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"Good morning~ Mm, make room for me. I need to brush my teeth too."

"Mm!"

Two women, one tall and one small, appeared before Li Ke, still bleary-eyed. He was brushing his teeth, watching Jinx squint at him as she came over.

Her beautiful blue hair hung loose and messy down her back, with a few unruly locks falling over her brows and eyes. She tilted her face up toward Li Ke and yawned lazily, rubbing one eye with a hand while slipping her other little hand into her pajamas. Her snow-white belly showed as she scratched it.

Beside her, Isha let out a little "Mm!" to make sure everyone knew she was there too.

Little Isha's hair was a complete mess. She looked like she had a huge bird's nest on her head.

Her hair was naturally curly, and even though she bathed and washed it every day, it always ended up a mess after she slept. With her bird's nest of hair, she looked at Li Ke, holding a little cup in one hand and a toothbrush in the other.

Li Ke moved aside, and Jinx immediately squeezed in beside him. She picked up his cup, took a sip of water, rinsed her mouth, then began brushing her teeth in front of the mirror.

Little Isha stood outside, looking unhappy, so she squeezed her way between Li Ke and Jinx. Hugging Li Ke's leg, she rose onto her tiptoes and peered over the sink, watching her reflection in the mirror as she copied Jinx brushing her teeth.

"Are we making our move today?" Jinx asked around her toothbrush.

"Mm. The agreed time is four this afternoon. I've already had Vi get people ready, and Malson took a group over there yesterday," Li Ke replied.

"Li Ke, will anyone on our side get hurt? I mean, are you really not going yourself?" Jinx suddenly asked, looking at Li Ke in the mirror with her big eyes.

Li Ke was a little surprised. He turned his head to look at Jinx.

What's going on?

Jinx is actually worrying about people now?

No, the Jinx of old would never have asked something like that. She didn't care about "other people" at all. Other than Vi, Isha, and Li Ke, there was no one in the Lian Hua Gang she cared about.

Not even Malson or Manzu, friends who had grown up alongside Jinx and known her since childhood.

But Jinx had changed. It seemed she had learned to care about other people.

"Don't worry. I've already spoken with Silco. I told him I didn't want to see any of our people get hurt."

Li Ke smiled. After thinking for a moment, he added, "Besides, you made their weapons and armor, and Silco's helping us. As long as Vi and the others are careful, no one will get hurt."

There was one more thing Li Ke hadn't mentioned: Zeri was among the group.

Without Zeri, Li Ke might have gone along to make sure no one on their side got hurt. But with Zeri there, he didn't need to go himself.

In a sense, Zeri was the fastest person in Zaun!

Even faster than Li Ke!

Of course, if their abilities were rated with numbers, Zeri would probably be something like—Defense 1, Speed 5, Damage 2.

As for Li Ke, his would be 545. In terms of total stats, Zeri couldn't compare to him at all.

The reason Li Ke didn't mention Zeri was that he was afraid Jinx would get jealous.

Jinx was very prone to jealousy. And lately, she'd picked up some new tricks from somewhere. Now, when she got jealous, she didn't just turn gloomy and bring down the mood; instead, she smiled at Li Ke in a sickly sweet way.

That smile was even more frightening than her gloomy moods.

There was a kind of twisted, crazy beauty to it, all dripping with sarcasm. Who knew what terrifying things Jinx was thinking about when she smiled?

In any case, with Raven out of the picture and Silco agreeing to join them, everything was in their favor. The timing, the circumstances, and the people were all right. Nothing could go wrong.

That was why Li Ke didn't plan to show up. If he did, he could easily sweep through the Alchemical Baron's territory all by himself and win without breaking a sweat. But, as he'd told Silco, he needed to train his people.

Li Ke might be strong enough to change Zaun by himself, but one person wasn't enough to make Zaun strong.

That was why Vi, Malson, Manzu, and even Ekko and Zeri all needed to grow.

Li Ke picked up the cup Jinx had just sipped from and took a mouthful himself. After rinsing his mouth, he bent over the sink and spat out the water mixed with toothpaste.

"We'll have our answer tonight."

He wiped the water from the corner of his mouth.

"Big Sister, aren't we going to disguise ourselves at all?"

On Zaun's waste-strewn streets, Zeri followed behind Vi, excitedly looking at the nearly deserted road. Her clothes were painted with the Lian Hua Gang's signature pattern—blue and pink scattered petals—which looked very pretty.

Vi walked ahead with a dry piece of grass between her lips. She wore brass knuckles on her hands. At the sound of Zeri's question, she replied, "There's no need. Malson's people are already lying in wait inside. We'll hit them from both sides and catch them off guard. Those bastards are done for!"

"A-are we supposed to kill them?" Zeri looked at Vi's back and hesitated.

"What else?" Vi stopped, turned around, rolled her eyes at Zeri, and continued, "This is a fight to the death, Zeri. I don't know why Li Ke insisted on having you come with me, but if you aren't ready to kill, you can leave right now. Don't worry. I won't tell Li Ke."

Zeri swallowed and shrank her head timidly, like a quail. She nodded at Vi.

She really wasn't ready to kill anyone.

Before this, Zeri had gone after the Alchemical Barons on her own, but she'd only taught them a lesson or caused a little trouble. For example, she'd destroyed equipment in their factories or used her abilities to disrupt their power supply.

Killing someone... Zeri had never done that before. She'd never even thought about it!

But when Vi saw Zeri shrinking her head, something seemed to cross her mind. Her expression softened, and her tone grew gentler as she said, "Of course, if we can avoid killing anyone, we will."

"But, Zeri, this time is different. We're going up against an Alchemical Baron. His men aren't petty gangsters who joined the underworld because they needed money or food. They're a bunch of hardened criminals with blood on their hands. Before, we were just playing around. If the other side gave in, the fighting ended. But they're different."

"Between us and them, someone has to leave. They have to disappear from Zaun!"

Vi reached out and patted Zeri on the shoulder.

Zeri nodded. Then she saw Vi's expression turn fierce again, a brutal air rising around her.

Vi murmured, "For Vander's sake, they have to pay the price they deserve."

When Vander was still around, this pack of rats never dared show their faces. After Vander died, the rats divided up his territory, making everything he'd built in Zaun disappear without a trace.

Vi took a deep breath and looked at Manzu.

"Take ten people and go in from the west. Zeri and I will take the others through the front entrance."

Manzu held a short-barreled gun and nodded. He looked a little nervous, but quickly steadied himself. He picked ten people and led them away.

Vi pulled on a pink hood edged with jagged patterns. It looked like a pink shark with its huge mouth wide open.

When Vi lowered her head, the pink hair showing beneath it became the shark's tongue.

She reached to her waist, took off a white mask, and put it on. There were special openings on either side of the mask.

Zeri put on a mask too.

At Vi's signal, she charged ahead.

The group quickly followed after Vi, sprinting toward a casino.