Alice walked right between them.
The jowly-faced Sentinel on the left frowned and suddenly turned his head to look in Alice's direction.
His retina did indeed receive the light signal of a black figure passing by, but after that signal entered his cerebral cortex, it was instantly categorized as background noise due to the interference of the [Kato Megumi] ability.
"What's wrong?" his companion asked, puzzled.
"Nothing. Maybe it's just the heavy rain; my eyes are playing tricks on me." The Sentinel rubbed his eyes, the sense of dissonance fleeting, and he went back to chatting about the hot girl he met at the bar last night.
Alice's lips curled slightly as she walked lightly across the neatly trimmed lawn and through the heavy doors of the main hall.
The hall was brightly lit, with several patrol teams patrolling in intersecting patterns.
In the corridor leading to the second floor, she bumped head-on into a team of heavily armed bodyguards.
There were four of them, wearing tactical vests, carrying MP5 submachine guns, their eyes vigilant.
This was a narrow path with nowhere to hide.
But Alice did not dodge, nor did she even pause.
She simply turned slightly, like a wisp of breeze, and brushed past the bodyguard Captain's shoulder.
For a split second, the bodyguard Captain felt something pass by. He glanced suspiciously at the empty space behind him, touched his slightly chilled nape, then shook his head and signaled for the team to continue moving forward.
The entire infiltration process was as quiet as a silent film, and like a stroll from a god's-eye view.
No one saw her.
Even if they did see her, they couldn't remember her.
...
Inside the study, Justin Hammer was leaning back in his swivel chair, holding the latest financial report for Hammer Industries, fantasizing about the bright future where his stock price would double after acquiring Umbrella Biotech.
Zzzzt— Zzzzt—
The gorgeous Venetian crystal chandelier overhead suddenly flickered unnaturally, emitting a hissing sound of electrical overload.
Before Hammer could even react, the entire Villa, including the landscape lights in the estate, went out at the same instant.
"What's going on? A power outage?"
Hammer froze for a moment, then erupted into an angry roar.
"Bob, Jack, what are you idiots doing? Have the annual maintenance fees been fed to the dogs? Where is the backup generator? I'm going to dock all of your bonuses for this year, next year, and the year after!"
In the darkness, no one responded.
The entire mansion felt as if it had been cut off from the real World; the thunder outside sounded distant and muffled.
An inexplicable sense of fear began to spread in his heart.
Suddenly. Click. The door lock turned.
The heavy oak door of the study was slowly pushed open a crack.
By the light of a blinding flash of lightning outside the window, Hammer saw in horror that a slender black figure was standing quietly at the doorway.
The flash of lightning in that instant stretched the person's shadow extremely long, extending all the way to his feet.
"Who's there?"
Hammer fell off his chair in fright, scrambling to grab a gold-plated Browning from his desk drawer, pointing it at the door in a panic.
"Someone! Someone has broken in! Where the hell are you all?"
He screamed hoarsely, attempting to summon his bodyguards or bolster his own courage.
But it remained quiet outside the door. Those elites who usually claimed they could hold off an entire reinforced company seemed to have evaporated into thin air.
"Stop shouting. No one is coming."
A cold, emotionless voice rang out.
Alice walked into the room, casually closed the door, and locked it.
"Click."
The sound of the lock made Hammer's heart shrink violently.
Lightning flashed again.
The cold white light illuminated her fair, delicate, yet expressionless face, and the pitch-black Glock 17 in her hand.
"Al, Alice?"
Hammer widened his eyes, as if he had seen the most impossible ghost of his life.
He rubbed his eyes, his voice stuttering from extreme shock.
"How could you be here? You shouldn't be here."
"For someone who wants your life, nothing is impossible."
Alice walked toward the desk. The sound of her boots on the floor had a strong rhythm, each step feeling like it was stomping on Hammer's heart.
Looking at the delicate-looking girl in front of him, after a brief moment of extreme fear, Hammer's brain, as a form of self-preservation, actually generated an absurd sense of confidence.
He was Justin Hammer.
He was a titan controlling an industrial empire.
Behind him stood the Department of Defense and Wall Street.
How could a little girl still in high school really dare to kill him?
"Ha, haha."
Hammer let out two dry laughs, used his trembling hands to support himself as he stood up, and even took a step forward, struggling to force that habitual arrogant smile onto his face.
"What do you want to do? You think you can scare me with a piece-of-junk gun? Have you watched too many movies?"
He straightened his stooped back, even speaking in the tone of an elder lecturing a junior, attempting to regain control of the situation.
"Do you know who I am? As long as you dare to touch a single hair on my head, even if you just scratch me, I can make you and that old woman wish you were dead."
Alice tilted her head slightly, as if looking at a fat pig screaming frantically in a slaughterhouse, her eyes full of disgust.
Seeing Alice didn't speak, Hammer thought she had been intimidated by his power, and his arrogance instantly surged.
"That's right, I hired the assassin. I'm the one who wants to kill your damn aunt, so what?"
Hammer waved the Browning in his hand, spittle flying.
"This is the game rule of the World, kid. I have money, I have power. Whoever I want to disappear, has to disappear."
"So, you admit it."
Alice's voice was very soft, yet it had a penetrating power that made one's spine chill.
"Admit it? Of course I admit it! Not only do I admit it, but I'll also tell you that I've already hired an even better assassin just now."
Hammer raised his eyebrows triumphantly, as if he had already seen the scene of Alice kneeling and begging for mercy.
"If you put down the gun and kneel down to beg me now, maybe I can spare your life."
Bang!
Under the cover of the thunder, the gunshot didn't seem abrupt, yet it was enough to end everything.
The clawing, arrogant expression on Hammer's face instantly froze.
The dum-dum bullet hit his forehead precisely.
The moment the bullet drilled into his skull, the warhead rapidly shattered and expanded due to the immense impact force, like a vicious flower blooming in rotting flesh, instantly shredding all the tissue inside his cranium. The massive cavitation effect directly blew off the back of his skull, spraying a cloud of red and white viscous liquid onto the expensive oil painting behind him.
Hammer's mouth was still half-open, as if half a sentence of a threat was still stuck in his throat.
Even in his eyes, there seemed to be a lingering trace of final confusion.
How could she dare?
How could she really dare to shoot?
Shouldn't I be the protagonist?
Thump.
Justin Hammer's corpse, like a dehydrated dead fish, fell straight backward, crashing heavily onto the expensive mahogany floor.
The crimson quickly spread on the Persian rug, like a blooming flower of sin.
Alice lowered the muzzle, looking at Hammer's still neurotically twitching carcass. In her eyes, there was no anger, no pleasure of revenge, only a sense of boredom after disposing of trash.
"You talked too much."
She let out a soft breath.
"And you got one thing wrong."
"I don't care who you are, and I don't care who stands behind you. I only know that you wanted to touch the only person I care about."
"So, you must die."
Alice stepped over Hammer's corpse without even taking another look.
She walked to the desk, picked up the backup phone that was still flickering with a faint light, and glanced at the call log on it.
There was only one number.
------------------------
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