Hide’s blue eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as he slowly turned his head toward the source of the voice.

The words had come from the dense, leafy canopy of the oak tree just a few yards ahead of him.

It was a man. But he didn’t look like an Exterminator, a thug, or a monster.

He looked completely mundane, exhausted civilian returning from a late shift. He was a chill-looking guy dressed in a crisp white office shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a loosely tied black tie, and tailored black trousers.

In his left hand, he casually held a sleek, silver briefcase. The man was leaning against the trunk of the tree, looking down at Hide with a lazy, sly grin.

Hide let out a slow, tired sigh and looked down at his own boots, relaxing his posture just a fraction. "I didn’t do that on purpose," He said flatly, keeping his tone carefully neutral.

"And how can you be so sure about that anyway? You think a guy is going to off himself just because I smiled at him?"

"Oh, I’m absolutely certain," the office worker replied. He straightened his tie, the sly grin widening as he began to walk casually toward Hide. "Because I know that guy."

Hide’s eyes tracked the man’s casual approach. "Oh," Hide asked slowly, his voice dropping an octave as he pivoted to fully face the man. "Is that so?"

The man took another step.

And then, the world simply skipped a frame.

Hide didn’t see the man draw a weapon. He didn’t see the man’s muscles contract or his feet kick off the pavement. One millisecond the man was standing still, holding a briefcase—and the next millisecond, the absolute peak of lethal danger screamed in Hide’s mind.

A wickedly thin, matte-black dagger materialized out of thin air, moving to an inch from Hide’s left eye.

Hide’s pupils shrank to absolute pinpricks. The speed was incomprehensible.

Before Hide’s brain could even send the signal to his limbs to dodge, the dark, viscous abyssal slime surged upward from his collar. The highly condensed liquid armor forcefully erected itself over the left side of Hide’s face, catching the tip of the dagger.

The blade sank half an inch into the slime before stopping.

Using the fraction of a second the automated defense bought him, Hide threw his entire body backward, desperate to put distance between himself and the person.

But as Hide leaped back, the man’s grin didn’t falter. He didn’t even fully commit to the dagger thrust.

It had been a feint!

Hide suddenly felt a horrific, bone-shattering impact violently connect with his abdomen.

CRACK!

The man had pivoted his entire body weight into a devastating, upwards roundhouse kick.

Hide was launched backward like a broken toy. His feet left the ground entirely as he was sent spinning wildly through the air, completely unable to right himself.

He flew over thirty feet across the street, his back slamming brutally into the thick trunk of another massive oak tree.

The tree groaned, spider-web cracks shooting up the bark from the force of the impact. Hide collapsed onto the pavement, his vision swimming violently with dark spots.

"Gah—!" Hide lurched forward onto his hands and knees, violently vomiting a mouthful of dark, thick blood onto the concrete.

His ears were ringing loudly. The abyssal slime and the scales had undoubtedly saved his life, absorbing enough of the force to keep his bones intact, but his internal organs had still taken a massive toll.

It had all happened so unfathomably fast that Hide hadn’t even had the time to think about using any of his active skills.

It was a flawlessly executed assassination attempt.

Hide gasped for air, his mind violently throbbing, trying to force his body to stand. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

But before he could even push himself up, a long, dark shadow loomed directly over him.

Hide snapped his head up, his glowing blue eyes wide.

Standing right in front of him wasn’t the man in the office suit. It was the man he had seen before that. The exact same "terrified civilian" who had been shivering against the tree trunk and had sprinted away screaming just a minute ago.

But he wasn’t trembling anymore. The pathetic, fearful demeanor was entirely gone. He was standing tall, holding two sleek, curved short swords, and staring down at Hide with a twisted, malicious grin.

’It was an act,’ Hide realized, his blood running cold. ’They used it as a distraction against me.’

The man raised both swords high above his head, the steel glinting under the drone streetlights, and brought them down in a deadly, cross-cleaving strike aimed directly at Hide’s neck.

Hide gritted his teeth, tasting his own blood. "Not happening!"

His perception screamed at him and he did as his instincts told him to. He violently pushed his body sideways, rolling frantically across the rough concrete.

SHHHHK!

The twin swords flashed through the space where Hide’s head had been just a microsecond prior. The blades sliced completely through it. The massive, solid oak trunk was cleaved into two perfect, diagonal halves with the terrifying ease of a hot knife cutting through butter.

CREAAAK. The massive upper half of the tree began to slowly tip, its immense weight shifting.

Hide scrambled to his feet, finally pulling Night Singer from his inventory. The short sword materialized in his grip, giving him a fraction of comfort. But as he looked up, his heart stopped.

Across the street, standing near the short brick boundary wall of the community park, was the family who was playing in the park. The mother, the father, and the little girl holding the mechanical butterfly. They had walked to the edge of the park to see what the massive noise was coming from and now that they had seen it, their faces were pale with shock.

They had seen the assassin and, he had seen them as well.

- This is a Bonus Chapter for Reaching the 50 Golden Ticket milestone. Thanks for supporting the novel. Hope you are enjoying it.