Mick’s agents collected Location Seekers from the pre-Awakened, and Tomorrow began hiring them. I could tell there were twenty-nine remaining assassination quests, and the number of dots that indicated the pre-Awakened’s locations on the map window decreased day by day. All of the dots in North America had been removed, so the three men who were standing in front of the door weren’t people carrying out the orders of the System.

I returned to the call girl and pointed under the bed.

“There’s an intruder. If you don’t want to be involved, don’t come out from there,” I said.

“Stop messing with me.” She laughed mischievously because she found it ridiculous that an intruder would try to break into the royal suite of a top-class hotel in New York. If they actually broke in, they were considered bold guys. When I didn’t respond to her reply, the call girl’s eyes widened to the point where I could see my reflection in her dilated pupils. Then, she reached out towards the room phone on the table beside the bed. I immediately snatched the phone from her hand and put it back in place.

“Shh.”

I could barely hear it, but I heard the door unlock. I ordered the call girl, “Move.”

She got frightened but quickly moved under the bed.

“Close your eyes and cover your ears.”

She did as she was told. The intruders were approaching the bedroom that was past the spacious living room. I had read an article about an armed robber breaking into a super-luxurious hotel and stealing the guests’ jewelry and cash. However, the incident was deemed to be a self-fabricated scenario by the victim as it was impossible that there were no surveillance cameras in the hotel and that no security guards or guests had noticed someone breaking in. Armed robbery in a five-star hotel? In general, it didn’t make sense.

Moreover, these people had the audacity not to wear masks. They were dressed in a fancy suit like any other VIP guest, but the only difference was that they each had a pistol with a silencer in their hands. They were professional murderers, not thieves. There was no room for doubt because I was sure someone had requested them to kill me. I was facing a dilemma while watching them moving stealthily in search of me. In this case, I knew that Joshua was not one of the suspects since he knew civilian contractors wouldn’t be able to even hurt me.

Jonathan?

We had enjoyed a break away together just an hour ago, and I had chosen him as my partner from the very beginning because I believed he wouldn’t betray me.

Jamie?

She was afraid of me and actually felt scared for her own safety. Although she was the head of Jeon-il Group, which dominated Korea, and had enough authority and money to hire hired guns, she wasn’t stupid. If I disappeared, everything she enjoyed would evaporate into thin air. I had a hunch that these assassins weren’t hired by my own people.

That left three possibilities. First, surprisingly, the Korean government could have identified the real owner of Jeon-il Group. Second, the White House could have sent them. The third suspect I had in mind was a bit ridiculous, but a rival group could have sent them. They all had one thing in common: enough power and capability to cover up an incident that happened in a super-luxurious hotel.

I approached the intruders from the back and watched as they moved toward the bedroom. They were unaware that I was right behind them, staring at their heads. I felt a pleasant thrill from doing this, and I moved deliberately in order to react to any unexpected situations.

When one of them checked behind them, he found me. I didn’t want to mess up the room since I felt too lazy to clean up after. Therefore, I didn’t intend to slice their necks with Devi’s Sword, explode them with Odin’s Wrath, or crush their skulls with my Strength. Doing any of those would be the best way to evoke panic, but I decided to act cleanly instead.

Sheaaaak-!

I grabbed the neck of the guy who found me and another guy who was beside him.

“Eup!”

I kicked the leg of another guy and knocked him down. Then, I swiftly trampled his neck as well. All of them dropped their guns without even realizing it, and they were trembling from the enormous pressure that was squeezing their windpipe like leaves on a tree being blown by a crisp wind.

I left only one of them with breath left in his lungs, and I watched as sense slowly came back to his eyes. When I loosened my grip, a breathless body collapsed heavily, and it lay on top of another corpse. The guy who was alive was looking at his fellows with shock.

“I’ll see you soon,” I said.

I punched him until he fainted, making sure to leave him alive before throwing him to the floor. Although they were highly trained professionals, they were just civilians. The call girl returned when I told her it was okay to come out. She slowly stuck her face out.

I didn’t want to spend too much time with a scared woman. I took out the wallet from her coat and pulled out her driver’s license. It wasn’t necessary to explain to her what I was doing because she was clever enough to know why I took her ID.

I ordered flatly, “You were not here tonight.”

The call girl nodded frantically, and her eyes were fixed on the guys who were lying behind me.

“Anyway, I apologize. I’ll let you take a rest for a while, so leave your account information.”

The handwriting on the note she left was messy, and I could feel her terror from it.

She scrambled out, and the room was silent as if nothing had happened.

***

There were boxes of unauthorized weapons in the warehouse that Mick’s group used as private storage. The guy had been tied up, and he was leaning against one of the boxes.

When I slapped his cheek, he slowly opened his eyes. Then, he glanced around to grasp the situation and frowned when he realized he was in a simple container box that only had one old halogen bulb for light. Of course, he stayed silent.

“Did you sleep well?” I asked.

He was determined. He acted like a patriotic soldier who had been kidnapped by a terrorist, but he was just a dirty hired gun. He obviously didn't have any documents from the Pentagon that real soldiers carried around in case they were caught by their enemy. His dead fellows and he had broken into my hotel room with only one gun in each of their hands.

I said, “You must have noticed this already, but I’m going to kill you here. It’s up to you whether you die in pain or peace.”

I had been tortured in the past, and I had also been on the other side. However, torturing wasn’t the key to controlling highly trained guys like him. To achieve the desired outcome, I would have to work hard for a long time. The fact that someone was trying to kill me didn’t piss me off as much as the fact that this incident reminded me of my horrifying memories of the past.

Anyway, the more shocking way to torture a civilian like him was destroying his reality.

“Who hired you?” I asked.

“...”

I continued casually, “Yeah, of course, you won’t tell me. I was thinking of cutting your limbs off first, but I don’t want to ruin my hands. I don’t need you. This won’t be the end.”

[You have opened the Ruler’s Ring.]

[Target: Declan Warrior]

The Declan Warrior emerged as if it had broken through hell. Its eyes were fiery, and its claws, which were used to torture sinners, were sharp like sickles, and its teeth looked like it would bite at anyone mercilessly. The monster waited for my orders. With a single movement of my finger, I could turn the guy into a cow in the slaughterhouse of a butcher.

When the monster straightened its back, the halogen light embedded in the ceiling of the container shook.

Squeak, squeak.

The sound was loud, but to Declan, it was no better than the sound of a pendulum swinging lightly. The guy turned pale and screamed when I turned around to leave, “No! Don’t… don’t go! Don’t leave me… here… Fucking shit. What the hell is this… this… Monster!”

I replied coldly, “Your employer must have not explained things to you properly. You probably had no clue what you were dealing with, and that’s your misfortune.”

“Morgan! It was the Morgan Family!” he screeched.

I stopped. “What.”

“I… I’m just um, their cleaner! So please… please get rid of this…”

The guy closed his eyes as if he couldn’t see anymore, and he had to. The highest-class warrior of the Declan corps enjoyed the taste of human flesh and was emitting a chilling murderous intent. If he had been able to face it without panicking, he must have been something else. However, how many civilians would be able to see a living monster with their own two eyes and not freak out?

The guy closed his eyes and trembled. Then, I put a phone in his hand and said, “Call them.”

He opened his eyes very slightly and glared fixedly at this phone as if by doing so he wouldn’t have to look at the monster. However, the person didn’t answer him despite his earnest desire.

“It’s true. Please, please trust me.”

He was desperate.

“I will.”

[You have activated the Ruler’s Ring.]

[Target: Declan Warrior]

[You have succeeded in capturing the target.]

The mutt that had dominated this space for a moment vanished after leaving its stench. The guy fell down helplessly and started breathing with his face on the ground. Before long, he retched when he smelled the tell-tale stench of the monster.

I said to him,” You don’t need to be depressed. I’ll send your employer after you.”

I had kept my promise that I would kill him without pain, so I headed back to the car. When the driver started the car…

“Keuk.”

I barked out a short laugh because this situation was ridiculous. The reason why families had hired multiple cleaners was not to eliminate political enemies. In fact, their use of violence was extremely limited.

Cleaners…

In the literal meaning, they were the ones cleaning up the garbage. They targeted scum of the earth or those that the world didn’t pay much attention to, such as candymen who sold drugs to the family or a whore who sent money to the family. But me?

Trying to assassinate the real owner of Jonathan Group clearly proved they were ignoring the warning Jonathan and I had sent to Wall Street. I understood that they didn’t want to compete with money, but they had crossed a line as soon as they sent the cleaners.

“Ha!”

There would be no materialistic fight. Since they attempted to resolve things with violence, I had to respond fairly.

Idiots.