Hawkeye

"Bang!"

A gunshot tore through the still night. The captain wiped the blood from his face. "Your mistake was agreeing to work with us. How could you trust the word of a devil?"

Tears filled the Skull Gang Leader's eyes as he toppled to the ground with a clatter. Blood gushed from the bullet hole between his brows, staining the earth red. Even as he died, he clung desperately to the briefcase in his hands.

"Sir, the mission is complete. Should we retreat?" a soldier asked.

"No. Sweep the entire factory. Make sure no one gets out alive," the captain said coldly.

"Boom!"

As he spoke, three blue streaks suddenly appeared in the sky. Three micro-rockets spiraled through the air and slammed into the chest of the soldier in front of him, blasting him away with tremendous force. It was impossible to tell if he was still alive.

"Hostiles!" the captain shouted at once. The soldiers around him raised their guns, searching for the enemy, but the attack had been so fast that none of them had seen where it came from.

Just then, the captain thought he heard something by his feet. He looked down and was startled to see a smoke grenade, spewing white smoke.

"Cough, cough, cough..." The smoke grenade obscured the enemy's vision. Thick white smoke quickly blinded the soldiers. They cautiously guarded against a possible attack, but waited for a long time without anyone attacking.

As the smoke slowly cleared, they were astonished to find that the silver briefcase had vanished!

Soldier: 76 transformation time remaining: 0:10

Clutching the silver briefcase, William sprinted away. He was the one who had snatched it.

He had just witnessed the Skull Gang Leader being killed, and was astonished to realize that the Golden Question Mark he had been searching for was this mysterious briefcase.

William had only gotten involved with the Skull Gang to complete his main quest. He hadn't expected to somehow get caught up in a massive conspiracy. The arrival of those mysterious soldiers had nearly wiped out the entire Skull Gang.

From their conversation, it was clear that these men were probably connected to the briefcase. They had commissioned the Skull Gang to carry out a mission, and now it seemed they wanted to silence them—or cover up some kind of secret.

So who were they?

Soldier: 76 transformation time remaining: 0:00

Just then, Soldier: 76's transformation ended, and William returned to normal.

Soldier: 76's transformation now lasted only three short minutes. He had originally stood a chance of getting the briefcase, but who could have expected these special forces soldiers to show up out of nowhere, attack him, and kill the members of the Skull Gang?

"William, if you don't escape today, you may die here," Athena said.

"I know, I know." Back to being an ordinary person, William didn't dare stop. He kept running toward the woods ahead.

He was now an ordinary person who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. If those special forces soldiers caught him, he was done for. His main quest was to uncover the secret the Skull Gang had been hiding. If he wasn't mistaken, that secret definitely had something to do with the briefcase.

Although he had managed to steal the briefcase, the quest wasn't over yet. It seemed he had to reach somewhere safe and shake off these men before he could truly complete it.

Before he knew it, he had fled deep into the forest. The clouds gradually swallowed the moon, and the woods in the darkness seemed like an endless maze.

William had no idea where he was. His Sprint skill was on cooldown, and he ran on, panting hard. He didn't know when the enemy might catch up, and he didn't dare stop.

"Bang!" Just as William had that thought, a gunshot rang out nearby.

The sound jolted William, and he hurried to pick up the pace. He ran up a small slope, but in his haste, he tripped over a stone and tumbled down, landing in a pile of fallen leaves.

William opened his eyes groggily. It felt as if his insides had been tossed around, and stars danced before his eyes. He struggled to get up, then suddenly heard footsteps nearby.

He knew the enemy was close, but they hadn't spotted him yet.

If he rushed out now, they would surely see him and discover where he was. But if he stayed put, they would soon catch up.

Someone steals your stuff and comes after you—what do you do? Asking online, it's pretty urgent.

In his panic, William spotted the fallen leaves around him. He quickly lay down and rolled into them, then grabbed handfuls and covered himself, hiding among the leaves with only his eyes exposed.

"Damn it, where did that guy go?"

"Just let me catch him. I'll teach him a lesson!"

At their words, William couldn't help swallowing. The footsteps drew closer and closer. He could see the special forces soldiers approaching with their guns raised, searching cautiously. He quickly covered his mouth and held his breath, repeating to himself:

They can't see me. They can't see me...

The special forces soldiers looked around but didn't find any sign of the enemy, and prepared to leave. William had just begun to breathe a sigh of relief when he heard one of them walk toward him and say coldly, "Stop hiding! I've found you!"

William was startled. What the hell? I'm disguised this well, and you still spotted me?

In reality, the soldier hadn't found him at all. He was only trying to scare him. The enemy kept moving closer to William's hiding place, and soon they would spot his exposed eyes.

At that critical moment, a sharp whistle suddenly pierced the air. A black shadow dropped from above and plunged into the soldier's chest. He collapsed on the spot.

William took a closer look. It was a black arrow!

"Hostiles!" the captain shouted. The soldiers warily scanned their surroundings, but they couldn't see the enemy. Just then, another arrow shot in and pierced another soldier's throat in an instant.

The soldiers finally panicked. They raised their guns and fired wildly in every direction. Bullets flew everywhere, shattering branches and trunks as broken leaves drifted down from above, but they still didn't seem to hit their opponent.

William had just been saved from certain death, and he was curious who had rescued him. He couldn't help looking up. A figure stood in a tree not far away.

The clouds gradually cleared from the sky, and the mysterious figure appeared in the bright moonlight. He had short blond hair and wore purple clothes. His face was shrouded in Shades, and he held a longbow, with a quiver strapped to his back.

At that moment, the black longbow was drawn to a full moon, two arrows ready to fly.

He was an archer!

William froze. He thought of the attacker the Skull Gang had been guarding against: a terrifying archer. It seemed that the mysterious archer had finally appeared.

"There he is!" William wasn't the only one who had seen him. The soldiers spotted the man too and opened fire, trying to take him down. But then something completely unexpected happened.

In a flash, the archer leaped down. He dodged the bullets and, while airborne, fired two arrows at once. Two streaks of shadow whistled through the air and slammed into the chests of two soldiers!

"Deadeye!" William marveled to himself. Killing that soldier with one arrow hadn't seemed all that impressive, but firing two arrows at once and taking out two men was something else.

Wait. His archery was superb, and he never missed. He finally knew who this man was—

Hawkeye!