The "Origin" of the Wooden Plaque (Big Chapter Seeking Monthly Ticket)

Two minutes earlier

A small flying drone passed through the tightly shut car window and landed in the driver's seat. Laina quickly put away the drone and tossed it onto the passenger seat.

Then she looked up at the rearview mirror. Not far behind her car, a man in plain clothes holding a Walkie-Talkie emerged from a corner. He stood at the somewhat rundown intersection, looking around as though searching for something.

At his chest hung a pendant that faintly glimmered with golden light.

Laina raised her hand and checked the time on her wristband again, leaning against the driver's seat as her chest rose and fell.

The plainclothes man in the rearview mirror had already turned around and was cautiously, slowly approaching.

Laina gripped the steering wheel tightly and turned her head to glance deeper into the alley.

Bright headlights lit up the dark alley. A heavily modified dark off-road vehicle, covered in thick armor plating, slowly drove over from the far end.

The off-road vehicle stopped roughly twenty meters from the mouth of the alley.

Then Bald Man, broad and muscular with bandages wrapped around his arms, jumped down from the driver's seat. He took out a flashlight and shone it outward from deep inside the alley.

The flashlight's brilliant beam swept over the exposed front of the black sedan and faintly passed over the tightly shut passenger-side window.

The next second, Laina, sitting inside the car, tightened her grip on the steering wheel and floored the accelerator.

The once-silent sedan seemed to be shoved by an enormous force, shooting out of the darkness like it had been launched.

"Catch that car!"

Bald Man immediately ran back, leapt into the off-road vehicle, and roared.

Bright headlights rushed out of the dark alley, but just as they emerged, there