Chapter 18
Lower District.
Every prosperous city has one area that is chaotic and lawless — a place where all kinds of people gather, gangs run rampant, and ordinary citizens avoid going out after dark if they can help it.
In New York, it was Brooklyn. In Metropolis, it was Suicide Slum. In Central City, it was the Lower District.
This area was mostly inhabited by minorities, including a large Black population. Due to historical factors — lower education levels, employment difficulties, and racial discrimination — it had the highest crime rate in the city. Many viewed it as the birthplace of chaos, filth, and sin.
Although society had improved significantly over the years, the environment had become cleaner, and the overall quality of residents had risen, no one in Central City was willing to live here or go out at night.
It was approaching dusk. The fading sunset cast a dim, yellowish glow over the worn-down streets, stirring a restless unease.
The number of people on the streets dwindled as they hurried home, tightly wrapped in their coats.
A yellow taxi screeched to a stop at the curb. The sudden brake kicked up a swirl of dry leaves. The Black driver glanced around nervously, muttering under his breath.
"If your price wasn't so damn attractive, I wouldn't have come to the Lower District this close to dark."
"Don't worry, buddy. Leyton Street is relatively safe in this area."
"I grew up here. I know."
Alex stepped out of the taxi with his black backpack and handed the driver over a hundred dollars. The driver, seeing Alex dressed like a mild-mannered programmer who looked easy to bully, gave a final warning before driving off:
"Find a hotel quickly. It's not safe here at night."
The taxi disappeared from Alex's sight.
Alex chuckled softly as he watched it leave. He looked up toward the end of the street. The Leyton Hotel stood like a mountain at the fork, splitting the road into a Y-shape under the fading sunset.
"Alex Leung. I have a reservation," he said as he walked into the lobby.
After the front desk staff processed his booking for the VIP Room 506 and handed him the key card, Alex took the elevator to the fifth floor. He stepped onto the marble hallway, swiped his card, and entered his room. As the door closed, he caught a glimpse of the "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on the handle of the opposite room — 503 — before it disappeared from view.
A subtle glint flashed in his eyes.
Once inside, he moved with decisive efficiency. He took the laptop out of his black backpack, placed it on the desk, and connected it to the hotel's network cable.
In the next moment, Alex had already breached the Leyton Hotel's system. With dual doctorates in Computer Electronics and Mechanical Engineering from Central City University, hacking into a simple hotel system was child's play for him.
The laptop screen displayed the status of every room.
Room 503 was marked as unoccupied.
Alex ignored it for now. He breached the hotel's surveillance system and pulled up all footage from the fifth floor today, speeding it up dozens of times. He only paused when Danton Black appeared, confirming his movements.
From the fifth-floor cameras, it was clear that Danton had left at 3 PM and had not returned by 5 PM.
After confirming Danton was not in his room and that the current fifth-floor hallway was empty, Alex intercepted a 30-second segment of the live feed and replaced it with a looped empty corridor.
He then accessed the room control system again, unlocked the door to Room 503, and set it to automatically lock again after 30 seconds.
Once everything was done, he casually stood up, packed the laptop away in under ten seconds, adjusted his glasses, and walked out the door.
The hallway was empty.
Alex stepped out of Room 506 and walked straight to Room 503 as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He turned the handle, entered, and carefully caught a single thin hair that had been placed across the doorframe. He replaced it exactly where it had been and closed the door, making sure the hair was once again trapped in place.
Thirty seconds later, the electronic lock clicked shut automatically.
The replaced 30-second surveillance footage returned to normal.
Like an elite operative, Alex had entered Danton Black's room without anyone knowing.
He quickly scanned the entire room. The window faced Leyton Street, offering a full view of the road. The blackout curtains were slightly parted, allowing the setting sun to pierce through the gap and illuminate the floor.
Danton Black's high education and intelligence gave him average counter-surveillance habits — better than an ordinary person, but nothing special.
He was a scholar and nuclear physicist, not a trained spy.
The gap in the curtains allowed him to check from the street whether anyone was inside his room.
The hair on the doorframe was meant to reveal if someone had entered while he was away.
Alex shook his head lightly. He stayed away from the window, surveyed the surroundings, and opened the nearby wardrobe.
"Hmm?"
Unexpectedly, at the bottom of the wardrobe was a leather briefcase. Its sharp angles suggested it wasn't filled with clothes.
"This should be the jewelry," Alex thought.
He had assumed Danton would hide the stolen goods somewhere else, but the man had simply left them in the hotel.
After a moment's thought, Alex understood why.
Danton had only arrived in Central City a month ago. He had no trusted contacts or safe locations. Thirty-five million dollars' worth of jewelry was enough to drive anyone mad, and he couldn't carry it with him everywhere. Leaving it in the hotel was actually the most practical choice.
Alex didn't open the briefcase immediately — it could contain traps or even a bomb.
Instead, he sat calmly at the desk and waited for Danton Black to return.
Within ten meters, Alex could kill Danton with a single punch before he could even create duplicates. The moment Danton opened the door, he would have nowhere to run.
So Alex waited patiently.
The sun slowly sank.
Its dim, yellowish light bathed the increasingly empty street in a lonely, desolate glow as night prepared to swallow everything in cold darkness.
At the corner of the street, Danton Black appeared. He wore a brown trench coat that reached his thighs, hands tucked tightly into the pockets. His face showed signs of weariness and stubble. He turned onto the street and headed toward the Leyton Hotel.
The fading sunset stretched his shadow long across the ground.
The wind lifted dry leaves and made his coat flap noisily.
Danton narrowed his eyes and looked up at his room.
The curtains were still slightly parted, with sunlight still piercing into the room. No silhouette was visible.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
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