Chapter 346 - 223: Invisible Man
But before heading to the industrial district, Li Wei had one more thing to do.
He turned the car around and drove the Cadillac Escalade toward Riverfront Park.
Following the familiar rusty ladder and freight tunnel, Li Wei once again arrived in front of the simple shack Arthur had built from plywood and waterproof tarps.
Arthur was sitting on an overturned paint bucket. Seeing Li Wei’s late-night visit, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I haven’t even used up the last batch of supplies," he said jokingly. "You’ve been coming around quite often lately."
As he spoke, he peeked and peered outside.
"What’s up?" he asked. "Got a film crew behind you or something?"
"No, I’m not here to drop off supplies this time," Li Wei said, getting straight to the point. "Do you know about mansion tax avoidance?"
"Of course," Arthur’s brow unfurrowed, and he puffed out his chest. "That’s my old line of work. Of course I know about it."
"Then I’m here to recruit you," Li Wei nodded. "I need a real estate lawyer who understands municipal planning, functional zoning, and tax avoidance."
"Tsk," Arthur looked up at the waterproof tarp of his shack and listened to the faint rumble of the subway in the distance. He sighed, "Looks like my quiet days underground are coming to an end."
"Can’t bear to leave this place?"
"It’s not that this place is so great," Arthur shook his head, glancing at the dark, damp surroundings with a self-deprecating smile. "The environment is shitty, and it smells like mold everywhere."
"But at least the relationships here aren’t so complicated," he said.
He pointed toward the deep, dark tunnel outside. "You know where to find food that’s about to expire, and you take me with you to steal it. I stole Wi-Fi from Starbucks, and I’ll share the connection with you. The relationships down here are pure. No one schemes and plots for a few percentage points of profit. If you know the rules a bit, you can even find shops and clinics and whatnot underground."
"If it weren’t for the fact that you’ve been helping me without asking for anything in return, and have given so much stuff to the others outside," he glanced at Li Wei, "I really wouldn’t want to leave."
Li Wei nodded and continued, "Then let’s talk about the price. What’s your consulting fee?"
"No charge," Arthur waved his hand. "Consider it me repaying the favor for all those sandwiches and socks."
"Sounds like I’m getting a good deal, then?" Li Wei said with a smile. "A real estate lawyer like you must have charged a high consulting fee back in the day, right?"
"3,000 USD an hour, with a three-hour minimum," Arthur said. "But I haven’t looked at the books or regulations in a long time, so I probably can’t charge that much anymore."
As they were talking, the sound of rustling footsteps came from beyond the door flap. A few filthy figures peeked out from the shadows, their eyes filled with clear reluctance and fear.
"Arthur, are you leaving?" the homeless man at the front asked nervously.
Arthur stood up, walked to the door flap, and reassured them, "Don’t be nervous, fellas. I’m just helping our great benefactor with a small problem. I’m still here for now. Even if I do move out later, I’ll come back to see you all often. If the Wi-Fi in the ventilation shaft has problems, remember to wait for me to come back and fix it. Don’t go messing with the high-voltage lines yourselves."
Hearing this, the homeless men breathed a small sigh of relief and retreated into the darkness, looking back with every few steps.
After reassuring them, Arthur turned back, his expression becoming extremely serious. "Li Wei, since I’m preparing to work for you, I must fulfill my duty as a lawyer to warn you. No matter how you expand your business empire, there is one company you must be especially careful of—"
He gritted his teeth and said, word by word, "Onyx United Building."
"Whoa," Li Wei said. "Mm... I’ll remember that."
"Back then, I was ruined by them because I refused to sign off on their acceptance report for load-bearing steel. I offended their entire interest group, and they completely destroyed my life."
Li Wei nodded, outwardly composed, but inside he couldn’t help but marvel at the situation.
’Could it really be such a coincidence?’
’Isn’t this the exact company that Jin Heon found? The one contracted for the structural framework and security installation of the Manhattan Art Center.’
’And that’s my next stop.’
"I understand. Your warning is very valuable. I’ll send someone to pick you up in a few days." Li Wei patted Arthur’s shoulder.
After saying goodbye to Arthur, Li Wei climbed back out to the surface. He got into the driver’s seat of the Cadillac Escalade, stepped on the gas, and the massive black vehicle slid silently into the night, heading straight for the suburbs.
Over half an hour later, the Cadillac Escalade stopped at a street corner in a remote industrial district in the suburbs, its engine still running.
Li Wei parked the car in the distant shadows and put on a baseball cap. Sitting in the dark cabin, he carefully studied the surroundings through the car window:
The streets of New York at 4 a.m. had a bone-chilling, desolate air. The cold wind of the suburban industrial district, mixed with distant dampness, blew through the empty streets, swirling a few dry leaves.
It was silent all around, with only a few dim yellow streetlights clinging to life in the cold wind, casting long, slanted shadows of the surrounding abandoned factories and wire fences.
Li Wei didn’t linger nearby. He drove halfway around the block, finally stopping in a blind spot where even the streetlight was broken and he confirmed there was no camera coverage.
He put on a pair of shoe covers, pushed open the car door, and cold air instantly filled his nostrils.
Li Wei pulled the brim of his baseball cap down and activated a skill with a thought.
[Silver · Vision Obscuration], activate.
A faint shimmer, imperceptible to the naked eye, rippled from his body like water, quickly enveloping his figure.
He had already tested this skill repeatedly in his apartment and under street surveillance. As long as he didn’t cause too much of a disturbance, it was enough to distort the perception of ordinary electronic cameras, leaving no trace on the monitor feed.
Li Wei walked straight to the main gate of the Onyx United Building.
Looking at the wrought-iron wall in front of him, which was over three meters high and topped with anti-climb spikes, he didn’t even need a running start. He bent his knees slightly and activated—
[Sky Stepping (Lv. 1)].
"SWOOSH!" A very faint sound cut through the air as Li Wei’s body shot upwards.
Then, he stomped his right foot in mid-air as if on an invisible step. Using the reactive force from this double jump, his whole body soared over the high wall as lightly as a swallow and landed steadily in the company’s courtyard.
A few construction vehicles were parked in the courtyard. The main building was a gray, 17-story structure. To own such a building in New York, no matter how remote the location, was impressive. This was New York, after all, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold.
’It seems this Onyx United Building has been doing quite well for itself in recent years.’
Li Wei scanned his surroundings as he crossed the open space of the front yard and arrived at a side door on the first floor of the main building.
Behind the glass side door, an extremely overweight Black security guard was leaning against the wall, yawning out of boredom while holding his phone to his ear.
"Yes, yes, Captain. Everything’s normal over here at the Zone B side door," the guard reported into his phone. He then pulled the phone away from his ear and switched to the security system’s live monitoring interface.
Li Wei silently pushed open the partially ajar side door without making a single footstep. He walked directly behind the guard and stopped.
The distance between them was now less than ten centimeters; they were almost touching.
He peered over the guard’s shoulder, watching the surveillance footage on the phone screen with him, full of interest.
The screen clearly showed a live feed of the side door—under the dim light, the frame was completely empty, with only the guard leaning against the wall, bored out of his mind.
As for Li Wei’s tall figure, it was as if he didn’t exist, completely invisible in the surveillance footage.
"Everything’s normal tonight," the guard assured, yawning. "Don’t worry, not even a stray cat has passed by."
His tone was full of conviction.
’Everything is indeed normal,’ Li Wei looked at the screen and nodded in agreement internally.
After confirming that the surveillance couldn’t capture him, Li Wei completely lost interest in wasting any more time with the guard.
He turned, took a long stride, and brushed right past the guard’s side without any hesitation, swaggering out the side door.
A gust of cold air filled the space where he had just been standing. The guard suddenly felt an extremely cold, sinister wind blow across the back of his neck.
"HISS—"
He shivered uncontrollably. He had been a bit drowsy before, but now not a trace of sleepiness remained.
He whipped his head around and looked at the surveillance feed on his phone again.
The hallway was silent. It was still just him.
"Fack me... this place wasn’t haunted before."
He hunched his neck, quickly zipped his uniform all the way to the top, and vigorously rubbed the goosebumps that had broken out on his arms, muttering, "Don’t overthink it, Brother Ni. Brother Ni is just scaring himself."
Leaving the side door, Li Wei, still in his shoe covers, walked straight to the building’s concrete exterior wall. He lifted his foot and stepped directly onto the vertical surface.
Gravity seemed to cease to exist. The sensation made Li Wei’s mind buzz with excitement.
Around the 10th floor, Li Wei stopped and turned to look at the city behind him.
Standing there, with his body at a 90-degree angle to the wall, the entire New York nightscape transformed into a completely inverted model in his eyes.
Below his feet was the bottomless, lightless black hole of the industrial district, while in the distance, the city’s capillaries were illuminated by thousands of lights and LED neons.
The sparse traffic on the highways became blood flowing through those vessels, coursing between different parts of the city.
Li Wei let out a soft chuckle, then turned and continued his ascent.
Upon reaching the top of the 17th floor, the cold wind was now a howl. He looked around and found a sliding window that had been left partially open for ventilation.
Walking to the window, Li Wei twisted his body slightly and vaulted through the gap, entering a lavishly decorated office area and landing on the carpet by the window.
’Looks like this is the executive office area.’ With a thought, Li Wei summoned the [Chattering Court Jester’s Skull] from his inventory to see if it could lead him to that shady double contract.