He sat in the back seat, elbow resting on the chair, and asked:
"What exactly happened to Croissant? Can you explain it to me? I'm still a little confused."
Exusiai held up her phone. On the messaging app was a location pin for a dock. Below it were only five words, simple and clear:
"I'm trapped. Come quickly."
"I don't know the specifics either. We just need to get there. Texas, can you go any faster? The fight will be over by the time we arrive. Want me to drive instead?"
Texas sharply turned the wheel and floored the gas pedal.
"Hold on tight!"
The car took a turn and drove straight onto a hundreds-step stone staircase that looked more suited for mountain climbing, racing downhill along the slope.
Holy shit, was this a movie?
Shi Lei had never expected her to turn onto a path that was not even a road. The uneven steps beneath the tires made the car jolt violently back and forth.
They bounced along like that for nearly two minutes. Finally, they reached the bottom of the stairs and shot onto a riverside road. The suddenly emerging car startled a sedan driving behind them, forcing it to brake hard to avoid a collision.
His stomach churned violently. He felt like he was about to throw up the pizza he had eaten for lunch.
"We're almost there. Hang in there a little longer. Taking this way saves us ten minutes."
Exusiai reached into Texas's pocket and pulled out a box of chocolate sticks. She unwrapped it, fed one to Texas first, took one for herself, then handed one over.
Shi Lei accepted it and put it straight into his mouth, using the sweet chocolate flavor to suppress the sourness rising in his throat.
Seeing how calm the two of them were, completely unsurprised, he wondered if they normally drove this wildly.
Exusiai lowered her head to check her guns and ammunition, looking intensely focused, as though making final preparations before battle.
"If you get scared later, just hide in the car. Leave everything else to us."
Shi Lei had never felt afraid. So far, he had yet to encounter an opponent capable of instantly breaking the Jade Shield. Besides, apart from his Elemental Skill, he still had an Elemental Burst up his sleeve.
In the game Genshin Impact, this skill petrified its target for several seconds upon landing. But Shi Lei was unsure whether, in Terra, it would petrify someone for a few seconds or permanently. Unless absolutely necessary, he would not use this move. He had not even used it during the Comprehensive Medical Examination.
December 1, 6:14 P.M.
District 22, Lungmen Docks.
Croissant held a shield in her left hand and a hammer in her right, guarding an open blue shipping container.
More than a dozen lackeys lay sprawled across the cramped space. A black-clad man who appeared to be the leader stood on higher ground, with crossbowmen in black clothes and black caps behind him.
"Stop struggling. How much longer can you hold out? Why don't you move aside? We'll split what's inside fifty-fifty."
Croissant breathed heavily, conserving as much strength as possible. She had no time to waste talking to these robbers.
"There are so many of us, and only one of you. What's the point of holding on? If you lose your life, it won't matter how valuable the cargo inside is."
"Are you done yapping already? You're so annoying!"
Croissant finally could not take it anymore and snapped back.
She hid at the container entrance, defending the passage only wide enough for one person. She raised her shield against crossbowmen and swung her hammer at lackeys, using the terrain to hold out for a long time."
By now, they should be almost here, right? It would be so embarrassing for them to see me like this.
"You don't know what's good for you. If the Green Shrimp Gang wants something, you'll hand it over whether you want to or not! Do you know why I haven't launched a full attack? You're waiting for reinforcements, but I have reinforcements too. Want to see whose arrives first?"
"Argh..."
Suddenly, the faint screams of lackeys came from afar. Croissant narrowed her eyes and grinned.
"Looks like mine got here first."
Before long, a black-clad man rushed over.
"Boss, someone broke in! They're too strong! The brothers really can't hold them off!"
In truth, even the Green Shrimp Gang's boss did not know what was at the very back of the container. He could only vaguely see a motorcycle near the entrance. At first, a few lackeys had tried to rob it and gotten beaten up. Then more and more people were called in. Even after he personally took command, they still could not subdue her.
With the sunk cost growing higher and higher, retreat was no longer an easy option.
"You have to hold them off even if you can't! The Golden Hook Gang will be here soon. If we retreat now, won't every gang at the docks laugh at us? Hold the line!"
"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat..."
Croissant faintly heard the rapid fire of guns and knew Exusiai had arrived. Although Exusiai used rubber bullets rather than live rounds, they hurt like hell when they hit.
"Boss, they're coming through!"
"No good, brothers can't hold them back!"
At the same time, two hundred laborers with golden fishhooks embroidered on their clothes arrived from outside the docks carrying weapons, joining the Green Shrimp Gang to form a pincer attack.
Vortex of Heavenly Revelation!
Exusiai had not fought in days, and her hands itched for action as she charged at the front. Any enemy daring to block her was met with a raised gun and a barrage of rubber bullets.
Texas was not as reckless, staying in the middle of the group. She could support Exusiai at any time while also watching over the rear. Shi Lei followed four or five paces behind her, spreading his hands, ready to refresh the Jade Shield at any moment.
But honestly, before they joined Penguin Logistics, they had been Messengers. Whenever they encountered enemies head-on, they instinctively dodged, completely forgetting that they had shields.
Still, this was everyone's first time fighting as a group, so it was perfectly normal that they were not used to it yet.
"Hahahaha! All of you, get down!"
Exusiai's talent for shooting was absurd. It felt like every bullet she fired struck a forehead. If she had not been using rubber bullets, these guys would probably have all been shot in the head already.
The black-clad men hiding between the red and blue containers, trying to rush in for hand-to-hand combat, were easily knocked senseless by Texas's sword sheath and could not get close.
"She's over here! Come quick!"
Exusiai leaped into a roll off a container. Her aim remained astonishingly precise, every bullet locking onto a head.
Shi Lei quickened his pace and moved alongside Texas, soon spotting Croissant trapped inside.
With a hammer in one hand and a shield in the other, she looked like a war goddess amid the many fallen lackeys.
"Don't celebrate too soon! I have reinforcements too! Today, I'll make sure you pay dearly!"
Hearing that, Shi Lei immediately climbed onto the containers, wanting to gain more information from a higher vantage point. He looked around and quickly spotted a huge crowd rushing toward them. At a rough estimate, there were around one or two hundred people.
Especially at a dock packed with Cargo Boxes and containers, so many people made for an incredibly imposing sight.
"I'll stop them."
Leaving those words behind, Shi Lei ran across the containers toward the crowd, thudding from one container to the next. After advancing fifty or sixty meters, he jumped down and stood at the edge of the dock.
Seeing him blocking the passage alone, several Golden Hook Gang members at the front could not help but sneer.
"Look at that guy. Is he an idiot? He thinks he can stop all of us by himself?"
"Maybe he wants to fight all of us, hahaha."
The Golden Hook Gang members grinned as they continued forward, quickly closing to within ten or twenty meters. Shi Lei's expression turned stern. With both hands behind his back, he warned them.
"Don't come any closer. Otherwise, I will act."
To his surprise, his words made the Golden Hook Gang members burst into laughter. They even pointed at him, looking at him as though he were a clown.
"Hahahahaha! Did you hear that? This guy really wants to fight all of us?"
A man dressed more finely, who appeared to be the Golden Hook Gang's boss, stepped to the front and chuckled.
"Then go ahead. If you win, the first merit is yours."
"Got it, Boss. Just watch closely. I, Golden Hook Little Ma, am no fraud."
Seeing that his warning had failed, Shi Lei folded his arms.
In an instant, the heavens changed!
Dark clouds spread layer by layer, ring by ring, like ripples, taking on the brown hue of stone. A massive star-rock broke through the clouds like a fleeting meteor, falling from the highest reaches of the sky at an unimaginable speed!
The Golden Hook Gang members were dumbstruck. When had they ever seen such a shocking sight? Their mouths hung open in disbelief, and some were so nervous they forgot to breathe.
The meteor falling from the sky grew larger and larger to the naked eye, accelerating faster and faster. In less than two seconds, it was already close to the ground.
With a star-rock from the heavens, I proclaim judgment upon those blinded by fate.
Vortex of Heavenly Revelation!
The instant Shi Lei finished speaking, the star-rock, now at the limit of its speed, smashed into the ground. A thunderous crash erupted, leaving behind only a massive crater covered in spiderweb cracks.
BOOM!!!
Witnessing the scene, every Golden Hook Gang member froze in place like a wooden chicken.
Shi Lei maintained his arms-folded stance and stared coldly toward the crowd.
"Take one more step, and I will act."
The Golden Hook Gang boss slowly rubbed his chest, still unable to recover from the shock.
What the hell was that? Even Originium Arts did not fall from the sky like that.
Green Shrimp Gang? More like garbage shrimp gang. Green your mother!
If they provoked such an expert, let alone one Golden Hook Gang, even ten Golden Hook Gangs would not be enough to die. They had come today to make money, not to throw away their lives.
"Retreat... Hurry, retreat..."
The Golden Hook Gang boss's legs trembled as though he wanted to flee first. He stumbled when he turned around and nearly fell. The other gang members were even more like startled birds, fleeing in panic.
Golden Hook Little Ma, who had just been boasting loudly, was now pale as a sheet. His mouth hung slightly open as he wanted to offer a few words of apology. But when he saw
the man's indifferent gaze, his heart skipped a beat. With a thud, he knelt on the cold ground and repeatedly kowtowed, begging for forgiveness.
Only when he looked up and saw that the other man had turned away, seemingly no longer intending to pursue the matter, did he flee the scene as if for his life.
Shi Lei had only taken a few steps when he ran into Texas.
She had just been fighting in a cramped area. When she saw the strange phenomenon in the sky, she looked up to observe it for a moment. She had not expected the meteor to fall so quickly. Two or three seconds later, the enormous blast rang out, and only then did she leap onto a container to look.
Her colleague walking back and the fleeing crowd in the distance presented such a stark visual contrast that she immediately understood the meteor that had fallen from the sky was Shi Lei's handiwork.
"..."
Exusiai emptied her magazine and, finding herself out of rubber bullets, dealt with the last few lackeys barehanded.
She had been facing away from the docks just now and had not noticed the phenomenon in the sky, only hearing the deafening blast.
The Green Shrimp Gang members present were basically all unconscious. Although their boss remained conscious, he had happened to jump off the container when Shi Lei unleashed his Elemental Burst. Later, hearing the blast, he ran to the road entrance to check. Seeing the Golden Hook Gang people fleeing from afar, he stamped his feet in anger.
Exusiai flew forward and kicked him to the ground, then knocked him unconscious for good. Only then did she raise her head and ask Texas on the container.
"What happened just now?"
Texas did not answer directly. Instead, she tilted her head toward Shi Lei. Seeing that he neither raised a finger to his lips nor shook his head, she said somewhat vaguely.
"Shi Lei... acted."
"Acted? Doesn't he only know how to protect people? Then why did I hear an explosion just now?"
Exusiai muttered quietly to herself, but did not dwell on it. She inspected the scene and called out to Croissant.
"Croissant, it's all taken care of. What should we do with these guys now?"
Croissant locked the container door, not wanting Exusiai to see the motorcycle inside too soon.
"They probably rob individual traders and small businesses all the time. Call the Lungmen Guard Department and let them deal with it."
Meanwhile.
A middle-aged orange-haired man with Dragon Horns standing atop a high-rise building, along with Lin Gerei in an overcoat, both noticed the strange phenomenon at the docks in District 20.
Never Sober Until We Return
December 1, 6:24 P.M.
Core City, Central Building.
Before you continue