Noticing

"What are you thinking? I'm still the same as before—I only like women!"

Derek slapped Damir on the head. "But recently, an important figure sent someone to hint to our Blackfire Gang that if we could find a pretty enough boy and send him over, he'd truly cooperate with us in the future and bring the Blackfire Gang even greater profits."

"Could you mean Mr. Epstein?"

Damir seemed to realize something as well, and his eyes immediately lit up.

"That's right! Mr. Epstein is one of the Federation's top-ranked tycoons. He has connections in both political and business circles. If he gives us even a little support in the future, the Blackfire Gang's business will grow even further."

"Then I'll go over right now and kidnap the kid in the photo!"

Damir impatiently got to his feet, ready to leave.

"Wait... You're still as rash as ever!"

Derek called out to stop him, his tone somewhat displeased. "Before making a move, shouldn't you investigate that kid's identity and background first? And the police have been watching us closely all these years. You'd better be careful when you act. Don't let anyone get hold of any evidence!"

The Blackfire Gang had always avoided provoking people they could not afford to offend. Their targets were mostly tourists from out of town, and they rarely made moves against locals. That was why the police had never managed to catch them with evidence over the years.

Mark had no idea that he had already become someone else's target.

Over the next two days, he went to the theater with Rosalie every day to film.

Thanks to their outstanding acting, filming progressed quickly.

According to Caleb's estimate, they might finish shooting in just three weeks.

After all, this was only a low-budget movie, so it was not supposed to take much time.

That day, Mark was in his hotel room, listening to Roger report on the day's work.

"Boss, 21,680 people bought the game today. The original revenue should have been 216,800 dollars, but one player directly mailed you a one-million-dollar money order and specifically noted that it was a tip for you..."

Roger's voice trembled with excitement.

"Oh? Who's so generous?"

Even Mark was startled.

Although Stardew Valley's sales were increasing by the day, one million dollars was still a huge sum to him.

"The other party didn't leave a name or email address. It was mailed anonymously."

Roger was somewhat puzzled as well. After all, without an email address, how were they supposed to send the player a registration code?

"Anonymous?"

Mark's mind raced, and he quickly guessed the other party's identity.

The person did not need a registration code, which meant they had probably cracked his payment system.

There were not many people in the entire Federation who could do that. Coupled with the extravagant gesture of tipping a million dollars, the only person Mark could think of was the wealthy Tony Stark.

"Looks like Stardew Valley is really going to become popular. Even Tony Stark is playing it now."

Mark smiled and accepted the one-million-dollar tip without hesitation.

After all, that money was barely anything to Tony Stark, while Mark was short on cash.

"Once I get back, I'll upgrade the personal supercomputer storing Alice's core to an enterprise-grade supercomputer."

Looking at the more than two million dollars in his bank account, Mark made his decision.

Previously, he had added code that allowed Alice to automatically gather online information for analysis and learning during idle periods.

As time passed, Alice's core code had now exceeded 500 GB, and it was still expanding at a rate of dozens of gigabytes every day.

The personal supercomputer was gradually becoming unable to meet Alice's computational demands.

"Suspicious target detected. Suspicious target detected!"

Just then, Alice, whom he had sent a drone outside to patrol, issued Mark an alert.

At the same time, she projected a high-resolution image onto the monitor in front of him.

It showed a young white man standing by the window of an apartment, holding binoculars and looking toward Mark's hotel.

At first, Mark did not think the other man's target was him.

After all, there were so many people staying at the hotel, and neither he nor Rosalie had openly gotten into any major conflicts with anyone.

But when he noticed that the binoculars seemed to be aimed directly at his floor, Mark immediately became vigilant.

"Alice, enlarge his face!"

Mark gave Alice the command.

The young white man's enlarged, high-resolution face soon appeared on the monitor.

"He really might be after me, or the entire film crew!"

After getting a clear look at him, Mark's expression darkened.

With his powerful memory, Mark instantly recognized the young white man as the very person who had brought a group of gang members to the set two days earlier to extort protection money.

Now that the man was using binoculars to spy on the floor where the crew was staying, Mark did not believe it was a coincidence.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

Mark sat before the computer and rapidly typed on the keyboard, quickly hacking into the local housing authority's online database.

To reduce the risk of exposing his identity as a hacker, he had already decided to use hacking techniques as little as possible.

But now that he might be in danger, Mark naturally could not afford to worry about that anymore.

After entering the apartment number where the young white man was located, Mark quickly found the owner's identity—Damir Royce.

The photo on the owner's profile was the very white man currently watching them through binoculars.

"Alice, conduct an in-depth online search for all information on Damir Royce and the gang behind him."

After more than ten minutes of intensive searching, Alice quickly found the information Mark needed.

"Damir Royce, captain of the Blackfire Gang. He was once imprisoned for three years for violent assault. After his release, he was charged by the New York District Attorney with rape, murder, drug trafficking, illegal detention, and other crimes, but was later released due to insufficient evidence."

"Blackfire Gang. Its territory includes South Lake Street and Oakland Street. Its primary businesses are drug dealing, prostitution, and human trafficking. The Blackfire Gang has been prosecuted multiple times by the District Attorney, but due to insufficient evidence or ordinary members taking the blame, its core members have suffered no losses."

After seeing that human trafficking was one of the Blackfire Gang's main businesses, Mark could already confirm that the gang had targeted their film crew.

After all, the crew had many young and beautiful women.

They had also come all the way from Los Angeles and were unfamiliar with New York, making them easy targets.

At that moment, Mark still did not know that he was now the Blackfire Gang's primary target.

"Now that I've confirmed their identity and target, what should I do next?"

Mark considered how to respond.

In fact, leaving New York immediately after discovering the danger and flying back to Los Angeles would have been a good option.

Mark could afford to compensate the crew for breach-of-contract fees.

But Rosalie had always wanted to become a star. She had finally taken her first step, and she definitely would not be willing to leave just like that.

Besides, the Blackfire Gang was only a gang. Mark was not about to flee in panic before he had even faced them.