Villain’s Favorite 228

Chapter 228 The Sixth Floor 

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The tech guy sat at his desk, code scrolling across his screen, a cup of instant noodles beside him with a fork jammed into the lid. He chewed his midnight snack and mumbled, “What’s a kid doing going out this late?” 

“Whatever you guys do at night, that’s what I’m doing.” 

He paused, then laughed so hard his shoulders shook. “You trying to follow in your brother’s footsteps?” He clearly thought she was joking, his voice carrying that patronizing, humoring-the-kid tone. 

“I’m not going to be a criminal.” 

“Then what?” 

“I’m going to be a killer.” 

In the past, a line like that from Maya would’ve gotten a laugh and nothing more. But this time she wasn’t kidding. 

The guy across from her didn’t catch the difference. He doubled over laughing, clutching his stomach. “Alright, alright, let me get the door for you, kid. That’s the spirit! You’re officially the Silent Archive’s trainee assassin!” 

In her last life, Maya had died before her birthday. She’d been 15 at most. She was the kind of person who watched horror movies with her hands over her eyes, peeking through the gaps between her fingers. 

But right now, at two or three in the morning, she was out in the dark alone. 

The city was still lit up. Streetlights stretched her shadow long across the pavement. An occasional car drifted past on the road. 

Maya’s hands were buried in her jacket pockets, her palms slick with a thin layer of nervous sweat that made her fingertips stick together. 

A little girl with a bulging backpack, walking the streets alone at three in the morning. It was conspicuous, to say the least. 

A kind couple stopped to ask if she was lost, offering to walk her home. 

Maya shook her head quickly. “No, thank you.” 

The woman opened her mouth to say more, but the man tugged her arm and lowered his voice. “Don’t get involved. No normal parent lets a kid this small wander around at night. And does she look like she’s in trouble to you?” 

Runaways didn’t look like this. Backpack on, face completely blank, vaguely unsettling. 

At this hour, in that getup, she didn’t look like a lost child. She looked like she was on her way to commit a 

crime. 

The woman’s face went pale and the two of them hurried off hand in hand. 

Maya hadn’t expected to scare anyone. To avoid further encounters with concerned citizens, she picked up 

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Chapter 228 The Sixth Floor 

her pace, following the route from her memory as the streets grow emptier and more desolate. 

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She reached the building at four in the morning. The sky showed no sign of brightening, the night still that deep, heavy navy. 

The abandoned high-rise loomed before her, its empty window frames gaping like rows of open eyes staring down. 

The stairwell was pitch black. No lights. The stairs were bare concrete, each step producing a faint, gritty whisper under her shoes. 

The place was practically a horror movie set. The old Maya would’ve lost her nerve on the spot, coming here alone in the dead of night. 

But every terrifying scenario her brain conjured up now paled against the memory of George dying in front of her. 

She reached into her backpack and pulled out the pinhole cameras. Tiny, barely bigger than a fingernail, matte black. She pinched one between her fingertips and pressed its magnetic base into place. 

She started on the first floor. One camera at every landing, every turn of the stairs. On the fifth floor, she stopped. 

Following the blond guy’s instructions, she wired the ten cameras’ signal lines into a micro hub and fed it into a portable DVR. Her phone connected to the DVR’s hotspot. Ten surveillance feeds blinked to life. 

Maya looked down at the screen, earbuds in, and bit down on the back of her hand to steady the hammering in her chest. 

Every floor, every corner, crisp and clear on her phone. In infrared mode the display was black and white, outlines and movement rendered in sharp contrast. 

The fifth floor was her position. The sniper’s destination was the sixth, the high ground. He’d have to climb from the first floor to get there. 

The sixth floor itself was too risky, too open, with nowhere to hide, Fourth floor or lower would put her too close, not enough time to prepare. 

Five was perfect. She’d wait here. She’d hit him on the way up. 

I’m scared, system,” Maya whispered. 

“You’re doing great. Now, once you take out the sniper, you’ll be the new sniper.” 

She let out a small, unexpected laugh. The system had a dry sense of humor sometimes. 

The absurdity of it settled her nerves just enough. She crouched down and tucked herself into an inconspicuous corner on the fifth floor, coiled tight, waiting. 

In the pitch-dark night, her black jacket swallowed her small frame into the shadows. She kept her head down, eyes sweeping the phone screen grid by grid. 

Then, at the edge of the first-floor feed, a bright white silhouette appeared. 

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Chapter 228 The Sixth Floor 

Maya’s heart seized. 

A man. Average build. Jacket on. A long, narrow case strapped across his back. 

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