Knov led the way into the largest room of the Hide-and-Seek. The others followed closely one by one.
When the last person entered, the black hole contracted into a droplet shape and vanished.
Nique returned to the familiar 'apartment' once more, his expression slightly complicated, sadly wondering when he'd regain freedom.
Knuckle, Shoot, and Palm hadn't seen the message content, but they could tell from their masters' reactions.
Something was happening, enough to make Morel and Knov change expressions.
"Palm, check on the Chairman's situation."
Knov adjusted his glasses with a hand, looking at Palm.
Hearing Knov, Knuckle and Shoot couldn't help but link their masters' reactions to the Chairman's condition.
"Okay!"
Palm perked up, immediately conjuring the mermaid crystal ball shaped like an alien. She then scratched her skin with a hand, dripping blood into the mermaid's mouth.
With Nen shimmering like fluorescence, the crystal ball displayed the ward's interior… a wide-angle view centered on Netero, covering a large surrounding area.
Everyone gathered. They saw Netero lying on the bed, chatting with Linne, and Shachmono standing quietly nearby.
As the image appeared, they saw Shachmono suddenly take out his phone.
The people in the apartment had no time to note this. Seeing Netero was fine, Knov and Morel's tense expressions relaxed slightly.
"'Assassins' have infiltrated Botda Hospital. The target is likely the Chairman."
Knov explained, then raised an arm, conjuring the master key that could open all rooms.
"Palm, you and Nique stay here."
As soon as he finished speaking, he opened a door, revealing a turbid void.
After the passage opened, Knov signaled Morel and the others to follow with his eyes, then stepped into the door first, his body disappearing into the turbid void.
The other side of this door was a staircase in one of Botda Hospital's buildings.
Morel and the three were straightforward, directly entering the door.
Then, the door automatically closed.
Only Palm and Nique remained in the room.
Palm didn't put away the crystal ball. Nique retreated to a corner, looking detached.
…
In the ward, Shachmono picked up his phone, his brow suddenly furrowing.
He looked at Netero and Linne chatting happily and interrupted softly, "Master, there's a situation."
Hearing this, Netero and Linne stopped talking, both looking at Shachmono.
Meeting their gazes, Shachmono said, "Law sent a message. Assassins have attacked the hospital, and the target is the Chairman."
Hearing Shachmono, Linne's eye slits slowly widened, a sharp gleam appearing in her cloudy old eyes.
In contrast, Netero remained calm.
"You handle it."
Linne's voice deepened considerably.
They had no doubt about Law's message.
Hearing this, Shachmono didn't hesitate at all. He directly looked at the window without drawn curtains.
The message even marked the assassins' locations, though it wasn't clear if there were others in the hospital.
As for Linne's safety, Shachmono wasn't worried at all.
Because though Linne was old, her strength surpassed his.
If enemies even Linne couldn't handle, he couldn't help much by her side.
Following Linne's instruction, Shachmono walked to the window, opened it, climbed out, and thoughtfully closed it again.
Then, his feet heavily pushed against the wall, his figure shooting out like a cannonball, shattering through rain mist into an arrowhead shape, aiming directly for the rooftop of a building over fifty meters away.
The moment his feet touched the wall, he skillfully controlled his Aura to cover the wall, increasing its hardness to avoid damaging it when pushing off.
However, a dull sound was unavoidable.
Most of that sound would be drowned by the rain, but both Mongma and Tonpa on the rooftop heard it. Neither knew if the newcomer was their ally… they almost simultaneously stopped and distanced themselves.
Shachmono descended from the sky. When his feet hit the ground, they sent a large spray of water droplets, intervening between the two combatants.
In the rain, his hair and shoulders were soon soaked.
Seeing the newcomer, Tonpa and Mongma reacted differently.
Tonpa lacked offensive capabilities, so against Mongma, he could only defend. Now that backup had arrived, he didn't need to be so passive.
Mongma felt quite displeased. This harmless-looking guy had truly annoyed him. He didn't know what sin he committed this month to encounter such a freak here.
Roughly calculating his teammate's action time, he already didn't want to waste more time with this guy. But now, backup arrived.
Scrutinizing Shachmono, Mongma spat out the lady's cigarette, thinking, 'Another expert.'
In that instant, his thoughts changed.
'No matter what, I can't leave here. Just restrain these two first.'
...
The sound Shachmono made was heard not only by Tonpa and Mongma but also by the three bodyguards outside the ward and the two assassins lurking nearby.
In the pharmacy...
A nurse with a curvaceous figure, wearing only underwear, lay on her back on the floor. A small pool of blood seeped from beneath her neck. Her face was covered in bloody muscle tissue, looking quite gruesome… her face had been skinned off.
Currently, the middle-aged woman and the yellow-haired youth who came to assassinate Netero were both in the pharmacy.
The middle-aged woman was named Eya, while the yellow-haired youth was named Deerbie.
Both ranked within the top twenty in Blackstone Family's performance.
In the pharmacy, they faintly heard the sound made by Shachmono.
"Sound direction?"
Eya, wearing a nurse uniform, was making a skin mask on the spot, not looking up as she asked.
Deerbie's eyes were icy cold. He said gravely, "At the target's location. Judging by the sound type, it's from an object heavily impacting the ground. But the sound wave transmission path is odd. If correction is possible, it's likely from a wall."
Eya used some medicinal liquid to eliminate the blood scent, then carefully inspected the skin mask, saying, "Did that old guy cause trouble?"
"Maybe. A frontal assault is fine too, act quickly." Deerbie looked at the skin mask Eya was making and asked, "How much longer?"
"Ten seconds."
Eya suddenly tore off the mask on her face, revealing a scar-covered visage. She then attached the nurse's skin mask, took out another bottle of liquid, and applied it to the mask's seams.
"Let's go."
After doing this, Eya, now disguised as a nurse, picked up a tray with some medicine.
Hearing this, Deerbie released Nen.
The small black snake on his neck suddenly writhed on his skin, darting to his palm.
Then, a snake-like shadow pattern extended from between his five fingers, piercing into Eya's shadow.
Then, the snake shadow seemed to take over, forcibly pulling Deerbie's body into Eya's shadow. His entire person vanished into thin air in an instant.
Eya watched Deerbie merge into her shadow, then nonchalantly walked out of the pharmacy.