Francis slowed at an intersection and read the signs.

’Twenty-five kilometers. Not far.’

The road leading to the city’s central district was already in sight. Still, his focus stayed fixed on one name—Vance.

Before killing everyone in the compound, he gathered enough information to triangulate where his target was most likely to be.

He decided to head to the nearest hideout, which was also the largest one,

Francis revved the throttle and rode on. The straight road let him pick up speed easily, and the almost nonexistent traffic gave him the perfect chance to test how much power he could squeeze from his machine.

Vrrrmmm—

The cold wind cut across his face, and for a brief moment, it slowed his thoughts and eased the tension in his mind.

.

.

.

Fifteen minutes later, he reached his destination.

An abandoned train hub stood ahead, sitting far from the main flow of the road.

The place had once handled heavy rail traffic, but time had stripped it down.

Rust covered the steel frames. Broken glass lined parts of the platforms. Weeds pushed through cracks in the concrete.

The Wolf Clan had taken it over years ago.

What used to be a transport point was now a criminal base, used not only for drugs but also for guns and other illegal goods.

The scale of it dwarfed the compound he just destroyed.

’Good.’ A faint smile crossed Francis’s face. The place around him was empty for miles.

No witnesses. No reason to hold back.

’Let’s see.’

Through his infrared vision, he picked up multiple moving targets in the distance. All of them carried guns.

Sixteen guards covered the grounds. Eight in rotating pairs across the outer perimeter.

Four posted at fixed positions near the warehouse entries.

Two on the roof of the main structure. Two more inside the old ticketing building near the front gate.

’Chasing him was the right move. I get to farm points while punishing trash.’

Although hunting Defense Force agents gave him more points per kill, it also put him at greater risk and left him more exposed.

Destroying a syndicate, on the other hand, was far safer. Even if he burned them all to the ground, the government and other law enforcement groups would likely see it as a gang war over territory.

[Livers 1,150/10,000]

He was only a little over 10% toward his target, but this new lead made him more confident.

’Dark Chain,’ he repeated, his lips curling upward. The thought of tearing down a criminal organization that size made his heart beat faster.

They might have considered themselves the predators of this city, but now that his eyes were locked on them, they could only blame fate for placing them in his sight.

He rolled his shoulder and turned his attention to the black spear on his bike, the one he had retrieved earlier.

’I don’t think I’ll be needing it to deal with small fries.’

With that, he began running closer to the train hub. He activated his infrared vision and combined it with his vibration sense to detect landmines.

It wasn’t uncommon for places like this to use traps for defense, and the wide open space made him wary.

Just as he expected, traps were buried along the route. He quickly bypassed them with ease.

Francis moved through the gap between two stacked freight containers and waited for a guard to pass. When the man came close, he grabbed him and covered his mouth.

"If you shout, I’ll rip your throat out," Francis warned

The guard nodded quickly. He didn’t know who was behind him, but he could feel the strength in the grip.

"I’m looking for your leader, Vance. Is he here?"

Silence.

Francis tightened his grip. The guard’s face darkened, the color draining from his lips as the pressure built against his windpipe.

"If you’re not going to be useful, I’ll just kill you and find another one."

The guard’s eyes watered. His legs pushed weakly against the ground, boots scraping gravel without grip.

His hands came up toward Francis’s arm out of pure reflex, then dropped when he realized it made no difference.

He forced himself to nod.

Francis let him speak, but stayed ready to kill him if he got too loud.

"Vance." The word came out wet and cracked. "He’s in the main building. The largest one — center of the yard."

crack.

The man’s vision spun a full 360 before it froze at a wrong angle. He stared in shocked and disbelief as he saw the face of his killer smiling.

It was like he was looking at the devil himself.

"I..." His head dropped to the ground before he could finish his words.

crack!

Francis stepped on it and moved on.

He chose to move more carefully this time. Speed without awareness was just noise. And noise made targets scatter before he could reach them.

He stayed low and kept to the shadows between the container rows, using the stacked freight as cover between each move.

Every time he crossed open ground, he paused first. Then he waited for the right gap in the patrol timing.

The next two guards were near the east fence, walking a loose overlap route.

He tracked their footsteps through vibration sense, counted the seconds between each pass, and moved into position before the slower of the two completed his turn.

Repeating this method, he reached the roof of the main building. He used the vent and slipped inside from above.

Below, through the opening, the warehouse floor spread out in full light.

A long table sat at the center. Industrial lamps hung from the ceiling beams above it.

At one end of the table, still in his clean clothes, jaw tight and expression darker than before, sat Vance.

’Got you,’ Francis’s grin spread from ear to ear. He forced himself to stay calm, holding back the killing intent that was starting to slip.

Around Vance stood ten figures. None of them moved the way ordinary humans moved.

’Ten Special Categories, huh... I hope these ones are stronger than the last.’