Chapter 4: The Tasks of Senior

A few minutes later, Yang Zhisheng stood up, opened the door, and Yu Man walked in with a smiling face.

"I've cleaned up the mess for you. Next time, make sure it's cleaner. Blood stains are a pain to deal with," Yu Man said.

Yang Zhisheng closed the door and pointed at Zhou Ming and said, "It wasn't me."

"Him?" Yu Man looked surprised, but soon her expression turned playful.

"It looks like our little friend here has a lot of secrets he's keeping from us."

Zhou Ming pretended to smile wryly and said, "Everyone has secrets, don't they?"

By now, Zhou Ming had absorbed a lot of the killer's fighting experience and was no longer as slow-witted as before. Unfortunately, he had only absorbed pure combat experience and no memories, so he didn't gain any information about the killer.

"You're right," Yu Man nodded and extended her hand to Zhou Ming. "Welcome to our team."

Zhou Ming was taken aback for a moment, but then he smiled and shook Yu Man's hand.

Although they had been friendly to each other since the beginning, there was always an underlying sense of arrogance from the seasoned members towards the new recruits.

It wasn't until now that Zhou Ming's strength was recognized by the others that their attitude towards him changed, treating him as an equal.

Yu Man let go of Zhou Ming's hand and sat down on another chair beside him.

"In the hallway, I've deleted the surveillance footage of your fight with that killer. I've watched the fight myself, and that killer is not ordinary," Yu Man said.

"He has a far superior reaction speed and marksmanship, and he's not someone you newbies can handle. Plus, it was during your 12-hour protection period..."

"So that killer wasn't after you guys, their target was us," Yu Man continued.

Yang Zhisheng chimed in, "This time you were unlucky to be caught in the crossfire, but you took a bullet for us."

"Only targeting you and not us? Two waves of assassins?" Zhou Ming suddenly realized.

"The main god actually arranged different identities for you guys, right? And your mission probably has nothing to do with us."

Yu Man smiled, since they had already accepted Zhou Ming, there was no need to hide anything. They might as well be frank.

"Our mission is to destroy the assassin organization, Chronos, and we have 30 days to complete it."

"Although our mission has nothing to do with you, the performance of newbies will affect the final evaluation of our mission, so we won't abandon you."

The main god really treats newbies very well. Zhou Ming thought quietly in his heart, licked his lips, and asked another question.

"I want to ask, if newbies participate in your mission, will there be additional rewards after the mission is completed?"

Yu Man and Yang Zhisheng glanced at each other, and their eyes toward Zhou Ming were filled with deeper appreciation.

"Of course, the more outstanding your performance during the mission, the higher the final evaluation, and the richer the rewards you can get, including some high-quality special items."

"The exchange list of the main god space is almost endless and all-encompassing. However, higher-level exchange items generally require corresponding prerequisites."

"The main quest provided by the main god is certainly your first choice, but if you want to become stronger, you need to dig deeper into the resources of this world, trigger more events, and work hard to make your final evaluation higher."

At this point, Yang Zhisheng reached out and patted Zhou Ming's shoulder, saying, "Potential and courage are the two important factors that can survive in the main god space. Kid, I have high hopes for you."

Zhou Ming smiled calmly and fully accepted Yang Zhisheng's praise without any embarrassment.

"If we have enough information now, we can take action immediately."

"Unfortunately, the information provided by the main god is too little. We know nothing about the Chronos organization except for its name!"

Yu Man sighed, but Zhou Ming heard another meaning from it.

The killer he killed was the "information" given by the main god to two experienced players.

If it was an experienced player against the killer, it is very likely that they could capture the killer and extract information about the Chronos organization from him after considering the mission content and the comparative strength of both sides.

But this clue is now broken, and to understand the Chronos organization, they can only think of other ways.

"Sorry." Zhou Ming apologized straightforwardly.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming you. In that situation, both Yang Zhisheng and I would prioritize killing the opponent rather than risking our lives."

Yu Man explained, "Reincarnators always prioritize the preservation of their own lives as the first goal. This is the consensus of almost all reincarnators who can survive for a long time in the main god space."

"I'm just saying this to make sure you're mentally prepared,"

"Your task and our task are parallel, if you want to participate in our task, you have to make a choice, you can't balance both tasks."

"And your task only has ten days, in our thirty-day task, it's still a question how much you can participate in ten days."

"Maybe in the end, you haven't done well in either task, and your final evaluation is not as high as focusing on one task."

Zhou Ming was silent for a moment, nodded, and said, "I understand."

"You just need to have a clear idea in your own mind," Yu Man said. "Let's go, to my room and meet with the others."

On the rooftop of a tall building, two figures were busy working with their heads down.

"Alright." Zhou Ming stood up and clapped his hands.

"There's one more place left." The other figure, also a newcomer, was He Yunxiao, a 24-year-old programmer.

"Yeah, we have one more place left to do." Zhou Ming nodded, and the two of them didn't waste any time. They picked up their bags and walked down the stairwell.

They had just installed a hidden pinhole camera in this area, which covered a large portion of the rooftop.

From this area, they could see Miss Adele's hotel room, while also being able to hide themselves well. It was a great sniping location.

This was one of the action plans made after the six of them had discussed it. They had installed surveillance on all suitable sniping locations near Miss Adair's room to prevent her from being taken out by a remote shot.

Fortunately, due to the location of the Summer Coast Hotel, there weren't many suitable sniping locations. It was the combat experience of two experienced veterans, Yu Man and Yang Zhisheng, that made this plan possible.

As for the surveillance equipment, it was all provided by Yang Zhisheng.

At this point, everyone learned that Yang Zhisheng's specialization was in semi-mechanical beings. Over sixty percent of his body was not made of flesh and blood. He had powerful control in the field of electronic machinery.

Zhou Ming and He Yunxiao quickly arrived at the bottom of another sniper location.

The six of them split into three groups and acted in pairs. Zhou Ming and He Yunxiao were one group, Yang Zhisheng and Zhang Changlin were another, and Yu Man and Zhao Ting were the last.

Zhou Ming and He Yunxiao were the only group without senior members, and He Yunxiao, who knew nothing about the battle in the hotel corridor (the seniors explained it as a fight between Yang Zhisheng and the assassin to the three newcomers), thought he was taking care of Zhou Ming and saw it as a sign of trust from the seniors.

Little did he know that the situation was just the opposite.

"We've ruled out the hidden dangers near the hotel sniper point, but our mission target doesn't look like someone who will stay obediently in the hotel. You watch, she'll be running around in the next few days, and we'll have a hard time then."

After taking the elevator to the upper floor, the two of them climbed the stairs to the rooftop. He Yunxiao panted and talked non-stop.

Although the poor young programmer's hair was still lush, his sedentary lifestyle had made him weak, which was clearly evident in his body.

"Maybe," Zhou Ming casually agreed.

He already had a preliminary plan in his mind regarding the trade-off between the main mission and the tasks of the Chronos organization, and three days was his bottom line.

Within three days, if he could obtain enough information about the Chronos organization, he would choose to abandon the main mission and join the senior members in the mission to destroy the organization.

Otherwise, he would simply give up this side mission and focus on completing the main mission with all his heart.

Therefore, after three days, he was likely not to care about Adele's life or death and to leave directly, without worrying about how to protect her.

Of course, before that, his focus was still on the main mission.

"Wait!" Just then, Zhou Ming heard a slight footstep from above the stairs and quickly stopped He Yunxiao.

Normal people would not have such light footsteps when going up and down the stairs, unless they deliberately tried to make them light or...were well-trained and had developed the habit.

"What's going on?" He Yunxiao was puzzled, but then he saw Zhou Ming pull out his pistol from his waist.

"Damn!" He Yunxiao exclaimed, but Zhou Ming frowned and quietly slipped on a pair of sneakers over his shoes.

He heard the faint footsteps coming from upstairs disappear.

"Stay here and don't make a sound," Zhou Ming said. With a forceful push of his feet, he lightly jumped and crossed the entire eight-step distance, leaping onto the platform at the corner of the staircase.

He landed silently, as if he had pads on his feet like a cat, moving gracefully and nimbly.

He had used the Jin Strength Gu to increase his strength and the Grass Shoe Gu to make his body more agile, but the explosive power to jump eight steps was achieved solely by his own strength.

He didn't see anyone.

Zhou Ming held his gun and was about to hesitate whether to go up one more level when a strong sense of danger suddenly erupted. He saw a black gun barrel aimed at him through the crack of the stairs upstairs.

Bang!

Zhou Ming's body shot out like lightning, a moment earlier than the sound of the gun. With the speed of the Grass Shoe Gu, he barely avoided the bullet.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Zhou Ming lifted his gun to fire back, but the black gun barrel upstairs had already withdrawn.

"This guy is not at the same level as the previous assassin."

This thought flashed through Zhou Ming's mind as he quickly climbed up to the next level.

The twelve-hour protection period for newcomers had passed, so encountering assassins was not unexpected.

During this period, Zhou Ming's primeval essence had already automatically replenished. With the Water Armor Gu, he was able to engage in a one-on-one shootout with the assassin, and the outcome was certain—the assassin was doomed.

Sure enough, in the instant Zhou Ming charged up the stairs and turned the corner, he saw the assassin holding a gun waiting for him.

As soon as the assassin saw his figure, he pulled the trigger.

The bullet whistled out, and at the same moment, the assassin retreated, preparing to evade Zhou Ming's attack.

In the assassin's estimation, even if Zhou Ming was fearless and charged up while taking the bullets, the accuracy of his forced shots would be greatly reduced. He was confident that he could avoid Zhou Ming's bullets.

However, he did not expect that his own bullet would hit Zhou Ming, and not even make him flinch.

Unseen by the assassin, a layer of water film covered Zhou Ming's clothes, creating a violent ripple that dissipated the bullet's impact.

Zhou Ming charged forward, taking three consecutive shots. With the blessing of the Main God's firearms at level one, and the combat experience absorbed from the previous assassin, Zhou Ming's marksmanship had become extremely excellent.

All three shots hit their mark, striking the assassin's left arm, right arm, and left leg, almost completely disabling him.

After standing firm, Zhou Ming fired another shot, hitting the assassin's right leg. Then, he charged forward and, with a "ka-ba" sound, broke the assassin's jaw.

This is to prevent the assassin from biting open the poison sac hidden in his teeth to commit suicide. Although Zhou Ming did not know whether the assassin in front of him had this kind of thing, it did not prevent him from believing so.

After all, isn't this how it was portrayed on TV in his previous life?

After capturing the assassin, Zhou Ming immediately took out his phone and contacted Yang Zhisheng, telling him that he had captured a live captive and asking him to come and deal with it.

The gunshots just now were quite loud, and it would be best to have a professional handle the aftermath to eliminate any potential negative consequences.