Winston and Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Drawing Odin's character card wouldn't have been bad, but Winston's favorability was too low. One draw cost 120 Fate Points, and with such terrible odds, Xiao Miao's current fortune absolutely couldn't justify recklessly pulling from the pool.

"Mr. Smith, you have truly opened my eyes!" Winston handed Xiao Miao a glass of whiskey, a courteous smile on his face.

"I don't drink. Sparkling water will do." Xiao Miao waved it off. He genuinely didn't enjoy alcohol. Maybe he simply wasn't old enough for it yet. He preferred soda, tea, coffee, or lemonade.

A waiter quickly brought over a glass of sparkling water. Winston's smile never faded as he continued making flattering yet graceful remarks, and the atmosphere remained pleasantly cordial.

A moment later, the whiskey and sparkling water clinked together.

"May our friendship last forever!" Winston said, draining the clear liquor in his glass in one gulp.

Xiao Miao didn't touch his sparkling water. After the toast, he nodded politely, rose to leave, and secretly curled his lip.

Winston truly deserved to be the old fox who had controlled the New York Continental Hotel for years. Calling him crafty wasn't enough to describe his cunning. Their conversation had seemed to bring them closer, yet the favorability hadn't moved at all. It was still only Level 1.

They had been talking in a private room deep within the underground bar beneath the hotel. The door was exceptionally soundproof, but the moment Xiao Miao pushed it open, deafening music and pounding drums flooded his mind, pulsing along with his heartbeat.

The scents of alcohol, smoke, sweat, and hormones mixed together. The dance floor was packed, assassins freely venting their desires. Xiao Miao even spotted several couples openly entwined.

Americans really were open-minded!

Xiao Miao hated this sort of environment. He scanned the room, intending to leave, when he suddenly stopped and narrowed his eyes.

At the distant bar, he saw a familiar woman.

"Is that Fox? Why is she at the Continental Hotel?"

A woman with a face strikingly similar to Angelina Jolie's was sprawled over the counter, drinking herself into oblivion. Shot after shot of hard liquor went down her throat, and a drunken flush soon appeared on her cheeks.

Her enormous 36D breasts pressed against the bar, forming a breathtaking curve. Several men gathered around her, silently deciding with their eyes who would become the first lucky one.

The bar was huge, and she was too far away for Fate Dice to activate. Xiao Miao could only guess.

Fox was an elite assassin trained by the Brotherhood from childhood, a ruthless figure who had mastered the two godlike skills of Bullet Time and Curved-Line Shooting. Cold and merciless, her combat ability definitely surpassed that of 99% of the Continental Hotel's assassins.

It couldn't be helped. The Continental Hotel's assassins were simply too conventional. They had basically never made old Newton's coffin lid so much as twitch.

Brotherhood assassins were different. Every time they used Curved-Line Shooting, Newton had to get up and see what the hell was going on.

Fox was a warrior with faith. She firmly believed in the creed of "kill one to save a thousand" and would never drink herself senseless in a bar.

"Could something have gone wrong in the Brotherhood? Did Sloan fail to hide his little schemes, letting Fox discover the truth?"

Xiao Miao headed toward Fox, planning to trigger Fate Dice and check her true name directly. Halfway there, a figure darted out and blocked his path.

"Hey, we meet again." Perkins's cheeks were flushed, and she reeked of alcohol. She had clearly had quite a lot to drink.

Alcohol had bolstered Perkins's courage. She brushed back her long hair and gave Xiao Miao a provocative smile. "Want to have a chat in the restroom?"

The sky had cleared and the rain had stopped. Perkins thought she was tough again!

But Xiao Miao had no interest in someone he had already beaten, especially when he had business to handle. As his physical attributes continued to improve, his five senses had become sharper as well.

He caught a familiar scent on Perkins.

"Move. I'm not interested in a dedicated employee." Xiao Miao pushed Perkins aside with one hand and continued toward the woman who might have been Fox.

Perkins's expression darkened after being pushed away. She wanted to teach Xiao Miao a lesson, but when she remembered the big thing he had just done, she ultimately didn't dare say anything. Turning around, she went looking for her next prey.

When the men surrounding "Fox" saw Xiao Miao walking straight toward them, their expressions immediately turned ugly. For every step Xiao Miao took forward, they took one back, until they all silently retreated.

Despite experiencing only one battle, Xiao Miao had already become someone most assassins knew better than to provoke.

Once the distance between them reached a certain threshold, Fate Dice silently appeared. Xiao Miao sent his thoughts toward it and received a string of information:

[Plot Character: Jane Smith]

[Current Bond: Level 1]

[Draw Cost: 80 Fate Points]

"Oh, she's not Fox..."

Xiao Miao stopped, considered it for a moment, and turned to leave. But Jane had spotted him too. Swaying as she got down from the bar, she closed the distance in a few quick strides.

The smell of alcohol washed over him. Xiao Miao felt his arm trapped between something soft. Looking down, he saw that 36D had completely locked him in with its cleavage.

"You're the Butcher of Paris, right? I've heard of you." Jane let out a drunken burp and dragged Xiao Miao toward a private room.

What kind of ridiculous title was Butcher of Paris? Why not call him the Phantom of Blood Harbor...

Bold because of his skill, Xiao Miao let Jane pull him into the private room. Once the door shut, the music and voices instantly faded away.

"What do you want with me?" Xiao Miao pulled his arm from the softness without the slightest temptation from her beauty. Or rather, Jane... Angelina Jolie, was not considered beautiful in Xiao Miao's eyes.

Jolie had a fiery body, extremely high cheekbones, naturally hollow cheeks, and a jawline sharp as if carved with a blade—the kind of three-dimensional bone structure Westerners loved most.

Together with her thick, sausage-like lips, she directly struck the hearts of many Westerners, who worshipped her as a goddess.

But apart from her hot body, every other feature Jolie possessed was a drawback in Xiao Miao's eyes. His heart remained calm, and his lower half was equally tranquil.

He couldn't understand the appeal of sausage lips. Was it so they could wear blue lipstick and cosplay a blue-ringed octopus while eating popsicles?

At Xiao Miao's words, the drunkenness vanished from Jane's face. A flash of hatred crossed her eyes, and she gritted her teeth. "I have a commission. I want to designate you to carry it out."

Xiao Miao crossed his arms. "Why me?"

"Because you're strong enough, and ruthless enough! And you have no connection to the target organization."

Xiao Miao nodded thoughtfully. "Is that so? Tell me the details."

"All right!" Seeing that Xiao Miao was considering taking the job, Jane was secretly delighted and began recounting the entire story behind the commission.

Jane herself was a top-tier assassin. Six years ago, while hiding from enemies pursuing her, she hit it off with John, who was also evading pursuit. They pretended to be lovers, discovered they were a good fit, and simply turned the act into reality, quickly getting married.

Both of them hid the fact that they were assassins and lived together under false identities. Once the passion faded, their impulsive marriage quickly settled into calm.

Their marriage, built on secrets, lasted six years and had now reached the brink of collapse. During the seven-year itch, their respective organizations coincidentally assigned them to assassinate the same target.

Their assassination styles were completely different, and they interfered with each other, so the mission naturally failed. But both spouses keenly discovered the other's hidden identity. After testing each other, they broke into a deadly fight, every move aimed to kill.

The battle escalated step by step, and the organizations they served were drawn into the conflict as well. In the end, Jane's organization gained the upper hand and blew up the elevator John was riding in, completely ending the fight.

Only at the moment of her husband's death did Jane realize she still loved him. But it was too late. The dead could not return to life. She could only sort through their shattered home in grief, where she discovered something unusual. She secretly began investigating and pieced together the truth from scattered clues.

Starting with the assassination of the same target, everything had been a conspiracy by both assassin organizations. They wanted the couple to eliminate each other and prevent them from affecting their organizations' business. After learning the truth, Jane was heartbroken and wanted to destroy the organizations both husband and wife had served, avenging her dead husband.

Xiao Miao silently listened to Jane—or rather, Mrs. Smith's—account, and he had already reached a conclusion.

So he had triggered the plot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The Hong Kong translation had left a deep impression on him: Smith Battles Mrs. Smith.

Wait, the name the system had disguised him with was Smith, and now Mrs. Smith had suddenly appeared...

Damn it, he had been taken advantage of!

Based on Mrs. Smith's description, the plot should have only just entered its middle stage. Mr. Smith, played by Brad Pitt, had disappeared in the elevator explosion, but he wasn't dead. He had merely gone into hiding.

Seeing Xiao Miao lower his head in thought, Mrs. Smith moved close, took off her knee-high boots, and rubbed her black-stockinged thigh back and forth against Xiao Miao's tactile receptors.

"What are you still hesitating over? If you can kill those people, then besides the payment, I'm willing to accompany you for three months!"

A woman consumed by vengeance had no reason left. Even her own body could be placed on the scales as a bargaining chip.

Xiao Miao turned into a sigma man and shoved Mrs. Smith away with one slap. "Madam, please respect yourself. My commissions aren't cheap. You should discuss it with your family first."

Mrs. Smith's expression changed. "What do you mean?"