Book 4: Chapter 38: Changing Face

The roar of the machine gun stopped. Allied soldiers lay sprawled everywhere inside the carriage. Joey calmly released the corpse in his hands. The young officer guarding this carriage fell limply to the floor, his eyes wide open. His light blue pupils reflected his comrades lying in pools of blood.

“Demon King Qin Lun, I killed someone!” Little Lian sobbed and threw herself into Joey’s embrace.

“It’s alright, it’s alright!” Joey’s eyebrows rose slightly. A warm smile, characteristic of Qin Lun, slowly spread across his face. He gently patted the young girl’s shoulder, making the other two people in the carriage secretly sigh with relief.

“Ger… Gerhard!” A weak voice suddenly broke the silence in the carriage.

Joey’s pupils contracted. He pushed Little Lian away, walked over to one of the “corpses,” and crouched down to look at her.

“Why… why?” Dr. Keller’s body was twisted in an unnatural position. Seeing Joey approach, a look of confusion washed over her face. “You… you promised with the medal!”

Joey frowned slightly. Suddenly, he reached out with both hands and tore open the beautiful doctor’s tattered lady’s suit jacket. A pair of full, blood-stained breasts bounced out from her shirt. However, the Serial Killer’s gaze did not linger on these impressive weapons. Instead, he looked with pleasant surprise at the three syringes that had slipped out from her shirt pocket.

Two of the three syringes were broken, only one remained intact. The letters “WHB” were carved on the glass tube, and an amber liquid sloshed inside. Joey had seen this kind of syringe before. It was exactly the same medicine Dr. Keller used to inject herself when Leo emitted the infrasound.

Joey grinned. He picked up the intact syringe with two fingers of his right hand. At the same time, information about the syringe appeared in his Death Notice.

“WHB Special Agent: A special recovery medicine from this world. It greatly enhances muscle and internal organ strength, has the special effect of rapidly restoring Health Points, and can be classified as a third-tier precious medicine of Shattered Starry Sky. Based on the Apostle’s current self-defined data standards, it temporarily increases Constitution upper limit by 20 points, Explosive Power by 10 points, Agility by 5 points, and other physical attributes. Lasts for half an hour. No side effects.”

“Tell… me!” Keller paid no attention to her exposed chest. A flush, like a final surge of vitality, appeared on her face. She actually managed to lift a hand and tightly grabbed Joey’s right arm.

“I only promised you wouldn’t face a court-martial. I never said you would definitely return to Berlin alive!” Joey pulled Keller’s hand away. He bent down close to the beautiful doctor’s ear, using his tongue to lick away a drop of blood from her earlobe. With lingering satisfaction, he said, “Let me tell you another secret. This Iron Cross Medal… it’s not mine!”

After speaking, Joey straightened up, once again revealing Qin Lun’s warm, spring-like smile. He met Keller’s hate-filled eyes, reached out, and placed his hand on her neck.

“Crack!” The crisp sound of the cervical spine breaking sent a shiver through Little Lian and the other two. Although they hadn’t heard Joey’s words, the intense resentment in Keller’s eyes before she died still made them realize something was wrong.

“Hah, you… you’re not Qin Lun. You’re Joey… boss!” Lili couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering. She stared in horror, her beautiful eyes wide.

Joey turned his head. He opened his mouth, then closed it. The charming smile on his face slowly faded, replaced by a trace of ferocity.

“…I always wanted to tell you. But you all seemed to prefer seeing Qin Lun!” Joey wagged his finger at them. “To be honest, I’m glad you finally figured out who you’re dealing with.”

“Jo… Joey boss, does that mean from Casablanca, you were never… then what about Qin… Qin Lun boss?” Lin Feng stammered.

“Qin Lun boss?” Joey grinned meaningfully. “Qin Lun or Joey, Joey or Qin Lun, is it really that important? Let me tell you… no matter who is in front of you, it’s actually the same. Who do you want to see? Qin Lun?”

Immediately, Joey’s face took on Qin Lun’s usual warm smile. He turned and smiled at Little Lian. “It’s alright. As an Apostle, you will always experience brutal killing. Just keep your kind nature.”

After saying that, he immediately switched back to Joey’s bone-chilling sneer, addressing Lili. “Well done, Lili. You handled yourself much more cleanly than those two. No wonder you survived at the District 91 Base!”

Watching the Serial Killer’s demeanor shift back and forth, Little Lian and the other two felt their pores stand on end. Dense beads of cold sweat appeared on their foreheads.

“So, there was never… never a Joey Foster?” Little Lian asked blankly. The hoarseness in her own voice startled her.

“Hahaha!” Joey threw his head back and laughed loudly. He stepped past the three of them and headed towards the carriage exit. Amidst the wild, unrestrained laughter, the Serial Killer’s soft words reached them. “You disappoint me so much. You still haven’t seen the truth! It’s not that there never was a Joey, but that there never… existed a Qin Lun!”

The cruel words blew into their ears like a cold wind. Even after Joey left the carriage, Lili and the other two remained frozen in their original positions, rigid.

After standing dazed for a long moment, Little Lian hugged her own shoulders, trembled, and crouched down. She whispered to herself, “Sister Hu Fei, I should have believed you sooner. I was so stupid, thinking I could rely on a serial killer!”

“Let’s go. We should follow him. We’re not out of combat yet, we can’t return to Shattered Starry Sky. Staying alone is dangerous. We’d better follow Jo… Joey boss!” Lin Feng looked at Joey’s retreating back with a complicated expression. He bent down, helped Little Lian up, and headed towards the carriage exit.

Watching her two companions’ backs, Lili let out a soft sigh. She had never trusted Qin Lun. Although she was equally shocked by what just happened, she quickly regained her composure.

Lili didn’t immediately follow the other three out the door. She turned back and walked over to the corpse of an Allied soldier. With a somber expression, she crouched down. This Allied soldier had almost no external injuries, unlike the machine gun bullet holes on the other special forces soldiers. It seemed Lili had intentionally avoided him.

This was the young officer whose neck Joey had wrung. He was also one of the people who had expressed affection for Lili.

The young officer had beautiful blond hair and a fairly handsome face. He had said that before joining the army, he was a top student at Stanford. The young man had shown off his talents in front of Lili like a peacock, dreaming of one day taking the beauty into a Church.

“I really wish I were just a medic,” Lili’s eyes grew dazed for a moment. Finally, she forced a bitter smile and reached out to close his unseeing light blue eyes.

Joey reached out and opened the carriage’s front door. A cold face appeared in the frosted glass window above the door.

“Do you want to erase my existence, Joey?”

“How could I, Qin Lun! You know neither of us can erase the other.” The cold face suddenly changed, revealing a sinister sneer.

“Then stop doing meaningless things!” The evil smile disappeared again. The blurry face returned to its expressionless state.

“Heh, you have a problem with it? Compared to my methods, you’re the cruel one!” Joey narrowed his eyes and said flatly, “You know perfectly well that only by breaking their dependence on you can they survive better. Yet you let them keep their unrealistic fantasies…”

“That’s none of your business!” The cold face finally darkened. “What you’re doing will delay my plan to build a team!”

“I know. That’s why I’m stepping in to stop you. They aren’t suitable team members, are they?” A cold smile appeared on Joey’s face. “Besides, don’t you already have real targets in mind? Those few people are the suitable candidates, right?”

“Don’t do anything unnecessary. These should be my privileges!” The cold face fell silent for a moment. Finally, after issuing that last warning, it vanished from the glass window.

“Apostle 70053, Keller Robert has died. You have completed the hidden branch plot ‘Eliminating the Traitor.’ This task cannot be shared with the team; it belongs solely to the Apostle who eliminated the traitor.”

“Note: Upon return, this hidden plot has a 35% chance of improving the Apostle’s personal mission evaluation. Basic mission rewards have been sent to Storage Space: 5000 Shattered Crystals, 3 Contribution Points, Random Technique Scroll (Low Grade).”

“Warning: The Apostle must keep the truth of Keller Robert’s death a secret. Failure to do so will not only provoke Leo Robert’s revenge but will also increase the difficulty of the current main branch mission!”

“Tch, shot so many times, neck wrung, and only now does she finally die?” Joey curled his lip. His eyes shifted. “That woman, with an ordinary person’s physique, held on for so long. Thinking about it, this syringe really is something amazing!”

Joey looked at the amber syringe in his hand, smiled triumphantly, flipped his hand, and stored the syringe in his Storage Space.

“Joey, how are things on your end?” Grant’s voice suddenly came through the Team Channel.

“Good. We’ve broken through to the fourth carriage. What’s the progress of Skorzeny and the others up ahead?” Joey asked in a low voice.

“Not good. The difference in manpower is too great. They’re tied up by the Justice League. Also, the Allied special forces are suppressing the Hydra Corps’ firepower and starting to break through towards the locomotive from the carriage roofs!” Grant said calmly. “Skorzeny has already given up on pushing through to the scientists’ carriage. He plans to have Bock perform a directional blast!”

“So, our branch hidden plot completion can only reach below 40%?” Joey licked his lips and raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing to be done about it. The Hydra Corps didn’t carry much ammunition to catch up with the train. But the Allied forces on the military train have a lot of heavy firepower. I estimate Bock’s directional blast won’t be able to harm the important person mentioned in the mission. As for that key item, we probably won’t even get to see it!” Grant sounded somewhat helpless.

“Heavy firepower… Grant, Bock’s Superpower should allow him to detonate from a distance, right?” Joey’s eyes shifted. A strange expression suddenly appeared on his face.

“Hmm, but he can only sense the explosives he has marked. What are you thinking?” Grant asked, surprised.

“Heh, I just happen to have a few blocks of yellow explosive he marked. Notify Bock to wait for my signal before detonating!” Joey looked at the 380mm twin railway gun in the carriage before him, grinning silently with a fierce smile.