The rusted Dodge Caravan roared down I-80, its suspension screaming under the weight of Gary's "travel essentials" and a half-eaten peach pie. Chen Feng sat in the passenger seat, draped in a thrift-store red blazer that was two sizes too small. He had traded his floral shirt for the "Lupin Aesthetic," and for the first time in eons, he wasn't just sleepy—he was wired.
"The thrill, Gary! Do you feel it?" Chen Feng exclaimed, adjusting his "I ❤️ Chicago" hat.
"The police scanners are silent, the wind is in our hair, and I just stole a pie without breaking a single law of physics. This is living!"
"I feel a migraine, Boss," Gary muttered, white-knuckling the steering wheel. "And I feel like we're going to run out of gas in about twenty miles."
Chen Feng's eyes narrowed. As a Sovereign, his intuition was usually tuned to cosmic shifts, but he began to apply his newfound "Thief Logic" to his current situation.
How did Seraphina find me? How did the Big Four track a burner phone that was supposedly untraceable?
He glanced at Gary. The former God of Wealth was sweating—not just from the Ohio humidity, but with the guilt of a man who had sold a secret for a bag of silver. Chen Feng reached into Gary's fanny pack and pulled out a secondary, gold-plated smartphone.
On the screen was a group chat titled "Sovereign Spotters."
Participants: CEO Su, Ice Queen, Principal Ye, Goddess Mu, and Seraphina R.
Latest Message from Gary: "He's currently eating pie and wearing a red jacket. We're heading toward the 'Diner of the Stars' off Exit 42. Send the reward to the usual offshore account."
"Gary," Chen Feng said, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm register. "Are you selling my location for strawberry milk money?"
"Boss! Wait!" Gary squeaked. "It's for your own good! A Sovereign needs an audience! And Seraphina promised me a walk-on role in her next movie!"
They pulled into the neon-lit "Diner of the Stars" just as five black SUVs swerved into the parking lot, surrounding the van in a perfect tactical formation.
The doors flew open. Su Meiling, Lin Xuerui, Ye Qingxuan, and Mu Ronghuan stepped out, followed by Seraphina Rose in a pair of designer combat boots. It was a coalition of global power and Hollywood glamour, all focused on one man in a small red jacket.
"Chen Feng!" Xuerui shouted, her aura chilling the diner's milkshake machines. "You have exactly ten seconds to explain the hat, the jacket, and why you're in Ohio!"
"I'm a thief now!" Chen Feng shouted back, leaning out the van window. "And a thief never explains! Gary, stay here and take your 'reward.' I'm going rogue!"
Before the women could move, Chen Feng didn't run away—he ran through them.
Using a Lupin-style Smoke Bomb (which was actually just Gary's burnt pancakes vaporized by a flick of spiritual energy), Chen Feng vanished. He didn't teleport to another state; he teleported exactly three miles away, to the high-security Apex Bio-Genetics Lab—the secret nerve center behind the Lamb project.
He felt the thrill. It wasn't about the "Lamps" or the DNA anymore. It was about the heist.
He slipped through the laser grids not by disabling them, but by vibrating his molecular structure to the rhythm of the security hum. He picked a mechanical lock with a paperclip just because he could. He bypassed a retinal scanner by holding up a drawing of a giant eye.
He reached the central vault. Inside wasn't another Lamb, but a ledger titled "Project: Sovereign Scion." "So," Chen Feng whispered, his eyes flashing violet in the dark lab. "They aren't just making clones. They're trying to build a cage for the Reset itself."
As the alarms finally blared—triggered intentionally by Chen Feng to "keep it exciting"—he pocketed the ledger and a high-end espresso machine he found in the breakroom.
He burst through the roof just as the "Gala Five" arrived in their helicopters. He stood on the edge of the building, the red jacket flapping in the wind, a stolen espresso machine under one arm.
"Ladies!" Chen Feng toasted them with a mock salute. "You almost had me! But as Lupin says... 'A thief is a creative artist who takes his prey in style!'"
He leaped off the building into the dark, using a gust of wind to glide away like a paper plane.
Behind him, Su Meiling stared at the sky. "Did he just... quote a cartoon?"
"He did," Seraphina whispered, her eyes dancing with even more obsession. "And he did it with flair."