If the Border is the desolate area of New Moon City, then Liuhexi Street is the desolate area of the Border.
Other places in the Border at least have entertainment venues like KTVs, bars, and arcades, with more or less complete living facilities. As long as one can tolerate the occasional "thug brawls," there's still some fun to be found.
Liuhexi Street is different. It's all abandoned factories, only frequented by homeless wanderers or those notorious among violent groups, the unwanted scum of society.
Of course, such a rotten environment is convenient for someone like Park Yong-joon to hide.
Su Mo left Haywood's territory and arrived at Liuhexi Street overnight.
He hid at the top of a derelict building, observing while marking a map with his pen.
Su Mo had come to Liuhexi Street many times while gaming, and with his extraordinary memory abilities, he could perfectly recreate the terrain in his mind.
He continuously sketched on the map, marking the structure of each alley, the connections, how many doors, how many windows... he even recreated the approximate height of every wall.
Of course, if you want to catch someone, having just the terrain is not enough.
After the sun rose the next day, he went out to the street to find someone to ask for clues.
It was 7 AM, the time when residents were waking up to hustle.
But the entire Liuhexi Street was empty, with barely any pedestrians in sight.
Occasionally, someone peeked out from the low window of a roadside building but quickly withdrew.
It's not their fault; after all, Su Mo's appearance was too intimidating.
His whole body covered with gear customized for anti-violence operations, holding a rugged Tsunami Series Assault Rifle in his hands, with his tactical vest full of magazines enough to take down everyone on the street.
Anyone with half a brain wouldn't dare mess with someone like that.
Since they didn't dare approach Su Mo, Su Mo took the initiative to approach them.
Su Mo walked behind a stone pillar, where a gaunt middle-aged man was hiding. Upon seeing Su Mo, he panicked and kept pleading: "Bro! Bro! Don't grab me, I swear, that woman was truly willing!"
Su Mo didn't say a word, pulling out a photo of Park Yong-joon and a 200 Moon Coin and waved them in front of the middle-aged man.
Seeing the high-denomination Moon Coin, the middle-aged man's eyes widened.
But intimidated by Su Mo's gear, he dared not lie and quickly shook his head after looking at the photo.
Su Mo moved on to the next person, continuing to ask around.
Only when he got to the thirteenth person did he gain something.
A red-haired young man pointed to the end of the street, whispering, "Bro, follow this road to the end and turn left. You'll see a heavily rusted sign, and there's an alley beside it. I've seen the person in the photo come out from there."
Su Mo waved the 200 Moon Coin in the air: "I'll go take a look first. If it's true, the money's yours. Try fooling me, and your head will roll."
The red-haired kid slapped his thigh hard: "Bro, why would I mess with you for no reason? It's absolutely true, I'm not lying! But whether he's still there, that I can't guarantee..."
"Alright, wait for me here." Su Mo told him to hide well and went alone to the location where Park Yong-joon had been sighted.
Following the directions given by the red-haired kid, Su Mo found the alley.
The alley was narrow and deep, with the stench of rotten garbage lingering in the air. The ground was littered with waste paper and food wrappers, unmistakable signs of life.
Su Mo looked at the debris on the ground, squinting his eyes.
Obvious... signs of life?
Based on Liuhexi Street's layout, this alley was just a transit passage, no doorway, nor any place to hide.
And besides, would a criminal with high counter-surveillance experience like Park Yong-joon litter?
These trash were like being deliberately placed there, saying to the newcomer: There's someone hiding here, come in and have a look.
Su Mo activated his tactical goggles to start scanning.
The light arc of the goggles swept back and forth in his field of vision, quickly locking onto several thin lines on the ground that were invisible to the naked eye.
Two red annotations appeared on the tactical goggles' holographic screen:
[Warning, unidentified micro-objects detected, highly suspected to be explosive fuses]
[Do not approach]
Su Mo sneered coldly: "Little Red Hair, you're looking to die..."
Without warning, a shadow launched an attack from above the alley.
Almost simultaneously, Su Mo, who was prepared, raised his gun to aim upward.
The attacker was extremely skilled, swiftly descending with several steps on the wall, closing in on Su Mo in the blink of an eye.
His left thumb precisely wedged into the rear slot of the rifle like a scalpel, and his four fingers clutched the gun body, preventing Su Mo from firing.
Immediately after, his right hand's dagger drew a deadly arc, the sharp blade aimed directly at Su Mo's throat.
Su Mo raised his hand to block, producing a crisp "clang" sound as the dagger was deflected off the armor plating.
The attacker swiftly changed tactics, precisely finding the gaps between the armor, quickly stabbing, "Puff puff" sounds accompanied by blood spray.
The injuries ignited Su Mo's fury, mobilizing Blood Code Power for a fierce forward kick.
Feeling the brute force behind the kick, the attacker dared not take it head-on, leaping away from Su Mo.
"Boom!" Su Mo's foot slammed against the wall, leaving a dent.
"Extraordinary Being?!" The attacker's face changed, turning to flee.
Su Mo was about to give chase when gunshots suddenly rang out from the alley entrance.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."
Bullets hit Su Mo repeatedly but were all stopped by the heavy bulletproof vest and the domineering physique brought by dual Blood Code.
Su Mo hid behind a corner and coldly said: "Red-haired kid, your head itches and wants to relocate, huh?"
At the alley entrance, C-level wanted criminal Park Yong-joon stood holding a dagger, while the red-haired kid who had directed Su Mo was beside him, holding a smoking pistol.
The red-haired kid cursed while firing suppressive shots at Su Mo: "You *Civilized Border* treat me like a beggar? Trying to buy me off with 200 Moon Coins? Brother Pu gives me thousands every month to keep an eye on you government dogs."
Su Mo: "To earn money, but will you live to spend it?!"
He charged out from the corner directly, relying on the heavy bulletproof vest and dual Blood Code to withstand the bullets.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!..."
The pistol bullets continuously hit the armor but couldn't penetrate it at all.
The next second, Su Mo raised his Tsunami Assault Rifle for a fierce counterattack.
"Ratatatata——" The rifle spewed out flames nearly half a meter long, pouring a blazing line of fire.
The red-haired kid hurriedly hid behind a thick stone pillar,
but he miscalculated.
The gear from the Anti-Violence Fourth Section is all about brutality. The Tsunami Assault Rifle was equipped with high-energy armor-piercing rounds that could penetrate 50mm thick steel plates.
As for this heavily weathered stone pillar, while it could block small-caliber bullets, it was as fragile as paper before armor-piercing rounds.
Instantly, debris flew where the bullets struck, and the pillar was quickly shattered by the violent impact.
"Puff puff puff——" Bullets penetrated the stone pillar, continuing to strike the red-haired kid, leaving not bullet holes but fist-sized cavities.
The red-haired kid was instantly torn apart, but fortuitously none of the wounds were in vital areas.
"Ah!!! Ah——" He fell into the shattered stone heap, screaming painfully, becoming a figure drenched in blood.
As for Park Yong-joon, he had already seen the situation and fled.
Su Mo strode out of the alley.
The red-haired kid lay in a pool of blood, wailing with heart-wrenching agony: "Bro! I was wrong! Spare..."
"Bang!" Su Mo didn't even spare him a glance, shooting the red-haired head to pieces.
Su Mo stepped over the body, reloaded with a fresh magazine, and pursued in the direction where Park Yong-joon had escaped.