Word Count: 15,878 Optimised for reading on mobile PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS OF BOOK 08 JANE DRAKE — the main protagonist of Book 08. A genius who leads Nagisawa Corporation’s R&D department. She owns the power to alter her body, granting her abilities to morph her arms into shapes of weapons — such as bone blade, elastic whip, and boulder-form. Her skin can also be made impervious to small arms. An event in the beginning of Book 06 caused Jane to lose control over her power; rendering her unable to revert her skin back to normal. NAGISAWA CHIZURU – the CEO of Nagisawa Corporation, who also live a double-life as a mercenary. She inherited the company when her parents died in Book 01. Though born as an upper-class, Chizuru has rejected the superfluous conglomerate life in favour for modesty and constrained consumption. Chizuru wields a powerful high-tech sniper rifle. Combined with her near inhuman marksmanship skill, she is truly a force to reckon with in battle. JONATHAN MILLS – A member of Nagisawa Corporation’s security division. One tragic incident destroyed half of his body, and Jane saved his life by turning him into a cyborg. Now he’s armed with cybernetics upgrade which made him a devastating force in the battlefield. More than just hardware, Jonathan has the experience of a former Red Beret — Crowned Confederacy’s most elite spec -ops unit. AUDI PRABIAN – the main protagonist of the series. A 23-year-old mercenary wielding neither superpower nor advanced technology in the battlefield. He relies on unconventional gadgetries and pure wit to outsmart his enemies. Audi has ventured away to a distant planet for a cure to Jane’s sickness. This explosive epic and adventure is covered in Book 06 and Book 07 — which timeline runs in parallel with Book 08. TAN MING-KIAT — The captain of Nagisawa Corporation’s security department. A naturally bright and happy go-lucky person, despite his hulking muscles. Ming-Kiat has gone through much with Audi and Chizuru since the events of Book 01. JIN TAE-HEE — The official spokeswoman of Chizuru. When Chizuru cannot attend a meeting, press conference, or away in a mercenary mission, Tae-Hee will replace her as the acting CEO of Nagisawa Corporation. Since holding the position, Tae-Hee has learned the art, craft, and terrain of corporate world through experience. She considers Chizuru her best friend, having gone through much since the events of Book 01. ACT II: LAGOON BLUE 4 BOOK VIII PROLOGUE Do those without beauty deserve love? Imagine the power to see the soul of another; the colours of their heart. Their kindness. Their deceit. The strength to bypass thousands of layers of image an individual has crafted with all their strength, money, and time. Would one? Would one not? Or would the world fare better with its people capable of sugar-coating their ugly inner self? Tan-Ming-Kiat was a man in his thirties. Brawny. Strong. Clean cut hair. Tall, albeit within normalcy. A captain of Nagisawa Corporation’s massive security department, handling the safety of the largest private business entity in the history of mankind. Alas, his strength was but a façade. Deep within Ming-Kiat was a highly insecure soul. Anxious. Every day. Every night. For years. Mei- Lin, the woman he’s loved since he started working in Nagisawa Corporation, has just gotten a lover. Again? BOOK EIGHT | PROLOGUE 5 Ming-Kiat thought. What the hell have I been doing for the past few years? Ming-Kiat kept with him a ledger; an accounting system that graded his attractiveness against Mei- Lin’s. He assigned different weight to different categories: his face, his body, the money in his account, versus Mei- Lin’s various attributes. He thought she would only be attracted to him if the points on both sides balance out. To make it much more flexible in changing circumstances, Mei-Lin being in a relationship for example, Ming-Kiat would scale the points by doubling the ‘balance requirements’— essentially requiring him to be twice as attractive as Mei-Lin according to the points. Then the day came. When the points balanced out. He checked his ledgers hundreds of times during the day, recalculating and reconsidering the points, scaling, and considered the circumstances. After hours of shutting himself in his room, Ming-Kiat couldn’t refute his own analysis. It’s time. To get her as his. That night he dressed as well as he could and marched out with confidence. THE SILENT ASSASSIN | ACT II: LAGOON BLUE 6 He approached her and asked if they could talk. Casually. Mei-Lin agreed, for they were good friends, so they waltzed out for a dinner. The man was confident, and his mind clocked in to his ledger and items every fifteen minutes, assuring him that everything would go well. All he needed was bravery. Courage. The balls to confess. After all, confidence is all I need, he constantly affirmed himself. They entered a casual middle-class diner and ordered some meals, having pointless banters about their days, weeks, and years. And thus the time arrived. He struck the conversation. Confessed. And waited for a reaction. Waited. Waited. And waited. It was then Ming-Kiat realized something was wrong. According to his plan, Mei-Lin should be overjoyed; flipping the table away and jumped onto his embrace. Yet that wasn’t the case. The awkwardness in Mei-Lin became much more visual as seconds passed. The BOOK EIGHT | PROLOGUE 7 fidgeting, the constant glancing left and right, even above, became much more pronounced. Shocked by the unexpected turn, Ming- Kiat’s balance was thrown off. He panicked himself, growing restless as the two sat opposed in uneasy silence. The status quo continued for five minutes, until Mei-Lin took a breath and spoke. “Minky, I...have a boyfriend.” “Y—yeah,” his voice was nearly silent. “I know.” “Then why did you confess?” It hit Ming-Kiat; this was a rejection, a blatant one. Without any ‘sorry’, ‘but’, et cetera. Mei-Lin seemed to speak more, but his mind was too blurred and unfocused, busy on calculating and recalculating his ledger’s points and balances. How? Why? He thought. I tried becoming a much better person. Did everything that every tabloid article said. Adjusting points. Training. Adjusting points. Crafting image. Adjusting points. “—but we can still be friends, can’t we?” she asked. And Ming-Kiat flinched back to reality. Mei-Lin fidgeted, trying to look elsewhere, but forced herself to sit still. Her breath THE SILENT ASSASSIN | ACT II: LAGOON BLUE 8 seemed to pace up and her feet’s const ant tapping echoed straight to Ming- Kiat’s ears. The confusion remained on his mind, plunging his focus to oblivion. Like a sudden impulse jolted through his nerves, he stood up in abrupt. “O—of course,” his voice was shaking. “I was just saying, you know. ” “R...really?” “Yes, yes. That is definitely the case.” Mei-Lin stayed silent. “So well, I...think I have to go,” he stepped away from the table. “Should we split the cheque as usual?” “I’ll pay, so you can send me your share later.” “Understood,” Ming -Kiat walked, avoiding eye contact, but as his shaking steps tread him further, Mei-Lin stood up. “Minky, can I ask again?” her voice shook. He stopped without looking. “We’re still friends, right?” Ming-Kiat turned back and smiled without a word. He abruptly walked away. Further. Further. To the exit. Out. To the dead of the night with the chills of Kanegunian northern winter. BOOK EIGHT | PROLOGUE 9 Like an automaton, he navigated through the city’s public transport back towards Nagisawa Corporation’s HQ. His mind rested on a different plane; a mathematical dimension of existence. He recalculated his ledger balance. Discounted. Adjusted points. Ming-Kiat analysed down to the minutest calculus. How did it go wrong? Where did I go wrong? Where did I miscount? Where did I over count? Undercount? Did I overestimate my attractiveness? Did I underestimate her attractiveness? Should I have scaled the difficulty to three times instead of two because of her boyfriend’s existence? Maybe ten? But what’s the point of going after someone half your attractiveness? A third? A tenth? A minute passed in his mind, but in real time it was an hour. Ming-Kiat stood in front of his dormitory room in the Central Tower, keeping still for another hour as the man kept mentally re-designing his scoring system. Then he was inside his room. Ming-Kiat walked towards a mirror in front of a cupboard, staring at it for another hour. He looked at his face, his body, his everything. THE SILENT ASSASSIN | ACT II: LAGOON BLUE 10 You’re ugly . He thought. You’re fucking ugly. To be rejected so easily. What the fuck are you, you piece of shit? He gritted his teeth. You’ve been around her for years, with all that opportunity to woo her into your embrace, and yet here you are, the genius, still managing to get rejected. He struck the mirror so hard until it cracked. Broken shards jammed into his fingers, forcing blood to leak out to his fist’s in - between. A sharp pain blasted through his arm, but Ming- Kiat’s aching chest thundered an even harder slow blunt pain. He punched again. Punched. Punched. How. The fuck. Did. You. Manage. To get. Rejected? He punched again. Are you stupid? Are you fucking stupid? He kept punching. The ledger has balanced, and BOOK EIGHT | PROLOGUE 11 yet you flunked like a pathetic piece of shit! How? Why? What on Terra is wrong with you? He smashed through the cupboard. I should kill you. He glared at shards of mirror with his reflection. Your failure and pathetic existence has inflicted such an embarrassing humiliation upon me; being rejected by someone I’ve had almost my whole working life to woo. That ugliness. That stupid looks. If only you look like a handsome actor or celebrity, than this wouldn’t have fucking happened — ! A huge slam struck his room’s door inward. As the door struck the floor, two figures emerged from the bright outside. One was a bob-haired woman in dark blue blazer and trousers, while the other was a man wearing bandana and holding a pistol. They entered the room and froze in place; stunned at the destruction within and massive sprinkles of blood staining the floor. “What the hell?” the bob -haired woman said. THE SILENT ASSASSIN | ACT II: LAGOON BLUE 12 “Tae - Hee,” Ming - Kiat’s voice was coarse and monotonic. She walked forward with shaking steps while examining the room. “Are you out of your damn mind?” Tae - Hee yelled. “How the hell did this place end up like this?” “I—don’t know,” Ming -Kiat rested his arms down; blood dripped out faster from his hands. “Things just...happens.” “What did?” Silence. “Damn it, MK. This is not normal,” she frowned. “You’re not the kind of person who would implode like this.” “How would you know?” Tae-Hee stopped. “Aren’t you full of prejudice? Assuming my nature from your daily, menial observation of what I do and say?” he said. “Maybe I am like this. Maybe I am always like this. Maybe I finally gathered the courage to admit, to act like what and how I am supposed to be —” The man with bandana chuckled. Ming- Kiat frowned. “What’s funny, Audi?” Audi Prabian walked to his work desk and picked up a UFX-PDA gadget. BOOK EIGHT | PROLOGUE 1 3 “Hey—!” He turned the display on. An application window was opened — a table comprising list of Ming- Kiat’s perso nal quality such as looks, amount of money, social status of family, and some numbers assigned to them. Another table showed Mei- Lin’s quality, almost mirroring Ming - Kiat’s one, but with extra columns indicating ‘Boyfriend existence’, ‘Home distance’, and others. At the bottom of the column were two equal numbers: 94. Audi glanced at Ming- Kiat. “Did you confess your feelings to that woman you fancy?” He kept silent. “And you got rejected?” Ming-Kiat flinched. “I see,” Audi turned his eyes onto the screen. “ So this is some sort of pseudo- accounting system to judge when you will be attractive enough to earn her love. I see, I see,” he paused. “And you screwed up.” “Shut up,” Ming - Kiat’s voice became tiny. “Like you’d understand my situation.” “Mind if I critic ise your methodology a little?” Audi asked. “You tried to translate THE SILENT ASSASSIN | ACT II: LAGOON BLUE 14 personal qualities and material conditions into attractiveness value by assigning numbers onto them, which can only be arbitrary. How, for example, can you ever equate the quality of family background and looks? How do you differentiate a 1, 2, and 20?” The man glanced away. “Perhaps the reason of your failure is your reliance on this pseudo-accounting numerical method, which is faulty at best,” Audi continued. “Even if we accept the premise that the numbers can accurately represent attractiveness scores, the presence of this...’Boyfriend Existence’ multiplier...requires you to be twice as attractive as she inherently is, in order to gain her love. If you’re able to reach this level of attractiv eness, wouldn’t you be better off going after others who are twice as attractive as her, but single?” “There is only one of her,” Ming -Kiat glared at Audi. “Don’t you fucking turn her into commodity you can toss and replace.” “I’m not the one who commodifi ed her. You are.” Ming-Kiat flinched. BOOK EIGHT | PROLOGUE 15 “This entire scoring system nonsense, aren’t you the one who tried putting immaterial human qualities into numbers? And making judgement according to how balanced your attractiveness values are so that you may trade each other; is this not commodification at its purest?” “Shut the fuck up, bandana boy,” Ming - Kiat stepped forward. “I can break the cupboard door with my fist, so imagine what I can do to your face.” Audi smirked. “Try me.” Ming-Kiat clenched his fist and pulled it back. “Enough!” The two men stopped and turned to Tae- Hee. “What is wrong with you morons throwing childish banters at each other?” Tae- Hee said. “Everyone has gone through enough bad days, months, and years! The last thing we need is us at ea ch other’s throat!” THE SILENT ASSASSIN | ACT II: LAGOON BLUE 16 Ming-Kiat pulled his fist down and relaxed it. “MK,” Tae - Hee said. “I understand that you are heartbroken. I can feel your anger and sorrow mixed right between your words,” she paused. “But destroying your room like this? Hurting yourself? Give me one, just one reason how it can fix your problem.” “You can’t fix a hope that’s been shattered to dust,” he replied. “This pain is nothing compared to what I’ve felt.” Audi sighed. “Self -affirmation through pain, huh? I see now —“ “And you too, damned desert barbarian,” Tae- Hee glared. “The last thing MK need is needless berating of what’s been done in the past.” “Well, are you not the slightest bit curious about his scoring system? Are you approving of it?” “Not the slightest,” Tae -Hee frowned. “I am planning to talk to him about that, but the time for cold criticism is not now. He doesn’t need your heartless hammering of his meaning in life.” “Even if the way to obtain such meaning is nonsense?” BOOK EIGHT | PROLOGUE 17 “He was in love with her, you idiot!” Tae - Hee yell ed. “To be rejected by someone you love. To come to a realization that your long- held feeling was but nothing in the face of the person you cared about the most in this world. That. That is one of the most devastating things a human can ever feel in their life.” Silence. “I don’t expect a dull bore like you to understand love. Had you do, those two wouldn’t need to go to an entire debacle like now.” “Huh?” “For now, go away,” Tae -Hee shooed him away. “I’ll take care of MK. Your presence will only make thing s worse.” The world was strange to Audi Prabian. Human emotion, he thought, was highly irrational. Thirst for power. Hunger for recognition. The need for daily affirmation. Why? The boy thought. Most of these things are empty gesturing aimed at satisfying personal ego. Can’t humans do away without them? Unnecessary conflict. Unnecessary pain. THE SILENT ASSASSIN | ACT II: LAGOON BLUE 18 He stopped in front of a lift which door panels reflected his own image. The boy was of average height with olive skin, black hair, and brown eyes. His nose shape was average. His ear size was average. Truly a common, unimpressive fellow with no extraordinary feature worth speaking of. At least that was his thought. And I’m not even complaining. The boy was content with his averageness. His ability to blend in with the crowd, turning invisible without a notable presence. It matters not, for the boy would rather spend his time in solitude, away from the faceless masses he couldn’t care much about. While the commons engage in high-octane and visually-enticing activities, the boy’s favourite pastime hobby was sitting near the window; a gaze at the vast, static panorama of Kitagane Capital Territory skyline. He contemplates. He thinks. Without a word. Ten languages combined in his head to express trillions of different ideas and observations. Like a calm river. Like a speck of flame. Like a tiny breeze. Like the still soil. BOOK EIGHT | PROLOGUE 19 Then the lift door opened. In front of him stood a woman with long blonde hair. She was one head shorter than him, and her skin tone is several shades lighter than the boy. Her aquatic blue iris swam amid the pristine white eye, constantly veiled in frequent blinks as the woman stared at Audi staring at her. “You okay?” she spoke with a South London accent. “Milady,” the boy stepped into the lift and turned half a circle, standing right next to her. “My bad. There’s a lot going on in my mind.” She sighed. “Presumably not about calling me by my name.” He turned. “What was your name again?” She glared at him. “Ah yes. Jane. My bad, my bad,” he pressed a button and the lift closed. The lift began its descent. “I just realised our conversation never contain a mention of your name,” he continued. THE SILENT ASSASSIN | ACT II: LAGOON BLUE 20 “Why did you start calling me ‘milady’ anyway?” she pouted. “It’s so sudden and uncalled for.” “I don’t know,” the boy glanced up. “A bit catchier, perhaps —” He stopped. The darkness surrounding the lift vanished, and the window behind exposed a vast panoramic view of Kitagane Capital Territory. The winter night sky brightened by the light reflection of the megalopolis below; a lively concrete jungle with skyscrapers concentrated on two business districts, surrounded by low-rises with blasting lights as if they were part of a parade. The lift stopped at ground floor; its door opened. “Why are you suddenly quiet?” Jan e stepped out. The boy remained silent while walking off the lift. The view of the luxurious central tower lobby unveiled itself, with tall pillars striking the ceiling high up, covered in marble coating and brightened by glistening diamond chandeliers. He turned to Jane and gazed at her face for ten seconds.