Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 691 A Storm Begins
Seeing the desolate surroundings, Ona's eyes immediately turned cold; he realized he might have been tricked.

But as a seasoned professional killer, he remained calm.

In his view, the worst that could happen was encountering an unlicensed taxi that overcharged passengers; he could simply pay more money to resolve the issue, and he wouldn't even mind showing the driver what real shady dealings were like.

Finally, the van slowly came to a stop at the foot of a mountain. In the distance was a very high wall with a sign hanging on it.

Feiyue Brick Kiln Factory.

"We're here, get out." The driver turned off the engine, his tone no longer warm, but cold.

Ona got off the car with his travel bag, his sharp eyes scanning the place, which was clearly not a train station.

He subtly adjusted his breathing, preparing to subdue the three people in the car, including the driver, in an instant.

Unfortunately, he completely underestimated these seemingly harmless ordinary people.

Just as he steadied himself and focused his attention on the driver, a sudden gust of wind came from behind him.

However, he reacted extremely quickly, throwing a punch backhand.

With a loud bang, the flying object was smashed to pieces by his punch.

In an instant, a pink mist filled the air, completely covering his upper body.

It's lime!
Ona felt a burning sensation in his eyes, followed by a stinging pain.

He rolled on the spot, closed his eyes, and took out the military knife from the bag.

The military-grade knife danced beautifully in his hands before he quickly assumed a defensive stance.

His face was grim, and he shouted in broken Chinese, "Who exactly are you people?"

"Oh, so you can even wield a knife." The driver grinned.

He took a steel pipe and tapped it on the car body, making a clanging sound that immediately attracted Ona's attention.

"boom!"

Just as Ona's attention was diverted, a hard brick slammed precisely into the back of his head.

Ona felt a sudden darkness before his eyes; the immense impact caused him to lose his balance instantly, and his mind was buzzing.

His Muay Thai footwork and deadly joint locks, which he was so proud of, were completely useless under the most unadorned and unadorned bricks.

"Damn it, trying to act tough with us?" another rough voice cursed, followed by another brick hitting him in the face.

"boom!"

Ona completely lost consciousness, his body went limp like a bag of cement, and the travel bag in his hand fell to the ground.

His ordinary face, which would have been easily lost in a crowd, was now covered in blood and looked somewhat ferocious.

The driver walked over and skillfully checked Ona's breathing.

"He's not dead, he's strong and healthy, a good laborer!" The driver chuckled, revealing his teeth stained yellow from smoking.

They dragged Ona deep into the brick kiln, each grabbing one of his arms like a dead dog.

Ona, a professional with some fame in Southeast Asia's underworld and an expert in Muay Thai and assassination techniques, suffered his first major setback in his career due to mistakenly getting into an unlicensed taxi.

His specially made military knife and piano wire, which he kept close to his body, never even had a chance to meet the target, and became useless junk in the eyes of the black brick kiln supervisor.

At the same time, Cheng Yi also received a call from Chen Zhi in Southeast Asia.

"Boss, we've lost track of him." Chen Zhi's tone was somewhat somber.

"What?" Cheng Yi's eyes sharpened, and he frowned, "How could you lose them? Didn't you say that all those troublemakers in Southeast Asia were in your sights?"

Chen Zhi sighed, “I don’t know what happened either. Ever since Ona took this mission, I’ve been assigning people to be his deputies, including the people who helped him smuggle himself across the border. The people who drove him to the station were all my men. I even sent three people to board the same train with him, but when we got to Yueyang City Railway Station, we lost track of him.”

"Did he find out that you sent someone to follow him?" Cheng Yi sat on the sofa, his expression not looking too good.

Since the war with Microsoft began, Cheng Yi has been instructing Chen Zhi, Zhang Bao, and others to keep a close eye on unruly members in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Giants like Microsoft, if they want to do something shady, will only recruit people from these three places. They won't use Americans for this kind of dirty work.

As Cheng Yi had predicted, Microsoft contacted Thailand's top assassin, Ona, through its agent in Thailand and issued a mission to kidnap Lin Sipeng.

Ona probably never imagined that his middleman was Chen Zhi's man.

So Chen Zhi arranged for someone to successfully send Ona into Yunnan Province, and then arranged for a car to take Ona to the station. He also sent several people to follow Ona all the way. Their purpose was to watch Ona take Lin Sipeng away, and once the deed was done, all that was left was to stir up public opinion.

How could someone be lost despite such meticulous planning?
Isn't this fucking ridiculous?
This frightened Cheng Yi, who was usually timid.

That's the number one assassin. If he were to sneak into Jingzhou City, he'd be terrified even to kiss Lin Qingyin and the others.

As the old saying goes, if you walk by the river often enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet.

There will always be people who escape his control; things in this world don't always go as he wishes.

Seeing Cheng Yi fall silent, Chen Zhi continued, "According to our people who were following him, he eventually got into a Wuling minivan without license plates."

It's that damn Wuling minivan without license plates again...

Cheng Yi felt like cursing. Last time, when they chased after that Wuling minivan without license plates, all the employees of Black Panther Company in Zhonghai City were mobilized to barely find the car.

The key point is that those people were just ordinary people at the time, and they lacked a certain level of vigilance.

But now? A professional assassin has disappeared from their sight in a Wuling minivan.

How do I find it?
"When did this happen?" Cheng Yi asked.

Chen Zhi said, "About two hours ago, our people waiting for Ona at the West Station didn't arrive for a long time, and that's when we realized something had gone wrong."

"This isn't a mistake, this is a serious oversight," Cheng Yi cursed. "In two hours, he's almost at Jingzhou City, damn it, and the worst part is we still don't know which route he's taken."

"I'm sorry, it was my carelessness. I didn't expect Ona to have such strong counter-surveillance capabilities," Chen Zhi sighed.

“After all, he’s Thailand’s number one assassin. Anyone who’s number one in any industry is no ordinary person. How can you be so careless?” Cheng Yi said through gritted teeth, “Forget it, it’s too late to say all this now. Let’s call the police.”

"Call the police?" Chen Zhi was taken aback.

"Hmm, a professional assassin has infiltrated the country. Why don't you call the police and wait to get stabbed?" Cheng Yi said in a deep voice. "Arrange for someone to act as a concerned bystander and go to Yunnan Province to report to the police. Just say that someone has been paid to kidnap a well-known IT expert from the Momo Technology Industrial Park, but don't say who it is."

"Okay, I'll get on it right now." Chen Zhi knew he had made a huge mistake, so he wiped his sweat and hung up the phone.

All his income now comes from Momo Group. He can't even imagine the consequences if that guy Ona really breaks into Jingzhou City.

He knew very well how much Cheng Yi valued his life. Despite Cheng Yi's usual arrogance and domineering attitude, he was actually quite timid, and his motto was "A wise man avoids dangerous situations." Cheng Yi wouldn't even dare to go abroad, let alone have an assassin infiltrate Jingzhou. Wouldn't that be like the sky falling?

Cheng Yi hung up the phone and immediately called Gao Yang, the president of the Jingzhou Police Association. Gao Yang was also shocked to hear that the kind of assassins seen on TV had entered Jingzhou.

After the jump, Gao Yang became excited again.

This is... so exciting!

How could I possibly catch a killer in my lifetime?
Thank goodness for Momo Group, otherwise he might never have seen what a professional assassin looks like in his entire life.

In his excitement, Gao Yang first reported to his superiors and, after receiving their permission, immediately began mobilizing police forces.

After receiving the assassin's photo from Cheng Yi, Gao Yang personally led a team to set up defenses in various areas of Jingzhou City, including airports, train stations, highway entrances, and intersections of national and provincial highways.

For a moment, it even gave people a feeling of dark clouds looming over them.

The sudden citywide lockdown in Jingzhou, with flashing police lights at major intersections and police officers meticulously checking passing vehicles and pedestrians—scenes usually only seen in movies and TV dramas—instantly ignited curiosity and panic among citizens and netizens.

Various speculations and rumors spread like wildfire.

"What major event has occurred? Are they catching a fugitive?"

"I don't think so. This is too big a operation; even the SWAT team has been deployed!"

"I heard from a relative in the police system that a foreign assassin has infiltrated the country!"

"Really? That's terrifying! Who's the target?"

At this time, Caiyun Province also received reports from enthusiastic citizens and provided evidence confirming that Microsoft had spent a lot of money to hire assassins to enter Jingzhou City to kidnap a well-known IT expert.

This news was so important that when the authorities in Yunnan Province received the report, they were trying to cover it up, but before the concerned citizens could even leave their homes, the news had already spread on the internet.

These days, people's spiritual lives are rather impoverished, so when such a juicy piece of gossip suddenly came out, the entire internet instantly went into a frenzy.

"It's confirmed! This is why Jingzhou is under strict control!"

"My God! Microsoft? A Fortune 500 company? Using such underhanded tactics?"

"Kidnapping an IT tycoon? Momo Technology Industrial Park? Could the target be Cheng Yi?"

"They're definitely after the Moc-OS system! Business competition has gone to such extremes, it's too shady."

"We must investigate this thoroughly! We must protect our scientific and technological talent!"

This topic has been all over social media platforms, forums, and portal websites.

The hashtags #MicrosoftHiresKillers#, #ProtectOurProgrammers#, and #JingzhouUnderCityAlert# quickly rose to the top of the trending topics list, each followed by a bright red "hot" icon.

Public opinion was almost unanimously condemning Microsoft, while expressing sympathy and support for Momo Group and other Chinese technology companies.

Microsoft's image as a technology giant and innovation pioneer, built up over many years, has been significantly impacted at this moment.

Cheng Yi sat in his office, watching the scrolling public opinion on the screen, but his expression was not relaxed.

His initial plan was to wait for Ona to successfully kidnap Lin Sipeng and obtain evidence before detonating the bomb, catching Microsoft off guard.

But now, Ona is out of control, like a bomb lurking in the shadows that could explode at any moment. He can only flip the table in advance, muddy the waters, and use public opinion pressure and official intervention to force Microsoft to back down.

At the very least, we need to make Ona choose to back down.

For safety's sake, he plans to settle this match at best with Microsoft.

"Damn it, this is really annoying..." Cheng Yi cursed under his breath.

This feeling of being out of control made him very uncomfortable.

……

Inside the Microsoft Asia Group headquarters in Yanjing, Waters's mood, like Cheng Yi's, was on a rollercoaster.

He stared at the overwhelming negative news and angry comments from netizens on his computer screen, his face turning ashen and veins throbbing on his forehead.

His phone kept ringing: inquiries from the US headquarters, follow-up questions from partner media, and notifications from relevant departments requesting his assistance in investigations.

"How could this have happened?" Waters's face was grim. He looked at the public relations director beside him and said in a deep voice, "How could it have been leaked? Who did it? And where is Ona now?!"

“Mr. Waters, please don’t worry. The evidence online doesn’t prove that we did this. We can issue a statement saying that someone is maliciously framing us.” The Director of Public Relations said in a low voice, “As long as they don’t have substantial evidence, we can say that they are smearing us.”

"Hmm." Waters said in a deep voice, "Contact Ona's contact immediately, cancel the mission, and send him back to Thailand!"

The director of public relations said with difficulty, "President, we...we tried to contact him, but we couldn't. Ona is out of contact."

"Out of contact?" Waters' pupils contracted, and an ominous premonition surged into his heart.

In the assassin industry, a sudden period of silence before an operation often signifies that the operation is about to begin or has already begun.

"Has he...has he already arrived in Jingzhou?" Waters' voice carried a hint of fear that he himself was unaware of.

If Lin Sipeng were to be kidnapped at this time, they would be in deep trouble, like mud falling into their pants.

"Quick! Use all resources to find Ona and make him stop what he's doing, quick!" Waters practically roared as he gave the order.

In the past few days, both Microsoft Asia Group and Momo Group have been thrown into chaos because of Ona's appearance.

They could never have imagined that the top Thai assassin they had hired at great expense, who had put them in such a passive position, was now wearing tattered work clothes, sweating profusely as he carried bricks in a secluded black brick kiln in Yueyang City, Hunan Province.

"Damn it, have you not eaten?" the foreman yelled, whipping Ona hard.

Ona stumbled, glancing up at the overseer but only managing to make out his blurry outline.

Because of the lime in his eyes, his vision has permanently deteriorated.

He can only see things a few meters ahead now, and the worst part is that he hasn't had a proper meal in almost three days.

Every day it's just swill that even pigs wouldn't eat.

They ate until their stomachs were rumbling and their legs felt weak.

He tried his best to move the bricks, but the more he moved, the more desperate he became.

In this situation, even if he knew Muay Thai, let alone Taro, he would have to obediently work as a laborer.

China is truly terrifying; he longs to go home...

(End of this chapter)