“Paul’s an interesting one, too.”
John walked beneath the curtain of night, his mind replaying the mission list Paul had shown him. Without exception, every job on it was better suited to someone kindhearted. Though talking about kindness in a place like Saint Luotan seemed like a bit of black humor, there was no question that the people to be killed on that list were all bad guys in the traditional sense, while the people to be helped were the exact opposite.
John wasn’t so naive as to think Paul was some quest NPC from a game about truth, goodness, and beauty, who only handed out commissions to deal with villains. The only possible explanation was that Paul had already judged him through the previous missions, then deleted every job that might draw his dislike from the list given to him.
Naturally, he didn’t think he had that much face. Most likely, Paul had analyzed every mercenary and simply sorted the missions into several categories according to their preferences.
But it was precisely this grasp of detail that left John with only one thing to sigh—
“No wonder you earn this money.”
Looking over the mission data Paul had transmitted to his terminal, he quickly confirmed his direction. Saint Luotan’s district area approached a thousand square kilometers, with a permanent population of barely two million. But if one counted the transient population who couldn’t afford to rent housing in the districts, that number could skyrocket to thirty or forty million. Dusk had already passed. Many factories had changed shifts for their expendable workers, and the number of pedestrians on the streets had reached its peak. John’s figure swayed left and right like a fish, weaving through the sea of people.
All of a sudden, that smooth movement paused. Immediately afterward, his whole body abruptly toppled backward, and then a burst of cursing rang out—
“Where’d this little punk come from, daring to block this lord’s way?”
As he spoke, he kicked John again, sending him flying. Anyone who had lived long enough in Saint Luotan understood the logic of seeking fortune and avoiding disaster. Seeing this man act so arrogantly, the crowd immediately scattered in a wide circle. Only John, who had been kicked away, had already vanished without a trace.
“Tsk. Runs pretty fast!”
The man let out a dissatisfied sound, but as if he had suddenly realized something, he hurriedly patted his own pockets, then finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Brother Ji, you’re way too careful. On this street, what kind of little thief with a death wish would dare steal from you?”
Seeing that nothing was missing, a lackey at the side finally teased him, yet in his words, he flattered him as well.
Hearing this, Brother Ji also laughed.
“Still have to be careful. Today, Lord Hu is negotiating with our rivals on our turf. We can’t let him lose face! What if that guy was sent by the other side just to disgust us on purpose?”
“Big Brother is right!” When the underlings heard this, they hurriedly voiced their agreement. In a gang, what mattered was face. What if, during the negotiation later, someone suddenly took out a wallet, tossed it onto the table, and said something like, “Your little brothers can’t even watch their own wallets, so how can they watch your turf?” Wouldn’t Lord Hu’s face explode? And could they still have it good after that?
Thinking of this, Brother Ji and his underlings’ desire to flaunt their might and boost morale was emptied at once. With a swagger that recognized no kin, they took advantage of the lingering intimidation from having just kicked a passerby out of the way and headed straight for the restaurant where the negotiation was taking place.
……
Inside a private room at Hongyun Restaurant, the aroma of various synthetic foods, their off-flavors covered by heavy spices and numbing heat, still could not disperse the tense, drawn-sword atmosphere in the room.
Lord Hu stared at the face opposite him, more than half of which had already been covered in machinery. His thick mechanical right arm slammed heavily onto the table, shaking the bowls and plates until they clattered.
“Xiong San, you bastard, we’re settling the account today for you reaching across the line!”
Xiong San leisurely picked up a slice of synthetic beef. On the half-mechanical face, no joy or anger could be seen.
“Lord Hu, I call you ‘lord’ out of respect for your godfather. Otherwise, with that pathetic kung fu of yours, you think you can hold down turf as big as Peninsula Plaza?” He chewed the meat, his tone contemptuous. “When you’re out in the streets, you’ve got to follow the rules. If you take someone’s protection fees, you have to provide protection. If your face can’t cover them, then naturally they’ll find someone whose face can!”
“Cover your mother!” The enforcer behind Lord Hu, “Yeji,” spat. His mechanical hand, which had undergone round after round of extreme modification, danced with several arcs of electricity, as if he would make a move in the very next second.
The four enforcers behind Xiong San instantly tensed in response. Yeji’s claws might have some reputation, but the Four Vajras of Kuaihuo Fang weren’t just for show either!
“Is it your place to speak? No rules!” Lord Hu’s voice suddenly rang out. It sounded like a rebuke, but there was not the slightest hint of blame in it. Brother Ji knew his own position very well and immediately shrank his head back, retreating in stark contrast to his earlier cursing momentum.
Lord Hu, however, used this slight advantage in bearing to reveal a smile that did not reach his eyes. “This kid relies on being able to fight and has no rules at all. Brother Xiong, please forgive him.”
Though his mouth said “Brother Xiong,” even the least educated thug could hear the insinuation in his tone.
Xiong San gritted his teeth and was just trying to find a way to win back the scene verbally when a string of warnings suddenly flashed in his artificial eye!
“Wha—”
“Bang!”
A deafening sound abruptly exploded. The bulletproof glass, said to be capable of withstanding civilian rockets, shattered in an instant. Amid the fragments scattering like rain, an ordinary-looking crossbow bolt pierced precisely into Yeji’s left temple.
Yeji’s left eye seemed to be driven by the tremendous force of the bolt. Along with blood, brain matter, and electric sparks, it popped out of its socket. Only after that body fell did the people, their minds completely blank, see the palm-sized card on the shaft of the bolt embedded in Yeji’s titanium skull.
It was a playing card. The face was Joker, but in the center was not a clown. Instead, it was the head of a demon with wings half-spread. Soaked by Yeji’s blood and brain matter, it seemed to be grinning savagely.
And in the upper right corner of the playing card, there was also what appeared to be a handwritten “Jo.”
The dead silence in the private room lasted a full second.
Immediately afterward came Lord Hu’s terrifying roar, erupting from his four-star prosthetic body. “Xiong San! I fuck your ancestors!”
He hadn’t seen where the bolt had come from at all. He only knew that it had passed through the window. But he had clearly seen that this dog-[beep—] Xiong San had been just about to open his mouth and distract him before the bolt came in!
And at that moment, he had been standing right beside Yeji!
This [beep—] thing had been aimed at him!
“It wasn’t me!” At this point, Xiong San had no mind to care about anything else. Whether it was seizing turf or negotiating, those were gang matters, and Lord Hu’s godfather would not bully the young with his status. But if this assassination were pinned on him, forget the one behind Lord Hu—even the one above him would not keep him alive!
“Lord Hu, calm down—”
“Calm your mother!” Lord Hu’s mechanical arm slammed a fist into the tabletop, flipping up the entire table of synthetic ingredients. Immediately afterward came a roar brimming with killing intent—
“Kill them for me!”