Chapter 454: Despair
The guests seated in the hall were beginning to show signs of impatience.
A severe creased was wedged between Faceless"s eyebrows. He turned to the men next to him and said, "Get someone to check why the cats still aren"t here."
Not one person in the Mao Gang knew that Pebble and his guardsmen had been ambushed or that the bas.e.m.e.nt was being emptied. Just as a couple of them were sent to check on the warehouse, Zhao Yao had already collected every last one of the supercats. He immediately stepped through the dimension doorway, which was transported to the very center of the hall.
As he did this, the content on his mission panel was refreshed.
Lightning and Red Packet had returned to the fold. The supercats that were about to auctioned off were also in the safety of the extradimensional belly. By accomplis.h.i.+ng both of these missions, Zhao Yao was awarded 500*2 and 3,000*2 experience points.
"Nice," he grinned to himself.
He was also given a brand new task, one that made him laugh out loud.
"Oh boy, this is just perfect for me."
Sidequest: Despair
Objective: Make Faceless feel your rage and give him a taste of real despair
Reward: 100 to 1,000 experience points will be rewarded according to the amount of despair experienced by Faceless
Punishment: None
Zhao Yao"s eyes landed on where Faceless was standing. The corners of his lips were lifted into a smirk.
"Well, you"ve caused me a lot of trouble and even gotten me injured. I think I really should educate you on what despair feels like."
Matcha could not hear these thoughts in Zhao Yao"s head, but he felt an evil aura radiating off his owner. He looked up at Zhao Yao, then followed his gaze to the man in the distance.
He sighed knowingly, "This guy is doomed. I wonder what Zhao Yao is up to this time.
Within seconds, the bodyguards were seen racing back into the hall.
"Boss…" one of them panted, "Boss, this is bad. The supercats are gone. All of them are gone."
"What?!"
Faceless felt slightly faint from the news, but he took a deep breath and forced himself to stay focused.
"Could you repeat what you just said?" he asked.
The guard looked like he was close to tears as he spoke, "The supercats in the warehouse are all missing. It"s completely empty."
Faceless"s vision became blurry for a second. He had to shut his eyes to steady himself. His entire body was still shaking when he opened them.
"Who?" he breathed out, "Who could have stolen my cats?"
As if in response to his question, Zhao Yao chose to make his appearance at that moment as the Headless Horseman. The ethereal light from the dimension doorway bathed him in a blinding, white glow.
A mixture of shock and curiosity hung on the many faces in the audience. Faceless, however, was glaring openly at him.
"Who"s this joker?" he thought to himself.
Zhao Yao did not avert his eyes. He stared right back and addressed him directly, "So, Faceless, how does it feel to have your supercats stolen right under your nose?"
Surprise crossed his face, but that quickly morphed into rage.
"You took my cats?" Faceless repeated incredulously.
Zhao Yao had the audacity to chuckle lightly in response.
"Yep," he said, making sure to pop the "p", "Every cat that was supposed to be auctioned off tonight is in my hands at the moment."
The revelation transformed the atmosphere in the hall. A buzz of excitement replaced the latent curiosity of the crowd. Every apostle was now staring at Zhao Yao like he was a s.h.i.+ny treasure chest.
"Seize him!" Faceless cried.
His apostles and guards immediately sprung into action, but found that they no
no longer had their superpowers.
Peac.o.c.k wore an expression of alarm as he turned to Faceless, "Boss, my powers have been taken from me. That guy…"
Faceless paled.
"Ah, you just realized it, didn"t you?" Zhao Yao said gleefully, "I didn"t just take the cats you wanted to auction off. I took the ones owned by your gang too."
Faceless felt his body grow limp. He brain was still reeling from the situation, but he could still muster the strength to glare hatefully at the Headless Horseman from his seat.
His fury pleased Zhao Yao tremendously.
"So, what do you think? Are you surprised?" he asked cheerily, "I just want to a.s.sure you that this is not all I have in store. I"m not just going to take your cats. I"m going to take your money too. I want it all."
Zhao Yao"s last sentence sounded oddly familiar to Faceless. Within seconds, something in his mind clicked.
"It"s you?" he said incredulously, "You"re the hotpot man?"
Zhao Yao raised an eyebrow, "You can tell?"
Then, he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
"Yeah, that was me," he admitted, "What can you do about it? I"ve got your cats already. I"m going to play with them every single day and spend every last dime you own and you won"t be able to do a thing about it. Tell me, does that make you angry? I think it does. You should be angry. I love seeing you angry."
Faceless was grinding his teeth in anger by now. He asked, "What enmity lies between us? Why are you doing this to me?"
"You stole my cats. That is unforgivable," Zhao Yao replied coldly.
With that, he waved a hand in the air, expanding the deflective field to reach Faceless. He was going to fight him right here, right now. He had absolutely no regard for the crowd of apostles surrounding them.
He was not worried about them. He had unleashed his full strength in the epic dreamscape battle and he had emerged from it with a newfound confidence in his powers.
However, as the deflective field swooped right for Faceless, it failed to hit him. The impact seemed to avert him and traveled downwards instead, where it shattered the layers of tiles and cement beneath his feet.
There was a hint of surprise in Zhao Yao"s eyes, "A superpower?"
He had managed to revoke most of the men"s superpowers by taking their cats, but it was obvious that Faceless still had his.
For the first time since Zhao Yao"s appearance, Faceless cracked a smile.
"Are you surprised?" he echoed his words, "My own supercat is hidden in a place that only I know of. You will never be able to catch him. With his power, I am undefeatable."
He turned to face the crowd and shouted, "Attention, dear guests! Tonight, if any of you would do me the favor of killing this man here, I would gift to you all the supercats that were meant to be sold at this auction."
After he delivered his declaration, Faceless shot Zhao Yao a look that was dripping with menace.
"You must have a death wish to come for me at an event like this," he thought.
He had never experienced the kind of hatred and rage that he felt for Zhao Yao at this moment. He had spent time, effort, and money to cultivate his empire and it was crushed in this idiot"s hands. Without the supercats, his men could not fight and win. His guests, however, could. All he needed was a tantalizing, albeit false, lure for them to do the dirty work for him.
The excitement in the crowd had hit fever pitch because of Faceless"s promise. One by one, the apostles turned to face the Headless Horseman.
This was a golden opportunity to capture the hundreds of the Mao Gang"s supercats in one fell swoop. The only thing standing between them and the cats was this joker levitating a few feet from the ground.
At first, no one made a move.
However, their eyes were still firmly latched onto Zhao Yao, like a predator that had found its prey.
Faceless"s lips twisted into a malevolent grin, "I lose my cats, you lose your life. Are you sure you still want to play?"
His taunt prompted the apostles to take action.
Shuiichi Nanno from the Storm Organization had his eyes trained on Zhao Yao. His fingers were laced around the handle of his long sword, which he slowly slid out of its sheath.
The trio of white-robed apostles from Samsara Sect was looking at him as well, but their faces revealed no discernable emotion. They each pressed their palms together.
There was unmistakable greed in Wind Devil"s eyes as he studied Zhao Yao"s figure. He spoke to Purple Sabre Fairy from the corner of his mouth, "We"ll take him down together. We"ll split the cats evenly between us."
Purple Sabre Fairy did not respond. Instead, he had instinctively taken a few steps back. His eyebrows were knotted together.
"Haven"t you heard of the Headless Horseman?" he asked quietly.
Zhao Yao was unruffled by the stares that were fixed firmly on him. A hint of a smile played on his lips when he said, "Do you honestly think that this mishmash of foreigners will be able to defeat me?"
"Faceless," he continued, "The only reason I haven"t swept them up and thrown them with the trash yet is so I can wait for you to get your hopes up, like you have now. Then, I can crush all of that hope into bits and make you feel what true despair is."
While most of the apostles in the crowd did not understand Zhao Yao because of language barriers, those who did looked livid.
Faceless merely shook his head with a snort of laughter. He did not believe a word of this madman"s threat.
He fell silent when he saw what Zhao Yao did next.
With a jab of his finger, an invisible wave of energy spread across the hall like wildfire, slapping every apostle it touched to the floor in an instant.
Elizabeth"s Five Senses Deprivation.
Faceless"s mouth fell open.
He continued to gape as Zhao Yao lifted his finger, lifting the spell he cast on the crowd.
"Do you see this?" Zhao Yao started, "If I wanted to, I can literally crush all these people with one finger. However, I won"t do that because I want you to experience genuine despair. So…"
In the next moment, every apostle in the hall was startled awake when they felt the immense pain of being p.r.i.c.ked in the b.u.t.t by needles.
"...I will hold back and give all of you one chance to fight me."
"Come on, chop chop," Zhao Yao said, looking down at his watch, "You have 10 seconds. Make it snappy. I still have work tomorrow."