151: The King of Hell's Roll Call

The Red Lantern Internet Cafe was hidden in a deep, "Hui"-shaped alley in the Old City District of Jiangcheng.

The neon light tubes here were missing strokes and letters, flickering with a dismal pink glow while buzzing and crackling.

Cardboard boxes soaked through by rain were piled at the base of the wall, and a few stray cats crouched on the outdoor air conditioning units, watching the abruptly stopped garbage truck with vigilance.

"Cough, cough... It's just ahead."

Ninth Master shoved the mud-stained steel pipe into his sleeve, pushed open the car door, and jumped out.

The alley was very quiet.

Aside from the humming of the outdoor AC units, there was only the gurgling sound of water in the sewer.

Chen Mo followed behind with a limp; with every step he took, the bone fragments in his broken leg felt Li Ke they were being ground in a millstone.

But the muscles on his face didn't twitch once; only his ears kept trembling slightly.

"How many people are inside?" Su Qingxue supported Chen Mo, her other hand tightly gripping the empty gun, which was their only deterrent.

"Usually, there are only a dozen or so night-owl gamers here."

Ninth Master wiped the black soot from his face and looked up at the flickering "Red Lantern" sign. "But I haven't been here for a few days; those brats might have turned this place into a gambling den."

Chen Mo stopped in his tracks.

He pressed his hand against the damp brick wall and closed his eyes.

Thump, thump, thump.

The heartbeats were chaotic.

There were rapid ones, calm ones, and the irregular rhythms caused by long-term use of cheap stimulants.

"Twenty-three."

Chen Mo opened his eyes, his gaze piercing through the glass door plastered with game posters. "One at the front desk, eighteen in the main hall, and four in the back private rooms."

"Something's not right."

Ninth Master frowned. "At this hour, there shouldn't be any machines left; why are there so few people?"

"Because they are waiting for you."

Chen Mo pointed to a reflection on the glass door.

It wasn't a stain.

It was the reflection of a micro-camera lens.

"They knew we would come?" Su Qingxue asked.

"No, they are waiting for a rabbit to hit a stump." Chen Mo sneered. "Professor Qin has turned the entire Jiangcheng underworld upside down. Since he couldn't find Ninth Master, he would naturally have people guard his lair."

"Then what do we do? Force our way in?" Li Ke hugged the hard drive, his teeth chattering.

"Since this is my turf, there's no reason to let others stand guard."

A glint of ruthlessness flashed across Ninth Master's chubby face. He pulled a pack of water-soaked cigarettes from his pocket, stuck one in his mouth, but didn't light it.

"Watch closely."

Bang!

Ninth Master kicked open the glass door plastered with "No Minors Allowed" signs.

The wind chimes on the door jingled.

The internet cafe was thick with smoke, mixed with the smell of instant noodles and foot odor.

The blue light emitted by the rows of computer screens illuminated one numb face after another.

No one turned to look; everyone was frantically pounding on keyboards or screaming into microphones.

Only the young man at the front desk with Green Hair looked up.

He was chewing betel nut, his eyes flippantly scanning this group of people who looked Li Ke beggars.

"No machines left, get lost."

Green Hair spat out some betel nut residue and reached for the drawer under the counter.

Ninth Master laughed.

He swaggered over, his fat jiggling with every step, the steel pipe tapping rhythmically against his thigh.

"Where's Little Six?" Ninth Master asked.

Green Hair froze, his hand stopping in mid-air. "What Little Six? This place belongs to Brother Long. Get out now, don't force me to do something."

"Brother Long?"

Ninth Master grabbed the ashtray on the counter and looked at the cigarette butts piled inside. "Never heard of him. I only know that in this territory, I'm the only one who tells others to get lost."

"Fatty, you're looking for death!"

Green Hair's expression changed, and he suddenly pulled a boning knife from the drawer.

But before he could swing the knife, a greasy, large hand had already pressed down on his head.

Thud!

A muffled sound rang out.

Green Hair's face made intimate contact with the tempered glass countertop.

Blood instantly stained the keyboard red.

"Ah—!" Green Hair screamed, and the knife in his hand clattered to the floor.

"I am your Ninth Grandfather!"

Ninth Master grabbed Green Hair's hair, lifted him up Li Ke a dead dog, and slapped his deformed face. "You can't even recognize me? What kind of gang member are you!"

At this roar, the entire internet cafe went quiet.

The eighteen "netizens" who were playing games took off their headphones simultaneously.

They weren't panicked.

Nor were they just watching a show.

They stood up in unison, their movements perfectly synchronized. What they held in their hands weren't computer mice, but short-barreled shotguns and steel pipes pulled from under the keyboards.

"The heartbeats changed."

Chen Mo leaned against the doorway, showing no intention of intervening. "From 70 beats per minute just now, they instantly soared to 120. These aren't trained professional assassins; they're a bunch of desperate thugs."

"Brother Long was right."

A bald man stepped out from the crowd with a scar across his face, holding a sawed-off five-shot shotgun. "As long as we guard this place, this fat guy will eventually come back to die."

Click.

The bald man pulled the bolt, the dark muzzle pointing at Ninth Master's head. "Hand over that hard drive."

Ninth Master threw Green Hair aside and brushed the dust off his hands. "Just based on you bunch of nobodies?"

"What about adding us?"

The door to the back private room opened.

Four men in black suits walked out.

They weren't holding guns.

Their hands were shoved directly into their pants pockets, their eyes indifferent, with silver metal interfaces faintly visible on their necks.

"More cyborgs." Su Qingxue shielded Li Ke behind her and whispered to Chen Mo, "These four are regular troops."

"B-grade goods."

Chen Mo glanced at the way the four men walked. "Stiff joints, slow reaction times—they're defective products discarded by Professor Qin. But they're enough to deal with these thugs."

"Chen Mo, we need to finish this quickly," Su Qingxue said. "Once shots are fired, the surrounding patrols will arrive in three minutes."

"It won't take three minutes."

Chen Mo pulled the dull-edged axe from behind his waist and weighed it in his hand. "Thirty seconds."

"What?" The bald man didn't hear clearly.

"I said, it only takes thirty seconds to deal with you all."

Before his voice faded, Chen Mo moved.

This time, he didn't charge.

He raised his hand and threw the axe in his hand.

Whoosh—!

The axe whistled through the air, spinning across the hall and smashing precisely into a red iron box on the ceiling.

That was the main valve for the fire sprinkler system.

Bang!

The water pipe burst.

A high-pressure jet of water instantly gushed out, turning the entire hall into a water curtain cave in an instant.

"Damn! I can't see!"

The bald man wiped the water from his face and fired a shot blindly.

Bang!

The shotgun pellets hit the ceiling, shattering a row of fluorescent light tubes.

The lights went out.

The hall plunged into darkness, with only the eerie blue light of the computer screens flickering.

And in this chaotic darkness, the hunt began.

"Ah!"

"My leg!"

"Over there! Fire!"

Bang, bang, bang!

Gunfire flashed wildly in the darkness, but it couldn't hit that ghost-Li Ke shadow at all.

Chen Mo wove between the tables and chairs.

He closed his eyes.

In an environment where vision was deprived, his hearing was God's perspective.

Every person's breathing, every person's heartbeat, and even the sound of every muscle tensing built a holographic map in his mind.

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