It was close to morning, and some of the most dedicated salarymen in Neon had already started heading out from home.
Two middle-aged men with almost-bald heads, showing signs of corporate torture, walked down the street with briefcases in hand.
"Damn this company, having us clock in so early! When will the exploitative companies in Neon finally die out?"
"Exactly. And that president doesn't even treat us like human beings... Ouch!"
The two grumbled about their companies as they walked down the street. Suddenly, one of them stumbled and fell, as if he had tripped over something.
But when he got up and looked back, he saw nothing. After looking around for a while, he cursed under his breath and continued on with the other man.
However, where he had stumbled, there was indeed someone standing: Zuke.
He pulled back his foot, watching the backs of the two salarymen disappear down the street. By now, he had fully understood the "Presence Concealment" ability he'd acquired from Hassan of the Hundred Faces.
With Hassan's Presence Concealment at A+ rank, while not true invisibility, he could still make himself practically unnoticeable to ordinary people.
Just now, he had tripped that salaryman, and though the man sensed someone was there, he hadn't noticed Zuke at all.
To be honest… it reminded him a bit of Megumi Kato.
As for Hassan's Noble Phantasm, Delusional Illusion, he hadn't received that. Maybe it was because this Hassan was only a copy.
Fortunately, since he had absorbed the Assassin as his Blackbird Stand, these abilities were centered on Blackbird.
Thus, as long as Zuke didn't activate them, these skills wouldn't passively remain active.
Otherwise, if he was always cloaked in "Presence Concealment," he might end up like a certain bunny girl in the real world—completely unnoticed by everyone.
That would be even worse than Megumi Kato's situation.
"It seems this is all I can accomplish today… Next time I enter the mission world, all the other Servants should be present."
Zuke calculated his progress; two Servants were dealt with today, advancing his Holy Grail War quest.
He had plans for the remaining Servants.
He would save Rider and Archer for last. The former had a deal with Waver, while Archer's Master was Tohsaka Tokiomi, father of Tohsaka Rin.
As Rin's admirer, Zuke was willing to show her some respect—unless Tokiomi died prematurely, in which case he could just finish off Archer without worrying about face.
When the time came, he would locate Archer and take him down. He had long coveted the Noble Phantasms with high practical value in Gate of Babylon.
Caster hadn't been summoned yet; his Master, Ryuunosuke Uryuu, was a serial killer likely still committing crimes in Fuyuki City. Once he was summoned, Zuke could deal with him directly.
Saber would arrive in Fuyuki City with Einzbern's homunculus, Irisviel. They should arrive in the next day or two; maybe he could stake out the airport to intercept them.
Ironically, the weakest Assassin was the most troublesome… theoretically, he could split into 80 copies, dispersed who knows where.
As long as one remained, Assassin wouldn't be fully eliminated—unless Kirei Kotomine, as in the original story, ordered all of the Assassins to gather in one place to die.
With that thought, Zuke shook his head and exited the mission world.
In fact, losing one Assassin didn't matter much. In the original story, the Grail descended when only two Servants remained.
His goal was to acquire the Grail, not to kill everyone. So what if an Assassin copy survived?
…
"Master, the clone monitoring Kenneth was killed."
In the basement of the Tohsaka residence, Kirei Kotomine received a report from another Assassin.
Although they lacked telepathic abilities, and thus couldn't communicate from a distance, the death of one clone was sensed by the others.
"Oh? Was it killed by Lancer?"
However, it was not Kirei who responded, but Archer Gilgamesh, who was seated on the couch.
His red pupils radiated arrogance and revealed a hint of interest in Kirei. Moments ago, Kirei had brought him his Command Seals and shared details about Tohsaka Tokiomi.
Thus, Gilgamesh now understood Kirei's true nature—a scoundrel who derived pleasure from the suffering of others.
To Gilgamesh, however, having a scoundrel as a Master was at least more interesting than Tokiomi, that dullard.
"At the end of the day, it's just a brawl between two mongrels. It makes no difference to me who lives or dies."
Seeing everyone else as mongrels, Gilgamesh was entirely uninterested in Assassin's death.
The massacre at the top floor of the Hyatt Hotel hadn't yet been exposed, so Kirei and Gilgamesh were unaware that Kenneth and Lancer were already dead.
Since the Assassin had been monitoring Kenneth, they naturally assumed Lancer had killed him.
…
{Transitioning to Shin}
[Current World: Fate/Zero]
[Main Quest: Obtain the Holy Grail from the Fourth Holy Grail War]
[Player Zuke's Sync Rate: 30%]
[Please push forward with the main quest to unlock additional power sync]
Upon returning to the system interface, Shin saw that his sync rate had reached 30%.
This meant he could now use 30% of his Berserker ability, which translated into a 30% combat power boost.
This ability didn't conflict with Kaio-Ken, so Shin nodded in satisfaction.
As for the drawback of losing his speech ability… there was no need for words in a fight with Frieza. He didn't rely on words to release techniques like Word Spirit.
All he needed was harder punches.
With that thought, Shin took another look at the mission world selection interface.
[Dear Zuke, please select the mission world to enter next: 1. Dragon Ball (Time Unadjusted); 2. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Time Unadjusted); 3. Fate/Zero (Time Unadjusted)]
"…Hmm?"
Shin quickly noticed a change in the selection interface.
The suffix for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure had changed from "Main Quest Under Development" to "Time Unadjusted"?
So, had the main quest been prepared?
To be continued…
The Galactic Prisoner, Moro.
Blackbird's appetite for Moro.
Btw, hoi Ningen, FBI is after you after going through your search history. Hand over your Power Stones to me so I can bribe them for you winks.
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