Waste Not the Bone Spurs

The silence between the two did not last long, as hurried footsteps approached.

The Gambit twirled his staff halfway around, turning his head to look at the man still standing beside the headless corpse.

"We should get out of here."

Sing Sing heard it too.

He didn't leave immediately, but squatted down next to the Boneforge corpse and examined it for a few moments.

"Tsk, these are truly rare and excellent materials."

"This high-density calcium carbonate variant has a really good color."

The Gambit's eye twitched twice.

He glanced at the faint beam of a tactical flashlight at the alley entrance, then at Sing Sing, who was squatting on the ground studying the corpse.

"Are you crazy?"

The Gambit lowered his voice and shouted.

"They're coming! Are you still rummaging through corpses looking for change?"

"Why are you asking for change? Can't you have any standards?"

Sing Sing ran his fingers along the largest Boneforge spur on the spine, flicked the tip of his fingernail, and listened to the echo.

"Its hardness is at least 7 on the Mohs scale and above. Besides corundum and diamond, you won't find a third natural material that can reach this level."

He looked up, his face beaming with excitement as if he had found a treasure.

"This is called recycling usable high-quality natural resources, a concrete manifestation of our China Special Agents' fine tradition of diligence and thrift!"

After saying that, Sing Sing pulled out the Pig Butchering Knife and cut into the base of the three hardest bone spurs on Boneforge's back.

His technique was as skillful as slicing a freshly baked roast duck.

The Blade bypassed all hard obstacles, traversing the gaps between bone and soft tissue.

After a few crisp clicks, the three white bone spurs were completely removed.

As the Gambit stared at the three bloody bones, he felt a throbbing pain in his brainstem.

"What are you planning to do with this thing? Are you going to use it to make soup for calcium?"

"Why supplement with calcium? This is top-quality orthopedic teaching material and high-strength drill bit material!"

Sing Sing pulled an old newspaper from the nearby trash can and wrapped the three bone spurs in it.

"I'll take it back to China and give it to Da Vinci to do some research; maybe they can develop a new type of tunnel boring machine drill bit component."

Sing Sing shoved the wrapped newspaper package into the briefcase that was already full of US dollars.

"If they really can't be used, they can be sent to the orthopedics department of a medical school as teaching models to collect some sponsorship fees. This is definitely a project to recover lost state-owned assets."

He patted the surface of his briefcase, and before he could utter a few witty remarks, a bullet grazed past his white felt hat.

Damn it!

The Gambit cursed under his breath, no longer having time to waste words with him.

He raised his hand and flung out more than a dozen playing cards filled with purplish-red energy, which struck the load-bearing walls on both sides of the alley entrance.

A series of explosions created a shockwave at the end of the dark alley.

"This way!"

The Gambit lifted the rusty manhole cover next to him and jumped into the dark sewer entrance first.

Sing Sing, carrying his suitcase, slid up and followed.

Before jumping, he didn't forget to wave towards the alley entrance.

Hey you capitalist street urchins! The green hills remain, the clear waters flow on! Next time you travel to China, I'll treat you to grilled cold noodles! Twenty yuan per person, that's about it!

He jumped and fell into the sewer.

The manhole cover closed up overhead, shutting out the sounds of gunfire and noise from the ground.

Sing Sing pinched his nose as soon as he landed.

"Ugh, what the hell is this smell?"

He groped his way forward in the dark while ranting and raving.

"Which contractor actually takes on the municipal engineering projects in your United States?"

"This sewer system lacks wet and dry separation and a fresh air circulation system, resulting in biogas concentrations exceeding the standard by at least three percentage points!"

I stepped on an unidentified object and it made a "plop" sound.

Sing Sing glanced down at it, then quickly looked up again, his expression pained.

"You didn't even install a grease trap? The grease buildup and blockage rate is at least 40%!"

"If this happened in our neighborhood committee, the Safety Supervision Bureau would have fined us into bankruptcy long ago!"

The Gambit walked ahead, holding a faintly glowing playing card in his hand for illumination.

He listened to the never-ending chatter behind him, the fingertips of his right hand holding the cards gleaming slightly.

He seriously considered for three seconds whether or not to shove the bomb in his hand into the other person's mouth.

"Shut up, buddy. If you say another word, I'll throw you into the septic tank over there."

"A septic tank? You guys still have septic tanks here?" Sing Sing perked up. "That means the city planning isn't completely rotten yet! There's hope! There's hope!"

"Ferme ta!" The Gambit finally uttered a French swear word.

Sing Sing wisely kept quiet.

There was silence for about twenty seconds.

"How many millimeters thick is the pipe wall?"

The Gambit tossed the powered-up playing cards behind him.

Sing Sing dodged to the side, and the card flew past his ear, embedding itself in the pipe wall behind him with a "bang," creating a fist-sized crater.

"Okay, okay, I won't say anymore."

In a suite at a star-rated hotel in Las Vegas.

Sing Sing threw his white suit jacket onto the sofa and slumped inside.

He reached out and grabbed the bunch of black berries from the fruit plate, picked one, and popped it into his mouth, chewing it until the juice flew everywhere.

The Gambit leaned against the bar, toying with two sharp-edged metal playing cards in his hand, staring at the man who was spouting nonsense.

He couldn't understand the logic behind this guy's actions at all.

Just half an hour ago, this man in the counterfeit suit dismembered the Boneforge into eight pieces.

But now, this dangerous individual is rummaging through the free snacks in the coffee table drawer like a street urchin who hasn't eaten for three days.

Sing Sing tore open a bag of nuts and popped them into his mouth. While chewing, he picked up the room bill on the table and started looking at it.

"You're living such a decadent life!"

"This tiny bottle of sparkling water costs fifteen US dollars! Is this water poured from Guanyin Bodhisattva's jade vase, or does drinking it grant immortality?"

He sprang up from the sofa, opened the small the Fridge next to him, and skillfully tried to stuff all the liquor inside into his suitcase.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer Gambit threw away his deck of cards.

The metal rod slid into his palm and extended, pressing against Sing Sing's forearm.

My patience is very limited.

"Who exactly are you, and what is your purpose in following me?"

Sing Sing calmly reached out and pushed away the potentially deadly charged long stick, his tone carrying a hint of earnestness.

"We're all civilized people, why are we using knives and guns?"

Sing Sing took something out of the inside pocket of his suit, wiped it casually on his clothes a couple of times, and then held it by the edges with both hands and handed it to the Gambit.

"Since we've all been through life and death together, it can be considered a kind of fate. Let's get to know each other again."

The Gambit frowned as he looked at the object in his hand—a crumpled business card still bearing traces of ballpoint pen ink.

He took the cheap card with suspicion, looked at the strangely arranged Chinese and English characters on it, and slowly read them aloud.

"Director of the Overseas Special Talent Recruitment Office of the 749 Bureau of China, codenamed Ling Ling Qi?"