Suddenly, he frowned, closed his eyes and asked himself, 'Am I becoming too cold-blooded?'
He recalled the feelings he felt when he killed the two intruders last night and realized even though it had been his first time taking a life... he didn't feel any disgust, nausea and conflict like he had read people usually felt.
He then recalled his recent kills and similarly, apart from the rage he felt upon seeing Tommy injured and the trio eyeing Martinez villa like predators, he felt nothing.
Even now, as he decided to slaughter around 100 people, some of which might not be enemy, he didn't feel anything... it was as it was all perfectly normal.
After a moment, he opened his eyes, void of any confusion and hesitation. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"It's normal, really. If I don't kill them, they will harm my family, my loved ones." He muttered, "In that case, they deserve to die."
Even though his remained away from home most of the time and they shared very few moments together, he respected him a lot and though he might have ignored his advice when he told him to go out, make new friends and do something productive with his life, he didn't ignore his words, in fact, he kept them in his heart.
He was probably around 10-12 years old at that time. John had gotten in some kind of accident and was lying in hospital. When he went to meet him with Emily, Sophie and Natalie, he had grabbed his hand, looked him in the eyes and had said:
"Nothing is more important than family." Max muttered, standing up from the bed. After stretching his body for a few minutes, he walked out of the room.
...
The Governor's Mansion was quite large. Apart from the main residence where the Governor lived, there were several other residences and buildings such as the administration building, Police Headquarters, Resource Management Department and others which were needed to run the city efficiently.
As Max walked toward the Mansion's gate, he occasionally saw people here and there, all looking very tense, aware of the impending crisis. Moreover, he also noticed that they didn't seem to be suffering from the lack of food and water like the rest of the city.
'Perhaps the Governor was aware of the Nuclear Strikes and stocked up, or maybe the Mansion always had enough supplies in reserve?' His thoughts wandered.
The city they lived in, Red City, situated in the southernmost part of the New Island, was a small-sized city. Due to its size and the fact that all the supplies needed, except for some daily use items, were delivered from other cities once a month, always on time, there was no warehouse or storage facility.
In other words, apart from the grocery stores and supermarkets, no one kept many food items and other things in reserve, including the Governor's Mansion.
So, it was a little surprising to see that the mansion, where several families lived, didn't seem to face any issues in regards to food and water even after two weeks.
Soon, Max arrived at the gate and the two men immediately noticed him.
While the impatient guy shifted his gaze after giving him a look, the other one curiously asked, "You are leaving?"
"No." Max shook his head and because there was no place to sit, he leaned against the wall a few feet away from the man and asked, "You know I'm the Governor's grandson, right?"
His words surprised the impatient guy and he gave him another look before looking away. As for the other one, he wasn't surprised and calmly nodded, "Yeah."
Max nodded and asked, "How do I address you?"
"I'm Jack." The man said before glancing at his partner, "And he is Henry."
"So, Jack, if you don't mind, can I ask you a few quick questions?" Max asked.
Jack hesitated for a moment before nodding, "Sure, go ahead, but make it quick."
"Sure." Max nodded, "Can you tell me why they are targeting the mansion and do they have guns?"
Hearing this, Jack shook his head, "We don't know why they are targeting us because they didn't state their intentions, but If I had to guess, someone has told them to do it. As for who, I have no clue."
"As for your second question, no, they don't have guns, not yet at least." His expression was grim as he said this.
"What do you mean?" Max asked, curious.
"Last night, some of them were drunk and shouted at us that soon, they will have guns and it will be time for the Mansion to be destroyed." Jack responded and immediately after, Henry spoke up, "Again, they were only trying to scare us."
"I understand." Max nodded before asking, "Can you open the gate for a moment?"
"Hm? Why?" Jack frowned. Even though those people were maintaining their distance, opening the gate was still a risk which they were unwilling to take unless necessary.
"Don't worry, I won't take long." Max insisted.
Jack stared at him for a moment and despite Henry's stern gaze that told him not to agree, he nodded, "Alright."
Clink!
As Jack unlocked the gate, Henry pointed his rifle at Max.
Max ignored him, knowing the guy was probably acting like this due to all the pressure, and stepped outside.
Calmly walking over to his knife, he bent down and picked it up before sweeping his gaze across the houses and shops where the enemies were hiding and said in a loud enough voice for them to hear.
"I'm the Governor's grandson. Now, as you saw, I don't live here and don't have much of an idea what's going on here. However... let me give you one and the only warning that you'll ever get from me."
The next moment, his indifferent expression turned cold as he announced, "Drop whatever plans you have and leave if you don't want to die."
Finished saying this, he didn't wait for their response, turned around and walked back into the mansion.
It didn't matter to him whether they heeded his warning or not. In fact, he wasn't inclined to warn them at all. The only reason he did so was because he believed there were some people among them who might have been forced to be here.
If they left after his warning, it was good, but if they did not, well... they could only blame themselves then.
Jack and Henry were stunned hearing his declaration and couldn't help but think if he had a screw loose.
Why would they leave when they had the overwhelming advantage?
They were thinking this, when they saw him walk toward them with the knife in his hand. Immediately, they became cautious. Only after he had left after nodding at them did they relax.
Then, Henry suddenly thought of something and asked, "Should I make him give up the knife? You know we can't be sure that he..."
Jack thought for a moment before shaking his head, "Leave him be."
...
While making sure he wasn't noticed, Max found a three just five feet away from the mansion's wall.
Although he didn't have any leverage because the tree trunk was straight and smooth, with his current [Physical] stats, he didn't have any problem climbing it. When he reached higher than the top of the wall, he took a deep breath and made the jump.
'Fuck!'
He managed to cross the heavily fenced wall as he intended, but as he began plummeting toward the hard, concrete ground, he couldn't help but curse inwardly. But now, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and brace for the impact.
Thud!
He landed feet first on the ground and his body sank until his butt was almost kissing the dirt, but to his pleasant surprise, he didn't feel as painful an impact on his feet or knees as he had expected.
Standing to his full height, he bought one [Breath Concealing Talisman], but didn't use it immediately. Because the place he had landed at was to the side and there was enough cover for him not to get noticed.
Right then, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps and knew those people watching this area had heard the sound of him landing and were coming to check.
His eyes gleamed and with unhurried steps, he walked out in open and saw three men coming over, holding knives and hockey sticks.
"Oh?" They looked at Max up and down and then at the ten feet tall mansion wall. Seeing the fencing was intact, the surprise was clear in their eyes.
"You jumped right? Why do you look perfectly fine?" One of them asked.
Max couldn't be bothered to entertain them. Gripping his knife tightly, he suddenly dashed toward them, covering the several meters distance between them within a second.
Swoosh!
The trio's pupils constricted, but they didn't have time to react before Max had sliced open the neck of the one who spoke.
"You..." The man clutched his neck and stared at him in horror and disbelief.
Max didn't spare him a second glance and stepped toward the one on the right. Although the man managed to react and smashed his hockey stick towards Max's head in a panic, Max easily dodged it and stabbed the knife in his chest, impaling his heart.
Katcha!
In the next moment, he pulled it out and sliced it across his neck, drawing a spray of blood.
It was then the last man attacked him from behind.
Shua!
He was taken completely off guard when Max killed his first companion, but by the time he finished the second, he had gripped his knife tightly, arrived right behind him and stabbed the knife at Max's neck.
Seeing the tip of the knife was about to penetrate Max's neck while he was slashing his friend's neck, his eyes glinted with glee and he shouted.
"DIE YOU BASTARD!"
However...
In the next moment, horror coloured his face when he saw Max, at the very last moment, dive to the side, dodging his sure kill strike.
His heart pounding in terror, he lunged at him and frantically slashed at the only part within his reach—Max's leg.
But before the knife could connect, Max kicked his wrist and the knife flew out of his hand, clattering on the ground.
The man froze in place, scared stiff.
Then as he watched Max stand up and look at him, he began shivering. "I... I'm sorry. P-Please don't kill—Gah!"
A stab through his throat interrupted his pleading.
Thud!
Clutching his neck, the man fell to his knees. Just like the other two, he also had the look of horror on his face.
Max stood there in silence for a few moments. When he was sure all three of them were dead, he wiped the blade on their clothes and, deciding to minimize the risk, used the [Breath Concealing Talisman].
...
Three minutes later, Max entered one of the houses across the street from the Governor's Mansion.
Before arriving here, he had noticed three more people watching the side wall and easily finished them off.
At the same time, he also realized that as long as he didn't appear within the line of sight of someone or made too much noise, he would be basically invisible to everyone.
'Let's see how many I can kill within seven minutes.' He thought and stalked toward the two guys sitting on the chairs near the window, looking at the mansion.
Trying to be as quiet as possible, he arrived behind one of them, put his hand on the man's mouth before slicing his throat.
Immediately after that, he moved toward the other one and sliced his neck just when he had noticed his partner making muffled noises and stamping his feet.
As their blood sprayed out and the light in their eyes began dimming, they stared at Max, who calmly said, "You should have left when you had the chance.' and left the house.
By the time the talisman's duration ended, he had visited several three houses and two shops, killing another 17 men. So, in total, he had killed 25 people.
'I need to be faster.' He thought before buying two more talismans.
After slapping on his chest, activating it, he continued.
...
Phew!
Twenty minutes later, he stopped and exhaled deeply.
He then looked at his hands—despite him trying to be as clean as possible, they were covered in blood because he didn't manage to conduct effortless assassinations every time because there were multiple people in place.
As soon as he killed one or two, the others would notice him and then they would put up resistance.
Fortunately, though, seeing he was alone, they would entertain the hope of dealing with him until their last moments, otherwise if they had shouted out warnings, things would have become a lot more troublesome.