Deviant: No Longer Human

Wang Xiao watched, unmoved by the mayor\'s cries.

"You know exactly what I\'m talking about, Mayor. The games you play, the strings you pull... they all have consequences. And tonight, those consequences have caught up with you... It implicated not only you but even the people around you," he stated, his voice resonating with a cold, hard truth.

Mayor Hasting\'s eyes, bloodshot and wild with fear, darted desperately around the room. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT!?" he screamed, his voice hoarse with pain and terror, hoping against hope that someone would hear him.

But Wang Xiao had already neutralized any potential interference from the guards.

"I don\'t want too many things, just a few answers," Wang Xiao replied, his lips curving into a smile that did not reach his eyes.

Thud!

The sound of the mayor collapsing to his knees echoed in the room. His façade of power and control had crumbled entirely, leaving a man driven solely by the instinct to survive. "I would tell, I would tell everything! Please spare me!" he begged, his voice trembling.

Wang Xiao\'s expression remained unchanged.

He had anticipated this moment, the point at which fear would override the mayor\'s usual arrogance.

Wang Xiao\'s final ultimatum echoed off the walls. "Start talking, Mayor. Time is not on your side, and neither am I." His voice was cold and unyielding, a stark contrast to the mayor\'s panicked, pain-wracked whimpers.

He held up a photo, a snapshot from the first assault they had faced from gangsters. "Do you recognize these men?" he asked, his eyes boring into the mayor\'s.

Mayor Hasting squinted through his pain, his voice faltering. "I-I..." he stammered, the recognition flashing across his face momentarily before Wang Xiao swiftly changed the photo. "What about these men? Recognize any of them?" he probed, now displaying images of soldiers.

The mayor\'s reaction was more pronounced this time, a clear sign of recognition in his terror-stricken eyes. Wang Xiao\'s lips twisted into a sly smile. "I will let you live if you tell me everything honestly."

"R-really?" Mayor Hasting gasped, desperation and a glimmer of hope mingling in his bloodshot eyes.

He began to spill everything, his words tumbling out in a frantic torrent. "It\'s those black soldiers! They paid me to—" His desperate voice trembled as he tried to reach for his phone, but then a horrifying realization washed over him.

He had lost his hands. Agony contorted his face as he clenched his jaw in pain, yet he pressed on, his words strained, "I-It was the girl they wanted! They asked me to get her alive and avoid you! I have the photos, in my phone!"

"Anything else?" Wang Xiao pressed, his face a mask of stoic darkness.

"No, nothing else! I swear! I don\'t even know who they were! Please, I have a wife and children—" His plea was abruptly cut off.

Gasp!

Wang Xiao approached him, his footsteps calm and measured. The mayor braced himself for further agony, but instead, Wang Xiao walked past him, his voice carrying a chilling revelation. "Your wife and daughter are in the closet."

The mayor\'s heart plummeted. After a minute of stunned silence, he mustered the strength to drag himself towards the closet.

His movements were shaky, fueled by dread and pain, leaving a trail of bloody footsteps.

With a weak nudge from his leg, he opened the closet door. "Grac—" His voice was a strangled whisper, the name dying in his throat as he took in the horrific sight before him.

Thud!

"BASTARD!" His scream was a mix of rage and despair, echoing through the study. He collapsed to the floor, crying, his entire being consumed by the horror of what he saw in the closet.

________

*Click*

As Wang Xiao exited the room, his movements were swift and purposeful.

He descended the stairs quickly, his figure a silent shadow slipping through the grandeur of the Hasting residence.

Reaching the kitchen, his actions were precise and calculated.

He methodically turned open all the gas valves, allowing the invisible and odorless danger to fill the room.

Then, with deliberate force, he sabotaged the pipes, ensuring that the gas would continue to flow unchecked.

Leaving the house as silently as he had entered, Wang Xiao moved with a calm urgency.

Once outside, he didn\'t pause to look back.

His expression was impassive, a mask hiding any emotion that might have stirred within him.

He walked a hundred meters away from the house, distancing himself from the imminent destruction.

Standing under the night sky, the distant sounds of the city around him, Wang Xiao waited.

The minutes ticked by, each second stretching out as the tension in the air grew palpable.

Booooom!

Then, five minutes later, the night was shattered by a colossal explosion.

The blast was thunderous, a deafening roar that resonated through the city. Flames leaped into the sky, painting the night with their ferocious dance.

The shockwave from the explosion rippled outward, shaking the ground and rattling windows in the nearby neighborhood.

WHAM!

As the fire consumed the house, casting its harsh light on the surroundings, Wang Xiao remained where he stood, a solitary figure against the destruction.

In the aftermath of the blast, emergency services would soon swarm the area, their sirens cutting through the night as they raced to the scene.

But Wang Xiao, his mission accomplished, started walking back to the villa, making his ways past the outskirts, covered with woods.

[You killed all of them? I thought you would take those girls as slaves given what you did to them, weren\'t they good looking?]" Yin Yue\'s voice questioned, her tone reflecting both curiosity and confusion.

Wang Xiao\'s eyes narrowed slightly in the darkness. "Keeping potential threats close in times like these is too risky," he replied, "They might be used against me in future."

He then dialed Li Zhiming, his fingers swiftly working the phone.

The call connected, and Li\'s voice echoed with a mix of anxiety and respect. "Lord, what can I do for you?"

Wang Xiao\'s voice was direct and accusing. "I\'ve sent you critical photos twice without a response. Is your intelligence network this incompetent?"

"..."