3:00 PM.

"Sea Slug Power Bureau? Miss, if that's what you mean, I'll find a way to contact them."

"As for the Unicorns' Human Rights Consultation Council, I think if you become the image ambassador for the Life Daylight Education Federation, they will come to you."

"At this critical moment, heading to the Piano Key District to establish a social image and gild yourself, I believe, is a very correct move. As for what comes next, I think we should plan more thoroughly..."

"Do you need me to find a more professional photographer for you? An hour should be enough."

Tang Xin got into the car, and the sound of wind and snow along with Jim's voice gradually faded, leaving her ears in much peace.

Just after getting in, smelling the odor of fried food inside the car, Tang Xin frowned slightly. Through the rearview mirror, she noticed a stranger occupying the seat originally belonging to the driver, leisurely eating fried dodo chicken, leaning back on the seat as noisy rock music played inside.

"Who are you?"

Hearing the young woman's voice from the back, Ince wiped the grease from his mouth with his hand and turned his head around, shaking a dodo chicken leg that matched the size of a plate in his hand.

"Miss Tang, though it's a bit abrupt, your Manster won't be coming back. From today on, I am your dedicated driver and photographer. Here's my card."

Tang Xin hesitated as she looked at his greasy hand, but out of courtesy, she pinched the edge of the card to take it.

The name Ince Bronk caught her eye, and soon her gaze was drawn to the photo on his previous business card.

Compared to this scruffy, disheveled 'middle-aged man' in front of her, the person in the photo was almost glowing with vitality. It was hard to imagine what he'd been through over the years.

The more Tang Xin compared the man to his business card, the more familiar he seemed. She remembered that she had once seen him at Belvedere Station, where he had a camera and claimed to be a director from the Black Lake crew interviewing her.

"I remember not hiring a photographer," Tang Xin said. "And Bronk is the name of a prison in the Piano Key District, isn't it?"

"Before they got me out of prison yesterday, I had no intention of becoming a photographer. It's a bit complicated to explain. As for my employment report, you can dig through your curtain mailbox, I joined through official channels."

Tang Xin opened her email and confirmed that this man named Ince Bronk was indeed employed through the company's HR channels, yet she was unaware of it. The only possibility she could think of, besides someone her never-met father specifically arranged to watch over her, was not apparent.

"You should tidy yourself up a bit," Tang Xin opened a newspaper. "Also, I don't like the smell of fried food, don't let me smell it in the car next time."

"As you wish, Miss," Ince said, opening the window and casually throwing the chicken bone out.

The impeccably clean road lay abruptly with a chicken bone, like a speck on a flawless painting.

...

In the distance, the sound of car horns echoed as snow melted, and a faint golden light refracted between the forest of Crystal Buildings. In the places unreachable by light, the alleys in the afternoon shrouded first into darkness.

Several shadows darted quickly in the darkness, passing through light gaps between high-rises. Wherever they passed, a fierce claw mark tore through the wall of an alley, and the anti-theft windows on both sides bent like children's toys.

The shadows flitted past, agilely running along the wall, then leaping into the air, drawing an arc and crashing on the top of a sedan, causing it to collapse and explode inwardly, with glass flying everywhere, reflecting horrified faces.

The vehicles parked in the alley honked their alarming cries in a frenzy, the shrieks of monsters and shouts of the Cleaners merged into a cacophony.

"They're running this way, split up and chase them!" shouted the leading Cleaner. The two following her nodded, leaping into a nimble sprint in the alleyways, defying gravity, gliding with hooks through the narrow passage, their grey robes fluttering.

In no time, under the siege of the Hunters, the foremost shadow and its companions were cornered at the end of an alley, with a thunderous Heavy Hammer smashing into the ground, where crackling electric arcs danced.

"Riffraff, see where you'll run now!"

The head Cleaner licked his teeth excitedly, his mimicry weapon's top still stained with blood and brain matter, as he had just smashed a monster's head with this Thunder Hammer.

"Black Dog, hurry up and finish it."

Behind the man, a red-haired woman stepped forward, a knife scar across her right eye, scratching her messy hair, burdened with heavy bags and dark circles under her eyes, lighting a cigarette.

The burning flame dispelled the darkness in the alley, revealing their prey: hunched, twisted figures, with arms thin as twigs, entirely bald, skin a sickly pale, their facial features melded together like drooping molten paint, like monsters sculpted by children with mud.

Oddly, aside from black and white, they bore no other colors.

They were at the intersection between Queens District and Piano Key District, known as Black Rose Alley, a long alley stretching to the horizon, shrouded in a deathly grey above, like a city's ugly scar, devoid of any beauty.

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