Infiltration

Lower City.

Every prosperous, wealthy city inevitably had a place of utter chaos, where all manner of people gathered, gangs ran rampant, and ordinary citizens avoided going out at night if they could.

In New York, Brooklyn was such a place.

In Metropolis, Suicide Slum was such a place.

In Central City, Lower City was such a place.

As it was largely inhabited by minorities such as Black people, compounded by America's historical lack of education for minorities, employment difficulties, and racial discrimination, this was the district with the highest crime rate in Central City. Some regarded it as the birthplace of chaos, filth, and sin.

Though conditions had greatly improved with social development, the environment had become more beautiful, and the quality of the population had visibly risen, not a single person from Central City was willing to live here or go out at night.

It was nearing dusk. The dim afterglow of the setting sun fell over the rather dilapidated neighborhood, already bringing with it a restless unease.

Pedestrians on the street wrapped their coats tightly around themselves, and their numbers gradually dwindled.

A yellow taxi pulled sharply to the curb. The screech of its sudden brakes sent dead leaves swirling off the ground. The Black driver's eyes darted about as he muttered under his breath and craned his head to look around.

"If your fare hadn't been tempting enough, I wouldn't have come to Lower City this close to dusk."

"Don't worry, buddy. The Leighton District is very safe for Lower City."

"I came out of Lower City. I know."

Alex got out with a black backpack slung over his shoulder and handed the driver more than a hundred dollars. Seeing that Alex looked like a refined programmer, civilized and easy to bully, the Black driver offered a reminder as he turned the car around: "Find a hotel quickly. This place isn't exactly safe at night."

Then the car drove away from Alex's sight.

Alex chuckled as he watched the taxi depart. He raised his head and looked toward the end of the street, where the Leighton Hotel stood bathed in dusk, like a mountain facing the entire street and splitting it into a Y-shape.

"Alex. I have a reservation." He stepped inside and approached the hotel front desk.

After the receptionist checked him into VIP Room 506 and handed him his key card, Alex entered the elevator and pressed the button for the fifth floor. The elevator rose slowly, and with a ding, it arrived at the fifth floor.

He stepped out onto marble polished bright enough to reflect a person's shadow, arrived at his room, swiped his card, and entered. As the door closed, a subtle glint flashed through his eyes. He looked at the Do Not Disturb sign hanging from the handle of VIP Room 503 opposite him until it disappeared behind his closing door.

After shutting his door, he swiftly and decisively took a laptop from his black backpack, placed it on the hotel desk, connected a data cable, and plugged the other end into the hotel's Ethernet port.

The next moment, Alex had already infiltrated the Leighton Hotel's system. He was studying computer electronics information and mechanical engineering at Central City University and held two doctoral degrees. Hacking a hotel was effortless for him.

The laptop screen displayed the status of every room.

The electronic sensor door of VIP Room 503 was marked as unoccupied.

Alex ignored it. He infiltrated the Leighton Hotel's surveillance system again, pulled up the fifth-floor footage from that day, and sped it up dozens of times, pausing only when Danton Black appeared to confirm his movements.

The fifth-floor surveillance footage clearly showed that Danton Black had left at three in the afternoon and still had not returned by five in the evening.

After confirming that Danton Black was not in his room and checking that no one was currently on the fifth-floor surveillance feed, Alex directly clipped out a segment and replaced thirty seconds of the live fifth-floor footage, making it appear that no one had been there during those thirty seconds.

Alex reopened the Leighton Hotel system displaying the many rooms, skimmed past them, controlled the mouse to click on VIP Room 503's door, opened it, and set it to close after thirty seconds.

Having done all that, he rose as if nothing had happened, packed up his laptop in ten seconds, adjusted his glasses with one hand, and headed for the door.

There was no one in the hallway outside.

Alex walked out of Room 506 and casually headed straight for Room 503 across the hall. He pulled down the handle, opened the door, and entered. A thin strand of hair drifted down from the doorframe. Alex caught it between his fingers, put it back into the doorframe, closed the door, and firmly trapped the hair again.

Thirty seconds passed, and the automatic electronic door lock engaged.

The thirty seconds of replaced surveillance footage returned to normal.

Like an elite agent, he had tracked Danton Black's movements and infiltrated his room without anyone knowing.

Alex's gaze swept over the entire room, taking it all in at a glance. Ahead was a window facing Leighton Street, offering a view of the entire road. A gap had been left between the blackout curtains. Through it, he could see the setting sun directly opposite the room. Dusk light pierced through the gap and cast a straight line across the floor.

Danton Black's education and intelligence had given him a basic level of counter-surveillance awareness, merely better than that of an ordinary person.

He was a scholar, an expert in nuclear physics research. Where would he have learned to excel at counter-surveillance?

He did not understand it, but he had already done what he believed was best.

The gap in the room's curtains allowed him to determine from the street whether anyone was in his room.

The hair trapped in the doorframe allowed him to confirm whether anyone had entered his room when he returned.

Alex lightly shook his head. He did not approach the curtains. After scanning the surroundings and keeping away from the window, he opened the wardrobe beside it.

"Hmm?"

Unexpectedly, there was a leather carry bag at the bottom of the wardrobe. Judging from the sharp angles protruding from its shape, it did not appear to contain clothes.

"This should be the jewelry!"

Alex had originally assumed Danton Black would hide the jewelry somewhere else. He had not expected him to leave it so openly in a hotel.

After thinking briefly, Alex understood.

Danton Black had only arrived in Central City a month ago. He had no trustworthy people or locations at all. Jewelry worth thirty-five million dollars was enough to drive anyone mad, yet he could not carry it around with him. He really had been put in a difficult position, so leaving it in a hotel was only natural.

Alex did not casually open the leather bag. There could be unknown dangers inside it; there might even be a bomb.

Instead, he sat at the nearby table and waited quietly for Danton Black to return.

Within ten meters, Alex could kill Danton Black with one punch, leaving him unable to even use his duplication ability. The moment Danton Black opened the door, he would have no chance of escape.

Therefore, Alex remained calm. He only needed to sit and wait.

The sun slowly set.

Its dim light shone over the increasingly sparse crowd. The entire street was yellow and desolate, about to sink into cold darkness.

At the corner, Danton Black emerged from the other end of the street and headed toward the Leighton Hotel. He wore a brown trench coat reaching his thighs, his hands tucked into its pockets and held close against his body. His face bore a trace of weathered exhaustion and stubble.

The dim afterglow of the setting sun stretched his shadow long.

The wind stirred dead leaves, carrying the air of weariness around him and making his trench coat flap loudly.

He narrowed his eyes and looked up at his room. The glow of dusk reflected off the window in a glaring sheen.

The yellow curtains inside still had a gap, and sunlight still pierced into the room. No silhouette was visible.

His heart relaxed.