The Legendary Mechanic

The soldiers surrounded the place securely. The high ranked officials had different expressions— the home faction was furious; Xiao Jin's faction was frowning with confusion on their faces; the Red Island Faction lead by Se Qi and the Northern Faction all had surprise on their faces. No one could believe it.

"Get him!" Lagos' face was twisted.

Xiao Jin frowned and stopped him. "There's more to this. Black Phantom visited us in broad daylight, so there's no need for him to do such thing."

"What if that's exactly what he made us think!" one of the chieftains of the Northern Faction said.

"Then why did he have to visit us? It would have been more discreet to assassinate him," Xiao Jin said.

"Our guarding power is strong. He wanted to get in!" someone said.

"He's the killer, and you still want to find excuses for him‽" Lagos was emotional. He took out his gun and pointed it at Han Xiao. Se Qi, who was stood next to him, hurriedly stopped him.

"Calm down. There's no motive for Black Phantom to do this—"

"Motive‽" Lagos was enraged. He stared at Xiao Jin, clenched his teeth, and said, "Is there no motive?"

Xiao Jin frowned and said, "You're overthinking this."

The Northern Faction and the Home Faction agreed they should first control Black Phantom, who was the most suspicious, then go on to find more clues. Se Qi felt that Black Phantom was too dangerous and suggested to question Han Xiao on the spot, but he was interrupted by Lagos, who believed that they could not trust anything Black Phantom said. Thus, they were unable to come to an agreement.

The soldiers surrounded Han Xiao. Many strong presences in the dark were locking onto him, and the high ranked officials also had their attention on Han Xiao even as they were discussing. They were ready to engage the moment Han Xiao did anything suspicious.

Han Xiao thought to himself, The result of framing me to take responsibility for the assassination is a conflict between Alumera and the Dark Net. Only a third party will benefit from it. Could this be the goal of the people behind all this? If I start a killing spree, it would also fall right into his trap. It was planned for me to be in such a situation where my actions are very restricted.

Han Xiao could kill his way out anytime, and he didn't care about making Alumera angry. However, if he did that, it would be falling into the trap of the people behind this. Escaping would mean admitting that he was the killer, and killing bred hatred. He also could not just let them capture him. It seemed like the plan made by the person behind this had worked.

I've only been here for one day, and they could make the assassination look like I did it. There has to be someone who's an expert in assassination that has been here for a long time, and my arrival had given them the opportunity.

Unless they could find the real killer, no matter how many things showed that Han Xiao had no motive to do it, he would still be the most suspicious person without any solid evidence to prove otherwise. After all, no one can truly know someone else unless they could read their mind; logical assumptions could not be taken as evidence.

"Wait, evidence—" Han Xiao had a flash of insight. It had not been long since Darryl was assassinated, so the crime scene had not been checked thoroughly yet. The killer might have left some clues.

This time, the discussion between the high ranked officials had come to an end. Lagos yelled, "Black Phantom, disarm yourself and surrender!"

"If you didn't do it, we will investigate clearly," Xiao Jin added.

Han Xiao smiled. "You know that's impossible. How about you guys disarm yourselves?"

Neither party could trust the other. There was no way they would take the risk of disarming themselves; it was a problem that had no solution. However, Han Xiao had a thought. "There's no point of continuing this argument. I can stay temporarily, and you can send people to monitor me the whole time. I will wait till you find the truth."

Han Xiao was very curious about who was framing him.

"Well, that is one way to do it," Se Qi said immediately. He did not wish for conflict.

Before Lagos said anything, someone in the crowd suddenly fired his gun. Han Xiao reacted quickly and activated the Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor. The bullet was deflected.

However, this had made the soldiers who were all in a highly nervous state lose their control, and they all fired at the same time.

"Fire!"

Conflict broke out in an instant!

"Someone fired deliberately!" Han Xiao's eyes became serious. The scene was chaotic, but he had seen the person who took the shot clearly. It was an ordinary soldier.

Bullets emerged from every direction, Han Xiao had no choice by to deal with those shots first. The enhanced Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor had an outstanding level of defense, so the bullets only made sparks on the armor and could not penetrate through.

Energy flowed through his body and went into a circular metal plate on his hand—the Compounded Magnetic Chain Split Blades were activated. Seven sharp blades flew out of the pockets and shot out like a storm. Many soldiers' gun muzzles were cut off, and they backed off in horror, bumping into other soldiers.

The firepower of the enemy started weakening. Just as Han Xiao was about to go for the soldier who took the first shot, the superhuman guards hidden in the dark acted.

Hong!

Suddenly, a fire appeared in the crowd. Three Pugilists and one Esper who could turn his entire body into fire pounced toward Han Xiao at the same time.

Fists covered in fire smashed down hard.

Bang!

Cracks spread out on the originally standing floor, and the walls started to crack open as well. Han Xiao made it in time and jumped up in the air. Suddenly, Han Xiao faced a heat wave coming toward him. The person covered in fire straightened his arms, and a snake-like pillar of fire flew toward Han Xiao.

Usually, one would have nowhere to escape to in midair, but Han Xiao was an exception. He immediately switched on the [Mini Maneuvering Equipment] on his waist. The boxes on the edge of the belt made a turbo-like sound and shot out a jet stream of air. The belt emitted a strong force, almost like an invisible hand pulling Han Xiao to the side.

The fire snake slid by his back and hit the wall, creating a large scorch black hole.

Levels 46, 48, 49, three Pugilists, and one Esper at level 45, all Grade D superhumans, these should be the high tier power in Alumera.

If it was before, he would have had some trouble, but now that all his skills were at max level, he was much stronger. It would not be much of a problem for him even if he did not wear his mechanical suit. In fact, he was more concerned about the soldier who fired first, but he realized that the young soldier had been killed in the previous round of chaotic shootings.

Han Xiao felt a thump in his heart. He did not believe that this was an accident.

Seems like the people who framed me are deeply rooted in Alumera. They saw me taking a step back and decided to attack me on purpose to cause a conflict.

With these thoughts, Han Xiao had more clues. He put the thoughts away and focused on dealing with the four superhumans and the soldiers. He spun his hands, and the revolving blades covered him like a protecting storm, slashing almost ten times per second, inflicting wounds on the three pugilists who were just closing in. Everywhere he walked past, the weapons of the soldiers were cut into pieces. He had used this sort of weapon in his previous life before, so he did not need much practice—he was adept with it instantly. He purposely held back and did not kill anyone.

Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor, Electromagnetic Hover-boots, and other equipment that he carried around all the time had all gone through [Medium Enhancement]. Their attributes became much stronger. Han Xiao's own combat power had also peaked due to all his skills being at max level. Han Xiao did not even need Viper to deal with those four superhumans that had a lower level than him; he only needed Compounded Magnetic Chain Split Blades as a close-range combat weapon to defeat them.

Han Xiao's health had reached 3,800 points, not far from a Pugilist of the same level, and he also had the Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor. Thus, he was very tanky.

On the other side, members of the Bamboo Rain Guild witnessed Han Xiao defeating a group of soldiers and four superhumans. The Bamboo Rain Guild recorded the whole scene with excitement.

"That is a recording that has the potential to go viral," Bamboo Rain Fly said in surprise. "I thought Black Phantom was their guest, but from what they are saying, it seems like Black Phantom killed their leader. I made a scan just now, all four NPCs that are fighting Black Phantom have a danger level of [Extremely Dangerous]. What they say on the forums are right—Black Phantom is at the top tier in terms of strength even among the NPCs."

Bamboo Rain Morning Wind rolled his eyes and said, "You don't say. Which NPC that gives main storyline missions isn't strong?"

"Shhh!" Bamboo Rain Fragrance made a hand sign of asking them to keep quiet. She stared at the scene and said, "Keep quiet and watch the storyline."

…

The destructive power of superhumans far exceeded normal people. The entire mansion collapsed in the heated battle, and the high ranked officials had already escaped in rage and nervousness. More superhumans were on their way there. They definitely could kill Black Phantom if those four guards were able to stall him.

Blades slashed open the fire; iron fists clashed against the armor. Han Xiao moved around with horrifyingly high mobility. The four superhumans could only barely hit him after putting in all their efforts. Han Xiao purposely faked an opportunity for them to attacked and lured one of the Pugilists to a close range. Then he used the Thermo-electrical Incisor Gloves to counter-attack and defeated one person first. He used the blades to form a storm and slashed wounds all over the fire-controlling Esper; his Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor had very good heat insulating abilities, so fire dealt very limited damage to him.

The two people left soon had an even harder time dealing with Han Xiao.

Whoosh.

The blades slashed open the flesh of the Pugilist and shot out through his body, causing blood to shoot out from the wounds. This Pugilist ended up twitching on the floor with heavy injuries and was unable to move.

"Shit!" Lagos was shocked. Black Phantom had defeated the four guards in much less time than he had expected. The scene was now filled with broken bricks and ruins; no one could stop Black Phantom anymore.

If he were to start a killing spree, many of the high ranked officials would die.

Whoosh!

A blade hovered before Lagos. He backed up in terror, but the blades followed him like a shadow. Lagos fell on the ground with fear and anger on his face.

It was at this time that Han Xiao retracted the blades. He wiped off the blood on his face and said coldly, "I can kill you people, but that would be falling right into the trap of someone else. Our terms remain unchanged—I can stay till you find out the truth, but if you insist on capturing me, I don't mind giving you a few slashes."

His fingers turned inward as he was speaking. The blades danced in the air and formed a flower shape; the threat was clear.