**Chapter 9: The Difficulty of Senior Missions**
"Ugh!"
Zhou Ming clutched his head, letting out a low cry of pain.
The assassin's combat experience surged and echoed through Zhou Ming's consciousness.
This assassin was a true top-tier master of the Cronus Organization. Whether it was curving bullets or adrenaline bursts, these were powerful skills that only a very small number of people could master.
Having absorbed some of this assassin's combat experience, Zhou Ming's firearm skill, which had been just a step away from leveling up, finally reached Lv3 at this moment.
At the same time, the Main God's voice rang in his mind.
**[You have mastered the skill "Curved Trajectory Technique." Due to world law restrictions, this skill can only be used in this world. After returning to the Main God Space, you can spend reward points to strengthen it, granting it universal access across all worlds.]**
**[You have mastered the skill "Adrenaline Burst Technique." Due to the reincarnator's individual physical structure differences, this skill cannot be used!]**
"What do you mean, 'physical structure differences'?" Zhou Ming was stunned.
He was about to question the Main God, but then he suddenly realized that, although they were both human, he did seem to be different from the people of this world.
He came from the Gu World, which had unique world laws, and the fundamental principles that constituted matter were completely different.
It was possible that he didn't even have adrenaline in his body, so of course, he couldn't use the Adrenaline Burst Technique.
"Forget it. If I can't use it, I can't use it. Such temporary burst tactics are only useful in this world anyway."
Zhou Ming pulled out his phone and tried to contact Yang Zhisheng and Yu Man, but one phone was turned off, and the other went unanswered.
"Yu Man should still be on the plane, so her phone is off. Are reincarnators really that considerate?"
"It seems Yang Zhisheng's side was also attacked. Otherwise, he wouldn't ignore my call."
Zhou Ming wasn't too worried about Yang Zhisheng's situation. If he could handle the assassin, Yang Zhisheng, who was several times stronger than him, would have no problem.
Unless the enemy had sent a large number of people to deal with Yang Zhisheng.
"Damn it!" Zhou Ming suddenly realized that since the other party knew their exact location, it was very likely they had also seen their plan.
In this situation, the other party might indeed concentrate their forces to attack the factory, destroying the machinery and the ammonium nitrate they had already produced.
"Damn it. I have to go check!"
Zhou Ming endured the soreness in his body, leaning against the wall to stand up with effort. He picked up the slicked-back man's pistol, then found several magazines on the corpse, took them with him, and turned to leave.
Since they had been exposed, this place was no longer safe to stay. It was better to leave early.
As for the other people in this house, he would let them be. Andreas's family had been innocently caught up in this, and Zhou Ming had no intention of killing them to silence them.
Soon, Zhou Ming drove a car out of Andreas's garage and headed toward the factory.
Halfway there, he received a call from Yang Zhisheng.
"You're not dead, are you?"
"Still able to answer the phone. How about you?"
"Still able to call you."
After a brief greeting, confirming each other's safety, both of them laughed simultaneously.
After the laughter, they had to face the grim reality.
"Do you know how many assassins came for me? At least a hundred. Those guys were completely insane. They almost blew up the entire factory. I barely managed to escape, but unfortunately, our plan is ruined."
"I expected as much." Zhou Ming sighed, then suddenly realized a problem. "You said they blew up the factory directly?"
"That's right. And they used our own ammonium nitrate. These bastards—it's as if they were aiming for this target from the very beginning."
Zhou Ming was stunned.
"What's wrong with you?" Yang Zhisheng on the other end of the phone heard that Zhou Ming sounded a bit off and quickly asked.
Zhou Ming said with a wry smile, "It seems we're not just dealing with the Cronus Organization."
The Cronus Organization wasn't the Council Organization. It followed an elite path. Where would they get a hundred assassins to deploy simultaneously?
Even if "a hundred" was an exaggeration and it was actually dozens of assassins, if each one was only at the level of the first assassin Zhou Ming had killed, Yang Zhisheng, caught off guard and unprepared, wouldn't have been able to escape.
Moreover, the Cronus Organization had always acted discreetly. Blowing up a factory didn't seem like something they would do.
"You're right. Now that I think about it, although those assassins were well-trained, their methods were indeed a bit... crude."
During the battle, Yang Zhisheng hadn't had time to think about it, but now, with Zhou Ming's reminder, he immediately realized the problem.
"So, the Cronus Organization hired outside help? But why didn't they do it themselves? And what kind of force could they find to help?"
Suddenly, like a flash of lightning, a name simultaneously appeared in both their minds.
"The Council Organization!" Both of them almost shouted in unison.
That's right. Simultaneously dispatching hundreds of assassins and acting so recklessly—only the Council Organization in the assassin world had such power.
And earlier, when they had interrogated the captured assassin, they learned that the Council Organization had many affiliated organizations on its periphery, as well as some organizations that remained outside the Council Organization, unwilling to be at its beck and call—the Cronus Organization being one of them.
The Council Organization had never stopped trying to recruit those organizations.
So, was it possible that the Cronus Organization was being recruited by the Council Organization, or had already been successfully recruited?
"This is troublesome now," Yang Zhisheng murmured. "I didn't expect to still run into the Council Organization."
"No, this is normal." Zhou Ming's eyes flickered, and he suddenly spoke. "Actually, I've always had a question in my mind: aren't your missions a bit too simple relative to your strength? Even if the Cronus Organization's assassins have some superhuman powers, for two reincarnators who have undergone three enhancements, they aren't that powerful an enemy."
"In fact, if you wanted to, you could completely charge into the Cronus Organization's headquarters right now and kill your way through seven times without necessarily dying."
"Don't be modest. I know you have that strength."
"That's why I was puzzled. Would the Main God issue a mission with such low danger for you? Now I understand. The true difficulty of this mission lies here."
"Overthrowing the Cronus Organization is a completely different concept from overthrowing the Cronus Organization supported by the Council Organization."
At this point, Zhou Ming joked with a smile, "Does this mean I've boarded a pirate ship?"
"Even if it's a pirate ship, you jumped on it yourself." Yang Zhisheng said, feigning a harsh tone. "What, you kid, thinking of jumping ship?"
"I wouldn't dare. I'm afraid the captain would choke me to death." Zhou Ming laughed.
Yang Zhisheng burst into laughter.
"Let's meet up first. I'll see if I can contact Yu Man. I'm worried they might launch an attack at the airport."
"Do you think they would be crazy enough to go that far?"
"Who knows? I hoped these assassins would be like rats in a sewer, never coming out into the light, but they've already blown up a factory in broad daylight."
"You're right. You contact Yu Man, and I'll come pick you up."
Hanging up the phone, Zhou Ming slammed the accelerator down.
They had gotten off to a bad start. Not only was the plan ruined, but the biggest problem still hadn't been solved: how did the Cronus Organization know their location and their plan?
Could it be that the extraordinary powers wielded by the Cronus Organization could even predict the enemy's actions?
No, impossible.
If the enemy had such power, then everything they did would be futile, the balance of power would be completely skewed, and the Main God would never issue such a mission.
So, even if the other party had the ability to predict enemy movements, it absolutely couldn't be easily used.
If it could only be used once every so often, that meant that any of their subsequent actions had to be completed within an extremely short period; otherwise, they would inevitably face obstruction and destruction.
If it required paying some huge price to use, then they would have to find a way to know what price had been paid.
The car drove out of the city, speeding on the wide highway. The scenery outside the window rapidly receded as Zhou Ming constantly thought of countermeasures.
Perhaps there was no need to consider so much.
Zhou Ming's eyes lit up.
No need to think about how the other party knew his movements, no need to think about how to counter that ability, no need to think about how to compress his action time.
He could even completely avoid being as timid and calculating as he was now. He could act bolder, use more drastic methods, and do things that even if the other party knew what he was going to do, they could only stand by helplessly.
Time flew by as Zhou Ming thought. Soon, he arrived at Yang Zhisheng's hiding place and picked him up.
"I contacted Yu Man. Those bastards indeed tried to assassinate her at the airport, but they were all minor tactics. She handled all of them."
"Indeed, they still don't dare to make a big fuss. They're more restrained in their actions," Yang Zhisheng said.
"Has she left the airport?" Zhou Ming asked.
"She should have. She contacted me once after dealing with those assassins. We agreed to meet up first and talk in person."
"Try contacting her again." Zhou Ming's expression changed slightly. "I'm worried this is their way of misleading her."
"You mean they deliberately failed the assassination at the airport to lower her guard, and then plan to launch a stronger attack after she leaves the airport?"
Yang Zhisheng immediately picked up his phone and dialed Yu Man's number, but this time, the call didn't connect for a long time.
The two looked at each other, their faces filled with solemnity.
"If they previously lacked sufficient regard for our strength, then after the double assassination failures on both our sides, that problem will absolutely no longer exist."
In other words, what Yu Man was encountering now was definitely a far more powerful assassination than the previous two.
"Drive. We're going to the airport," Yang Zhisheng shouted.
"We're several hours' drive from the airport."
"We still have to go. I can't watch my teammate face danger and do nothing."
"Calm down. I have an idea."
"What is it?"
"Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao."