Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 130: 18th Level of Hell

That night.

A group of people were walking along a dim street in Shadow City.

These people were all wearing masks and dark robes, seemingly already accustomed to concealing themselves from others.

They seemed to be walking quite slowly, but in reality, they were moving very quickly, but as soon as they arrived at a certain corner, the two people at the forefront of the group suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"What's wrong, Sir?"

The four people behind them also immediately stopped.

"There's an ambush around the corner. The danger is presenting itself in dot form, so there are most likely snipers laying in ambush. Go and take care of them, Ironback Tiger."

"Yes, Sir!"

A man at the back of the group removed his gray robe to reveal his mechanical body.

He was a cyborg, one that had undergone an extremely comprehensive retrofitting process. Even the spine, which was the most difficult body part to replace, had been swapped for a mechanical substitute. In addition to that, his entire body had been retrofitted, including his limbs, his face, his chest, and of course, he had the nickname of "Ironback" Tiger for a reason. His back was the most noteworthy part of his body as it had been fitted with many weapons, making him resemble a humanoid tank with missiles hanging off the sides.

After receiving that order, Ironback Tiger sprang up into the air before rounding the corner.

Despite his enormous frame, he was extraordinarily fast. The sound of operating mechanical parts rang out as he covered a distance of over 10 meters with just a single step, taking him to the designated location in a split second.

At the same time, the sound of gunshots rang out.

The bullets of the sniper rifle hurtled toward his face with incredible momentum, and he raised a hand to shield himself. The bullets crashed into his arm, creating a flurry of sparks and forcing him back a few steps.

After steadying himself, Ironback Tiger quickly inspected his surroundings with his electronic eye, locking onto the snipers through thermal imaging. A series of weapons then sprang out of his arm as he fired off a ferocious barrage, and at the same time, grappling hooks sprang out of his back. The jet blasters on his legs then sprang into action, propelling him up into the air with the help of the grappling hooks before he crashed through a window at the end of the street.

A short while later, he emerged with a pair of lifeless bodies before tossing them onto the street.

In the civilized world, a pair of bodies tossed onto the street would instantly attract a brigade of Mechguard officers to the scene, but here, it would only take five minutes at most before these bodies were taken by organ harvesters.

Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko could sense that the crisis had been averted, and they made their way onto the scene.

"Looks like a pair of Asian faces," Oni no Hanzou mused as he inspected the bodies. "There aren't many Asians in Shadow City. I have a rough idea of who's behind this."

On the previous night, a bomb had been fitted onto their vehicle, and just now, they had been targeted by snipers. In the span of just two days, they had suffered two assassination attempts.

"Should I go and issue them a warning, Mistress Miko?"

"Don't do that. The director has already warned us not to stir up any trouble in Shadow City."

"But we're the ones being targeted here!"

"It doesn't matter."

Oni no Miko shook her head as she massaged her own temples. Just the mere thought of what had happened the previous night was enough to give her a throbbing headache.

Never had she felt so frustrated before.

That day, she and Oni no Hanzou had visited Shadow Castle with full sincerity, but they were treated to the most horrific sight that she had ever seen, even for an assassin of her caliber. It was the castle's torture chamber.

Oni no Hanzou had visited human farms in the past and witnessed the blank slate production process. That process was gorey and inhumane, but at least it granted a swift death.

The infants that were killed were done so in a relatively painless manner, and their lives came to an end before they had even begun.

However, the sounds of screams were constantly echoing throughout Shadow Castle as subjects were tormented in all types of ways, both physically and psychologically.

It was like the 18th level of hell.

According to eastern mythology, hell had 18 levels.

If a person had committed bad deeds during their lifetime, they would be sent to hell, and each of the 18 levels of hell were designated for people who had committed different sins.

For example, those who liked to gossip and spread rumors and untruths were sent to the tongue-pulling hell, where they endured the torment of having their tongues pulled out. The most diabolical thing about this torture method was that the tongue wasn't immediately pulled out. Instead, the demons of hell pulled out the tongues of the sinner by one centimeter per day using pliers, and the tongues were infinitely elongated for never-ending pain.

There was also the bronze pillar hell, where arsonists and those who destroyed evidence were sent to.

In the bronze pillar hell, sinners were tied to massive hollow bronze pillars using chains so that they were forced to embrace the pillar, following which fiery coals were poured into the pillar. Eventually, the pillar would burn red hot, subjecting the sinner to infinite burning pain.

The most terrifying thing about the 18 levels of hell wasn't all of the different types of torture. Instead, it was the immortality of the sinners, which ensured that there would be no end to their punishment. Before they atoned for their sins, they were going to spend their entire existence in constant agony and torment.

Shadow Castle was like the embodiment of such a hell, but there were far more torture methods implemented than in the 18 levels of hell. The enforcers didn't want their subjects to die as they wanted to harness their pain as a type of power for producing anomalies.

Oni no Miko was a ruthless assassin who had killed countless people in her lifetime. In addition to that, as a top-tier adapter, she possessed a powerful persona, so it was very difficult for her to be traumatized, but that day in Shadow Castle, she felt more than a little uncomfortable.

What happened after that was even more inexplicable to her. In the instant that they met the director, both she and Oni no Hanzou had cyberhexes placed upon them. She didn't even know how the cyberhexes had been cast onto them, and no matter what they did, the cyberhexes refused to be removed.

Not even Oni-faced Dragon was capable of something like this, and right when she was at the height of her fear, thinking that they were going to be killed, they were greeted by a man who appeared to be an elegant and refined scholar, who told them that he didn't like to kill. Everything that had taken place in Shadow Castle that night had felt like a fever dream to her, and after leaving the castle, the only thing that she could remember was that she couldn't cause trouble in Shadow City.

"That's right, we can't stir up any trouble," Oni no Hanzou chimed in. "After we finish what we're here to do, we'll leave this place right away. In any case, these amateur assassins don't pose any threat to us anyway."

With that, the group of six departed from the filthy alley.

The next day, Adam went to the F tier venue after finishing his match, and there, he saw Nie Yiyi.

After that encounter with Oni no Miko, Nie Yiyi figured that she had nothing to lose, so she had begun participating in matches as well.

In her mind, if the Oni Organization's hitmen wanted to kill them, then they would've done so already. She had always been extremely keen to capitalize on this opportunity to hone her fighting skills, and now that her identity had been exposed, she no longer had any qualms. Thus, she was unable to suppress her yearning for battle any further, and she approached Hailey to be her manager.

Given Nie Yiyi's abilities, she was naturally able to secure victory easily in these F tier matches.

After leaving the ring, she made her way over to Adam, then reluctantly said, "The Green Gang has already picked out two suitable candidates for you. I'll take you to see them later. Also, we've already attempted three assassinations, and not only have they all failed, we've lost quite a few people as well. The gang is afraid that our targets will retaliate, so they've called off all further assassinations."