Unexpected Collision

"I won't keep you for dinner, then..." The moment Tang De said these words today, Zhang Tie, unable to contain his excitement, didn't even bother with a greeting. Like an arrow released from a bow, he bolted out of Tang De's grocery store in a flash.

"That brat!" Seeing Zhang Tie run off with such impatience, Tang De shook his head. The longer Zhang Tie had stayed in the shop today, the more Tang De felt he was preoccupied, acting somewhat absent-minded. That was why he had specifically let Zhang Tie leave early today. He hadn't expected Zhang Tie to be waiting for that very cue; the word "dinner" had barely left Tang De's lips before Zhang Tie had already charged out the door, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Tie was incredibly excited now. He couldn't wait to get home the next second, to stand guard by that little tree and watch with his own eyes how the "Flawless Fruit" would ripen. Because of his urgency, the soreness and aching throughout his body seemed to have eased significantly.

There was only one thought in Zhang Tie's mind now—go home!

The area near the train station was bustling with people. Because Black Flame City had implemented a curfew after midnight over the past few days, the streets were even more crowded with those trying to get their activities done before the lockdown. The flea market and the surrounding shops were becoming increasingly lively.

To get home faster, Zhang Tie didn't take his usual route. Instead, he took a shortcut, sprinting through the streets and alleys near the station where the crowds were thickest. These areas were always a melting pot for all sorts of people, with many outsiders and a very complex security situation. However, Zhang Tie had been coming and going through this neighborhood for years, so he didn't feel like a stranger; he knew the area like the back of his hand. But no matter how well you know a road, there are times when you run into accidents. Just like now, as he reached a corner where an alley met the street, the dim light from the sparse streetlamps made visibility poor after dark. Zhang Tie, still running, slammed headlong into someone who had just turned out from the alley. Neither party had expected to collide at this intersection.

The other person only swayed slightly, but Zhang Tie was sent sprawling to the ground by the force of his own momentum. He hit the floor, feeling dizzy and disoriented, and couldn't help but let out a muffled groan.

"Kid, are you looking to die?"

Zhang Tie opened his eyes to see a tall, burly man standing before him. He was in his forties, dressed like a typical Prospector, with brown-yellow hair and a horse-like face full of coarse flesh. His eyes were fierce as he glared down at him, one foot already raised, ready to stomp down on Zhang Tie with vicious intent.

Zhang Tie was already aching all over, and this heavy collision—while the man remained unscathed—had left him feeling as if his own body were falling apart. He couldn't scramble up in time, and he hadn't expected to encounter someone so brutal. He was just a teenager, and seeing the man ready to stomp on him while he was down, looking at those massive feet and the man's knotted muscles, he knew that if he were hit, he would be dead or severely injured.

"What's wrong, Hark?" A slightly smaller figure, also dressed as a Prospector, slithered out of the alley behind the man named Hark like a snake. As soon as he emerged, he saw Zhang Tie on the ground and Hark's posture, and he quickly grabbed Hark to stop him. The smaller guy pointed his chin toward the distance. The man who had been about to stomp on Zhang Tie looked over and saw a squad of Black Flame City patrol soldiers turning onto the street from the distance. Only then did the man named Hark pull back his foot.

"Young man, are you alright?" The smaller man, who was still much taller than Zhang Tie, walked over and crouched down with a smile. For some reason, looking into the pale yellow pupils within that man's narrow, slit-like eyes, Zhang Tie felt as if he were being stared at by a cobra; the hair on his body stood on end instantly. Moreover, the man seemed to carry the scent of a snake—as he got closer, Zhang Tie caught a faint, nauseating, fishy odor.

Thinking of the foot the man named Hark had raised, Zhang Tie scrambled to get up. No matter what, lying on the ground was too dangerous.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I was just running, I didn't expect you to turn out of the alley so suddenly..."

"Heh heh, why so careless? Did you get hurt? Come, let me help you up!"

"No... no need..." Seeing this man who made his skin crawl reach out to help him, Zhang Tie refused, struggling to sit up on his own.

"You must, you really must. It was our fault for not paying attention, after all..." The small man said with a smile, and his hands grabbed Zhang Tie's wrists before he could protest. Zhang Tie felt a tightness in his wrists, and before he could speak, he felt as if his hands had been licked by a snake's tongue. The man had patted him down with lightning speed—from his palms to his wrists, elbows, shoulders, armpits, waist, chest, and abdomen. While pulling Zhang Tie up, the man's hands had searched his entire body, and he even used the excuse of brushing off the dust to check Zhang Tie's crotch, calves, and ankles. By the time Zhang Tie was standing, he hadn't even realized what happened; the small man had finished searching him and gave a slight shake of his head to the man named Hark.

"Be careful when walking after dark!" The small man smiled at Zhang Tie, then the man named Hark shot Zhang Tie a fierce glare, and the two disappeared into the crowd.

In just a few seconds, Zhang Tie realized that his back was drenched in cold sweat. As the night wind blew, he shivered. His intuition told him that in those few seconds, he had narrowly escaped a massive crisis.

Leave here quickly, and pray I never run into those two terrifying guys again, Zhang Tie told himself. He took two steps, but his foot kicked something. He paused for a moment, then bent down to pick it up. By the moonlight, he saw it was a small, palm-sized cloth bag containing something. It didn't feel like precious metal or money. Zhang Tie took the object out and looked at it. It was strange—not something special, just a triangular piece of wood, half the size of a palm, dark red and snapped in two. There were no patterns or characters on it, and the texture seemed to be ordinary Red Thunder Pine, nothing particularly valuable. Zhang Tie was about to toss it away, but he noticed the grain and the feel of the wood suggested it had been handled frequently, worn smooth by touch. He thought carefully: if this thing were useless, why would someone go to such lengths to keep it in a bag? Suddenly, a thought struck him: this must have fallen from Hark when he collided with him. Zhang Tie sneered, put the inconspicuous wooden piece back into the bag, tucked it into his pocket, and quickly left the area, running toward home.

Half an hour after Zhang Tie left, Hark and the snake-like man returned. Unlike before, their faces were pale, filled with an indescribable terror. Carrying an oil lamp, they crawled on the ground together, searching every inch of the area over and over, but they still couldn't find what they were looking for.

"What do we do?" Hark's face no longer held any ferocity, only a doomsday-like anxiety. "Sneider, should we just go find them directly?"

"Are you insane?" The man named Sneider, who looked like a snake, glared fiercely at Hark. "You know the organization's principles and how those people operate. Without the token, if we go there, we'll likely be killed the moment we try to identify ourselves. Why would they believe you?"

"Then what do we do? If we don't complete this mission..."

Thinking of the punishments the organization's leaders meted out to those who failed, the color drained even further from the faces of Hark and Sneider.

"It must have been that kid. I didn't expect even I would be fooled this time. You checked that thing when we left the train station; it was still in your pocket. We haven't had contact with anyone since leaving the station. It couldn't have just vanished. It must have been when you collided with that kid—it went missing right after. That kid must have taken it!" Sneider said bitterly. "There's no other possibility!"

"But didn't you search that kid's body just now? There was nothing on him!"

"That kid must be an old hand. He must have ditched the item the moment he got it. It was too dark here, and we didn't pay attention to the ground. He must have picked it up and slipped away after we left!" Sneider's deduction, aside from mistakenly taking Zhang Tie for a professional pickpocket, was remarkably close to the truth. "Now we just have to hope that kid doesn't think it's useless and throw it away. He better still have it when we find him, otherwise..."

"Otherwise, I'll kill his whole family and chop that brat into mincemeat to pay for it!" The flesh on Hark's face twitched. "So what do we do now? Go find that kid?"

"No, we'll go grab a pickpocket first and make them lead us to him. If that kid hangs around the train station, the other pickpockets will definitely know him!"

"Fine..."

The area near the Black Flame City train station had always been the most lawless place in the city. The swindlers, pickpockets, and thieves lurking there were all filthy, especially the pickpockets near the station—they would swindle if they could, steal if they couldn't, and rob if they had to. They were in cahoots with the local station guards, engaging in every despicable act imaginable. In the eyes of the common folk, these people were a blight on Black Flame City. But tonight, because of one trivial matter, two harbingers of doom had finally come looking for them...