To an outside observer, the reception hall looked entirely normal, but not a single person inside was actually breathing.
Yug stood at the top of the stairs, his cold gaze sweeping over the lifeless bodies scattered across the ground below. There had only been four assassins stationed on this floor. Yet, Yug had slaughtered every human in the room—four targets and hundreds of innocent bystanders alike—without sparing a single soul. He had killed hundreds just to hide the murder of four.
His executions had been so impossibly smooth and precise that he had been able to carefully pose their bodies before sealing the main entrance shut. Propped up in chairs, resting their heads on tables, or leaning casually against the walls, they looked perfectly alive to anyone who might glance through the windows.
It was a flawless, morbid illusion of life.
Beneath them, dark blood was only just beginning to seep across the floorboards, spreading agonizingly slow and remaining perfectly hidden just out of sight.
A sudden chill crawled down his spine as Kruti's earlier words echoed in his mind.
'You'll come back without a scratch.'
Looking at the absolute lack of resistance these assassins had put up, her prediction was flawless. He wasn't disappointed by the small fry's lack of skill, but the realization left a bitter taste in his mouth. It made him acutely aware of how easily Kruti swayed his expectations—how effortlessly she seemed to pull his strings without him even noticing.
"I need a thorough background check on Kruti," he whispered into the heavy silence. "Otherwise, I'll just end up as another puppet under her control."
Only the hollow echo of Yug's footsteps broke the suffocating silence of the hall as he turned his back on the macabre scene and walked away.
He left the stairwell and shifted his focus to Lavanya. He fully expected to find her dead. Her earpiece had already cut out, leaving nothing but absolute dead air on his end of the comms.
Just before the connection had completely dropped, he had heard a single, deafening gunshot ring out between them.
Hours Ago
Lavanya's legs felt like lead, her vision heavily blurred by the unshed tears stinging her eyes. Cold sweat dripped down her face, making it agonizingly difficult to draw a full breath. Yet, she forced herself to peer through the terrifying haze.
"Sir, I'm close to the rooftop entrance," she whispered into the thin air, speaking through the earpiece.
Her chest felt like it was going to burst open. Looking down, her palms were slick with sweat against the cold, metallic grip of the weapon. It was overwhelming—she had never even held a fake prop gun before, and now she was gripping a real one, actively preparing to kill another human being.
"Good. Go ahead," Yug's smooth voice filtered through the comms. "I can hear you. If anything happens, I'll reach you immediately."
It was a complete lie. Yug had absolutely zero intention of saving her if things went south. But he knew that offering the false reassurance would keep her moving forward, so he said it without a second thought.
"Oh... thank you. Please do come as soon as possible," she replied, perfectly projecting the image of a desperate, terrified girl. She quickly assessed her situation. "Anyway, how are you doing? How much time will it take to complete your task?"
She desperately needed to verify Yug's position. If he was pinned down or in real danger, she would have zero chance of surviving the roof and would actually lose her life. That was not her plan. Throwing her life away was never the goal; she only wanted to experience the razor-thin edge of death so she could sharpen her acting skills to perfection.
"Hmm, I'm doing fine," Yug replied coolly. "I'll be done once I clear their positions. Don't worry, they are all within my range. I'll be there before you even realize it."
Lavanya straightened her posture, dragging in a massive, trembling breath. The heavy rooftop door was only a few centimeters away from her face.
"Okay, I'm going in," she whispered. "Let's talk later. And... don't forget our promise."
She gripped the doorknob tightly and twisted the knob.
Click.
The heavy door swung open, and a sharp rush of cold night breeze hit her face. In that exact second, the violent trembling, the suffocating fear, and the frantic pounding in her chest simply... paused.
The switch flipped in her mind. The stage was set.
She confidently barged onto the rooftop, her eyes locked dead straight ahead. But the vast roof appeared completely empty.
Step. Step.
Her footsteps echoed loudly across the concrete. She was doing it intentionally, projecting the bold, fearless stride of a hardened killer.
"What? No one's here?" she muttered.
The joker mask Yug had given her obscured the lower half of her face. Its twisted, painted red smile seemed to catch the faint ambient light, giving it an eerie, almost luminescent glow in the dark. From the outside, that frozen, crimson grin looked terrifyingly cold and unhinged.
She glanced down at the tracker on her wrist. The dots were blinking frantically, indicating the targets were right on top of her. However, scanning the empty, flat expanse of the roof, she couldn't spot a single shadow.
"Maybe it's broken," she whispered, dismissing it entirely.
What she didn't realize was that directly behind her, perched on the high ledge above the doorframe, the three snipers were looking down at her, tracking her every movement.
"She's not our target, Captain," one of the men whispered into the darkness.
They had been holding their breath in ambush, fully expecting Yug to come bursting through that door after the Captain had read his lips. Instead, this complete stranger had walked out.
They had no idea who she was. The lower half of her face was completely hidden behind that glowing red mask, but that wasn't what bothered them. What confused them was that they couldn't sense a single drop of bloodlust from her. She was walking across a deadly battlefield without an ounce of genuine killer intent or tactical awareness. She strolled forward without any visible fear or concern, as if she had no clue they were even there.
To the trained assassins, it made absolutely no sense.
The truth, however, was simple. Lavanya had never done this before. Completely immersed in her "role," she had forgotten the most basic rule of combat: to guard her surroundings and check her blind spots. She was walking straight into the crosshairs of three professional killers, perfectly proving that sometimes, ignorance truly is bliss.
"What should we do with her, Captain?"
The question was raised again, tight with unease. Her sudden appearance was deeply suspicious. Someone had managed to completely bypass their entire ground team just to get up here. They hesitated to take the shot; if she had backup waiting in the wings, firing would instantly expose their hidden vantage point.
"Let me get a closer look," the captain whispered.
She leaned forward over the ledge, scanning the girl from head to toe. Despite the shadows of the night, she clearly spotted the custom handgun in her grip, the earpiece tucked into her ear, and the faint, rhythmic blinking of a tracker strapped to her wrist.
"Did you find something, Captain?" one of the men asked.
"Yes. She's definitely an intruder, and she isn't working alone," the captain stated grimly.
The two men blinked, rapidly shifting their gaze across the empty roof, but they couldn't spot a single shadow moving around her.
"What do you mean, Captain?"
"Listen to me," the captain hissed, her eyes locked on Lavanya. "She is actively communicating with someone. That blinking tracker means her partner knows her exact coordinates, and that earpiece means her backup will be instantly alerted the second we engage. But the most dangerous thing about her is the absolute unknown... we have zero intel on her combat capabilities. If she spots us first, we might be done for. We have to coordinate this perfectly. Follow my instructions to the letter."
The captain paused, her voice tightening as she stared down at that eerie, glowing smile.
"And whatever you do… don't let her unnerve you."
The two men stared down at Lavanya, their mouths slightly agape. A genuine shiver of fear ran down their spines. The sheer, terrifying mystery of this masked girl's presence suddenly felt suffocating.
"Yes, Captain," they whispered in unison.
Completely unaware of the assassins lurking behind her, Lavanya glanced left and right. The heavy gun hung loosely in her grip under the bright night sky. The silent wind brushed past her, washing away the adrenaline and leaving her feeling unexpectedly relaxed and peaceful.
Mesmerized by the quiet atmosphere, a deep wave of relief settled within her chest. The vast, empty expanse of the rooftop made her want to throw her arms wide and just dance.
"It's truly beautiful," she whispered to herself, unable to resist.
In that fragile moment, she completely forgot the deadly role she was supposed to be playing. It was the very first time in her life she had ever prioritized the reality of the world over her own acting.
She smoothed a hand over her ponytail and wandered over to the very edge of the rooftop. Standing right at the ledge, she stared down at the sprawling city below. Between the glowing city lights on the ground and the vast night sky above, it felt as though she was sandwiched between two endless fields of stars.
"SNAP OUT OF IT, LAVANYA!"
Yug's vicious roar pierced through her earpiece, shattering the peaceful illusion in an instant. The sheer volume of his voice made her flinch. Reality hit her like a physical blow, and the suffocating realization that something was terribly wrong finally crashed over her.
And then—
BANG!BANG!