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The NYPD was no pushover. It was known as New York's number-one violent organization, and once it got serious, ordinary criminal gangs couldn't afford to provoke it.

That was why New York had only one Hell's Kitchen, instead of the entire city turning into Hell's Kitchen.

With the New York City Mayor being held hostage and hostages being shot, the New York Police Commissioner took command personally. He first sent his most silver-tongued Negotiator to make contact with the criminals. The purpose wasn't to persuade them; he knew that was impossible.

The goal was to stabilize them and draw their attention—in other words, to create a diversion.

While the Negotiator communicated with the Masked Leader, an Armed Helicopter quickly approached the building where the Golden Restaurant was located.

The rooftop of this high-end Commercial Building had a helipad. The NYPD's plan was simple and brutal: send the SWAT Team in through the roof, find suitable sniper positions, then, at the command, kill all the criminals at once, giving them no chance to harm the mayor.

In the New York Police Commissioner's view, the mayor, as an important hostage, was in no immediate danger. It was even less likely that the criminals would keep a gun pointed at his head every second. At most, they would tie him up.

That situation was perfect for a sniper attack. As long as the snipers were accurate enough to kill the criminals with one shot, the mayor would no longer be in danger.

As for the other hostages, to be honest, the NYPD didn't care all that much. If killing the criminals and rescuing the hostages were placed in order of priority, killing the criminals would absolutely come first.

The plan proceeded smoothly. The Negotiator successfully made contact with the Masked Leader, and the two sides shouted at each other from opposite ends of a corridor. At the same time, the Armed Helicopter carrying more than a dozen SWAT officers had quietly approached the rooftop and was just about to land.

But at that moment, a Rocket suddenly shot out from the side and blasted toward the helicopter.

The Armed Helicopter's pilot was highly skilled. The instant he spotted the Rocket, he yanked the controls and dodged it.

However, when the Rocket made a turn in midair and came flying back, the helicopter pilot was dumbfounded.

"Fuck!!"

"Boom!"

The Heat-Seeking Rocket struck the helicopter head-on, blowing it into a ring of fire before it crashed heavily toward the ground.

An even greater explosion rang out. Four Media Vans, along with several reporters and cameramen, were killed instantly in the blast, plunging the scene into chaos.

Looking at the massive explosion in the distance, Wang Khan, who had parked his car on another street, knew his opportunity had come.

He extended his left hand out of the car window. A silver Mechanical Spider with eight long legs quickly crawled onto his fingers, then sprang nimbly onto the wall of a building five meters away. Its spider legs scurried rapidly as it vanished among the surrounding buildings.

At the same time, Wang Khan took out his laptop. A rapidly moving first-person view was playing on its screen, filmed through the Mechanical Spider's eyes.

Inside an NYPD Communications Van tucked away in a corner below the Golden Restaurant, all the video signals were hijacked at the same time.

Chief Winter, who had been watching the monitors, froze for a moment before roaring and demanding to know what had happened.

"Chief, our video signals have been hijacked."

"Damn it, was it those criminals? Restore them, now!"

Winter was furious. His carefully designed plan had fallen apart. Worse still, that Heat-Seeking Rocket definitely wasn't something ordinary criminals could obtain. It was a genuine military weapon. In other words, these criminals had channels for purchasing military weapons, and might even have military backing.

Against criminals with such connections, unless heavy weapons were deployed, his SWAT Team would have no chance.

And with the New York City Mayor being held hostage, he was too wary to use heavy weapons. This was practically an unsolvable situation.

As for snipers, if the criminals had only one or two people, they could give it a try. But there were ten of them, perhaps even more. On top of that, the restaurant's layout was complicated, making it difficult to lock onto all the criminals at the same time.

If even one criminal slipped through, the New York City Mayor's head would certainly be blown apart. When that happened, Winter's career as the NYPD's Chief would be over.

Regardless of who became the next New York City Mayor, they wouldn't keep the police chief responsible for allowing the previous mayor to get his head blown off. Otherwise, if the mayor himself were ever kidnapped one day, wouldn't that mean his own head was at risk too?

While Chief Winter was in a state of anxious confusion, he noticed that the video showed the Commercial Building where the Golden Restaurant was located. The view kept changing, as if a drone were rapidly climbing while pressed tightly against the building's exterior.

"Is there a drone outside the building?"

"No, Chief. We didn't detect one. And whoever hijacked our signal has extremely powerful hacking skills. We probably won't be able to take back control anytime soon unless we cut the network."

Chief Winter glared at his useless subordinates, then waved his hand.

"First, see what this thing is up to. Keep working on it. If word gets out that even the police network was breached, our department will lose all face."

His subordinates continued trying to fight back, even beginning to seek outside assistance. Meanwhile, the surveillance feed had reached the eighteenth floor and successfully entered the Golden Restaurant.

This surprised Winter. Their previous surveillance footage had been captured from nearby buildings at a distance. Because they were so far away, they could only see what was near the windows and had no way of knowing what was happening inside the restaurant.

Now, this surveillance feed let him see the situation inside clearly.

"Stop trying to fight it for now. Come over and check whether this footage is real and whether it might have been fabricated."

Several technicians hurried over to examine it. In the end, they discovered that it was indeed a live feed from the scene, not a recording.

"Could this person not be working with the criminals? Could he be helping us?"

"Whoever he is, this is a rare opportunity. Find me the Field Operations Leader immediately."

By then, the Mechanical Spider had climbed in through the window the Masked Leader's group had smashed earlier while throwing out the bodies. Using its small size and the restaurant's tables, chairs, and other objects as cover, it quickly located every criminal.

The Mechanical Spider then crawled back out through the window and continued climbing toward the rooftop.

Just as it was leaving, Gwen unexpectedly spotted it. The girl quickly nudged her father. George was highly experienced and didn't react immediately. Instead, he waited a second before pretending to casually look toward his daughter.

Gwen was clever too. She signaled to George with her eyes. George turned his head slightly toward the window and happened to see the Mechanical Spider crawl out and rapidly climb upward.

George froze. Could this be some kind of high-tech weapon belonging to the criminals? But after thinking it over, he felt that something was wrong. They had already taken control of the situation, so there was no need for them to act secretly.

"Could it be some new secret weapon the headquarters bought from Hammer Industries? But is Hammer Industries really that advanced? It couldn't be another cheap knockoff of Stark Industries, could it?"

Thinking of Hammer Industries' reputation, George felt that his personal safety had lost even the slightest guarantee.

Through the Mechanical Spider's camera, Wang Khan had not only located all the criminals inside the restaurant but had also found another criminal hiding in the rooftop emergency passage. That was the criminal who had fired the Rocket that destroyed the Armed Helicopter earlier.

"Eleven people in total, all equipped with powerful military-grade weapons. No wonder the NYPD can't beat them. The two sides' firepower isn't even on the same level."

Muttering to himself, Wang Khan picked up the silver briefcase from the passenger seat, opened the car door, and headed toward the scene.