In a luxurious house in Azkaria, all the members of the Quincy family and the Finnegan family had gathered in the living room. Hatred and accusations poured from everyone's mouths as they glared hatefully at a woman curled up on the floor.
“Livia, how could you do this to the Quincy family? How could you be so despicable?” a middle-aged woman said, disbelief written across her face.
“The Quincy family gave you a luxurious life and even helped with the family business, but this is how you repay them? You make me so ashamed!” The middle-aged man standing beside the woman who had spoken earlier looked furious as he said this.
Then the man turned to a young man standing not far away. “Mr. Ethan, believe us. We had nothing to do with this. No one in the Finnegan family knew anything about it.”
The man pleaded, placing all the blame on his daughter, Livia. It was as if he was ready to sever every tie he had with the woman.
Ethan Quincy, heir to the Quincy family and head of Quinton Corporation, stared at the middle-aged man before him. He said nothing, but the deadly coldness radiating from his eyes was enough to freeze every bone in Mr. Finnegan's body.
His gaze then fell on the woman curled up on the floor. She was Livia Finnegan, his wife. Seeing the weak woman clutching her knees in fear ignited Ethan's anger. The longer he looked at her, the sharper the cold glint in his eyes became.
Just as he was about to say something, an assistant approached and reported, “Sir, news of the leak of the company's confidential data has spread throughout Quinton Corporation's employees and business partners. You should go to the company to stabilize the situation. Otherwise, the problem may become even more complicated.”
Clenching his fists, Ethan turned to face his parents. “Mom, Dad, don't worry too much. I'll resolve this as quickly as possible.”
Mr. and Mrs. Quincy said nothing. They merely nodded, placing all their trust and hopes in Ethan.
Without wasting another moment, Ethan walked toward the door. As he did, he caught Livia's eyes following him from the corner of his eye. All the evidence pointed to Livia as the prime suspect. Yet for some reason, the innocent look in her eyes disturbed Ethan.
Even so, he did not turn around as he continued walking out of the Quincy family residence.
After Ethan's departure, the people in the living room resumed hurling their hatred at Livia.
“Useless! Despicable woman!”
“You filthy traitor!”
“You ungrateful woman! I hope you rot to death in prison!”
As those furious curses continued to echo through the Quincy family living room, Livia hugged her knees tighter and covered both ears, her body trembling even more violently than before.
As the situation spiraled out of control, Mr. Quincy ordered the servants to lock Livia in her room until Ethan returned.
Inside the room, the mute woman could not stop trembling. Fear overwhelmed her as the people's curses continued echoing in her mind. She had done nothing wrong, yet everyone accused her. Worse still, she could do nothing to defend herself.
As the fear and worry inside her grew stronger, the sound of a key turning rang out, and the door was pushed open.
A young woman in a white dress entered the room. The light makeup on her face gave her the impression of a kind and pure woman. But what no one else knew was that the young woman, Bella Finnegan, was the source of all the misfortunes that had befallen Livia.
Bella was Livia's younger sister, and she had always been jealous of everything Livia possessed. That was why she had done everything she could to take it all away from her—including her status as Young Mrs. Quincy.
“Livia, I'm so sorry for everything that's happened to you.” As Bella spoke, she stroked Livia's hair, making the mute woman even more frightened as she took a step back.
Seeing Livia's reaction, Bella's smile widened. “But don't worry. As your sister, I'll help you.” Bella pulled a porcelain bottle from her pocket and continued, “Since I don't have the power to keep you out of prison, the only thing I can do is help you end your suffering. People will think you felt guilty after betraying the Quincy family and decided to commit suicide. At least they'll accept your remorse and give you a proper funeral.”
Although Livia looked like an idiot, she could still understand what Bella meant. She shook her head and mumbled incoherently, trying to get away from Bella.
But her actions only made Bella laugh mockingly. “Livia, oh, Livia... why are you being so stubborn at a time like this?” A malicious glint flashed in Bella's eyes as she continued, “Have you forgotten that I'm responsible for your children? They're sleeping right now. If you don't obey me, they may never open their eyes again.”
At the mention of her children, Livia stopped backing away from Bella and immediately fell to her knees. She pleaded with her eyes, begging Bella not to hurt her children.
“Hahaha. That's what I thought. Be a good girl and drink this. Don't worry, I'll take care of your children just as I always have. So go peacefully.”
Livia had no choice but to take the porcelain bottle from Bella. Her children were the only reason she had continued living, so she would not hesitate to use her life to protect them. Besides, she had no power to free herself from the accusations. In the end, she would spend the rest of her life in prison if the Quincy family insisted on punishing her. As the most powerful family in Azkaria, forcing a weak woman like her to spend the rest of her life in prison would be incredibly easy.
With tears in her eyes, Livia opened the bottle. As all her happy memories with her children flashed through her mind, she lifted her chin, making it easier for all the liquid inside the porcelain bottle to pass down her throat.
Bella's eyes gleamed with triumph as she watched Livia swallow every drop of the poison.
In the conference room at Quinton Corporation, Ethan was meeting with the company's executives when his assistant rushed in and reported, “Sir, something happened to Young Mrs. Quincy. She was rushed to the hospital after drinking poison. There's a very high chance she won't survive.”
Meanwhile, on an island in the southern part of the world, a secret base lay hidden beneath a massive glacier. With its extreme temperatures and complete lack of human life, no one would have guessed that the island concealed such a vast facility equipped with advanced technology.
Even so, there was no peace along the corridor traversed by a woman in a flexible black suit.
“Blood Shadow, we're trapped. All the exits have been sealed. They won't let us leave this place alive.” A voice came from the communication device attached to the woman's right shoulder.
Only two seconds after the sentence ended, gunshots rang out from the other end. The next second, a death cry sounded, followed by the static buzz of the fallen communication device.
“Black Panter! Black Panter! Are you still there? Black Panter!”
Blood Shadow could not hide her worry when communication with her last teammate was cut off.
They had come as a seven-person team. As the feared Dellmor special forces known throughout the world, they had never experienced failure. That was why they had confidently accepted an important mission from their country: obtaining secret data on the latest war weapons developed by the world's largest underground organization.
However, as their leader, Blood Shadow had never expected to lead her team into such a painful failure. Not only had they failed, but they would not be able to return alive. What made Blood Shadow feel even guiltier was that she was responsible for the losses suffered by six families.
'Damn it! We already obtained the data. No one detected us when we came in. I'm certain X004 successfully shut down the security system without being detected. But what happened? Why was our connection to the outside world suddenly cut off?'
Blood Shadow tried to find an answer. Everything had gone smoothly until the alarm suddenly began working again before they could leave the base. Not only that, their connection to the outside world had been severed. Blood Shadow could neither report the situation to her superiors nor request help from her other teammates assisting them from outside the island.
The Dellmor special forces were an organization containing many outstanding soldiers. Even so, at her superiors' request, Blood Shadow had not brought a large number of people to the island. She had brought only teammates with more experience carrying out covert missions. Every preparation had been carefully made. She did not understand how their presence had ultimately been detected.
While Blood Shadow was still searching for an answer, a voice echoed throughout the corridor.
“Blood Shadow, all your teammates are dead. You won't be leaving this place alive. Surrender and return the data.”
Blood Shadow gritted her teeth as she looked around. Hearing the casual, confident tone of the voice, she was certain the person knew her location and was watching her.
Her gaze then landed on the CCTV camera on the ceiling. As she continued staring at it, an alarm immediately went off in her mind.
She remembered seeing several CCTV cameras along the path when she had infiltrated the base. This corridor was one of the routes she had taken. As far as she remembered, the position of the CCTV camera had not been like that before.
To confirm her suspicion, Blood Shadow moved to another position and waited warily for the CCTV camera to confirm it.
The CCTV camera changed position only five seconds after the target moved. That meant the camera had never been turned off. All of their movements had been visible from the very beginning.
'But why did they only make a move after we obtained the data? Did they deliberately wait until we reached the deepest part of the base while preparing everything to ambush us? But how could their security system still be functioning after X004 hacked it? There isn't a single technology X004 can't overcome. Is this organization's hacker superior? Or...'
Blood Shadow shook her head, trying to drive away the thought that she had been set up by her own comrades.
However, a mocking voice rang out, squeezing Blood Shadow's heart with disappointment.
“As expected, you're very intelligent, Blood Shadow. No wonder Dellmor's higher-ups considered you a threat and decided to cooperate with us to eliminate you. With your high level of intelligence and ability, they didn't want you eventually turning against them and causing trouble.”
Those words jolted Blood Shadow's awareness.
The order to steal the secret data had indeed come from the higher-ups of Dellmor. But they had never wanted to deal with the world's largest underground organization before. Besides, Dellmor had secret agents specifically assigned to gather the enemy's confidential data and information. Blood Shadow had been suspicious from the moment Dellmor chose to deploy the special forces instead of sending secret agents. But because of her loyalty to her country, she had accepted the mission without the slightest suspicion.
Realizing that she had willingly walked into a trap, Blood Shadow smiled bitterly at herself.
'I can't believe I was still so naive after being in the special forces for so many years. How could I still believe those old men would let me keep living after I learned all their secrets? I didn't just bring death upon myself. I dragged my teammates down with me, too.'
Thinking of her teammates who had died because of the treacherous plan, she clenched her fists and slowly lowered her head. A few seconds later, she raised it again to stare at the CCTV camera.
The coldness in her eyes and her dark expression made the people watching her feel that something was wrong.
Soon, a man's voice rang out again. “I'm warning you, Blood Shadow! Don't do anything pointless, or you'll face torture you could never endure!”
Even so, Blood Shadow was completely unfazed. A deadly smile formed on her lips as she walked down the corridor.
A short while later, reports began coming in one after another.
“Sir, Blood Shadow planted a bomb in the laboratory.”
“Sir, the fuel storage room in the right wing has been breached.”
“Sir, Blood Shadow just left the bomb-material storage room.”
“Sir, Blood Shadow is heading toward the new weapons testing room. She's planted bombs at several vulnerable points throughout the base. It looks like she intends to blow up this base!”
The man in charge of the base immediately panicked. His face turned pale as he shouted an order. “Stop her! Stop her now!”
When he accepted the Dellmor higher-ups' offer of cooperation, the man had been thrilled at the prospect of defeating Blood Shadow. He wanted to skyrocket his popularity by letting people know that he had toyed with the world's most feared special forces before killing them. But he had underestimated Blood Shadow. He had never expected her to be willing to die right there.
Meanwhile, Blood Shadow moved swiftly, her slender body maneuvering to avoid every attack directed at her.
She could still handle several groups of trained soldiers on her own, but her equipment was running low while enemy forces continued arriving without pause. She knew she would not make it out of the place alive. Since the enemy had not killed her immediately despite having the ability to do so, she could guess that they intended to torture her first. Of course, she would not let anyone touch her. No one was allowed to hurt her except herself. Therefore, while she still had the chance, she intended to blow herself up along with the place.
She would not simply die. At the very least, she had to bury those bastards with her.
“There! Grab her!”
A man's voice rang out, and several groups of fully armed soldiers immediately surrounded Blood Shadow. But Blood Shadow was feared throughout the world for a reason. Her abilities were truly above average.
Seeing the men surrounding her, Blood Shadow smiled coldly. With a swift movement, she pulled the last three small metal balls from her pocket and threw them onto the floor. In an instant, a cloud of smoke blocked everyone's view. The next second, the sounds of breaking bones and twisting necks came from beneath the thick smoke.
As the smoke thinned and finally disappeared, Blood Shadow threw a man's corpse onto the floor, then turned toward the CCTV camera and raised her middle finger.
Then she moved swiftly toward the new weapons testing room. Before the other soldiers could stop her, she had already shut and locked the glass door.
The organization's people tried to open the door, but it was already too late. Blood Shadow had activated the bombs. She was ready to press the button that would detonate every bomb she had planted throughout the base.
Before pressing the button, she stared at her own faint reflection in the glass and thought, 'Hah! I can't believe this is how I'll end up.'
As she thought this, Blood Shadow gathered her strength in her fingertip and pressed the small red button on the detonator without hesitation.
With a deafening roar, the blazing red flames of the explosion filled Blood Shadow's vision, escorting her straight into death.