This is a trap!

Sarah Kerrigan placed her pistol at her waist. The powerful abilities granted by her environmental mimicry suit and Psionics allowed her to instantly slit Angus Mengsk's neck with a dagger the moment she grabbed him. The dagger easily pierced Angus Mengsk's neck, cleanly and efficiently severing his trachea and artery, the movement fluid and without the slightest hesitation.

Like cutting through a piece of unobstructed rubber or cowhide, as Kerrigan grabbed Angus by the hair and lifted his head, blood gushed from his carotid artery, spraying like a jet of water onto the ceiling and walls.

A revered freedom fighter and revolutionary pioneer, whose ideals may have been absurd, yet he remains a hero Kerrigan will remember—before the scientists at the Ghost Academy wipe her memory again.

It all seemed too easy. He walked past hundreds of security personnel, infiltrated the Korhal Genesis Family Sky Tower, which was protected by a sophisticated security system, and easily decapitated the rebel leader.

Since Kerrigan began her assassination missions, she has never failed. Ghost operative carry out assassinations in ways far beyond the realm of human understanding and imagination; they are like ghosts roaming the world and Reaper reapers reaping lives.

Unless the victim knows the Ghost operative ' methods of assassination and understands how this largest Psionics assassin organization in history operates, the assassination will be impossible.

But that's impossible—it's top secret. Even the Confederate Congress knows nothing about it; they only know that the Ghost operative actually exist.

That's enough. The rulers of Tarsonis don't care how the weapons work; all they need to do is eliminate the Council's enemies. That's the meaning of the Psionics' existence.

Angus Mengsk's cold gray eyes were tightly closed, and his face, with its hawk-like nose and sculpted features, resembled a sculpture. Upon receiving the frozen head, the high-ranking officials of the Confederate Congress would surely examine their spoils of war closely.

Kerrigan didn't know if the nobles atop Tarsonis Tower and those high above in the Confederate Congress still possessed humanity. It was a fact known to all Terrans that the Confederacy had two massive criminal organizations—the Marines and the Confederacy.

The former is a collection of the most heinous criminals, with nearly 50 percent of the soldiers being ex-convicts, while the crimes of the Confederacy far surpass those of the military, and all laws meant to uphold justice are ineffective against corrupt officials and sophisticated career politicians.

If someone is to exercise power above the Confederacy, then a new set of sentencing standards will be needed to judge their crimes.

Kerrigan knew that only gods could wield this power, but if they truly existed, they must uphold a distorted standard of good and evil. Gods would let the punished go unpunished while the innocent die unjustly.

As Angus's still-beating, though increasingly slow-moving, heart pumped blood through the ruptured arteries, Kerrigan shoved the blood-stained dagger back into its leather sheath and tossed the blood-soaked head into the backpack on Ghost 24718's back.

The headless corpse was carelessly discarded, and the ghosts emerged from the bedroom to leave. Mr. Charles, the Mengsk Family's butler, stood in the doorway. He may have already known of his master's death, and his grief was felt by Kerrigan was highly sensitive to such things due to her telepathic abilities.

Kerrigan offered a little sympathy to the poor man, and the Psionics suppressor began to work again, erasing all her extraneous emotions with the sting.

But something's not right— Psionics suppressors don't work this way.

Her special Psionics intuition suddenly surged into her mind, as if a thousand needles were piercing her brain, and some unknown danger was approaching.

At this moment, Kerrigan's calves tensed, and her spreading psychic power began to expand within this layer, but she only found a dozen or so security personnel and servants who were completely unaware of this.

But something's not right. Her powerful Psionics intuition never fails her. Since the danger isn't coming from humans, then...

"This is a trap!"

The instant Kerrigan spoke, the Umojan Psionics, which had been in standby mode, activated. The entire sixtieth floor was placed under a suddenly deployed shielding field, and her Psionics began to decline, as if it had been drained by an invisible force field.

These Psionics shields are not Korhal's technology; they come from the Umojan Shadow Guard Academy, are quite valuable, and are hidden beneath hardwood floors. Their activation mechanism is connected to some kind of feedback device. To achieve a powerful effect in suppressing Psionics, the installers have installed at least twenty Psionics shields in a truly ruthless manner.

Kerrigan had no idea what had weakened her. She and another Ghost operative 24718 ran down the corridor at incredible speed. At that moment, even the fastest runner in human history couldn't match the speed the Ghost operative could unleash with the aid of their combat suits, but it was all too late.

As the Psionics shielding device activated, people in the central urban area of Sterling City heard a deafening roar, waking them from their sleep. The light from the explosion seemed to illuminate the night sky in an instant.

Bright flames erupted from the windows of the 60th floor, shattering the glass of dozens of windows below. A few breaths later, the top two floors collapsed as their supporting structures were instantly blown apart.

The huge Mengsk lettering on the rooftop plummeted uncontrollably to the ground, and the walls, torn apart by the shockwave, fell like scraps of paper.

At this time, Revolutionary Army soldiers still on duty in shops or on the humanoid streets could see the top floor of Mengsk Sky Tower emitting an extremely bright light.

Augustus awoke with a start from a table in a command center conference room. He quickly changed into the Revolutionary Army's dark gray uniform, and with the help of two bodyguards, donned a suit of Power Armor made of snap-fit and adhesive plates. Only then did he issue orders to the bewildered soldiers through the command center's communication system.

After a brief silence, the military camp at Mengsk Sky Tower erupted in commotion as hundreds of the Revolutionary Army 1st Division soldiers rushed to the barracks. Several Revolutionary Army companies clad in Power Armor, their armor a deep red with white whip-ring insignia on their shoulder armor, raced toward Mengsk Sky Tower at top speed.

The soldiers and their officers had no idea what was going on; they were simply told to arrest several Confederacy assassins with powerful Psionics.

As they advanced along the highway, another force of only a hundred men joined the ranks of these Revolutionary Army soldiers. Their armor was no different from that of the other soldiers, except that their breastplates bore the insignia of the Mengsk Family's golden wolf head, which meant that this force was still Augustus's own direct force and the de facto Janissary.

Only a few officers knew the unit's designation— Sterling Raiders. They were a professionally trained anti- Psionics force, established when the Korhal Revolutionary Army was formally founded.

The Sterling Strikers's armor is equipped with anti-stealth goggles, and each squad is equipped with a 20mm Mariner sniper rifle capable of firing anti-ghost weapons such as EMP rounds.

Military aircraft took off from the requisitioned Sterling Skyport, and the sky above the city was filled with crisscrossing beams of searchlight.

Augustus circled the conference table a few times, and more Marines poured into the command center's conference room. A stealthy Umojan Shadow Guard placed his hand on his shoulder.

Then, as a Holographic Projection was activated, live footage was transmitted from a transport ship hovering atop the Mengsk Sky Tower. Servants inside the Sky Tower were fleeing in panic, some being knocked to the ground by the Revolutionary Army soldiers rushing into the tower, and even a stampede occurred in the narrow sections.

"Find them," Augustus said over the communication channel. "Keep your distance and be vigilant. Your enemies are Psionics; their attacks can directly affect the mind."

More images were transmitted back from several units that entered the Sky Tower. One unit climbed the spiral staircase step by step, followed by security personnel leading hunting dogs tamed from Sterling Wolf. Civilian-modified armed ships hovered in the air, searching for signs of life beneath the rubble.

Augustus at the Holographic Projection screen, which was divided into multiple sections, keeping a close eye on every unit that might encounter the Ghost operative.

Two months ago, Augustus began making arrangements. After much deliberation, he concluded that passive defense was disadvantageous. While tight security measures could stop ordinary assassins, the Ghost operative were a group of superhumans whose abilities defied conventional wisdom.

Augustus's advantage lay in his knowledge that the Ghost operative would definitely come to assassinate Angus Angus. Since that was the case, he might as well set a death trap—using his father, Angus, as bait.

Augustus was always accustomed to taking the initiative to switch roles between offense and defense; this was his style of doing things.

Of course, that Angus was just a criminal who had undergone plastic surgery and memory transplantation, using false memories to deceive Ghost operative.

The explosives buried in the building are connected to the pulse monitor of this "Angus". Once the heart rate is inconsistent with the normal value, the Psionics shield will be activated to weaken the Ghost operative's power, at which point the explosives, enough to destroy a building, will detonate.

This also means that, in order to counter the Ghost operative's mind-reading ability and make the trap even less likely to be detected, the Mengsk Family's security team and servants, who are completely unaware of this on the 60th floor, will become victims, including Charles, the butler who has been loyal to the Mengsk family for many years.

The old housekeeper sacrificed himself voluntarily.

Due to time constraints and the immaturity of memory transplantation technology, Augustus was unable to find enough criminals to replace these people and ensure that no one's memory would be flawed.

When Augustus made this decision, he also felt a pang of guilt for his own callousness. At first it was only those Resocialized Soldier; now it could be others.

Augustus discovered that he had begun to sacrifice others in order to achieve a certain goal.

Augustus may still feel bewildered now, but perhaps one day, he will not hesitate to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of people and will take it for granted.

The high-ranking security personnel and servants are the most loyal guardians of the Mengsk Family. Most of them come from the Sterling slums and are beneficiaries of the Mengsk Family's children's Charitable Causes. They have been trained to serve the Mengsk Family since childhood. These people are willing to die for the Mengsk Family, but that does not mean they can be sacrificed at will.

But Augustus had no choice. His enemy was Sarah Kerrigan, the most powerful Ghost operative in history. As long as Kerrigan lived, Augustus and his family's lives would be constantly threatened, a constant thorn in their side.

I hope it's all worth it, as long as --

Suddenly, one segment of the Holographic Projection screen went completely black; it showed a small spaceship about to land on top of a collapsed building. Meanwhile, another parallel spaceship was shown spinning as it plummeted, its cockpit windows blurred by splattered blood.

"What killed him? The spaceship was hit."

"Gain altitude and get out of there!" Augustus shouted as another spaceship was hit, the pilot's head blown off by a 25mm bullet. At that moment, he could see the red-haired ghost above a pile of ruins.

The voluptuous female ghost gripped a Gauss Rifle tightly; her helmet had fallen off, and her blue and white environmental mimicry combat suit was stained with blood. Even with her Psionics weakened and her position at the epicenter of the explosion, Kerrigan's powerful Psionics still protected her.

Although she looked much weaker.

Perhaps this is why Arcturus Mengsk ultimately abandoned Kerrigan; he harbored a deep hatred for Psionics because of the deaths of his family. And if Kerrigan were to one day stand against him, he would undoubtedly be unable to eat or sleep in peace.

"Kill her," Augustus repeated.

"Kill her."

Augustus put his bets on capturing these three Ghost operative alive. Kerrigan's Psionics was level ten, only because the highest Psionics level in the Terran Confederacy was level ten. Augustus didn't know much about Kerrigan during her Ghost operative days, but he had at least witnessed the Queen of Blades ' power.

As the last ship began to ascend and zoom in, Augustus's soldiers arrived at the 60th floor, which had become the top floor.

The Gauss Rifle began to roar, but all the bullets suddenly stopped a few yards away from Kerrigan, as if they had entered gel. Then the bullets were crushed by powerful telekinesis, and the bullets, having lost their kinetic energy, fell to the ground like flattened soda cans.

"Don't get close to her, shoot from a distance," the Revolutionary Army commander in charge of the unit ordered over the channel.

"Her Psionics far exceed our imagination," said Umojan, Augustus's Shadow Guard. "Perhaps her Psionics are above level ten?"

"Her Psionics is about to run out," he said. "A living, level 10 Psionics who can serve us is far greater than a dead one. The Shadow Guard has the technology to remove Confederacy Ghost operative, which could turn her back into a normal person—if she was normal before becoming Ghost operative."

"Or study her," Augustus said with a coldness that surprised the Shadow Guard.

"Faraday," Augustus, "Connect to my channel."

"I've come to speak with that Ghost operative."