CNS | Chapter 2

Chapter 2, Ranger

“Bang!”

Shen Run kicked open the already shaky door of Eden Bar.

He gripped the average-length hair of the suit-wearing man, humming a tune as he dragged him into the bar, leaving a long trail of blood on the floor.

He dragged the man past the booth seating area and went straight toward the bar counter, with those few young men dressed like mercenaries following behind him.

There had never been many customers in the shop to begin with, and when they saw Shen Run dragging in a “blood man,” they all put down the glasses in their hands and hurried out of Eden.

“Boss, you scared all the customers away.” Jiede looked displeased.

“Last time Luxiusi beat a high-and-out exhibitionist into a half-dead state, there wasn’t a single customer who dared come to Eden for a drink for a whole week.”

The short-haired young man following behind Shen Run looked at her blankly. “Sorry, I’ll definitely pay attention next time.”

“We’re not making money off this anyway.”

Shen Run let go, and the bloody, mangled man fell onto the floor with a loud thud.

“What the hell is this thing?”

Jiede looked at the “unspeakable object” lying on the floor, and her already knitted brows furrowed even tighter, her face full of disgust.

“I picked this up off the ground.”

Jiede let out a dissatisfied tsk. “Just to pick up some inexplicable trash, you went and dirtied the floor I just mopped?”

“Ah, ah, then I apologize to you, please clean it again.”

Jiede rolled her eyes and picked up a glass to start wiping it clean.

“Wake him up.”

“Alright.”

After receiving Shen Run’s instructions, Luxiusi grabbed the man’s collar and slapped him twice without the slightest politeness.

The man lying on the floor woke from unconsciousness. Curling up his body, his face full of pain, he made hoarse “heh-heh” sounds.

“Awake?”

Shen Run sat on a barstool in front of the counter and glanced down at him from above.

“Let’s make this clear first, you were the one who drew the knife first, I was just acting in self-defense.”

Shen Run bent down, and his right hand in a black glove took the blood-covered short knife from the man’s hand.

He held the short knife, whose blade was curved, and examined it carefully in his hand. Soon, he confirmed the man’s identity.

“Dog-leg knife, neurotoxin, you’re from Sting Gang.”

The Jiede standing nearby seemed like a robot triggered by some keyword.

“Sting Gang, active in Star City, mainly engaged in smuggling contraband drugs, and every member carries a Valent curved saber coated with fungal toxin.”

“This toxin will rapidly destroy a person’s nervous system, leaving them unable to roam the net ever again.”

“That brutal…” Shen Run said with feeling.

He raised a hand and pointed to his temple. “Someone was willing to spend eight digits to hire me for this thing, and you wanted to destroy it.”

“Y…you… how did you know….?” The man spat blood as he asked haltingly.

“Your homework wasn’t good enough, friend.” Jiede answered for Shen Run from the side.

“You know the name ‘Sleeve Blade,’ but you don’t know he’s Heimdall’s boss. Outsider, should I say you’re stupid, or stupid?”

Her words made the other people in the bar laugh, and even Luxiusi, who had long been expressionless, made a disdainful face.

Everyone in Jade Bay with even a little bit of connections knew that in the shadows of Saint Grange there existed an intelligence organization called “Heimdall.” They were the eyes, nose, and ears monitoring Saint Grange, and any stir in the city would be written in full into Heimdall’s weekly work report.

And alongside the words “Heimdall,” the name “Sleeve Blade” would always follow.

Shen Run rubbed the back of the knife, looking puzzled. “Star City is five or six hundred kilometers from here, right? Instead of staying in your own turf properly, why run to someone else’s house?”

The man did not answer, only glaring at Shen Run.

Shen Run bent down and used the toxin-coated blade to tap the man’s face, a bright smile on his face. “Want to try it? The feeling of being cut by your own knife.”

The blood-covered body of the man began to twist and struggle, muttering indistinct words under his breath.

Shen Run strained to make out every word the man was saying, roughly understanding that he was saying something like, “Sting Gang won’t let you off, you wait and go to hell, trash.”

“Whether Sting Gang can do anything to me is still hard to say, but you should be worrying about your own situation now, because……”

He pressed the curved knife against the man’s neck, the sharp blade leaving a line of blood on the moist skin.

“It seems I don’t plan to let you off.”

The man’s eyes widened, and he spat out another string of indistinct curses.

“Afraid of death?” The smile on Shen Run’s face grew even wider. “Then talk. The reason you came all the way here.”

After two painful groans, the man closed his eyes and once again lost consciousness, sinking into a coma.

“Brother Shen, this guy isn’t going to make it.” Luxiusi reminded him from the side.

“So he’s already no good? You need to steel yourself, friend.”

Shen Run took an adrenaline shot from Luxiusi and was just about to inject it into this guy’s neck.

The sound of leather shoes rang out from outside the door.

A few seconds later, a blond man in a suit walked in, with a group of black-clad men armed with guns behind him.

The moment he entered, the pressure around Jiede grew even lower, and she said coldly, “Your boss is here.”

Luxiusi and the remaining few all stopped what they were doing and gave the newcomer a standard Yalan Navy salute.

“Tsk.”

He came at just the right time.

Shen Run muttered softly. He stood up and tossed the short knife and syringe in his hand to Jiede, earning her disgusted eye-roll in return.

“Don’t let him die, take him to Nirvana, continue questioning him tomorrow after the meeting.”

Luxiusi nodded and directed two subordinates to drag that unlucky bastard out through the back door.

The blond man walked closer to Shen Run, looked at the mess all over the floor, and raised a brow with interest. “Pretty lively.”

The man wore a beige suit, and a faint but visible phoenix totem showed at the nape of his neck.

“Ah, an outsider clown, holding a knife and telling me to switch jobs.”

Shen Run took off his blood-stained gloves and looked at the blond man, his expression cold. “Young Master.”

The person who had come was precisely Shen Run’s employer, the son of the warlord Sam who controlled the Emerald Bay district, the young master of the Phoenix Army, the power holder behind the intelligence organization “Heimdall,” Joshua Phoenix.

“I told you, just call me Joshua.”

The blond man named Joshua raised an arm and used his long fingers to wipe the blood from Shen Run’s face, saying with a smile, “You’ve been pretty popular lately, Mr. Sleeve Blade.”

There was not a single office worker in the world who would face their boss with a positive attitude, and Shen Run was no different.

He had always believed that he was no different from those office workers sitting in office buildings, except that the content of his work was a little less aboveboard.

Just like now, faced with such blatant sexual harassment from his boss, he could only choose to swallow his anger.

To be fair, Joshua could be considered a very good boss. He was capable, generous, and had no bad habits. He was handsome, looked cultured and refined, and did not seem like the bloodthirsty, violent offspring of a warlord at all. Rather, he looked like an elite lawyer.

But Shen Run still had reasons not to like him.

“I heard there’s a madman who likes knocking people on the back of the head, looking for you?”

Shen Run followed behind Joshua, walking up the stairs one after the other. “Yeah, I’m looking for him too.”

Shen Run was not brushing Joshua off. He really was looking for “City Ranger.”

After the victim range shrank from the entirety of Saint Grange to the Emerald Bay district, Shen Run realized that City Ranger was playing a game with him, a cat-and-mouse game.

In order not to become the mouse waiting obediently for the claws to come down, he mobilized all of Heimdall’s personnel and equipment, searching day and night for three days for City Ranger, to no avail.

Among so many victims, not a single person was able to clearly describe this ranger’s appearance.

In the mouths of these unlucky bastards whose heads had been drilled open, City Ranger was sometimes a giant over two meters tall, covered in artificial muscle, and sometimes a mysterious woman of breathtaking beauty……

This “righteous” ranger was like a hunter hidden in the shadows, only appearing when hunting. After precisely capturing the prey, he would swiftly erase all traces and sink back into the darkness once more.

Joshua let out a low laugh. “I’d very much like to help you, but if even you can’t find him, then probably no one in the world can find this ranger.”

Shen Run ignored the employer’s flattery.

After unlocking the door with his palm print, the two entered the room at the end of the corridor together. Inside were retro-style furnishings, unchanged since he had taken over this bar.

The bookshelf against the wall was packed with records and old books that were no longer in circulation on the market.

Between the two bookshelves hung a holographic projection device. At that moment, it was flashing with a faint blue light, the glow projected onto the coffee table in the center of the room, where a projected figure with almost no cloth covering it was dancing a hot dance.

No one usually came into this room. It was obviously Jiede’s doing.

“Young Master, do you have something for me to do?”

Shen Run was connected to the bar’s network. He shut off the holographic device, and the dreamlike room immediately turned into an ordinary office.

“Ah, I just happened to pass by and remembered I hadn’t seen you in a long time.”

Joshua took a book from the bookshelf and flipped through it casually. “I was afraid that if I didn’t come take a look, maybe you’d really be poached.”

Shen Run frowned and interrupted Joshua’s nonsense. “Young Master, if you’re here to say these things then please go back. We should both be pretty busy.”

Joshua laughed twice, not getting angry. After putting the book back on the shelf, he took a data chip engraved with information from the inside of his suit jacket.

“Help me find someone. His name is Kevin.”

Kevin……

It was just a very common name, yet Shen Run felt an inexplicable familiarity with it.

“Who is he?” Shen Run caught the data chip Joshua tossed over, not rushing to look at its contents.

Joshua shrugged. “An illegitimate son the old man found back from who knows where.”

Illegitimate son?

Shen Run raised a brow, mentally making up a wealthy-family feud. “You want me to find him, then kill him?”

Joshua laughed again and waved a hand. “No, no. I don’t like that whole brothers killing each other thing.”

“I’m a generous older brother, I don’t mind one more person sharing this family fortune, as long as he has enough ability to hold onto it.”

He closed the book in his hand and put it back on the shelf.

“A younger brother suddenly appearing, I was actually quite happy. The Phoenix family’s business will definitely not stop at the Emerald Bay district, and I just happen to need someone I can trust to help me share the burden.”

“Tell me, is there any relationship in this world more reliable than blood?”

Not necessarily.

Shen Run denied Joshua’s last sentence in his heart.

Joshua seemed to have seen through what Shen Run was thinking. He walked up to Shen Run and reached out to brush Shen Run’s cheek.

“That statement is indeed too absolute. Besides blood relatives, I also trust you one hundred percent.”

“Don’t worry, no matter where we can ultimately get to, there will always be a place for you by my side.”

A wave of discomfort rose in Shen Run’s heart.

He turned his head and stepped back. “Sorry, I don’t like being touched.”

Joshua’s hand hung in the air, while his face still wore a smile. “Kevin should have arrived at Saint Grange Airport two weeks ago, but after getting off the plane, he lost contact.”

Joshua placed one hand lightly on Shen Run’s shoulder. “Originally I didn’t need to trouble you, but the bunch of trash under me can’t compare to you at all, and until now they still haven’t found him.”

Shen Run nodded to show he understood, while at the same time trying to shake off Joshua’s hand on his shoulder. Who knew that his employer would directly extend his other hand to pin him down, making Shen Run unable to move.

Look, this was one of the reasons Shen Run disliked him.

“Arun.”

Joshua’s face came closer and closer. Shen Run turned his head aside, only to have his chin pinched by him.

Shen Run clenched both fists, preparing to give him a punch as he had done several times before, when a call came in through the communication chip.

It was his little apprentice, Chi Yu.

Shen Run pointed to his ear. “Phone, I’ll take it.”

Joshua helplessly let go of Shen Run and made a “go ahead” gesture.

Shen Run let out a breath and answered his apprentice’s call.

Thinking back to what Chi Yu had said when he left, he teased him, “Little Yu, is the scenery on Liu Island nice?”

On the other end of the phone came Chi Yu’s frightened cries for help.

“Master! He’s chasing me! Save me!”

A bad feeling rose in Shen Run’s heart. “Who?”

On the other end of the phone, Chi Yu cried out, “It’s that ranger! Master, it’s that City Ranger! He wants to kill me!”