*Swoosh—* A zipline swung inside the hotel’s external trash chute.
Carrying two people with one arm and gripping the brake mechanism with his other hand, Green slowed his descent and landed on the foul-smelling heap of garbage.
He casually unclipped Sika’s walkie-talkie from his waist and crushed it in his fist.
Components rained down from between his fingers.
He had heard Luka’s words.
Since the man chose silence, there was no need to keep hunting him down.
Green stepped out of the dumpster.
Flies buzzed in the air, and rancid liquid overflowed on the ground.
A few Black men patrolling the alley turned at the noise, their faces draining of color.
“Damn it!
We had to run into him!” “What the fuck?!” “You guys go first!
I’ll cover the rear!” Some turned and fled immediately; not everyone had the nerve to face Green.
The rest barely managed to draw their guns before catching a blur in the corner of their vision.
Fine lines of blood burst across their throats.
Bodies collapsed; heads rolled onto the pavement.
The ones who had fled a few steps were caught and dropped in an instant.
Green dragged the corpses back one by one and dumped them into the dumpster.
Expressionless, he reached beneath the trash to retrieve his stashed equipment—an oversized pink suitcase.
Tearing open a waterproof bag, he changed into the jacket and shoes inside, stuffed the two unconscious figures into the suitcase, and zipped it shut.
He stood the suitcase upright and pulled out the handle.
Reaching up, Green adjusted a green felt hat he had taken off one of the corpses, then closed the dumpster lid.
Dragging the suitcase through the puddles, he pried open a manhole cover with a prepared crowbar, descended the ladder underground, and pulled the cover back into place behind him.
There was no light in the subterranean drainage tunnel, save for a four- or five-meter beam from his portable flashlight.
Countless specks of dust floated in the shaft of light.
Green dragged the pink suitcase along the edge of the sewage.
His hollow footsteps echoed down the channel, as though he were entering a labyrinth to nowhere.
Rats rustled and peered from invisible corners, squeaking in alarm.
Green was intimately familiar with this place.
His life had never been easy.
He often brushed against death—once, severely enough that he died for several seconds before coming back to life.
Whenever that happened, he would hide underground, quietly licking his wounds like a wounded beast.
Although he had far more comfortable safehouses around the globe, he always felt this place was the most reliable.
Just like the rats surviving in the dark.
They knew where to live and where to hide.
Besides, he could vaguely sense something following him.
Whether it was tracking his scent or using another method didn’t matter.
This was the perfect place to settle it—no need to clean up the body afterward.
Green deliberately slowed his pace.
Tapping his fingers against the flashlight’s casing, he listened closely for the sound of splashing water.
Pushing the suitcase aside, he raised the light and turned around.
The beam sliced through the darkness, yet could not penetrate the deeper chaos beyond.
*No need to look, then.* With a click, he switched off the light and instantly sank into the shadows.
The next instant— *Clang!!* Blade smashed violently against razor-sharp claws.
Sparks exploded like a momentary bolt of lightning, illuminating his pursuer’s face.
It was a youthful, untamed face smeared with grime, her wet, matted hair clinging to her forehead.
Wearing only a thin white lab coat soaked in sewage, she arched her back, bared her teeth, and used a pair of adamantium claws to hold off Green’s blade.
“Tsk.” Green pivoted and landed a fierce low kick against her ribcage.
The girl groaned as she flew back, her spine shattering a large patch of decaying plaster before she slid to the ground.
Struggling to get back up, she froze.
The cold tip of a blade was already pressed against her face—half an inch further and it would pierce her eyeball and penetrate her skull.
She went rigid.
*Click.* The flashlight beam snapped back on, shining directly in her face.
Blind by the intense glare, the girl turned her head and raised a hand to block it, yet she stubbornly peered up at Green through the gaps in her fingers.
Framing her wet black hair, her eyes looked remarkably clear in the halo of light—like an abandoned wolf pup.
Green glanced at her temple.
The control device was gone—whether destroyed during their earlier clash or ripped off by her own hand, he couldn’t tell.
One thing was certain, though: every action she took now came from her own free will.
“Why are you following me?” His voice sounded exceptionally cold and harsh in the cavernous sewer.
She didn’t answer.
Instead, she slowly opened her tightly clenched right hand.
Resting in her palm was half a chocolate bar, melted and deformed by her body heat.
Sticky brown syrup coated her fingers and palm.
“For me?” The girl nodded vigorously, her eyes fixed on him without blinking.
“…Is it good?” She nodded again, this time more subtly.
Green studied her in silence for a few seconds before finally leaning down to take the half-melted chocolate from her sticky palm.
Naturally, his fingertips picked up a smudge of sweet syrup.
He lowered his gaze to look at it, then casually tossed the chocolate into the nearby sewage.
The next second, the girl lunged forward without warning, paying no mind to the blade still held before her.
The sharp tip sliced a gash across her cheek, sending warm drops of blood flying onto the back of Green’s hand.
He instinctively turned his blade sideways to block, assuming she was attacking.
But she merely stumbled into the knee-deep waste, bending down to frantically grope around—as if that half-melted piece of chocolate were a priceless treasure that couldn’t be lost.
Green stood in place, watching her exposed, defenseless back as the dirty water washed deeper stains into her thin lab coat.
Slowly sheathing his blade, he stepped closer.
Soon enough, she scooped the melted half from the muck, murky filthy water dripping through her fingers.
Head lowered, she stared at the brown smudge in her hand, her eyes filled with obvious, childlike reluctance to let it go.
Turning her head sideways, she shot Green a resentful look.
“It stinks now.” Green slapped her filthy hand away.
A low rumble of a growl rose from her throat, and she made a move to pounce—only to freeze in her tracks when she saw him pull a brand-new, wrapped chocolate bar from his pocket.
“If you’re going to eat, eat the good stuff.” He tossed it over casually.
Catching it with nimble reflexes, she clutched the intact bar, momentarily stunned.
Green turned, stepped out of the sewage, picked up the suitcase, and continued walking into the depths of the darkness.
The girl watched his retreating back until his outline was almost swallowed by shadows.
Only then did she look down at her clean palm and the chocolate wrapped in shiny foil.
Green walked ahead.
*Patter, patter…* Wet, sticky footsteps echoed stubbornly behind him in the sewer, like a shadow he couldn’t shake.
Green abruptly stopped.
The footsteps behind him instantly ceased.
He turned around.
The frail figure stood just five paces away, still holding the fresh chocolate bar, tilting her head as she looked at him.
On her grimy face, the cut left by his knife had already completely healed, leaving only a faint pink mark.
Her clear, striking dark eyes stared straight at him without blinking.
“Can’t you just go away?
Believe me, I’ll dump you in an orphanage!” Green grumbled, thoroughly annoyed.
The girl gave no reaction, as if she didn’t understand—or didn’t care.
He turned and kept walking.
The footsteps immediately resumed.
“Scram, or I’ll kill you!” Green whirled around and leaned forward menacingly, trying to intimidate her into retreating.
The girl stopped, yet she still tilted her head up to look at him, without backing down a single step.
“Fuck!
You really want to follow me?” She nodded firmly.
“I don’t raise dead weight.” With a sharp *snikt*, gleaming silver claws shot out from both her hands.
She raised her chin, stubbornly proving her worth.
“Fine.
Fucking fine.
Suit yourself.” Green turned around, not bothering to look back this time.
*Patter, patter, patter…* The footsteps immediately fell in behind him, slightly closer than before.
He could feel her gaze on his back, packed with feral focus.
Her nostrils twitched occasionally, as if she were carefully tracing his silhouette in the pitch-black air, imprinting his scent into memory.
A wolf’s instinct never failed.
He had conquered her.
Though Green himself was entirely oblivious, in the girl’s untamed mind, this man had become the alpha she had chosen for herself.
Following him, she would have a different life.