Second floor of a teahouse across from Wangdu Hot Pot Restaurant.
This place had already been requisitioned by the staff and turned into the command center for this Anti-Capture Operation. Nearly every notable core member of the Top Ten Branches had gathered here.
The ten branch managers—though two branches could now be excluded.
Li Yi, Ji Li, and Gu Xingjian were absent, and even if they had been present, they were not suited for large-scale mobilization.
Thus, the role of Overall Commander for the Anti-Capture Operation fell to Hou Guisheng.
In the smoke-filled teahouse, Gu Qingyun, Wei Guang, Xue Tingtao, Chang Nian, Ye Chan—the newly appointed female branch manager of Branch No. 8—and several relatively important staff members stood together, each wearing a different expression.
Tong Guan stood by the window, gazing at the night sky on the verge of dawn. He exhaled a puff of smoke as Hou Guisheng talked endlessly beside him.
"Su Chenghe is absent. No one knows the exact layout inside Branch No. 2, how the ghosts are positioned, or what has happened to the original staff...
"This Mist Door barrier can cut off communications. The two four-person squads we sent in not only failed to come back, but were swallowed up as well.
"I think it's time to make some adjustments to the original plan..."
Hearing this, Tong Guan slowly turned and looked back at the people gathered around the table.
The original plan Hou Guisheng mentioned had actually been proposed by Tong Guan, who had arrived second.
Branch No. 2 had fallen at an astonishing speed. There was undoubtedly an information gap at play, compounded by the disappearance of its branch manager, Su Chenghe.
Caught unprepared, someone capable within the branch had brought the situation under control through the Mist Door. That was certainly