Chapter 168: The Mark
Chapter 168: The Mark
An Information Broker organization must stay neutral no matter what.
Granny Liu completely ignored this rule.
Since she broke it, Okamoto couldn’t protect her.
Joel’s current attitude proved this point.
“So, where is that old woman now?”
Fang Jing’s eyes turned cold. Her secret alliance with Susaka’s group and betraying his information wasn’t just against the rules. If things went badly, details of his assassination could leak.
(If I hadn’t been strong enough, I might’ve died without knowing why…)
Killing intent rose in Fang Jing’s heart. This couldn’t end like this.
“Granny Liu has a hideout downtown. Mr. Fang, you aren’t planning to head there now, are you?”
Joel thought Fang Jing just took down Susaka’s crew. Even someone made of iron would need rest before returning to kill someone in the city.
“It’s getting late. Dawn is in two hours. Let’s finish this quickly!”
————————
“What? Susaka’s… dead?”
Wearing an Advanced Level kimono, Granny Liu frowned, her mouth slightly open. “How… how is that possible?”
Susaka hid in his own fortress. How could anyone kill him there?
Did Higashi Yuantai hold back forces, sending a large group to slaughter everyone at Susaka’s factory?
She knew how seriously Susaka took security. With his caution and the factory’s defenses, him dying to an outsider seemed unimaginable.
“You brat… you better not be lying to me!”
She held an old-fashioned phone to her ear and scoffed. “I have no reports whatsoever. How could you know first?”
As an Information Broker, she lacked this news. How could someone else know faster?
“A big fire broke out at the factory. Reports mention dozens of bodies. Luckily, many were undocumented immigrants or foreigners. Otherwise, the local police would explode handling this…”
The man on the other end gave a bitter laugh.
It was a small blessing. Susaka’s men were half foreign drifters. Control the media, and it’ll blow over. Otherwise, it’d become a major scandal.
“Granny Liu, your ‘Okamoto’ sources should’ve gotten this before us.”
The man picked up his cigarette packet, pulling one out.
“You haven’t heard yet? Seems like you’ve got… problems. Granny, could you be… expendable now?”
“What?!”
Click!
The line went dead.
Granny Liu stiffened. She finally realized something was wrong.
Her dealings with Susaka were highly secret.
He was a big client, and she craved a share of his arms trade.
“Don’t get cocky… You’ll all burn someday.”
An eerie whisper, full of a Curse, echoed in her mind.
It came from the reporter named “Maeda.” He had spewed hateful words when handed over to Susaka.
No… just her mind playing tricks. That man was surely tortured to death by now.
He only had himself to blame for being reckless.
“Gather everyone. This place isn’t safe.”
Calming herself, she summoned her subordinates.
The man on the phone was right – her access to information was broken.
It felt like she was silently cut off from the Okamoto network.
Her and her spies were now blind and deaf without realizing it.
Now, even Granny Liu admitted she’d lost control.
“No. I can’t let this slide…”
She decided to go to headquarters. With her hidden agents, striking first might turn things in her favor.
Surrounded by her men, she rode an Apartment elevator to the B2 parking garage.
They exited the elevator, descended stairs, and crossed a cramped space filled with pipes. A subordinate pushed open a rusty iron door stained brownish-red.
Beyond it stretched a vast parking lot. Rows of concrete columns separated zones packed tightly with cars.
It was 4:00 AM. The garage lay dead silent deep inside.
Underground obstacles and sparse ceiling lights cast gray, cold shadows over most of the space.
One of Granny Liu’s men pressed a key fob.
A car horn chirped nearby.
Click!
Footsteps approached slowly from behind. Alerted, the group turned to see a figure walking toward them.
“You wasted quite some of my time.”
Fang Jing’s gaze was icy. He strolled forward casually, his calm voice radiating immense pressure.
“You took my money… didn’t deliver… and sold me out to Susaka. Old woman, you’re seeking death.”
As he closed in, killing intent thickened around him. The air grew colder, like frost was spreading.
“Hear this. No one else matters. Leave now, and you live. Only one dies here… her.”
His aura grew more ferocious as he spoke.
Granny Liu’s guards weren’t cowed. They drew guns, training them on Fang Jing.
“You… you’re that brat from before!”
Granny Liu gasped, recognizing him. She’d thought Higashi Yuantai sent him as a disposable pawn. Did Higashi have other plans?
(No… Could it be Okamoto plotting against me all along? Higashi Yuantai’s hit on Susaka… maybe it served two purposes? To remove me too?)
She calmed herself, thoughts racing wildly.
“You’re Higashi Yuantai’s man! How many did he send to kill Susaka?”
“From start to end… only me.”
Fang Jing’s eyes narrowed. He stepped forward, muscles tensing.
“Don’t be stupid! Kid! Guns are aimed at your head! One wrong move, and you’re full of holes!”
Hearing his words, Granny Liu flared up. “Youth blinds you! You might have skill, but brute force solves nothing.”
Her confidence lay in connections and wealth. Famous martial artists, top assassins, famous mercenaries meant little in their dark world.
Money and resources could buy stronger experts. Large sums could hire them.
Even poison, when opportunity arose. It was all part of the game.
They could also gather enough people to launch a human-wave tactic.
An individual’s strength was naturally limited; mere brute force and fighting were useless.
Higashi Yuantai, along with various gangsters, never earned her respect.
The young punk before her was undoubtedly a prime example.
Did you really think having a bit of skill meant you could do whatever you wanted? Wrong—this society was never about who had the bigger fists.
“Old hag, done with your nonsense?”
Fang Jing lifted his head, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth. “Since you’re finished, I’ll take it as your last words.”
Boom!
A loud noise erupted from the plain concrete floor as his right foot stamped down, leaving a footprint. In a flash, he surged forward like a blurry ghostly shadow.
Open fire!
Even without Granny Liu saying a word, her subordinates raised their guns and shot. But the bullets merely pierced through an afterimage, striking concrete pillars, the ground, and cars, setting off a series of alarms that echoed through the empty underground parking lot.
The slaughter began in an instant. In the blink of an eye, Fang Jing closed in. He first stepped out and crushed one person’s shinbone, then struck another in the chest, shattering their organs, and used one arm to block several bullets.
His right hand became a blur as he slashed with a hand-chop, slicing open someone’s windpipe and sending blood splattering.
Amid scattered gunshots, he waved his hand again, shattering someone’s skull, or kicked another so hard they smashed through a car’s front windshield. The person tumbled several times, hit the ground, twitched a few times, and fell silent.
In less than two minutes, the underground parking lot was a scene of utter chaos.
This—how was this possible?!
How could one person be this strong?
Even though Granny Liu considered herself well-traveled, she couldn’t believe the carnage unfolding before her eyes.
Once Fang Jing started moving, he swept through like a storm, wiping out all her subordinates.
In mere moments, she was the only one left standing alone in the entire underground parking lot.
“Old hag, I personally killed Susaka and all his men, but don’t worry—I’ll send you to meet them right now!”
“No, you can’t kill me.”
Hearing this, Granny Liu’s legs gave way and she collapsed to the ground.
Only at this moment did she realize he probably wasn’t joking.
My God! Why had she encountered such a monster?
She knelt on the ground, her face deathly pale without a trace of color.
Though fear gripped her body and mind, she managed to maintain a semblance of calm.
“You can’t kill me. I’m from the Information Broker. If you kill me, you’ll tear apart any pretense between the Sunao-gumi and the Okamoto group. Also, I’m no ordinary person—I’m an undercover agent placed in the Information Broker by the Defense Ministry’s Investigation Department, Intelligence Division. I’m—”
At this critical juncture, she no longer cared about secrecy and blurted out this vital information.
“You can’t kill me. You can’t bear the consequences of killing an old woman like me. You have no idea who I am.”
But no matter how much she rambled, Fang Jing acted as if he hadn’t heard. He just looked down and gave a cold laugh. “When I kill, I don’t care about the consequences.”
The next second, his right hand flashed. Granny Liu’s head was twisted and yanked, flying through the air before landing with a thud under the wheel of an oncoming car.
Crunch.
The head was crushed by the tire and bounced away, rolling off to who-knows-where.
A black car pulled up in front of Fang Jing.
“Mr. Fang, it’s about time.”
Joel opened the passenger seat door.
“Alright, let’s go.”
He silently got into Joel’s car, and soon they drove out of the underground parking lot.
The return from Bunokura to Kitsuwa City was quicker than expected; he even managed to sleep during the ride.
By the time they returned to the city, he felt unusually refreshed.
“Only… what is this?!”
He first found a hotel and took a shower.
While bathing, he noticed a fine, stitch-like mark had appeared on his neck.
The mark was faint, but it slowly became more visible on his neck.
Strange patterns?
Fang Jing couldn’t figure out why such patterns had appeared on him, but a sense of foreboding crept into his heart.
After finishing his shower, he left the hotel. One of Higashi Yuantai’s underlings was waiting downstairs in a car.
“Mr. Nishizuka, hello.”
“Hello, Ōsumi.”
The person’s name seemed to be “Ōsumi,” assigned by Higashi Yuantai as his dedicated driver.
He had been flipping through a adult magazine but, noticing Fang Jing exit the hotel, hurriedly got out of the car, bowed respectfully, and opened the door for him first.
“Ōsumi, let’s not be so formal in the future. It wouldn’t look good if outsiders saw.”
“Understood! I’ll be more careful next time.”
Ōsumi nodded repeatedly.
“By the way, Ōsumi, do you see anything on my neck?”
He pointed to his own neck.
“Is there a mark? I think I might have scratched it accidentally.”
Fang Jing wanted to confirm it.
“No, there’s nothing.”
Ōsumi answered honestly.
Just as he thought—it seemed this mark was rather unusual.
A strong sense of unease began to stir faintly within him.