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

Bai Ye suddenly turned around and threw a punch at the person who had come at him.

His fist whistled through the air, its force so great it seemed it would pierce the person's head.

But the punch was caught steadily in mid-air—a hand opened, fingers closed, and gripped his fist perfectly, the force precise and steady, just enough to deflect his momentum without injuring his wrist.

Bai Ye looked up and saw the face of the person who had come.

Scorpion stood in front of him, wearing a dark tactical jacket with the collar pulled down halfway, revealing a black lining underneath.

His face was expressionless. His gaze swept from Bai Ye's blood-stained face to his still slightly trembling hands, and then from his hands to the bloody mess on the carpet.

He loosened his grip on Bai Ye's fist, took a half step back, and let his hands hang at his sides.

Bai Ye's expression was very unpleasant.

He stared at the scorpion, his voice hoarse and cold, each word carrying a lingering sharpness after being repeatedly crushed: "You're here to avenge him?"

Scorpion glanced at him, then at the unrecognizable corpse on the ground, as if confirming that Viper was indeed dead: "Of course not. I wish he were dead. I can't leave until he's dead. I've been waiting for this day for a long time."

Bai Ye's brows furrowed even more, his voice lower than before, carrying a suppressed anger about to burst forth: "Why didn't you act sooner? You were his confidant, you were with him every day, you had so many opportunities. Any one of those times you poisoned him, any one of those times you stabbed him in the back, and he would have been dead long ago. Why did you wait until now? Why did you wait until he killed so many people?"

The scorpion did not answer immediately.

He stood still and quietly watched Bai Ye for a few seconds, his gaze lingering on Bai Ye's blood-stained face, then on the still-bleeding needle mark on the side of his neck. Then he pulled something out of his pocket—a palm-sized black remote control with only one red button, its surface matte in the afternoon sunlight.

He handed the remote control to Bai Ye.

"What is this?" Bai Ye looked at the remote control warily, without reaching out to take it.

"Detonator." Scorpion's tone remained calm. "I've planted explosives in every key location in the base. Warehouses, main building, water dungeon, armory—all the important places are covered. Just press this button, and the entire base will be reduced to ruins within thirty seconds."

Bai Ye stared intently at him: "Why should I believe you?"

"Believe it or not." Scorpion's voice was completely calm, as if he had expected Scorpion to say this.

He handed the remote control forward a little more, then turned and walked towards the door.

He paused at the door, turned his head slightly without turning around, his profile sharply outlined by the sunlight: "I've compiled all the necessary documents for you. In your old room, under the bed, there's a waterproof bag containing Viper's entire list of contacts and records of fund flows."

He stepped out the door, took two steps, then paused: "We'll meet again." Then he didn't look back, walked straight past the corner of the corridor, and disappeared into the boundary between sunlight and shadow.

Bai Ye stood there, clutching the remote control in his hand, looking down at the motionless corpse on the carpet, then glancing up in the direction the scorpion had disappeared. He remained silent for a few seconds, then put the remote control in his pocket and turned to walk towards the door.

He found the room he had left behind. When he opened the door, the bed was still made the way he had left it, the blankets were neatly folded, and nothing on the table had been touched.

He bent down and lifted the bed board. Underneath, there was indeed a black waterproof bag, zipped tightly shut. He unzipped it and peeked inside—a thick stack of documents, covered in dense handwriting. Each page bore Viper's personal seal and handwritten signature, complete with shipping dates, accounts, codes, and amounts.

Bai Ye slung the waterproof bag over his shoulder, walked out of the room, through the deserted corridor and main courtyard, and headed towards the base gate.

No one stopped him.

Those people were either already dead, or they retreated behind the wall on their own when they saw him covered in blood. He pushed open the base gate, walked barefoot on the warm gravel path, and headed towards the lush tropical vegetation in the distance.

After walking about two or three hundred meters, Bai Ye stopped.

He stood in an open space and glanced back at the gray-white building complex behind him—the walls, barbed wire, main building, warehouse, water dungeon, all the places that had imprisoned and tortured him, all gleamed in the afternoon sun with a hazy, dusty light, as if covered by a layer of old dust.

He took the remote control out of his pocket, pressed his thumb on the red button, and then pressed it down hard.

The first explosion came from the direction of the main building, flames shooting into the sky as concrete fragments mixed with metal frames were hurled into the air, tracing countless gleaming arcs in the sunlight. Then came the water prison; the ground collapsed, the resulting shockwave whipping up rubble and dust, spreading outwards in a visible white blast. The warehouse also exploded; the chain reaction of explosions in the explosives storage area blew the entire warehouse apart, flames shooting upwards from the collapsed roof, and thick black smoke billowing into a dense cloud in the sky.

The entire base resembled a sandcastle being torn apart from the inside, peeling away and collapsing layer by layer. Flames and smoke rose one after another into the air, overlapping to form a giant gray-black curtain.

Bai Ye watched the collapsing buildings and listened to the muffled thuds reverberating in the air. Finally, he loosened his grip on the remote control.

The string that had been stretched for so long snapped completely at this moment—all his strength, all his will, and everything he had managed to hold on for the past three months collapsed like building blocks whose base had been removed.

His knees buckled, his body slumped forward, his eyelids drooped heavily, and he fell to the ground.

Just as he fell, a hand reached out and steadily supported his back. Another hand slipped under his knees, scooped him up, and pulled him into a warm embrace that carried the familiar scent of soapberry.

Bai Ye pressed his forehead against the newcomer's chest and heard a rapid, heavy heartbeat.

He tried to open his eyes to see who it was, but his eyelids were too heavy, as if filled with lead. In the end, he only moved his lips, silently uttering a muffled syllable, before losing consciousness completely.