Violent Instant Kill

Kanzai lasted less than twenty minutes in the jewelry exhibition hall before he'd had enough.

The men and women in formal attire, champagne glasses in hand, wore carefully calculated smiles as they traded empty pleasantries and flattery.

The air reeked of hypocrisy and desire. To Kanzai, it smelled worse than rotting flesh.

"Tch."

He spat under his breath and turned toward the back door.

He pulled open the door marked "Staff Passage" and entered a relatively quiet freight corridor.

There were no soft lights or soothing music here, only concrete walls, metal shelves, and several harsh fluorescent lamps.

Kanzai took a deep breath—this was more like it.

No perfume, just the scent of dust and metal.

He leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and twitched his ears slightly, listening to the sounds of the entire building.

Just then—click.

At the other end of the corridor, a fire door was gently pushed open.

A tall, thin figure slipped inside, moving as lightly as a cat.

He wore a Minke Building maintenance worker's uniform, but it fit poorly and was far too clean—no oil stains, no signs of wear.

Coyote.

Kanzai's eyes flew open.

The two stood twenty meters apart, their eyes meeting.

The air froze for a second.

Kanzai recognized that face—the man with the sinister gaze from the file photo.

Coyote recognized him too. Though he had never seen Kanzai before, that beastlike presence, that Hunter's distinctive gaze that looked upon others as prey... there was no mistaking it.

"Enemy!"

Kanzai wasted no words.

His aura erupted, and his body went from stillness to maximum acceleration in an instant. His foot stomped a shallow crater into the ground as he shot toward Coyote like a cannonball!

Coyote's pupils contracted sharply.

He had never expected to encounter an ambush here, much less for the other side to attack immediately—this was still inside the building, with hundreds of visitors outside!

But in a life-or-death moment, there was no room for hesitation.

Coyote crossed his arms as aura hastily gathered before him.

"Bang—!!!"

Kanzai's fist slammed into Coyote's crossed guard with a dull boom.

Coyote was blasted backward, crashing heavily into the fire door behind him and leaving a human-shaped dent in the metal.

"Cough!"

Coyote spat out blood, his eyes turning vicious.

He shook out his numb arms, crouched slightly, and somehow had several slender daggers between his fingers.

"Hunter Association lapdog..."

Coyote's voice was hoarse.

"How did you find this place?"

Kanzai grinned, baring his stark white teeth.

"Who the hell wants to waste words on you?"

He charged forward again.

Almost at the same time, outside the main entrance of Minke Building.

Several black SUVs came speeding in from the far end of the street, their tires shrieking harshly against the pavement.

They braked sharply and stopped outside the cordon.

The doors opened almost simultaneously, and more than a dozen masked men jumped out.

All wore black tactical uniforms and carried automatic rifles. Their movements were well-trained; the instant they got out, they quickly spread out, muzzles aimed in every direction.

The crowd froze for a second before erupting into screams.

Visitors, media reporters, and passersby—everyone fled backward in panic, and chaos broke out instantly.

Leo stood beside the reception desk, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Gunmen... and two rocket launchers. They're going this hard for a robbery?"

He muttered to himself.

The intelligence hadn't mentioned that the Jackal Trio would bring reinforcements, much less deploy armed force on this scale. It seemed they had learned their lesson after suffering a loss last time.

In the distance, a sedan was parked at the street corner.

Its window rolled halfway down, revealing two faces—Jackal, with a hideous scar running from his brow to his jaw, and the red-haired Fire Wolf.

"Big Brother, you really are smart."

Fire Wolf watched the distant chaos and grinned.

"Let these cannon fodder take the lead. Even if there's an ambush, they can wear the enemy down first."

Jackal's gaze was gloomy, his voice rough.

"Hmph. We fell into the Hunter Association's ambush last time and nearly died there... Even if they come this time, they'll still die. More than a dozen heavy weapons plus rocket launchers—even Nen users can't withstand that."

Their plan was simple and brutal: use heavy firepower to sweep the area and create chaos, rush in amid the confusion, grab the jewelry, and run.

As for those gunmen—they were desperadoes hired with money in the first place. Whether they lived or died didn't matter.

At the main entrance, the leading masked man raised a hand, signaling for silence.

He glanced at the few security guards still standing at the door—those men had already drawn their handguns, but their faces were pale and their hands trembled.

"The boss has spoken."

The leader turned and shouted at his companions.

"Other than valuable jewelry, don't let anyone else go!"

The bandits behind him let out excited howls.

Their gun muzzles rose, aiming at the security guards by the entrance.

Leo moved.

Without warning, without any sign.

His aura went from stillness to full output in just 0.5 seconds, erupting around him!

The tails of his suit jacket flew upward, and the ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch!

He made the two simplest movements—raising his foot. Bringing it down.

"Boom—!!!!!"

The moment his right foot struck the ground, the stone pavement within a five-meter radius of the impact point exploded apart!

Rubble, dirt, and chunks of concrete burst upward like a fountain.

Leo raised his right hand, moving so quickly it left afterimages.

His index finger danced before him, and with every flex, it struck a piece of flying rubble with perfect precision.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—!!!

The fragments became bullets, shooting toward the bandits at supersonic speed!

"Splurt!"

The first pebble pierced the leader's brow.

The savage grin had yet to leave his face when his whole body toppled backward.

"Splurt! Splurt! Splurt—!"

Then came the second, the third, the tenth... every pebble struck a target with absolute precision—brow, throat, heart.

Penetrating wounds. One-hit kills.

The screams did not even have time to fully leave their throats.

All dozen-plus bandits fell in less than three seconds. Their guns slipped from their hands and hit the ground with scattered clatters.

Dead silence.

Other than the terrified screams in the distance and the blare of car alarms, no other sound remained on the street.

Blood slowly spread from beneath the corpses, gathering into dark red streams across the cracked pavement.

Leo lowered his hands, his aura slowly receding.

The tattoo on the back of his hand continued to radiate warmth—more than a dozen faint strands of life energy flowed into his body. Each was tiny, but together they added up to quite a bit.

[Level: 41 (85%)]

At the street corner, inside the sedan.

The expressions on Jackal and Fire Wolf's faces froze.

They had seen the entire process—from Leo's aura erupting, to the ground exploding, to the rubble firing out like bullets, and finally all the gunmen dying instantly.

The entire process had taken less than five seconds.

"W-what... was that...?"

Fire Wolf's voice trembled.

Jackal's face turned livid as he clenched his fists.

He stared fixedly at the young man standing amid the corpses—the other man did not even look at the bodies on the ground. Instead, he turned and looked in their direction.

Their gazes met.

In that instant, Jackal and Fire Wolf felt as if they had fallen into an ice pit.

That was not a human gaze.

It was the gaze of a predator assessing its prey—cold, calm, yet carrying a suffocating pressure.

Cold sweat soaked their backs.