After venting his anger, the entire living room was left in ruins.
“Yeah, having a good family background really makes you powerful,” Nomadey said weakly, slumped on the sofa, a look of dejection on his face. “No matter how angry you get, what can you do to him?”
“I can make him kneel and call me ‘father,’ not kneel and serve him like a dog.” A calm voice echoed through the living room.
Nomadey jumped, startled.
“Who’s there?” His face changed, and he immediately tried to get up. But as soon as he stood halfway, he froze. A cold blade pressed against his neck, sending a chilling shiver through his spine.
“Brother, if it’s money or something else you want, just say the word. Don’t hurt me. I beg you, just take the money and leave,” he said, raising his hands in surrender and even closing his eyes in fear.
“When you were chasing Susie, I didn’t see you being this spineless when I beat you up,” Luca said, retracting the knife. He looked at the guy he’d known for three years, a mocking smile playing on his lips. “Three years have passed, and not only have you made no progress, but you’ve also thrown away whatever dignity and boundaries you had left.”
“Nomadey, you really are going backward in life.”
Nomadey had only found the voice familiar before, but now he recognized it.
“Luca?! You’re still alive!!” His eyes flew open in shock. Staring at the face he would love to tear to pieces in his dreams, Nomadey’s expression turned to one of sheer terror.
After all, that was the top-tier assassin team hired by the James Family with a billion-dollar contract!
And yet, despite all those people, they hadn’t managed to kill Luca?!
Not only had they failed, but Luca had also found his way to Nomadey’s house!
It didn’t take much to figure out that Luca had traced this back to him, seeking revenge for his involvement behind the scenes!
“Because of you, I almost had my heart blown apart, and my family almost got killed,” Luca said, picking up a bottle of red wine from the floor. The knife in his hand gleamed coldly.
The top of the wine bottle slid off smoothly, its cut sharp and clean.
Looking at the wide-eyed Nomadey, Luca smiled. “So, tell me, how should I thank you?”
Nomadey, seeing Luca advancing, hastily stepped back. “Luca, this isn’t my fault! If you have the guts, go after Celephais! What do you want with me?!”
Just as he was about to turn and run, he realized, with a sinking feeling, that he had backed himself into a corner.
His face drained of color as he stared at Luca, who was drawing closer with every step. Pressing himself into the wall, Nomadey’s voice trembled. “Luca… you… don’t do anything rash! I warn you, this is a society governed by the rule of law!”
“If I die, you won’t escape either! Susie will still end up as Celephais’s plaything, and you…”
Before Nomadey could finish, Luca’s gaze shifted, and the cold light of the blade flashed in his hand.
The sharp knife sliced through the air with such speed that no image of it even registered on Nomadey’s retina.
Instantly, Nomadey felt a sharp pain in his wrist, as if it had been scratched by glass.
He instinctively looked down, and his pupils dilated in horror. A line of blood appeared on his wrist.
Then, before his wide eyes, his hand slowly slid off.
It finally fell to the ground.
Nomadey stared at the severed hand lying on the floor, stunned for two seconds. Slowly, his mouth hung open, seemingly unable to believe what he was seeing.
It wasn’t until the blood started pouring out of the wound like a fountain, spilling everywhere, that the pain hit him like a tidal wave. His pupils shook, and he let out an agonizing scream.
“Ahhhhhh!!!”
The sound of his wailing echoed through the night like a banshee’s cry!
But it was blocked by a faint purple energy shield.
Even if the entire house exploded, no one upstairs or downstairs would hear a single sound from within the room.
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!!!” Nomadey cried out in pain, kneeling on the floor and clutching his severed arm, sobbing and writhing in agony.
Luca watched indifferently, his expression emotionless, not a shred of pity in his eyes.
He thought about what would happen if he had really died—what would happen to his parents, his uncles and aunts, and Susie? What would be her fate?
And Sophia, Fratis, and all those who depended on him to survive.
Would their suffering be worse than Nomadey’s current situation? Would they cry even more heartbreakingly?
Mercy in the apocalypse was a rare and noble thing, but it was also laughable.
Especially mercy toward your enemies.
The intense pain sent shockwaves through Nomadey’s nerves, and the blood pooled around him, forming large patches of crimson. After half a minute of screaming, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out in the bloodstained floor.
Luca stepped on the severed arm with a firm stomp and, as Nomadey continued his pitiful screams, he slowly poured the red wine from the bottle onto the bleeding wound.
“Everyone has to pay for their actions, myself included,” Luca said, looking down at the twisted face of Nomadey, who now resembled something more like a squirming maggot. “However, the price I have to pay depends on the fact that you’re stronger than me.”
“Clearly, Nomadey, you don’t meet that criterion.”
Moonlight poured into the room, mixing with the red wine and blood that stained the floor. The screams and pleas for mercy formed a symphony in the night.
Luca had never been hesitant to use the most vicious methods to torment his enemies, making sure they felt the greatest pain and malice before they died.
Because it served as a constant reminder that if he ever lost, the people behind him would face the same fate.
Feeling his life slipping away, Nomadey’s face twisted in agony. He wept, his voice cracking as he pleaded desperately, “Luca, save me! Save me! I know I was wrong! I really do, I don’t want to die! Please, Luca, save me!”
“For the sake of our three years as classmates! For the sake of us both liking Susie! Please! Please save me!”
Luca said nothing.
He just watched Nomadey struggle, beg, wail, curse, and regret, as his breath grew fainter and fainter.
He watched his eyes widen in fear, unable to close, staring at him in terror.
Finally, when Nomadey’s life had completely drained away, Luca knelt down beside his body, gently brushing his twisted face with his hand, closing his eyes for him.
“Goodnight, old classmate. I hope you have sweet dreams.”
Luca stood up and was about to leave when—
“Ding-ling-ling~ Ding-ling-ling~” The sound of a phone ringing suddenly broke the silence of the dark night.
Luca paused, turning his head to look.
In the darkness, a broken phone screen flickered faintly with light.
The caller ID read “Master Celephais.”
Blood continued to trickle, soaking the phone.
It was a phone worth over ten thousand—clearly a high-quality one, as it hadn’t short-circuited or shut off despite being drenched in blood.
“Hello? Nomadey, what the hell are you doing? Why are you taking so long to pick up? Do you have any idea how valuable my time is?” Celephais’s irritated voice immediately blasted through the phone.
“And another thing—didn’t you say Luca was dead? Why did I get news that the assassins died, but Luca was only injured?”
“You can’t even handle something this simple. What good are you to me?”
“Talk! Are you mute now?”
Celephais ranted at the phone, but he received no response from Nomadey.
“Hello? Hello! Damn it! What the hell are you doing?” Just as Celephais was about to hang up, a voice that sent a chill down his spine suddenly echoed from the phone.
“He’s gone first. The next one is you, Celephais.” Luca’s calm voice was unmistakable.
“Luca?!” Celephais’s heart froze. “How is he at Nomadey’s place?”
“What do you mean, he’s gone first? Does that mean Nomadey is already…?”
A cold shiver ran through Celephais’s body. The realization hit him hard—only a few hours had passed since Luca was supposedly assassinated.
And now, Luca had already made his way into Nomadey’s house… and killed him.
“Hahaha, you think I’m afraid of you? You’d better worry about yourself first! You’ve killed someone! You can forget about living the rest of your life outside of prison!” Celephais tried to mask his unease with a forceful tone, but after speaking for a while, there was still no response.
He looked at his phone, only to realize that the call had been abruptly ended.
Celephais’s face shifted through various expressions, and the ominous feeling gnawed at him, refusing to fade.
Somehow, he had the unsettling sense that going after Luca had been the biggest mistake of his life.
The worst part? He hadn’t even killed him!
“Master, what’s going on?” The butler, drawn by the earlier commotion, asked cautiously.
“Nothing.” Celephais waved a hand dismissively, then hesitated before adding, “Go to the family and ask for a few more special forces bodyguards. Also, check the dark web to see if any assassins are still taking jobs.”
“Are you not satisfied with the previous batch of people, sir?” The butler asked in surprise, noticing Celephais’s increasingly dark expression. He quickly realized the tension in the room and, understanding the situation, decided to change the subject. He paused, then added, “The people we hired before were the best killers on the dark web. If you want to find even better ones…”
Though the butler didn’t finish his sentence, Celephais understood what he meant. The previous batch of assassins had cost him a billion, and if he wanted to hire even higher-level killers, the price would likely increase several times, or even tenfold.
Spending such a large amount of money to take out a kid from a remote city… if the James Family ever found out, he’d become the laughingstock of the entire family.
But Celephais didn’t care about that anymore.
He glanced at his phone again, his eyes growing cold. “The game is about to become reality. With the kind of enmity between us, there’s no chance for reconciliation. It’s either him dead or me dead.”
“I have no way to compete with him in the game. If I don’t kill him now, once the game becomes reality, there might never be another chance…”
His fists clenched, and his voice turned ice-cold. “So no matter what the cost, Luca must die!”
“I want to see if Luca really is invincible, impervious to knives and bullets, or if he’s just another man with a limited number of lives!”
