"Monster," the assassin rasped, his voice cracking as he looked up at Hide. "You... you are a fucking monster."

[First Phantom ’Zenith’ has eliminated A B-Rank Human]

Experience points gained: 2700

[Phantom Soldier ’Zenith’ has Leveled Up!]

Level 7 → 8

Hide dismissed the windows and looked back at the assassin.

For a fraction of a second, the elite killer of the Sihue clan remained paralyzed under the crushing, suffocating weight of Hide’s Mana Press.

But the sheer, primal instinct of survival—honed by decades of life-or-death combat in the Exterminator underworld finally overrode his terror.

The assassin bit down on his own tongue, using the sharp spike of physical pain to shatter the mental lockdown. Dark purple mana flared desperately around his legs.

With a violent burst of energy, the suited man kicked off the cracked pavement, his figure blurring into a streak of desperate motion as he lunged toward the safety of the shadowed alleyway behind him.

He didn’t look back. He poured every ounce of his remaining mana into his speed, the wind roaring in his ears. He just needed to create distance. If he could reach the labyrinth of the lower sectors, he could lose the kid, report back to the clan, and—

THUD.

A devastating shockwave exploded against the side of his ribs.

The assassin didn’t even see the boy move. One moment he was sprinting toward the alley, and the next, a boot clad in dark-steel scales slammed into his torso with the unstoppable force.

The sound of his ribs snapping echoed like dry branches breaking in a quiet forest. The assassin was launched horizontally through the air, violently crashing into the side of a rusted dumpster.

The metal crumpled inward under his weight, and he collapsed into a heap of trash, coughing up a thick mouthful of blood.

Before he could even attempt to push himself up on his trembling arms, Hide materialized out of the darkness, his glowing blue eyes burning with cold apathy.

Hide didn’t draw a weapon. He simply raised his leg and brought his heel down on the assassin’s shoulder, pinning him to the filthy concrete.

"Argh!" the man screamed.

Hide kicked him, exactly like a cruel man kicking a stray dog. The assassin gasped, curling into a fetal position, but Hide simply kicked him again, sending the grown man rolling helplessly across the wet pavement.

"You trying to kill me?" Hide muttered, his voice completely devoid of any emotion.

The assassin desperately reached out with his right hand, thick, corrosive purple mana gathering at his fingertips in a final, pathetic attempt to cast a close-range curse.

Hide’s eyes flashed. He didn’t even bother to step back. With a casual flick of his wrist, Night Singer materialized from his spatial inventory directly into his grip.

In one smooth, blindingly fast motion, the pitch-black blade carved a clean arc through the humid air.

SHHHHK.

The spell died instantly. The assassin’s hand, severed cleanly at the wrist, fell to the wet concrete with a wet slap, the cursed purple mana dissipating into harmless smoke.

For a second, the suited man just stared at his ruined stump in absolute shock. Then, the delay wore off, and a blood-curdling shriek of pure agony tore itself from his throat. He clutched his bleeding wrist to his chest, thrashing wildly on the ground.

Hide didn’t flinch. He calmly stepped forward, his dark boots splashing in the growing puddle of blood, and grabbed the screaming assassin by his perfectly styled hair.

"Get up," Hide growled.

Ignoring the man’s frantic pleas and sobbing, Hide easily hoisted him halfway off the ground by his scalp. With terrifying strength, He dragged the bleeding, whimpering killer out of the alley and back toward the ruined community park.

The assassin’s expensive dress shoes dragged uselessly against the asphalt, leaving a thick, dark trail of blood in their wake.

When they reached the edge of the park, Hide tossed the man aside like a bag of garbage. The assassin rolled into the wet grass, clutching his stump and gasping for breath at that moment, Hide cut off his other arm as well.

A few yards away, Zenith stood perfectly still like a monument of death. The towering, dark-plated executioner was still holding the lifeless body of the twin-sword assassin, its razor-sharp talons buried deep within the man’s chest.

But as Hide’s gaze swept past his summon and toward the low brick wall where the family had been cowering just moments ago, his brow furrowed. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The patch of crushed grass was completely empty. The mechanical butterfly toy lay abandoned in the dirt, its wings twitching sporadically, but the mother, the father, and the little girl were nowhere to be seen.

In the chaos of Hide purging the curse and overpowering the suited man, the terrified civilian family had seized their only window of opportunity and fled into the night.

Hide let out a heavy, frustrated sigh, running a scaled hand through his silver hair.

"That sucks, damnit," Hide cursed under his breath.

This was the absolute worst-case scenario for his anonymity. The family had seen everything, and worst of all, they had seen Zenith.

While civilians generally avoided the police in the lower sectors, an incident involving rogue Exterminators, massive property damage, and terrifying, shadowy monsters would absolutely be reported directly to the nearest Exterminator Agency.

The federal watchdogs didn’t ignore unauthorized combat in residential zones.

Hide needed to clean up and get out, fast.

He walked over to the corpse of the twin-sword assassin dangling from Zenith’s arm.

"Drop him," Hide commanded mentally.

Zenith seamlessly pulled its arm back, letting the dead man collapse onto the grass. Hide crouched beside the body, his hands swiftly searching the man’s cloths.

He didn’t find much in the way of credits, but scattered on the grass nearby were the two curved short swords the assassin had wielded.

Hide picked them up, balancing them in his hands. He placed his ring on it and saw the information.

[Item: Twin Viper Blades]

Rank: A

Type: Weapon

Durability: 6800 / 10000

Attack Power: 4000

’Perfect,’ Hide thought, instantly storing the twin blades into his inventory. He pulled out Night Singer and glanced at the edge. The B-Rank short sword he had received from the system was heavily chipped and scored from parrying the heavy, feral strikes of the Armored Buffalo and clashing with the high-tier assassins. Its durability was sitting dangerously low. He definitely needed the replacements.

Hide turned his attention to the suited assassin groaning on the floor. Lying a few feet away from him was the matte-black dagger, still glowing with a faint, ominous purple residue.

Hide paused, his hand hovering over it, but his survival instincts screamed at him to stop. Curse users were notoriously treacherous.

For all he knew, picking up a high-tier cursed weapon without the proper caution could turn into a blast or implant a tracking hex directly into his flesh.

’Leave it,’ Hide decided, stepping back. It wasn’t worth the risk.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of Hide’s neck stood straight up.

His Perception stat, passively scanning his surroundings, violently spiked. Hide whipped his head toward the southern edge of the commercial block.

The ambient mana in the air was rapidly shifting. It wasn’t just the steady, breathable pure mana of the real world. A heavy, suffocating wave of corrupted dark mana was suddenly bleeding into the atmosphere, thickening the air with the unmistakable stench of ozone and rot.

’A Gate,’ Hide realized, his eyes widening slightly. ’A Gate is opening nearby.’

Before he could process the sheer coincidence of the timing, a loud, piercing alarm blared from his pocket. Hide pulled out his communicator. The screen was flashing bright, angry red with a localized emergency broadcast.

Right on cue, the distant, wailing shriek of heavy sirens pierced the night air. The sound of high-powered engines roaring down the main avenue echoed off the concrete buildings, accompanied by the chaotic shouting of civilians scattering for cover.

Hide looked toward the mouth of the alleyway leading into the park. Two sleek, heavily armored tactical vehicles, painted in the distinct matte-black and gold trim of an official Exterminator response unit, came drifting aggressively around the corner, their high beams sweeping across the cracked asphalt.

Hide gritted his teeth, his jaw locking in pure annoyance. The family had definitely reported the park incident, and the nearby gate manifestation had drawn every active unit in the sector directly toward his location.

"Why are these fuckers so fast now..." Hide cursed bitterly, stepping deeper into the shadows of the trees. "They somehow never manage to reach in time when the gates actually open, but they speedrun a noise complaint?"

He couldn’t fight them. Engaging official government operatives would instantly make him a high-priority federal target, completely ruining his plans for the upcoming tournament and finding a cure for Risa.

Hide looked down at the suited assassin, who was currently whimpering on the grass. Standing directly behind the bleeding man was Aegis. The colossal, phantom had one of its massive, dark-iron gauntlets wrapped firmly around the assassin’s severed wrists, physically squeezing the stump with pressure to act as a brutal tourniquet.

Aegis was literally crushing the man’s veins shut so he wouldn’t bleed to death.

Hide wasn’t going to kill him. Not yet. This man was an elite operative of the Sihue clan. He knew their internal structure, their defensive layouts, and most importantly, he might know something about the beasts underground.

Hide needed those answers, and he was fully prepared to extract them through whatever means necessary.

But he couldn’t drag a screaming, bleeding prisoner through the streets with the exterminators swarming the block.

’I need an exit from the sky,’ Hide thought rapidly.