The cousin, Lin Feifei, didn't apologize. Instead, she let out a piercing shriek that sounded like a tea kettle at boiling point. She scrambled backward on the dirt, her face contorting into a mask of theatrical agony.
"Father! Second Uncle! Help! Lin Xia has been possessed by a demon!" Feifei wailed, her voice hitting a pitch that made Sura's ears ring. "Look at my face! She's trying to kill me because I'm prettier than her!"
Sura felt a vein throb in her temple. The original owner of this body must have been a saint to not have strangled this girl years ago.
Suddenly, the heavy thud of boots approached. A middle-aged man in lavish silk robes—the Marquis—marched into the courtyard, followed by a young man in a scholar's hat who looked like he had never spent a day doing manual labor in his life.
"Lin Xia!" the Marquis roared, not even glancing at his soaking wet, shivering daughter. He immediately knelt to help Feifei up. "You wicked, unfilial creature! How dare you lay a hand on your cousin? She was just trying to help you out of the pond!"
The scholar, the "fiancé" who had ignored Lin Xia for months, scoffed and fanned himself. "Truly, your temperament is as foul as your appearance, Lin Xia. Feifei is a delicate flower; you are nothing but a thorn in this family's side. Apologize now, and perhaps I won't ask to break our engagement."
Feifei leaned her head against the Marquis's shoulder, smirking at Sura through her fake tears. "Father, don't be too hard on her. I'm sure she's just jealous that the Young Master bought me the jade hairpin instead of her."
Sura looked at the three of them. The screaming girl, the biased father, and the arrogant fiancé. They were like a chorus of annoying flies.
[System Notification: Blood Pressure Rising.] the mechanical voice buzzed. [Quest Triggered: 'The Silence of the Flies'. Reward: 50 rounds of 9mm ammunition. Objective: Make them stop talking by any means necessary.]
Finally, Sura thought. A mission I actually like.
"Are you finished?" Sura asked. Her voice was flat, devoid of the usual stuttering fear.
"Finished?!" the Marquis gasped. "I haven't even begun to punish—"
Sura didn't wait. She reached into the air—seemingly grabbing nothing—and her hand closed around the grip of a Glock 17. To the onlookers, it looked like a strange, L-shaped black iron pipe had materialized from thin air.
CLICK-CLACK.
The sound of the slide chambering a round was loud and metallic.
"You talk too much," Sura said, pointing the barrel directly at the ground between the Marquis's feet.
BANG!
The explosion was deafening. Dirt and stone sprayed upward, peppering the Marquis's expensive silk boots. The scream Feifei was about to let out died in her throat, replaced by a pathetic wheeze.
"The next one goes through your foot," Sura said, shifting her aim to the "fiancé" who had dropped his fan in shock. "And the one after that goes through that fancy hat. Now... who was asking for an apology?"
The courtyard was so silent you could hear the water dripping off Sura's hair. The "delicate flower" Feifei actually wet herself.