This Is Miss Su Lin's Great Victory!

Night City, District 12, Liu Pangpang Home-Style Restaurant.

If there was any industry that had declined the fastest in this day and age, it was undoubtedly mass-market dining.

That was the general trend—for the sake of lowering living costs and improving work efficiency, more and more people had given up the right to eat, modifying their digestive systems into mechanical contraptions that could maintain bodily functions with nothing but nutrient solution.

Combined with the Rust Fog's effects, which had caused the average lifespan in Night Sin City to decrease year by year, business at this little restaurant tucked away in an old residential complex had only gotten worse with each passing year.

From the outside, it looked dim and dreary. There were only a handful of diners, while the few employees sat around listlessly, radiating an air of utter dejection.

However, the back kitchen was an entirely different scene.

The elderly man in a chef's hat was busy as could be. Yet rather than cooking, he held various high-precision tools as he dismantled a cube-like device before him.

"Uncle Luo, how's the progress?"

The server from the front counter walked in and asked, "This thing was delivered two days ago already. Can you reproduce it?"

"How could it be that easy? Do you think I'm putting together building blocks?"

Without raising his head, the old chef replied, "At the very least, I'll need another week and a half."

"That long?"

The server curled his lips. "But Leader Shen is pressing us hard. Isn't this a little..."

"I know he's anxious, but tell him not to be anxious yet."

The old chef removed the magnifying lens from his eye and shot him an irritated glare. "No one knows how long it took to develop precision machinery like this. If it were up to you, ten years wouldn't be enough."

"Uh... fine, fine. Just hurry it up, then."

"Do I need you to rush me? While you're at it, ask Young Shen whether he wants me to make Lei Song a mechanical arm too."

"Got it."

The server paused, sighed, and left.

After working with him for so long, he still couldn't quite accept the old man's temper.

Or rather, he couldn't understand why Leader Shen took such good care of him. Not only had he specifically bought this restaurant for him, he had even arranged for so many elite fighters to serve as the old man's bodyguards.

In his view, it was completely meaningless.

We're gang members. If we need equipment, can't we just steal it? Why go through the trouble of making it ourselves?

But if he knew the old man's true identity, perhaps he would... perhaps it still wouldn't change his opinion of him.

Even if the old man's true identity was truly incredible.

Luo Zhikang, one of Spark's founding members and one of the few mechanical engineers in the organization.

His specialty was turning decay into magic. Scrap metal, broken copper, and discarded parts could all become deadly weapons in his hands.

Ever since Spark's founding three years ago, he had essentially been the one providing equipment support. Most of the damaged items they had seized were only brought back to life after being rebuilt by him.

Much of the equipment he modified was even better than the original versions.

And before all that, his name had already been renowned far and wide.

The chief engineer of the Tianhe Consortium.

Being able to hold such an important position in the former hegemon of Night City spoke for itself, and countless companies had once tried to poach him with enormous sums of money.

However, after Tianhe's collapse, he too vanished without a trace.

Most people believed he was dead, never realizing that he had merely changed his name and hidden himself away as the head chef of a small restaurant.

And in secret, he continued serving his former employer in this way.

The server naturally knew little of these hidden matters. Fortunately, strange as the old man's temper was, looking after him was easy work. Every day consisted of nothing but slacking off.

His cooking was good too. It made one feel that not modifying one's stomach into a machine had truly been a wise choice.

As he muttered to himself, the restaurant door creaked open, and a short-haired woman in sunglasses walked in.

The server froze when he saw her. He had never seen such a beautiful woman... but he quickly recovered, approaching her with a welcoming smile. "Welcome. What would you like to eat?"

What greeted him instead was a black gun barrel. In the blink of an eye, she appeared behind him, drew a silenced pistol from her waist, and cleanly pulled the trigger against his temple.

Pfft.

The bullet blew through his head. The server collapsed to the floor amid spraying blood, never understanding what had happened even in death.

"...What the hell?!"

The others were instantly startled by the sight and immediately drew their weapons.

"Kill her!"

This was one of Spark's safe houses in Night City. On the surface, it was an ordinary little restaurant where they could cook whatever food customers wanted.

But most of the time, it had no customers at all. From the servers to the cashier, even the few apparent diners, they were all bodyguards Shen He had assigned to Luo Zhikang.

They were no ordinary gang members either, but combat-proficient Ascendants. Every one of them possessed the formidable strength to take on several opponents alone.

It had to be said that Shen He understood just how valuable talent was.

Yet in the face of all this, Su Lin merely removed her sunglasses, an involuntary curve appearing at the corner of her lips.

At least Xia Wuyou wasn't the one doing this anymore.

One minute later.

The fighting in the front hall did not reach the intently focused old Mr. Luo.

Only when he saw Su Lin enter the kitchen with a gun did he realize something was wrong.

Something had happened!

His first reaction was to activate the defensive system here, but just as he raised his hand, her pistol was already pressed to the back of his head. "Don't move."

"...Who are you?"

Luo Zhikang gritted his teeth and helplessly raised his hands.

For her to have reached this place meant that every bodyguard in the front hall had already been taken care of by her.

Being unskilled in combat, he had no ability to resist at all.

"The young master wishes to see you, so he sent me to invite Mr. Luo."

Su Lin did not answer his question. She stated it expressionlessly.

"The young master...?"

Before Luo Zhikang could process it, a sharp pain pierced his neck.

Under the effects of the powerful sedative, he lost consciousness within seconds.

After pocketing the Sea Crane on the table, Su Lin dragged him out the back door, stuffed him into the trunk, and drove away.

It was clear that Miss Su Lin was in a very good mood. Not only did she maintain a smile on her face, she even deliberately picked music she liked to suppress the agitation in her heart.

See? Didn't I handle this far more efficiently than that Xia Wuyou?

But then again, how many fish had they already caught using this one piece of bait?

The young master truly had considered everything thoroughly to make arrangements like this.

Meanwhile, someone had been assigned to handle the aftermath in the front hall. In less than half an hour, the corpses and the mess inside had vanished without a trace.

The rolling shutter was pulled down, and a "Prime Storefront for Sale" sign was hung up. To outsiders, it looked like nothing more than another small restaurant that had failed to survive the tides of the times.