Chapter 118: A Great Regret
Knock, knock, knock... the sound of knocking echoed.
Kimura Mifune, waiting nervously outside the door, had already tidied his clothes many times, afraid of appearing untidy.
After a brief moment, he heard sounds coming from inside the room, and then the door opened.
He entered a room on the top floor of the building, which was also the most secretive.
Here, it was like a small museum, with beautiful artworks displayed behind transparent glass on both sides of the walls.
From the Ten Thousand Demon Kingdom's handmade crafts to the Ming Country's magical treasures, and even the imperial historical relics acquired from allied nations.
Just having these treasures placed here would bring endless satisfaction to anyone.
But lying within it at this moment was an elderly person who was very, very old.
Mito Yoriichiro, who we will call Mito for short, is a seventy-three-year-old man, which is considered quite old.
But this age is not considered very old at all, especially in this world where non-human creatures wander. Even a hundred-year-old monster would still be quite common here.
But he was born with a weak body, having a malformed heart. He relied on a replacement artificial heart to support him until today. He had been waiting for a suitable transplant heart for a whopping thirty years. Suddenly, a ray of light shone from behind, revealing a frail figure sitting on the bed, and then the light split into two halves, scattering onto the ground.
Kimura stared at his own toes, too afraid to look directly at the elderly man who held a high position in Yingzhou.
"It seems that you are not here to report good news," Mito's voice sounded tired and old.
"I'm very sorry, Mito-sama," Kimura's forehead broke out in a cold sweat. "Apart from a small mishap, we were almost successful, but... that girl, she miraculously improved..."
"Miracle?" Mito Yoriichiro looked up with questioning eyes. "But what I heard was that she wouldn't make it through tonight."
"It was like this, but after that man arrived, not long after, she started feeling better."
"Man?"
"Indeed... Sakurai Shiru is now under the nominal guardianship of insert guardian's name, who somehow managed to obtain her father's signed documents. It is almost accepted that he is the guardian. We investigated his identity and found that he is just a person from the Ming Country, with a simple network of connections. He has a younger sister who attends Far East University, and since she is underage, he is serving as the temporary guardian..." Kimura reported the investigation results in a detailed manner.
"So what then?" Mito asked in a deep voice. "Does my heart have anything to do with it?"
"This... this..." Kimura Mifune stammered, unable to provide an answer. Overwhelmed by immense pressure, he fell to his knees, his forehead touching the ground. "Please, give me a little more time. I promise I will find a solution."
"Go outside."
"Sir..."
"Go out!"
Kimura was pushed out of the house. The door closed, leaving him feeling completely lost and hopeless.
Inside the closed room full of precious treasures, Mito Yoriichiro held his chest, coughing weakly. He asked, "How much longer can I hold on?"
A figure walked out from behind the art cabinet and said, "Three days."
Mito placed the breathing machine on his face and took a deep breath. He said, "You can go now."
"With the help of an external circulation system, I was able to sustain myself for twenty-four hours."
"Before this, you go and bring the heart. Remember, it must not have any damage."
...
That night.
A group of people quietly sneaked into the hospital.
The group of people were fully equipped with weapons, and they were professional individuals. They were completely different from the gangsters in the underworld. They worked in a unified and organized manner, carrying a large amount of modern weaponry with them.
Not only did they wear sharp tactical knives, but they also carried loaded guns.
They dressed in a way that made them look similar to terrorists, both wearing masks to cover their faces.
There weren't many of them, but they had clear roles. The hospital was quiet in the late night. From bottom to top, they swiftly sneaked in and subdued the duty room.
The security guard on duty was originally drinking herbal tea from a thermos while listening to a drama on the radio. Suddenly, he was attacked and didn't have time to react. A gun was pointed at his head, and he was hit on the back of his head with a hard object. He passed out from the impact. His clothes were taken off, and he was forced into a box.
Once the security guards were completely subdued, all information was swiftly blocked and kept secret.
Yingzhou Hospital, which hasn't fully modernized yet, lacks advanced security measures and panic buttons for immediate alarms.
After all, this was an era where even using mobile phones was considered a novelty. Surprisingly, this group of people had such well-equipped gear that they were able to successfully carry out a night raid on a military base in the United States.
Although electronic devices were advancing quickly, when it came to individual combat firepower, there wasn't a significant difference even after just a few decades.
On the way, there were brave doctors and nurses who thought about resisting and sounding the alarm. However, even if they made a few cries for help, it didn't ignite the desire in those people to flee from the dangerous situation and seek help.
But as the dark barrels of guns were pointed at them, their courage immediately transformed into a different, more defiant attitude.
"I tied myself up, just ignore me, ignore me..."
There were people who even forcefully banged their heads against the wall, causing themselves to become dizzy and faint.
The person who arrived clearly had no intention to kill. It took them less than a brief moment to enter and take control of the situation inside the hospital.
Indeed, they were well-trained, beyond the abilities of ordinary mercenaries. Only the best international mercenary groups could reach such a level of skill.
"All the repression is done."
"Only left to capture the target."
The armed individuals talked quietly, using only a few words and mostly communicating through gestures.
Some people felt really relaxed and started telling jokes, making everyone laugh.
"We should hurry up and finish, then leave. If we go back now, we can still make it in time for the BBQ."
Right away, someone joined in and started whistling.
Two armed individuals arrived at the door of the fifth-floor ward. Quietly, they turned the doorknob, which wasn't locked. The room inside was also pitch dark, with only a few gentle lights coming from some instruments.
A dark-skinned armed person took the lead and walked in. But after just a couple of steps, he immediately stopped. He raised his right fist to warn his companion not to come in and aimed his gun.
Because there was someone sitting there.
Moonlight streamed through the window, casting a gentle glow inside the room. The young man stood with his back to the moonlight, illuminating him like a full moon.
He sat upright in the chair, all along he had been resting his eyes. When he lifted his gaze, he only looked towards the sickbed. It seemed like he didn't notice the intruders, or maybe he did, but didn't pay much attention.
The armed person asked in a deep voice, "Who goes there?"
Bai Wei shifted his gaze to the side and said, "You all barged in here without permission. Can you believe you don't even know who I am?"
"No matter who you are, raise your hands and lie down on the ground!" he threatened, "Or else..."
He pulled back the safety lever of the firearm, his finger resting on the trigger, as if he could fire at any moment.
The young man seemed to have already anticipated the outcome, and he let out a sigh, saying, "Oh..."
The armed person couldn't wait any longer, and growled, "Get down!"
Bai Wei raised his finger and said, "Shh! Don't disturb the patients. Don't you realize what time it is now?"
With an indifferent attitude, Bai Wei made the armed person feel a strong sense of contempt, mockery, and disdain.
This made him feel unhappy and uneasy at the same time.
He held a firearm in his hand, ready to pull the trigger and turn someone into a sieve at any moment. Anyone who saw it would feel afraid, but there were very few people who not only had no fear, but even laughed mockingly. Firearms were terrifying, but a submachine gun alone was not enough to dominate the world... because there was a mysterious power that defied the laws of physics, allowing one to rise above it.
Was this young person truly fearless, or were they just pretending?
The armed person's Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and he realized that this task was not as easy as he had initially thought.
But he couldn't think about it any longer, nor did he have time to ponder too much.
The young man had already stood up, with his back facing a full moon. As he stood up, his tall figure filled up more than half of the window, dividing the moonlight like in a play, as if igniting a beast-like pupil in the eyes of the giant outside the window.
And this eye was staring right at him!
"Don't come closer!" the armed person growled in a low voice.
Bai Wei didn't actually come closer, he just stood by the bed, leaning his back against the windowsill.
"If you leave now, there's still time. I won't hold it against you."
After saying those words, he smiled to himself, as if mocking the other person's foolishness and his own hypocrisy.
"But I don't think you will leave... so you can pretend you didn't hear anything. I was just saying hello as part of my routine duties. It's a tedious but necessary step to try and persuade you to surrender, for humanitarian reasons. Otherwise, it would be troublesome to have to ask for your last words one by one before executing you."
The armed person's throat tightened as they struggled to ask, "What are you saying? What does this mean?"
"What does it mean? It means...,"
"I waited here until late at night on purpose, just to wait for all of you."
"In order to take away the heart inside the little girl's chest, you went through so much trouble... I am very sorry about this."
The young person looked solemn and sincere, like a priest mourning for the deceased, as he said, "Truly, I feel very sorry."
