Inside duplex 2401 in the Tiangong Building.
A group of youngsters averaging seventeen or eighteen were listening to raucous music, drinking hard liquor, and eating.
Brother Hong stood among them, old enough to be their father but ranked like their grandson. They had been ordering him around all evening.
Tonight, his mission identity was the seventy-ninth member of the Darkness Descending Society, while Old Cadre was the eightieth. Their president was Song An, a young man who looked quiet and well-mannered but was actually a recklessly bold mad dog with an adolescent delusion of grandeur.
The Darkness Descending Society-just hearing the name told you no normal person could have come up with it.
Its core members were teenage Awakened at the first or second stage. Some were children of ordinary artisans in this building, some were children of low-ranking officials, and others were independent Awakened from Fulai County Town. In short, none had powerful backing, and all were young.
They followed Song An's lead, obeyed his every word, and inadvertently revealed their fear of him.
Brother Hong and Old Cadre had joined the group through role-playing and, absurdly enough, spent an entire night courting death with these youngsters.
Their missions followed two separate threads. First, right at the start, Brother Hong received an assignment from Song An: steal the "Materials Allocation Register" from the Treasure Origin Bureau inside the Tiangong Building and investigate the supplies received by the Craftsman Prefecture's Heavenly Martial Division in the three cities surrounding Fulai County Town.
Simply put, they wanted to see which combat units received more supplies and which received less, and exactly what they received-mostly defensive equipment for holding cities, or offensive equipment for launching attacks.
Honestly, this mission was quite difficult and involved a continuous sequence of steps: scouting, infiltrating the Treasure