Hunter

88 Lotus Lake Road.

Ren Ye hurried along behind Huang Wei. Through a corridor window, he glanced at the room where his younger sister, Ren Qingning, was staying. "We're taking people away in a bit. Security here won't suffer, will it?"

"The higher-ups sent another twenty-odd people today. Five of them are second-tier players. A lot of them even gave up their star gate missions just to guard this place." Huang Wei turned to answer him. "Relax. Nothing's going to happen."

"Okay." Ren Ye nodded and said no more.

Three minutes later.

In the compound, more than twenty New Year's Watchers of all different appearances gathered around Huang Wei. Half of them had been borrowed from other districts, because Qingfu District only had thirty-five official positions for New Year's Watchers. Their star gate missions were also difficult to synchronize. One person or another was always entering a star gate, making it hard to assemble everyone.

Their small numbers were down to the New Year's Watchers' stringent selection process. Ability came second; character came first. That was also one reason Huang Wei and the others had such a strong sense of honor.

Once everyone had gathered, Huang Wei immediately briefed them. "The target is Yin Hai, a player with a Predator Type class. We've received reliable intelligence that he's suspected of harboring the criminal players from University Town. Yin Hai runs a Mahjong Parlor called Fight to the End on Tongren Road. According to his file, his supernatural abilities are mediocre, and his underlings aren't particularly strong either. But he belongs to the Roadside Dogs and has protection from above. His boss is that cripple, so try not to set off a chain reaction on Tongren Road during the operation. We need to be clean and fast. Once we reach the target location, we'll split into two teams. Qingfu will handle the arrest, and our colleagues from Huangjiang will provide perimeter support. Be ready to activate the Wordless Stele at any time. If fighting breaks out, avoid hurting innocent people."

"Understood!"

"Got it."

"...!"

Everyone answered at once, then got into their vehicles and set off.

Ren Ye rode in the same car as Huang Wei. Frowning, he asked, "Did Dandan's intelligence say whether Yin Hai took part in the University Town incident?"

"No." Huang Wei shook his head. "He only provided information and helped the Bell Society members hide."

"Oh!"

Ren Ye nodded and looked out the window, already bracing himself for a bloody fight.

Tongren Road, the first floor of the Fight to the End Chess and Card Room.

The door and windows stood slightly open, and wind chimes tinkled overhead. The bar next door was holding a large live performance event today, so business at the Mahjong Parlor was slow. Old Yin was playing mahjong with three like-minded underlings.

"That University Town incident caused quite a stir. Has Mr. He left?" One underling, a cigarette dangling from his lips, picked out a tile and discarded it. "One bird!"

For some reason, hearing the word "bird" irritated Old Yin. "The boss is in contact with him. The rest isn't our concern."

"Oh."

The conversation ended, and the game continued. Another round soon passed.

The smoking underling picked out another tile and discarded it. "Another bird."

Old Yin gave him a strange look. He couldn't shake the feeling that the man was taking a dig at him, and anger flashed in his eyes. "You threw away a pair of birds?"

"Heh. I hate birds. They're useless." The young man with the cigarette grinned.

Old Yin swallowed his anger and ignored him. He drew and discarded, and another round passed.

"Huh, what a coincidence. Another bird...!" The smoking young man laughed and reached out to throw down the tile.

Smack!

Old Yin lashed out with a vicious slap, knocking the man's head halfway around. "Bird, bird, bird! Bird, my fucking ass! Who are you insulting?"

The smoking young man was stunned. He looked at Old Yin with a red, swollen cheek, furious and aggrieved. "Why'd you hit me? It's a useless tile! Am I not allowed to discard it?"

"Three in a row? You're taking a dig at me!"

"...I didn't even know you and Mr. He hooked up. What dig would I be taking?" The smoking young man stood up, a little too blunt and a little too dim.

"Say that again!" Old Yin stared at him viciously, an abnormal, obsessive intensity radiating from him.

Players with Chaos Faction classes all had something wrong with them to varying degrees, and the flaws in their personalities were amplified. That was also why the clever players of the Fraud Merchants' Association weren't especially willing to associate with them.

Across the table, a middle-aged man leisurely picked up his teacup. "We play to win money. Why argue?"

"You can even argue over this? A bunch of lunatics. I'm done." The last player, a woman, rolled her eyes and took out her phone to dial a number. "I'm almost out of my meds. Hurry up and bring me some... Okay, come to my place."

Just as their friendly game was about to break up, the wind chimes by the door suddenly rattled violently.

The four turned to look and saw a figure shrouded entirely in a black robe walk in without a sound.

Judging by her silhouette, she was a woman. The black robe that covered her slender body was extremely loose, with a hood that concealed her head as well.

An ordinary person seeing that outfit would have assumed some girl from a cosplay convention had wandered into the wrong place. But one look was enough for Old Yin to hurry over, nodding and bowing. "Sweetheart, what can we do for you? Want to talk upstairs?"

Tongren Road was packed with players of every type and every style of dress, so this woman in black didn't look particularly out of place.

"No need. We can talk here."

The woman in black stepped lightly forward, stopped beside the mahjong table, and slowly raised her head.

Her face emerged beneath the light, but it was covered by a bronze mask.

The bronze mask was antique, weathered, and covered in rust. It depicted the face of a woman from ancient times, her features finely sculpted, beautifully defined, and breathtakingly lovely. Its radiant smile made anyone looking at it feel as though they were basking in a spring breeze.

"All right, we'll talk here." Old Yin walked back to the table. "Sweetheart, what do you need?"

Although the black robe covered her entire body, there was a delicate air to every movement she made. Her gloved right hand slowly slipped into her left sleeve and withdrew two bloodstained bells. Her voice was ethereal and elusive, as though it carried its own surrounding echo. "I'm looking for people. The companions of these two bells."

Clink, clatter...!

As she finished speaking, the two bells fell onto the mahjong table.

The woman turned her masked face toward Old Yin and asked politely, "Can you find them, sir?"

Old Yin's pupils abruptly contracted, and a strange grin spread across his face. "Aren't you looking in the wrong place?"

"Their leader seems to be an opera singer. Can you find him? I can pay... Just name your price," the woman in black asked softly.

"Heh heh!"

Old Yin scratched his head and said, with a slightly neurotic air, "Huh. Why do I feel like you've come to demand an explanation?"

"Have I?" the woman in black asked with a faint laugh.

"Forget it. I'll just sell you to the opera singer." Old Yin shook his sparse hair, then suddenly thrust his neck forward and opened his mouth wide.

"Aaargh!"

A howl rang out indoors, impossible to tell whether it came from a human or a beast.

Old Yin's mouth instantly grew as wide as a washbasin. His entire head twisted and rapidly swelled, while toadlike poison sacs appeared on his cheeks, giving off a foul stench.

Squish!

His gaping maw descended from above and swallowed the woman's entire upper body. Viscous fluid dripped from Old Yin's mouth, and his teeth grew into sharp points longer than a hand as he tore savagely at her.

Beside the table, the young man with the cigarette reacted quickly too. He closed his eyes and made a strange, piercing noise, alerting their nearby companions.

Whoosh!

The woman in black stepped back. Her body passed straight through Old Yin's mouth like a phantom, meeting no resistance and suffering no injury.

She settled slowly onto the floor, the bronze mask still bearing its uncanny smile. Old Yin had torn away one sleeve, exposing a slender, pitch-black left arm.

Amid the shifting light in the hall, everyone looked closer. That arm... actually looked like a shadow.

Old Yin's eyes were bulging now, glowing an eerie green. He stared incredulously at the shadow body beneath the black robe and instinctively murmured, "You're that Hunter from the Shanghai Fraud Merchants' Association?! We have no quarrel with you. You've crossed the line."

"Kill the lights!"

Whoosh!

The woman beside him shouted.

The middle-aged man who claimed gambling was all about winning money merely widened his eyes, and every hanging light in the room shattered.

The first and second floors went pitch-black. Without light, the shadow vanished on its own. All four Chaos Faction players, including Old Yin, unleashed their supernatural abilities.

Whooo...!

A breeze blew through the open windows and door, rustling through the room.

"You've crossed the line. This means war." Old Yin wanted to run, but he didn't dare approach anywhere with light. His bloody maw gaped as he kept looking around. "We and the Fraud Merchants' Association..."

"From the moment you helped those criminal players from University Town, we had a quarrel. A blood feud!" The woman's voice rang out from outside.

Bang!

Crash!

A normal-sized window abruptly burst apart, and a slender figure charged inside.

"Stay away from the light! Stall for time!" the woman shrieked.

Thud!

Crash!

"...!"

Inside the dark room, the sounds of heavy objects hitting the floor, things shattering, agonized screams, and blades piercing flesh rang out one after another.

The noises erupted suddenly, then quickly faded into silence.

The entire process lasted less than a minute. A breeze swept past outside, carrying the thick smell of blood into the street.

Silence. Once everything was utterly still, a phone screen lit up in the hall.

Beside the heavy mahjong table, a woman in a red dress, also wearing a bronze mask, sat down on the tabletop and casually picked up Old Yin's phone.

Her mask had the same sculpted features as the shadow's, but a different expression. That one smiled radiantly; this one was stern and cold.

Sitting on the mahjong table, she held the phone up to scan Old Yin's face. "...Before your friends arrive, I could kill you at least a hundred times. What do you think?"

On the floor, Old Yin's shape was indistinct. He answered without hesitation, "The boss took Mr. He away. I don't know where they are either."

"Mm. Then do you have any other value?" Judging by her voice, the woman in red was a young woman.

"I really don't know where Mr. He is. I really don't! He isn't an idiot either. After what happened at University Town yesterday, the New Year's Watchers would love nothing more than to grind their bones to dust..." Old Yin's voice trembled. "Do you think they'd tell me where they were hiding? I'm not lying. The boss took them away..."

"The cripple, right?" the young woman in red asked.

"Yes." Old Yin nodded vigorously.

"Oh. How many of them are there?"

"Nine came in total. Two died at University Town, so seven are left. Mr. He is the highest-tier player. He's second-tier, and his supernatural abilities are extremely powerful. Their target is a new player named Ren Ye. They pulled the kid out of prison." Old Yin held nothing back. "The New Year's Watchers are guarding him personally, so Mr. He and the others couldn't easily make a move. That's why they wanted to grab his sister."

"Why didn't they go after Ren Ye's father?" the young woman asked calmly.

"Because they couldn't find him. Nobody knows where his father went, but Mr. He and the boss are investigating. That's... really all I know." Old Yin's voice shook. "Let me go... Please."

"Oh!"

Squish!

A cold gleam flashed, and Old Yin instantly fell silent.

Tap!

The young woman in red hopped down from the mahjong table and walked toward the window.

Outside, the moonlight was soft. The shadow sat on the windowsill facing the breeze, her form suspended between darkness and faint light, playfully swinging her little feet...

Whoosh!

The young woman in red stepped onto the windowsill and gently patted the shadow's shoulder. "Off we go."

Whoosh!

The shadow looked back and fell backward, faceup. Her body slowly flattened into the shape of a paper figure and returned beneath the woman in red's feet.

Her dress swayed gently as she walked beneath the trees in the residential compound and dialed Mr. He's number.

"Hello? Tonight isn't convenient for me..." Mr. He went straight to the point, without a single wasted word.

"Hey, let's play a game. You hide, I seek. But... whoever loses has to die." The young woman in red sounded playful, with a touch of madness.