The auditorium seating was pitch black.
Finding a specific target in the sea of elites with the naked eye was completely impossible.
Hayden activated his Wallhacks.
A glowing red box instantly materialized in the VIP section.
Richard Vance was watching the performance with rapt attention.
A sickening glint of greed flickered in his eyes as he admired Victoria Lancaster, the woman destined to become his daughter-in-law.
Surrounding the corporate patriarch were dozens of executives and high-ranking politicians.
They had all gathered tonight simply to curry favor with the Vance family dynasty.
Down on the stage, Victoria’s expression turned intensely solemn.
Her bow flew across the violin strings, ushering in the breathtaking climax of the third movement.
The audience collectively held its breath.
The entire venue was utterly captivated by the music.
“Now,” Hayden whispered to himself.
He pulled the trigger.
The heavy rifle bucked against his shoulder.
A suppressed crack echoed high in the rafters, completely drowned out by the soaring symphony.
Down in the VIP section, Richard Vance’s head snapped violently backward.
The top half of his skull exploded into fragments.
A horrific spray of blood splattered across the astonished faces of the politicians sitting beside him.
Terrified screams instantly ripped the music apart.
The audience erupted into absolute chaos.
Victoria flinched in shock.
Her bow dragged harshly against the strings, letting out a piercing, dissonant screech.
Aegis Vanguard mercenaries swarmed the VIP section and the stage, desperately scanning the rafters for a shooter.
The powerful tycoons of Rookwood City sat frozen in their velvet chairs.
Warm blood dripped down their faces.
They stared at the headless corpse in their midst, trembling violently with fear.
Their usual aristocratic composure was completely shattered.
Victoria sat blankly on the stage.
Her violin was still tucked under her chin.
She did not understand what was happening.
She had practiced diligently for months.
Tonight was supposed to be her crowning achievement in front of the city’s elite.
In a fraction of a second, her perfect night had been violently destroyed.
“Why is this happening?” Victoria murmured blankly.
Her face was deathly pale.
The arrogant, spirited demeanor she had shown backstage was entirely gone.
High up on the catwalks, Hayden looked down at the screaming, chaotic concert hall.
A deeply satisfied smile touched his lips.
He used the miniature camera mounted on his sniper scope to record the bloody aftermath.
Once the assassination was fully documented, he dismissed the Martini-Henry rifle back into his spatial inventory.
Hayden crouched low and quickly retraced his steps.
He slipped down the metal stairs and back through the cast-iron gate.
Suddenly, the heavy thud of combat boots echoed from the corridor ahead.
Erratic beams of tactical flashlights swept across the walls.
Hayden pressed his back flat against the concrete, completely holding his breath.
A squad of Aegis Vanguard mercenaries sprinted past the intersection, rushing blindly toward the concert hall to secure the VIPs.
The moment they passed, Hayden dashed around the corner and headed straight for the loading dock.
“Halt!
Nobody leaves the building!” A lone corporate bodyguard was frantically trying to pull the heavy iron security gates shut.
He spotted Hayden and raised his hand to stop him.
Pfft!
A bloody hole instantly bloomed in the center of the guard’s chest.
Hayden holstered his suppressed Browning and walked out into the cool night air.
His pace was calm and unhurried, perfectly mimicking a mundane passerby.
He pulled the iron gate shut behind him and slipped down the alleyway, climbing into the silver BMW M4 parked discreetly on the side street.
A convoy of heavily armored SWAT vehicles blew past the adjacent intersection, their sirens wailing frantically.
“The perimeter is completely locked down.
It looks like you pulled it off.
Incredible,” Valerie’s excited voice crackled through the earpiece.
“As expected from the youngest K6 professional in the city.
You have truly opened my eyes tonight.” Hayden smiled faintly, his expression quickly returning to a mask of calm focus.
“Get down to street level.
I am coming to pick you up.” Hayden punched the ignition.
Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, he used the other to upload the encrypted kill confirmation video to the Assassin’s Guild cloud servers.
Five minutes later, Valerie slipped into the passenger seat of the M4.
Back at the theater, heavily armored PMC vans had completely barricaded the entrance.
Tactical police units stood ready with ballistic shields, tear gas, and automatic weapons.
High-ranking federal officials were already on the scene, shouting frantic orders.
Unbeknownst to all of them, the phantom killer was sitting in a sports car just a few blocks away, calmly admiring his masterpiece.
Hayden rolled up the tinted windows and merged smoothly into the nighttime traffic.
In his rearview mirror, the Rookwood International Theater was bathed in a chaotic sea of flashing red and blue strobe lights.
A notification chimed on Hayden’s encrypted phone.
“Tier-6 Bounty Confirmed.
Target: Richard Vance, President of Vance Corporation.
Status: Eliminated.
The 4.5 million dollars will be deposited into your account within twenty-four hours.” Hayden took a deep breath, unable to hide his satisfaction.
It was his largest single payout to date.
Immediately, the System’s mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
“Congratulations, Host.
You have accumulated over ten million dollars in total bounties.
Hidden Milestone reached.
Awarding 200,000 Points.
The next milestone reward will trigger at fifty million dollars.” Hayden was genuinely surprised.
The LitRPG System actually tracked his accumulated wealth to dispense hidden rewards.
He looked at his massive point balance.
After a few seconds of consideration, he spent 50,000 points to upgrade his Wallhacks.
“New Ability Unlocked: ESP Level 2.” “ESP Type: Outline Wallhacks.
Effective Range: 100 Meters.” Hayden looked out the passenger window.
Instead of clunky red rectangles, he now saw crisp, glowing white outlines drawn perfectly over the bodies of the pedestrians walking down the sidewalk.
It looked exactly like the X-ray spectator mode from a competitive shooter.
Hayden was blown away.
This was a massive tactical upgrade over the basic bounding boxes.
The previous level only provided generalized location data.
With Outline ESP, he could clearly distinguish an enemy’s posture, the direction they were facing, and exactly what type of weapon they were holding through solid walls.
Hayden suppressed his growing excitement.
He had 150,000 points left.
The cost to draw a completely new ability had scaled up to exactly 150,000 points.
The pricing structure was increasing arithmetically.
Hayden took a deep breath, a gambler’s thrill burning in his eyes.
“All in.” His point balance zeroed out.
“New Ability Unlocked: Bullet Time Level 1.” “Effect: Reduces the flow of time to one-quarter speed.
Duration: 10 Seconds.
Cooldown: 10 Minutes.” Hayden stared at the description.
Acting on pure impulse, he mentally triggered the ability.
The world outside the windshield instantly ground to a halt.
The speeding cars crawling through the intersection slowed to a glacial pace.
He watched a pigeon in the sky slowly, agonizingly flap its wings.
Raindrops bounced off the hood of his M4, their individual trajectories perfectly visible to the naked eye.
Hayden turned his head to look at Valerie.
Her movements had not slowed down for him, but he could perceive every micro-detail of her posture.
As the sports car hit a slight bump in the road, he caught the distinct, slowed-down physics of her chest bouncing against her tactical top.
“What?
Why are you suddenly staring at me like that?” Time aggressively snapped back to normal.
Valerie crossed her arms, her lips curling into a sly, teasing smile.
“Do you want me right now?” Hayden cleared his throat awkwardly.
He quickly gripped the steering wheel with both hands, keeping his eyes glued to the road.
“Let’s focus on the mission,” Hayden muttered.
Valerie laughed softly.
“So far, five core executives of the Vance Corporation are dead.
Every other assassin in the city is hunting them too, but nobody is racking up a body count like yours.” Her expression finally turned serious.
“According to my latest intel, the surviving members of the Vance family have completely abandoned their estates.
They have all barricaded themselves inside the Vance Corporation headquarters.” “That includes Marcus Vance,” she added.
Hayden gave a cold hum of agreement.
He gazed out through the windshield.
Looming on the horizon was a massive, slender skyscraper.
It was currently shrouded in dark storm clouds, completely framed by flashes of violent lightning.