A Brush with Danger

Fang Xiu rode his electric bike, put on a cap, and wore the T-shirt he had bought from a street stall that afternoon, letting the night's frigid wind pour in through his sleeves and collar.

After arriving at that dim intersection, Fang Xiu took the Gunny Sack, tarp, and rope off the back of the electric bike. This spot had originally been meant for the large delivery box, but Fang Xiu had left both the delivery box and the sniper rifle in his room.

He turned on his phone's flashlight and walked in. Two green eyes suddenly lit up, startling Fang Xiu so badly that he instinctively pressed a hand over the pistol tucked into his waistband.

"Awoo!"

A dog that had been rooting through the garbage ran out. It barked at Fang Xiu, and Fang Xiu, startled by the little thing, could not help laughing. He lowered his guard and ignored it as he headed deeper inside. The creature seemed to sense that Fang Xiu was not someone to provoke, or perhaps it smelled the dangerous aura on him and did not dare approach.

Fang Xiu hurried forward, holding his phone in his left hand to illuminate the ground, until he found the manhole cover.

But the instant he saw it, Fang Xiu stopped short. The hairs on his body stood on end, because the cover was not fitted tightly into place. Yet Fang Xiu remembered carefully checking it when he had left. He had sealed it shut tight.

"Someone was just here!"

In an instant, Fang Xiu drew his pistol as if by reflex and aimed it behind him. There was no one there. He immediately turned his gun forward, but saw no one there either.

Fang Xiu pressed himself against the wall, took two deep breaths, and looked at the manhole cover on the ground, which appeared to have one corner not properly set in place.

He crouched down, gripped the hole in the cover tightly, and slowly lifted it. At the same time, his nerves were stretched taut as a bowstring, alert for the slightest movement around him or beneath the cover. His ears were pricked, twitching faintly.

When Fang Xiu had lifted the manhole cover halfway, he suddenly exerted force and flung the entire cover open in one motion. Faint moonlight shone down from overhead, and the not-very-deep sewer shaft was utterly empty.

"Fuck!" Fang Xiu kicked an empty can flying.

The body in the sewer had vanished. That meant Fang Xiu no longer had to think of a way to dispose of it, but he could not feel the slightest bit happy.

There were only two possibilities for the body's disappearance. First, that man had never died. After Fang Xiu left, he had opened the sewer cover and crawled out. Second, that man had companions who found his body after his death and took it away.

Either possibility meant Fang Xiu's danger had begun anew. If that man had not died, he would definitely come after Fang Xiu again for revenge.

If it was his companions, that would be even more troublesome and dangerous. Fang Xiu would once again have to face unknown powerful enemies, with both their numbers and strength complete unknowns.

Now Fang Xiu could not return to his original home even more. Going back at a time like this would be like walking straight into the jaws of death. The room he had rented at that small inn had not required an ID card, only an ID number. Fang Xiu decided to return to the inn the way he had come and figure out how to face the coming crisis.

It took nearly half an hour to ride an electric bike from Park Road to East Gate District. As Fang Xiu rode back, he contemplated how to deal with the crisis that might soon descend upon him.

"Obviously, my opponent isn't an ordinary person. Combined with the Silver Clock on me, what I'm facing isn't some ordinary incident, but a genuine supernatural event."

"The number of opponents is unknown, but they're definitely extremely powerful. They can easily obtain firearms, and they possess powers beyond my imagination. Just like that white monster Killer—he had tremendous strength, speed, and agility, as well as the power to transform into a monster, powerful regeneration, and terrifying vitality. If he has companions, they may possess even stronger and stranger abilities."

"And the cards I hold are limited reincarnations, one pistol, and a residence that hasn't been exposed for now."

Racing all the way, Fang Xiu had already arrived at the inn where he was staying. East Gate District was relatively remote, and the street where the inn stood had no streetlights at night. At this hour, all the shops were closed, leaving darkness everywhere.

Fang Xiu reached the corner and began to slow down. Raising his head, he saw the sign of the inn where he was staying.

Thud!

Then, a crisp muffled sound came from the rooftop of the building across the street, startlingly clear in the dead of night. It immediately caught Fang Xiu's attention.

Fang Xiu's gaze snapped over, and he instantly saw white smoke rising from the opposing rooftop. Right before his eyes, a rocket-propelled grenade launched from that building, blasting up a wave of air and streaking into the inn where Fang Xiu was staying.

Fang Xiu's eyes widened in horror. He lost his grip on the electric bike, and its front wheel veered as it crashed to the ground, flinging Fang Xiu off with it.

BOOM!

A violent explosion rang out. Flames burst from the inn's third floor, shattering the glass across the whole level. One wall collapsed outright, and a roaring blaze erupted within.

Ignoring his scrapes and bruises, Fang Xiu got to his feet and looked toward the inn. He immediately saw flames soaring into the sky from the third floor, with thick smoke billowing out layer after layer. That room was precisely the one he had rented earlier.

"RPG?"

Fang Xiu was dumbfounded. A person who had lived through peaceful times and had never even truly witnessed a shooting had no idea what a scene like this looked like. He could never have imagined that such unrestrained people and forces existed in the country.

And now, such an arrogant and insane person or organization had set its sights on him, determined to put him to death. They could easily find where he lived, while he had no idea who they were, why they wanted to kill him, or how powerful their forces truly were.

At that moment, a figure appeared on the rooftop of the building opposite. Right before Fang Xiu's eyes, he leaped high from the roof. His jumping power was astonishing—he cleared more than twenty meters in a single bound.

He spread his arms and glided through the air with effortless ease, like something soaring on the wind. His ability to remain airborne surpassed even some animals, and he landed directly against a fourth-floor window of the inn.

His movements were smooth and graceful, like a frog in slow motion from a wildlife documentary. His limbs gripped the wall, then with an easy flick, he entered the sea of fire through the blasted window and wall, utterly heedless of the flames and choking smoke inside.

"He's looking for me—or rather, he's looking for my corpse!" Fang Xiu immediately understood what he was trying to do.

Lights came on in the surrounding homes. Fang Xiu then saw another dark figure appear atop the building opposite, seemingly someone packing up equipment. He leaped from the roof into the alley behind the building. To their eyes, the height of five stories was nothing at all.

"There's another one!"

Fang Xiu knew he absolutely could not stay here. He had to leave immediately. At the corner across the street, Fang Xiu righted the electric bike and rode away without looking back, fleeing into the distance for fear that those two clearly dangerous men would set their sights on him.

"How did they find me? Right—the phone, that white monster Killer's phone." Fang Xiu immediately thought of the phone he had left in the temporary guest room. At that moment, he felt that even the phone he carried was unsafe. They definitely had a way to locate him through it.

Without another thought, Fang Xiu pulled his phone from his pocket. As he passed the Second Bridge, he threw it off the bridge.

"I have to find out who they really are."

Riding his electric bike through the night wind, Fang Xiu took out the card for Black Sugar Bar, his heart already having made its decision.