I Refuse.

Alex let go of Claudia, who was still fuming with rage. Nevertheless, she stopped herself from going any further than this. She hated herself for losing, but she understood that this wasn't a fluke.

Zhao Jin immediately rushed after she left. He wanted to fight Alex the most out of everyone, so he wasn't going to let this chance go to waste.

"Come on! It's my turn next."

Without giving a warning sign, he attacked Alex on his back. He aimed to immobilize him for an easy victory.

Alex expected this and dodged towards the side. But Zhao didn't stop. He attacked using his second leg, trying to catch him by surprise. At the same time, he landed on his first leg and tried executing his body to propel himself towards Alex so that if he missed his kick, he would be ready to strike him with his hands.

Alex truly didn't want to create another scene, so he dealt with him as swiftly as possible. Zhao had flashy moves, so he was able to attack with great power. But he was quite open to a simple attack.

Alex used his fist to directly exploit the gap towards his abdomen, which was unguarded. His balance was off as well, so he wasn't able to pull off any defense tactics. He could sense that his moves were based on the relic item, methods of movement, but they were not well-practiced.

The attack hit, but Zhao's body was able to take it without any pain. He was sturdy, so he decided to take the hit and grab his arm. He was successfully able to do so, but then Alex did the unthinkable.

He spun his body around and locked Zhao's head with his legs. To protect himself, Zhao freed his arms to get out of the lock, but Alex, who had both of his hands' free now, was able to restrain his arms, and then he used his body to jerk Zhao to the ground and pin him down.

"I give up. You are just as strong as madam described."

Alex let him go. They both got up, and Zhao gave him a thumbs up.

"Dima, would you like to try him?"

Sylvia asked The prince of the Smirnov family.

"I don't need to, madam. He is strong, but if I were to get serious, which is the only way I will fight a person like him, he will die."

Dima was not joking. Alex was good, but Dima was one of the best. He would rather kill a person than go easy on him and lose.

"Well, suit yourself." She couldn't force him to fight Alex. If he didn't want to, then there was no need to push him.

"Kane. You go next."

Kane was in shock, but as soon as he heard his mother say that, he snapped out of it. He had been training his whole life to lead their family, but his brother, who was supposed to not even be an assassin, was fighting on par with some of the greatest talents in the four families. He had to get his act together, and at least be good enough to give his elder brother a fight.

"Brother, please give me some pointers."

Alex smiled. He knew that Kane was probably going through the biggest identity crisis in his life.

"Sure. Let's do this."

Alex attacked first. He aimed to make it swift, so he ran straight towards him, and used his hand to chop at Kane's neck. Kane brought his hands up to block, but Alex twisted his arms and contracted his muscles to the maximum to use brute force to break his block, and hit him directly on his neck.

Kane blacked out. It was fast, accurate, and ruthless.

"Well done. With this, we can finally get to your mission."

Sylvia said to Alex, who was carrying Kane in his hands. Alex was still annoyed at her, but he didn't show it on his face. His face had a smile plastered on it, throughout the entire series of events.

"What is it, mother?"

Alex was also curious about his mission. It would officially launch him into the Assassin world.

Everyone else had their ears perked up. They wanted to see what sort of difficult mission would he receive.

"Kill him."

Sylvia pointed towards Kane.

For a second, everyone except Sylvia froze.

"I need to kill him? Why?"

Alex obviously didn't want to do that. There were too many thoughts in his mind.

"Simple. He simply needs to die. We don't accept people who are not able to reciprocate our effort with results. He was good, but he failed to live up to his expectations. We have you now. We don't need him."

So many points to criticize here. He couldn't believe her, so he asked,

"But why was I allowed to live then? I was practically worthless 3 years ago."

"That was because you were my son. You weren't groomed to be an assassin, so in the end, they took pity on you and sent you away. He has been trained to be better than you. If he can't even defeat you, then what is the point of having a head start over you?"

"Anyways, there isn't enough space for two family heads. Either kill him or suffer the consequences."

Her tone was icy. She was dead serious.

Alex had already made up his mind. He wasn't going to be a pawn for this woman.

"I'll make myself clear, mother. I don't care about my position in the family. I just want to be an assassin."

"So, I refuse. I don't particularly like him, and I would gladly pass this opportunity to him because of this."

Everyone was shocked once again. In her entire life, Sylvia had only been disobeyed once, and the person that committed that error did not live to see another day.

Sylvia on the other hand was ecstatic.

"So you decided to take the fun path after all. I am proud of you for making that decision, but I still have to punish you somehow."

"The punishment for refusing the first mission from the family is as follows."

"I hereby announce that Alex Curran is no longer an assassin from the main family. He has 1 year to prove that his family, The Kramer Family, can actually provide some assistance to the main family. If he fails to do so, the entire family will be annihilated."

"Son, you have been officially disowned."

'Let's see how for long you can escape my grasp. You will become my pawn, sooner or later.'