Act.5 The One

[Part 1 - A Short Break]

"You should accept this money, and you should keep your word."

After saying this, 9527's headless corpse fell onto the beige floor tiles like limp mud.

Blood spread outwards, and the sudden surge in blood pressure made the poor wretch's corpse resemble a fountain valve being turned on, with bright red, radial paint splattering onto the clothes of the security personnel inside the building.

Then came a deathly silence, unlike the noise or chaos I had expected.

Lan Yinglong's lackeys were still waiting for their master's orders. Numerous security personnel shielded the manager behind them, holding his waist and inner pocket, ready to draw their sidearms at any moment to fight.

"Who are you, sir?" Lan Yinglong took out a towel and wiped the blood off his face. His lips twitched involuntarily, as if he was extremely angry and terrified, yet unable to lash out immediately. "What business do you have with Mr. Ishimura?"

9527 held a gun in one hand and handed over money in the other, acting like a broken record.

"You should accept this money, and you should keep your word."

Lan Yinglong didn't understand; he didn't comprehend what those 40,000 Hui Stone Currency meant. He pondered carefully, trying to recall—two months ago? Or even earlier? It seemed like something like that had happened!

"I did tell that to the errand boy that if he could get the money, he could buy Mayuko's freedom."

9527: "YES."

Lan Yinglong: "But things are different now. This is my fault. I didn't explain things clearly to him. Mayuko and he are not from the same world."

9527: "YES?"

Lan Yinglong: "Sir, is this your first time visiting Eureka Volcano City?"

9527: "YES."

Lan Yinglong: "Then you'll have to let me explain this to you slowly."

He pointed to the dressing room behind him, his expression calm and his tone kind.

"A month ago, Mayuko, as a candidate for the imperial concubine selection, attended two banquets. At the first banquet, she served an agent from the Mercy Society and received good reviews, which boosted her value."

"At the second banquet, she gave our team a surprise: she got to perform on stage. That very night, she was bought by investors."

Lan Yinglong's expression was very interesting; it was a mixture of regret and a hint of smugness.

"Some people are like that; they possess talents and abilities that others can never catch up to, no matter how hard they work or how much effort they put in—they can earn a lot of money."

"Do you want me to expose this lie myself? What this manager just said is actually false."

The manager beckoned and lightly slapped the madam across the face.

"She told a white lie to the delivery guy, saying that 40,000 yuan could buy Mayuko for two nights, but it was a lie, and she was really sorry. Do you understand?"

9527 suddenly realized. "Oh!"

Lan Yinglong pursed his lips, his eyes dark and brooding, fearing that this crazy woman would be unreasonable and fire her gun indiscriminately.

"So, Sir, what do you mean by asking me to accept these forty thousand coins? May I ask, do you think I've done something wrong?"

9527 did not speak, nor did he show any intention of putting down his gun.

Lan Yinglong continued—

"--I feel heartbroken that the errand boy outside can't be with Mayuko, but it's a good thing, it really is a good thing."

"They are separated by two worlds, two different worlds. Forcing them to be together will only bring endless pain and sorrow."

"Sir, do you understand my good intentions? You saw him raise his fist, you saw him shed tears, you should ask him yourself!"

Lan Yinglong seemed indignant, as if he had been wronged.

"Go ask him, ask Mayuko, do they really have a chance, do they deserve to be together?"

"These people all came to work for me voluntarily. No one forced them, and I haven't hurt them."

"On the contrary, it was you who broke into my nightclub through the back door without saying a word, shot and killed people in one fell swoop, and now you're pointing a gun at me. Whom are you trying to uphold justice for?"

So--

--Unbeknownst to him, Lan Yinglong slowly backed away and wrote a line of words on the security captain's vest.

[Once I hide in the lobby, the elite soldiers will be here soon.]

[Kill this crazy woman; she's probably mentally unstable. Leave the body; I'll handle the aftermath myself.]

[I'll arrange the resettlement allowance for Xiao Li (the deceased security guard), don't worry. If you die, I'll give double. Your mother and sister can live a comfortable life.]

9527: "If you take one more step back, you'll see your own brains splattered."

"You son of a bitch, you don't know what's good for you!" Lan Yinglong's eyes turned bloodshot, his blood pressure spiked, and he glared angrily.

The security guard's secondary weapon is an FN57, whose bullets have extremely high armor-piercing capabilities.

The manager went to great lengths to explain, but the underlying reason was still a fear of death.

He had no idea what this crazy woman who had suddenly barged through the back door was thinking. He was terrified, extremely frightened by the spiritual pressure emanating from her, or by her ruthless, merciless killings.

All of this terrified him. Hiding among the security team, he felt like a child being paraded through the streets in open-crotch pants, almost suffocating with nowhere to escape.

"I don't know who you are! I don't know what you want! Who sent you?! None of that matters! Stop nagging about that 40,000 yuan!"

Lan Yinglong roared, a bluff to try and sound spirited. "What can you buy with this little bit of money! You just killed my security guard! He's worth at least 180,000 luminous stones, and I haven't settled that score with you yet—"

--Before the words were finished, 9527 opened fire.

The sound of bullets rang out from inside the room.

She fired only two shots before immediately dodging to the side of the back door.

Gunfire erupted like rain inside the building. The security guards, well-trained, drew their weapons and returned fire. Following the footsteps outside the walls, they raised their guns and fired at the walls, creating terrifying craters in the stone bricks and paint.

When Lan Yinglong came to his senses, the heads of the madam and pimp beside him had vanished, leaving only their molars and tongues.

His heart was filled with fear and suspicion. If this crazy woman's first target had been him, his head would probably have been smashed into a watermelon by now.

Is this woman too afraid to kill me? Hahahaha. She's afraid of my godfather! That must be it!

Before Yinglong could think too much, he ran to the lobby and pressed the alarm. In a few minutes, the elite soldiers would arrive, and with the help of the Police Department, they would be able to catch that woman.

"Boss! Should we chase after them?" the security captain asked in a low voice.

Lan Yinglong: "Stop chasing. Don't pursue a cornered enemy. Just protect me."

Just as the master and servant were halfway to the main hall—

--The security team standing guard at the back door did not notice anything unusual.

Seventh Sister made a surprise return; she spent about a hundred yuan at a roadside restaurant to get two canisters of natural gas, took a long detour, and dumped them back at the nightclub's main entrance.

"I won't beat around the bush with you, Manager Lan."

The gas valves hissed and whistled, one rolled towards the front desk, and the other rolled into the passageway between the lobby and the dressing room backstage.

"I want you to keep your promises and do what you say, but you keep talking to me about money, how innocent and kind you are, how the world works, and the customs and culture of Eureka—I think we definitely can't have a conversation."

9527 raised his gun and fired explosively--

--The blast wave from the flames shattered the windows on the first floor.

Jiang Xueming climbed down from the second floor and stuffed two boxes of bullets into his lover's hands; they were spoils he had found while scouting the area.

Xue Ming asked, "There are still twenty-one combat units inside. How much time do you need?"

9527 took the ammunition and inspected the firearms. "About five minutes."

Xue Ming: "Leave one alive."

9527: "Then it'll take ten minutes."

Xue Ming: "No problem."

9527: "And you?"

Jiang Xueming looked at the armored vehicles in the distance along the coastal road. If they were fully loaded, there should be eight elite soldiers who had arrived, unless they were Indian soldiers.

"There's no such thing as being late for our dates; it's always me waiting for you, never you waiting for me."

In thirty seconds of both calm and commotion.

Such contradictory words superimposed on this coastal scenic area --

The reason for the calm was that Xiao Qi needed to wait for the toxic gases in the first-floor rooms to dissipate and for the hot air to rush to the second and third floors. Only the moment the thick smoke dissipated could she enter the rooms to search the building.

The reason for the commotion was that, on the beach outside the street, coconut trees were tilting their heads to bask in the Pompeii Sea, and people in the neighboring shops and on the sidewalk were shouting loudly and starting to live-stream the event on their phones. Within ten minutes, they had to consider leaving.

"Xue Ming, I'm really angry!"

"Can you finish in thirty seconds? If not, we can talk later?"

"No, I have to say it now."

"Okay, go ahead."

"These beasts force women into prostitution, and they think they're so right. They treat people like slaves, like private property—I can hardly imagine what kind of depraved scum this leader of the Mercy of Eros is. I want to skin him alive."

"You have this skill? Do you need an assistant, Dr. Bai?"

"I've finished with the nice talk, now I'm going in to wreak havoc, darling, I need some kissing energy."

[Part ②: The Book of Life and Death]

At Xiao Qi's request, Xue Ming put one arm around the back of Qi's head, kissed his lover, and adjusted the countdown timer on his watch.

Xiao Qi entered the room with a gun and casually shot the security guard who was pretending to be dead at her feet.

The young man had already lost his lower body in the explosion and was trying to prolong his life when he heard two bullets explode, severing his weapon-wielding hand and thoracic vertebrae. Then everything went black, and his head split in two.

The lobby was filled with cries of despair; the hair of the waiters and staff had been burned off by the intense heat and flames, and the murals still bore the remnants of a liquefied gas bomb explosion.

Lan Yinglong trembled in the KTV room, secretly peeking out the door.

The woman strode quickly toward the cashier. The security guard, hiding under the marble counter, was barely alive and tried to raise his gun to return fire, but the enemy stepped on his neck. Seemingly afraid that the security guard would revive, a double bullet pierced his head.

The twelve people in the bar area, who had retained some fighting strength and escaped the blast, dared not venture out of the supermarket shelves. The commotion outside the lobby was terrifying; they even wondered if New Paris had been shelled by tanks.

Finally, a fearless young man peeked out and saw Manager Lan trembling in the KTV room. The guy even tried to shout something, hoping to get Manager Lan to come and take refuge.

"Hello"

But the next second, he Bailan was afraid of.

He felt a scorching hot gun barrel pressing against his Baihui acupoint on the top of his head.

With a "bang".

Xiao Qi hugged a pillow to shield herself from the blood and bone fragments, then closed the door, crouched down to avoid the bullets inside, and went to the side wall of the shopping mall.

She raised her hand, standing less than ten meters away from Manager Lan, making a shushing gesture with one hand, her Steel Heart radiating a dazzling light.

Manager Lan's expression was contorted. She weakly supported herself with her hands as she climbed up from the main stage in the KTV room and slumped down next to the cold brick wall, trying to grab onto something, anything at all.

It would be best to have a gun!

It would be best if they could fight back!

But he couldn't do it.

Xiao Qi silently counted the gunshots inside the house. These sane security personnel had received professional training and did not fire all their bullets at once, but instead reloaded.

More than forty bullet holes appeared in the mahogany door of the shopping mall. She casually fired a shot at Manager Lan.

"Ouch! Ahhhhh! Don't kill me!" Manager Lan was shot in the thigh and immediately let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.

Xiao Qi, gun in hand, held his breath and listened to the sounds to pinpoint the location. He aimed at the person behind the wall on the side of the corridor.

The decorative wall was made of only pine planks on both sides, which bullets could easily penetrate.

The instant the doorknob turned --

-- Xiao Qi smashed the head of the eager dog servant at an almost 70-degree angle.

Then, as if on a scouting party, she heard hurried gunfire from inside the door and knocked on the doors one by one, heading towards the source of the sound. At the last two targets, she could still hear faint cries of pain, and then the gunfire ceased.

She grabbed Manager Lan by the hair and led her to the dilapidated gate.

The last two people inside remained vigilant, looking at the spilled liquor and blood on the floor of the bar, and at the corpses of their companions who had been killed from all directions, having been blown through the walls. They felt a strong sense of unreality.

"The door moved! The door moved!"

One of them had just spoken when someone raised his gun to fire.

The bullet pierced Manager Lan's arm bone, and her agonizing screams filled the air, leaving the security guard at a loss for what to do.

Lan Yinglong cursed, "Stop hitting me! It's me, damn it!"

The last two survivors froze on the spot, and the one on the left had his head turned into a fruit salad.

The man on the right finally came to his senses and saw clearly the manager's tattered clothes, his body covered in festering sores, being held by the hair and head by the enemy as they slowly pushed him through the door, and the muzzle of a gun protruding from the manager's armpit.

9527: "Put down the gun, and I promise I won't kill you."

Lan Yinglong: "Did you hear that! Put the gun down!"

On 9527, he told the last person, "Unlike your boss, I'm a person of my word and I do what I say."

The last survivor remained calm, slowly bent down, put down his weapon, and tossed it at Seventh Brother's feet.

On 9527, he dropped Lan Yinglong, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger at the enemy.

No sooner said than done --

--Lan Yinglong cursed, "Damn it, you broke your promise!"

The security guard covered his head with both hands, fearing it might explode, and blurted out a string of profanities. "Fuck your mother! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! Fuck!"

A fatal click echoed from the chamber of the FN57.

"Sorry." 9527 grinned, pulling the slide to eject the dud. "It thinks I broke my promise and won't help me. Even God can't stand it—you're lucky."

Lan Yinglong breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had just been executed.

The security guard was the same; he was so frightened that he urinated from his crotch.

But the next second, Xiao Qi kicked up the enemy's gun, grabbed it, and pulled the trigger.

The security guard's heart, which had just settled back into his stomach, was about to jump out of his throat again.

"No no no no! No no no--No no no!"

This FN57 was damaged by a crash and soaked in alcohol and blood, so it couldn't hit anyone at all.

Xiao Qi fired five bullets, all of which only outlined human figures. Hearing the clanging and shattering of bottles, she covered her face, rolled her eyes, and walked straight towards the enemy.

The security guard kicked and stomped his legs, first struggling and covering his face for a while, but finally realizing he was unharmed, he immediately revealed his ferocity, drawing his short knife in preparation for hand-to-hand combat.

He got up, intending to retaliate and save his boss.

--Then Xiao Qi grabbed a glass and smashed it in the face of the last survivor.

Taking the only bottle of wine, she shoved the bottle neck into the enemy's mouth. Grabbing the enemy's weapon-wielding hand, she bent his arm and used all her strength to push him back into the lapdog's belly.

When the blood had stained Xiao Qi's face crimson, she knocked the enemy in her arms to the ground, stomped hard on the wine bottle, and finally became certain that the guy wouldn't come back to life.

Looking back--

"--Your turn."

9527 took some water from the ice bucket in the wine display case, washed her hands, and wiped a little bit of flesh color off her rosy face.

Lan Yinglong roared hoarsely, "I'm warning you! I'm warning you all! My godfather's elite soldiers are all on their way! All on their way!"

Before the words were even finished, the armored vehicle stormed into the lobby, smashing the small fountains and marble tables along the way.

The vehicle crashed into the liquor store, smashing the decorative wall next to Xiao Qi.

Lan Yinglong clutched the wound on his thigh; he had hardly any hair left, but he forced a confident and powerful smile.

"Hahahaha! Hahahaha! You're going to die! You're going to die!"

Jiang Xueming got out of the car and, like his lover, took some water from the ice bucket to wash his face. But he saw that the ice bucket was also red and there was no clean water left. He was in a dilemma because his hands were covered in blood, so he couldn't take out his journal to record his merits and sins.

So Jiang Xueming asked, "Mr. Lan Yinglong, how do I get to the restroom?"

The elite soldier's arm was torn off by the armored vehicle, hanging from the front bumper. As it crashed into the liquor store, it was lifted into the air, struck a chandelier, finally severing the flesh, and then fell suddenly.

--The severed arm lay in Mr. Lan's arms, seemingly telling a silent story.