Chapter 741: Abandoned Building Stronghold
“Where are we going now?”
Colt, sitting in the passenger seat, asked.
“To the Old City District to find that broker.”
Lin Ye pressed the accelerator. The enemy’s drone had been blown to pieces by him—this was a chance to shake off surveillance.
However, the other side had likely prepared backup drones, so they’d better find that mysterious broker before the next attack.
“Uh, can I ask what the hell is going on?”
Wen Luo sat in the back with the two middle school students. She couldn’t understand how a cat-finding commission had turned into this.
Her exam was tomorrow. She’d just wanted a place to study.
“It all started with that previous commission…”
Ephesus began explaining to Wen Luo what had happened earlier.
“We can’t keep taking them on this risky venture. Two was manageable, but adding a third is asking for trouble.”
Colt said helplessly.
“I’ll handle it.”
Lin Ye didn’t think leaving them somewhere else would be safer. They likely still hadn’t shaken off the enemy’s surveillance.
“…Fine.”
Colt couldn’t think of a safe enough place either.
“So, a mysterious organization is hunting you down because of a black cat?”
After hearing Ephesus’s description, Wen Luo’s head throbbed.
“Hunting us down.”
Susie twisted the knife.
“I have an exam tomorrow morning…”
Wen Luo let out a heavy sigh.
“Don’t worry. If we can’t resolve this incident, you probably won’t live to see tomorrow morning anyway.”
Lin Ye offered her some reassurance.
“…Well, that’s just great.”
Wen Luo pulled a textbook out of her backpack. Staring at the familiar knowledge points, she finally calmed down a little.
“Do you know where the broker is?”
Colt steered the conversation back on track.
“No, but someone does.”
The broker sold some kind of contraband in the Old City District. The buyers included the arcade owner and the middle school student Simon, which meant he’d already expanded his sales beyond the Old City District.
That meant the Old City District itself was probably crawling with people who’d used this contraband.
By following that lead, Lin Ye could easily track down the broker.
“If I hadn’t seen those monsters, I wouldn’t have known our place could be this chaotic.”
Wen Luo couldn’t help but sigh.
“It wasn’t like this before?”
Lin Ye was a bit puzzled. He’d assumed it had always been this way.
“I don’t know. This is my first time encountering this kind of… brutality.”
Wen Luo sighed. She felt like she barely understood this unfamiliar world anymore.
“No, it wasn’t like this before. Three years ago, the city only had some thugs—not even any violent gangs. Everything started changing after the New District was built. I watched the Old City District slowly descend into chaos. At first, the chaos was contained outside the New District, but last month, even the New District started seeing problems.”
As a lifelong resident of the Old City District, Colt had watched the changes unfold around him until the chaos finally reached him personally.
He’d never dared to dig into the cause before, but now he couldn’t afford to stand by anymore.
“…That’s very interesting.”
Lin Ye parked the car outside an abandoned alley. He’d sold spiritual energy cards in Free City before, so naturally he knew where to find homeless people.
Soon, he got a sales location for the contraband from one of the homeless men. There were plenty more such spots.
Lin Ye returned to the car and drove toward the location. It was an abandoned building, with two armed thugs sitting outside.
“I’m out of bullets.”
Colt really didn’t want to take on those two submachine gun-wielding thugs with just a short knife.
“No problem. I’ll handle it.”
Without even trying to hide, Lin Ye drove straight up to the entrance of the abandoned building.
The two thugs aimed their submachine guns at the car window, but once they saw who was inside, they visibly relaxed.
“I heard you guys have some high-purity ‘goods.’ We want to buy a batch.”
Lin Ye flashed a friendly smile and handed a few bills to the armed thug who approached.
“Who sent you?”
The armed thug took the money and asked cautiously.
“Some arcade owner. I’ve gotten stuff from him before.”
Lin Ye got out of the car, pulled a few more bills from his pocket, and handed them to the other thug.
“Ah, I know him. You brought cash, right? We only take cash here.”
The thug had just pocketed the money when Lin Ye, moving in close, smashed his fist into the thug’s temple.
Both thugs collapsed at the same time. Lin Ye caught their bodies and grabbed their submachine guns.
Inside the building, the remaining thugs hadn’t noticed what happened yet. Lin Ye tossed one submachine gun to Colt, and the two of them entered the building, quickly clearing out all the armed thugs inside.
These thugs’ marksmanship was mediocre—no threat at all.
“No need to keep one alive for questioning?”
Colt looked at Lin Ye with a strange expression. He realized this detective, who’d taken a cat-finding job, had better aim than him, a veteran soldier.
“No need. I’m a detective. Detectives don’t need living witnesses. Making the dead talk is the real job of a great detective like me.”
Lin Ye quickly found the so-called contraband in a safe room on the third floor.
It was a pale yellow powder packed in bags. Besides that, Lin Ye also found some pale yellow crystals.
“Find anything, great detective?”
Colt was stuffing all the weapons into a bag while Ephesus and the other two helped him collect items.
“Yeah. I found a map of the Old City District with various factions marked on it. This spot marked ‘broker’ should be the broker’s stronghold.”
Lin Ye laid out his reasoning.
“Well, that’s awfully thoughtful of them.”
Colt took the map. This area was dangerous, and he rarely came near it.
They loaded the collected weapons back into the car. Lin Ye turned the steering wheel, making a U-turn toward the target location.
“Did you turn the wrong way?”
Colt glanced at the map again.
“Based on this map, I can roughly deduce where those previous attackers’ stronghold is. The broker isn’t important anymore. If we just storm the enemy stronghold, we might still find that black cat in time.”
Lin Ye hadn’t forgotten the commission. His target wasn’t some broker or that contraband.
“…Is that so? Then it’s all on you, great detective.”
Colt began checking the condition of the firearms, his movements extremely practiced, familiar with every gun.
“Don’t worry. As a great detective, I’m very good at dealing with all kinds of criminals.”
Lin Ye stepped on the accelerator and took the gun Colt handed him.
Those radiation mutants were nothing to fear. The real problem was whatever created them.
Lin Ye drove toward the target location, pondering various questions as he went.