Chapter 146: Digging Own Grave
Several Nathan executives nodded in approval. Everything sounded reasonable. Even beneficial.
Only Aiden remained unusually quiet. He wasn’t looking at the presentation anymore.
Instead...
He watched the chairman. Every smile, every pause, every carefully chosen word. Something didn’t feel right. His instincts refused to settle.
Finally...
He closed the proposal folder. "I have a request."
The chairman looked up. "Please."
"I’d like our legal department to review every clause independently before we make a decision."
For only a fraction of a second...
The chairman’s smile stiffened. Almost imperceptibly. Then it returned. "Of course. We encourage careful review."
Aiden nodded. "I’m glad to hear that."
Across the table, Eclipse’s legal adviser quietly lowered his eyes. That wasn’t part of the original plan.
...
Inside Eclipse Corporation...
The executive monitoring the meeting frowned. "They’re requesting a legal review."
Another executive crossed his arms. "Expected?"
"No. They’re being more cautious than anticipated."
The executive picked up his phone. "Inform the chairman."
"If necessary...We proceed to Phase Two."
A subordinate hesitated. "...Already?"
The executive’s expression turned cold. "If they won’t step into the trap willingly...We’ll reshape the battlefield."
On the large monitor, Nathan Industries Headquarters remained in view.
Far below...Neither Aiden nor the employees realized that today’s meeting was only the opening move.
The real conflict between Nathan Industries and Eclipse Corporation had only just begun.
.....
The evening lights of Alkon City painted the streets with warm shades of gold and orange. The rush of traffic had slowed and countless people wandered along the sidewalks after finishing dinner.
Nobody and Toma stepped out of the restaurant together.
Toma stretched her arms with a satisfied smile."That was actually pretty good."
Nobody nodded."Yeah. The food was not bad."
They walked a few more steps before Nobody suddenly froze.
"..." Nobody suddenly slapped his forehead. "Damn."
Toma tilted her head."What?"
"I completely forgot."
"Forgot what?"
"I promised I’d buy you an ice cream."
Toma crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks. "Hmph."
Nobody immediately raised both hands in surrender. "Okay,okay...my apologies."
She pretended to think for several seconds before finally speaking. "...Fine."
Nobody smiled. "But but...
She pointed a finger directly at him. "You owe me a triple scoop."
Nobody gave a playful salute. "Roger that."
A tiny smile appeared on Toma’s face. "Good."
The two continued walking toward a nearby ice cream shop located across the street.
The little shop glowed with colorful lights.The menu displayed dozens of flavors behind a crystal-clear glass counter. Vanilla, chocolate, mint, blueberry Cheesecake, cookies and Cream, salted Caramel, strawberry and mango.
Children laughed while choosing toppings. Couples sat outside enjoying desserts.
Nobody stepped toward the cashier. "What flavor?"
Toma immediately answered. "Chocolate."
"One."
"Cookies and Cream."
"Two."
She looked at the remaining choices. "And Strawberry."
Nobody nodded. "Triple scoop."
The cashier began preparing it. Nobody casually looked around left and right while waiting, across the street.
Then, his eyes narrowed. Far beyond the shop, across a narrow park...
Near a thick line of bushes, someone was lying completely still. Only a tiny portion of dark clothing could be seen between the leaves.
Nobody focused harder.
That particular someone had a long metallic object, scope, suppressor. It was a sniper rifle. The man wore dark clothing with black gloves. His face was mostly hidden. Only a pair of sunglasses reflected the streetlights.
Nobody’s relaxed smile instantly disappeared. Inside his mind, "What the hell is that guy?"
A familiar blue window appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ SYSTEM ]
Scanning...
Target detected.
Weapon:
High-powered sniper rifle.
Distance:
Approximately 240 meters.
Analyzing intent...
────────────────────
Several loading circles rotated.
Then.....
Ding!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ SYSTEM ]
Killing intent detected.
Primary target:
Toma.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s pupils shrank. "What!!" His heartbeat accelerated. For only a brief second. Then his expression became perfectly calm again. His mind began calculating. The distance of the man, the wind, the angle he was in and the reaction time he can attack.
The sniper remained perfectly motionless. His finger slowly rested against the trigger.
Nobody quietly thought, "I have to deflect it. Running toward the sniper? But that’s impossible in front of Toma. Teleport? Not enough time. Push Toma? The bullet might still hit her. Block it? Naah, too risky."
...
Then a plan formed. Simple and reliable plan that can work.
The sniper slowly exhaled. Crosshair centered exactly on Toma’s head. His finger tightened.
Nobody suddenly smiled. "Toma."
"Hm?"
"Look."
She blinked. "What?"
"There." He casually pointed toward the sky behind her. "There’s a bird."
Naturally curious...Toma turned her head. "What bird?"
That tiny movement shifted her head by only a few inches.
Exactly then....
Bang!!
The suppressed rifle fired. The bullet screamed through the air at terrifying speed.
Nobody’s right hand suddenly moved. A blue portal unfolded beside him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SYSTEM]
Inventory Opened.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A silver crowbar shot out into his hand. Without wasting even a fraction of a second....
SWING!!
Nobody twisted his body with explosive force. The crowbar left his hand like a spinning boomerang.
WHOOOOOSH!!
It sliced through the air faster than most people could even perceive.
Meanwhile, the sniper watched through the scope. His bullet raced toward Toma.
Victory...
...or so he believed.
Then....
Something red entered his field of vision. "What...?"
CRACK!!
The spinning crowbar smashed directly into the sniper’s forehead with overwhelming force. His sunglasses exploded into pieces. The impact threw his finger violently downward. Instead of releasing the rifle safely... His head slammed against the scope.
The rifle shifted. The muzzle angled upward toward his own face. The bullet chamber cycled.
Bang!
The second round discharged instantly because of the sudden impact. The shot fired directly into him at point-blank range. His body collapsed backward without another movement. The sniper never even understood what had happened.
Leaves gently rustled.
The rifle rolled onto the grass.
Nobody calmly caught the returning crowbar as it curved back through the air like a boomerang.
Clink.
He slipped it back into the System Inventory as though nothing unusual had happened.
Toma looked around in confusion. "Huh?"
"I don’t see any bird."
"..." Nobody blinked. "Oh. It flew away."
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You made me look for nothing?"
He scratched the back of his head. "Maybe I imagined it."
"Hmph." She accepted her towering triple-scoop cone from the cashier. "You’re weird."
Nobody chuckled. "Probably."
Several pedestrians continued walking nearby. None of them had noticed the attack. The suppressed shot had been nearly silent. The distant impact inside the bushes had been even quieter.
Only the System had witnessed everything.
A translucent blue screen slowly appeared before Nobody.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SYSTEM]
Threat Neutralized.
Target eliminated before successful assassination.
Mission Status:
Toma Safe.
Casualties:
Hostile only.
Collateral Damage:
None.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody breathed quietly. "Good. No innocent people had been harmed."
The system window flickered once more.
This time...
A tiny smiling face appeared beside the message.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SYSTEM]
That’s what we call...
Digging up your own grave.
(˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody couldn’t help smiling. "...Not bad."
The system proudly displayed another message.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SYSTEM WINDOW]
Evaluation:
Excellent judgment.
You identified the threat without alarming the target.
You avoided civilian panic.
You neutralized the attacker within the available reaction window.
Performance Rating:
5 STAR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody mentally replied, "Thanks."
The System answered almost instantly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SYSTEM]
You’re welcome.
Recommendation:
Remain alert.
An organized assassination attempt usually means the sniper was not acting alone.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s eyes subtly scanned the rooftops again.
Every shadow,every alley and every parked vehicle. Nothing else stood out.
Still...
He couldn’t shake the feeling that someone, somewhere, had ordered the attack. Someone wanted Toma dead.
He quietly memorized the sniper’s location. "I’ll investigate later."
The System responded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SYSTEM]
Objective Updated
Find the mastermind behind the assassination attempt.
Reward:
???
Failure:
Unknown.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody closed the window.
Toma happily licked her chocolate scoop. "Mmm...This is amazing."
Nobody smiled warmly. "I’m glad." Nobody looked at us and said,"She is talking about the ice-cream, dummy."
She glanced sideways. "You’re not getting any."
"I wasn’t planning to."
"Good."
They continued walking beneath the glowing streetlights, looking like nothing more than two ordinary friends enjoying a quiet evening. Yet only moments earlier, death itself had flown through the night toward Toma. And only one person had noticed it in time.
Far behind them, hidden among the bushes, the sniper’s motionless body remained where it had fallen. His mission had ended before it truly began.
Nobody casually glanced over his shoulder one last time. "System."
A blue window quietly appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SYSTEM]
Police have anonymously been notified.
Estimated arrival:
2 minutes 47 seconds.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody smiled faintly. "Good."
No evidence connected him to the incident. By the time the police reached the bushes, all they would find was a failed assassin whose own weapon had become the instrument of his downfall.
Toma noticed Nobody smiling to himself. "What are you smiling about?"
"Nothing."
"I don’t believe you."
"You don’t have to."
She rolled her eyes before taking another bite of her triple-scoop ice cream. "...You’re still weird."
Nobody chuckled. "And you’re still eating that ice cream faster than I expected."
"It’s because it’s delicious."
The two continued walking into the lively night, completely unaware to everyone around them that another deadly threat had just been erased before it could even begin.