Xin's voice was like that of a man on the brink of madness, yet eerily calm—his lips curling into a sinister smile that stretched from ear to ear, painting a face like those found in horror films.
His eyes glinted with an ominous light as if he were looking down on the world itself.
"Surrender?" he muttered, his gaze never leaving Aurora's, his voice echoing hollowly into the room.
"Haha, that's funny. You know, if you come any closer, I'll pull the trigger~."
The soldiers exchanged nervous glances, never expecting this situation to unfold—not once in a million.
Even Aurora widened her eyes in shock and confusion. She had read the papers and documents that gave a lot of information on Xin; however, she had not predicted that he would be crazy enough to shoot himself.
It was something she had overlooked.
Aurora bit her lips in anger, her eyes practically a glare.
One of the soldiers present, eager to complete the mission, took a step forward, his boots thudding against the floor as if challenging the young man's statement.
But Aurora's voice, low and commanding, stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Don't."
Sweat beaded on Aurora's brow as her instincts screamed at her.
She knew Xin's reputation all too well.
The boy was dangerous not just in his ruthlessness to others but also to himself. She had read about his ruthless training in raising the Revolutionary Club, a group that followed the principle of Neo-Nazism.
The only difference was that they neither emphasized the importance of the Aryan race nor targeted and showed superiority over the Jews, but had the idea of apartheid over everyone and everything regardless.
His unpredictability was what made him so fearsome.
Aurora could see the madness flickering in his eyes, the kind that made men like him do things that no rational person would. Xin was not above suicide if it meant taking everyone down with him.
Outside the building, a CIA sniper positioned on a nearby rooftop had a clear line of sight into the conference room. Previously, there had been a sniper seated in the same place before him, and when he got sight of the CIA agent, he attempted to make a run for it.
However, he was unfortunate enough to get shot in the heart.
It seemed this place was particularly popular with snipers.
The cold wind howled. The man took a deep breath as he adjusted the scope's distance meter. Measuring the wind's speed, humidity, and temperature, the man prepared all the possible escape routes and grunted as he pulled back the ejection port to avoid jamming, before introducing a magazine to the sniper with a click!
Shifting his position to a more comfortable one, the man placed his eyes on the scope, awaiting the sign to come.
Stealing a quick glance outside the shattered window, she held her hand to her mouth—a signal designed to trigger the sniper outside.
With the subtle hand gesture that went unnoticed by most, the sniper took aim at the Xin, aiming to immobilize him without causing death.
BANG!
The shot rang out, slicing through the air in milliseconds with deadly precision.
But in that split second, Xin's hand shifted ever so slightly, tilting the barrel of the gun as if predicting such an outcome.
BOOM!
The sniper's bullet missed its intended target, tearing through the head of the soldier who had been too eager to step forward.
The soldier crumpled to the ground, his body twitching in a grotesque display of what had just transpired. He didn't even have time to scream.
The bullet rendered him no more than a listless corpse. His hands and legs twitched for a few seconds as an aftereffect, before he went completely limp.
The remaining soldiers froze, their attention snapping between the fallen comrade and the unshaken figure of Xin. He looked outside the window where the sniper had fired from far, far away and gave a simple smile.
The sniper, who could see almost everything through his scope, trembled and cursed as he saw the smile and realized he had missed the target.
"Fuck! I've been found. Requesting assi—"
BOOM!
The building he was on exploded, taking down everything along with him and grinding him to dust, a jet flying overhead. Pre-planned failure.
For the first time, Aurora started panicking inwardly despite her composed demeanor outside.
She knew that if they didn't act fast, they would lose control of the situation completely. With a swift signal, the team moved in.
In one fluid motion, Xin, who was still looking at the shining, beautiful moon, saw them tackling him to the ground.
He didn't resist but instead smiled in response, as if ridiculing their crude method and deciding to play along.
"Oops! You finally caught me."
They quickly handcuffed his wrists behind his back and restrained his legs using other handcuffs. A few even pointed their rifles at him to prevent any excessive movement that could be deemed suspicious.
"Had you listened to us from the start, you would probably have spent tens of years in prison and maybe been released. It was your choice to make. Don't move, or you will be shot."
"Ah, is that so?"
Still smiling calmly, Xin looked from the corner of his eye as his head was pushed to the hard floor of the room, under the knee of one of the soldiers present.
The agents worked quickly, securing his wrists and ankles with reinforced cuffs—custom-made restraints, engineered precisely for him. Rifles remained trained on him from every angle, fingers trembling on triggers. No one dared lower their guard.
"Clear," someone muttered, voice uncertain.
No one believed it.
Aurora stood frozen, her breath caught somewhere between disbelief and unease. It had worked. They had him.
Nine years on this case. Nine years.
Maybe even a promotion for their hard work—and a medal of honor would do.
A beat passed. Then another. The silence cracked as the realization began to sink in among the soldiers.
One agent blinked, wide-eyed. "Is it really him?"
Another nudged a comrade. "He didn't even fight back."
"Just... let us take him?"
The confusion gave way to disbelief—then elation.
Years of pursuit. Sleepless nights. Families waiting. Reputations on the line.
And now... victory.
Laughter broke out. Some collapsed to the floor in relief, adrenaline crashing through their veins. Others clapped each other on the shoulders, shouting over the chaos.
"Holy shit, we did it!"
"Drinks on me for the next month!"
"I'm calling my wife. Right now."
"We're getting medals for this—hell, we're getting holidays named after us!"
Someone cried.
They had dreamed of this moment. And now, the monster was in chains.
But amidst the wave of celebration, Aurora remained still. Her sharp eyes locked on the boy beneath the boots.
However, in the midst of the cheerfulness, only one gaze of unease could be seen with a hint of doubt.
'Why... didn't he resist?'
Aurora furrowed her brows.
That guy must be up to a trick. However, even so, she wouldn't allow him to play one of his nasty games anymore.
She had a boyfriend, and she wanted to keep him safe at all times. She couldn't include him in her mess at work.
She thought of the one person waiting for her at home—the only thing grounding her in all of this madness
Naturally, as an agent, she didn't even tell him where she went, and he sometimes became angry at her, thinking she was cheating on him with a bastard.
Now she could clear up any misunderstandings with him and live a happy and fruitful life.
She sighed in relief, ignoring all her worries. However, just as she was about to walk out and call her superiors, she suddenly went on alert, and sweat formed on her forehead.
'He's smiling?'
Despite knowing he would be executed and all she had said earlier was pure bullshit found in the filthiest of trashes, why was he smiling?
It unnerved her. Her mind immediately searched for a logical reason, but none made sense. The grin didn't seem like defiance or madness—it was something else entirely. As if he knew something she didn't.
She shook the thoughts away. No use overthinking it.
She left the young man to the people around him who dragged him away.
The young man was finally in custody.
Aurora closed her eyes as she realized this wasn't over. They had taken down one of the most dangerous men in the world, but the criminal empire he had built was still out there, lurking in the shadows.
For now, they had won. But Aurora knew that with Xin's capture, the real battle was just beginning.
Xin was dragged out of the building into a nearby bulletproof and anti-tank SUV.
However, to her shock, Xin was speaking energetically to his captors.
'Doesn't he have any contempt for the people who arrested him? She thought, wrinkling her nose in disgust and was about to look away, before she froze and slowly looked back to him.
'Wait..'
'Maybe... he had expected this from the beginning? That smile—was it satisfaction? As if everything was falling into place?'
'No, no way, that doesn't make any sense in the first place. Why would he want to get arrested? If he wanted, couldn't he have turned himself in or just surrendered at the beginning?'
A headache came across her of overthinking, and she shook her head before she entered a nearby luxurious Sedan and drove behind the vehicle that contained the abomination.
From the rear glass, she saw a certain young man smiling to her.
****
Badump.
Xin's, who was silently smiling at Aurora to unnerver her, suddenly widened his eyes in horror.
A cold, yet paradoxically warm and suffocating hand was on his heart.
'W-what's happening..?'
Slowly trembling, he looked down at his chest where he felt that a hand had slowly caressed his heart as if evaluating its worth.
Badump.
A tear streamed down his face at the extreme fear he felt. Although he had been exposed to many life and death situations, he had never felt this much fear.
N-e-v-e-r.
The word fear wasn't accurate to describe this situation.... the more fitting word was dread.
Extremely dread that originated from something beyond the concept of death.
He wasn't afraid of death. Then... what was this?
It was at that time that he saw a vision for a fraction of a second.
A dark vision. Extremely dark.
T-h-e-v-i-s-i-o-n-w-a-s-v-e-r-y-d-a-r-k-
m-a-k-i-n-g-h-i-m-f-e-a-r-f-o-r-h-i-s-l-i-f-e-f-o-r-t-h-e-f-i-rs-t-i-t-m-e.
Extremefeardidhefeelsomethingbeyondthemereincongruousconceptionofinsanity,somethinghewouldntbelievehadseen.
Something---
H̴̗̯̒ȩ̵̛̠̦̻̻͓͔̲͓̯̮͕̓̍͑̈̿͂̂̄̑̎̑̄́͗͜ ̸̺̰̼̻͈̼͈̫̲̪̫̝̪̽̏͘͠f̵̡̘͚͚̉͑̓́̉ȩ̵̳̝͇̲̩͂́̑̄͗̈́͆̓ä̸̧̙̭́́́͛́̈͆͝r̷̰̖̲̖̹̪͕͕͚̜̎̑̔̏̀̿̽͐̀̚̕͘͠͝ͅͅȇ̸͕͔̫̪̦̪͖̟̂͆̌̈́͗̎́͜͝d̵͇̙̪͆̾͊̾̾̓̃̌̃̋̑̈́͂̔͘.
It was assigning him a value.
Without warning, the feeling suddenly disappeared, as if it never existed.
Carefully, Xin slowly breathed in and out heavily. He wanted to touch his chest, but his hands were cuffed with a special material made for him, as normal steel wouldn't do the trick.
His erratic breathing slowed down, his breathing returning to normal after a while. After calming down, he began pondering over the feeling her felt with cold sweat running down his back.
'What was that?'
Swallowing his saliva, for the first time Xin doubted his actions and thoughts, even doubting his ability to think clearly or hallucinating.
'Is it because I got caught?'
Although he had almost zero self-esteem, his shamelessness was on a whole other level.
And that was why he doubted himself for the first time.
A time where his shamelessness or oblivion didn't work. Where merely ignoring it was not enough,
"Is everything okay?"
A rough voice came from the copilot seat of the SUV.
Pushing these thoughts aside, he breathed in some fresh air, before forcing a smile upon his face.
"Yes, everything is fine"
______________________
Texas, United states of Nations
Exact location: ???
Time: ???
"Say, what hurts more—a little boom or a big one? Plutonium? Uranium? Personally, I think kids would love Radium. So sparkly."
"Makes meat real tender too—haha! I should start a cooking show!"
"Hm?"
"I think your children would love Radium more since its more sparkly and more kaboom, Mark what do you think?"
"Maark~? C'mon, don't be such a hard ass, and answer me!"
The sound of a young man speaking was heard across the room, the sound waves bouncing from wall to wall.
Silence prevailed.
"... Are those your last words?"
A masculine sound resounded over a microphone planted in the white, smooth room with only the figure of a young man bound to a weird looking chair and peeking at every corner curiously, trying to find where the sound was coming from.
He blinked twice innocently.
"Oh, come on, its no fun if I'm the only one talking here. Speaking of which, I think right now is a good time to watch television, don't you think?"
"... Very well, it seems those are your last words. Its a shame you'll die so soon, but seems I will have to be content with this then. Farewell it is then"
BANG
Mark was about to turn on the poisonous gas, but was stopped by the sudden burst door of the room he was in.
He quickly turned quickly with bloodshot eyes at the intruder.
"Who dares!?"
A pale, thin man screamed as he ran up to mark and groveled to the floor in front of the floor while weeping without a second of doubt or embarassement.
Shocked by the unusual behavior of his colleague, he furrowed his eyes in confusion and anger at the same time.
"What is the meaning of this, Jacob? Explain yourself!"
With a trembling hand, Jacob fished his shaking hands into his pocket and took out a phone. He opened the pin with trembling fingers, the edges of his mouth twitching as if holding back his sorrows, and showed it to Mark while looking away.
In confusion and impatience, Mark took a look at the young man bound in the room and then watched the video that Jacob had opened up.
It was a 30 second video, which made Mark raise an eyebrow.
The volume was muted, which made Mark look at Jacob weirdly and clicked play on the video after raisng the volume of the video to the maximum.
The video went of for 30 seconds straight....
Immediately, after Mark watched the video he stood silent like a corpse, with no signs of movement or reaction on his face.
This made Jacob's heart burn even more and he started sobbing.
Ignoring him Mark replayed the video again.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice, etc, etc.
He gave the phone back to Jacob without a single word and spaced out in the air for a moment.
Holding his heart weakly, Mark's legs started to trembled slightly as he reached out to lean on something while still blankly looking at empty space.
Mark's jaw locked. His throat tightened. A dry cough, then another—sharp, wheezing.He staggered back, eyes wide. Then collapsed, his chest rising in shallow gasps.
"Mark!" Jacob screamed as he checked Marks medical condition.
Only a certain young man was smiling from ear to ear and started swinging his legs despite being strapped on.
"I sent an F-35 as a present for you!"
Clearing his throat, he looked down like he was looking down on everything with a mocking and arrogant smile.
"I call it this...." As if preparing for the greatest show in the world that was about to be revealed, Xin coughed a few times to clear his throat, and looked up at the glass where two individuals were present.
"Ahem, ahem!"
This was something grandiose, and he couldn't just spoil it because his voice was a bit lacking, now, could he?
"Aaaaaaaand----when Mr. Nuke-Nuke goes *Boom*!"
_______
Going back 13 hours ago...
------------------------------------
Hello everyone, I am back!
I wish for more readers to read this book, so if your reading the author's annoying comment, please, and I am saying this: please recommend this book, if you like it!
Of course, you love the book regardless of your decision, so its out of box to say you didn't like it.
Get ready for the intense psychological stuff soon.
It goes in this order: First life (current) ---> Psychological --> Fantasy and other genres. So look forward, oh-dear-readers-that-may-read-or-not-read-this.
Anyways, That's it for this episode and Adios!
Author-nim,
-- The usual unarcisstic and psychopathic author