Chapter 1 November 15th, Evening, 9:20 PM

Somewhere in City S, in a street-facing shop…

The shutters of the shop were down, but the lights inside were still bright.

At this moment, a slightly overweight man with a receding hairline was intently sitting in front of a laptop, checking the numerous surveillance feeds and streams of information on the screen.

Scattered on the table in front of him were more than a dozen cell phones and a variety of strange homemade devices; a miniature Bluetooth headset was perched on his left ear, and his hands were flying across the keyboard…

This man… was named Dongfeng, East as in the direction, and Feng as in the wind.

"Dongfeng" was naturally not the name his parents gave him, but he had long since stopped using his real name. And those who came into contact with him were not interested in his real name… they only knew "Dongfeng."

Dongfeng’s moniker was imposing, but his appearance could only be described as terrible… at least in the eyes of secular aesthetics, he deserved the label "ugly"…

He was not cute when he was fat, not obviously handsome, and even though he was only thirty-five years old, most people's first impression of him was that he was over forty.

His receding hairline, greasy skin, heavy dark circles, and bizarre sense of style… made this man, with his high IQ and hundreds of millions in assets, mistaken for a poor, ugly idiot all year round.

Perhaps… it was his personality, or maybe… it was a disguise.

In short, this man, who didn't even seem to be able to take care of himself, was engaged in a planning job that was comparable to precise science – criminal planning.

Dongfeng was very skilled in his business; he had a vast intelligence network at his disposal… this network carried countless "secrets" that people didn't want to be known, and these "people with secrets" could become Dongfeng's "pawns" when necessary.

To illustrate with today's events… Zheng Xian was one of his pawns.

Of course, now he was a revealed and discarded pawn…

However, there was still a person within the police force who was feeding him information… until two minutes ago, that person was still sending him real-time intelligence from the investigation site via text message.

"Hmph… so he was just a pretentious and arrogant fool." Dongfeng looked at the time on his computer and glanced at his phone. "Fifteen minutes have long passed, and no text message… in the end, this kid doesn't even have the guts to make up an address and send it…"

Just as he muttered to himself, suddenly…

*Ka-pong*—

A clear sound of metal being pried open rang out.

In that instant, Dongfeng's expression changed drastically, because it only took him half a second to realize… what was being pried open was the lock on the shutter door behind him.

*Chi-la-la-la*—

As Dongfeng suddenly turned his head, the shutter door was being lifted up.

Several harsh rays of light shone in from the street outside, accompanied by a chaotic sound of gunshots being cocked and a chorus of "Police! Don't move!", Dongfeng's mood went from horrified… all the way down to rock bottom.

…………

Ten minutes later, Dongfeng, in handcuffs, was being escorted into a police car.

And the person sitting next to him in the back seat… was none other than Feng Bujue.

As the car started, Dongfeng opened his mouth, his face ashen, "Why did you know it was me?"

"Of course, I knew it through analysis," Feng Bujue replied leisurely.

Dongfeng said, "I've been selling breakfast here for more than a month, and the shop was rented through legal channels, and I've never shown any abnormalities during this time. How did you see through it?"

Here, it should be noted that the place where Dongfeng was arrested was only two streets away from the headquarters of the Order studio… a breakfast shop.

It was the place where Gui Xiao had been buying breakfast every morning for the past month…

The section of road where this shop was located was the only way to get from Order's office building to the subway station. This place was not far from where Gui Xiao was kidnapped; it was only three subway stops away. And the place where Gui Xiao was taken after being kidnapped… was not far from the kidnapping site, because the anesthetic effect of ether was limited; if he was taken too far away, he might wake up in the car.

Therefore, in less than twenty minutes, Feng Bujue and the police officers had arrived here from the hostage's location…

"The initial point of suspicion was… even though I repeatedly checked the video, I still couldn't find 'when,' 'where,' or 'how' the kidnappers gave Gui Xiao the laxative," Feng Bujue said. "You should also be very clear… now, the surveillance coverage in the urban area of City S is very comprehensive, streets, subway stations, inside the subway… it can be said that, except for the toilets, surveillance footage can be obtained for most public spaces; therefore, the entire process from Gui Xiao leaving Order's office building until he showed symptoms of abdominal pain on the subway was almost entirely under surveillance… although it wasn't possible to see very clearly, it was still possible to determine whether he had eaten or drunk anything, or whether he had been pricked with a needle."

"Just because of this… you suspected me?" Dongfeng asked.

"After excluding all impossible conclusions, suspecting you is only to be expected, right?" Feng Bujue said. "Apart from the breakfast he bought from you, Gui Xiao didn't eat anything else this morning, not even a sip of water. And according to the surveillance footage, the only people who came into contact with the food before he completely ate that breakfast were you and him…" He paused, "That breakfast shop is only operated by you. You're the only one who could accurately put the laxative into the food of a specific person…"

"Couldn't he have just eaten something bad?" Dongfeng asked again.

"Heh… if it were any other day, it would be an accident if he ate himself to death," Feng Bujue said. "But today… it's one hundred percent medication."

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and spoke slowly, "This morning, your three executors put the pre-prepared cleaning staff uniforms on under their outer clothes and followed Gui Xiao onto the subway. Then Gui Xiao had abdominal pain, got off the subway, and went to the toilet… the three of them followed him all the way, took off their outer clothes, found a time when there were fewer people in the toilet, hung a sign for maintenance and cleaning on the door, and guarded the door. In this way… it wouldn't be long before Gui Xiao was the only person left in this toilet.

Because there are usually two toilets in a subway station, and everyone is in a hurry in the morning. Many people will choose to hold it in and go to the toilet when they get to work. So… they can temporarily block off one toilet for twenty minutes without causing too much of an impact.

In this way… after about twenty minutes, they knocked down Gui Xiao as he came out of the stall and carried him out of the station… quickly getting into a pre-arranged van."

Feng Bujue paused after saying all this in one breath, and then said, "This seemingly simple plan… has two difficulties. First, Gui Xiao is, after all, a young man, and it is difficult to determine what will happen in the process of knocking him down, so the place to do it must be a private place without surveillance and bystanders. Second, after successfully knocking down the target, he must be taken to the car as quickly as possible, otherwise… staying in a public place for too long will arouse suspicion."

Hearing this, Dongfeng understood the real point of Jue-ge's words and couldn't help but mutter, "I see…"

"Looks like you've thought of it too…" Feng Bujue knew his psychological change from his expression, and then continued, "That's right, only the person who administered the laxative can solve these two problems." He looked at Dongfeng and said, "By controlling the type and dosage of the medicine, it is possible to predict which stations Gui Xiao will get off at, so that you can prepare a van outside those stations in advance. In addition, you can also ensure that he will definitely go to the toilet and that he will definitely be weak after going to the toilet…"

"Even so… I could very well be just a 'regular merchant who was bribed'…" Dongfeng said again, "Your top priority should be rescuing the hostage… and it wouldn't be too late to deal with people like me after the incident is resolved, right?" He wondered, "But why would you…"

"Indeed, I initially thought you were just a person who was bribed by the 'planner'," Feng Bujue said. "But I have a deduction addiction. When investigating a case, I like to figure out some minor clues… anyway, I can use the resources in the police station at will, so I checked your breakfast shop by the way. As a result, I found that… the time when your shop opened happened to be October 11th, which was the day after the first thirty-six competition days of the Peak Showdown S2 preliminaries ended."

Feng Bujue paused for two seconds and then said, "This 'coincidence' in time made me vaguely aware of something… I continued to investigate and found many abnormalities." He gestured towards the car window with his eyes, "This is a business district with mostly office buildings. The shops that open near here either take the middle-to-high-end brand route or are large shopping malls. Your shop has been empty since it was rented by you because the storefront is too small and the rent is too high… you can't make a big profit and you're sure to lose money if you do a small business."

"Hmph… you're wrong about that…" Dongfeng snorted coldly, "I've actually made a small profit after doing it for more than a month."

"Then I really have to congratulate you," Feng Bujue laughed. "But that's not the point. The point is… in summary, this shop of yours and you… are all very suspicious. After further investigation, I noticed that your identity is completely fake…"

"This… is what I can't understand the most," Dongfeng stared at Jue-ge's face and said, "I'm not afraid to tell you that when I first entered the industry, I specialized in creating fake identities; all the identity documents I'm currently using are extremely difficult to distinguish in any country in the world." He changed his tone and his eyes sharpened, "But… you can see that it's fake…"

"Yeah, I looked at your electronic file and saw it when I read the junior high school part," Feng Bujue said.

"Impossible!" Dongfeng said decisively, "The identity files I wrote are very detailed in all aspects, even the school's grades and awards records are…"

"It's because it's too detailed that it revealed the flaws," Feng Bujue interrupted.

"What?" Dongfeng was shocked and suspicious, and his eyes flashed.

"The file says that you won the third prize in the city's junior high school student composition competition in 2035," Jue-ge continued.

"So what?" Dongfeng asked.

Yes, that doesn't explain anything… in the forged identity documents, various detailed records are only to add to the authenticity of this identity; awards like this that are many years old and not big or small are basically things that can't be verified.

"In that year, there were three third-prize winners in the city's junior high school student composition competition, all of whom were girls. By the way, they were all middle school squadron leaders," Feng Bujue replied, "You can't possibly be a transsexual, right?"

"Huh?" Dongfeng was stunned, "How do you know?"

At this time, Dongfeng was thinking: You were still wearing diapers in 2035, kid, are you trying to scare me?

"I knew you would ask that." As Feng Bujue spoke, he took out his phone, opened a web page, and put it in front of Dongfeng, "Look for yourself."

Dongfeng fixed his eyes and saw that the phone was displaying a product purchase page from an online shopping mall. The product on it was a physical book called *Total Tucao of Award-Winning Works in City Primary and Secondary School Composition Competitions*.

"This kind of publication actually exists in this world…" Dongfeng couldn't believe his eyes.

"Yes, I wrote this kind of publication," Feng Bujue replied.

Dongfeng almost passed out when he heard this sentence: "Speaking of… I almost forgot… you are also a novelist."

Dongfeng naturally recognized Jue-ge. As someone who knew something about *Thriller Paradise*, it was impossible not to know this guy… but when he was on the phone, Dongfeng didn't realize that the person on the other end of the phone was Feng Bujue until he was arrested just now.

"That's right, this great writer spent a month a few years ago reading all the award-winning compositions since the competition existed, and made comprehensive annotations and complaints… and I got the family backgrounds and award-winning inside stories of all the award winners from my running dogs in the education department. Finally, I wrote that realistic satirical masterpiece," Feng Bujue's entire passage revealed an extremely shameless aura and a huge amount of dark information, "So, I can be one hundred percent sure that there's no such person as you among the winners."

"Let alone the fact that you can remember the names and winning years of every winner in that kind of book…" Dongfeng said again, "It would be too arbitrary to judge that my entire identity is fake based on just one mistake… maybe I just made it up to make my resume look better, right?"

"The records in your fake identity after graduating from high school have always been as a freelancer, and there are no internship records. Let me ask you this… who is a professional selling breakfast going to show a polished resume to?" Feng Bujue said, "Besides… can this kind of award really make a resume look better? Isn't it more reliable to make up an honor in sports or science?"

"I really didn't expect…" Dongfeng's expression was very depressed at this moment. He was a very capable person, but Feng Bujue made him feel psychologically frustrated and physically pained. At this time, Dongfeng couldn't help but start to recall… whether there were similar flaws in his other fake identities.

"Okay, the profit and loss of the shop, the exposure of the identity… it doesn't make any sense to dwell on these things now." And Feng Bujue brought the topic back to the right track, "Anyway, you didn't come here to make money selling breakfast from the beginning. Even if you lose ten or eight thousand in this month, plus a few hours of labor every morning… it doesn't matter, does it?" He licked his lips and continued, "The real value of this shop lies in… it can provide you with an almost perfect stronghold in a place very close to Order's headquarters. Apart from a few hours every morning, you can move around freely inside during the rest of the day…"

"Heh…" Jue-ge smiled lightly when he said this, "For someone with your professional knowledge and superb skills, it's not difficult to invade all the network users in a certain area through the wiring box in the shop using physical methods, right?"

"Hmph…" Dongfeng immediately snorted again, "It's not as simple as you said…"

That was his admission.

"Order's office building is undoubtedly your main target," Feng Bujue continued, "You are very clear about the value of the Peak Showdown S2 competition, which has a high degree of social attention, in the peripheral gambling circles, so you have been setting up here for a long time, ready to influence the outcome of a certain competition at any time." He held out one finger, "As long as one deal comes to your door… like this one today… it can bring you huge profits." He spread his hands and smiled, "To put it another way, even if you don't receive any related commissions during this period, it's good to hack into the networks of those big companies nearby and get some information; business secrets, personal privacy… these things in your hands can not only be turned into money, but also into 'power'."

As Feng Bujue spoke, he took out a cell phone from his pocket. This was not Zheng Xian's cell phone, but someone else's.

"This 'power' can drive many people to do things for you…" Jue-ge smiled, "For example, the owner of this cell phone…" As he spoke, he took out another cell phone, this time it was Zheng Xian's, "And… the owner of this cell phone…"

"I see…" At this moment, thoughts flashed through Dongfeng's mind, and he said in a deep voice, "You knew from the beginning that I had other informants in that police station besides Zheng Xian…"

"That's right," Feng Bujue said, "The moment I learned that Deputy Director Zheng acted after 'receiving' a phone call, I had already deduced this point."

"So… the phone call you had with me earlier… was just a trap…" Dongfeng said with some regret, "Tsk… I should have thought of it, what 'after finding the target, directly lead people to break down the door and hold the whole place with a tear gas before I can give any instructions', this kind of nonsense is a typical enticement…"

"Quick response," Feng Bujue laughed, "But compared to me… hehe… you're still half a beat too slow."

"You found Zheng Xian, but couldn't determine who the other mole was…" Dongfeng said as he thought, "So you pretended not to know and dispatched as many police officers as possible to surround the residential area where the hostages were. You knew… in that situation, my informant would definitely follow the large group of people and find an opportunity to pass information to me."

"I'm just catering to your plan," Feng Bujue said, "When you learned that the police had set up a special task force, you could immediately deduce that… once the police launched a comprehensive investigation, they could use street surveillance to lock down the residential area where the hostages were ultimately taken." He stroked his chin and continued, "Of course, you chose a good place. It's a development that hasn't been fully completed yet. There are many unsold vacant houses inside, and the surveillance inside the residential area has not been fully implemented, so the police still can't know the exact location of the hostages in a short period of time."

Speaking of this, Jue-ge shook Zheng Xian's cell phone, "So you immediately used this Zheng Deputy Director chess piece." He tilted his head and smiled, "But I didn't expect… soon after, your other informant sent a message saying that Zheng Xian had been detained by two agents from an unknown department."

"Detaining Zheng Xian… was also something you deliberately did for me to see?" Dongfeng said.

"Yes," Feng Bujue said, "I knew your other informant would tell you about this situation, and this… laid the groundwork for our 'phone call'."

"How did you know I would definitely make that phone call?" Dongfeng asked.

"I don't know," Feng Bujue replied in a playful tone, "So I led a team to surround the residential area to see if you could hold your breath."

"Damn it…" Dongfeng couldn't refute this mockery.

"I was relieved when the phone call came," Feng Bujue continued, "Your patience wasn't as good as I expected." He smiled, "You pretended to be calm and said something about 'playing a game', but you were actually trying to test and guide my actions… to create an opportunity for your 'three pawns' to escape that area."

"So… you used this against me and conducted a counter-guidance…" Dongfeng said in a deep voice, "In those 'fifteen minutes'… you didn't look for the 'hostage location' at all, but were looking for that 'informant'."

"Very good, you got it right," Feng Bujue snapped his fingers and replied, "No matter what the content of that phone call was, it didn't matter whether you made the condition of fifteen minutes; even if you said five minutes or three minutes, it didn't matter… as long as I conveyed 'what I wanted to say'… I could conclude that you would do three things after hanging up the phone." Jue-ge held out three fingers and smiled, "First, come up with a plan for the next response; second, call the three executors and briefly inform them of several action modes; third, contact your informant via text message or phone to cooperate with the action."

"And you…" Dongfeng continued, "After hanging up the phone, you immediately took control of the police officers' cell phones…"

Feng Bujue shrugged his shoulders and responded to this question silently with a wretched expression, and then continued, "After that, the police's actions were completely out of your sight, and I could do whatever I wanted…" He picked up the informant's cell phone again and showed off a few times smugly, "…just a text message saying 'everything is normal' can keep you in the dark and wait for your death."

"After getting rid of my surveillance… you rushed over to arrest me at full speed…" Dongfeng said, "Didn't you think… what if I wasn't in the shop and you went there for nothing?"

"I naturally found someone to watch the surveillance footage all day today… to confirm that you hadn't left the shop before coming (Jue-ge had already arranged this task before the two talked on the phone)." Feng Bujue said, "Of course… I don't rule out the possibility that you dug an emergency escape tunnel in the shop or something." He curled his lips indifferently, "So… at the same time that I came to arrest you, I also prepared several countermeasures for the hostage side based on the testimony of your informant. Even if they implemented the escape plans you planned… the result would be to throw themselves into the net."

Feng Bujue crossed his legs and continued, "Not to mention… you and all your equipment are now in our hands. Given that you always use a voice changer to contact the pawns, it's easy to pretend to be you and issue orders to the executors. In a while, just have someone pretend to be you and make a phone call to tell them to release the people."

"Okay…" Dongfeng's tone seemed to be relieved, "Good plan… advance and change, retreat and have room…" He shook his head, "I am convinced."

"You're welcome~" Feng Bujue clasped his fists and cupped his hands, "You're not bad either."

"But…" Dongfeng said, "You should also understand… someone like me won't stay in jail for too long even if I lose a battle today… I will soon regain my freedom." At this time, he actually showed a smile, "The reason is… because I… have the kind of 'power' you talked about."

"What? Is this a threat to me?" Feng Bujue replied calmly.

"What do you think?" Dongfeng asked back with a smile. Before Jue-ge could respond, he said again, "Feng Bujue, to be honest… I admire your talent, but in the end… you are just an ordinary person. The 'world' I am in is something you can't understand at all. If I want to retaliate against you… it can be said to be as easy as turning my hand over." He looked at Jue-ge with confidence, and the defeated look on his face was gone, "To be honest… this incident today caused me huge losses… if you were me, what would you do?"

Dongfeng thought that his words would make Feng Bujue afraid, or even immediately give in.

Unexpectedly…

"Hehe… hahaha…" A sinister smile that made Dongfeng feel terrified quickly appeared on Feng Bujue's face, "If I were you, facing someone like Feng Bujue… I would be extra careful. I would never easily say words like I just said, because if I made him feel even a trace of threat, he would do something crazy that I couldn't even imagine."

As Jue-ge spoke, he pointed to the car window, "Speaking of… I don't know if you've noticed, but the place you're going to now… is not the police station."

As soon as these words came out, Dongfeng's expression changed drastically.

"The two people driving… are not police officers either." Feng Bujue pointed to the Ninth Division agents and Bao Qing in the driver's seat and passenger seat respectively.

At this time, Dongfeng had also noticed that the two people driving were dressed in black and were not wearing police uniforms.

"You… who are you…" In a few seconds, Dongfeng became the one who was afraid.

"As for the 'world' you talked about, I also know something about it…" Feng Bujue hadn't finished speaking yet, "When your informant told me… that people on the streets call you 'Dongfeng', I thought of… if I'm not mistaken, you used to be a 'supervisor' at the Gambling Emperor Zhai, right?"

Dongfeng was stunned: "You even know about the Gambling Emperor Zhai…"

"I know much more than you think," Feng Bujue said, "For example, less than a minute after getting in the car, you had already unlocked the handcuffs, but you pretended to be handcuffed."

Dongfeng became more and more nervous as he listened to these words, and cold sweat rolled down his face.

"Having been a 'supervisor' means you should have some skills," Bao Qing, who was sitting in the passenger seat, finally spoke at this moment, "But I advise you not to have the idea of violently resisting. I can tell you clearly… even if it's a one-on-one fight, none of the three people in this car would lose to you."

"You…" Dongfeng began to tremble, trembling involuntarily from fear, "…You are… 'Ninth Division', right?"

"So you know too," Feng Bujue continued, "That saves me a lot of words."

"I didn't expect…" Dongfeng turned his head to look at Jue-ge again, "You novelist is actually also a member of the Ninth Division…"

"Hehe… would you believe me if I said the director is my grandma?" Feng Bujue replied casually.

Dongfeng's mouth twitched a few times when he heard this, and he slumped on the seat.

Two seconds later, Dongfeng turned his head and looked out the window with a hopeless expression: "If I don't die this time… I'll still change my career to sell breakfast in the future…"