Two in the morning.
The heart of Linhai City's underworld stopped beating.
An abandoned garage in the south of the city.
Machete in hand, Zhang Qiang was about to gather his men to seize the territory Sun Jianguo had left behind.
He suddenly clutched his chest and slammed rigidly onto the concrete floor.
A pool hall in the east of the city. Li Biao was lighting a cigarette. His lighter fell.
He collapsed onto the pool table and stopped breathing.
Thirteen core enforcers died of cardiac paralysis at the same time.
Municipal police headquarters.
Chen Lei kicked open his office door. His eyes were bloodshot, and he clutched a stack of crime scene reports.
"South side, east side, the High-Tech Zone. Thirteen bodies.
"All key members of the Construction Group." A young officer followed behind him, speaking rapidly.
"Add Zhao Lidong's jump and Sun Jianguo's car crash.
"The Construction Group's entire leadership and enforcement apparatus have been wiped out."
Chen Lei walked to the window and pushed it open. The night breeze failed to disperse the smell of smoke clinging to him.
"Investigate." Chen Lei's voice was hoarse. "Send out every cop who's still breathing.
"Seal off the scenes and keep a lid on those thugs gearing up to grab territory."
"Then... what about the Kannazuki case?" the young officer asked.
"Put it aside for now." Chen Lei spun around. "Linhai City is a powder keg right now.
"If we mishandle this, the whole city will be in chaos tomorrow."
Every officer on the Special Task Force was reassigned. The investigation into the "Cleaner" effectively ground to a halt.
Six in the morning.
Kannazuki rode his electric scooter to the Changfeng Road intersection and stopped.
A red light.
Three police cars screamed past him, sirens blaring. They were heading south.
Kannazuki braced one foot on the ground and watched them disappear.
"Keh keh keh keh." Ryuk hung upside down from the traffic light's crossbar, a green apple in his hand.
"All the cops have run off to mop up.
"Light, you've got them running in circles."
Kannazuki ignored Ryuk and looked at the new order on his phone screen.
Shen He's rules protected the police, but they also constrained them. Give them enough messes to clean up, and they would have no time for anything else.
The light turned green.
Kannazuki twisted the throttle. His electric scooter pulled away smoothly.
Ten in the morning.
The top floor of the Global Center Tower.
Dongding Capital's Linhai branch.
Wang Mingyuan stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, wearing a tailored suit and holding a cup of black coffee.
The holographic screen behind his desk displayed the acquisition progress for the logistics and entertainment businesses owned by the Construction Group. The green progress bar advanced rapidly.
"Mr. Wang." His secretary pushed open the office door. "The acquisition is eighty percent complete.
"With Sun Jianguo dead, his holdings were a fat prize with no owner. We poured in thirty billion and forcibly swallowed up his core assets."
Wang Mingyuan took a sip of coffee.
"What about the ledger?" He turned to his secretary.
The secretary lowered their head. "We haven't found it. Sun Jianguo's secret ledger recorded every transaction we laundered through the Construction Group. His safe was empty."
Wang Mingyuan set down his coffee cup. Porcelain struck the glass desktop with a crisp clink.
"Zhao Lidong visited police headquarters before he jumped." Wang Mingyuan walked over to his desk.
"But our ledger wasn't among the things he handed over. Sun Jianguo died while fleeing, and it wasn't in his car either."
Wang Mingyuan planted both hands on the desk.
"Someone took the ledger." His tone was icy.
"The person they call the 'Cleaner' on the dark web. He killed Sun Jianguo and took the thing that could destroy us."
"Should we call the police?" the secretary asked.
"The police are useless." Wang Mingyuan pressed the intercom on his desk. "Send in the hacking team."
Three minutes later.
Five young people in hoodies entered the office.
They opened the portable servers they had brought.
"Pull every surveillance feed around the sites where Sun Jianguo and those thirteen enforcers died."
Wang Mingyuan gave the order. "Bypass the police system. I want to see their blind spots."
Countless images flashed across the screen. Code streamed down like a waterfall.
Ten minutes later.
One hacker hit Enter.
The image froze.
"Mr. Wang, we found something." The hacker pointed at the screen.
It showed the alley behind the east-side pool hall. One fifty-five in the morning.
A blurry yellow figure flashed past the alley entrance.
The hacker dragged the progress bar, enlarged the image, and ran an enhancement algorithm.
The figure's outline gradually sharpened. A yellow outdoor jacket.
Two silver reflective strips ran across its back.
"The delivery platform uniform comparison is complete."
The hacker brought up another set of data. "This is the uniform worn by delivery workers for Linhai City's FlashEx platform."
Wang Mingyuan stared at the yellow figure on the screen.
"The Cleaner delivers takeout?" The secretary looked stunned.
Wang Mingyuan straightened.
"I don't care who he is." He adjusted his tie. "He took something he shouldn't have."
Wang Mingyuan looked at his secretary.
"Log onto the dark web," he ordered. "Post a bounty.
"One hundred million US dollars. Targets: every night-shift delivery rider in Linhai City who could be a suspect. Dead or alive, I want that ledger."
The secretary sucked in a breath. One hundred million US dollars.
That was enough to drive every outlaw in the underworld completely insane.
Eleven that night.
A light rain began falling over Linhai City.
Xingfu Street, in the old district.
A delivery worker in a yellow outdoor jacket had just handed a customer their food. He turned and walked toward his electric scooter.
Two dark figures lunged out of the shadows.
A baseball bat slammed into the back of the delivery worker's head. He dropped without even a scream.
The figures didn't search for his wallet. They roughly tore off his helmet and snatched the phone from his pocket.
"Not this one." One figure checked the order history on the phone.
"He's been in the northern district all night."
"Next." The other figure tossed the phone aside.
The two quickly vanished into the night.
The same scene played out in every corner of Linhai City.
The rats in the sewers had caught the scent of blood.
The lure of one hundred million US dollars brought bounty hunters, gang remnants, and professional killers out in force.
They didn't need evidence. They only looked for yellow jackets.
The fabric of everyday life was torn apart.
The protective umbrella had failed.
One in the morning.
Kannazuki rode his electric scooter into a narrow, dark alley.
It was a shortcut to his delivery destination.
Tall, aging apartment buildings rose on either side. There were no streetlights.
Only the scooter's headlight cut through the darkness ahead.
Rain struck his helmet's visor.
Kannazuki slowed down.
Twenty meters ahead, three men blocked his path.
They wore black raincoats and carried meter-long galvanized steel pipes. One end of each pipe dragged along the concrete, producing a grating screech.
Kannazuki squeezed the brake. The scooter stopped.
He planted both feet on the ground and looked at the three men through the curtain of rain.
"Keh keh keh keh." Ryuk circled overhead, then descended through the rain. He crouched on a length of discarded water pipe beside Kannazuki.
"Light, they're here for you."
Ryuk grinned, baring his sharp teeth. "Every mad dog in the city is hunting people in yellow."
Kannazuki ignored Ryuk.
He watched the three men.
They said nothing.
They spread out and advanced in a loose semicircle.
The man on the left raised his steel pipe and pointed it at Kannazuki.
"Take out your phone."
The man's voice sounded muffled in the rainy night. "Open your delivery platform account."
They weren't after money. They were going straight for his identity.
Kannazuki remained seated on his scooter. He didn't reach for his phone.
His mind raced.
Thirteen enforcers dropping dead, the police taking over the scenes. That had been part of the plan.
But now a third faction had entered the fray.
Organized, purposeful, and extremely efficient.
And capable of bypassing the police's scrutiny to zero in directly on delivery workers.
Capital.
Only capital combined with elite hacking expertise could have reacted this quickly.
Kannazuki watched the approaching steel pipes.
The strength granted by his physical evolution surged through his muscle fibers. His vision was exceptionally clear in the darkness. He could see the knuckles of the man gripping the pipe on the left, and the dagger hilt peeking beneath the middle man's raincoat.
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