In the magnificent yet cold headquarters of the Federation, Lu Quanlin sat imperiously in an authoritative black leather armchair. Below, Qin Wuhuang along with the Officers of the Four Extremes of Order stood with arms crossed, the atmosphere so suffocating that the drop of a needle could be heard clearly.
Qin Wuhuang bowed slightly, speaking in a respectful tone:
— "Sir, the representative from the Galactic Alliance has officially arrived at headquarters!"
Lu Quanlin took a sip of wine, waving his hand dismissively:
— "Mm. Where is Lu Xie?"
— "He... is currently waiting outside the door, sir."
— "Bring him in!"
Instantly, Arthur Pendleton stepped closer, reaching out to push the heavy steel door open. Lu Xie walked in looking tattered and bedraggled, his entire body soaked in rainwater, muddy drops clinging to his hair as it dangled, concealing half of his haggard face.
— "Father..." Lu Xie rasped out.
Lu Quanlin's face hardened, slamming his hand onto the desk with a loud BAM:
— "What the hell were you doing all morning?! Why are you dressed like a drowned rat?!"
— "I... I just came back from visiting Mom's grave..."
At the mention of his late wife, the anger on Lu Quanlin's face suddenly faltered. His expression turned pensive, softening in a strange way. Lu Quanlin stood up, striding toward Lu Xie and placing his large hands on his son's shoulders:
— "You must always remember... Your mother died at the hands of a treacherous foreign half-breed! Humans are the pinnacle of creation, while those foreign or mixed-breed creatures down there are nothing more than filthy weeds that must be eradicated at their roots! Do you understand clearly?!"
Lu Xie's eyes turned bloodshot, a flash of crazed hatred sweeping through them:
— "Yes... I understand!"
— "Good! Now I am assigning you a mission—can you handle it? Use your own hands... to slaughter every last one of those foreign species!"
Lu Xie clenched his fists tightly, gritting his teeth:
— "Yes! I accept the order!"
Standing among the ranks of the Four Extremes of Order behind them, Akai Kiriko swallowed quietly. She instinctively took half a step back, her heart pounding frantically against her chest. As a fox-human hybrid, Lu Quanlin's insults and suffocating intent regarding "filthy half-breeds" felt like a bucket of ice water dumped over her. At this moment, she felt like nothing more than a lonely lamb that had stumbled into a pack of bloodthirsty beasts.
Lu Quanlin turned around and walked back to his desk, asking Qin Wuhuang:
— "How are things progressing on Zero Horizon's end?"
Wuhuang signaled with his eyes. Arthur Pendleton smiled sinisterly, stepping forward:
— "The mole we planted in advance is working exceptionally well. The Mikami brothers are completing their assigned mission flawlessly!"
Kiriko froze dead in her tracks. Arthur's sentence struck like a bolt of lightning out of nowhere. Her eyes widened in shock:
'The Mikami brothers... are moles planted into Zero Horizon by the Federation?! Could it be... that I've been exposed as well?!'
Lu Quanlin leisurely leaned back in his chair:
— "Good. What about the lost data chip?"
Arthur replied:
— "The chip has been fully recovered; we are merely waiting to retrieve it."
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Lu Quanlin curled his lips into a smirk:
— "No need to rush."
— "Yes, sir. But... I have a small gift I wish to inform you about. It appears a few gutter rats have secretly crawled into our Four Extremes of Order ranks for some time now!"
— "Who?" Lu Quanlin narrowed his eyes.
The air in the room plunged to near-freezing levels. Panicking, Kiriko took another step back, her trembling hand touching the hilt of the Katana at her waist. Suddenly, except for Lu Xie who was consumed by hatred, everyone present in the room turned their heads simultaneously, locking cold, mocking gazes onto Kiriko!
Arthur smirked, uttering the name:
— "It's you... Akai Kiriko!"
Kiriko snapped her Katana out an inch. Arthur leisurely approached the panicked girl, his voice dripping with taunting mockery:
— "I had to act so intensely to make it seem like you were always safe! But it looks like as of today, I don't need to perform that farce anymore!"
Siren Sinclair, standing nearby, lightly raised her slender hand to cover her mouth, speaking in a fake, bitter tone:
— "Oh my... poor little sister Akai Kiriko~"
Arthur flashed a twisted, unhinged smile, his eyes rolling back like a perverted serial killer preparing to tear prey apart:
— "We knew full well Zero Horizon's real objective when you broke into the auction floor at the banquet that day! We only played along intentionally to create an opportunity for you guys to escape! Oh, and... I should thank you, Kiriko. Thanks to your deep acting, you took a blade strike for me that day!"
Arthur took another step forward, the overwhelming pressure from the Gen-Primal killer suffocating Kiriko:
— "The Mikami brothers have been with the Federation for a very long time. They are professional agents personally trained by Siren! We put Zero Horizon in our sights from the moment that guy Orlov died. And you flipping sides to Zero Horizon... means that you are now enemy number one of the entire Federation!"
Damon—the bio-android survivor from 1,000 test subjects—stood with crossed arms, spitting out contemptuously:
— "We are always two steps ahead of you!"
SWISH!
In the blink of an eye, Arthur lunged forward at terrifying speed. His massive, mutated hand clamped tightly around Kiriko's throat, lifting her high into the air with a single hand! Kiriko choked, her feet kicking frantically as her hands clawed desperately at Arthur's wrist, but his crushing grip was far too overwhelming. Kiriko's vision began to blur, oxygen draining completely from her lungs.
Just as her eyes were about to roll back, Lu Quanlin's voice rang out, cutting in:
— "Enough!"
Arthur paused. Lu Quanlin gestured with his hand:
— "I'm handing that brat over to you, Arthur. Just remember... don't let her die too quickly!"
THUD!
Arthur released his grip. Kiriko collapsed onto the freezing floor, clutching her throat—marred with bruised purplish finger marks—as she choked and coughed violently, tears streaming down from intense pain.
Arthur leaned down low, bringing his grotesque face close to hers, whispering in a twisted voice:
— "Oh... then I'm going to take you to play an exceptionally fun game!"
Kiriko gritted her teeth, struggling to draw her Katana to resist. But before she could swing the blade, a brutal kick from Arthur's foot sent the weapon flying dozens of meters away, impaling deeply into the steel wall!
SLAP!
A fiery slap slammed directly across Kiriko's face, sending her tumbling over, fresh blood smearing out from the corner of her mouth.
Arthur stomped his foot onto her back:
— "You dare resist?! The more you resist, the faster you die! But I promised Lord Lu... I won't let you die so easily!"
Kiriko shed desperate tears in total panic:
— "You bastard... stay the hell away from me!"
She pressed her hands against the floor, attempting to crawl inch by inch toward her Katana. But the nightmare was only just beginning. Arthur stepped forward, brutally grabbing Kiriko's long hair and yanking it backward!
— "AHHHH!" Kiriko screamed in agony, both hands clawing at his hand, completely in vain.
Arthur drove his knee hard into Kiriko's lower back, locking her whole body down onto the floor. He seized her left hand, his sick grin stretching ear to ear.
CRACK... SNAP!
— "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
A heartbreaking shriek echoed throughout the room! Arthur cold-bloodedly applied force, snapping every single one of Kiriko's fingers backward! The sound of finger bones shattering into pieces—CRACK SNAP—was sickeningly distinct. Pale white finger bones pierced through her flesh, protruding outward and bleeding messily.
Kiriko wept piteously, her entire body spasming from agony far beyond human endurance:
— "I beg you... stop... AHHHH!"
Arthur chuckled raspily:
— "Do you know? The most satisfying torture method... is a never-ending loop!"
Saying that, Arthur raised his other hand. A vibrant surge of brilliant blue Sophion energy emerged, enveloping Kiriko's mangled hand. In a flash, torn muscle fibers and broken bones protruding through her skin began automatically rejoining, healing completely as if nothing had ever happened!
Before Kiriko could even sigh in relief as the pain subsided…
CRACK! SNAP! CRACK!
— "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
Arthur once again exerted brutal force, snapping all ten of her fingers backward! Bone joints shattered again, fresh blood spurted anew, and the multiplied agony drove Kiriko back and forth between consciousness and blacking out in a frantic frenzy!
Dazed in excruciating pain and utter despair, Kiriko was dragged across the floor by her hair by Arthur, leaving a long trail of blood stretching out of the room. The steel door snapped shut, swallowing the fox-hybrid girl's agonized screams into the dark.
Inside the office, only Lu Quanlin remained. He waved his hand:
— "All of you back out, so I can prepare to receive a distinguished guest!"
The rest of the Four Extremes of Order along with Lu Xie bowed and stepped outside, returning quiet tranquility to the spacious room.
After a long while, the automatic door slid open gently. A figure casually stepped inside. Seeing this, Lu Quanlin beamed with delight, standing up and taking the initiative to welcome him.
— "Greetings! I am Lu Quanlin. You must be the person sent by Lord Raymond from the Galactic Alliance?"
Lu Quanlin extended his hand. The person opposite politely reciprocated with a firm handshake. He wore an extraordinarily elegant black suit, but the most peculiar detail was his face, completely concealed by a traditional Japanese Noh mask—the Ko-omote mask, bearing an expressionless, enigmatic smile.
Both sat down in the armchairs, crossing their legs in an imposing stance. The masked man spoke in a deep, muffled voice echoing from behind the wooden mask:
— "I am Kim Tae-hyun, holding the rank of Commander directly under the command of Officer Raymond. I was ordered here to assist the Federation in resolving some trouble... May I ask, what specifically is the matter?"
Hearing this, Lu Quanlin enthusiastically explained everything from start to finish regarding the rise of Zero Horizon, the betrayal of foreign species, and those secretly sabotaging the Federation order.
Kim Tae-hyun listened quietly until the end, tilting his head as he asked:
— "In short... you want me to permanently eliminate that group calling themselves Zero Horizon along with the remnants of the Four Extremes of Order, correct?"
Lu Quanlin laughed triumphantly:
— "That is correct, Commander!"
Kim Tae-hyun stood up, straightening the folds of his suit jacket, his tone nonchalant as if discussing a trivial chore:
— "Very well. I will handle this small task for you. Consider Zero Horizon completely erased from this universe!"
Overjoyed, Lu Quanlin bowed:
— "Thank you very much! If the opportunity arises, please put in a good word for me in front of Lord Raymond!"
Lu Quanlin personally escorted Kim Tae-hyun to the door, seeing the Alliance Commander off.
Returning to his desk, Lu Quanlin leaned his head back against his chair, bursting into a cruel, ecstatic laugh echoing throughout the room:
— "Hahaha... Let's see how you Zero Horizon bugs play against me in this game of chess now?!"
(To be continued)