Chapter 21: A 10 Million Reward (Patreon)

Upon hearing Sloan's statement that the other party wasn't connected to the Hand, everyone seemed to relax a bit. However, the mention of Rock Lee, who had caused the death of Fox, cast a shadow over everyone's hearts.

The power he possessed was too terrifying – a touch meant death, a graze meant injury.

This was especially true for Butcher, who was skilled with knives. The harm he will suffer was immense.

"Sloan, should we bring Cross' son with us?" the gunsmith asked.

Sloan pondered for a moment before replying, "Cross' son is the only person we can think of who could solve Cross problem. They share the same blood."

The gunsmith disagreed and countered, "But Cross has already arranged for Charles Law Firm's people to protect his son. Do we still have a chance?"

"Furthermore, Wesley likely already knows about his own background."

Hearing the gunsmith's words, the others nodded in agreement.

Sloan looked at them and slowly continued, "None of us are a match for Cross, but only Wesley is an existence Cross won't eliminate. We need to bring him, nurture him, and only then can we defeat Cross."

"As long as Cross hasn't met with Wesley, hasn't presented concrete evidence, I have a way to make him believe us." Sloan's confidence as he spoke was unwavering.

Hearing Sloan's words, there were no more objections, only a question, "Should we all go and bring Wesley back?"

Sloan shook his head, "No, we need to be prepared for Cross' attack. If he can afford to hire people to protect his son, we can pay to have those protecting him eliminated."

"And we have more money than Cross."

Soon, Sloan and the others discussed their next plan and issued a series of reward notices to the Continental Hotel.

The reward was for killing all employees of Charles Law Firm, including Charles himself, totaling five people.

The bounty for each was 2 million dollars, and anyone could accept the contract. Once the targets were eliminated, the reward could be collected from the Continental Hotel.

For this, Sloan had paid 10 million dollars. Perhaps for an ordinary person, this amount was astronomical, but for the Assassin Brotherhood, which had a history spanning a thousand years, it was a trivial expense that didn't even qualify as "moderate."

···

The next day-

Early in the morning, Cross arrived at Charles Law Firm with a large canvas bag filled with items. Seeing Cross enter with the bag, Charles spoke, "Brother, is that filled with grenades and firearms?"

Once in the living room, Cross placed the canvas bag on the table and opened it, revealing a stack of blueprints.

He then explained, "Charles, the headquarters of the Assassin Brotherhood is a textile factory at 17th Street, Brooklyn, New York. These are the blueprints for the factory. Take a look first; we'll discuss our plan of attack later."

Taking the offered blueprints, Charles carefully examined them, focusing on memorizing the layout, the rooms, storage spaces, ventilation ducts – anywhere someone could hide. His aim was to prevent the enemy from using hidden places for sudden attacks.

As for the attack routes and specific locations to destroy that Cross had marked, Charles also took note of them.

Instead of using rat bombs, which he found too cruel (not because he was a member of an animal protection society, but because his exploding talismans were just as effective as the rat bombs), he realized that his exploding talismans were no worse than rat bombs.

After Charles had roughly gone through the blueprints, Cross continued explaining his plan, demonstrating a device he'd made that resembled a wristwatch – an explosive device that could be attached to rats without hindering their movement.

While Cross explained his plan, Charles's phone suddenly rang. The caller ID displayed Ginny's name. Charles answered the call and signaled Cross to wait.

"Ginny, what's the matter?" Charles was curious about the early morning call.

"Charles, I have some bad news to tell you."

"What happened? Just tell me straight, Ginny."

Ginny's tone was serious, and she said deliberately, "Charles, we're all on Continental Hotel's hit list."

"All of us?" Charles caught onto a key word.

"Yes, all of us. This morning, Continental Hotel updated its hit list. Everyone from Charles Law Firm is on it – you, me, Iruka Umino, Sasuke Uchiha, and Rock Lee. Each kill is worth 2 million dollars, totaling 10 million dollars."

"What's crucial is that this mission is open to anyone. Anyone can take it. I think Continental Hotel's assassins have already started moving!"

"Charles, we're in trouble."

After hearing Ginny's report, Charles realized that the situation had become much more complicated and troublesome.

He never thought that he, too, would one day become a target for Continental Hotel's hit list.

Was this the fate of a legendary assassin? Wasn't the previous 2 million-dollar reward target John Wick, a retired legendary assassin?

He hadn't expected that an assassin organization like Continental Hotel would actually resort to putting out assassination missions of their own assassins.

Have they no shame?

Charles's tone remained calm and composed as he said, "Ginny, don't worry. We're aware of the strength of Continental Hotel's assassins. They're not our match; it's just a bit troublesome."

"Protect yourselves and Wesley during this period. I and Cross will eradicate the Assassin Brotherhood as soon as possible. I'll find a way to get Sloan to cancel the bounty."

Charles knew that if the bounty wasn't cancelled, the mission would remain active, attracting countless individuals seeking money or fame to come knocking for assassination.

Although Charles wasn't afraid, he disliked the constant annoyance of these pesky flies.

Upon hearing Charles's confident tone, Ginny didn't say much more before hanging up. The main purpose of the call was to inform Charles that he was also on the hit list, warning him from being attacked unexpectedly without preparation.