However, when Zhou Ziwei saw the deep fear in the boat captain's eyes as he looked at the island, he could only shake his head and decided not to argue with the drunkard anymore.
He immediately opened his backpack, threw a small bundle of US dollars at the boat captain, and said coldly, "Although you didn't take me to the island as promised, I'll still give you the money. But... you have to give me that inflatable rescue boat at the back of your boat, otherwise... you can't expect me to swim there, can you?"
When the boatman saw that he had broken his promise, yet the other party was still so generous as to pay the full fare, he was overjoyed. He hurriedly agreed and then went to the stern to lower the patched-up inflatable lifeboat into the water.
Seeing Zhou Ziwei sit alone in the lifeboat, seemingly intending to row the small boat to the dangerous Floating Island by himself, the boat captain's eyes twitched involuntarily. He couldn't help but say, "Boss... what you're doing is really... really no different from suicide. Even my fishing boat doesn't dare approach that island. Your inflatable lifeboat... I'm afraid a single current could suck it into the deep sea, not to mention the almost ubiquitous reefs. You can see for yourself... this lifeboat isn't very sturdy anymore. I reckon if it gets even a little scratch from the edge of a reef, it'll be... I say, why are you doing this? Even if there's a mountain of gold on that island, it's not worth risking your life like this, is it? At most, you can wait a day or two, get the paperwork done, rent a helicopter, and fly directly to the island. Wouldn't that be much safer?"
Zhou Ziwei shook his head upon hearing this and said, "I'm fine. It's just some reefs and undercurrents. Anyway, we're not far from the island. Even if the lifeboat gets punctured, I can swim across by myself. I won't die."
After saying that, he immediately grabbed the two oars on the lifeboat, and with a gentle swing of his arms, he quickly rowed the lifeboat toward the island.
Seeing this, the boat captain knew that further persuasion was useless, and he couldn't help but sigh deeply as he watched the lifeboat gradually disappear into the distance.
Oh dear... what a pity for the money in that person's backpack... it's going to sink to the bottom of the sea like that, and it'll probably rot away in a few days! What a waste...
Zhou Ziwei ignored the captain's strange gaze, which seemed to look at him as if he were dead. He kept swinging his arms and rowing the lifeboat at high speed. His soul power, like an octopus, split into several streams and scattered into the sea ahead, closely observing the underwater situation. If there were any reefs or undercurrents, he could react at the fastest speed.
Zhou Ziwei didn't dare to row the lifeboat too fast, but the speed was enough to make the captain of the fishing boat behind him gasp in amazement. In just over ten minutes, the lifeboat gradually approached the small island.
Unexpectedly, he didn't encounter a single reef or undercurrent along his journey. It was as if he were simply gliding across a calm sea, without feeling anything unusual at all.
That's strange... There's nothing on the sea. Why are all the fishermen so scared whenever they hear they're going to Floating Light Island? Could it be that I'm just incredibly lucky and happened to find a route with absolutely no obstacles?
Zhou Ziwei finally breathed a sigh of relief when the lifeboat safely reached the beach on the west side of the island. He then shook his head to himself, wondering whether it was the black market assassin network behind the scenes or if he had just had a stroke of good luck, as even the reefs and undercurrents retreated on their own when they saw him coming.
Zhou Ziwei dragged the lifeboat ashore and then found a rock on the shore to secure it firmly.
Although Zhou Ziwei knew that when he was about to leave the island, it would be almost impossible to do so with only such a dilapidated lifeboat.
Even a wrecked lifeboat is better than nothing, so Zhou Ziwei carefully secured it to prevent it from being swept away by a wave.
After arriving on the island, Zhou Ziwei looked around and found that the island was not very large. He estimated that the longest part of the island was no more than five kilometers in diameter. The entire island was full of rocks and there were hardly any green grass roots to be seen. It was a desolate place.
However, in a low-lying valley in the very center of this desolate island, there is a small house that is clearly made of stones.
The little house was built entirely of stones that had been roughly polished and then pieced together. If you got closer, you would see that the entire stone house was constructed entirely of stone, the only building material, without any cement or clay.
Although the stone house is a bit ugly, it is sturdy enough and has a unique and ingenious feel to it.
With his simple little backpack on his back, Zhou Ziwei walked casually toward the stone house in the center of the island. However, he dared not be careless in the slightest. As soon as he arrived on the island, he had already released all the ladybugs, fruit flies, and a whole swarm of mosquitoes that he had brought with him.
Yes, that was a whole swarm of mosquitoes.
In order to deal with the potential crisis of confronting the black market assassin network, Zhou Ziwei frantically created a large number of Kun pets before leaving the island country.
In Zhou Ziwei's experience, ladybugs were the most powerful in combat. However, raising a ladybug with combat capabilities was not an easy task. Without nourishing it with soul power for ten or twenty days, the ladybug would only be able to fly a little faster than an ordinary ladybug and would not have any combat capabilities. At most, it could only serve as a scout.
As for fruit flies, let's not even talk about them... Their only advantage is their speed of flight; otherwise, they're absolutely useless for combat.
The only Kun pet that can quickly develop combat power seems to be the little mosquito. Once captured by Zhou Ziwei, the little mosquito itself will not have any combat power. After all, its own toxicity is really negligible to people. At most, being bitten by it will only make people's skin itch for a while.
However, after these mosquitoes acquired new, independent souls, almost without exception, they developed an insatiable interest in ingesting toxic substances, and after ingesting them, they would often produce some powerful mutated toxins.
So after discovering a large amount of toxic substances in Blood Shadow's lair, Zhou Ziwei decided to mass-produce mosquitoes.
Experiments have shown that simply catching a mosquito and creating an independent soul within it doesn't turn it into a poisonous creature. While it's true that mosquitoes with independent souls have an innate craving for poison, they aren't completely immune to all poisons, nor are all mosquito species immune to the severe harm poisons cause to their bodies.
After several repeated verifications, and after seven or eight mosquitoes died tragically in the experiment, Zhou Ziwei finally developed a mosquito with the strongest resistance to the poison, and a poison that could be quickly absorbed by this mosquito without causing mass deaths.
This time, Zhou Ziwei chose a slightly larger mosquito; an adult mosquito was about the size of a little fingernail.
The poison that these tiny mosquitoes could tolerate was a small amount of blood-red powder found in a room in Blood Shadow that looked like a poison processing room.
Judging from its appearance, this red powder should be a kind of mineral with extremely corrosive properties. Just a little bit of the red powder sprinkled on an iron plate can corrode a small hole in the iron plate within minutes.
After developing independent souls, these small mosquitoes develop a strong resistance to the red toxic powder. If they inhale a small amount of the powder, they will quickly fall into a coma. After about ten minutes, when they wake up, their bodies will turn pink. Zhou Ziwei conducted experiments on cattle and horses. If a person was bitten by one of these mosquitoes that had ingested the red powder, their entire body would quickly ulcerate, covered in blood and pus. It was a terrifying sight that inspired fear.
Unfortunately, the amount of red poison powder in Blood Shadow's lair was limited. In the end, it was used up after Zhou Ziwei cultivated twenty-three small mosquitoes. As for whether other poisons could be used to cultivate mosquitoes with new toxicity, Zhou Ziwei did not have time to test them one by one. Moreover, in order to create these small mosquitoes, Zhou Ziwei directly consumed nearly five hundred soul power. He really dared not continue to consume them like this.
Fortunately, it seemed that after each poison was ingested, the toxicity produced in the mosquitoes' bodies was fixed. Afterward, no matter what poison they ingested, it would automatically decompose and revert to the original toxicity. Therefore, although all the red corrosive poison powder was consumed, Zhou Ziwei wasn't worried that these twenty-odd mosquitoes would become disposable pets. After letting the mosquitoes feast on poison in Blood Shadow's laboratory, he then took them with him on a plane to the Philippines…
Once ashore, the twenty-odd mosquitoes formed a powerful aerial biological force, spreading out within a hundred meters of Zhou Ziwei, guarding him from all sides. The twenty-odd insects formed a tight protective net, ensuring that any disturbance would be detected by Zhou Ziwei.
However, having to divide his consciousness into more than twenty, nearly thirty parts to sense the sensory images and sounds transmitted by each little Kun pet was so noisy and chaotic that Zhou Ziwei almost fainted during his first experiment.
Even with Zhou Ziwei's immense soul power, splitting his original consciousness into thirty parts at once would be an almost impossible task.
Left with no other choice, Zhou Ziwei had to temporarily sever the soul connection with most of the Kun pets. Only when the Kun pets discovered the abnormal situation were they allowed to notify him through a stronger soul connection.
In this way, Zhou Ziwei was temporarily spared the fate of being directly driven to schizophrenia.
It's important to know that Zhou Ziwei has nearly thirty Kunchongs, so if he were to truly suffer from a split personality, he would probably split into thirty separate individuals, with thirty different personalities rebelling within him. Just thinking about such a terrifying consequence would send chills down Zhou Ziwei's spine.
Fortunately, the strength of these insects varied, so Zhou Ziwei simply had the original ladybug lead the few surviving fruit flies, while the original anesthetizing mosquito led the newly born swarm of putrefactive mosquitoes, assigning each of them the position of squad leader.
Fortunately, these insects are quite intelligent and can clearly understand the arrangements made by Zhou Ziwei. In this way, Zhou Ziwei can basically just maintain contact with the ladybug and the original mosquito, so as not to let countless messy sounds and images flood into his mind at the same time if he opens his soul connection.
Nearly thirty Kun creatures formed a large net and slowly followed Zhou Ziwei toward the stone house. The ladybug, which was flying at the very front and was the strongest Kun creature, had already taken the lead and flown into the stone house.
Zhou Ziwei then immediately discovered through the soul connection he had maintained with the ladybug that there was no one in the stone house, only a heavy wooden box and a laptop left inside.
Zhou Ziwei then had the ladybug search every corner of the stone house. After finding nothing amiss, he quickly entered the stone house.
It's unclear whether it was the miniature camera installed on the laptop that caught Zhou Ziwei's eye, but as soon as Zhou Ziwei stepped into the stone house, the originally dim laptop beeped and lit up on its own, and an image of a blond man with a ghost face sitting on a sofa immediately appeared on the laptop screen.
"You're Samsara? Unbelievable... Samsara, a rising star in the assassin world, is so young it inspires envy!" The old man on the screen exclaimed without restraint, then nodded slightly to Zhou Ziwei, saying, "I don't know how you did it, but in my file, you are indeed the most powerful assassin of the last three years, capable of single-handedly destroying a mercenary group of several hundred... Not simple... truly remarkable!"
Zhou Ziwei calmly sat down on the stone bench in front of his laptop, smiled slightly, and said, "You flatter me. I've just been lucky and haven't met my match yet."
The blond man shook his head slightly and said, "To kill Blood Shadow, the world's eighth-ranked assassin, isn't something that can be achieved with mere luck, hehe... Actually, considering your current true strength, this VIP membership test we arranged for you is utterly meaningless... Would a master capable of contending with the world's top ten assassins fail such a childish test? However, this is a rule set by the few of us who created the Black Market Assassin Network, and we can't break it just because of you, so..."
Seeing that the blond man seemed quite troubled, Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but smile slightly and said, "Since these are the rules that have been set in advance, then let's just follow the old rules! Didn't you say... that this is just a child's play test for me? So let me just take this as a bit more experience, what's wrong with that?"
Volume 2 The Assassin's Nightmare Chapter 288 Overstepping Authority
The blond man laughed heartily and said, "Rules must be followed, of course, but... after discussing it, we felt that we didn't necessarily have to rigidly adhere to the outdated rules. In fact, once you killed Blood Shadow, you already possessed a status equivalent to one of the world's top ten assassins. Therefore, ordinary assessments would be somewhat redundant for you. So... we've prepared the most special and simplest assessment in the history of the Black Market Assassin Network for you. A normal VIP member assessment requires at least ten tests, but you only need one. If you pass... not only will you become a VIP assassin of the Black Market Assassin Network, but your level will also jump directly from Bronze to Platinum. How about it? I wonder if you'd be willing to accept such an assessment?"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ziwei's heart stirred slightly. Although he didn't quite understand the use of the Platinum VIP level, he figured that within the Black Market Assassin Network, this level must be quite prestigious, and the privileges would likely be more extensive.
However, Zhou Ziwei also understood that the more the other party offered, the more difficult the test would likely be. If the other party were to bring out machine guns, cannons, bombers, Scud missiles, and the like, even if he had three heads and six arms, he wouldn't be able to pass this test... Therefore, he had to figure out the content of this test first.
Upon hearing Zhou Ziwei's inquiry about the test's content, the blond man smiled slightly again and said, "Normally, the content of such assessments is not allowed to be revealed in advance, but... since you're not participating in an ordinary assessment, you don't necessarily have to abide by that rule. Hmm... to be honest, in my opinion, the test you're about to undergo will be quite difficult, because your assessment only has one element: to withstand the giant's attack for thirty minutes without retreating from Floating Light Island. In other words... if you leave the surface of Floating Light Island and fall into the sea, then... you'll be considered to have failed the test."
"A giant?" Zhou Ziwei asked, somewhat taken aback. "The giant you're talking about is..."
The blond man glanced at Zhou Ziwei through the screen with a hint of surprise, then said, "What, you don't know the Giants? Heh... I thought you'd have a deep understanding of the Ten Great Assassins. It seems... you're really just starting out... Hmm... I have some basic information about the Giants here, I might as well reveal a little to you. After all, the Giants have done some research on you, and it would be too unfair to you if you knew nothing about them beforehand..."
The blond man seemed to be typing a few lines on his computer keyboard, retrieving some information, before continuing, "Nickname: Giant. Nationality: Russian. Height: 236 cm. Weight: 205 kg... Well, that's some basic information about the Giant. That's all I can tell you for now. As for the rest..."
Zhou Ziwei frowned slightly and asked, "So... this giant is also one of the world's top ten assassins? Then... where is he ranked? Could you tell me that?"
"Of course, no problem. He's ranked tenth on the world's assassin list."
The blond man answered readily, then shook his head slightly and continued, "But don't be fooled by his ranking. Otherwise, if you think that since you were able to kill Blood Shadow, who's ranked eighth, it will be even easier to face the tenth-ranked one, then you're in big trouble..."
Zhou Ziwei asked, somewhat puzzled, "What? Isn't that how it is? Does that mean the person ranked tenth is more powerful than the person ranked eighth?"
“Exactly.” The blond man nodded solemnly and said, “The reason Blood Shadow is ranked eighth on the world's assassin list is mainly due to his extremely bizarre method of obtaining immortality. In terms of true strength, he might not be stronger than those ranked ninth and tenth. Also… the reason Giant is ranked at the bottom of the world's top ten assassins is mainly because… strictly speaking, Giant isn't even an assassin. How can you expect someone who isn't an assassin to be ranked among the world's top ten assassins and achieve a high position?”
"He's not an assassin? Then he is..." Zhou Ziwei was even more puzzled upon hearing this.
The blond man said, "Strictly speaking, the Giant is actually just a henchman. Because of his enormous size and extremely fiery temper, if he were to carry out an assassination mission, he would definitely cause a worldwide sensation. So... the Giant is simply not suited to be an assassin. He is best suited for face-to-face confrontations, fair and square battles. Hmm... when the busybodies in the industry were selecting the world's top ten assassins, it was probably because, apart from those nine, the remaining assassins, no matter how famous or efficient they were at completing missions, were simply not on the same level as those nine in terms of their own strength. To randomly include someone in the list would undoubtedly be an insult to those nine powerful individuals. But if they were only called the world's nine greatest assassins... that doesn't seem quite right either. So someone simply included the Giant, who isn't an assassin, in the world's top ten assassin list, making him the last-ranked one."
Zhou Ziwei suddenly realized, nodded, and said with a solemn expression, "So that means... although this giant is ranked tenth, in terms of true strength, he might be first or second, is that right?"
The blond man immediately shrugged and said, "What you're saying is not impossible, but few people can be certain. Because as far as I know... the top three of the world's top ten assassins haven't made a move for at least three years. Whether their skills have improved or regressed in these past few years, only they themselves probably know. Moreover... although the giant's strength is not bad and he has gained the recognition of the other members of the top ten assassins, he has never actually fought any of them. So... no one knows what level his true strength is at. Even I am quite curious about this..."
Zhou Ziwei hesitated for a moment after hearing this, then asked, "The rules you just mentioned for determining the winner only state that I need to withstand the giant's attacks for thirty minutes and that I cannot retreat outside the Floating Light Island. But... if I accidentally kill that giant during this trial... what will happen then? You're not going to make me pay with my life, are you?"
"Hahaha... How could that be?"
The blond man laughed loudly again and said, "Do we look like such petty people? Here I can solemnly promise you that if you really have the strength to kill the giant, we will not only not hold you accountable, but we will also let you directly replace the giant's original position in our organization and become a true core member. In that case... I think you will no longer care about that platinum VIP member status."
"Oh...I see!" Zhou Ziwei said with great interest, "Then may I ask, what kind of benefits would I receive if I became a core member of your organization?"
"The benefits are numerous..." The blond man hesitated for a moment before saying, "For now, I can only tell you that by becoming a core member, you will automatically receive a portion of the Black Market Assassin Network's shares. In other words, you will be one of the shareholders of the Black Market Assassin Network, and you will have the right to receive dividends every quarter. You will receive a huge amount of money. I guarantee that you will never have to risk your life to complete simple assassination missions that don't pay much and even seem idiotic again."
In addition, you will gain the second level of access to information, meaning that over 50% of the organization's secrets will be completely open to you. This is the highest level of access, second only to the five founders of the Black Market Assassin Network. Thirdly… you will have certain administrative privileges, allowing you to conduct routine reviews of Black Market Assassin Network missions and assess assassins applying for VIP membership. Most importantly… you will also have the authority to make three bypass-level modifications to messages on the Black Market Assassin Network.
To be more specific, you have three opportunities to modify the bounty information that has already been posted online, or to post three exorbitant bounties in the name of the Black Market Assassin Network... The funds required for posting exorbitant bounties in the name of the Black Market Assassin Network are naturally fully covered by the organization.
Alternatively, if you forcibly alter a bounty post already published online, causing dissatisfaction or losses to the original poster, the organization will compensate you for all losses. However, you must be aware… each core member can only have this privilege three times in their lifetime, and this applies even to the website's five founders. Otherwise, if core members could arbitrarily change or post false bounty information, the Black Market Killer Network would likely be in chaos long ago, and wouldn't have its current immense influence.
Upon hearing the blond man's explanation, Zhou Ziwei was overjoyed.
The privileges granted to these core personnel were simply too wonderful. Zhou Ziwei had originally worried that even if he could successfully find the headquarters of the Black Market Killer Network, he would still be unable to completely resolve his concerns if he couldn't eliminate the super hacker who created the Black Market Killer Network.
Whether he can actually make contact with, or even enter, the black market assassin network's lair in a short period of time is still unknown. However, the Zhou Group cannot afford to wait any longer. After he was promoted to chairman of the Zhou Group, he immediately froze all of the group's accounts and businesses, setting a one-month deadline.
The one-month deadline is fast approaching, but if he hasn't resolved this concern by then, should the Zhou Group resume operations or continue the freeze?
Forcing the company to continue its operations will likely only leave the company in a state of disarray, and business partners will still lack confidence in the Zhou Group. Such a forced operation will probably only plunge the entire Zhou Group into an even worse situation, and will not help at all.
If the time for the company's full unfreezing continues to be delayed, it will cause people throughout the group to lose more and more confidence in the company.
By then, aside from some incompetent people who stay to coast along, most people with a bit of ability will probably have to switch to other companies.
Even if Zhou Ziwei can turn things around with his newly designed products, if the Zhou Group is already in complete chaos, he might as well just start a new company.
However, the best opportunity has now arrived. If he can kill the giant who ranks tenth among the world's top ten assassins in this assessment and take his place, that is, if he can take his place.
Then, you can successfully infiltrate the core of the black market assassin network, obtain second-level access, and gain a much better understanding of its internal operations. At that point, finding the black market assassin network's headquarters and taking it all down will be much easier.
If all else fails... Zhou Ziwei could use his special privilege, which he only had three times in his lifetime, to directly delete the bounty that Xiao Yundong had posted on the black market assassin network. This would basically achieve Zhou Ziwei's goal for this trip. Whether or not he needed to destroy the black market assassin network again would be completely unimportant to Zhou Ziwei.
Therefore, Zhou Ziwei naturally had to accept the test, and he couldn't just pass it easily. He had to completely kill the giant and then gain the opportunity to enter the core of the black market assassin network...
“Alright! I think I’ve made up my mind. I accept this assessment. So, I wonder when this assessment will begin…” Zhou Ziwei answered the blond man seriously, then immediately clenched his fist. He was practically impatient.
"Very good... I knew you would accept it."
The blond man snapped his fingers excitedly and said with a grin, "The organization hasn't had any fresh blood in a long time. I hope you can pass this test successfully. When that happens... the Black Market Assassin Network will definitely thrive even more after you join... Hahaha..."
The blond man laughed a few times before his expression turned serious. He continued, "Our organization is always very efficient. The assessment will begin soon. Hmm... in about five minutes, the giant should appear on Floating Light Island. I hope you can make good use of these last five minutes to prepare. See that box in front of you? There are some standard firearms and some standard Western military weapons we've prepared for you. Hopefully, you'll find them useful. However... don't blame me for not warning you beforehand. Giants are born with skin of steel; ordinary standard weapons have very limited effectiveness against them. If you really want to take down that behemoth and enter the organization's core, I'm afraid... you'll have to rely on your own strength. Hahaha... that's all I can say. Good luck, young man."
After speaking, the blond man waved at Zhou Ziwei on the screen, and then the screen went dark, and the figure inside disappeared completely.
Zhou Ziwei smiled dismissively at the blond man's final warning. It seemed that this seemingly fair assessment was actually tilted in favor of the Titans... Since they all knew that these ordinary standard weapons were not very effective against Titans, why did they bother to prepare such a large box for themselves? Wasn't that redundant?
Zhou Ziwei scanned the box with his soul power and immediately "saw" the contents inside clearly.
As expected, it contained a number of standard weapons, including a submachine gun, two .9mm pistols, a shotgun, a retractable rifle bayonet, two military daggers, and several hand grenades.
Since the blond man said that ordinary standard weapons were not very effective against giants, Zhou Ziwei guessed that only the few grenades in the whole box might be of some use. As for the rest... they would only be a burden to Zhou Ziwei.