Chapter 1 The Norton Street

Not long after, Solon and Kay arrived at Norton Street on their motorcycles.

It was completely different from when they had come before. Brothels, gambling dens, taverns, and even special bathhouses... various dazzling neon lights illuminated the entire street.

Solon and Kay, however, found the scene extremely familiar.

"Crimson Bunker," "Elephant Tavern," "Emperor Bathhouse," "Musketeer Inn"... familiar signs, almost no different from the once-bustling Green Street.

Kay pursed his lips, feeling sentimental. As the top dog of Green Street, he was deeply moved.

Solon, on the other hand, didn't care. Even if he had to patrol the streets every night at seven, it wouldn't take up much of his time. At worst, he could move here again. Moreover, with the arena open, he could harvest another wave of souls every night, which was a good thing.

........

Today was the street opening ceremony, and Norton Street was very lively.

Chuck "The Arbiter," the president of the Cross Society, and a group of executives had also arrived.

They were all dressed in suits and ties, very formal. If not for the occasional hint of murderous aura between their brows, they would have looked more like successful entrepreneurs than a gang of ruthless mob bosses.

The major shareholders of the entertainment industry were mostly wealthy people from the inner city. Many important figures from the inner city also came to cut the ribbon for the street opening, and all kinds of luxury cars were parked from the street to the alley. Fat, big-bellied old gentlemen, gorgeously dressed noblewomen, graceful socialites... like walking on a red carpet, they let Solon and the other outer city people see what the rich people of the inner city looked like.

Naturally, Solon and Kay, being salted fish, were not qualified to show their faces on stage.

Those who looked good went to the inner hall to keep things in order. Those of them who wore leather jackets, had tattoos, looked ugly, or looked fierce were all kept on the outside to maintain security, lest they scare those noble lords and ladies.

Solon, with his smoky makeup and bald head, was naturally on the outside.

He was happy to be idle.

Kay and a group of Cross Society captains squatted to the side, chatting and joking. At this moment, a long, high-end white car with angel wings on the body drove up to the red carpet.

Someone yelled strangely, "Look, there's... a beauty!"

The old timers perked up their ears when they heard "beauty," and stretched their necks to look in the direction of the red carpet.

Then, they saw a cold, glamorous woman in a pure black, quicksand-like long dress step out of the car.

Solon glanced at her and immediately recognized her as Mrs. Filo, the Cross Society's financier.

The Cross Society captains weren't high-ranking enough, so most of them didn't know who was behind the Cross Society. Even those who had heard the name had never seen her.

Kay glanced at her, and his eyes immediately glazed over. He suppressed the restlessness in his heart and pretended to be calm, explaining, "Don't make a fuss. If you disturb Mrs. Filo, the president will kick your asses."

Someone asked in surprise, "Is that the legendary Mrs. Filo? Have you met her before, Kay?"

Kay said, "In the past, I did receive a personal audience with that lady. But it's not worth mentioning..."

That tantalizing tone, coupled with that boastful expression, was simply asking for a beating.

"Tch~"

The captains all booed, but it didn't affect their enthusiasm for looking at the beauty.

"My goodness, she's unbelievably beautiful..."

"Hey... another one's getting out of the car. Kay, who's that little beauty next to Mrs. Filo?"

"I don't know, but I'm guessing she's a daughter of some big family."

"Could she be Mrs. Filo's daughter?"

"Bullshit! How could that lady have such a big daughter?"

"..."

The old timers started gossiping.

The love lives of the inner city big shots were the best after-dinner conversation topics in the outer city.

Solon listened silently, because he had already recognized who the person following Mrs. Filo was.

Although her face was covered with a black veil, Solon recognized her by her beautiful black hair. Wasn't it that little girl, Reina?

What was a young lady from a top family doing at an event like this?

But seeing that Mrs. Filo and Reina could still come out of the city to cut the ribbon, it seemed that the Reis family's infighting was almost over.

He didn't think too much about it.

.......

With the main characters all present, what followed was a boring ribbon-cutting ceremony.

A group of inner city bosses jointly cut the ribbon and gave speeches.

However, Mrs. Filo was very low-key. She only showed her face when she got out of the car, and then she wasn't seen again.

Solon seemed a little bored, leaning against a lamppost, flipping a coin from the palm of his hand to the back of his hand, and then from the back of his hand to the palm...

Suddenly, he felt someone's gaze scrutinizing him from behind, and the coin in his hand paused slightly.

But recognizing the familiar footsteps, he didn't pay attention to it.

The next second, Solon felt his arm sink into a softness, and a warm, delicate body boldly put her arm around his shoulder. Before he saw who it was, he heard that familiar big sister tone, "Hey, Solon kid, where have you been hiding lately? I haven't seen you at the casino. I was going to find a gambling buddy, but you're not around."

Hearing the footsteps, Solon knew it was Qiandiao and greeted her with a smile, "Sister Qiandiao."

Looking over, he saw that Qiandiao was dressed quite formally, probably because of the ribbon-cutting ceremony today. She was wearing a fitted blue-and-white qipao, her hair was pulled up high, and her tattooed arms weren't exposed. She actually looked quite gentle.

Qiandiao asked again, "Where's Kay kid?"

Solon shrugged, "I don't know, he seemed to go watch the excitement with the captains."

Qiandiao patted Solon's shoulder and said, "I've already told the president that you and Kay will be coming to Norton Street. From now on, you're my people!"

Solon didn't care, "Oh..."

Qiandiao looked around in the crowd and couldn't find Kay, so she put her arm around Solon's shoulder and led him away, saying, "Let's go, let's go to the hot springs. I'll introduce you to some people while we're at it."

"Huh? Isn't Sister Qiandiao supposed to be overseeing the event today?"

Solon thought it was unreliable.

The top dog of Norton Street was supposed to be at the grand opening, but she was going to the hot springs?

Qiandiao had a look of annoyance on her face, "There are too many miscellaneous things going on at the venue today, I'll leave it to the captains."

"..."

Solon thought that this hands-off shopkeeper was doing a good job.

Precisely because there were so many miscellaneous things going on at the opening, that was why she, the top dog, was needed to keep things in order.

At this moment, Kay came out of nowhere again, greeting them from a distance, "Sister Qiandiao!"

"I was just looking for you."

Qiandiao beckoned to Kay, "Let's go, Akun Bathhouse! Your big sister is treating you to hot springs!"

Kay's eyes lit up when he heard this, "Okay!"

It was naturally impossible to refuse Qiandiao's treat. Although Solon wanted to go back and study the living dead, he had no choice but to go with them.

.......

They felt refreshed after soaking in the hot springs.

Later that night, Solon accompanied Qiandiao to the newly opened arena.

The gambling-addicted woman was also excited to try her luck at the new venue.

Because it was the first day of the opening, there were very powerful professional martialist gladiators, the gladiator match was very exciting, and Solon also gained a good wave of experience.

He stayed in Norton Street for one night and originally planned to go back early the next morning.

But to his surprise, Kay found him just as he came out of the casino early in the morning, saying that the executives had arranged for them to escort a batch of goods to the inner city.

Later, he heard that it was because the Cross Society captains were all very busy with the new venue opening.

It seemed that only the two of them from Green Street were idle and had nothing to do. The executives saw that they were idle anyway, so they arranged for them to escort the goods.

It wasn't a particularly special mission, just to follow the convoy and send a batch of valuable things to the inner city.

The Cross Society had its own wasteland reclamation team, so the gang warehouse would also accumulate many high-level cursed materials and relic antiques collected from outside the city.

These things were useless in the outer city and couldn't be sold for a good price. So every once in a while, they would be sent to the inner city and handed over to the financier's affiliated merchants for processing.

With the financier's pass, there was no need to check their identities when entering the city. This was a rare opportunity for gangsters to enter the inner city.

The old timers of the Cross Society liked this mission very much.

This was a rare opportunity to broaden their horizons.

Kay also seemed very excited.

........

In the afternoon, Solon and Kay arrived at the Cross Society headquarters, the warehouse of the Hessen Building.

Kay checked the items loaded on the truck, signed the departure list, and prepared to leave.

It was a standard escort team, three trucks.

A captain leading nine people, and two truck drivers.

It was exactly the same as the Steam Party escort team that Solon and the two had intercepted a few days ago.

Because they had just studied in detail how to rob a transport team, Solon and Kay both felt strange, so they didn't sit in the front or rear truck.

Kay drove the driver to the small car, and then drove the truck himself, with Solon and the two of them in the middle of the transport team.

They were afraid that the Cross Society also had some secret dealings with the inner city, attracting some inexplicable ambushes. Before getting in the car, Solon had deliberately observed that this time the trucks loaded with goods were not special explosion-proof trucks, and the goods were also normal goods.

After getting in the car, the two looked at each other and smiled.

But they thought they were overthinking it. After all, there were several escort missions a year, so it wasn't so coincidental that they would encounter an ambush.

.......

They departed from the South City and drove for half an hour before approaching the inner city wall, which was several times more magnificent than the outer city wall.

Solon stripped away some of his memories and had some vague impressions of the inner city's structure.

Seeing the increasingly towering city walls in the distance, some of the scenes in his memories overlapped.

The general layout of the inner city was like a cake, evenly divided into eight parts, numbered 1 to 8 respectively. In the center of the inner city was a black tower that could not be seen to the top, like a candle stuck on the cake.

At the foot of the city wall, super chimneys hundreds of meters high were constantly emitting white smoke, which were the super steam boilers that operated the entire city.

The inner city wall was about two hundred meters high, but the buildings inside were even higher.

As the convoy got closer and closer to the inner city, the city wall became more and more real in their field of vision.

There was white spray paint on the front of the wall, marked with a huge number "5".

Under the city wall was the Fifth City Gate, behind which was the Fifth District of the inner city.

Kay seemed excited, he pointed to those super high-rise buildings that were higher than the city wall, as if introducing them, and exclaimed, "Hey, brother, look quickly, that's the famous 'Sky Garden' in the inner city! Do you see that colorful ribbon in the sky? Hehe... that's the legendary rainbow, you can't see this spectacle anywhere else."

"Mm."

Solon had good eyesight and had already seen it.

The lights in the inner city were like sunlight, giving people a very bright feeling.

It was like adding a layer of bright light filter to those buildings, clean and transparent.

Even from a distance, you could see a lush green color on the upper floors of the inner city buildings, and white waterfalls flowing down from the tops of those buildings, and rainbows hanging between the buildings...

In the rooftop garden of that building with yellow-orange fruits and green plants, you could also see a lady in white leaning on the railing, watching the scenery, the wind blowing her skirt...

High-altitude swimming pools, lush rooftop vegetation, glass buildings like the blue sea... You could see some blurred figures walking on the glass corridors, chatting and laughing...

The buildings in the inner city were beautiful and full of technology; the outer city was like a doomsday wasteland, full of grayness and filth.

Separated by a wall, it was like two worlds.

After being excited, Kay's tone suddenly became a little sad, "Hey, brother. To tell you the truth, I've never been to the inner city in my life..."

Solon smiled, "I haven't either."

"Haha, this time we can go and broaden our horizons."

As he said that, the clear waves of Kay's eyes reflected the shadow of the huge city, also revealing a longing for the beauty.

Being able to go to the inner city to see it was already a dream that many outer city people could not reach in their entire lives.

Kay suddenly felt a little sad, "I'm an orphan from the tenement building, without parents. I don't know anything except fighting. I heard that children in the inner city learn musical instruments from a young age, learn to do business, and go to school to learn knowledge... When they grow up, they can become lawyers, dentists, teachers..."

Speaking of this, Kay laughed lightly as if mocking himself, "Hehe..."

Thinking about it, he slowly said, "Brother, do you know... I used to fantasize that the best life I could fight for myself was to be able to advance to the second level by chance in the future, and then become a bodyguard for a big boss in the inner city... Haha, isn't that very useless?"

Solon looked at him after hearing this.

The eyes of the young gang leader, who could still be called a teenager at this age, suddenly had light, sparkling and twinkling.

"Everyone in the gang says I'm brave, and that I'll definitely be promising in the future..."

Kay had a smile on his face, but as he spoke, he couldn't laugh anymore, "Actually, I'm not afraid of you laughing, but sometimes I'm also very timid. Countless nights, I would wake up from nightmares of fighting and killing, with a cold sweat on my back. Touching my still beating heart, it took a long time to realize that I was still alive..."

Solon listened quietly, acting as a silent listener.

His eyes gradually became deep as he looked at the city.

.......

The journey was uneventful.

Solon and the two of them breathed a sigh of relief.

The truck drove to the foot of the city wall, like a rat at the foot of an elephant.

Because they had a special pass, they were not inspected and smoothly drove into the huge steel city gate.

At this time, Kay's face no longer had any sadness, and he put on that carefree smile again.

As they approached their destination, Kay suddenly thought of something and said to Solon, "I'll tell you a secret, but you must not tell anyone."

Solon raised his eyebrows, "Oh?"

Kay said mysteriously, "Before we set off, Old Man Smoker told me that this time he will introduce me to an important figure in the inner city, and maybe I will have a chance to enter the inner city in advance."

"Old Man Smoker?"

Hearing this, Solon didn't know what thoughts flashed through his mind, and his brows suddenly frowned.

"Yes! Old Man Smoker said that when I enter the city, that important figure will send someone to contact me."

Kay nodded and smiled brightly, "I'm telling you, if I become successful, I'll take care of you then! Hahahaha..."

Solon's expression was slightly stunned, and he felt that something was wrong, and asked, "Are you saying... Old Man Smoker told you to keep it a secret?"

"Yes."

Kay said, "He originally told me not to tell anyone, but I think we are brothers, and you will definitely keep the secret for me."

Why did it need to be kept secret?

Introducing a patron was not a shameful thing.

Solon asked out of instinct, "How will that person contact you?"

Kay had not realized that there was any problem, and replied, "I don't know either. But Old Man Smoker said that person will have a way to contact me..."