ruthless" and "alpha" protagonist in line with their desires, or were they relieved that my story would end here and now?
Well, not sorry to disappoint them.
"Zhi Ming!" Lisa shouted, bringing me back to the present. I guess the loss of blood, the pain and weakness were causing me too lose focus. I was drifting in and out, but I struggled to concentrate on the current danger. The dagger was scything toward my head. The assassin was wary, having figured out that if I wouldn't die from an obliterated heart, he would just destroy my brain instead. And since Cheat Death was on cooldown for almost 24 hours, I couldn't rely on it to save me this time.
Fortunately, I still had another card to play. Tightening my grip on my assailant's ankle, I activated the second part of my Hades Ability.
2. Death Dealing: Inflict the damage that the user had sustained on an opponent. Cooldown: 20 minutes.
"Ugh!?"
The assassin faltered, dropping his dagger as blood spurted from his mouth. I smiled and let go of his foot, rolling away to allow my friends to bombard him with ice and lightning. It was truly a pity that I couldn't inflict lethal damage on the assassin – Cheating Death had nullified the lethal damage to "merely" severe damage. But it was enough to weaken him enough for my friends to fight him.
"Zhi Ming!" Lisa was hurrying toward me, escorted by Nian Qing. I tried to point at Pang Fei, coughing and unable to speak properly because my throat was filled with blood. But my friend shook his head vehemently.
"I'm fine, you idiot! Your injuries are more serious than mine! Lisa, please heal Zhi Ming! I'm counting on you!"
Unfortunately for me, while Cheat Death had saved my life from an otherwise fatal blow, it didn't cancel out the damage. I was still heavily injured. I could do nothing but watch as Pang Fei joined Lei Shu and Lou Qian in attacking the assassin. Even though there were three of them against a wounded killer, they weren't able to take advantage of their greater numbers to defeat him. Despite his injuries, he was still pretty skilled, shadowy energies lashing out from his dagger to keep them at bay.
In fact, the only reason why none of my teammates were killed by him yet was because he was severely hurt. Otherwise he would probably have wiped them out already. Even though my stats were about 40 each, I still hadn't noticed him sneaking up on me at all. I couldn't react in time, which meant his speed was probably greater than my Agility of 40. And for his single attack to effectively kill me, it meant my Endurance of 40 was nothing compared to his strength.
Using his superior experience, the assassin swept underneath Lou Qian's feet, ducking under her scythe and stabbing upward. Lou Qian managed to bring the haft of her weapon down to parry the blow, sparks flying from the collision. Shadows reared up from the blade, only to be frozen solid by the frost that surrounded her.
With a heave, the assassin knocked Lou Qian back, causing her to stumble. Before he could finish her off, he was forced to spin around and parry Lei Shu's sword. Lightning crackled and blasted him, but the assassin wrapped his body in shadows to nullify the deadly currents. He then kicked Lei Shu back, who just barely managed to catch the killer's foot with the hilt of his sword.
Pang Fei's chakrams then swung toward the assassin's neck from behind, arcing from both sides. The assassin ducked under the decapitating blow and then rammed his elbow into Pang Fei's solar plexus, causing the poor guy to double over. His shadows reared up to form a wall, deflecting lightning and ice from Lei Shu and Lou Qian, and then he twisted around to stab the kneeling Pang Fei with his dagger.
Then a bolt from my pistol slammed into his dagger with uncanny precision, deflecting the blade. Wheezing, Pang Fei propelled himself away with a gust of wind to carry himself to a safe distance. The assassin formed a curtain of shadows to block my shots, but before he could pursue Pang Fei, Nian Qing's wooden spear thrust at him, forcing him to parry it with his dagger.
Snarling, the assassin slashed and forced Nian Qing back, but he was able to conjure a bunch of roots to tangle the assassin's feet and bind him to the ground. Dropping to a crouch, the assassin hurriedly cut the roots to free himself while summoning a shadow barrier to block the mass tangle of wood, webs of lightning and glacial storm of icicles from my teammates. Even Pang Fei sent a blistering gust of wind blades in his direction, but the elemental projectiles dispersed harmlessly against the wall of shadows.
"You kids think you can kill me?" The assassin sneered. "I'm from the Dark Shadow Guild. I've been killing even before you brats were born."
Instead of retorting, I responded with a well-aimed blasts from my plasma rifles. The assassin didn't even know what hit him, still hidden behind his wall of shadows. The superheated streams punched through whatever shadowy shields he could raise and engulfed him. The assassin's eyes widened and he screamed before his body was vaporized.
It didn't matter how experienced or powerful he was. He wasn't going to withstand a direct hit from heavy plasma weapons.
"Holy heavens…!" Pang Fei exclaimed. "You…you took him out!"
"Yeah, I did," I said numbly, not sure how I should feel. I didn't actually think I would be killing a fellow human. Granted, the bastard tried to kill me first, but I hadn't actually taken a human life before. The feeling was horrible, an unsettling unease in my stomach. I wasn't sure how to explain it, but it felt like I was dreaming…or that I was wishing the whole thing was a horrible dream.
But the main feeling was the numb shock that spread throughout my mind. The pain from my injuries was gone, thanks to Lisa, who was holding my hand and trying to comfort me, but that didn't help to shake off the mental shock that was permeating my mind.
I blinked and instinctively shifted my gaze to the Kill Count. Even though I knew it was morally wrong, I had always wondered how many Kill Count points a human life was worth. Especially an evolver – the assassin was an evolver with shadow abilities. Would he be worth as much as a warrior category mutant? Perhaps more, given his strength?
No…he wasn't. In fact, I was astonished to see that my Kill Count had dropped from 68 to 58.
"What the…?"
"What's the matter, Zhi Ming?" Lisa asked, concerned. "Are you still hurt?"
"No…no. Sorry, I just…" I shook my head, not sure how to explain. I couldn't tell my friends and girlfriend that I was seeing numbers and a floating system in the air that nobody else could see. Even my brother thought I was crazy or that I read too many system web novels. Well, it wasn't important, but it appeared that the system followed its own set of rules.
Clearly I was penalized for killing other humans, having 10 points deducted from my Kill Count. That made sense. The system was designed to reward me for killing zombies and mutants, so it obviously prioritized the protection of human lives over anything else. That meant I had to avoid killing at all costs, a measure that was a last resort. I was perfectly fine with that. I wasn't some psychotic murderer who reveled in taking the lives of other people to increase my Kill Count. Perhaps some people prefer ruthless and evil protagonists without any morality whatsoever, but I wasn't that kind of person.
If anything, I would like to think of myself as an ally of justice…someone who could eventually become a hero.
"Yeah…I should avoid killing other people," I muttered under my breath, closing my eyes and trying to swallow the nausea that welled up within me. Lisa clutched my hands tighter, mistaking my statement.
"It wasn't your fault. You were trying to protect us. If you didn't eliminate that murderer, we all would have perished."
"Yeah! It was totally legitimate self-defense! We'll be your witnesses!" Pang Fei assured me.
"The real question is…who is he?" Lou Qian frowned. "And why did he try to kill you? His target was clearly you."
"He mentioned something about the Dark Shadow Guild," Lei Shu said thoughtfully. "What the hell is the Dark Shadow Guild?"
"I heard of that," Pang Fei said, his tone tense. "They're an underground organization of assassins. Criminal evolvers who people hire to assassinate other people."
"What? So someone hired an assassin to take out our boss?" Nian Qing demanded, glaring at the charred remains of my victim. "Who?!"
"I don't know. It's not like I'm some major political figure or an heir to a rich family." I shook my head, frustrated. The shock was slowly wearing off, but I still had this creepy sensation like I was in a waking nightmare. "Why would anyone want to assassinate me?"
"It wouldn't be a Chinese web novel if you didn't have idiots trying to kill you at every turn," Lei Shu muttered. He pondered for a moment. "Did you offend anybody lately? Like some arrogant young master or something?"
"Dude…fiction is different from reality, you know?" I grumbled. But Pang Fei suddenly struck his palm with a hand in realization, his eyes darting toward Lisa.
"Yeah, that's right…that Mu Rong Shao guy…isn't he mad at you for stealing Lisa from him? And he's from a family rich enough to pull stunts like this."
"That's very possible," Lou Qian agreed with a frown, thinking hard as she studied me, who was being supported by Lisa. "The problem is…how are we going to find the evidence that he's behind this?"