Qin Ran stood on Delin Street.
Behind him lay the bustling Rich District; ahead lay the slums, where the lights were dim and crimes unimaginable to ordinary people unfolded in the darkness.
The dull thuds of clubs striking bodies.
The wet sounds of metal blades piercing flesh and drawing blood.
To Qin Ran, whose Perception had reached A+, those sounds might as well have been coming from right beside his ears.
He carefully distinguished each sound.
Then he set off in one direction.
Despite its name, Delin Street was actually an entire neighborhood.
Including the large factories and unfinished buildings nearby, this shantytown housed nearly twenty thousand people, most of them unemployed or homeless.
And...
Gang members.
These fierce-eyed, powerfully built men had been sizing Qin Ran up ever since he entered Delin Street.
They were deciding whether the man who had delivered himself to their doorstep was easy prey or a tough customer.
Delivered himself to their doorstep?
Yes, exactly that.
Delin Street connected to the picturesque Rich District.
But few people entered the Rich District directly from there, or came into Delin Street from the Rich District.
It wasn't just because of the police car always parked at the entrance.
It was also because doing so invited trouble.
Anyone entering the Rich District from Delin Street would attract police attention.
Those officers would never allow their precious taxpayers to suffer even the slightest harm.
And anyone walking into Delin Street from the Rich District?
Naturally, they would become easy prey in the gang members' eyes.
But some recent events had made these men behave themselves.
Otherwise, Qin Ran would have been stopped and questioned the moment he entered Delin Street.
As for the police?
They only concerned themselves with the Rich District.
Delin Street marked a boundary both