The man reluctantly bid farewell to the dance partner he had just met, dragged his feet to the bar, and ordered a beer.
After pouring the cheap liquor down his throat and feeling the mental stimulation from the bitter liquid, he let out a satisfied sigh.
Then he stood to the side, resting and admiring the scene on the dance floor.
Before he could recover, someone bumped into him from behind.
Without even an apology, the person disappeared into the crowd, their features obscured by the flickering neon lights.
“How rude…” the man muttered as he reached for his bottle, then suddenly felt something off.
The weight on his body seemed to have subtly lightened.
He quickly reached for his waist.
Sure enough, the spot where his wallet had hung was now empty.
“Fuck!” he cursed angrily.
There wasn’t much cash inside, but that brown synthetic leather wallet was a gift from his girlfriend.
If he lost it here, the interrogation later would be a nightmare.
A pickpocket.
He’d been careless.
This crowded, noisy place was the perfect hunting ground for thieves.
The man roughly pushed through the crowd, ignoring the complaints and curses, heading in the direction the pickpocket had fled.
He hadn’t seen the thief’s face or clothes.
He knew this was just a futile venting of frustration, but he couldn’t swallow the insult.
Then an unexpected surprise came.
With a casual glance, he spotted a brown corner protruding from the coat pocket of a large man drinking alone in a corner.
Hot-blooded and without thinking, he grabbed the man’s shoulder.
“Hey! Give me back my wallet!”
The man turned around in confusion.
“What wallet?”
The victim’s anger flared.
He reached out, grabbed the man’s coat, and pulled the wallet from the pocket.
A closer look confirmed it was the one stolen from him.
“Explain this!”
He slammed the wallet onto the table.
“What the hell? Why is it in my pocket?”
The man still looked innocent.
Blood rushed to the victim’s head.
“Fuck you, still playing dumb?”
He swung his fist.
The brawl quickly stirred up the crowd.
Soon, security arrived, pulled the two apart, and threw them out of the bar.
To the end, the real culprit remained unknown.
And behind the security officer handling the dispute, the door marked “Staff Only” swung with an almost imperceptible tremble.
The new young waiter slipped into the backstage safety passage while the head waiter wasn’t looking.
This was the gap between the storage room and the service area—the only place where he, exhausted from the daily grind, could catch his breath.
Leaning against the wall, he pulled out a hidden pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one.
A thin wisp of smoke curled around him.
Spirit soothed, he blew a perfect smoke ring into the air with satisfaction.
At least here, he could escape the head waiter’s scolding and the customers’ nagging, enjoying a moment of peace.
Then a pair of strong arms wrapped around his neck, tightening fiercely.
An intense choking sensation followed.
The waiter’s eyes bulged.
His legs began to dance a pathetic jig on the floor as he frantically slapped and hammered at the arms, but it was useless.
Whether it was an illusion or not, just before he lost consciousness from suffocation, he felt the person pat him on the back.
……
A man dressed as a waiter emerged from the fire escape.
Instead of returning to the service area, he headed straight for the storage room.
At the storage room door, two security guards blocked his path.
“We’re running low on ice. The head waiter told me to get some from storage,” the man said flatly.
The guards exchanged glances and let him pass.
Once inside the storage room, the man didn’t head toward the freezer section where the ice was kept.
Instead, he moved toward the other end, where a door was painted with a massive red warning sign.
Suddenly, he pressed one hand to his right ear—more precisely, to the earpiece on that ear.
“Qiao Anni? Can you hear me?”
Only static came through the earpiece.
Bres clicked his tongue.
‘Miscalculated. There must be a signal jammer in this area.’
He wondered how Qiao Anni was doing…
‘I need to finish this quickly.’
He scanned the area but found no trace of a jamming device.
His gaze shifted to the closed door with the warning sign.
‘It must be in there.’
He moved closer and examined the lock carefully.
Unfortunately, it was a new encrypted electronic lock—his skills were useless against it.
Looking up, he spotted a ventilation duct on the wall.
The answer was obvious.
“Good thing I’m not wearing my own clothes…”
……
Five minutes later, a metallic scraping sound came from above the storage room.
Then the ventilation grille fell with a clang, making quite a noise.
After a few minutes with no further sound, Bres dropped down from the ceiling.
What a relief—the storage room’s soundproofing was excellent.
He turned on his prepared flashlight, and the sight inside amazed him.
Guns were stacked here, explosives there, and machetes hung on the walls.
This small storage room held enough weaponry to arm dozens, even hundreds of people.
“I’d believe it if someone said they were going to rob a bank…”
Bres muttered to himself as he moved around the room.
Soon he found his target: several crates stamped with the Delaifu logo.
He hurried over and opened them.
The illegal combat prosthetics lay quietly inside.
Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he noticed a problem.
The last crate was empty.
“Already taken?”
Bres’s head started to ache.
The Forest Gang had countless members—who knew which one had taken this prosthetic.
‘I’ll take the others back first and renegotiate with the client on how to proceed.’
Bres bent down, trying to lift the crate all at once, but quickly gave up.
“Too heavy…”
He’d need to call Qiao Anni for help.
The earpiece still only gave static.
Remembering that, Bres began searching for the signal jammer that should be somewhere in the storage room.
Soon, he found the small device on the wall.
He pulled out a mini-computer from his coat and connected it with a cable.
His fingers danced nimbly across the tiny keyboard.
After a few dozen seconds, with a forceful press of the Enter key, the static in his earpiece disappeared.
The moment the device shut down and Bres stowed the computer, the storage room door suddenly burst open.
A few Forest Gang members yawned as they stepped inside, then met Bres’s gaze.
“Shit.”
He hadn’t heard any footsteps.
What bad luck—the soundproofing in this storage room was too damn good.
The deafening music cut off abruptly.
People on the dance floor froze in place, staring at each other in confusion.
Qiao Anni set down her glass.
Through the second-floor floor-to-ceiling window, she watched a blurry figure shrink into the distance and finally disappear.
“What’s going on?”
Wa Lunding beside her stood up in panic, his hand instinctively moving to his waist.
A dizzy spell later, Wa Lunding collapsed to the ground.
“Sorry, I have to take my leave now.”
Qiao Anni’s light voice came from beside him.
With no more mental energy to spare, Wa Lunding lost consciousness.
Hearing the familiar flustered sounds through her earpiece, Qiao Anni smiled.
She stood up and moved briskly against the crowd, heading deeper into the bar.
“Thanks for the hospitality.”
Deep in her eyes, sparks flickered.