Chapter 160: Chapter 159: New York Emperor Gang
The footsteps outside the door were disorganized, not nearly as well-trained as the Snake Eye Company mercenaries from before.
Although they tried their best to tread lightly, they couldn’t completely mask the sound of their steps.
Shen Feng’s ears even caught the faint sound of conversation.
He had already extended his Consciousness Antennae. Together with Jingwei, he saw the scene outside through the camera at the end of the hallway.
Over thirty men dressed in black suits, posing as waiters, were holding various firearms and preparing to break down the door.
At the very front was a man with a buzz cut pushing a cleaning cart. He had triangular eyes and a sinister face. The collar of his shirt revealed a corner of a colorful tattoo.
Clearly, these people were not professionals.
However, they seemed even more vicious.
The hallway on this entire hotel floor had clearly been sealed off, with no one to disturb them.
Shen Feng and Jingwei’s Consciousness Antennae simultaneously sensed that someone was manipulating the surveillance system, trying to alter the footage.
There were others behind this.
At the same time, Shen Feng sensed faint, disorganized footsteps on the floor above his room. A few people had walked over to the window.
’Tsk tsk, no wonder my other self was taken out despite being so strong in the Gray Tide apocalypse.’
The enemy’s surprise attack came without any warning, and they had superior numbers and firepower.
’Without a heads-up, survival really would have been up in the air.’
Shen Feng couldn’t help but purse his lips.
He then looked up at the corner of the ceiling and beckoned to the Nanomechanical Cluster at his side with a finger.
The room quickly fell silent.
Outside the door, the group was led by the buzz-cut man and another man wearing sunglasses. Seeing no movement from inside, the buzz-cut man immediately knocked again and said in a very polite tone:
"Good day, sir. Room service."
At the same time, he aimed his Shotgun at the door.
Still, no one came to open the door.
The buzz-cut man and the man in sunglasses exchanged a glance, nodded slightly, and stepped aside.
A tall, brawny subordinate in a bulletproof vest stepped forward, swiped the key card to open the door, and then rushed in with his gun raised.
The rest followed closely, storming into the room with dozens of guns aimed at every corner.
They had received intelligence before coming here for this job. The target was an extremely dangerous individual, an Asian kid, possibly even a kung fu master who could run up walls and across rooftops. They had to be cautious.
But to their astonishment, the room was completely empty.
There wasn’t a soul in sight in either the bedroom or the bathroom.
’Did he leave?’
’That can’t be right...’
They had just confirmed through surveillance and the waiters here that the target hadn’t left at all after returning to the hotel.
Besides, with Kadi Cohen’s assassination at the electronics expo, police were patrolling everywhere and questioning suspicious individuals. It was even more unlikely that the kid could have left.
And yet, he wasn’t here. It was as if he’d vanished into thin air.
The buzz-cut leader lowered his gun, walked to the table, and touched a glass of water on it.
The water was warm.
Only those Hua Country People love drinking hot water so much.
’He can’t have gone far...’
"Bart, Bart, come take a look," the man in sunglasses said in a low voice.
Short-haired Bart immediately walked over and asked, "What is it?"
The man in sunglasses was frowning at the ceiling. He said:
"Don’t you think the ceiling in this corner is a lot lower than the rest... Also, this room gives me a really uncomfortable feeling, like something’s alive... You know what I mean? Like those rooms hiding monsters in *Alien*, or the places where ghosts live in *The Shining*..."
Bart looked at the curve of the ceiling and couldn’t help but tease:
"Hahaha, John, my friend, have you been smoking too much? This is how these high-end hotels are. They’re always chasing some damn ’sense of design.’ For those designers, making a straight line would be the death of them... As for some ’living room’... oh my God, the ceiling is moving!"
He hadn’t even finished speaking when the ceiling, along with the walls and the carpet, suddenly seemed to come alive, lunging at the men in the room!
No, the room hadn’t come alive. Something was attached to its surfaces—a thin layer, about the thickness of a palm—and it was now converging toward the center, enveloping all of them!
The dozens of armed killers had no time to react. They were trussed up like sausages and squeezed into a single clump!
Only then did they realize that what enveloped them was a silvery-white, metal-like substance. But this "metal" was writhing and deforming like a colloid, and it had instantly wrapped around their gun hands, preventing their fingers from moving in the slightest!
At the same time, from the spot where they had seen the ceiling sagging, a bald Asian kid in pajamas landed softly on the floor. He picked up the warm water from the table and walked toward them with a smile!
It was the target!
The men were horrified. They never expected the target not only knew kung fu, but also possessed goddamn Magic!
"What is this? Eastern Witchcraft? Dark Magic?" The sunglasses-wearing John’s eyes were wide as he muttered, "Even the Witch Doctors from our goddamn n****r hometowns don’t have this kind of power..."
"No, Boss John, haven’t you seen Arnold Schwarzenegger’s *Terminator*? This... this is a Liquid Metal robot! It has to be! I knew it, this kid must be from the government or the military, maybe he escaped from Zone 51! God knows what kind of evil those damned politicians have been up to!" a man wearing a large gold chain said, trembling.
"Oh God, could the movies be real? What is this guy? Is he one of those evil aliens?"
"God, oh God, please let me go, I was just... just following the boss’s orders..."
"Are you all crazy? Stop spouting nonsense! This is just some kind of black-tech weapon! Of course, sir, I also had no intention of offending you..."
The men all started talking at once, but in the next moment, the surrounding metallic fluid gagged them, rendering them unable to speak.
Hearing their speculations, Shen Feng found it rather amusing.
But this was also a true reflection of the entire Eagle Country.
A nation where classes and social groups were extremely divided.
The upper class had elite politics and education, the middle class worked themselves to the bone, and the lower class was steeped in complete anti-intellectualism, extreme superstition, or belief in some specious form of pseudoscience.
An extreme degree of freedom was the reason for the Eagle Country’s prosperity, and it would also be the root of its decline.
’Interesting.’
But that had nothing to do with him.
Compared to the survival of human civilization, this was utterly insignificant, just a minor affair that Shen Feng found slightly amusing.
Downing the water in his glass, Shen Feng dragged a chair over and sat down in front of the men. He asked:
"Who sent you? Why do you want to kill me?"
He waved a hand, and the Nanomechanical Cluster withdrew from the mouths of Short-haired Bart and the sunglasses-wearing John, allowing them to speak.
The two were completely stunned by this bizarre power and presence, and for a moment, they didn’t know what to say.
Or rather, they were still holding out hope for their other accomplices.
Before coming here, they had prepared a backup plan.
They were just the first team.
Seeing that they remained silent, Shen Feng tilted his head expressionlessly. The miniature Gray Tide before him immediately began to writhe, sealing Short-haired Bart’s mouth shut.
Then, under the horrified gazes of the others, the surrounding Nanomechanical Cluster began to slowly crawl onto Bart’s body and face, and then began to devour him!
First, beads of blood seeped from Bart’s face. Then, his skin rapidly disappeared, revealing the muscle and bone underneath.
And those, too, were constantly disappearing!
He struggled desperately, but he couldn’t break free from the Nanomechanical Cluster’s restraints. He wanted to scream, but couldn’t make a sound.
The parts of him that were devoured also became part of the Nanomechanical Cluster.
The men around him even watched with their own eyes as Bart’s eyeballs, no longer protected by eyelids, were exposed, and then devoured layer by layer.
Soon, Bart’s skull was eroded away, exposing his brain. Then his entire head, his upper body, his legs—until his whole person vanished completely, as if he had never existed.
Only, the surrounding Nanomechanical Cluster had grown considerably larger.
A puddle of water was left on the floor.
A clean puddle of water, with no impurities whatsoever.
This was what the Nanomechanical Cluster had left behind.
After all this was done, Shen Feng removed the Nanomechanical Cluster gagging John’s mouth and said to him:
"Talk. Tell me everything you know."
’This John has been muttering all that superstitious nonsense. He’s clearly a firm anti-intellectual. He’ll be a much easier nut to crack.’
’As for that Short-haired Bart who was just devoured, he was far more rational and calm—not suitable for interrogation.’
Bart probably never dreamed that he would die because of his own virtues of rationality and calmness.
Hearing Shen Feng’s question, the sunglasses-wearing John trembled all over and hastily said:
"We... we’re members of the New York Emperor Gang. We came here because we got orders from above to take out... to take out a person... They gave us the exact room number, and we had an inside man at the hotel, oh, and an inside man with the cops..."
’Emperor Gang?’
Shen Feng frowned.
Most members of these underground gangs in the Eagle Country were uncultured and attracted similar types. The names they gave themselves were usually quite juvenile.
Things like the Herman Ode Gunmen, Street 18, or Soul of the Wheel.
Some underground hip-hop artists were also gang members, their lyrics full of cars, cash, women, big gold chains, and fancy watches.
’The name Emperor Gang, however, is relatively normal.’
’But the fact that they have an inside man in the New York police department means their influence is significant.’
"Who ordered you to come here?" Shen Feng continued to ask.
"It was... it was the underground Emperor of New York City, the boss of the Emperor Gang, Mi... Boss Mike..."
