“Ding!”
With a crisp chime, the elevator doors opened, revealing Demon Sword’s resolute, hard-edged face.
As if he had been here hundreds and thousands of times before, he familiarly threaded his way past the scavengers looking to fleece piglets, then stepped onto the neon-flickering street.
Relying on intelligence from the dark web, Feng Xue took a winding route and finally arrived at an utterly ordinary-looking real estate agency. Though the dark web was full of fishers and frauds, according to Old Jiang, there was still one type of information that could be trusted: information on middlemen.
Every one of these people who built bridges and made connections for gangs, mercenaries, corporate dogs, and even the wealthy had an enormous network of connections behind them. If anyone dared to strut around pretending to be a middleman, they would definitely die far faster than any sucker could ever track them down.
As the somewhat aged automatic door let out a grating electronic “Welcome,” a balding middle-aged man raised his head. His pair of electronic eyes rotated twice before he spoke.
“Looking at properties?”
“Looking for Old Tom. Want to talk about the place we mentioned before.” Feng Xue smoothly gave the countersign. The man nodded and pointed at the stairs behind him.
“Upstairs. Reception Room Six.”
Feng Xue said nothing, picked up his cases, and headed to the second floor.
“I hope you’re not some idiot who saw a bit of something online and came running.”
The door to Reception Room Six had only just been pushed open when a slightly aged voice reached his ears. Looking at the old man before him, whose modifications left no visible trace to the naked eye, Feng Xue simply found a random place to sit down, then said,
“I’ve been a little tired lately. I want to find somewhere quiet to rest for a few months.”
Old Tom paid no mind to Feng Xue’s rudeness. His gaze lingered for a moment on the two suitcases Feng Xue was carrying, and his tone softened somewhat. “The street district isn’t like the garbage district. Where you live and what identity you use determine who will have their eyes on you. How quiet do you want it?”
“As long as it’s far away from those bastards tearing up the streets, that’s enough. I’m here on vacation. I don’t want to see any bugs, much less waste effort cleaning them up.”
His tone was extremely calm, casual as neighbors chatting about gossip. But the keen nerves that had supported Old Tom’s survival until now detected a terrifying killing intent held back and unreleased, like a great white shark lurking beneath the surface of the sea; all it needed was a hint of blood, and it would devour everything in its path.
Old Tom immediately realized this was definitely no hotheaded rookie dreaming of making a name for himself. This was a formidable outsider who had crawled out of some pile of corpses.
“A portable operating table is one thing, but iron-man posts went out of production years ago. Anyone who knows how to use that thing has to be an expert who knows the trade. Did he just come back from the wilderness?”
Realizing this, Old Tom immediately abandoned any unnecessary probing and said directly,
“There are good places, but they aren’t cheap. Of course, if you’re willing to take on—”
“Name a price.”
His unfinished words were rudely cut off. Old Tom, who could at least be considered someone of some standing, showed not the slightest anger. He simply picked up his terminal and pulled up the listings.
Of course, since this involved a middleman, it naturally could not be only about housing. Beside those properties were attached identities that allowed one to move in reasonably and legally.
“That’s all?”
Feng Xue looked displeased. Hearing this, Old Tom merely said,
“These are already the best properties available to non-corporate members. If you want something better, you’ll need an internal corporate identity. The risk is very high, unless…”
“Then I’ll take this Glass Tower. Three months to start. How much including the identity?”
Interrupted by Feng Xue once again, Old Tom understood that this man truly did not intend to take any jobs in the near future. After thinking it over, he gave a somewhat low friendship price. “Ten thousand a month, thirty thousand deposit. The identity will be settled when you check out. If there’s no loss, only two thousand will be charged. If the identity is burned, the thirty thousand won’t be refunded.”
Feng Xue said nothing. With a casual motion, he converted sixty thousand into a chip. Just that one move made the corner of Old Tom’s eye twitch. Taking out sixty thousand was nothing much, but producing a chip worth exactly sixty thousand while the agency’s equipment had no reaction whatsoever—that was something else.
Either he had so much money he could not spend it all and had chips prepared in all kinds of denominations counted by the ten-thousand; or his technical skill was so strong that he could complete a transfer and write-in without triggering the equipment; or else, before coming here, this fellow had already investigated the resources and pricing in Old Tom’s hands without alerting him, and had even calculated that he would voluntarily lower the price.
No matter which possibility it was, he was the kind of person one could not afford to provoke.
Having made that judgment in his heart, Old Tom took a deep breath and said,
“How should I address you?”
“Demon Sword.”
“Please wait a moment.” Old Tom picked up his terminal and swiftly completed the procedures. Only after all the materials had been sent to Feng Xue did Old Tom seem to remember something and remind him,
“The identity I arranged for you is that of a private bodyguard providing covert protection. It can basically handle most inspections. However, Glass Tower’s security system automatically sends a status report to the street district security company once a week. It would be best if you don’t randomly alter the system settings. If you must change them, tell me in advance. I can help you handle the report records.”
“Got it. I live alone. Clear out the second bedroom.”
Old Tom glanced at Feng Xue’s suitcases and immediately understood. He hurriedly said, “No problem. You can take a look around the area first. It’ll be done in ten minutes at most. This is the room layout. Do you have any other modification requests? I can get you a thirty percent discount on simple renovations and furniture purchases.”
…
Glass Tower was not as transparent as its name suggested. After all, in the street district, excellent natural lighting was basically equivalent to light pollution. As a high-end apartment building with part of its structure even extending into the tower district, those who could live here were basically the sort of people who had made quite a comfortable life for themselves in the street district. Some had even begun trying to expand toward the tower district.
People like that had more or less mastered the way of survival known as “rein in your curiosity and keep silent.” And this excellent quality also gave them a few more neighbors who had a need to hide their identities.
“Welcome home, Mr. Demon Sword. The system has detected that this is your first time moving in. Would you like a guided tour?”
As the door opened, the smart housekeeper, which only possessed basic functions, issued its question. Feng Xue did not answer. He simply took out his own terminal, and as code began to flow, an obfuscation program was written into the smart housekeeper.
Feng Xue was not a hacker, but using the hacking tools Old Jiang had left behind to fool an artificial idiot was still something he could manage.
Though middlemen generally would not plant such easily dealt-with tricks in their own business, as the saying went, one could never be too careful. Since it involved his main body, he still chose to put safety first.
Although the rent here for a single month was equal to five and a half years of an ordinary worker’s income without eating or drinking, it was actually not as luxurious as one might imagine. It was merely a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment of eighty square meters, not counting the shared area.
However, the residents here were naturally not fools being fleeced. Though being half embedded into the tower district had caused the rent to skyrocket, the security here was also at the tower district standard. By settling here, at least one did not have to worry about a burly man suddenly flying in while one was sleeping soundly and spraying them with two bursts.
Feng Xue spent an hour carefully sweeping every corner of the room. Only after confirming that there were no hidden listening devices did he set up the iron-man post in the second bedroom, which had already been emptied and now contained only a soft mat.
At the same time, another figure who likewise came from the garbage district was walking into another elevator leading to the street district…