In an instant, Levi felt his blood run cold.
He called out with a tremble:
“Jason, there’s someone outside the window!”
Jason, who was stuffing clothes into the wardrobe, froze for a moment and quickly turned toward the window.
But at the very moment Jason turned, with a crisp crack, the poorly sealed window was shattered.
Countless glass shards flew everywhere as a burly man with a deathly pale face jumped inside.
He was nearly 1.9 meters tall, and his skin was heavily wrinkled, looking like a corpse that had been soaking in water for days.
However, his movements were extremely swift.
As soon as he landed, he used his momentum to roll forward, flashing in front of Jason, and then swung a fist the size of a baby’s head.
Thud!
Jason felt as if he’d been struck in the face by a shot put.
He flew backward and crashed hard against the wardrobe.
Dark blood from his nose and two teeth flew out together; the intense pain caused him to lose consciousness for a moment.
The burly man gave Jason no room to breathe.
Using his powerful momentum, he pinned Jason to the ground, straddling him, and then his fists began to rain down on Jason’s head.
However, just as the burly man had swung two punches with abandon, the sound of metal slicing through the air came from behind him.
Whoosh!
A sharp pain shot through his back.
He turned his head in anger and saw the thin Levi holding a sharp dagger, which was now lodged in his back.
Levi twisted it hard, trying to use the rotation of the blade to destroy muscle and sinew, but it felt like the knife was stuck in soft mud.
He took a step back and pulled the knife out, but not much bright red blood followed, as if the burly man was merely a corpse drained of its blood.
“He’s a Beyonder too!”
Levi’s heart sank.
He felt that the burly man’s abilities were very similar to the Corpse Collector that Jason had described.
Beyonders of this Pathway dealt with corpses and spirits for long periods; their bodies would be gradually strengthened by the power of death, granting them strength and physical prowess far beyond ordinary people.
In this narrow space, it would be difficult to gain any advantage over him!
The burly man clearly hadn’t sustained a fatal injury.
He abandoned the motionless Jason on the floor and lunged toward Levi.
With one hand, he grabbed Levi’s collar.
Before Levi could swing his dagger again, he was thrown into the air and then slammed hard onto the ground.
With a loud thud, Levi landed face-first.
His head spun, and mucus and blood began to flow out together.
Fortunately, his family could only afford to rent a house with wooden floors; if it had been concrete, that impact might have claimed his life.
The burly man panted for a few breaths, stepped on Levi’s back, then bent down to grab Levi’s arms and yanked them backward.
A cracking sound of joints dislocating rang out.
Levi’s head was forced back, and a pained growl escaped through his clenched teeth.
The burly man revealed a cruel smile, increasing the pressure in his hands.
In a few more moments, he would be able to tear Levi’s arms off, turning him into a cripple.
Just then, a cold light suddenly flashed beneath the burly man’s feet!
Jason, who had been slumped on the ground, erupted silently.
A cold arc flashed—the sharp dagger precisely severed the burly man’s ankle!
The burly man let out a miserable scream and fell to the ground, losing his support.
Reckless fury flashed in his bulging eyes.
He let go of Levi and reached for a pocket on his chest.
At the same time, Jason leaped nimbly and activated the Assassin’s abilities of Weakness Detection and Fatal Strike.
The dagger in his hand pierced toward the burly man’s neck like a sharp sword.
Puchi!
The dagger plunged into the burly man’s carotid artery.
Simultaneously, the man pulled a revolver from his pocket and pulled the trigger against Jason’s chest.
A loud bang echoed as gunpowder smoke filled the air.
Levi struggled to get up and turned to look.
He saw the dagger lodged in the burly man’s neck.
The mountain-like body had collapsed to the ground, his bulging eyes like those of a dead fish, devoid of the last spark of life.
“Jason…
Are, are you okay?”
Levi quickly looked at Jason.
He was standing by the burly man’s corpse, one hand hanging limply and the other clutching his chest, his face pale.
In the next second, blood gushed from his chest, quickly soaking a large portion of his clothes.
“Jason!”
Levi let out a cry of grief and anger.
Just then, the door to the room creaked open, and a young woman with a round, sweet face cautiously poked her head in.
“What happened?”
The newcomer was Emily.
She saw the blood gushing from Jason.
Emily gasped and rushed toward Jason, but Jason’s body was like straw in a gale, falling powerlessly.
“Jason, what’s wrong with you!”
Emily cradled the back of Jason’s head with one hand as large tears fell, mixing with the blood on his chest.
Jason gave a bitter smile and said tremulously:
“They…
found us…
after all…”
Then, he turned his head with difficulty to look at Levi:
“Run…
take…
my…
suitcase…
hurry…”
These few short words seemed to exhaust Jason’s last bit of strength.
His body went limp, and his eyes closed forever.
“Jason, no, don’t!”
Emily couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
She shook Jason frantically and began to scream hysterically.
Levi’s vision blurred, feeling a sense of unreality.
In the six months since his transmigration, he had come to see Jason as his family, but now…
He had long been mentally prepared for the cruelty of this world, but when that cruelty actually manifested, he still found it hard to bear.
He was on the verge of a breakdown; he wanted to wail and let the endless sorrow drown him.
“No.
First, I must survive.”
Levi forced himself to suppress the thousands of agonies in his heart and calm down.
Jason might have provoked some enemies or learned something he shouldn’t have while completing a mission for that Secret Organization, which was why someone had come to silence him.
This burly man likely belonged to a Secret Organization as well.
If the people from that organization found the man dead, then he and Emily would certainly be in danger…
“That’s why Jason wanted Emily and me to run.
His suitcase probably contains clues about his murder…”
“We have to move.
We need to leave this place first!”
Levi didn’t place any hope in police protection.
In the Lower District of Iron Cross Street, laws and systems were nothing more than empty words.
Levi endured the pain and crawled to Jason’s body, pulling a ring of keys from his pocket.
“It’s this one…”
After several attempts, he opened the wardrobe that belonged to Jason.
The suitcase where Jason kept his female attire was lying there quietly.
He picked up the suitcase and shouted to Emily:
“Emily, pack your things quickly!
We have to leave here right now!”
Emily didn’t say a word, still sobbing over Jason’s body:
“Jason, you liar!
You promised me we would get married next month!”
Levi felt as if his heart had been squeezed, twitching with waves of pain.
He did his best to steady his breathing, gently patted Emily’s shoulder, and said in a heavy voice:
“Jason took on dangerous work to support this family.
His enemies could come looking for us at any moment.
Let’s go; don’t let Jason’s sacrifice be in vain.”