Rebirth of a Mercenary: The Ace Mercenary Forced to Be the Beloved of the Group

"Well... it's nothing special," Zhao Xiaohu's voice was still split, but he managed to finish the sentence, "It's just... just executing a few people, I've seen it on TV."

"Yes, yes, yes," Qian Duoduo nodded vigorously beside her, her face as white as paper but her stubbornness unwavering. "Child's play! It's all child's play! We're at least Void Breakers, and we've been here for a week. What's this little scene compared to that?"

Lu Xiao, who was walking ahead of them, stopped when he heard those two stubborn words. He turned around, put his hands in his pockets, tilted his head and looked at the "I'm calm but I might throw up at any moment" expression on the faces of the two chubby boys, and the corners of his mouth curled up a little more.

"Not bad, not bad, you've improved." His tone was still that gentle, smiling one, but every word he uttered sent chills down Zhao Xiaohu and Qian Duoduo's spines. "Since the first level was so easy, the second level will definitely be a piece of cake for you. Let's go, there's one more level."

Zhao Xiaohu and Qian Duoduo's expressions both froze.

"There...there's one more level?" Zhao Xiaohu's voice finally stopped splitting, because his throat was completely dry. "Deputy squad leader, can I ask...how many levels are there in total?"

"Not much, not much." Lu Xiao counted on his fingers. "Today's arrangements are quite simple, just two challenges. You think it's child's play? That's perfect, the rest should be no problem either."

Qian Duoduo opened her mouth, wanting to say, "That's not what I meant," but she swallowed the words back down.

The group walked through the corridor, went down two flights of stairs, and turned into a narrower passage.

At the end of the passage was a heavy iron door with no windows, only a small sliding observation port.

Li Mo walked at the front. He pushed open the iron gate with more force than usual, and the hinges made a sharp metallic scraping sound.

The interrogation room was small, with bare concrete walls on all four sides. There were no windows, only a fluorescent light on the ceiling emitting a stark white glow. The light bulb was probably old, flickering occasionally and emitting a faint electrical hum.

In the very center of the room was an iron chair welded to the floor, and a person was sitting in the chair.

He was a man who looked to be in his early forties. His hair was disheveled and hung down his forehead, his face was smeared with half-dried blood, his lips were cracked in several places, and there was a fresh knife wound on the corner of his mouth that stretched from his cheekbone to his chin.

The new recruits followed Li Mo into the interrogation room and stood in a row against the wall.

Bai Ye's gaze swept over the man in the chair, and her brow twitched. Black hair. His facial features bore a resemblance to Li Mo's, especially the jawline and the curve of his brow bone.

The man slowly raised his head. His gaze settled steadily on Li Mo's face. Then he smiled. A smile spread across his blood-stained face, revealing teeth stained pink with blood.

"So you finally decided to come see your uncle?" His voice was hoarse and rough, with a grainy quality from years of smoking and drinking, but his tone was relaxed, as if he were greeting a long-lost relative. "I thought you were planning to let me rot in this chair. What, you brought an audience today?"

uncle.

Zhao Xiaohu and Qian Duoduo simultaneously turned to look at Li Mo, then simultaneously turned to look at the man in the chair, their mouths opening and closing. Black hair, facial features almost identical to the captain's.

Is this man the captain's uncle?

Xuan Xiao was also stunned. He looked at Li Mo, then at the man in the chair, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he said nothing.

Bai Ye stood at the very edge, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the man and Li Mo, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly. He remembered Xie Huai'an mentioning before—that Li Mo was someone Bai Chen had picked up from a pile of corpses.

Li Mo did not answer.

The man seemed to enjoy the silence. He leaned back in his chair, tilted his head, and scrutinized every detail of Li Mo's face with the eye of someone examining a work of art, before letting out a sigh that was difficult to decipher.

"You look just like your mother," he said, his tone suddenly softening as if recalling a long-ago event. "Especially those eyes. Do you know what your mother looked like when she died?"

The air in the interrogation room suddenly froze.

"She knelt on the ground begging me. Begging me to let you go. Such a proud woman, kneeling before me, clutching my trouser leg, crying and pleading." The man spoke slowly, each word like a slow, deliberate grind on his tongue, with the leisurely ease of savoring a delicious meal. "I said no, sister, your son's life is too dangerous for me. Guess what she said? She said she was willing to die for you. It was so touching—I almost fell in love with her. Then I shot your old man right in front of her. Bang—his head exploded, brains splattering all over her face. I'll never forget the look on your mother's face then. She screamed until her voice cracked, clinging to your father's body, unable to be pulled up. Then she died too. I shot her, in the back of the head, so her death wasn't too gruesome; at least her face was still intact."

The veins on the back of Li Mo's hand bulged. The veins on his temples throbbed, as if something was desperately trying to break free from under his skin.

The man continued speaking. His voice grew softer and more intimate, as if he were chatting with his nephew: "Your mother's eyes were open when she died. I closed them for her. After all, she's my own sister, and I had to give her that much respect. But to be honest, you're stronger than your mother. Your mother was too soft, crying at the drop of a hat. You were tough. You crawled out of that huge fire, covered in blood, and even looked back at me. I still remember that look in your eyes. I thought to myself then, this kid will be something special when he grows up, I have to kill him. What a pity—what a pity that the guy surnamed Bai ruined everything. By the way, what happened to that guy surnamed Bai? I heard he went missing? Dead? That's good. One less nuisance."

"Are you done talking?"

Li Mo's voice was very low, almost as if it were squeezed out from the depths of his throat. He slowly raised the gun, pointing the muzzle at the man's forehead.

"Look carefully." He spoke, his voice regaining its usual calmness, but every word sounded as if it had been pulled from ice water.

He didn't turn around, but everyone knew he was speaking to the new recruits: "This shot is to remind you—on the battlefield, being merciful to the enemy is being cruel to yourself. No matter who he is. No matter what he says. If he's the enemy, there's only one outcome."

The man looked at the gun pointed at his forehead, his smile undiminished. He even tilted his head, as if admiring a nearly finished work: "Come on. Let me see if you've learned your father's marksmanship."

Li Mo pulled the trigger.

boom!