The pitch-black aircraft emitted a buzzing sound, hovering in mid-air.
In a way, this was Qiao Anni’s first time seeing a vehicle far beyond her original era up close, but she was in no mood for it right now.
The medical team bandaged the unconscious tourist with incredible efficiency and lifted him onto a stretcher.
“Client rescued, preparing to return.”
Qiao Anni felt the force binding her suddenly loosen.
The medical team that had restrained her let go, but their guns were still aimed at her.
Facing Qiao Anni, they stepped back one by one, their gun barrels and visors reflecting cold light under the searchlights.
The aircraft’s hatch slowly closed, then it sped away from the building, heading toward the Upper City District.
How long had passed?
One minute?
Five minutes?
Qiao Anni had no idea, but strength was gradually returning to her body.
With a hard yank, she snapped the shackles binding her into two pieces.
“Are you okay!”
Now free to move, Qiao Anni quickly crawled over to Bres and checked his injuries.
“Damn it…”
Though she didn’t want to admit it, the bullet had hit his heart.
In a place like this, no one could save him.
“Damn, damn damn damn!”
With her good hand, Qiao Anni scratched the ground over and over, leaving deep grooves.
It was the same this time.
‘Why is it always like this?’
“Pfft!”
Bres, who had been lying motionless on the ground, suddenly coughed hard and spat out a clot of blood.
“Mr. Bres?”
Qiao Anni quickly moved closer to examine Bres’s condition.
“I’ll bandage you right away… no, I should take you to Miss Evelyn… no, with this injury, how can I take you…”
Her voice trembled, as if she were about to cry.
“Don’t bother…”
Bres said weakly.
“What nonsense are you talking about? God, don’t tell me it’s a moment of clarity before death—”
thud
Bres raised his hand and lightly tapped Qiao Anni’s head.
Qiao Anni froze, her expression as if saying, “You’re still in the mood to joke at a time like this?”
“It’s fine… I’m not going to die.”
Bres opened his coat.
There was a scorched bullet hole in his shirt’s chest area, and embedded in his chest was a broken robot.
“Could it be Farry’s…”
That dark liquid just now must have been something like oil.
“Yeah, he really helped out.”
Bres chuckled twice, then winced.
Even though he hadn’t actually been shot, the impact of the bullet had still been real.
‘Probably a few broken bones. But not a fatal injury.’
“Thank goodness…”
Qiao Anni sat down on the ground, relieved.
‘What a relief.’
‘It’s such a relief that Bres is okay.’
‘I thought he was…’
The sound of police sirens came from afar.
“Police? How did those guys get here—”
Bres stopped mid-sentence, remembering someone.
“She actually did it…”
Bres held his forehead and smiled bitterly.
Refusing Qiao Anni’s help, Bres struggled to get up from the ground and went to the room where the victim had been imprisoned.
“Bres!”
Oliver, who was trembling in the corner, came forward.
He had indeed followed Bres’s orders; another Hyena Gang member’s corpse lay on the ground, and the gun had been thrown far away when the medical team arrived.
“Good job, Oliver.”
Bres forced a smile.
“I have one last request.”
“Please speak! You’re our savior…”
“Soon, the police will come.”
“Police?”
‘The Nightless City police really have a great reputation.’
“Anyway, the blond woman leading them will probably question you. Don’t mention us. Just say it was all the medical team.”
Oliver looked at the disheveled Bres and Qiao Anni, then nodded solemnly.
After leaving Oliver, Bres and Qiao Anni walked to the edge of the floor.
“They arrived too fast…”
Looking down, the ground floor had become a colorful ocean of police lights.
“This is troublesome… getting caught by Olivia will definitely be bad news…”
Bres had a headache.
“At least the police can take care of sending that little girl home for us. I have an idea for sneaking out.”
“What?”
Bres looked at Qiao Anni.
Qiao Anni pointed at the abandoned building across the way.
“Isn’t that close enough?”
“No way…”
That place was a full ten meters away.
“Small problem.”
Qiao Anni bent down and pointed at her own back.
“…Did you forget that I have a chest injury?”
“Ah… then let’s change positions?”
Qiao Anni revealed a sly smile.
A moment later.
“Aaaaah!!!”
“Don’t yell so loud, Mr. Bres. Do you really want to get caught by Miss Olivia?”
Qiao Anni jumped between buildings while carrying Bres, gradually moving away from the sea of police lights.
The night wind howled past their faces, washing away the smell of blood and fatigue.
Qiao Anni held Bres in a princess carry.
Luckily, her arm could still function normally, so the position was maintained.
However, because it wasn’t very stable, Bres had to wrap his arms around Qiao Anni’s neck in a rather comical manner.
“Isn’t this the opposite of the day we first met?”
Qiao Anni giggled.
Bres didn’t reply, just kept his eyes tightly shut.
Only Qiao Anni’s laughter echoed in the night sky.
George, who had gotten out of the police car, stretched widely.
“Honestly… why do we have to be called out at this hour…”
He complained quietly, looking at the blonde woman commanding the raid not far away.
He deliberately kept his voice down so she wouldn’t hear.
“What else can you do? A bet’s a bet,”
his partner chuckled while looking at the blonde woman’s figure.
“If you lost, you lost. Just accept it.”
“Damn, who knew she was this tough…”
George grumbled, pressing on a bruise on his side, wincing in pain.
“Taking down the entire police station by herself? Who would have bet on her?”
“Can’t deny it.”
His partner lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.
“Did you notice? She barely used her cyberbody. Most of the time, she beat us all just with technique and raw strength.”
“I hope her work ability is as strong as her fighting ability…”
“Alright, time to work.”
Hearing George’s complaints and Olivia’s shouts from afar, his partner threw the finished cigarette on the ground and crushed it under his foot.
“Shit shit shit shit shit! It’s all over!”
An unnamed Hyena Gang member was sprinting through an alley, with piercing sirens behind him.
‘He was just out to “buy” a bottle of wine. Why did it turn out like this?’
‘An aircraft from the Upper City District, suddenly diligent police, and a boss beaten into a pulp.’
“Why am I so unlucky?”
He recalled a stack of bills he had hidden somewhere in the building, his secret stash he’d kept from the boss.
But now, the other guys were either dead or fleeing, and the cops had surrounded the place.
What should he do?
‘In the end, you need money.’
‘If he had money, would he be here cutting out people’s kidneys?’
‘If he had money, would he have turned himself into something neither human nor ghost?’
‘If he had money, would he need to scavenge scraps behind these lunatics?’
Filled with resentment, he didn’t notice the small obstacle ahead.
“Ah!”
With a thud, he ran into it and fell flat on his back.
“Bastard…”
He cursed and looked at the careless person, then his mouth stretched from ear to ear.
It was a little girl.
‘She looked quite pretty. She should fetch a good price.’
His hand reached for the little girl’s neck.
‘With this money, I can make a comeback. Now, no, the previous boss only became the boss because he inherited his big brother’s legacy and installed all those cyberbodies, right?’
‘I can do it too.’
Suddenly, his vision shook, and then his line of sight rapidly descended.
“Huh?”
He blinked, not seeing what had just happened.
A sound of a heavy object hitting the ground came.
He raised his head and saw his own headless body in front of him, blood spurting from the wound.
He then lost the ability to think.
Ignoring the rolling head on the ground, the little girl disgustedly dusted off the blood spatters on her clothes and took an earpiece from her pocket, putting it on.
“How is it? Having fun?”
A hoarse voice came from the earpiece.
“Unfortunately, it ended before it even started. Someone interfered.”
The little girl pouted.
Ignoring the sea of blood around her, she indeed looked endearing.
“But you don’t sound upset.”
“Because I found something more interesting.”
The little girl looked toward the building.
“I feel like things are going to get interesting.”
She revealed a sweet smile.