The customer service lady is stunned: Are you serious about the equipment you want?

"...Raven...Sir?"

The customer service representative's voice trembled with disbelief, as if confirming she hadn't misheard.

"May I... presume to reconfirm your request?

You need... a uniform and identification from the... Urban Management... Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau?"

"Yes, that's right," Qin Feng confirmed.

"We have the latest 'Exorcism Spirit Light Gun' in our armory, 'High-Purity Holy Water Grenades' that can instantly purify a block, and even 'Spirit Binding Net Launchers'..."

The young female customer service rep took a deep breath, seemingly assuming he was unaware of the available high-end equipment. She enthusiastically recommended them with all her professional expertise.

"None of that will be needed," Qin Feng interrupted decisively. "Trust me, for dealing with mobile vendor type Anomalous Events, an Urban Management Uniform is more useful than holy water. It's specialized for the job, understand?"

"...I... I understand," the customer service rep's voice sounded like she was struggling to suppress laughter, but she maintained her professionalism.

"Your request... is truly groundbreaking. I will report it immediately. This falls under special approval, so please keep your phone line open. Once the application is approved, the equipment will be delivered to your designated location by the logistics team within one hour."

After hanging up, Qin Feng let out a long sigh of relief.

Less than fifty minutes later, a black, unmarked commercial van silently pulled up to the entrance of the residential complex.

A man in a black suit and sunglasses handed Qin Feng a sealed document bag. He remained silent throughout the entire exchange. Once completed, he got back into the van and left, swift and efficient.

Back in his rented apartment, Qin Feng eagerly opened the document bag.

A brand-new, perfectly ironed light blue Urban Management uniform lay inside, complete with epaulets and arm patches.

Beside it was a small, red-covered booklet. Opening it, he saw his photo and name, Qin Feng, printed clearly, with his unit listed as the Donghai City Urban Management Law Enforcement Brigade Direct Mobile Squadron.

"Perfect attention to detail," Qin Feng praised.

Clothes make the man, and this uniform instantly changed his entire demeanor.

His face, which still held a hint of youthful innocence, now exuded an undeniable authority under the uniform.

He looked in the mirror, instinctively straightened his back, and his gaze sharpened by a third.

"Comrade, this is a routine inspection. Please cooperate with our work." He cleared his throat and practiced in the mirror.

Yeah, that felt right.

At eleven o'clock at night, Qin Feng boarded the last bus and arrived at the old town area in the north of the city.

This was one of the last "old lands" in Donghai City not yet swallowed by skyscrapers. Narrow alleyways, mottled walls, a tangled mess of electrical wires overhead, and an old streetlamp at the alley entrance flickered erratically, stretching shadows long and short.

The air was filled with a damp, complex odor, a mixture of cooking fumes and household garbage.

Deep in the alley, an old man selling roasted sweet potatoes, a young couple selling fried skewers, and a middle-aged man pushing a cart selling fried noodles were doing their last bit of business.

Qin Feng took a deep breath, adjusted his collar, and walked with steady, unhurried steps out from the flickering shadows at the alley entrance.

The moment he appeared, the lively atmosphere in the alley instantly froze.

Time seemed to have hit the pause button.

The old man selling roasted sweet potatoes flinched, and a freshly baked sweet potato "splattered" into the charcoal fire, sending up a shower of sparks.

The fried skewer couple exchanged a look of impending doom, the husband instinctively pulling his wife behind him.

The uncle selling fried noodles froze mid-motion with his spatula.

Seeing their wary expressions, Qin Feng chuckled inwardly, but maintained a stern, business-like demeanor.

He walked up to the old man selling roasted sweet potatoes and tapped his cart with his finger: "Grandpa, your business license and health certificate, please show them to me."

The old man's lips trembled, and a smile more bitter than tears spread across his wrinkled face: "Leader... I... I'm just earning a hard day's wage..."

"Does earning a hard day's wage give you the right to operate illegally and without a license?"

Qin Feng's voice was not loud, but each word struck the onlookers like a tiny hammer.

He scanned the area, his gaze lingering for two seconds on the clearly unhygienic oil pot of the fried skewer couple.

The wife's face instantly turned pale.

The air in the alley turned ice cold; even the wind seemed afraid to blow.

Just as the oppressive atmosphere reached its peak, Qin Feng suddenly sighed and waved his hand: "Forget it, it's late, and everyone's having a tough time."

He pointed to the uniform he was wearing and gave a self-deprecating smile, "I'm just off work and passing by. We're all just laborers, why make things difficult for fellow laborers?"

His words were like a spell breaking a curse, and the frozen air in the alley instantly began to flow again.

The old man selling roasted sweet potatoes let out a long sigh of relief, nearly slumping onto his stool.

The fried skewer couple also showed relieved smiles of having narrowly escaped disaster.

"Oh my goodness! Young man, you scared us to death!" the wife of the fried skewer vendor said, clutching her chest, her tone a mix of lingering fear and relaxation.

"Yeah, we thought you were going to confiscate all our carts tonight."

Qin Feng waved his hand and took out ten yuan from his pocket, handing it to the old man selling roasted sweet potatoes: "Give me a roasted sweet potato, the sweetest one."

Holding the warm roasted sweet potato, Qin Feng ate while chatting casually, "I'm just taking a look around. I recently received a report that there's a bun seller in this area who operates late into the night with extremely poor hygiene. Have you seen anyone like that?"

"A bun seller?" The old man selling roasted sweet potatoes thought for a moment and shook his head, "I haven't seen anyone during the day. The bun shops in this area are all on the main street."

"Not daytime," Qin Feng emphasized, "but after midnight."

"After midnight?"

The fried skewer stall owner frowned.

"We close up long before twelve, who would still be here then?"

"There is one!"

The stir-fried noodle uncle, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly chimed in, lowering his voice. "There's a soup bun seller, a hunchbacked old man."

Qin Feng's spirits lifted, and he leaned closer. "Oh? Uncle, you've seen him?"

"Seen him a few times." The stir-fried noodle uncle lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

"Sometimes I pack up late and I run into him. That old man is strange, pushing a broken wooden cart with a red lantern hanging from it. Exactly at midnight, no earlier, no later, he appears at the alley entrance, like a ghost announcing the time."

"His buns smell devilishly good," the fried skewer stall owner's wife also interjected, saying with lingering fear, "One time I forgot something and came back to get it, and I smelled that aroma. Good heavens, I had just eaten, but smelling that scent, my stomach immediately growled, and I couldn't stop drooling. If my husband hadn't held me back, I really would have wanted to buy a couple to try."

Appears exactly at midnight.

The aroma unnaturally stimulates appetite.

Cash only, leaves no trace.

Qin Feng nodded, having a clearer understanding of the situation.

"Alright, thanks, everyone."

Qin Feng finished his last bite of sweet potato and threw the trash into the bin. "It's getting late, you all should pack up and go home too. It's not safe this late at night."

The stall owners, as if granted a great pardon, nodded and busied themselves packing their things, quickly pushing their carts away and disappearing down the other end of the alley.

The entire world instantly fell silent.

The light at the alley entrance flickered twice more and then went out completely.

Qin Feng stood alone in the empty alley. The night breeze blew, stirring a few rotten vegetable leaves on the ground and bringing a bone-chilling cold. He glanced at his phone.

Time, 23:58.

He walked into the deepest shadow of the alley, concealing his body entirely, leaving only his eyes exposed. Like a falcon, he stared intently at the alley entrance.

The second hand ticked silently on the screen.

The moment the time jumped from 23:59 to 00:00—

A thick, nauseatingly rich meat aroma, without any warning, like an invisible fog, instantly invaded the entire alley!

The scent seemed alive, rudely forcing its way into his nostrils, bypassing his taste buds, and directly latching onto the primal hunger deep within his soul!

Immediately following, a slow, rhythmic sound of wheels rolling over the ground echoed in the dead silence of midnight.

Creak—creak—