Hidden Assassin

Edit: IlkonEbi

“Boss, today’s business is quite good.”

“Yes, it’s not bad today. Young master Feng, are you free to drop by today?” The boss said with a face full of smiles.

“Yeah, I just met a few of my friends, so we decided to drop by.” Cao Dongfeng casually received the boss’ protection fee. As he looked around the arcade, he noticed Jiaming, who was still clumsily pressing buttons. He instantly sneered, “Boss, come, come, give me a few tokens. I also want to play for a bit.”

He headed towards them with the tokens in his hand and then leaned over, blocking half of Jiaming’s screen. “Huh, what a coincidence. What are the three of you playing?” He looked over Jiaming and stared intently at the two girls who were immersed in the airplane game.

Due to their family’s relationship and the fact that she did not care about him, Shasha frowned and grumbled, “What rotten luck. If I knew, we wouldn’t have come here to play.” Lingjing only bestowed one cold glance upon him before turning back to her screen. The two girls continued playing on their arcade machines, but because Jiaming’s screen had been obstructed, his character was soon dead. He sighed and lightly pushed the body in front of him. “Excuse me, can you please not block me? I can’t see the screen.”

The two girls were startled, the boy in front of them generally would not have said something like that. Cao Dongfeng’s face darkened in anger. He smacked the machine in front of him. “You f*cker, who do you think you are, making such demands!”

When he stood up to hit the machine, the second round started and Jiaming nodded satisfactorily while smiling, “Thank you, it’s rude to block people’s view when they’re playing.”

“You…” Cao Dongfeng only pointed at Jiaming and his lackeys ran up to surround him.

“You little brat, how could you talk to Brother Feng like that!” The newbie who spoke had just entered the Sha Zhu gang; he did not recognize Liu Huaisha who was standing on the side. He raised his fist and was about to hit someone when the few people next to him hurriedly stopped him. Shasha slammed her hand down on the machine in front of her and lifted the stool she was sitting on, blocking Jiaming’s side. “Are you guys trying to start something?! Do you wanna fight?”

Lingjing had also stopped playing and stood by Jiaming’s side. Even though she did not say anything, she was angrily looking at the lackeys as well.

“I’m so sorry, Sister Sha. He’s new here and doesn’t know anything. Please forgive him.” As the arcade was in Sha Zhu gang’s territory, those lackeys were part of the gang as well. However, if Liu Huaisha and Cao Dongfeng had any conflict, they naturally did not dare to intervene. Thus, one of the more senior lackeys said a few things to clarify their position. Cao Dongfeng also innocently raised both his hands in surrender.

“Hey, it’s not a big deal. Just a small misunderstanding. Little Sis Huaisha, we’re all part of the same family, why would we fight each other? I’m only…” He pointed at Jiaming, “We’re only playing a game. Since he’s playing, I can also play too. Only through friendly competition can we improve ourselves. This fellow Jiaming here is so weak, but he’s playing the video game so skillfully, I just wanted to play a round with him.”

“Jiaming, let’s go.” Lingjing grabbed Jiaming’s hand, intending to leave as she knew that Jiaming was not good at video games. Since the opponent was so confident, if Jiaming were to play against him, he would definitely lose. So what if Cao Dongfeng was better though? Would this guy be willing to exchange his life for hers if there was danger? Shasha also grunted and said, “I’ll play a round with you.”

Currently, because of the racket they were making, a crowd gathered around, watching them. Seeing the two pretty girls defending Jiaming, jeers and shouts rose from the crowd. Cao Dongfeng spread his hands in defense, “I know Little Sis Huaisha is very strong, and I can’t win against you. But I’m around Jiaming’s level, so I feel that we could play a round to improve ourselves. What do you say, Jiaming, my friend?”

“Who the hell is your little sister! Jiaming, don’t listen to him, let’s go.” Huaisha’s face darkened. Just as she was about to pull her two friends away and leave, Jiaming suddenly said, “Uh, sure. What he said is correct; only by competing we can improve. I keep losing to you, Shasha, so if I play a few rounds with him, maybe I can get better.”

“Jiaming, you…” The two girls said at the same time and looked at him with concern. Jiaming only smiled and gave them an ‘ok’ gesture. Cao Dongfeng smirked, “See, Jiaming understands; we can improve together.” He placed the few tokens down on the machine next to Jiaming, “Since we’re both men, we should spice this competition up with a small bet. Let’s say, whoever loses would have to loudly say three times ‘I am a chicken’.”

“Say what three times?” Lingjing said while smiling innocently.

Seeing Lingjing’s beautiful smile, Cao Dongfeng hurriedly repeated, “I am a chicken.” The two girls and Jiaming snickered, and the watching crowd jeered as well. Knowing he had been tricked, Cao Dongfeng’s face flushed red. He really felt like hitting someone, but just then, Jiaming also stood up, “Ok, yeah… I agree.”

“Wait.” Seeing Jiaming nod in agreement, Cao Dongfeng, angry at being tricked, said loudly, “One more thing! Apart from saying that, the loser also has to pretend to be a dog and run three circles on the floor. Do you still dare to play against me?”

Jiaming appeared to hesitate, “Um, it’s not necessary to be that extreme, right?” Cao Dongfeng lowered his voice and said, “If you don’t want to pretend to be a dog, that’s fine. But Lingjing has to go on a date with me if you lose, so take your pick.”

“You really want to die, don’t you?” Blushing, Lingjing pulled on Jiaming’s hand, wanting to drag him away, when Jiaming swiftly decided, “Ok, since you want to play like that, I will accompany you. I agree that the loser has to run three circles and say three times what you just said. Hmph, it’s not like it’s set in stone that I’m going to lose though.”

Hearing him agree, Cao Dongfeng was relieved and felt that the time to teach this brat a lesson had finally come. Seeing that Jiaming had decided, the two girls no longer persisted in trying to leave. The three stacked their hands together and chanted, “Go, go, go!”[1]

Jiaming and Cao Dongfeng inserted their tokens and selected their characters. As more and more people surrounded them, hoping for a good show, one could see Cao Dongfeng looking composed, while Jiaming looked panicked. Even though the two girls were wholeheartedly cheering for Jiaming, the fight was quite one-sided. Jiaming was barely able to scratch the opponent before losing his first character.

As Jiaming’s second character came up, he still played quite terribly and Shasha whispered to a worried-looking Lingjing, “Jiaming is actually quite concerned about you.” Lingjing blushed lightly, but did not look any less worried and continued watching the game anxiously. After a pause, Shasha leaned over again and said, “Don’t worry, if he does lose, I don’t care what happens, but I will smash that machine.” Moved, Lingjing looked at her gratefully before softly saying, “You shouldn’t do that. The only thing that could happen is me going on a date with him once, so Jiaming doesn’t need to act like a dog… Besides, the situation Jiaming is in right now is my fault.”

When playing the second character, it seemed that Jiaming had gotten a feel of the game and muddled his way to decreasing his opponent’s health to around half before dying. Shasha was prepared with her stool to smash the machine, when Cao Dongfeng laughed loudly, “Brat, looks like you’re losing for sure.”

Jiaming looked tense as he replied, “The third character is Iori Yagami and I’m more familiar with him, I haven’t lost yet.”

“Hehe, we’ll see.”

At this time, Jiaming was on his last character, while Cao Dongfeng still had three characters, and it looked like the results had been decided. However, he was not lying when he said Iori Yagami was the character he was more familiar with. After a short while, Cao Dongfeng’s first character died and when his second character came out, everyone thought that Jiaming was going to lose for sure.

To the crowd, it seemed that the boy was under a huge amount of pressure, as his hands trembled. Lingjing took out a handkerchief to wipe some of the beads of sweat that had appeared on his temple. Shortly after, the next round started.

Clickclickclickclickclickclickclick——

As soon as it started, Jiaming seemed to enter a berserk state; one of his hands was shaking the joystick like there was no tomorrow, and the other hand was hammering the buttons like a fiend. The crowd could see the Iori Yagami on the screen jumping around and kicking away madly: kick after kick after kick… Cao Dongfeng only smirked, and had just entered within range to attack, when suddenly, a miracle happened.

During the first move it seemed like he had been kicked by Iori Yagami mid-air, then during the second move, when he was in the air, Iori Yagami suddenly went in the wrong direction and jumped back. On the third move, Iori jumped again and kicked him midway. During the fourth move, Cao Dongfeng was already feeling somewhat depressed because he had blocked expecting a mid-air kick, but Jiaming had done a low kick instead… Under this monotonous and repetitive jumping and kicking, Iori Yagami’s health had only dropped by half, but Cao Dongfeng’s character was slowly being kicked to death.

“Haha, this brat’s luck is too good.”

“How did that even happen…”

“That’s too strange, did he get possessed?”

The crowd pointed and whispered with each other, but most of them thought it was due to luck. The two girls could not contain their giddiness after that victory and were happy for Jiaming. After that second round, Jiaming’s Iori Yagami only had around half health left, and the opponent still had a full health character. This third round was not looking good regardless, so Shasha was still prepared to smash the machine. Cao Dongfeng only coldly snorted, and the third round started.

This time, there was no frenzied smacking of buttons and Jiaming’s hands also did not tremble, however not many people noticed that.

As before, Iori Yagami jumped backwards and kicked pointlessly while Cao Dongfeng’s character rushed forward, but like last time, somehow got hit again. He still thought this was due to luck, but during the remaining time, he was unable to control his character because he had been caught in a combo of skills.

Scum gale, Ge Shiki Yumebiki, Shiki Aoi Hana, Shiki Yaotome[2]… Even though Jiaming’s character had started at half health, Cao Dongfeng could only stare at Jiaming, who had an earnest smile on his face while his fingers lively pressed buttons. He could only watch in shock as his character went from full to zero and with one last hit, the result was Jiaming’s win.

“Yay!” Amidst the disbelieving silence, the two girls cheered, jumping up and down and hugging each other happily. Cao Dongfeng’s face changed to a pig-liver colored grey, “You… you tricked me?”

“What? I didn’t though?” Jiaming smiled excitedly, “It’s just a game! I have to thank you; I’ll no longer lose to Shasha thanks to you letting me link those skills into a combo. Oh right, since we agreed on a bet, what did the loser have to do again?”

Cao Dongfeng shuddered, “Mr. Gu, it’s better to leave a path of retreat, so that one can pass their days better.”

“Hehe.” Jiaming only smiled magnanimously, he did not have to pretend to be a dog, so he pulled on Lingjing and prepared to leave together with the two girls. “I don’t really mind. But you already declared it in front of so many people. If you do as you promised, then fine, but even if you don’t, I can’t force you to. As to how other people would see you for not following through though, that’s your problem.”

Huaisha originally wanted to see him crawl on the floor, but then she only smiled and turned back, saying, “I don’t want to ever see you again. Cao Dongfeng, you’re the one who’s the useless chicken.”

If Cao Dongfeng did not pretend to be a dog and this news was spread out, then his honor would be as good as gone. However, even if he did do it, Jiaming and the girls had already left. If he did it just for the crowd, his pride would take a hit as well. Cao Dongfeng stood there, his face puce with rage, looking like he was about to have an epileptic fit.

On the streets outside of the arcade, the victorious hero Jiaming was currently getting his cheeks viciously pinched by Lingjing and Shasha.

“Ow… I give up…My dear ladies, please…I’m going to die…”

“We’re going to strangle you, you jerk. We were so worried just now…”

But the two girls laughed happily and continued to tease Jiaming. The three of them noisily ran down the streets as the clouds in the sky looked like they were burning under the last rays of the setting sun.

[1] I contemplated keeping it as “Add oil!” or translating it as “Ganbatte!” instead because the english equivalent wasn’t as catchy. Let me know what you think and I could change it. XD ↩

[2] Basically a list of Iori Yagami’s skills. Please let me know if I made an error or not. Also you can youtube them if you’re curious. ↩

2 / 4 chapters of the week (next release is Wednesday, Feb 28).

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