Chapter 1 - Dead

Qiao Dong watched as Tang Yazhu packed up her things in a hurry, worried in his heart at her sudden decision to leave the organization.

"Xiao Zhu, why do you suddenly want to leave the organization? You should know that it's not easy to leave. Besides, how can you survive a Class Z mission by yourself?"

Though he had never taken on a Class Z mission, he knew that it was difficult. After all, Class Z was harder and even above a Class SSS mission. Going on a Class Z mission was suicidal!

How could he bear to let her leave when it was clearly suicidal?!

Tang Yazhu gave a deep sigh while putting the last of her latest gun model into her black bag.

Looking at Qiao Dong with resolute eyes, she said, "Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand. Dong-gege, I know that you care for me, but even with that, you can't change my decision. No matter what I have to do, I will finish that mission."

Qiao Dong was her colleague and one of her best friends from this organization called 'Blood Dragon Palace.' This place was a home and training ground for assassins. All the assassins here were trained to execute missions and kill people.

Both of them were abandoned children that grew up in the same orphanage. After being kidnapped at the age of six, they were brought here.

Growing up in this kind of place which she did not consider home, she loathed and hated it. However, she had no choice, but to suck it up. If she did not fight, she would not be able to survive in this place.

Thus, both of them fought through the pits of hell in order to survive in this godforsaken place.

Thinking about it, the both of them could not even count how many lives they had taken thus far. Besides, being here for eighteen long years was already enough for her.

If she told him that the reason for her wanting to leave was because she wanted to fall in love, create a family, and raise two dogs, he would probably laugh at her. Laugh at the fact that she, Tang Yazhu, the number one agent of the Blood Dragon Palace would think of this reason to leave the organization.

To be honest, this was only one of the reasons she had. Her biggest reason was that she wanted freedom.

She was tired of this life that she was living in and just wanted to make sure that she did not die with a stomach full of regrets in the end.

The reason why she wanted to try creating a family was that during her mission four months ago in Los Angeles, she saw her assassination targets in a secluded area acting lovingly and sweetly in front of her. She was so pissed and jealous that she killed them with no remorse. Not that she ever did have remorse after the number of people she has been tasked to kill.

This was also why she decided to take the Class Z mission. She was willing to bet everything for the sake of her freedom, so that was why she must absolutely not fail this mission.

Qiao Dong also knew how hard it was to live here. He himself knew quite well what her feelings were for this place. However, even then, he did not want her to go on a Class Z mission.

Naturally, he wanted her to be happy, but he just could not let her go. He felt that the moment he did let her go, she would truly be gone for good.

"But, Xiao Zhu! You know what happened to Shi Feng, Fu Xinya, and Qiu Guiyuing… And t-to…"

Qiao Dong almost listed all the people that failed the Class Z mission just to leave the organization.

None of them survived the mission, resigning to the fate of death. It was due to this that no one ever thought of leaving the organization.

Even if Tang Yazhu wanted to not go, she had already prepared everything for the mission. She looked at Qiao Dong, sensing how worried he was for her.

Despite knowing his worry though, she was determined to leave, so she hardened her heart and said, "Dong-gege, I'm not them, so I will definitely not fail. You should know, I've been training my whole life for this moment. That is why no one can stop me, even you, my dearest friend."

With the sentences are spoken from Tang Yazhu, the hands Qiao Dong placed on her shoulder slid down with a trace of sadness and disappointment visible from his eyes. He really wanted to laugh at himself for being unable to stop her, but he could only stuff it down.

With a deep desolate sigh full of acceptance, he responded, "Fine… If this is what you want, Xiao Zhu. I hope that you will get what you want, but please… Just be safe."

Hearing his response, Tang Yazhu hugged him for the last time.

In this place that was filled with hatred, malice, darkness, and cruelty, Qiao Dong was the only person who stood by her side without any ill intent. To Tang Yazhu, if she could bring him along with her, she would.

Pitifully, she could not drag him along with her even if she was greedy.

Giving Qiao Dong a tight hug, Tang Yazhu replied with a voice traced with sadness and full of determination, "Dong-gege, I'm sorry… Alright, I'm leaving now."

After that hug and those words, Qiao Dong could only look at the departing figure of Tang Yazhu until she finally left the building gates

Qiao Dong thought sadly, 'If only I could just embrace you and never let go. If only I had the ability to persuade you to not leave.'

However, from her final words, Qiao Dong knew that her decision was final and not even he, her closest friend, could make her retract her choice and stay.

He sighed as he thought about how he found out she was planning to leave the organization.

When Qiao Dong got back from his mission a week ago, he found out that she had stormed up to the Senior Elders' office, requesting to leave the organization. Once the news was passed out, everyone thought that she had lost her mind.

Even the Senior Elders were adamant about persuading her to not leave or even choosing to execute the mission. The bad part though was that a Class Z mission was not a mission that required permission from the Senior Elders.

The choice to do this mission or not was completely up to the assassin.

Once you completed a Class Z mission, whatever wish that you had would be granted. That was why, for them, a Class Z mission was like a ticket to leave the organization despite knowing what type of mission it was.

As everyone already heard about the news of people continuously failing the mission, they all finally knew that you could not leave this place. There were only two choices one had and that was to either stay whilst completing missions or to die from a mission.

However, there was a legend that someone had been able to execute a Class Z mission. Only, that was twenty-five years ago, before he or Tang Yazhu arrived at Blood Dragon Palace.

Qiao Dong gloomily looked up at the dark sky filled with only a few tiny stars shining for the moonless night. As he continued staring, he silently wished for Tang Yazhu to have nothing but success and safety.

A week later inside the fourth cafeteria on the eighteenth floor, everyone was busy chatting while eating. They recently heard that Tang Yazhu, their top assassin just decided to execute a Class Z mission. Thus, she became the center of attention, quietly shaking the other members of Blood Dragon Palace.

Everyone shared the same thought and that was that she was insane from deciding to do a suicidal mission without discussing it first.

"Qiao Dong, what's the news on your best friend? Did she survive?"

"No one can leave this place. That's our shared fate the moment that we enter this organization."

"You never know. She is the number one assassin here. Maybe she might get through it successfully! After all, that girl was never ordinary!"

"Hmph! Who knows if she will survive or not."

"Did you forget that she has successfully executed a Class SSS mission three times already?"

"That was only a Class SSS mission, not a Class Z mission! There is a big difference!"

"However, she has also never failed a mission before. Not only that, she's executed all of them perfectly!"

Qiao Dong who was sitting on the other side of the cafeteria was quietly eating, but when he heard them talking about Tang Yazhu as though she was already dead, he could not stay still anymore.

Tightly gripping his spoon, he shouted in anger, "Will you all just shut up and eat?! Or do you want me to sew your mouths so that you can shut up!?"

He could not stand these fools, badmouthing her when he was still here. Actually, he was just very worried.

It has already been a week since Tang Yazhu left and no one knew if she did survive or not. Not a single person had heard the news about her well-being, even the Senior Elders were busy trying to find her whereabouts.

"Dude, calm down. Xiao Zhu is a strong girl. You know better than anyone that she is like the reincarnation of a devil, so stop worrying. She will definitely make it!" Xiong Zemin tried to assure Qiao Dong.

He knew very well how strong she was, but he still could not stop worrying about her.

"I can't believe our leader would leave us. It's going to be so boring now that she's not going to be here anymore," Lu Jin sighed while playing with his food in a bored manner.

Aside from Qiao Dong, Xiong Zemin and Lu Jin were the closest to Tang Yazhu. During group missions, it was always them who were accompanying her while she played the role of their leader.

Everyone was quietly chatting about the latest news after Qiao Dong, so the cafeteria became much quieter than before. That was not until a loud bang made an entrance at the door of the cafeteria.

"Yo, guys! Guys! Big news!"

The person that was currently shouting was Geng Jun, the gossip man.

All the people in the cafeteria looked at him and saw his flustered expression. Knowing that he was someone who barely showed such a face, they all knew he had some big news for them.

"What is it?" an agent asked.

"It's Tang Yazhu! Our best agent! I just heard the news from the Senior Elders! She's dead! She didn't survive!"

After Geng Jun finished announcing, the place fell into a deep silence.

As for Qiao Dong, his world shattered along with the silent cafeteria.

"I told you, didn't I? No one can leave this place."

Someone sighed, "So, not even our top agent could successfully execute this mission."

Another person gave a painful laugh, "If she didn't have a chance, so do we."