Chapter 129: Defeat

Xu walked unhurriedly to the side of the street, raised his hand to hail a taxi, and headed straight for the city center.

Sitting in the back seat, he greeted the driver and used making theater props as an excuse to take out various tools he carried with him.

Right under the driver's nose, he began extracting fingerprints from the thin film on his palm.

While carefully working on it, Xu sneered inwardly.

As expected, he's just a rookie who knows nothing.

Fortunately, the damage in this mission plane is locked, and the broader environment outside doesn't allow for casual killings.

Otherwise, with just a few tricks, you'd lose your life and wouldn't even know what hit you.

Forget about the mission; you're bound to fail this time. Let me give you a lesson to wake you up. The theme of a mission plane is never the mission itself. Those who focus solely on the mission will never see the light.

If you can suddenly see the light and repent, I'll be accumulating boundless merit instead.

Xu first went to a shopping plaza in the city center to buy a set of clothes, then bought plenty of theatrical performance props from a prop shop, and subsequently went to a decorative material market to buy a bunch of miscellaneous items. He directly hired a truck to haul everything back to the villa.

Before taking action, he needed to get everything ready.

The two corpses in the freezer needed to be handled with extreme care. Corpse examination technology in this era is already quite advanced, so he had to be cautious, cautious, and even more cautious.

As soon as the workers moved the goods into the villa, Xu smiled and tipped them, sending them away.

The moment he turned around and stepped into the room, a thug in a suit appeared before him.

Before he could even shout, a stun baton was pressed against his stomach. After a crackling flash of electricity, Xu collapsed onto the floor, convulsing.

Another suited thug suddenly appeared, carefully binding Xu with zip ties, and then pushed in a large musical instrument flight case.

They directly placed the bound Xu inside, and the two of them pushed the case out of the villa, one in front and one behind. They loaded it into a van plastered with music production company advertisements parked in the adjacent public parking area, and slowly drove out of the residential compound.

Just as this vehicle left, another black SUV pulled up in front of the villa. Four suited thugs quickly got out and strode into the villa. A few minutes later, working in pairs, they each carried out two wooden crates and slowly walked out.

Xu was horrified. He wanted to do something to attract the attention of people outside to save himself.

Unfortunately, before he could make a move, a strong hypnotic gas began to emanate from the bottom of the case. Xu struggled frantically, but having lost his abilities, he was now nothing more than a somewhat peculiar young man.

He was completely unable to break free from the bindings on his body, let alone cry out.

After lasting only a few seconds, Xu's vision blurred, and he passed out instantly.

He had no idea how long he remained unconscious until he suddenly felt a coolness on his face. Shuddering all over, he jerked upright.

"Awake? You sure can sleep. Your physical constitution is quite weak; it was just a regular anesthetic diluted by a mini humidifier, yet it had such a huge effect on you!"

A somewhat familiar voice sounded by his ear. Xu was still struggling to pull his wits together, his thoughts lagging slightly behind.

He slowly opened his eyes and saw a familiar figure sitting in front of him, legs crossed, looking at him with a half-smile.

Xu suddenly widened his eyes and blurted out, "Gao Ning!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized his current predicament.

This was a small room, clearly decorated in a European style. The two of them sat opposite each other on two independent sofas, separated by a round coffee table in the middle.

The windows were blocked by heavy curtains, completely obscuring the scenery outside, and no outside noise filtered into the room.

Xu tried to struggle experimentally and, as expected, found that his hands and feet were bound to the sofa, while even his waist and chest were tightly strapped down by something resembling a seatbelt.

Although he had a bit of room to move so as not to feel cramped and uncomfortable, trying to stand up was entirely out of the question.

Xu panicked slightly, a few images flashing through his mind in an instant, and after a moment, he let out a soft sigh.

"So you deliberately lured me into a trap!"

Gao Ning smiled and nodded. "Indeed, it seems you're quite smart!"

Xu asked, "How did you know it was me? During this period, you interact with at least 100 fans every day, plus you contact other people. Within these two weeks, it's definitely no less than 10,000 people. You couldn't possibly have people tail and investigate every single person, right?"

Gao Ning shook his head. "Of course not, I'm not that idle. Actually, it's very simple—you exposed yourself.

Although our abilities have been sealed this time, our innate senses are still more or less intact. Even though your movements were cautious and fast, normal people basically wouldn't notice them.

However, for me, even the slightest anomaly is magnified countless times, echoing and replaying in my mind. Although your movements were covert, I still discovered them. You were simply too impatient!"

Recalling his previous actions and how he had handled things, Xu wore a bitter smile. "You're right, I was indeed too impatient. If I had remained hidden in the dark and used other methods or other people to obtain your fingerprints and skin debris, my plan might have succeeded!"

"Are you talking about framing me as a murderer? I must admit, this idea of yours is truly brilliant, and those two corpses were handled very well.

I had someone check them; after thawing, the time of death for those two people actually became blurred. Quite interesting!" Gao Ning smiled.

"Before entering the mysterious train, I was a forensic doctor!"

Xu probed tentatively, "If you want, I can give you this method, as long as you let me go. Of course, I guarantee I will directly abandon this mission and won't cross you in the future."

Gao Ning replied, "Thanks, but no need! I don't think I'll need this kind of method. Since it's your exclusive secret recipe, you should keep it to yourself!"

Gao Ning slowly stood up. "This is an unfinished building I bought. The surrounding kilometer or so is a no-man's land, and this is the 30th floor. I specifically had people make some simple renovations so we can live here normally.

Every week, I'll have someone restock your living supplies. As for anything else, don't even think about it.

I'll finish the mission in at most another month. If you can't wait, you can also return early.

However, I'm definitely taking this mission!"

Gao Ning smiled and nodded at Xu, then turned to leave.

"Wait, why is your starting point so exaggerated? Where did you get so much funds?" Xu shouted loudly.

A suited thug walked over from the corner, untied the rope on his right hand with a flick, and then handed the knife handle to Xu.

Seeing his burning gaze, Gao Ning smiled. "That's none of your concern. Take care of yourself first!"

With that, he took the suited thug and pushed open the door, leaving, the heavy iron door isolating the inside and outside into two different worlds.

Xu let out a depressed cry, knowing all too well that this fatal oversight had sealed his defeat!