Before the words had even finished echoing, Joshua mmed the knife down, driving it straight through his own palm and into the wooden table.


    Blood sprayed across the surface, sttering Gibson''s face.


    Not just Keen, but Gibson himself was frozen in shock. It had happened in a sh.


    Yet Joshua, seemingly impervious to pain, smiled. "See, Mr. Gibson? Isn''t this much more effective than your earlier threat?"


    Gibson''s pupils trembled. Staring at the man''s unnervingly calm, smiling face, he stammered, "You... you''re insane!"


    Joshua pulled the knife out of his hand and offered it to Gibson. "Care to try, Mr. Gibson? Have a taste of what it''s like to kill your enemy with your own hands?"<fn963e> Original content can be found at find?novel</fn963e>


    Before this moment, Gibson had fantasized about tearing Joshua limb from limb. But now, after Joshua had effortlessly bypassed his traps and bizarrely mutted himself without flinching-even inviting him to join in as if offering a fine meal— Gibson waspletely thrown. This man yed by no rules. This series of unhinged actions had short-circuited his brain.


    Even Keen, tied to the chair, stared wide-eyed, his tears forgotten.


    But Gibson was no fool. He quickly regained hisposure. He didn''t take the proffered knife, wary of a trick. "Since you have so many ideas," he said coldly, "why don''t you stab yourself in the heart next?"


    Joshua feigned confusion. "Mr. Gibson, am I here to kill myself? If I wanted to die, I could have done it at home. Why travel all this way? It''s exhausting."


    Gibson remained wary. Joshua hade alone, which meant he had an ace up his sleeve. Was this disy of madness a cover for some other objective?


    With that thought, Gibson said, "Since you''ve passed my tests and shown your sincerity, I''ll make this simple. He pointed at Keen. "He has a bomb strapped to him with a five-minute timer. If you can defuse it in five minutes, you both walk out of here alive. If not... whata pity. You''ll die together."


    Gibson smiled at Joshua. "You came here alone. For that, I respect you as a man,


    so I''m giving you one chance to live. Whether you take it is up to you."


    He motioned to his men. "Let''s go."


    Once outside, the smile vanished from Gibson''s face, reced by a cold, sinister expression. He turned to a subordinate. "Ignite the gasoline around that room. I want to see if he abandons the boy to save himself when death is staring him in in the face. And tell the snipers to get ready. If he makes it out before the bomb goes off, kill him."


    "Understood, sir," the man replied.


    Another subordinate asked, "Mr. Gibson, are we just letting him off that easy?


    What about all the methods you prepared to torture him?"


    "A man who would do that to himself is not normal," Gibson said. "He''s either not afraid to die, or he''spletely insane. I can feel it-he''s dangerous. It''s better to keep my distance. The longer we dy, the more variables there are. I don''t want to end up dead myself without getting my revenge."