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"Fine," Zod agreed with a nod.But he had one condition: these assassins needed to help him fix his undocumented status.
The assassins accepted immediately. And thanks to their introduction, Zod soon became the newest registered killer of the Midnight Hotel.
The rules of the Midnight Hotel were almost identical to the Continental from that film Zod had once watched.
No killing inside the hotel. Violate that rule, and the entire world would hunt you down.And the Hotel's bounties were generous—offered in two forms.
The first was direct payment: USD, GBP, EUR, or Huayuan, all accepted. Transfers and unregistered bank accounts were also available.
The second was Skull Coins—one coin worth ten thousand dollars. They couldn't be exchanged for cash, but the Hotel would happily exchange them the other way around.
With Skull Coins, you could request any service the Midnight Hotel offered: weapons procurement, border issues, identity creation, intel gathering, crime-scene cleanup, problem resolution—anything.
It was precisely this near-omnipotent reach that made the Midnight Hotel both irresistible and terrifying to assassins worldwide.
Even Kingpin's top enforcer, Bullseye, had once been discovered here before being recruited as Fisk's personal bodyguard.
The five assassins paid a painful amount of Skull Coins to secure Zod a legal identity.
He was now officially a New York resident.As for not having a New York accent? Easy—Zod picked one up in minutes.
Every assassin received a "Black Phone," where all missions were updated.
Rumor had it the phone used technology far ahead of anything on the market. It was anti-eavesdropping, anti-tracking, and virtually impenetrable.
Zod examined his eagerly: a titanium alloy casing, matte black finish, waterproof, shockproof, fire-resistant. He just didn't know whether it could withstand an EMP.
Then his attention locked onto a mission.
A four-million-dollar bounty.Target: the boss of the California gang Hellfire.
Plenty of assassins had already noticed the listing, but Hellfire was one of the state's top-tier syndicates. So most killers were looking for teammates.
"Four million…"Zod muttered.
He had already taken a number of modified weapons from the assassins' personal stash. Once he earned his own Skull Coins, he could commission custom arms from the Hotel. For now, these would do.
With his identity problem solved, Zod could finally move across state lines legally.
Some U.S. state borders were surprisingly strict—different laws, different enforcement—so having paperwork made the trip hassle-free.
Hellfire's headquarters was an entire villa district they had "purchased." Of course, the original owners hadn't exactly agreed willingly.
Their boss, Lawrence Peter, was in his early fifties but looked like a hardened man in his forties—well-preserved but with a predator's presence.
His slicked-back blond hair was streaked with silver. A triangular chunk was missing from his left ear, the tear nearly cutting through his cheek—an old scar from a sniper round that grazed him. That had been the closest he ever came to death. The assassin responsible had later been shredded by Lawrence's own sniper rifle.
Lawrence's intel network wasn't bad. The moment the Midnight Hotel posted his bounty, he knew.
After cursing a loud "F**k!" he retreated into his heavily fortified mansion. Ordinary killers wouldn't have worried him…
But the Hotel had birthed plenty of monsters—take Bullseye for example, who made his name slaughtering an entire SEAL team solo. Who knew what freak a four-million bounty might attract?
The guards stationed outside also knew Midnight Hotel assassins were coming. Their nerves were stretched thin.
"So afraid of dying?"Zod scoffed, eyeing the twenty heavily armed guards around the gate. A brief flash of x-ray vision showed body armor beneath every uniform.
To others, that setup would've been a nightmare.To Zod? It was nothing.
Two pistols materialized in his hands. For now, he didn't want to reveal too much—just enough to showcase impossibly sharp gunmanship.
In the Marvel world, that barely counted as showing off. Punisher, Bullseye, Hawkeye—half the "street-level supers" could do the same.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four shots echoed. The last two were simultaneous.Four guards dropped—each with a clean headshot.
He hadn't expected the assassins' custom pistols to hit so hard. The penetration was insane, the accuracy impressive.
The guards panicked instantly, scrambling for cover.
Zod sprinted forward at a speed fast enough to seem superhuman yet still within the margin of disbelief. He vaulted the front wall in one smooth leap, firing in midair.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
He landed lightly. Every guard on the grounds lay dead, skulls shattered regardless of body armor.
Gunfire rippled through the villa. Chaos erupted.
Zod reloaded and charged in.
His reflexes far surpassed any human's. Even if someone pressed a gun to his forehead, he'd pull the trigger first. Still, he maintained some distance to keep up appearances.
"He's on the second floor!"
"He wiped out over fifty men downstairs!"
"Are you kidding me? It's been three minutes!"
Hellfire never imagined someone would storm in this openly. Even Bullseye had never been this brazen.
Running out of ammo, Zod simply grabbed fallen weapons and kept firing—every shot a headshot, armor be damned.
Hellfire responded by sending in men with ballistic helmets.
"Oh, come on…"Zod muttered. California's black market truly was something. Selling body armor was illegal—helmets even more so.
Not that helmets made a difference. Zod's bullets punched right through.
"Blow him up!"
Lawrence, terrified by Zod's unstoppable advance, ordered grenades.RPGs were off the table—anyone stupid enough to fire one indoors wouldn't survive long enough to regret it.
Zod kicked open a door—only for a wave of explosives to arc toward him.
He slammed the door shut instantly and dashed aside.
The grenades bounced off the door—some even rebounded—before detonating.
Only after the chorus of screams and explosions faded did Zod return. The door had been shredded.
Survivors—stunned, dizzy, unable to control their bodies—struggled on the floor. Zod walked past them and finished each with a clean shot.
Lawrence's complexion turned ghostly pale.
Just what kind of monster had he provoked?Three hundred and fifty men—yet none could slow the intruder's advance.
With x-ray vision, there was nowhere to hide. Zod found him in moments.
Lawrence cowered behind a metal door nearly ten centimeters thick.
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