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In the stairwell, the voice-activated light flickered incessantly. It seemed to be malfunctioning, casting shifting, uneven shadows that gave the place the distinct atmosphere of a horror movie.

Wang Yiyang pressed the elevator button, but there was no response. A sheet of white paper was taped to the side as a notice.

'Elevator out of order. Repairs scheduled for tomorrow at 4:00 PM. Tenants, please excuse the inconvenience.'

With the elevator down, Wang Yiyang had no choice but to climb the stairs floor by floor.

The small building he rented was one of the cheapest in the surrounding area.

This building, along with the two next to it, formed a tiny residential complex known as Green Tree Home.

It was said that two small-scale real estate developers had invested in building this complex, desperate to capitalize on the recent property boom.

Precisely because the developers lacked sufficient capital, the public facilities at Green Tree Home were abysmal—practically non-existent.

Even the property management company had completely abandoned the site because the owners refused to pay their fees.

Over time, the complex fell under the collective management of the residents' committee.

But the residents had their own jobs and lives to attend to; they couldn't possibly manage the property every single day.

Consequently, Green Tree Home eventually became the complex with the worst environment in the neighborhood, bar none.

Just like now, the broken voice-activated light in the stairwell remained unrepaired because fixing it would cost money.

That money had to come from the public funds managed by the residents' committee, and every time those funds were tapped, more than half of the owner representatives had to agree.

The process was incredibly tedious and troublesome.

As a result, unless the majority of the complex's public facilities were broken and required a collective repair, nothing could be reported.

Wang Yiyang walked up the stairs toward his apartment, 401. By the time he reached the second floor, he was already feeling winded.

It seems I need to move as soon as possible. With so much capital on hand, living in a place that costs a few hundred a month is just a waste of my own time.

Reaching the third floor, Wang Yiyang decided he would buy a house tomorrow.

As he ascended to the third floor and prepared to push through to the fourth, he noticed a slim girl in a white dance skirt sitting on the steps at the landing.

The girl had shoulder-length black hair and was wearing white dance tights under her short skirt, with a small white backpack on her back.

She sat with her head bowed and her legs pressed together, her fair, delicate hands tapping rapidly on a smartphone screen, seemingly engaged in a chat.

Wang Yiyang recognized the girl. Her name was Li Ran, the daughter of the residents in 301, directly below his unit.

In the past, because the family in 301 frequently fought and threw things, the loud banging in the middle of the night made it impossible to sleep, and he had gone down several times to ask them to keep it down.

He later learned that the husband in 301 was having an affair. He had been caught in the act several times, but refused to change his ways, leading to daily arguments and violence.

What stuck with Wang Yiyang most was the time Li Ran came home from school to find her front door wide open, her expression blank as she watched her father grabbing her mother by the hair and slamming her head against the wall, leaving blood spatters everywhere.

She was already in her third year of middle school; she wasn't a naive child anymore.

The numbness on Li Ran's face at that moment had left a deep impression on him.

From then on, whenever something happened in that household, Wang Yiyang and the other neighbors would help whenever they could.

"Why are you out here alone again?" Wang Yiyang sighed inwardly as he looked at Li Ran on the steps, asking in a low voice.

Li Ran lifted her small face, revealing a badly swollen right cheek, her eyes slightly hollow.

"It's nothing. I forgot my keys. Go on back, Brother Yiyang, it's fine. My mom will be back in a bit." She offered a smile, seemingly unaware of how severe the swelling on her face looked.

Wang Yiyang saw the stubbornness in her eyes and said no more. At times like this, leaving quietly was the greatest respect he could show her dignity.

He didn't speak again, walking past Li Ran and quickly returning to the door of his rental.

He took out his key, opened the door, stepped inside calmly, and closed it behind him.

In the living room of the rental, a bearded man with sharp eyes and golden hair stood up quickly from a stool.

"Boss." The man nodded composedly. "The results are in. You may ask any questions in real-time."

This man was Jian. He was also the captain of one of the squads currently responsible for investigating the case involving the Yuekong Martial Arts Hall.

For the sake of secrecy, when outside in non-encrypted environments, members of the Security Department uniformly addressed Wang Yiyang as "Boss."

Wang Yiyang was not surprised; he had been the one to tell Jian to come in and wait for him.

Otherwise, if a regular office worker had a blonde, blue-eyed foreigner waiting outside his door for such a long time, anyone could tell something was wrong.

"Begin." Wang Yiyang glanced at the wall clock: 7:40.

"Yes." Jian quickly took a mobile projector from his pocket and proceeded to attach a small antenna, a mobile communicator, encryption auxiliary components, anti-interference parts, and other pieces.

Once assembled, he gave it a light tap. The projector beeped, emitting a white screen of light that projected into the air exactly two meters in front of Wang Yiyang.

The white light quickly displayed a sealed underground interrogation room.

The room was stark white, almost blinding. In the center sat a metal chair—a silver metal chair.

Dada, the man who had previously attempted to assassinate Wang Yiyang, was currently bound to that metal chair.

He kept his head bowed, motionless, while tears, snot, and saliva streamed down his face.

Wang Yiyang really wanted to ask: what was wrong with this guy?

However, catching a glimpse of Jian out of the corner of his eye, he saw the man looking perfectly calm, as if this were a normal situation.

This suppressed the urge to ask, and he continued to watch.

"We administered a triple dose of organ failure agent and our latest truth serum. Through special methods, we repeatedly questioned him to confirm the key intelligence. You can ask him anything you want now. He won't hold anything back. Of course, please try to finish within half an hour. After that, the drug will cause an overreaction, and the guy's cerebral nerves will suffer necrosis," Jian said calmly.

He handed over a printed sheet of white paper, densely packed with text.

"This is what we extracted from the interrogation. Please, take a look."

Wang Yiyang nodded slightly and took the paper.

He scanned it quickly from top to bottom, and soon, his expression grew grave.

The first half of the interrogation content on the paper was much the same as what he had uncovered before his rebirth.

But the latter part was quite troublesome.

After finishing the document, Wang Yiyang fell silent for a moment before asking Dada Jian a few questions through the light screen.

Dada answered them one by one, looking dazed.

According to the interrogation results, Dada belonged to an assassination organization called Mantis.

Strangely, even with the intelligence network of Mister Pharmaceutical Group, there was very little known about this Mantis after investigation.

Although Mister Pharmaceutical Group's intelligence network was primarily focused on commercial aspects, the fact that this situation could occur meant that Mantis was even more secretive than Wang Yiyang had imagined.

Thinking back, the fact that he had been able to uncover information about Mantis before his rebirth was truly a matter of incredible luck, involving several coincidences in a row.

"Mantis..." Wang Yiyang gripped the paper, his eyes deepening slightly.

"Dada is missing?"

Inside an underground casino in Yingxing City.

In the general manager's office.

A robust old man with waist-length white hair and a bare chest, wearing only black trousers, slowly rotated three black metal balls in his hand.

The old man stood with his back to his three disciples, his gaze quietly passing through the one-way glass wall to overlook the vast underground casino floor below.

Under the magnificent decorations and chandeliers, the various faces and expressions seen from this height gave one a sense of satisfaction, as if everything were under his control.

"Yes, Teacher. We questioned Zhong Can. The last location Dada should have been at was the bus station in Guixi Town," a disciple with Red Eyebrows said in a low voice.

"Dada may be a piece of trash, but he isn't someone an average person could take down. There must have been outside interference," added another disciple, a woman with a seductive figure and a charming face.

"Zhong Can has been slow to make a move. Could he have developed ulterior motives? We should be more vigilant," the Red Eyebrows man said again.

"I did manage to find some news here. Recently, some international capital has been covertly investigating our files," the third disciple, a young man wearing glasses and a grey robe, suddenly whispered a reminder.

"Oh?" The old man turned his head slightly to look at him. "What kind of background?"

The bespectacled man lowered his head and replied respectfully, "The full name is Mister Pharmaceutical Group."

"Mister Pharmaceutical Group?" The old man narrowed his eyes.

He knew of this force. On the surface, Mister Pharmaceutical Group appeared to be a very legitimate pharmaceutical enterprise.

But in reality, in certain dark circles, the tentacles of this group were vast. They were extremely difficult to provoke.

Although they were not in the same circle or field, when an entity's scale and power reached a certain level, their influence was effectively interconnected.

Regardless, they were definitely not people to be trifled with.

The reputation that had leaked out about Mister Pharmaceutical Group in certain circles was also full of very negative news.

This was a behemoth in the truest sense, a massive collection of interests.

"Why is a pharmaceutical group getting involved? Why not just focus on making their own money instead of running over here to..." The only female disciple looked disdainful.

"Shut up."

The Red Eyebrows man let out a low shout, his gaze sweeping over the woman like a blade, scaring her into a pale silence as she stopped instantly.

Having silenced his junior sister, the Red Eyebrows man looked back at the old man.

"Teacher, please give us your next instructions."

For a moment, all three pairs of eyes were fixed on the old man.

"Find Dada. Once you've clarified the specific situation, proceed with the rest according to the original plan," the old man paused. "As for Mister Pharmaceutical Group, send people to investigate and make contact. If it really is them who captured him, kill the captors directly as a warning."

"Yes!"

After sending Jian away, Wang Yiyang finished reading the document, ignited it with a lighter, and flushed the ashes down the toilet.

He then opened the window to let the smell of burnt paper dissipate from the room.

After finishing this, Wang Yiyang boiled some water for himself, found some old ginger and brown sugar on the kitchen shelf, and brewed a small pot of ginger brown sugar tea.

The temperature difference between day and night had been significant these past few days; it could reach as high as seventeen or eighteen degrees during the day, but drop to three or four degrees at night.

He checked the time: 9:19.

By the time he finished reviewing the files and the interrogation ended, two hours had passed without him even realizing it.