The middle-aged man looked incredibly average. His clothes and appearance did not stand out in any way, and there was no tremendous pressure that one could feel even through a screen. He looked ordinary enough to step into a crowd and disappear just like that.
He was also the one holding the answers Cillin had been looking for this whole time.
The first time Cillin had heard this voice, he was semi conscious at the grade one prison planet at Sector S. The voice had even hypnotized him so that he would be unable to recall what happened to him before he fainted in a calm state of mind.
Although this was the first time Cillin had ever seen this middle-aged man, he had never forgotten his voice. He hadn’t saved Cillin that day, but he hadn’t taken his life either.
“Yin Wushe (Merciless)?” Cillin asked while staring at the man on the screen.
“So, you recognize me,” The man let out a chuckle before shoving a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth and smacking his lips.
“I remember your voice. I deduced what happened based on later events,” Cillin replied.
Although the mission in Sector S had not gone well, Cillin was fairly impressed by Yin Wushe.
Yin Wushe was the leader of the killer organization “Merciless”. He was the one who led his organization to the top and become known as the greatest killer organization in GAL alongside “Mist”. In fact, both organizations were so special that they existed in a category of their own. Their names were automatically excluded from the usual killer organization rankings because they would’ve just dominated the first and second place every time. They were just too powerful and influential. A good comparison would be the giants of electronic publications, “Glory” and “Code”. No one even came close to challenging their spot at the top of the world.
Today, the man who could face down Grim Reaper had sought him out for a conversation. What was he planning? Cillin had no idea.
The middle-aged man finished his ice cream and scratched his beard a little. Cillin wasn’t sure if he noticed, but there was cream in his beard. “The first time we ran into each other is in that prison in Sector S, right? You know, that time Blue Phantom kicked your ass and left you half-dead.”
Cillin: “…” Looks like Yin Wushe is an outspoken man.
The “Blue Phantom” he spoke of was probably that blue-skinned woman wielding blue light blades.
Eudy shot Cillin a glance. He had no idea that his commander had such a uh, “interesting” past.
Cillin replied, “She did give me quite the fright, but you’re the reason I was half-dead.”
It was true he was no match for Blue Phantom back then, but a sudden force had pulled him back into the passage and dealt him a terrible blow right before he was about to escape. He was pretty sure that the culprit was none other than the middle-aged man in front of him, even if he was doing his best impression of a sloppy eater!
The middle-aged man looked visibly surprised. “You serious? That’s weird. I’m pretty sure I’m not in the habit of interacting with people far below my power level.”
Cillin and Eudy: “…”
While it was true that Cillin was, from a galactic point of view, fairly average back then, Eudy thought he was plenty strong for a member of the Sixth B Squadron. For Yin Wushe to say that he was so far below his power level he wasn’t even worth interacting with… where does that leave me then?
“I remember having one foot on the exit before you pulled me back in,” Cillin said slowly.
Yun Wushe slapped his head as if to jolt his memory and thought long and hard for a moment. Five seconds later, he waved his hand and declared, “I can’t remember, lad! I’m old enough that my memory’s pretty fuzzy these days!”
Cillin and Eudy: “…”
Cillin decided to change the subject and asked, “Anyway, why did you send us that message? Since most of us are ‘far below your power level’ so to speak.”
“Oh, that’s because I heard that you guys taught a brat of the Robert Family a lesson. Also, I helped tie up a loose end for you guys, so I believe you owe me a thanks.”
Borat’s dead?
Cillin and Eudy exchanged a glance. Whether Yin Wushe was telling the truth didn’t matter. What mattered was how he found out about their conflict against Borat in the first place, and how he just “happened to” run into the fleeing Borat.
There were only two possibilities. One, Merciless had been watching on Borat. Two, they had been watching the Eleventh Squadron.
If they had been keeping an eye on Borat, then it was unsurprising that they would wipe out the remnants after his main force was destroyed. But if they had been watching the Eleventh Squadron from the start, then…
Cillin mulled it over for a moment before commenting, “You’re a man of great foresight, aren’t you?”
Yin Wushe gave a slightly mocking bow. “You praise me too much!”
“You’ve been watching us, haven’t you?” Cillin asked.
“Yep,” Yin Wunshe answered honestly. “In fact, I’ve been wanting to speak with you for a while. I kept running into your robot substitute though.”
Yin Wushe had definitely come prepared, and he had investigated the Eleventh Squad extensively.
“So, what business do you have with the Eleventh Squad? We’re just a new and insignificant B Squadron in Vanguard. As you just put it yourself, there exists gulf between your strength and ours. I don’t believe we have had much interaction with each other.”
“A gulf, huh?” Yin Wushe pressed a finger to his chin. “If that’s true, then who was the guy who gave my subordinates quite the scare? You know, the ‘Rhapsody of a Rainy Night’?”
When the Eleventh Squad had gone to rescue Mo Heng, they had encountered a few members from Merciless: Silver, Stola and Judy. Not only did the trio fail to gain the upper hand against Czedow and Shusag, Judy in particular was taught quite the lesson in humility.
To say that their comrades were surprised by their sorry state after the trio wrapped up their mission and returned home would be an understatement. In fact, they couldn’t remember the last time they ever looked that sorry. After the trio had reported told Yin Wushe everything that had happened, he deduced that Cillin was the reason behind their near failure based on the info he had collected. For example, Shusag was recognized even though he had worn a disguise during his mission at the Miracle base.
The more Merciless looked into the Eleventh Squad, the more puzzled they became. The Eleventh Squadron was supposed to be completely insignificant, so why did it feel like they were hiding a ton of secrets? And why was their commander using a robot as his substitute?
Cillin and Czedow had been conspicuously missing when Merciless had begun looking into the Eleventh Squad. It wasn’t until their mission on the energy planet did they resurface. Naturally, Yin Wushe was more curious than ever before. Anyone who could give a member of the Merciless a run for their money was someone deserving of respect and caution, but he certainly wasn’t expecting a mere B Squadron—even if they were one of the Great Four—to be able to infiltrate a Miracle base and even teach his men a lesson in humility.
“Let’s meet up. There are certain things that I’d like to speak with you in person,” Yin Wushe said with a serious expression.
“You’re gonna give us a jumpscare if I say no, aren’t you?”
Cillin ordered before Yin Wushe could respond, “Top priority scan.”
At first, Yin Wushe did not understand what Cillin mean by that. A moment later, an embarrassed-looking Judy gestured for her boss to take a look at a nearby screen. Yin Wushe turned and saw a single message on a monitor of their bridge: “I found you.”
When Cillin gave the order to conduct a top priority scan, Little Eleventh would invest all of its processing power to locate the target. If the starship was unable to find the target, then Moon, Sigma and Czedow would jump in to help. Cillin did not believe there was anyone in the world who could escape detection when they worked together, and he was right. In less than ten seconds, they had dug out the spaceplane hiding behind a cluster of moons behind a massive gas giant.
“Hah! Now that’s interesting. That makes the second time you got your ass kicked, piglet,” Yin Wushe said with a laugh.
Judy’s complexion turned from blue to red, and then red to black. “Boss. Can you please call me by a different nickname?”
“No can do, piglet,” replied Yin Wushe before turning back to the screen and continuing his conversation with Cillin as if nothing had happened. At the same time, he gestured for his subordinates to fly the spaceplane to the Eleventh Squad’s starship.
Upon learning that they were meeting face to face with Merciless, one of the two greatest killer organization in GAL, everyone (except gluttons such as Wheeze and Snowball) turned serious immediately.
Cary’s hands were shaking not out of fear, but of excitement.
I cannot believe Merciless is coming to our ship! How many Hunters can claim that they’ve had the honor of meeting the org face to face, not to mention that their legendary boss, Yin Wushe himself? Woohoo! He was unable to calm down despite taking many long, deep breaths.
A killer organization operated very differently from a hunter regiment, and unlike the generic killer organization Mist and Merciless rarely made an appearance. In fact, there was so much mystery shrouding Mist and Merciless that Cary was more interested in them than even the infamous Grim Reaper.
Xiao Shang was more worried than excited for more or less the same reason. He had heard of Merciless’ since he became a Hunter. To his younger, more inexperienced self, the two killer organizations might as well be a myth concocted to scare newbie Hunters like him. Even after the two organizations shedded their veil of mystery and began making more high profile splashes in the news, he had never been tempted to get close to them in any way. After all, they were the type of org whose usual targets were prominent members of GAL’s political and military scene. To that, Xiao Shang could only say that he would never be on that level.
But now, the same people were coming to their ship.
“Aren’t you guys worried at all?” asked Ba Dao after casting a look at his fellow crewmates.
Mogas was even more excited than Cary was, and the rest of the crew were a mixture of worry and expectation, but mostly expectation.
“What is even there to be afraid of? Or do you want me to protect you guys? You’re going to have to pay a protection fee though!” Wheeze declared while flying around the room.
“Yeah, no. I haven’t even gotten payback for the stuff you stole from my cabinet yet,” Cary retorted while tidying his equipment.
He suddenly recalled something. “Oh right, Shusag, you said you clashed against Merciless before?”
“Yeah. Czedow was there too.”
“How did it go?”
“I’m standing here, aren’t I?” answered Shusag while flicking his collar. “They’re pretty strong, but not so strong that you need to be afraid of them. While I can’t say I can beat them 100% of the time, Czedow is a different story. If Cillin hadn’t called in at the right time, Czedow would’ve defeated them all singlehandedly.”
Everyone’s mouth turned into an O-shape when they heard this. They had no idea that the true monster was among them this whole time. It went to show how good Czedow was at keeping a low profile.