The light from the chandelier illuminated the luxurious private office on the penthouse floor of the 'Elysian Garb' boutique, revealing an extravagantly opulent decor. Expensive leather furniture, a massive oak desk, and a crimson Persian rug were laid out in the center of the room. However, the perfection of this place was currently being destroyed by a storm of frantic emotions.
Crash!!
A crystal glass flew across the room and smashed against the wall. Glistening shards of glass rained down onto the luxurious rug like worthless raindrops.
Thud! Thud!
The sharp stilettos of designer shoes vengefully stomped on the cover of the latest fashion magazine. The cover featured a picture of 'Sahara' in a magnificent gold-patterned purple silk dress, accompanied by a large headline:
[ The Fashion Queen revolutionizes textile history by creating an innovation from Arachne thread! ]
"That bitch! That slut! Fashion Queen? Spit!"
The person frantically destroying the room was 'Miranda', the owner of the Elysian Garb boutique and Sahara's direct rival.
Miranda was a woman with sharp, beautiful features, flawless straight bright blonde hair, and thin lips coated in vibrant red lipstick. Her slender figure was draped in a fierce, tight-fitting Haute Couture dress adorned with glittering aristocratic diamonds.
Every element on her seemed excessive and overdone, as if she were desperately trying to snatch the spotlight. The overall look was artificial and rigid, completely contrasting with Sahara's simple, classic, and natural elegance.
At this moment, Miranda's heavily eyeliner-rimmed eyes were bloodshot, filled with veins of extreme anger and jealousy.
"Explain this to me right now! Where did those scumbags you claimed were so highly skilled disappear to?!"
Miranda yelled at a middle-aged man in a dark suit who was standing, trembling with his hands clasped, in front of the large oak desk. He was a 'broker' who provided mercenaries from the black market.
"M-My apologies, madam... The thing is..." The underground broker stammered, sweating profusely.
"Save your excuses!" Miranda slammed her palm onto the desk. "Months ago, I paid a fortune to hire your Rank B and Rank C mercenaries to blackmail and ruin Sahara's reputation! But what was the result?! They vanished into thin air! Meanwhile, that golden scarab is only getting more arrogant, flaunting herself in high society and expanding her business!"
Miranda panted heavily, her chest heaving with pent-up frustration. The top spot in the fashion industry, the magical clothing innovation, and the admiring gazes of the elites... everything should have been hers! It should belong to Elysian Garb, not The Gilded Scarab, owned by that arrogant, conceited woman!
All this time, she had tried every underhanded tactic imaginable—price cutting, stealing designer ideas, spreading malicious rumors, and even hiring thugs to harass her. Yet, Sahara effortlessly brushed them off and continued to grow, treating Miranda's attacks as nothing more than annoying flies.
"This humiliation... I can't take it anymore."
Miranda gritted her teeth until her jaw bulged. As her mind began to cool down beneath the flames of vengeance, she realized that Sahara now possessed too much influence and too many connections. Shallow dirty tricks and discrediting campaigns would no longer work against her.
Therefore... the only remaining solution was to permanently "erase" that fake queen's existence from this world!
Miranda turned her head and marched toward the back wall of the office. She forcefully pulled away an expensive oil painting, revealing a hidden safe. Her slender fingers rapidly entered the passcode before pulling the heavy steel door open.
Thump!!
A large leather bag was thrown onto the desk so forcefully that the wood groaned. When the bag opened, golden light and glittering sparkles struck the underground broker's eyes, causing him to gasp. Inside, it was packed with pure gold bars, magical gems, and numerous rare, high-level 'concentrated mana stones'. This was the largest payout Miranda had ever coughed up in her entire life.
"This time, I don't want any low-tier scum..." Miranda lowered her voice, her eyes glinting fiercely. "I want the number one in the industry. Go hire that assassin for me... the one known as 'The Grim Scythe'."
The broker's eyes widened in panic. "B-But madam! The Grim Scythe doesn't just accept any random job, and their fee is astronomical..."
"Then offer them everything in that bag! If it's not enough, I'll double it!" Miranda snapped, cutting him off. "An assassin famous for a 100% success rate after accepting a job... Even if the target is a city governor or a high-ranking Awakener, they never miss! That is the only thing I want!"
With that said, she picked up a prepared brown folder and tossed it across the desk, hitting the broker's chest. Several documents and photos spilled out onto the desk. They contained Sahara's daily schedule and candid photos of the 'people close to her' who frequently interacted with the fashion queen.
"Take this job, and do not disappoint me again."
As the broker scrambled to gather the bag of payment and the dossier, quickly rushing out of the room, silence once again enveloped the penthouse.
Miranda dropped into her padded leather chair. Her hand, adorned with a massive diamond ring, reached to open a drawer under the desk, pulling out a fresh wine glass. She poured fine red wine, as dark as blood, until the glass was almost half full.
She swirled the wine slowly, looking at her reflection on the liquid's surface. It revealed Miranda's twisted, chilling smirk. Her eyes were filled with madness and the anticipation of her envisioned victory.
"Prepare to go to hell... you fake queen," she muttered to her own reflection in a cold, eerie voice, before gulping down the blood-red wine until the glass was empty.
…
Cutting to a secret safehouse located in a blind spot of a middle-class neighborhood. The interior was decorated so simply and minimalistically it was almost bland. However, upon closer inspection, every corner of the room concealed high-tech equipment, encrypted servers, and military-grade security systems.
On a black leather sofa in the middle of the room, a young woman sat with her legs crossed, tenderly wiping and cleaning a beautiful dagger.
She was 'Revy', a female assassin in her early thirties who held the alias that struck fear into the underground world... 'The Grim Scythe'.
Revy was a woman with a sharp, beautiful face and a dangerous, mature charm. Her eyes were as piercing as a predator's, her jet-black hair cut short at the nape of her neck, and her plump lips constantly wore a cynical smirk. Beneath her tight black leather suit lay muscles perfectly honed for the art of killing.
Beep!
Suddenly, a notification sound chimed from an encrypted tablet resting on the glass table. Revy looked away from the poisoned dagger in her hand, reaching out to pick up the screen and read the message sent directly by the 'broker'.
Her sharp eyes scanned the target's information... Sahara, owner of The Gilded Scarab boutique.
Revy raised an eyebrow in surprise when her eyes caught the massive 'deposit figure' transferred in advance to entice her to take the job.
"With a payout this huge... I thought the target would be a city governor or a top-tier guild master," Revy muttered to herself with a chuckle. But no matter how sweet the money was or how harmless the target appeared, Revy did not formally accept the contract right away.
As the best in the industry, Revy possessed immense professionalism. She was never careless and never trusted on-paper data one hundred percent. Her flawless 100% assassination record didn't stem from luck, but from adhering to a single "ironclad rule": She had to go into the field and assess the target with her own eyes first.
And if her signature ability, [The Grim Scythe], evaluated the success rate of the kill to be below 30%... she would instantly cancel the job and refund the deposit without hesitation!
Having decided to scout the situation, Revy immediately began the process of erasing her assassin persona.
She walked into the bathroom, thoroughly washing off her dark-toned makeup, and put on big-eye contact lenses to make her eyes look large and innocent. She then changed out of her dark stealth suit into a pastel oversized t-shirt, denim shorts that showed off her slender legs, and slung a small, brightly colored backpack over her shoulder.
In less than ten minutes, the sexy grim reaper vanished, leaving only an ordinary, cheerful 'teenage girl'.
And it wasn't just a change of clothes; Revy flawlessly adjusted her walking posture, her footsteps, her breathing rhythm, and even her gaze, making herself look innocent and radiant, just like a girl out on a weekend shopping trip.
This was her true terror... blending flawlessly into the crowd, ensuring the target never realized the grim reaper was standing right behind them until death arrived at the final second.
An hour later, Revy arrived at the Titan Mall. She didn't rush straight into the target store, but chose to stop and buy bubble tea at a cafe opposite the boutique. She sat with her legs crossed, sipping the sweet drink while quietly observing 'The Gilded Scarab' from the outside.
Her eyes beneath the big-eye contacts scanned and memorized every detail: the main entrances and exits, the fire escapes, the camera angles, the number of staff, the number of security guards at the door, and the density of the customers.
Upon visually assessing that everything looked 'normal'—devoid of any Awakened bodyguards or hidden forces inside the store—Revy stood up. Playing the role of a teenage shopper, she naturally pushed the glass door and walked inside.
A faint floral scent and soft classical music drifted out to welcome her. The atmosphere inside the store was luxurious and relaxing.
However... the very moment her toes crossed the store's threshold!
Swoosh...
Revy's primal instincts as a Rank A assassin who had survived countless life-and-death situations jolted, sounding a soft warning alarm in her head. The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up, as if an electric current had shot through her spine.
'Something is wrong...' Revy thought to herself.
The teenage smile remained on her face, but her eyes began to reflect tension. She felt as though she was being 'watched' by something. But no matter how much she used her peripheral vision or tried to project her mana senses to find the source of the anomaly... she couldn't find a thing! This store had no threatening magical aura, and no visible technological security systems. Everything looked completely normal and far too peaceful.
Revy tried to suppress this unease and act natural, pretending to browse the clothes on the racks while scanning for her target, until she found 'Sahara' smiling and advising a VIP customer in the dress section.
The target looked relaxed, completely off guard, and full of openings. She possessed absolutely no aura of a fighter or a high-ranking Awakener.
'Alright, let's see what the success rate is,' Revy focused her concentration on Sahara's figure, instantly activating her [The Grim Scythe] ability.
A blood-red grim reaper's scythe icon, invisible to others, materialized and floated above Sahara's head. Normally, with a target this defenseless and full of openings, the success rate for a fatal strike should skyrocket to 80-90%.
However... instead of a double-digit number, the red number above Sahara's head plummeted rapidly, blinking rapidly at... a mere 5%!
Revy almost forgot herself and furrowed her brows into a knot. She couldn't believe her eyes!
Why was it only 5%?! Did the target have a high-tier defensive item hidden in her clothes? Or was there an automated defense system hidden beneath the floor? Or perhaps... an invisible bodyguard secretly protecting the target?
Thinking this, the female reaper pretended to take out her smartphone, cheerfully posing for selfies with the clothes in the store. But her other hand, hidden inside her pocket, instantly pressed a button to activate an 'Anti-Stealth and Camouflage Detection Item'.
It was an exorbitantly expensive, high-end radar device she regularly used to sweep targets before making a move, as some guards often used stealth skills to hide nearby. But no matter what level of invisibility magic they used, they could not escape this machine's detection.
Beep... Beep...
[Status: Normal / No Camouflage Detected]
The vibrating result from the mini-receiver in her pocket only made Revy even more confused. No one was hiding? No invisible guards?
'If there are no guards, then there is only one possibility... the target must be wearing a high-tier defensive item,' Revy analyzed rapidly.
And the next question was... how many times could that equipment block an attack? If it was just an item that could block one or two hits, given her speed, she could unleash a flurry of rapid stabs to secure the kill. But what if it was a magic shield that could block three or more hits?
That would exceed the limits of her silent assassination capabilities. There was no way she could take Sahara's life before the alarms blared and the guards outside the store rushed in to deal with her. Especially the skilled Awakeners hired by the mall's owner—they worked as a team, and there was no way she would risk getting ganged up on by them.
Even so, Revy didn't give up easily. She pretended to move around, browsing clothes near Sahara at various distances, looking for blind spots and assessing the timing for an assassination for about 3 to 5 minutes.
But no matter how she changed her angle or what attack route she imagined, the assassination success percentage only crept up to 6-8%! It was still a far cry from her 'minimum target of 30%'.
What was even more chilling was that at one point, when she intentionally walked too close to the target, the red number above Sahara's head casually plummeted to a mere 0.1%! It was as if, had she drawn her knife at that distance, she would have been the one crushed instead!
'Damn it... this job is tougher than I thought! Even though it seemed like a piece of cake!'
Revy cursed inwardly. She now realized there was something far too abnormal about this target for her to risk it. Fortunately, she hadn't officially confirmed accepting the job from the broker yet.
Revy reluctantly gave up on the assassination attempt. She randomly picked out an outfit, paid for it at the counter naturally, and quickly walked out of the store as fast as she could without looking suspicious.
The moment she stepped out the door and gained some distance, Revy let out a frustrated huff of air from her mouth. She wasn't frustrated because she couldn't assassinate the target... but because she 'didn't know the reason' why the percentage was so abysmally low!
The other targets she had previously turned down were either clearly Awakeners much stronger than her, or they had high-tier defensive items radiating obvious auras all over their bodies. But Sahara had no magical aura, displayed no equipment, and showed absolutely no reason why she couldn't be assassinated! This invisible, unexplainable factor was exactly what frustrated an assassin like her the most!
Revy shook her head, planning to abandon the mission and head back to her safehouse.
But before she could turn around, her sharp eyes caught sight of 'someone' dragging a strange piece of equipment that looked like a large, black and orange rolling suitcase, heading out of the mall.
The man had a plain, ordinary face, and his walking posture looked relaxed and completely harmless...
Revy recognized him instantly! This was the man whose photo was included in the employer's dossier. He was 'Owen', the new Rank B Awakener—someone close to Sahara and connected to her!
With that thought, her earlier frustration vanished into thin air. Revy's eyes glinted fiercely like a beast that had just found a way out, and a wicked smile curled on her plump lips.
If she couldn't extract information directly from Sahara... then she would simply switch targets and squeeze the secret information out of this ordinary-looking man instead!
'Found you... my new prey~'
Revy adjusted her expression back to that of an innocent teenage girl before quietly stepping forward to tail Owen from behind...
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