Editor: Elanor
Warning: This chapter contains some stuff that some readers might find upsetting.
Xia Tian stared at the man in the mirror, his mind thinking rapidly.
There was no way he could escape; the assistant knew he was here. And, please, he had killed Zhi Leng, the chief planner of the Floating Gold TV’s Asaijin Team Competition!
His best ending could be, being killed on the spot. But it could be worse, where these people would sell him to some dark restricted channel, and his death might end up being an object of people’s entertainment, and that would be hell.
His hand unconsciously rubbed the back of his neck—the punishment device was uniformly implanted when the Upper City recruited the criminals, to prevent them from going berserk and destroying the world or something similar. The chief executive of the district was for sure waiting to activate the device on him and make his life worse than death.
He should have just listened to Zhi Leng, taken off his clothes, turned his back and lay on the bed, screaming as much as he was told. Things would have been over soon. Anyways, rules were the same everywhere and he just wanted to survive… He suddenly wanted to throw up, so he rushed to the bathroom and emptied everything that he had eaten today.
Then he washed his face, folded his sleeves to cover the blood, and took a towel to wipe off his fingerprints from everything that he might have touched. After that, he opened the door and left without bothering to look at the body.
He couldn’t bear to stay in this place even a minute more.
Xia Tian thought that he would have to steal a car, and drive it all the way to the Lower City’s highway and sell it at the second or third garbage station he would come across; they had a way to make sure no one recognized the car.
Afterwards, using the money he got from the sale, he would need to buy a crappy but inconspicuous car. Then, he could drive all the way north and find a decent black market doctor as soon as possible to get that thing out from the back of his neck. Most likely he would be left with a neurological disability, but it wasn’t a big deal. Then, he could temporarily use stealing to survive; he still had a bit of stealing skills.
But then he thought that they would definitely find him. Even if he hid himself for a while, they would still find him. After all, the person he killed was the chief planner of the Asaijin Team Competition!
At that moment, he saw Bai Jingan.
Every floor of the hotel had a viewing terrace, which could be reached by the stairs. Some of the people attending the banquet were chatting on the largest one which was on the top floor, and Bai Jingan was talking to some people who looked powerful just at a single glance.
He didn’t look very eye-catching, but he wore clothes very neatly. It didn’t look like he rented them, but like he was born to wear such clothes.
He was listening to the group of people with a smile on his face. With his hair that was neither too long nor too short, he looked neat and elegant. Xia Tian’s first impression of him was something like, Bai Jingan was like a glass of lukewarm water, extremely boring with no personality. He said what everyone said, did nothing out of the ordinary, not a drop of blood stained his hands, and just watched people fight in the sidelines.
At this moment, Bai Jingan had also looked up and noticed Xia Tian.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Seeing his appearance, Bai Jingan’s expression went cold. He turned around and said something to the guys before leaving them to walk towards Xia Tian.
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He asked, “What happened?”
Xia Tian glanced towards Zhi Leng’s room, and Bai Jingan’s face got colder. His facial expression looked cold only because of his eyes, which looked colder and stern. In fact, outwardly his expression was like it was no big deal, only like he was having an unpleasant chat with his teammates.
Bai Jingan turned around and pushed the door open, before walking in. Xia Tian stood in the doorway for a moment, then followed, closing the door behind him.
When he entered, he saw Bai Jingan standing at the door of the bedroom, staring at the bloody corpse. The ground was covered with blood, and the sculpture of the sailboat soaked in the blood was like a ship sunken in a pool of blood.
Bai Jingan looked at it expressionlessly for a while, then turned around and pulled open the closet.
Xia Tian watched in bewilderment as Bai Jingan searched through the closet and dragged out a large, expensive suitcase from the back of the closet. He opened the suitcase, transferred the clothes that were inside into the closet before turning his head to look at Xia Tian, and saying, “Put him inside.”
Xia Tian raised his eyebrows; things weren’t going as he had expected. Still, he immediately walked over and helped stuff Zhi Leng’s body into the suitcase. The man’s legs were bare and his penis had shrunken into a tiny ball, like a pathetic pile of soft flesh.
Bai Jingan closed the suitcase and zipped it up. It looked like a nice, luxurious, packed suitcase.
“Perfect,” Xia Tian said.
Bai Jingan glanced at him gloomily before turning his head to survey the room.
The pupils of his eyes were gray, as bland as the person himself, and the way he surveyed the room was totally indifferent and cold as if he were at one of the scenes of the Killing Show, planning and weighing all the available tactical details.
Then without a word, he walked over to the wall and found the built-in network interface.
He used a mobile phone—people had tried to change the name and call it a portable data terminal, but the name mobile phone had still been passed down—he connected it to the Internet, and the defense program interface popped up. He hacked in without changing his face.
—He was a tactical planner, and because of the imbalance in jobs, he also worked in network logistics where his role was hacking data, thus naturally, hacking into a hotel’s public network was a piece of cake.
He kept his hands moving, invading into the hotel firewall, as if a room full of blood meant nothing to him.
Xia Tian said behind him, “He called me into the room and…”
“I know what he did,” Bai Jingan said.
Xia Tian shrugged; there were rumors everywhere about Zhi Leng’s affairs, and Bai Jingan seemed to be a person who knew everything.
He watched the man pull up the data, methodically log in the system, clear up the records, delete the cache, and modify video details in the lobby, as if he was having a meal with standard etiquette; leisurely and organized. When Xia Tian had first met Bai Jingan, he was also like this. Now he was standing in the bedroom with the corpse of the chief planner, and he still didn’t look any different.
“He asked an assistant to call me over,” he then said to Bai Jingan.
“An assistant,” the man said, his tone cold and flat. A tactical keyword.
Meanwhile, he quickly entered the procedure of editing the video and overlaying the original data. Without looking up, he said to Xia Tian, “Clean yourself up.”
Bai Jingan was skilled in his business so Xia Tian’s help wasn’t needed, so Xia Tian just shrugged and walked into the bathroom. Bai Jingan was right, he should escape quickly. If he tried to blend back into the banquet and act like nothing happened, he would be exposed in an instant.
The bathroom was large, with heated flooring and cleverly arranged lighting that made it look like a brightly lit dreamscape.
Xia Tian looked at the man in the mirror. His long hair was tied tightly behind his head, he was neatly dressed in a tuxedo and had handsome features. Because he was a newcomer, with the right shy and bashful expression, it was easy to leave a favorable impression on others.
And ten minutes ago, he had smashed the head of his “great future”. The guy’s body was still lying outside like a disaster, no longer able to use his ultra-luxurious bathroom.
The thought made him smile inexplicably. The smile blossomed like a wound on his gentle and innocent face, revealing the darkness of the Lower City, amidst the scent of anger, hunger and blood. He suddenly wanted to know what Zhi Leng’s expression looked like when he had died. It was a shame he wasn’t able to see it from the angle he was in.
He turned on the tap and cleaned himself up, his fingertips stroking nervously over the back of his neck. It used to hurt like crazy, but now the skin was smooth, without a single wound.
He cleaned up the blood that had splashed on his body. The leather cord that was used to tie his hair was also stained through, making his hair dirty.
After cleaning up, he looked much more innocent. Facing the mirror, he took a breath and flashed a smile again. This time, it looked naïve and pure, and a little bit childish; he looked ready to mingle with anyone.
Not bad, he thought. He left the bathroom and returned to the half-tidied murder scene.
Bai Jingan was still on the program portal, erasing traces of entry.
He was good at destroying evidence—it wasn’t surprising because the battles on the Killing Show were all real, so while the players were all beautifully packaged outside of the arena, they were all essentially top-notch killers, blood-stained villains, or skilled hackers.
If need be, they were able to kill, wreak havoc, and erase the traces after destroying corpses; the world’s technology was also top-notch.
Hearing him come out, Bai Jingan said without looking up, “Wipe the blood.”
Xia Tian looked at the horrible mess on the carpet, it was really… miserable.
“I’m particularly bad at cleaning,” he said to Bai Jingan, “you’re almost done anyway, why don’t you help clean the carpet too…”
“Then don’t smash his head everywhere,” Bai Jingan said, which was the longest sentence he had said since he came here.
Xia Tian picked a rose candy from a nearby table and put it in his mouth, then shrugged his shoulders, indicating that this was also a special case.
“But if he’s missing, the police will definitely come here to check, and a little luminol will make the place as bright as New Year’s day. There’s no point in cleaning it—” Xia Tian said.
“It’s impossible to find out, tomorrow is the cleanup day,” Bai Jingan said.
Xia Tian was stunned for a moment and then laughed. As expected of a tactical planner, the reaction when committing a crime was more sensitive.
—Today, there was a big banquet, so of course, tomorrow would be a big cleanup day.
These days, considering the “needs” of the rich, hotels would have a big cleanup at the end of each month or the next day after a large party. In “special circumstances”, they could be reached with a single call.
Xia Tian had heard about at least two dozen unlucky people who had disappeared from the bedrooms of powerful people and then disappeared from the world completely through “private cleanup services”. At that time, he had thought these rich people of Upper City were disgustingly unbearable, but now he thought this service was a perfect match for Zhi Leng.
He picked up tools and whistled a tune as he began to wipe the blood and brain from the floor.
Bai Jingan gave him a cold look, which Xia Tian completely ignored. In this way, to the sound of a cheerful little tune, the carpet soon became as clean as new, as if the mess he had previously made had never existed.
By tomorrow it would thoroughly disappear.
Xia Tian then proceeded to clean up any fingerprints left behind. Bai Jingan turned to drag the suitcase, set it upright, and said to him, “Use the delivery elevator.”
Xia Tian nodded and took the suitcase. The man had already hacked into the delivery elevator, and Xia Tian put the suitcase inside and took it straight to the parking lot.
No one noticed them. Everyone was too busy eating, drinking, laughing, getting high and getting laid to pay attention to a dead man.
The two men walked noiselessly through the banquet area to the parking lot. This was a magnetic levitation area with fancy cars belonging to the rich people attending the banquet and some reality show stars. But most of the people came by air rail—like Xia Tian, who would have had to take a ride back in the air rail after the banquet.
As for Bai Jingan, he looked like he had a house and a car. It looked like he belonged to the rich and powerful class.
His teammate walked into the parking area, looked left and right, and then hacked into a black hover car with the common nude logo painted on it, while Xia Tian went to the pickup area to get the suitcase containing the corpse.
When he returned, Bai Jingan had already started the car. He opened the trunk and Xia Tian casually put the suitcase containing the body inside.
This series of actions was simple and straightforward, silent and well coordinated. After all, they were both masters in this business.
Wow how professional…
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
Thank you for the chapter 😊
This so cool for what lmao
Well, haha thank god for Boss Bai, really helped Xia Tian out there with the whole body situation
Okay this is already so cool! I’m genuinely excited to read more!
Their dynamic is awesome. They’re not even friends oranything and he just goes “…Where’s the corpse” the moment he sees the MC
so neat….
Bai as ML, I would never read this novel with straight face looking at his name…. 😂
Why?
in my language, his name if it’s united and “I” deleted, is cursing word 🤣
Oh, I just checked. hahah. Poor Bai.
Woah he just helped with that mess?? He’s so cool!
So you’re telling me that just from seeing Xia Tian, Bai dude was able to tell smth happened? #soulmalte >.<
Xia tian you better lick his ……. As a thanks ☺️
Thanks for the chapter