53: Chapter 53 The Feast of Three Vultures

“The question is, when will this gentleman kill a Mutant for me to get a fresh taste?”

This wish had not been realized for the time being, but the supply of ordinary materials had indeed reached a new level.

June 9th, Underground Room.

Yan Zheng sat in front of the workbench, a handwritten ledger spread out before him, with dense, tiny handwriting recording the details of his harvest over the past ten days.

“May 30th to June 8th, ten days, total collected: sixteen corpses.”

He drew a line under the number with his pen.

“Distribution of sources: remnants of the firefights between Kingpin's thugs and The Hand's ninjas, nine; leftovers after The Punisher's actions, five; wounded who were silenced by their gang associates after being beaten down by Daredevil, two.”

Yan Zheng: (✧꒳✧)

“Mental Power current value: 7.2, control limit: seven basic undead.”

“Bone material inventory is abundant, fourteen of common quality, three of good quality.”

“In terms of military strength, the current stable lineup is one Stitched Brute, one Reinforced Skeleton Soldier, and three ordinary Skeleton Soldiers.”

He closed the ledger and leaned back in his chair.

“Three vultures are circling over Hells Kitchen at the same time.”

“The Red Devil eats the first half of the night, responsible for beating living people into half-dead people.”

“The Punisher eats the second half of the night, responsible for turning living people into dead people.”

“I eat the early morning, responsible for turning dead people into Skeleton Soldiers.”

“A perfect food chain.”

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦᴗꐦ˵)

He stood up, stretched, and prepared to go upstairs to boil some hot water.

As he walked to the steps, the system panel suddenly popped up a notification.

It wasn't a golden warehousing notification.

It was an orange anomaly alert.

[Material Perception Anomaly: Coordinates at the intersection of 47th Street and 8th Avenue in the North District, pre-marked collection targets show signs of human tampering. No. 3 Skeleton Soldier reports back: The target corpse has already been contacted by a third party.]

Yan Zheng's steps halted.

“What does this mean?”

He closed his eyes and cut into the sensory field of No. 3 Skeleton Soldier.

No. 3 Skeleton Soldier was squatting inside a drainpipe opening in an alley in the North District, its soulfire looking out at the ground through the gaps in the grate.

A corpse lay on the ground, dressed like a gang thug, the cause of death being two bullet holes in the chest—clearly the work of The Punisher.

But what was wrong was that this corpse's chest had been cut open with a sharp instrument, leaving a slit about fifteen centimeters long. The edges of the cut were neat, and the knife-work was precise.

The position of the heart was empty.

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ⌓ꐦ)

“The heart was taken away?”

He increased his perception intensity, having No. 3 Skeleton Soldier carefully scan the surrounding environment of the corpse.

There was no massive blood splatter, indicating the heart was taken after death, not before.

The tool used for the cut was not an ordinary knife; the edges were too neat, resembling a precise instrument like a scalpel.

Cut open, taken out, carried away.

The entire process was clean and efficient, with no extra signs of tampering.

Yan Zheng cut off the sensory link, opened his eyes, and stood on the steps for about ten seconds.

“Let's sort out the timeline.”

“The Punisher fired shots in the North District at three o'clock yesterday morning. I marked the coordinates of the seven corpses in this area, preparing to collect them early this morning.”

“As a result, after No. 3 Skeleton Soldier arrived, it found that one of them had already been tampered with.”

“The one that was tampered with was not random; it was the only one of the seven whose physique was clearly different from ordinary people, with a height of over 1.9 meters and muscle mass far exceeding the level of ordinary gang thugs.”

Yan Zheng slowly walked back to the workbench and sat down, placing his hands flat on the table.

“That person took the heart—only the heart. They didn't touch other organs, didn't touch the wallet or ID, and didn't take the entire corpse.”

“Precise, targeted collection of a single organ.”

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘͈ꈊ˘͈)

“This is not the pattern of a psychopathic killer. Psychopathic killers have a sense of ritual, they pose bodies, and they leave marks.”

“This is the pattern of a laboratory collecting samples.”

His fingers tapped silently on the table three times.

“E.S.S.”

Those three letters floated up from the depths of his memory, like stones submerged at the bottom of the water being turned over by the current.

“The mysterious buyer behind Kingpin's identity as a middleman, an independent laboratory specializing in Mutant gene research.”

“They purchased live samples and complete data through Kingpin.”

“But I ruined that deal, and both the samples and the data ended up in my pocket.”

“If their demand is still there but the supply chain is broken, what will they do?”

Yan Zheng stood up and walked to the wall in the corner of the Underground Room, which was covered with snippets of intelligence.

“Do it themselves.”

“Send people to the conflict scenes in Hells Kitchen to collect target organs amidst the chaos.”

“It's exactly the same as what I do, except they want hearts, and I want bones.”

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ˘ᗜ˘˵)

He reached out, tore off a blank sticky note from the wall, and wrote a few lines on it with a pen.

“Fourth faction, suspected connection to E.S.S.”

“Scope of activity: highly overlapping with The Punisher's Carnage scenes.”

“Target: organs of the deceased with specific physical constitutions, priority on hearts.”

“Action window: after The Punisher leaves, before my Skeleton Soldiers arrive.”

“An intermediate window of about one to two hours.”

He pasted the sticky note on the wall, took a step back, and looked at the entire intelligence wall.

“There are more and more scavengers in Hells Kitchen.”

“Daredevil is the one shooing away flies.”

“The Punisher is the one slaughtering the cattle.”

“I am the one scraping the bones.”

“The people from E.S.S are the ones harvesting hearts.”

Yan Zheng slipped the pen back into his pocket, sat back down in front of the workbench, and propped his chin with his fingers.

“The heart-harvesters arrived before the bone-scrapers.”

“This means their intelligence channels are stronger than mine, or they are closer to the battlefield.”

“Or perhaps both.”

He opened the system panel, pulled up the incision data scanned by No. 3 Skeleton Soldier, and zoomed in to the highest precision.

“The depth of the cut is consistent, the angle is consistent, and the force is consistent.”

“The person who made this cut has a very steady hand; it's not their first time doing this.”

“A professional.”

Yan Zheng turned off the data, looked at the empty Underground Room, and the gaze behind his gold-rimmed glasses cooled by half a degree.

“The good news is that they haven't entered into a competitive relationship with me for now. They want hearts, I want bones—each taking what we need.”

“The bad news is that their existence proves the organization E.S.S not only didn't stop because of Kingpin's failed transaction, but has instead begun to enter the field in person.”

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘꒳˘)

“A biological laboratory with money, technology, and a field team, competing with me for the same hunting ground in Hells Kitchen.”

“Currently, food is abundant, and each side minds its own business.”

“But the war in Hells Kitchen will end one day.”

“Once the war ends, the supply of corpses will plummet, leaving two vultures staring at the same wasteland.”

“At that time, it won't be about each taking what they need, but a question of who bites whom first.”

He picked up the cup of cold water on the table and raised it from afar toward the dim ceiling.

“Friends from E.S.S, keep yourselves busy for now.”

“Once I piece together the Undead Knight, we can have a good chat about where exactly you came from.”

Yan Zheng downed the water in one gulp, and the cup clinked sharply against the table.

“But before that, there is one thing that needs to be done first.”

He opened the system panel and looked at the dark silver icon that had been flashing next to the troop list.

“The first large-scale head-on clash between Kingpin and The Hand, according to Old Jack's intelligence, will be within three to five days.”

“Once that first shot rings out, it will be my four-hour window.”

Yan Zheng stood up and walked toward the steps. Halfway there, he looked back at the silent Brute in the corner.

“Mr. Brute, that heart-harvesting colleague of ours makes much prettier cuts than you do.”

“When the new colleague starts, I'll have him teach you how to use a knife.”