The Underclass - Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The Surja Golf Course was heavily guarded. Galaxy lay prone on a high-rise building nearly three kilometers away from the course. The maximum-magnification scope allowed her to silently observe the scenery within the grounds.

Two days ago, she had returned from District C, which was plastered with her wanted posters, to District A, successfully reuniting with the Rat King who had been waiting for her for a long time.

The Rat King was a natural explorer. Her world was underground, and the rats she influenced navigated every corner of the city, large and small, allowing her to easily master whatever information she desired.

Of course, any location Karen was scheduled to visit was guarded with exceptional strictness. The interior and exterior were swept countless times, making it impossible for rats to survive there. After executing its first mission, the Rat King's little mouse, Lulu, became somewhat listless. Rats are social creatures with their own micro-society; several of her companions had died permanently while attempting to plant surveillance equipment in the golf course, incinerated to ashes by the mechanical enforcers' flames.

The Rat King cradled Lulu heartbrokenly, shedding tears for the deceased mice.

Galaxy, who had once been incredibly impatient with her and found her behavior absurd, actually patted her shoulder this time and said slowly, "Let's hold a funeral for them, alright?"

The Rat King nodded. Together in the sewer, they softly hummed nursery rhymes to send off the departed mice.

The static-filled screen flickered with video tapes the Rat King had left for them out of boredom. As Galaxy stared at it, she felt for a moment that her own sanity was being dismantled by this sorrowful atmosphere.

Or perhaps it had been dismantled long ago.

It seemed the closer she got to the truth of this world, the more terrified she became. This fear pulled at her mind, making it exceptionally hard one moment, and exceptionally fragile the next.

But when the time came, she unhesitatingly positioned herself at the optimal sniper vantage point, locking the crosshairs onto Karen's head.

Karen was nearly fifty years old now, yet she still possessed beautiful blonde hair without a single silver strand.

Even for a leisure outing, she wore a crisp white shirt. Her posture while swinging the club was standard and composed. She was talking about something with Zoraï beside her, and the two shared a laugh.

Soon, she returned to the adjacent rest area, while Zoraï took the field.

Everything that needed to be set up over the past few days was ready. Even the visual cloaking device against the mechanical enforcers had been attached to her gun. Otherwise, with current technology, three kilometers wouldn't even be a viable sniper position; one would have to retreat at least eight kilometers away to aim, or risk being detected by the highly sensitive mechanical enforcers inside the course and the ubiquitous mechanical eyes throughout the city.

The leader of the organization was a formidable figure. Perhaps because they had organized countless assassinations, they possessed a practiced method for suppressing the high-tech defenses of important figures, which also made things convenient for Galaxy.

She seemed to be moving closer and closer to the persona she had adopted after being falsely accused of murdering Lu Qi.

She was no longer that naive, unlucky soul; she had truly become the person everyone in the rebel army hoped for.

Audaciously and frequently defying the Federation, and capable of walking away with ease.

Galaxy lowered her eyes, locked firmly onto Karen, and in the next second, pulled the trigger.

The operational speed of the air compression gun reached two kilometers per second. Crossing the three-kilometer distance to reach Karen took only a second and a half. Coincidentally, Karen suddenly raised her head, as if sensing something.

The air bullet arrived with a sharp shockwave. Before anyone could react, a mechanical enforcer predicted the danger and dashed in front of Karen. The high-pressure air bullet scraped against the mechanical enforcer's body, emitting a deafening screech. Karen instinctively crouched low as the twisting air bullet pierced through the enforcer and lodged itself firmly into the wooden wall behind her.

The pavilion she was resting in, an all-wood structure built primarily for aesthetics, couldn't withstand the impact and collapsed with a crash.

Zoraï displayed a rare look of absolute panic. "Madam Karen!"

Amidst the flying dust, the mechanical enforcer shielding Karen pushed away the fallen wooden beams, revealing the figure of Karen it had protected.

Karen took a deep breath. She showed no fear of having just experienced an assassination attempt. Though her appearance was slightly disheveled, her face remained quite calm. She simply asked, "Where is the assassin?"

The mechanical enforcer replied, "Locking onto the sniper point—"

In less than half a second, the mechanical enforcer had pinpointed the sniper location and connected to the electronic eyes there, but the place was already empty. Furthermore, the surveillance footage for the preceding four hours had all been corrupted.

This news immediately caused Zoraï's expression to darken.

Someone brazenly assassinating a high-ranking official and successfully destroying the surveillance systems would terrify every high official. If the security system was compromised, who knew if they would be the next target?

If Karen hadn't instinctively crouched down, she would have already been reduced to ruins alongside the pavilion behind her.

But Karen was far calmer about this. She took the silk cloth handed to her by a caddy and methodically wiped away the grass and wood chips from her fingertips. Her evasive movement had been so fast that one of her fingernails had split and was currently bleeding, the sharp pain clinging to her like a shadow, but she acted as if she couldn't feel it.

"Investigate. Scour that entire area," she said evenly.

The mechanical enforcers acknowledged the order. She turned her head to Zoraï. "Keep playing, Madam Zoraï."

Zoraï paused, realizing the implication, and a cold sweat suddenly broke out on her forehead.

The identity of the assassin was unknown, but that didn't mean Karen wouldn't suspect her.

She steadied her expression and suddenly smiled too, acting as if the assassination attempt had never happened. "Then let them clean this up first. Would you like to go change your clothes?"

Karen handed the cloth back to the caddy, not rejecting the suggestion, and simply turned to walk toward the locker room.

Zoraï finally breathed a sigh of relief. She wiped the non-existent cold sweat from her forehead, resolving that for the next year, she would never invite Karen out, and if they were in the same room, there must be at least five other people present.

Although she was also a presidential candidate, she had always belonged firmly to Karen's faction. Why would she intentionally send someone to assassinate Karen? Being suspected without cause felt incredibly unjust.

After Karen entered the locker room, her aide seemed hesitant. Seeing there was no one else around, she asked, "Do you suspect Minister Zoraï orchestrated the assassination?"

Karen shook her head at her. "No. She is the least likely person to assassinate me."

Even if she wanted to assassinate her, she wouldn't pick such a stupid time and place.

A dark gleam flashed in her eyes as she smiled. "But figuring out who the real mastermind is is very simple."

Just as she finished speaking, another loud explosion echoed from outside, shaking the ground so violently it was difficult to stand. Karen's gaze instantly sharpened. "What happened?"

A mechanical enforcer replied from outside the door, "Reporting to the President. Minister Zoraï and a mechanical enforcer just stepped on a micro-bomb planted in the grass beforehand."

Karen's brow furrowed slightly. "Didn't you find it during your patrol?"

"Upon inspection, the bomb was disguised as a micro-camera. The cloaking device on the camera shielded it from our patrol systems," the mechanical enforcer answered meticulously.

Karen fell silent.

Mechanical enforcers wouldn't lie; they only answered truthfully and possessed no emotions.

But she understood better than anyone what this meant—

The rebel faction might possess technology far superior to the Federation's.

And whether this superiority was limited to specific areas or overall required further investigation.

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