Jessica Made Up Her Mind

Seeing Feng Xue deep in thought, Jessica's heart began to pound. Time ticked by, and just as she was about to give up on the idea, Feng Xue seemed to have finally made a choice, raising her head and looking directly into Jessica's eyes:

"Can."

Although it was just a single word, Jessica immediately perked up, her face filled with excitement. But then, she heard the other person utter another word—

"But..."

Hearing that there was still a twist, Jessica couldn't help but swallow hard, and then she heard the other person continue:

"Although I can only offer you one layer of protection, you still need to forge Ten Covenants... Of course, I will also train you afterward to help you master as many skills as possible."

"I do!"

Jessica spoke loudly almost without thinking, which surprised Feng Xue. He suddenly began to wonder if this woman had something wrong with her head.

However, considering sustainable development, he proceeded to explain according to his original idea:

"Don't rush. Let me explain the actual constraints of the Ten Covenants to you first, and then you can make a decision."

"Okay, go ahead." Jessica said, then thought for a moment, turned off the recorder, and looked at Feng Xue with expectant eyes.

Feng Xue picked up the porcelain cup, took a sip of water, and then explained:

"The essence of the Ten Covenants is to restrain executioners, preventing them from using their power for purposes other than upholding morality and justice. While constraining the behavior of executioners, it also establishes a set of procedures for them."

Listening to Feng Xue's words, Jessica looked at the Ten Covenants written in her notebook and said thoughtfully:

"Accepting the commission, conducting the investigation, acting alone... In other words, the entire process must be completed by one person alone? And if the executioner needs to conceal their identity, how can they accept the commission?"

"Because this commission isn't something that needs to be delivered to your door; you have to find it yourself." Feng Xue revealed her true intentions with a smile:

"Investigating injustices, finding victims or their relatives, obtaining their commissions, and then verifying the authenticity of the commissions before taking action is necessary. This is to avoid indiscriminate killing and wrongful executions, and to ensure that the executioner does not become a tool in the hands of certain individuals."

"Similarly, the same applies to acting alone. After all, everyone has desires, and executioners are theoretically not allowed to do anything beyond their mission. But if you bring a henchman, you kill people in front while your henchman loots the spoils behind, wouldn't that circumvent the restrictions?"

"But from this perspective, you should understand that this solo operation only applies to 'executing a mission.' Finding and investigating commissions can be done by others, but you must make the final confirmation to ensure the commission's authenticity. In fact, when the Scales Organization was at its peak, it had an intelligence network spanning the world for gathering information."

Upon hearing this, Jessica immediately thought of her tabloid. Don't underestimate tabloids; their paparazzi are able to gather private information about celebrities even under the protection of bodyguards, agents, security guards, and conglomerates. Naturally, they can easily handle cases where the information blockade isn't so tight.

She doesn't even need to put in much effort; simply issuing an order for the newspaper to transform itself as chairperson, followed by an announcement of salary increases for reporters, and the Newspaper Agency will instantly become her private intelligence network.

Seeing the slightly surprised expression on Jessica's face, Feng Xue knew her hint had worked, so she continued:

"Being an executioner is an extremely dangerous profession. While these regulations limit the abuse of power, they also impose constraints on executioners. Even a hundred years ago, in an era with less advanced technology, there were still instances of executioners with seven blessings failing missions and losing their lives. All you can get from me is a strong physique and some skills. Even so, do you still want to join?"

Jessica didn't care about Feng Xue's warning at all. As an "adventurer" who dared to do oxygen-free mountaineering, parachute jumping, and even venture into the rainforest with only a small knife to play survival games, this kind of behavior of risking her life for justice was far more exciting and thrilling to her than those risky sports that were just challenging herself.

Compared to the trivial matter of life and death, she was more concerned about another issue—

Does this "hidden identity" mean abandoning one's current identity and becoming a "non-existent" person?

This wasn't Jessica's wild imagination; rather, it stemmed from rumors she'd heard from her companions during her adventures, such as "top assassins are 'invisible men' without real Household Registration; even if fingerprints, DNA samples, or photographs are found, no trace can be found."

Now that I think about it, could these non-existent assassins also be remnants of the Scales Organization?

However, Feng Xue decisively denied her statement:

"It's not necessary to do that. Hiding your identity refers to hiding your identity as an 'executioner.' Otherwise, you can be a millionaire, Newspaper Agency reporter, a noodle shop owner, a store cashier, and so on. These identities don't need to be hidden, or rather, their very existence is part of hiding your identity as an executioner."

"Then there's no problem." Jessica said with a sigh of relief, but Feng Xue still maintained a serious expression.

"Are you sure? Once you sign this contract, even if your father's killer is right in front of you, you cannot take action unless authorized by the client. No killing is permitted except for authorized acts; this is a bottom line that must be followed."

"But I can beat him up, right? I can also ask you for help, right?" Jessica's mind worked quickly, but she noticed a shadow of gloom appearing on Feng Xue's face.

The initial faint joy of discovering the vulnerability instantly Cooldown; at that moment, Jessica felt as if she were on the verge of death.

She had only ever felt that feeling when skydiving without a parachute. Although it was fleeting, she roughly understood that it might be the legendary "Killing intent".

In that instant, Jessica thought of many things. She even felt that she had guessed some of the truth about the demise of the "Libra" organization—there were loopholes in the covenant, and people are naturally inclined to exploit loopholes. When the executioners no longer adhered to the covenant but instead constantly sought loopholes to profit themselves, Jessica, who had read countless legendary stories, could easily imagine what would happen next.

But at this moment, she could only nervously remain silent, hoping that the other party would not be angered by her cleverness.

However, the tense atmosphere came and went quickly. Feng Xue seemed to adjust her emotions quickly and sighed:

"Yes, the covenant has loopholes, but I still hope you can treat it as a kind of self-restraint, similar to a conscience, rather than a shackle imposed on you. Otherwise, as your mentor, I have no choice but to make you disappear... if you are sure you want to sign this contract."

Under the immense pressure she had just endured, Jessica temporarily set aside her desire for thrills and began to ponder the meaning behind Feng Xue's words before nodding gently and saying:

"I understand, but I still want to be the executioner."

PS1: I really didn't expect anyone to raise a question like "only explaining the exchange of goods but not the exchange of events." It's the same as buying vegetables. You can say "give me three yuan's worth" when buying groceries, and you can say "give me five hundred yuan's worth" or "give me an hour's worth" when you go to a tea master! Isn't that a vague request? When the tea master hears such a request, he will naturally serve you a set meal according to his own pricing.

PS2: Don't use the logic of real-world items to consider Phantom Object. I've said the characteristics of Phantom Object many times - "Settings are everything, special attacks are like gods." The setting of the coin is "trading," so ownership can only be obtained through trading. In most people's eyes, plundering does not count as trading, so ownership cannot be obtained.

However, there is one exception: if an item possesses elements such as [plunder] or [theft], or Tag such as [robber] or [thief], such as Old Li's Weird Tale of [Gazi Steals Dog], ownership can be acquired through "non-trade" means, because elements such as [theft] and [plunder] have a special effect on elements such as [precious], [valuable], and [currency].

PS3: The fact that a coin is unusable does not mean that its power has disappeared. The person who owned it is dead. The coin has only lost its absolute power to "demand that the other party do something", but its inherent value still exists.

Of course, there are many "adjustments" (Yu-Gi-Oh!! terminology) involved, such as leaving a will (where you can get coins by accomplishing a certain task) to change ownership after death. But these are things that need to be explored little by little, as they are not things that can be discovered in a short time.