The Reincarnated Hitman

Chapter 34: Inside Zero’s Mind

Zero was a Hitman who prided himself on information gathering.

There was rarely ever a time when he had been caught off guard on a mission because of a variable he hadn’t accounted for.

Yet, for the first time in a long while, he had been caught completely off guard by the appearance of this character.

A character that wasn’t part of the original comic.

Time seemed to slow down as the yellow-haired man pulled his face towards the ground.

There wasn’t enough time to react before his head was slammed into the metallic floor beneath them.

BOOM!

Zero felt his vision swimming for a couple of seconds, but he didn’t allow himself time to register the pain as he quickly used the momentum to roll to safety.

He stood up, with blood running down his face and his vision blurring, but he quickly blinked it away.

He looked at the yellow man, whose yellow eyes were fixed on him. Judging by the look on his face, Zero could tell he had expected that slam to knock him unconscious.

Unfortunately, the hitman had survived much worse, and despite this body’s weakness compared to his original one, it had proven that it could withstand quite a beating.

Which was strange for a kid like Liam, but he shelved that thought for now.

Instead, he focused on the opponent for now.

’Given the fact that he instantly got in front of me, his factor is either teleportation or superspeed,’ he thought as he continued keeping an eye on the man, ’either way, dealing with him is going to be a—’

His thoughts were cut off when the man suddenly disappeared again, and the next thing he felt was someone grabbing the neck of his coat.

The next second, he was off his feet, about to be thrown backwards, but he reacted fast enough, got himself out of the coat and safely landed with a flip.

Zero immediately lifted both hands in front of him just in time to block a kick that launched him towards the far end of the lab.

Before he had the chance to recover, he realized that there was a foot inches away from his head, forcing him to lift his hand to block again.

The moment the foot slammed into his hands, Zero refused to let the impact launch him backward.

Instead, he grabbed his attacker’s leg and used the force of the kick to lift him off the ground before slamming him into the wall behind him.

He didn’t get the chance to do a follow-up attack; the yellow-haired man disappeared, retreating to safety.

But Zero didn’t mind; after all, he already had all the information he needed.

’Well, definitely a speedster,’ he figured.

After all, if it was teleportation, the man would’ve teleported away the moment Zero grabbed his foot.

And the second thing he figured out was that the speedster needed to slightly slow down before ever attacking.

How did he come to that conclusion?

Well, given the fact that he couldn’t see him move, Zero was fairly certain of his conclusion.

"Which means I can use —"

BANG!

"Huh?" Zero let out in surprise as something heavy slammed into the back of his head, causing him to fall forward.

He then noticed the grin on the yellow-haired man’s face and immediately realized how wrong he had been.

While Zero was right about his Factor, he was completely wrong about the man needing to slow down before every attack.

It seemed he had just been doing that to deliberately throw Zero off, hence the reason why the hitman didn’t anticipate the sudden attack.

The speedster had moved fast enough, attacked, and then returned to his previous position, making it seem as if he had barely moved.

He put both hands in the pockets of his hoodie as he watched Zero fall, his eyes slowly closing as he passed out completely.

"That was quite entertaining,". Hypnos said as he gave a slow clap, "but I do wonder why the HA would send someone without a Factor."

Since Zero hadn’t displayed any abilities, Hypnos assumed that he didn’t possess a Factor.

But instead of being disappointed at how much the HA underestimated them, he was instead fascinated by the fact that an unawakened human could resist his mind control.

Even when his Factor was currently being boosted by the tech on his head.

Slowly, Hypnos stood up and approached the unconscious Zero, stopping right in front of him.

He then crouched down, grabbed a fistful of the Hitman’s hair and raised his head slightly.

"Quite the face you have," Hypnos muttered with a smile before his brown eyes started glowing as he added, "let’s see if you have a mind to match."

Zero’s eyes suddenly opened, revealing that they were glowing the same color as Hypnos’,

A sign that the Splinter’s Factor was working.

***

Hypnos suddenly found himself in a completely white void, confusing him.

He wasn’t confused that he was in a different place, no. Instead, he was confused that the place was plain white with nothing within.

He was currently in the white-haired kid’s mind, and usually, one’s mind was full of information.

Fascinating information that he had intended to use against the HA, yet there was nothing here.

The only types of people with a completely blank mind were either babies or brain-dead people, but even then, there would always be the slightest bit of color in their minds.

"How..." Hypnos paused and looked around before completing his words, "fascinating."

Unfortunately, that fascination didn’t last as he felt something suddenly drop on him.

Drip.

It felt like a warm liquid had landed on his jaw, and he moved his fingers to touch it before bringing it to eye level.

,

It was a red liquid which caused him even more confusion as he said, "Blood?"

Drip.drip.drip.drip.

More drops followed until it formed a rain made completely of blood, and it started pooling on the white floor beneath him.

Hypnos looked up, only to notice that there was nothing there; it was still a completely white void.

But the moment he looked forward, his heart almost stopped.

In front of him were countless bodies, gathered into a single pile that seemed almost as high as a mountain.

It was, quite literally, a mountain of corpses.

And at the peak of said mountain was what seemed to be a boy, no older than ten.

The boy had white hair and completely blank grey eyes as he looked directly at Hypnos.

The splinter was terrified as he felt only a single thing from that gaze,

Death!

He then realized that the blood rain hadn’t stopped and the river of blood had quickly reached his knees.

Hypnos tried moving ,but it felt as if something was grabbing his legs from beneath.

He tried struggling but it was all for naught as he blood climbed higher and higher.

Multiple mangled hands suddenly emerged from the blood pool, dragging him under, despite his struggling.

The Splinter felt himself being denied of breath as the hands dragged him deeper into the blood.

The last thing he felt was fear as his vision slowly faded before everything went completely black.

====

A/N: I know I promised to lock after Chapter 45 in exchange for a super gift (which we got multiple of, thank you all so much), unfortunately I’ll be locking at Chapter 35 to engage MGS for next month.

After all, the MGS incentive should pressure me to release at least a Chapter everyday, but I wanted to hear your thoughts first, dear readers.