Yama Reborn

Gu Kang wasn't stupid.

After returning from the hospital, he thought about it all day. The more he thought, the more he felt something was fishy.

The girl he had taken out—her name was Shanshan, or was it Lili?

Fuck, I'm all confused. It's clear I didn't know that bald guy! A set-up? This was a damn forceful set-up! It was definitely aimed at me. I'd just been inside for a little over a year, almost two years. Could I still have any enemies? To beat me up like this?

More than forty soft tissue contusions all over his body, plus four joint sprains, and a mild concussion.

This was obviously the work of a seasoned fighter—ruthless and precise, keeping the injuries just within the threshold of "minor."

He'd suffered, but if it really went to the police, the matter wouldn't blow up too big.

Report it to the cops? Gu Kang didn't dare!

If he reported it, and they investigated that night's events, never mind the assault, just the fact that he took that girl to a hotel room would be enough to nail him for an MYPC offense.

He was a recently released ex-convict. It had only been three days since he got out, and he was already reoffending. He definitely wouldn't escape a stricter punishment.

Who set me up? Who else the fuck could it be!

Gu Kang's heart was burning with rage.

Previously, when his younger brother told him how that kid had caused trouble at home and what a rascal he was, Gu Kang hadn't believed him.

Gu Kang had seen Chen Nuo before: a timid and introverted young man.

How did he become such a rascal? Damn it! I really misjudged him. To think he'd find someone to target me.

Gu Kang couldn't swallow this insult!

Just as he was thinking, his phone rang.

As soon as he answered, Xiao Yong's voice, thick with a standard Jinling accent, erupted in a torrent of curses.

"Gu Kang, you motherfucker, are you playing around?! I stuck my neck out to introduce you to my big brother, gave you an opportunity, right?! The boss even told me to bring you to the company for a chat, and now your fucking phone is unreachable all afternoon! Are you messing with me, huh?! You're really something else! Get lost, you son of a bitch! With that pathetic attitude of yours, don't ever come looking for me again! You've made me lose all my face!"

Gu Kang took the scolding for a while. After Xiao Yong had vented his anger, Gu Kang said in a wronged tone, "Yong Ge, you don't know. I was set up last night, got beaten up, and I've just come out of the hospital. My phone's dead."

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment.

Xiao Yong seemed to have some sense of loyalty, asking a couple of questions, "Set up? Who did it to you?"

"It was a damn kid! Shit, I misjudged him before…"

「In the office of Wind Shelter Hall.」

Wang Lao Hu lay in his chair, legs propped up on the desk, listening with half-closed eyes.

Gu Kang, his face bruised and swollen, was speaking, while Xiao Yong tactfully lit a cigarette for Wang Lao Hu.

Wang Lao Hu smiled and nodded after listening. "Got it. It was that kid your wife had before, right? Haha, look at you, a big fucking man, and you got screwed over by a greenhorn."

Wang Lao Hu's laughter made Gu Kang somewhat embarrassed, but he dared not get angry and just lowered his head, silent.

Wang Lao Hu took a couple of drags from the cigarette.

He had been feeling a bit too pleased with himself lately.

Li Qingshan had been somewhat disheartened since that incident and hadn't been coming to Wind Shelter Hall much.

Usually, he left the place for Wang Lao Hu to manage—Wang Lao Hu quite enjoyed the feeling of being the boss, secretly thrilled.

Here, with Hall Master Li absent, everyone catered to and served him. That feeling...

Plus, everyone knew the kind of business Wind Shelter Hall was in. All the indulgences had Wang Lao Hu enjoying himself so much that his back was starting to give him trouble these days.

After some thought, Wang Lao Hu smiled and said, "That kid, I heard he's got money, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! His grandma passed away, so she definitely left a bankbook behind. When I went to his place, goodness, the decor! A Chunlan air conditioning unit right there in the living room—more than ten thousand for one unit. A big flat-screen TV, DVD player, all a full set of imports. When I asked him for money, he immediately handed me cash, a thick stack of it. He definitely still has more!"

Wang Lao Hu laughed.

Brother Wang is also short on cash!

Though these days were glorious, with people waiting on him, serving tea and water, even getting to enjoy himself for free.

But he hadn't really made much money.

At Wind Shelter Hall, although Li Qingshan let him manage the place, he didn't allow him to handle the accounts—he couldn't touch the money!

Li Qingshan was very shrewd. The ones in charge of the counter and collecting payments at Wind Shelter Hall were two relatives of the Li Family.

Wang Lao Hu was just there to oversee things.

To put it bluntly, he was just a head of security. Although it seemed impressive, he couldn't get his hands on the money.

After thinking for a moment, Wang Lao Hu smiled and said, "Brother, Xiao Yong brought you to me, so I'll definitely help you with this. But..."

Gu Kang was very smart and quickly said, "From now on, I'll follow Brother Tiger. Whatever we get from dealing with that kid, it's all thanks to Brother Tiger's hard work! I just want to vent my anger!"

"Well, originally, just venting your anger would have been easy," Wang Lao Hu said. "I could have just had Xiao Yong take a few guys to his place and rough him up. We'd beat him up twice as badly as you got beaten. But the kid has a bit of money, so we can't just do that. We need to think of a plan."

「Later.」

Zhang Linsheng got scolded by Old Jiang.

The reason was that when Zhang Linsheng came to train the next day, Old Jiang noticed gauze on the back of his hand and immediately asked a few questions.

Zhang Linsheng, not being good with words, didn't explain clearly at first. Old Jiang, thinking his disciple had gone out fighting, became furious.

He didn't teach Zhang Linsheng boxing so that he could go out and pick fights.

Fortunately, Chen Nuo, being more attentive, asked a few more questions and clarified the situation.

Oh, he fought a thief? Well, that's alright then.

Old Jiang calmed down and even took Zhang Linsheng to his home to change the dressing and apply new medicine.

The medicine at Old Jiang's house was the kind of top-notch wound medicine essential for everyone in the jianghu.

「At school during the day.」

May had already passed, and the semester was also drawing to a close.

In class, the teacher was going over details for the final exams.

Old Wu's half-hearted attitude was becoming visibly obvious.

Old Wu wasn't actually a bad person; he just lacked a sense of responsibility. He had muddled through half a lifetime at the crappy No. 8 Middle School as a Chinese language teacher, without having taught anyone particularly good or bad.

No. 8 Middle School had a very low ceiling for achievement, so the older Old Wu got, the less motivated he became.

Moreover, the school had already internally decided that Old Sun would take over as the head teacher in the next academic year.

Old Wu would retire honorably.

So, he really wasn't putting his heart into it anymore.

Even when Sun Keke and Luo Qing secretly switched seats during class, Old Wu just turned a blind eye.

Why bother? She's not my daughter. If Old Sun himself can't manage her or doesn't care to, why should I wear myself out?

Incidentally, Li Yingwan, that 'Li Malang,' hadn't come to class in a month.

Chen Nuo was responsible for that. He had forbidden her to come.

With Jiang Yingzi's matter unresolved, it was better to keep the mother and daughter together.

There was another reason too...

Previously, when Old Jiang used the alias 'Life Need Not Be So Troublesome' to protect Jiang Yingzi, he had actually seen Li Yingwan!

At that time, he hadn't realized she was a student from his own school—Old Jiang taught the senior year.

He had heard about a beautiful transfer student at the school, but Old Jiang, being a traditional and proper man, would never deliberately pay attention to pretty girls from other grades.

But if Li Yingwan were to brazenly return to school and be seen by Old Jiang... Wouldn't that give Old Jiang a fright?

Chen Nuo's plan was clear: the long-legged girl (Li Yingwan) had to stay away from school! It would be best to wait until the attempts on Jiang Yingzi's life were completely over and the mastermind dealt with. Then, Jiang Yingzi could take her daughter directly back to South Korea, and that would be the end of it!

After giving a few instructions about next week's final exams, Old Wu was about to dismiss the class when he suddenly slapped his forehead.

"Oh, I almost forgot! There's something I need to tell everyone. This afternoon, there's a school assembly. At two o'clock sharp, everyone should gather at the school's sports field according to the morning exercise formation. The school is being restructured next semester, so leaders from the education group are coming for an inspection."

The class president boldly asked, "Teacher, does that mean we won't have math class this afternoon?"

"Right, no math class."

BOOM!

The whole class erupted in cheers.

「At noon.」

At noon, as school let out, Chen Nuo tapped Sun Keke on the shoulder. "Help me ask the teacher for leave this afternoon. I won't be coming."

"Ah? You're skipping class again?" Sun Keke pouted.

This little brat has been so busy lately. I heard he even goes to practice martial arts with someone early in the morning. Such fun stuff, and he didn't even ask me to come along...

"Brother Lei's shop has some business, so I went to help out," Chen Nuo said, spreading his hands.

Sigh, girl, just accept it. I'm doing this to take care of your little love rival. Once this is settled, you won't be seeing Li Malang anymore.

「Back home.」

At noon, Chen Nuo returned home, took out his laptop, and inserted the USB drive for the account 'Jack.'

Soon, the countdown for the original task on that account ended.

The task to assassinate Jiang Yingzi, with a 30-day countdown, reached its last second, and the system automatically set it to 'Task Expired,' then automatically canceled it.

Chen Nuo squinted, then opened the 'Official Transaction Area,' quietly waiting.

He had a strange thought.

If the other party realized that the Jack brothers had failed their mission... then why not cancel the task and republish it sooner? If they knew the account had been taken over, then why not play along with me, put on an act, try to placate me, or even try to counter-scheme against me? How come there's been not a peep for so many days? That's just unscientific.

Just as he was thinking, a new post appeared in the 'Official Transaction Area'!

A 'Task Release' post, assassination category.

Chen Nuo immediately went offline!

He switched to the account 'Ardent Pyromaniac' and logged in again.

Then he clicked on that 'Task.'

'Task Category': Assassination.

'Task Target': Hidden, visible after successfully accepting the task.

'Task Time': Five days.

'Task Reward': 3 million US dollars. (Multiple participants allowed)

Note 1: This task is for multiple participants, with the Client limiting it to a maximum of (6) people to complete it. The one who successfully assassinates the target can claim 70% of the total reward. The remaining participants will share the remaining 30% based on the Client's assessment of their contributions.

Note 2: The task reward offers over 1 million US dollars, reaching the Level B task rating of the website. Please consider the difficulty of the task carefully and do not misjudge!

Chen Nuo frowned in thought.

That's 3 million... It seems the Client is well aware that after two failed assassination attempts, Jiang Yingzi must have experts by her side. The few hundred thousand previously offered couldn't get the job done, so the price has been upped to employ more formidable people. And... Multiple participants allowed? A group mission, huh?

Chen Nuo laughed.

After thinking for a moment, he clicked 'Apply to Accept Task.'

Additional message: Professional assassin, success rate one hundred percent.

Actually, there was another cheeky comment he wanted to add, but after some thought, considering he needed to infiltrate the enemy ranks, it was better to be serious.

Then it was a matter of waiting.

A full half hour passed.

Chen Nuo wasn't worried that the Client would recognize the 'Ardent Pyromaniac' account as the one previously engaged by the South Korean assassin 'Blade458,' who had changed his name.

Because... Octopus Monster's site was still quite primitive, without a history message search function.

The conversations between Clients and assassins were temporary; all contacts were deleted at the end of a task.

Untraceable!

There weren't any transfer records either, as the transactions were official.

So, once you changed your ID, for the most part, you typically couldn't be recognized.

Unless the Client didn't care for privacy and directly messaged the assassin with their real account, then it might be possible to save the chat history and see the name change – but nobody did that!

If Clients weren't afraid of revealing their ID, they wouldn't use official transactions in the first place.

Half an hour later, DING!

'System Notification: Your application has been accepted by the Client. Click to enter the task information interface.'

'Note 1: The system reminds you that the task you have accepted is Level B, and if successfully completed, your account will be upgraded to a Silver-level account.'

Chen Nuo smiled.

Accepted, huh? And there's a promotion upon completion? Does that mean I can finally stop being an insignificant black account?

He opened the task information.

Indeed!

'Task Target': Jiang Yingzi (Specific personal information attached.)

Chen Nuo laughed, a laugh full of genuine joy.

Heh! This... look at this! The mouse has fallen into the rice bin! A six-person team to assassinate Jiang Yingzi... I bet none of you expected the joker to be right in your midst!

Then the interface switched to a private chat page with the Client.

A temporary chat group page unfolded.

Chen Nuo glanced at the chat group list: six assassins (including himself) plus one Client. Seven people online.

Temporary chat group online list:

Client... Hmm, this is the guy I need to find a way to expose!

Daydreaming... If you love sleeping so much, why bother stirring up trouble!

Do Not Approach Strangers... Hmm, this name has some presence. Going for the aloof and cool type, are we, brother?

Form is Emptiness... A believer in Tathagata, brother? I believe in Brother Guan.

Sunrise In The East... Whoa, this assassin brother, a follower of the Sect Hierarch of the East?

Wanghou Jiangxiang... Huh, maybe next time I'll make a sock puppet account called 'Dare to Match.' Sounds pretty good.

So, those were the Client and the other five assassins who had taken the job.

Ardent Pyromaniac messaged: 'Greetings, fellow practitioners! Let's all work together to complete this task!'

He waited for ten seconds.

His five colleagues... not one of them spoke.

Alright, even though we're supposed to complete one task, we're actually competitors. If they don't want to talk, so be it.

Instead, the Client spoke.

Client messaged: 'The task ends in five days. I will distribute the reward based on everyone's contribution. Pleasure working with you all.'

As soon as the Client finished speaking, everyone in the temporary chat group logged off.

Chen Nuo checked the time... One o'clock in the afternoon.

He thought for a moment, then logged back into the 'Jack' account.

He searched for 'Life Need Not Be So Troublesome' and left a message.

Jack's message: 'Bro, interested in some overtime for extra cash? The job is right here in Jinling. Same task as last time: protect the target.'

At this time, to look after Auntie Song who might fall ill, Old Jiang would always be at home.

He might well be online.

Indeed, a few seconds later...

Life Need Not Be So Troublesome messaged: 'Who are you?!!'

Jack messaged: 'One hundred twenty thousand Vietnamese Dong. Forgotten already?'

Old Jiang sat in front of the computer at home, blood rushing to his forehead!

He furiously typed with two fingers, punching in a single word!

Old Jiang's message: 'SCRAM!'

Chen Nuo laughed.

Jack messaged: 'Don't be so angry, my friend. Last time was just a little joke. How about this: three hundred thousand US dollars! Five days' work for some extra cash. I won't go through the official transaction this time. I'll pay half upfront!'

Old Jiang was still hesitating whether to block this bastard when suddenly, he received a transfer!

'System Notification: You have received a transfer of 150,000 US dollars. Your account balance is now...'

Old Jiang was surprised.

So generous this time?

However, he was still a bit suspicious.

Life Need Not Be So Troublesome messaged: 'Last time, you single-handedly took down four of their men. With you around, why would you still need me?'

Jack messaged: 'No, no, no, you do good work!'

Good work? That doesn't exactly sound like a compliment!