Chapter 130: Christmas Eve, Night of Murder

At 2:00 PM, the Go game was still in the opening stage.

Kirigaya Nuo raised her hand, signaling to the referee nearby.

"Excuse me, I need to leave for a moment."

Naturally referring to going to the restroom.

The referee nodded in agreement; this was very common in two-day long games.

Moreover, playing the game up to this point today, both players had left their seats once or twice.

Kirigaya Nuo stood up, walked out of the game room unhurriedly, and disappeared around the corner of the corridor outside the door.

She didn't walk toward the restroom closest to the game room, but went toward the one at the end of the corridor, near the logistics passage.

Pushed the door, entered, locked it from the inside.

All the calmness on her face instantly faded. She quickly walked to the innermost independent cubicle and moved the stainless steel trash can in the corner.

A thin and light old-model laptop lay quietly at the bottom.

She took out the computer. Her fingertips landing on the keyboard immediately turned into a blurry afterimage.

Lines of code rolled down the command line window like a waterfall.

First objective:

Intrude into the internal surveillance system of the "Kasuitei" hot spring villa.

Upload pre-prepared, looping fake surveillance footage clips, overwriting the real records of specific cameras during a specific time period.

Second objective:

Crack the encrypted communication channel frequency of Takemiya Susumu's accompanying bodyguard team.

Simulating the voice characteristics and command format of the security commander, send two fake commands into the channel:

"Suspicious unmanned package found in the outer corridor of the hot spring area, volume unknown. Group A, dispatch two people to assist in investigation, raise vigilance!"

"Attention, a suspicious vehicle drove into the villa. Group B, proceed immediately to the parking lot area to confirm and investigate!"

The entire process took one minute and forty-seven seconds.

Subsequently, she closed the computer and put it back in its original place.

She knew that very soon, peripheral personnel of the Crescent Group would completely clean up and take away this computer, along with all traces inside.

Turning around, she opened that inconspicuous small door on the inside of the restroom, entering the connected janitorial tool room.

A dark blue hotel janitorial uniform hung on the wall, and beside it were a matching hat, mask, and disposable rubber gloves.

Even a pair of janitor shoes with built-in special insoles.

She changed into the shoes. Her height quietly increased by nearly ten centimeters, and the lines of her shoulders and back also appeared slightly broader due to shoulder pads.

Finally, she put on a pair of perfectly ordinary plain black-framed glasses.

Stood in front of that old mirror covered in water stains in the tool room.

The person in the mirror had completely changed.

A middle-aged woman with a slightly tall and stocky build.

Her whole person emitted an instantly forgettable exhaustion of someone engaged in bottom-tier manual labor long-term.

Even Xu Yunzhou, who was paying close attention, almost couldn't recognize that this was that peerless genius young girl in front of the Go board.

"Teacher,"

Facing the mirror, she adjusted the edges of the gloves for the last time,

"Help me keep a close eye on the surroundings, pay attention to any details I might have overlooked."

Even though according to countless deductions and simulations, the probability of her successfully escaping and completely directing suspicion to the "scapegoat" was as high as 99%.

But, worldly affairs are like a game of Go; ultimately, that unpredictable 1% might exist.

Xu Yunzhou's illusory figure condensed beside her, his expression unprecedentedly serious:

"Rest assured, Ah Nuo. At the ten o'clock direction corridor corner, two people are approaching, but will turn in about twenty seconds. The surveillance camera on your left is swinging back, there is a five-second blind spot. Go."

She pushed that prepared cleaning cart by the door, lowered her head, and following the "Staff Passage" signs pasted on the wall, walked toward the direction of the hot spring area.

In the corridor, she encountered several bodyguards wearing black suits looking hurried.

They were pressing their earpieces, communicating in low voices with nervous expressions, running quickly toward the parking lot direction, even almost bumping into her cleaning cart.

No one gave her an extra glance.

A cleaner, in their eyes at this moment, was no different from a decorative potted plant by the roadside.

At the entrance of the hot spring area, there were still two bodyguards standing guard, but their attention was clearly distracted by the "suspicious package" and "suspicious vehicle" in their earpieces, their eyes glancing from time to time toward the depths of the passage and outside.

She pushed the cart closer, somewhat clumsily raising the employee badge hanging around her neck.

The bodyguard only hastily glanced at that photo and the words "Kasuitei Logistics Department," then waved impatiently, gesturing for her to hurry inside.

Passed smoothly.

Inside the hot spring area, a faint smell of sulfur curled up, exceptionally peaceful.

Pushing the cart, she walked straight to the deepest part, that secluded corridor leading only to a few top-tier private hot spring suites.

Stopped outside the sandalwood door marked "Tsukimi no Yu."

The door was left slightly ajar.

From inside came the splashing sound of water being scooped, as well as the sound of a middle-aged man humming enka with an out-of-tune voice.

(TL: Enka is a traditional Japanese music genre.)

She stopped the cleaning cart, bent down naturally, and reached into a hidden compartment at the bottom of the cart.

Cold to the touch, metallic texture.

Took it out.

A Walther P99 pistol fitted with a cylindrical silencer fell into her palm.

Loaded the chamber.

The movement was gentle and steady, not emitting the slightest sound of metal clashing.

Then, she straightened up, and using her hand wearing a rubber glove, gently pushed open that heavy sandalwood door.

Warm water vapor rushed at her face, mixed with a stronger smell of sulfur.

Amidst the curling mist, a slightly plump middle-aged man had his back to the door, his whole body immersed in the milky white hot spring pool, revealing only his head and part of his shoulders.

He was closing his eyes, shaking his head and humming a song, completely unguarded.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, he was somewhat displeased, but didn't turn his head. He spoke lazily, carrying the impatience of being disturbed typical of someone in a high position:

"Didn't I say it? No extra service needed, get out... hmm?"

Before his words fell.

Kirigaya Nuo had already raised her arm.

Her gaze penetrated the thin mist, locking onto that completely unprotected junction of the back of the head and the neck.

No hesitation, no trembling.

Pulled the trigger.

"Pfft—"

The bullet left the muzzle, spinning as it tore through the air, submerging into the junction of Takemiya Susumu's cervical spine and medulla oblongata at the back of his neck.

The humming sound stopped abruptly.

Takemiya Susumu's body abruptly stiffened, and his body slowly, crookedly slid into the warm spring water.

He couldn't even let out a complete cry of pain.

One strike. Sure kill.

Blood, at first just a wisp of dark red, subsequently gushed out, rapidly blooming and dyeing the milky white spring water.

Kirigaya Nuo quickly retreated two steps and closed the door.

Pushed the cleaning cart and walked toward an adjacent room marked "Equipment Room / Vacant."

The door was slightly ajar.

She pushed the cart in.

The lighting in the room was dim.

A middle-aged man wearing the dark blue uniform of a hotel maintenance worker and a baseball cap had long been waiting here, facing a small monitor screen.

Seeing Kirigaya Nuo enter, he immediately turned off the screen and gave her a slight nod.

No communication needed.

He naturally took over the handle of the cleaning cart, while Kirigaya Nuo quickly took off the disguise on her body and put it into the cleaning cart along with the pistol.

Then, he pushed this cleaning cart that was about to be disposed of, went out the door, and turned toward another direction of the corridor, which led to the freight elevator and the backyard—where a prepared, license-plate-less old truck was waiting.

Handover, completed.

Kirigaya Nuo took out a bottle of portable mouthwash from the small bag she carried with her, quickly rinsed her mouth to eliminate any sulfur smell she might have caught, and wiped her face and hands with wet wipes.

In the mirror, that cold and beautiful professional Go player Kirigaya Nuo had returned again.

Just as she was preparing to leave from the other exit of the equipment room—

"Creak—"

The door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

A little girl wearing a cute pink yukata, looking only twelve or thirteen years old, poked her head in and walked inside.

Holding a chocolate cone ice cream that had already started melting in her hand, her face was brimming with pure curiosity, her large eyes darting around.

Nakamura Sumire.

That future star placed with high hopes who shook the Go arena with the name "Ten-Year-Old Professional Genius Young Girl," also came along with the team this time as a special observer student.

Blinking her clear large eyes, she first saw Kirigaya Nuo, a pleasant surprise appearing on her small face:

"Big Sister Kirigaya... aren't you in a match? Why did you run to this... pitch-black room?"

Boom—!

Kirigaya Nuo's pupils violently contracted at that instant!

The blood in her whole body seemed to freeze instantly, and in the next split second crazily flowed backward rushing to the top of her head!

As expected.

That damn 1%!

That unpredictable variable enough to destroy all precise plans, appeared in the cruelest way!

No matter how precise the calculation, it couldn't calculate a completely random exploratory behavior conducted out of curiosity by a twelve-year-old genius girl!

In the corridor outside the door, that middle-aged man disguised as a maintenance worker who had just left not long ago seemed to have also heard the commotion.

Instantly turning back, he appeared silently in the shadows at the doorway.

Seeing the situation inside the room, his eyes abruptly became cold and sinister!

His gaze stared fixedly at Kirigaya Nuo, then swept over the ignorant little girl, his lips pursing into an icy straight line.

The meaning in that gaze was clear, cruel, unquestionable:

Silence her.

Immediately!

Absolutely cannot let the witness leave alive!

The security of the organization is above everything!