But then No. 46’s expression returned to calmness, and he muttered,

"I guess I just overestimated him. He was probably not good at fighting multiple enemies, as expected of those trash from the lower branches. Or maybe that guy just got unlucky and died."

No. 46 paused for a moment, then discarded his thoughts about No. 186 and continued in a calm tone,

"I guess it doesn’t matter even if he died. Those three are enough to complete the mission on their own. I just hope that he at least killed some guards before he died to make things easier for the others."

Then No. 46 started looking at the others’ vitals.

But then something happened that No. 46 had never expected.

Only two minutes after No. 186’s death...

No. 89’s vitals also disappeared.

Before he could even understand how No. 89 had died, two minutes later No. 98’s vitals also disappeared.

Then, only one minute later, No. 110’s vitals disappeared as well.

No. 46 stared at the screen with wide eyes, unable to accept reality. Then he muttered in disbelief,

"What just happened? Not a single one of them survived. And the most shocking part is that they were all Masters, yet they were killed in a mere ten minutes."

"Killing four Masters in ten minutes is impossible when the enemy only has two Masters and some Diamond-rank guards."

No. 46 looked at the screen again to see if he was imagining things, but the vitals were still gone. He then muttered,

"It’s real... They really died. But how? Were there other Masters hiding their aura and secretly protecting the target?"

But then No. 46 shook his head.

"No. Even if our information was wrong and there were more Masters, they would have at least survived long enough to try escaping by dispelling the barrier. But they died too quickly and weren’t even able to survive long enough to escape."

Then No. 46 thought of another possibility, and he muttered,

"Was the Viscount himself present there?"

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense, and he continued,

"It’s the only explanation for this situation because only a Grandmaster-rank cultivator like him could kill four Masters in such a short time while making sure they didn’t even have the chance to escape."

"But if this speculation is correct... then how did they know when we would attack? Was there someone within our ranks who betrayed us?"

But then No. 46 once again shook his head and muttered,

"Nah, it’s not possible. Only the higher-ranking members and the members carrying out the mission knew about it, and they couldn’t leak the information since they are bound by the artifact. It’s an Immortal-rank artifact. There is no way they could fool an Immortal-rank artifact."

"Then were we just unlucky? Did the Viscount simply decide to attend the auction with her while hiding himself because he expected something bad to happen to her? That’s the only explanation left. I guess we were really just unlucky. We lost four members simply because fate wasn’t on our side."

No. 46 then spoke in a tired tone,

"Now I’ll have to be scolded by the higher-ups for this failure. That girl was lucky to survive, and now the Viscount will be even more alert. We won’t get another chance to kill her anytime soon. What a pain."

Then No. 46 went to prepare a report for the mission, with tension apparent in his expression behind the mask.

But then, something happened that he had never expected.

Thirty minutes later, deep into writing the report in his personal office, there was a knock on his door.

No. 46 muttered in annoyance at the interruption before saying, "What is it? I’m working. Only come in if it’s important."

The door suddenly opened, and a member hurried inside. It was Code No. 143, whose face was filled with panic.

No. 46 looked at him and asked, "Why are you so panicked? What happened?"

No. 143 replied in a trembling voice, "S-Sir... please check the news. It’s urgent. No. 1 asked me to deliver this message to you because you weren’t responding while you were in the middle of your work. No. 1 is also on the way here and will arrive soon."

No. 46 was confused as to why No. 1 was personally visiting the base, but he pushed the thought aside. And without wasting another second, he turned on the news using his tablet.

And as soon as No. 46 saw the report, all the color was drained from his face.

The news was about the assassination of the Viscount’s daughter—the very target they were supposed to kill earlier today day but had failed to eliminate and also lost there four master rank members.

According to the report, she had been killed during an assassination attempt while traveling to attend an auction with her bodyguards. Four Master-rank assassins had ambushed her as soon as she got out of her car and trapped both her and her bodyguards inside a massive black dome that appeared in a nearby area, making it impossible for anyone outside to see what was happening within.

Fifteen minutes later, the dome disappeared.

However, when reinforcements arrived, there was no sign of the four assassins anywhere. They had fled before anyone could intercept them, leaving behind no clues regarding their identities or their current whereabouts.

No. 46 frowned in confusion and muttered in disbelief, "What does this mean? How can she be dead? The mission was a failure... so what happened?"

But before he could think any further, another detail in the report was revealed.

It was the greatest shock of all.

The report stated that the assassins had also left behind a message.

The screen displayed an image of the message they had written.

The moment No. 46 saw it, he cursed loudly.

"Which fucker did this?!"

The message had been written on the ground using the victims’ blood.

It read:

ALL HAIL THE GREAT GOD ZEVARK