Chapter 14: The One Billion Delivered to the Door
So familiar.
Where had he heard it before?
—President Cheng, Brother Cheng, Cheng Xun…
The fragmented pieces of information all aligned.
Qi En couldn’t help but get nervous, taking a deep breath.
He clicked on the person’s photo, and his eyes instantly widened.
In just a few seconds, his expression changed dramatically.
From initial disbelief to doubting his own eyes, and then suspecting the data was wrong.
How could the One Billion be someone he had met in reality?
And less than two hours ago, they had even spoken to each other.
Was that person really the One Billion?
But the One Billion in reality looked a bit poor.
He thought a person worth one billion should be as unreachable as the one billion itself.
There really wasn’t a mistake, right?
Qi En tapped the small “Report Error” text at the bottom, but when entering the reason, he closed the box again.
He dialed Dai Mu directly. However, he forgot to switch apps and called using WeLink.
Dai Mu answered quickly. The screen on his end flashed, then went pitch black.
“Why are you video calling me on WeLink?”
“Little D! Is there a mistake with the One Billion’s data?”
They spoke at the same time.
“What’s wrong? There’s definitely no mistake.” Dai Mu’s voice became serious. “Speak slowly, what’s wrong? Did you discover something incorrect?”
“No…” Qi En murmured. “I’ll tell you in a moment.”
With that, he hung up the phone first.
Dai Mu was a bit baffled. He didn’t call back, simply sending a question mark to Qi En.
Qi En didn’t reply.
His phone was practically pressed against his eyeballs as he seriously read the information on it.
Cheng Xun, twenty-six years old.
Being offered a huge bounty at such a young age meant his character certainly couldn’t be any good.
Qi En took notes as he read.
Especially the specific information about Cheng Xun below.
For example, all the houses and cars under his name, main social media accounts, and ID information.
It was too detailed.
Specifically, the list of Cheng Xun’s credit cards was laid out.
But there was a note beside it, probably added by Dai Mu:
These credit cards are processed with Cheng Xun’s personal information, but it is uncertain if he is the one using them.
There were brackets afterward with just two words inside: (Avoid).
Meaning he should avoid touching Cheng Xun’s credit cards, or he would be traced by him.
This information should only be visible to Qi En and Dai Mu.
He asked Dai Mu, and after getting an affirmative answer, he felt relieved.
As long as no one came to snatch the bounty from him.
Qi En copied the main, useful information into a notebook.
He even properly used a ruler to draw grids, organizing the data clearly.
He got more and more absorbed, his head almost burying itself into the notebook.
“198, 79, 6666…”
“Zone B, B-576…”
“Star Ring Federation Innovation Technology, leader in the cloud network industry, founder, person who named the Deep Net…?”
“And founder of the Deep Net virtual black market…”
So much.
These were all industries Qi En didn’t understand, but some looked impressive at a glance.
Especially terms like “Black Market” and “Deep Net,” which obviously weren’t good things.
The One Billion held so much power; he must have done many shameful bad deeds.
Otherwise, why would someone spend one billion just to kill him?
He must be a super big villain.
Qi En frowned tightly, making tsk tsk tsk noises.
The cat walked over, elegantly lifted its mechanical front leg, pressed it against Qi En’s forehead, and pushed up.
[You’ll get nearsighted being too close.]
“Oh.”
Qi En sat up straight, but as he copied, he always slumped back down.
The cat tirelessly repeated the action of pushing his forehead.
Cat observes, Cat is curious.
[Why did your state of mind change so quickly? Just now you were worried about whether you could take this commission, and now you’re already preparing to make a move?]
“I’m not preparing to make a move.”
“I’m just getting ready. I still have to report to Little D before acting; I can’t do it on my own.”
“Little Cat, you don’t understand. My odds of winning are very high now.”
Qi En showed off the eight hundred yuan to the cat somewhat smugly. “Look, look, he gave me that. Cheng Xun gave it to me. Yes, that’s right, you didn’t hear wrong, it’s that Cheng Xun, my as-sas-sin-a-tion tar-get.”
[But why would he give you money?]
“Because that eight hundred was mine to begin with. Something happened in between, but basically, he returned it to me.”
[That’s just him returning money to you. What does that prove? That’s not being good to you; that’s what he should do.]
“No, he treats me pretty well. He even thought about giving me all his cash.”
[What if he found out your identity first? He could be approaching you intentionally, making you lower your guard, and then find a moment to kacha—]
“Then he…”
Qi En fell silent.
What the Little Cat said made sense. He seemed to have thought too highly of people.
[How did you meet in the beginning? Who initiated it?]
“He…”
If Cheng Xun hadn’t stood in front of him refusing to leave, he wouldn’t have thought of asking Cheng Xun to help take him inside.
No wonder Cheng Xun came over; he deliberately attracted his attention.
[Then that explains it.]
“But Little D said no one can find my information.”
Qi En wasn’t making excuses for Cheng Xun; he trusted Little D.
[Did Little D encrypt your information immediately after you took the order? No. There was a time gap. And for a dangerous person like Cheng Xun, that little time is enough to investigate someone.]
[However, LMA’s information network isn’t that easily hacked. So, the most likely scenario is that Cheng Xun found a little bit of information about you but wasn’t sure it was you, so he approached you initially to investigate from your end, to see if you were the person trying to kill him.]
“Ah…”
Qi En was stunned.
It seemed Cheng Xun’s approach was premeditated.
He pretended to be poor to cheat him out of five hundred. Later, he pretended to be kind to cheat him out of his weapon.
“Then what do I do? Am I exposed?”
[No.]
“Why?”
The Little Cat’s certainty made Qi En trust and rely on it even more.
[I collected some outside evaluations of him. Most describe him as decisive, cold-blooded, and shrewd. If he had found out you were the one trying to kill him, he wouldn’t have let you come back.]
[So, not knowing Cheng Xun was your target when you went out was actually a good thing. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come back alive so easily.]
“He’s so shady…”
Nine out of ten businessmen are treacherous, and Cheng Xun was the most treacherous of them all.
Qi En felt a wave of retrospective fear, but this fear quickly vanished.
“Then doesn’t that mean I have a huge advantage now?”
“What assassin can approach their target so openly without being discovered?”
“If the assassination fails later, it will be very easy to escape too.”
Qi En remembered something else and called Dai Mu again.
If he hadn’t seen that Dai Mu was still sending him messages, he wouldn’t have called to disturb him.
Qi En reported what happened tonight to Dai Mu.
After listening, Dai Mu fell silent for a moment.
Then he asked faintly:
“You mean, Cheng Xun personally delivered the weapon to you?”
“And you plan to use the weapon he gave you to assassinate him?”
“Yes.” Why not use what’s available?
Qi En felt there was nothing wrong with his logic.
He just didn’t know what Dai Mu thought.
“Do you think that’s bad? Am I being too mean?”
“…No, that’s very good.” But that’s not the point, is it…
Qi En breathed a sigh of relief, happily saying, “Really? That’s good.”
“Also, you’re not bad; he is. Otherwise, why would someone put a bounty on him?”
“You’re right, he must be a great demon.” Qi En snorted, getting more worked up as he spoke. “The first time I saw him, I felt he wasn’t a good person.”
It wasn’t until four in the morning that Qi En began to organize the weapons he had bought.
He laid everything out on the table, first cutting open the Newbie Gift Pack.
Then he shook out all the items inside.
There was a thick, heavy phone, a pistol, a face mask, a disguise mask, rope, anesthetic, syringes, gloves, and a black night suit.
The night suit was made of special fabric; it felt fitting even when held in hand, and very light.
When folded, it took up very little space, about the size of a compressed towel.
The most mysterious item among them was that phone.
The phone was a vertical flip model, looking like a very old style.
There was an instruction manual attached.
Qi En glanced at it roughly, evident joy appearing on his face.
This phone was amazing.
Not only did it have a map of the entire Federation, but it could also display details down to specific communities and buildings, and even show real-time traffic conditions.
The map could be projected vertically from the phone screen.
Different colored road sections indicated traffic conditions, and there were small red dots representing police.
If there was a tracker, the target’s location could be seen on the map.
But Qi En hadn’t applied for a tracker. To know Cheng Xun’s whereabouts, he had to contact Dai Mu.
That would be for when the assassination mission officially began.
Qi En logged into his account first, and Cheng Xun’s data synced to this device as well.
It just required Qi En’s iris scan to unlock each time it was used.
No need to worry about someone else picking it up if lost.
Qi En lay on the sofa, holding the phone up to study it.
He also discovered the game function on the phone.
There was a game called Eros Blocks; he played it and got hooked, losing track of time.
Playing and playing, he fell asleep.
Waiting until Qi En was asleep, the Little Cat took the phone and then lay on Qi En’s belly, falling asleep as well.
The next day, Qi En slept until after twelve noon.
He rubbed his eyes.
Opening them, he saw the cat directly above his head.
That ugly face gave Qi En a start.
Qi En sat up and rubbed his stomach.
“Why does my stomach feel weird?”
The Little Cat jumped from the sofa to the table, sat down, and lifted a leg to scratch its ear.
The zzzt-zzzt sound of metal friction gave Qi En goosebumps all over.
“What are you doing?”
Qi En covered his ears with both hands and quickly went to the bathroom to wash up.
After a moment of silence, Qi En’s voice rang out from the bathroom.
“Little Cat! You left red marks all over my stomach!”
Qi En lifted his shirt. Several red indentations were starkly visible on his pale belly. The corners were sharp and angular, forming shapes that looked like nothing recognizable. Who else could it be but the Little Cat?
[I didn’t lie there for long. Your skin is too tender.]
When Qi En came out after brushing his teeth and washing his face, he saw the Little Cat carrying his phone over in its mouth.
[Message from Little D.]
Qi En opened it to look.
Little D: You got all the weapons, right? Come to this address at three o’clock. I’ll give you another custom handgun.
Little D: I’m pulling strings for you. Don’t tell anyone.
Qi En turned his head to look at the cat.
The cat saw it too.
It should be fine, right? The cat isn’t a person.
enn: (o゜▽゜)o
Little D: [Location] Aoyuan Golf Course
Little D: (o゜▽゜)o(o゜▽゜)o☆
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