‘This is bad! There’s no way out now!’

  Lucian growled in pain and rolled onto his stomach as another punch landed squarely in the center of his belly. Worse, it was the sixth one. He’d long lost count of the kicks.

  He had been enduring this beating for a while now. Most of the pain came from the man named Jax, followed closely by the bald one who struck whenever Lucian was too dazed to defend himself.

  “What now, you cheeky bastard? Your punch back there really hurt.” Jax spat the words before grinding his boot onto Lucian’s fingers. His anger only grew when the kid beneath him didn’t even scream.

  “Why you—!”

  Jax drew back a foot to kick Lucian in the face, but a hand landed on his shoulder, causing him to stop.

  “Cobra?!” Jax looked back in surprise. His silent companion had never bothered interfering in anyone’s business before.

  The hooded man, Cobra, crouched down toward Lucian, who was groaning on the ground, and lifted his hood.

  Lucian stared at the man who called himself Cobra. His skin was pale, almost ghostlike. His face was painted in patterns resembling both a clown and a serpent. His lips curled into an emotionless smile, and his eyes, cold and slitted like a snake, studied him with a predator’s focus.

  But what unsettled Lucian the most was the swallowing silence radiating from the man. A silence he recognized. Similar to his own.

  “How have you been, Lucian?” Cobra asked in a low, almost whisper-like voice.

  Around them, the seven men exchanged startled glances.

  “Is he acting a bit differently today?” Jax was the first to speak.

  “Nah, maybe his stomach’s upset,” the bald man muttered.

  “I think so too,” said a short man in a black coat. The remaining four, still recovering from the beating Lucian had given them earlier, nodded in agreement.

  For a while, Jax sensed nothing wrong. But as their chatter continued, he suddenly realized something unsettling. There was a seventh voice responding among them. There should only have been six aside from Cobra, who was still speaking with Lucian.

  He spun around, eyes widening.

  “Who is this, idiots?!”

  The others turned as well and froze. An extra man stood among them, and somehow none of them had found it strange until now.

  The newcomer was shorter than all of them, with tan skin and messy black hair. He stuck out his tongue slightly and clasped his hands behind his back.

  “Oops. Busted.”

  “That’s an intruder! Capture him!” the bald man shouted, raising his mutated arm and pointing it at the stranger.

  He was seconds away from launching his poison darts when the intruder vanished.

  “What?!”

  The bald man’s eyes darted around wildly until a voice sounded from right behind him.

  “Is this a transformation type ability? Very interesting.”

  He turned, only to find no one there. Then a scream split through the air. One of the four men had collapsed.

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  “Looks like a pest came to interrupt us,” Cobra hissed, shifting his gaze toward the attacker. Lucian followed his line of sight and blinked twice, unable to believe what he saw.

  A short man in a plain coat flickered through the abandoned facility. Every time Lucian blinked, the man appeared somewhere new, effortlessly dodging the poison darts the bald man launched at him.

  “A Librarian…”

  The stranger materialized in front of one of the four men and knocked him out with a single strike before vanishing again. In mere moments, the four followers were down, eliminated before they even understood what had happened.

  Jax’s acid attacks were too slow to matter. The bald man’s poison darts were fast, but not fast enough to catch something moving like light itself.

  Jax’s brows tightened. “He’s a Godspeed.”

  “Godspeed?! Those bastards…” the bald man spat.

  “And what’s wrong with that?”

  The short man appeared inches from the bald man’s face. The bald man jerked back instinctively, he needed distance to shoot properly. Close range was his weakness.

  But distance meant nothing to a speedster.

  In the blink of an eye, Lucian saw the short man plant a sharp kick into the bald man’s jaw, then slam him into the ground before vanishing once again.

  Lucian fought the pain long enough to rub his eyes. By the time he focused again, Jax was already lying unconscious. The short man stood a few steps away, facing Cobra.

  Yet Cobra’s expression didn’t shift. His smile was still blooming, calm and unnervingly serene. Either he truly felt no fear… or he was a good enough actor which Lucian couldn't see through.

  Lucian’s vision blurred. The ground-level view he had of Cobra suddenly shifted. He could now see cobra from a distance. As if someone had moved him. Beside him stood the short man in the simple coat, hands still clasped behind his back.

  “W-What…?!”

  “Don’t worry. You’re safe now.”

  As Lucian struggled to comprehend, another voice, familiar, spoke behind him. He looked back to see a man in his late thirties. Lucian knew that voice, but he couldn’t place him.

  “Who…?”

  “You forgot already? You saved me yesterday. In the alley. From those thugs.”

  “Oh… you.”

  Lucian recalled it. Though it was just last night, or rather yesterday afternoon, his life had spiraled so wildly that it felt like ages ago.

  The man helped him up. “Don’t worry. We are… well, just know we’re from an official guild.”

  ‘Official guild? He must be undercover then. But to get beaten like that… What kind of job did he sign up for?’

  Lucian forgot his pain for a moment and laughed silently inside.

  “I know you,” Cobra said, his smile widening. “You’re from the newly formed Eighth Guild, aren’t you? Did you come here for me?”

  “We know who you really are,” the short man said. “You’re from the Underworld. One of the Seven Hiddenmen. You’re Mr. Snake, aren’t you?”

  “Impressive. Your information-gathering ability is not bad for a fallen guild,” Cobra, no, the man pretending to be Cobra, Mr. Snake replied. “Ah, and to know my name as well… that can be dangerous, Mr. Falco. The rumors about your talent were not exaggerated afterall.”

  His voice carried a disturbing elegance, refined yet chilling.

  “Y-You… you’re not Cobra,” Jax groaned from the ground.

  “Oh, your friend? He’s dead.”

  Mr. Snake said mildly, as if it was an everyday occurrence.

  You… you bastard!”

  Jax rushed him blindly.

  Then a massive white serpent materialized before him and swallowed him whole in a single smooth motion. Its muscles constricted with horrifying strength, crushing bone for easier digestion.

  Then it shrank, smaller and smaller before returning to the shape of Mr. Snake’s right middle finger.

  Lucian clutched his stomach and nearly retched.

  “My mistake. Did you find it disgusting?” Mr. Snake asked with a soft chuckle. “I assumed you wouldn’t mind, considering what you’ve already seen.”

  “How… how do you know so much about me?” Lucian asked.

  “That’s because he’s one of the seven best information brokers in the Underworld,” Falco said.

  ‘The Underworld…?’ Lucian didn’t fully understand what that meant.

  “Hehehe… I’m here for important work,” Mr. Snake said, smiling at Lucian. “So please, step aside. You’ve interfered enough.”

  “For him, then? But why?” Falco glanced at Lucian, who was just as lost.

  Mr. Snake sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to eliminate you first—”

  A poisoned dart sliced across his shoulder.

  “You bastard! You killed Jax!”

  The bald man stood trembling, tears running freely.

  “Ah, I almost forgot about you,” Mr. Snake said calmly.

  He plucked the dart from his shoulder without even flinching, then pointed his pinky at the bald man. The finger twisted into a small green snake and lunged, biting deep into the man’s neck.

  “Go!” Falco barked and vanished.

  The middle-aged man lifted Lucian onto his back and sprinted.

  “What’s happening?!” Lucian gasped.

  The bald man convulsed, went still. Then he turned toward Lucian and the other and shot a volley of poison darts in quick succession.

  Air split. Death cuts the distance in seconds.

  “Damn it, we can’t dodge—!”

  A gunshot cracked through the facility.

  The incoming darts fell harmlessly to the ground.

  Lucian looked toward the source. He recognized the man holding the gun, one of the three Librarians who had saved him from the Unread.

  Silas. That was his name.

  Adjusting his hat, Silas called out, “Careful, Falco. We need him alive.”