Before the two agents realise what happened, a bullet precisely hits the three grenades hidden in the hand of body. With an explosion in such close range, two night owl agents suffer from multiple grenade damage. The explosion waves emerge from them.
[You deal 60*8 explosion damage to the enemy!]
[You kill night owl agents*2, 1500 experience obtained]
Xiao stands up from the grass. He looks terrible. His half body is burned black. He has only 50 HP left and is still bleeding. His stigma is nearly empty too. His life is like candlelight which may be put out at any second. The pain attacks his nerve. He has to focus on pressing it in case he faints. Xiao took the dead night owl agent's body as a shield which helped him survive the grenade explosion. He put his own clothes on the body with pain and made a grenade trap with the three grenades from the dead agent. Then he quickly hid in the grass nearby like a hunter. Only Silver Blade found the trap and avoided it.
The blood obscures Xiao's view. He is trembling. He realises that he can't give Silver Blade time to step back to keep the distance. Silver blade just gets up, a bloody shadow rushes to him. "You are a suicide!" Silver Blade is furious and pulls out the dagger and stabs.
…..
Light from the helicopter shines in the forest. Hela slides down with a string stair. The area under her foot is full of bullets' holes and traces of explosion. Apparently, there was a violent fight. The subject squad has found and searched around here already. One's face goes black and he stays silent. Hela looks at the six bodies on the ground and she is shocked!
The 3rd Night Owl squad was wiped out! Zero, no clue! The result is unbelievable! Hela loses her mind for several minutes. She squats down to examine the bodies. Two were killed by an explosion, one was shot dead, and three were killed in close fights. The goggles of silver blade were broken into pieces and the glass pieces were inserted into his eyeballs. She touches his body and feels that most bones were broken, especially his underparts. The injury is obviously caused by a fighting master. There is no clue that Zero did it!
She is aware of Zero's close fight ability which is merely a bit better than normal people. Compared with the well-trained night owl squad, Zero is like a rat. Fighting is impossible to learn in a second. It needs training. Zero had maximum half-year training! Hela won't believe it if she didn't see the results herself.
"Did he awaken superpowers like me??" Hela regrets that she didn't pay more attention to Xiao. Maybe she could tell if he has superpowers. When Zero fled, she happened to be away. This makes her gloomy. She is confident that she could catch Zero if she were there. Was it luck or did Zero take the chance when she was away?
"The equipment of night owl squads is gone. But we find this" An agent brings the lightweight powered arm, which is full of blood now. A dagger was inserted in the gear and broke the engine. "Take it back."
...
One day later. Many of the Sprout arrive at the Warki base. They study the remaining surveillance to search for clues. The leader comes too. The leader of the Sprout is in a black coat, a black mask and black gloves. There is a rumour in the organisation that there are no more than five people know what the leader looks like.
"Where is Zero?" The leader asks simply. "We lost him", One answers with shame, "If we have more time…" Before he explains, the leader raises his hand to stop him. The gesture is full of impatience and anger. One has to shut up.
The leader is furious. Zero was a trash several days ago. Now, the trash causes great loss and escapes! "A failed subject, killed over thirty guards, destroyed the experimental data, wiped out an elite night owl squad, killed Gramme and successfully escaped. Is it a fairy?"
Everyone looks at others. No one dares to answer.
"I need to know when Zero comes to resist and how he has such power!" The leader shouts.
"We studied the surveillance in the past half year and have some assumptions" A researcher steps out and replies carefully.
"Name it."
"Zero had a dramatic change after the experiment. According to the report of the human material team, the original name of Zero is Han Xiao, the third son of the Elfmeira family's second hand." The surroundings are shocked. The Elfmeria family, a famous warlord family, is a partner of the Peleus nation.
The human materials for Warki experiments are usually prisoners or stragglers. How could they get someone with a background? "Third son of the Elfmeira family's second hand? What happened?" The leader asked with doubt.
"From our intelligence, Xiao is a mediocre son of the Elfmeira family's second hand. No awaken stigma. No outstanding leading ability. An awkward. We found him dying in a battlefield. He was following his elder brother Hai Xiao. They were escorting some goods and materials and were ambushed"
"Go on. "
"At that time, Hai was the commander and the attacker's target was him not the goods. Hai was born a leader and would inherit second-hand place of the family. According to our intelligence, this attack is an internal strife to get rid of the inheritance of second hand. Hai forced his brother Xiao to put on his clothes and run separately. Xiao was hit by a bullet and Hai escaped."
"How could the intelligence be so precise?"
"Em. Hai didn't hide even about his enforcement. The death of Xiao didn't trigger any hate in the family. Their father said, 'As long as Hai is safe, it's fine' You know that the Elfmeria family admire power. Xiao is indispensable in the family. His relatives don't care about his death… And our search team found him dying."
The death of the original body is nothing. No one cares. In the view of the Elfmeria family, the death of a cowardly son in exchange for the life of an excellent inherit is acceptable. The benefit is greater than emotion. "Weak is original sin. Weak people don't deserve pity. I want to know what happened to him now!"
"We assume that the Warki solution mutates on Zero. It brings Zero the talent on the machine and incredible intelligence. Zero pretended to be harmless for half a year which meant that he planned to escape half a year ago."
"You mean the brainwash had no effect on him?" Hela can't help cutting the conversation.
"I am afraid so." Hela's face is full of regret. The research continues: "We wonder why a brain-washed subject would like to resist or run away. There is only one possibility - the experiment brought him something. Zero's original body didn't possess any excellence. He being cunning indicates that a different personality is awakened."
"Are you sure?" The leader asks.
"No.." The researcher feels the pressure, but he can't be sure. This is just a plausible assumption.
"Is it luck?" One can't help but suggest. The leader stares at him like he is dumb. If you can copy Zero with luck, I will let you be the leader.
"By the way, the mechanical arm Zero used is studied. Although it's quite a rough technique, it's quite creative. We think that the most powerful aspect of Zero came from this equipment. The weapon department would like to modify it to equip our army. This might cost some money."
The first good news of the day. The leader is a bit chilled. "Money is not a problem if they can reproduce it." The researcher nods and brings the conversation back to Zero, "Whatever the reason is, Zero could be undetected for half a year. With his talents in machine and fighting, he is a discreet and deadly danger."
Everyone is thinking of this conclusion. "Zero is a special subject with high research value. If we can have his body, live or not, the Warki experiment data could be more complete." Zero is like a hunter who hides in the shadows for half a year. Someone like him is scary but also triggers the desire to study him.
One's face goes black when he hears the praise the researcher gives to Zero. The last thing he could bear is to lose to Zero. Since he was 'born', One knew he was the second subject. There is a Zero before him. He considered Zero as an enemy in his mind all the time. When he thought he had finally surpassed Zero, the fact was ruthless.
Something comes to the leader's mind, "By the way, before we figure out the hidden trouble of the Warki solution, stop all experiments! Brainwash all subjects again! I don't want to see another Zero!" Anger in the eyes, One feels his loyalty is insulted. He shouts, "I would like to lead a team to get Zero back!" The leader glances at him. He pins a lot of hope on subject squad and says "Could you?" "100%!" One feels the attention from the leader and he is determined.
"Great! Bring Zero back! Live or not!"