Chapter 183: Eight Cards Down

In the suburbs, there was a villa district.

People often thought villas were expensive, but that was a misconception. Some villas in more remote areas were actually quite cheap.

Xiao Yu stood outside the gate, not stepping in just yet. He could sense several presences and also feel an underlying sense of danger.

Even though he was a transmigrator with a system, Xiao Yu knew that he wasn’t much different from a regular person. Taking a bullet would definitely mean certain death.

Luckily, these assassins weren’t armed with guns. Not that they didn’t have them. It was more like they didn’t bother using them. It was like a thief mocking a robber: “No skill involved at all!”

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yu walked toward the gate. It wasn’t locked, so he pushed it open and stepped into the yard.

The villa’s courtyard was spacious, with a garden and even a small vegetable patch. According to what “Card 8” had confessed, the old head of the orphanage liked to tend to his plants and grow vegetables in his old age.

Suddenly, a figure stood up from the ground.

Xiao Yu frowned.

How had he not noticed him? 

The person had been covered with camouflage that blended perfectly with the earth.

The moment the figure stood, a blade flashed past Xiao Yu’s neck.

For the first time in his life, Xiao Yu felt how close death really was—less than a centimeter away.

If he had been an ordinary person, his throat would have been slit.

But Xiao Yu had activated all his system abilities, drawing on the countless skills of animals. His body had long surpassed human limits. He turned him into a walking weapon.

Not only did he dodge the slash, but his hand shot out like lightning.

In the instant the blade flashed, Xiao Yu grabbed the wrist holding the knife.

The attacker’s wrist broke with a sickening crack. The long blade fell into Xiao Yu’s hand. He thrust it forward.

The sound of a knife slicing through flesh cut through the air.

The blade sunk all the way to the hilt, piercing the man’s internal organs. 

The young man collapsed to the ground, lifeless. But just as he fell, a faint sound followed. Xiao Yu took a step back.

With his Eagle’s Eye activated, he saw a glint of light flash past his cheek. It was so fast that even with his Leopard’s Speed and Civit’s Agility, he barely managed to dodge.

A crossbow bolt!

Xiao Yu raised his arm. Gun in hand. The PX18, a standard issue for special forces. It came with both a single-stack 7-round magazine and a double-stack 13-round magazine, featuring two types of ammunition with an effective range of 50 to 100 meters.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out. Xiao Yu didn’t even need to look at the direction of his shot. Six meters away, a figure slammed into the villa’s wall and crumpled to the ground as if struck by lightning. A small hole appeared in his forehead, with the back of his skull blown open by the bullet’s spiraling force.

Firearms Expert—this was the second ability Xiao Yu had gained from the system. This was his first time using it.

Wang Dong once commented on his little brother, saying that if Xiao Yu had a choice, he would probably never want to touch a gun. And Wang Dong was right. If it wasn’t necessary, Xiao Yu wouldn’t want to use firearms. But that didn’t mean he’d show mercy to a group of killers.

As soon as he fired the shot, a figure leaped down from the villa’s rooftop.

The attacker held an iron rod, swinging it down toward Xiao Yu’s head with a gust of wind.

Was this the assassin who liked smashing skulls?

Xiao Yu smirked and tilted his head up. He calmly watched the attacker descend. Just as the iron rod was about to strike his head.

Boom!

A muffled roar echoed from outside the villa—a sniper rifle.

The figure in midair suddenly looked like it had been slapped by an invisible hand. Not only was the person knocked flying, but it seemed like a giant unseen mouth had taken a bite out of his chest. His torso exploded, with his left chest and arm, along with a fifth of his body, getting blasted apart. Flesh tore away, leaving a gaping hole as his mangled body crashed to the ground like a lifeless sack, blood spraying everywhere.

Xiao Yu glanced at the corpse and couldn’t help but feel a little impressed.

‘Damn, that sniper’s got some serious power,’ he thought to himself, grinning. ‘Real men should play with snipers, not handguns.’

Suddenly, his hairs stood on end.

His thoughts instantly shifted, cursing internally, ‘Wang Dong, you jerk, stop aiming at me, will you?!’

The feeling of being locked on quickly faded, and he let out a sigh of relief.

Three assassins down, huh?

Including card 2, Xia Xingchen, card 3, Guan Yue, and the captured card 8, that meant six of the 13 cards were already out of the game.

Xiao Yu took a step toward the entrance of the villa but abruptly stopped.

He blinked and glanced downward. He focused intently.

There it was. A glint of light, so thin it was barely noticeable, like a single strand of hair.

Xiao Yu pulled out a playing card—the one he’d bought off the dark web—and always kept on him. Gently, he lowered the card toward the thin line of light.

Slice!

The card was cleanly cut in two, as if it had been sliced by a razor-sharp blade.

Now, imagine what would have happened if he hadn’t noticed that line of light and kept walking forward.

Would his body have been sliced in half?

Xiao Yu once watched a video about a special type of metal wire. It was extremely soft, yet incredibly tough and sharp. This metal wire could even be fashioned into a saw, and its cutting ability was faster than a steel saw.

In the next moment, the metal wire in front of him, with that faint glimmer, twitched. With a flick of someone’s wrist, it lashed toward Xiao Yu’s body.

Disguises, crossbows, attacks from above, and now metal wire.

As he swiftly retreated, even Xiao Yu had to admit—these assassins had some wild, out-of-the-box techniques. Every method they used was lethal, and if an ordinary person wasn’t careful, they’d end up dead without a doubt.

Suddenly, Xiao Yu’s backward steps came to a halt. He crouched, pushed off with his feet, and pounced forward, right under the metal wire.

That leap… like a leopard.

He moved so fast that the hand holding the wire didn’t even have time to flick again. Xiao Yu was already standing next to the villa’s front pillar, right in front of a young man wearing metal gloves.

Xiao Yu’s hand landed on the young man’s head.

Bang!

Xiao Yu smashed the man’s head into the pillar. Blood splattered, and the youth slumped to the ground.

Turning swiftly, Xiao Yu reached out.

Smack!

He grabbed another hand—this one holding a stiletto. The killer had been hiding behind the second pillar, trying to silently stab Xiao Yu from behind.

But how could they have known?

Xiao Yu’s Python’s Sense had already picked up the faint infrared heat signature. No matter how silent the assassin was, they couldn’t escape Xiao Yu’s Moth’s Ear.

Crack!

The assassin’s wristbone snapped. Xiao Yu twisted the now-broken hand, still gripping the stiletto, and pushed it forward.

The stiletto pierced the killer’s chest. Their body trembled and then collapsed to the ground.

Even in their final moments, the assassin stared at Xiao Yu, eyes wide in confusion—almost as if asking: Who’s the real killer here, us or you?!

“Eight down,” Xiao Yu murmured to himself, as his hand reached for the villa’s front door.