Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

Lu Jingyan glanced down at the Gauss bullet embedded in his bulletproof vest, still emitting blue smoke. His previously gentle black eyes instantly froze into an eternally cold glacier.

The mall was in complete chaos.

The piercing fire alarm blared incessantly overhead. The red warning lights flashed, making one dizzy.

"Ah—! Murder!"

A middle-aged woman carrying a tray screamed. The tray fell to the ground, and Swedish meatballs, covered in thick black pepper sauce, rolled everywhere.

The crowd scattered about like headless flies.

Leather shoes and high heels crunched loudly on the broken glass. Several children were knocked to the ground, crying loudly.

Lu Jingyan put his arm around Su Xiaoxiao's shoulder.

He pressed down hard with his palm, pinning her firmly against the shadow behind the solid wood sofa base.

"Don't look up. Don't make a sound."

His voice was very low, somewhat rough, and carried an unquestionable, commanding tone.

Su Xiaoxiao was so frightened that her breathing became erratic.

She gripped the hem of Lu Jingyan's gray sweater tightly with both hands, her knuckles clenched until they were bloodless. Her forehead was covered in a fine layer of cold sweat, which trickled down her cheeks.

"Boss...you're bleeding..."

Her teeth chattered. Her gaze was fixed on the bloody cut on Lu Jingyan's hand from the glass, and her eyes instantly reddened.

Lu Jingyan ignored the injury on his hand.

He knelt on the carpet. His dark gaze swept quickly across the edge of the sofa and over the shattered, thickened glass window.

There is a round hole about the size of a thumb in the glass. It is shattered in a radial pattern around it.

The man closed his eyes. His mind raced.

Without the aid of a system's computing power, he relied on his ingrained experience in criminal investigation ballistics.

The bullet enters through an elliptical aperture at a 15-degree angle.

The wind is blowing from the southeast. There is a slight airflow disturbance from the air conditioning inside the mall.

He drew a straight red dotted line in his mind.

Extend outwards following the direction of the bullet holes. Pass through dusty broken glass and over crowded overpasses.

Lu Jingyan suddenly opened his eyes.

My gaze was fixed on a spot 800 meters away. There stood a drab, unfinished office building. There wasn't even a railing on the roof; just bare concrete pillars stuck in mid-air.

"It's right there."

He exhaled a breath of stale air. His chest heaved violently.

He lowered his head and patted Su Xiaoxiao's trembling shoulder.

"Stay here. No matter what happens outside, you are absolutely not allowed to stand up until the police arrive."

After saying that, he didn't wait for Su Xiaoxiao to reply.

With one hand braced against the carpet, his thigh muscles tensed instantly, propelling him forward like an arrow released from a bow.

Lu Jingyan pushed forward against the flow of fleeing people.

He shoved two panicked fat men aside with his shoulder. He braced himself against the black rubber handrail of the escalator with one hand and tumbled down from mid-air.

His military boots slammed heavily onto the tiled floor on the first floor. He slightly bent his knees to absorb the impact, then rushed out of the mall without looking back.

The area outside the mall was in complete chaos.

The commercial street is already congested on weekends. Now that something happened inside, everyone outside has gathered to watch the spectacle.

Cars lined up in a long queue on the main road. The red brake lights stretched out in a blinding line.

The drivers impatiently honked their horns frantically.

The "beep beep beep" noises mixed together, making one's head throb.

The faint sound of police sirens could be heard from a street corner in the distance.

But the sound was blocked three intersections away, unable to move an inch. The entire road had become a huge open-air parking lot.

Lu Jingyan stood on the curb.

The autumn wind ruffled the hem of his gray sweater. He glanced at the jammed traffic, his brows furrowing deeply.

By the time the SWAT team arrived, the assassin had already vanished without a trace.

His gaze shifted.

I glanced at a large green trash can on the roadside, emitting a sour, foul smell. Next to the trash can, a row of yellow shared bicycles lay crookedly overturned.

A thin layer of dust had settled on the car seat.

Lu Jingyan walked over and took out an old cell phone with a cracked screen edge from his pocket.

Swipe your finger across the screen to open the QR code scanning app.

I scanned the QR code on the handlebars.

"Beep. Unlocked successfully. Enjoy your ride."

A mechanical female voice came from a cheap plastic speaker, the sound quality was a bit cracked.

Lu Jingyan put his phone back in his pocket.

He gripped the sticky rubber handlebars. With a long stride, he sat steadily on the bicycle, which had some paint chips.

Step on the plastic pedal with your toes. Push down hard.

The rusted bicycle chain tightened instantly, making a piercing "squeak" sound.

The wheels are turning.

Lu Jingyan did not take the main road.

He swerved the bike and drove into a dark, narrow alleyway in a nearby urban village.

The alley was full of muddy puddles and rotten vegetable leaves.

The air smelled of fermented swill.

He was hunched over. His legs were like two tireless pile drivers, frantically pounding the pedals.

The bicycle chain left afterimages as it spun. The yellow bicycle weaved left and right between the narrow brick walls.

A clothesline was hanging too low in front of them. A dripping old bed sheet was blocking the way.

Lu Jingyan suddenly lowered his head, his back almost pressed against the handlebars.

The damp sheets brushed against his scalp, making his black hair a little messy.

A stray cat searching for food in a garbage dump was startled.

It meowed and puffed up its fur as it scurried up the wall.

The wind was strong in the alley. It rushed into my lungs, making them feel dry and painful.

Without the protection of high-dimensional physical abilities, this purely carbon-based body began to honestly reflect its fatigue.

A throbbing pain shot through the muscles on the front of my thigh. Lactic acid was accumulating in my blood vessels.

A layer of dense beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. The sweat flowed down his high nose bridge, hitting the collar of his gray sweater and leaving dark water stains.

His breathing became heavier. His Adam's apple bobbed rapidly up and down.

But he didn't slow down his pedaling at all. His dark eyes were fixed on the unfinished building that was getting closer and closer.

A distance of 800 meters.

In the intricate network of alleyways, he managed to ride a dilapidated shared bicycle with the ferocious momentum of a space shuttle.

"squeak--"

The bicycle's front wheel slammed to the ground next to a pile of sand beneath an unfinished building. The rear wheel dragged a half-meter-long trail on the ground.

Lu Jingyan swept his long legs and jumped out of the car.

The bike wasn't even locked; it just crashed with a thud into the pile of discarded steel bars.

He strode into the dark stairwell, which had no door.

The elevator shaft was empty. Only a rough cement staircase spiraled upwards.

It is fifteen stories high.

Lu Jingyan gripped the concrete handrail with both hands. He took two steps at a time and ran wildly upwards.

The stairwell was filled with the musty smell of urine and thick dust.

My breathing became heavier and heavier. My lungs felt like they were stuffed with burning cotton, and every breath I took carried the metallic taste of blood.

Sweat streamed into his eyes, making them bloodshot. He blinked hard, but didn't wipe them away.

The rooftop terrace.

The wind was howling, blowing up the plastic bags on the ground.

Killer K knelt on the concrete floor.

He was wearing infrared tactical goggles and was slowly disassembling the futuristic-looking Gauss sniper rifle in his hand.

"Tsk. The bulletproof vest is pretty good quality. I should have aimed for the head."

K pursed his lips and spat the tasteless chewing gum from his mouth onto the ground.

He wasn't flustered at all.

I wiped the dust off the edge of the goggles with the back of my hand.

The street below was completely jammed. Police sirens blared for ages, but they were still circling around two blocks away.

By the time those useless traffic cops finished clearing the road, he'd already be drinking chilled whiskey in another galaxy with his eight-figure sum.

"Click".

The gun barrel was removed and stuffed into a black shock-absorbing foam box.

K zipped up the suitcase. She stood up, carrying the heavy suitcase.

He brushed the dirt off the knees of his tactical pants. He turned and prepared to head down the stairs.

"Bang—Boom!"

A deafening roar.

The rusty tin rooftop door was violently kicked open from the outside.

The door slammed hard against the cement wall, shaking off a large patch of gray-white plaster.

Dust spread out.

K stopped in his tracks. With a flick of his wrist, the box fell to the ground.

He instinctively reached for the Damascus tactical dagger at his waist.

The smoke and dust cleared.

A man stood in the center of the doorway.

He was wearing an ordinary gray pullover sweater. There were streaks of wall plaster and sweat on the sweater.

The man was breathing heavily, his chest heaving violently.

Sweat dripped down his hard jawline, landing on his dusty shoes.

He looked very tired. He was just an ordinary person who had just run up fifteen floors.

K saw the face clearly.

The eyes behind the goggles widened instantly, filled with the horror of seeing a ghost.

"How...how could you possibly have gotten up here?!"

K's voice snapped. He glanced at the traffic jam below, then at the panting man in front of him.

There are no helicopters. There are no anti-gravity aircraft.

Did this guy surnamed Lu fly up here?

Lu Jingyan swallowed a mouthful of saliva that tasted of blood.

He straightened up. His leather shoes clicked on the concrete as he walked forward, step by step.

"Illegal use of large-caliber firearms in urban areas."

His voice was hoarse, with a rough, sandpaper-like quality. But his tone remained frighteningly steady.

"The starting point for the charge is endangering public safety. Attempted murder will result in concurrent sentencing."

Lu Jingyan raised his eyelids. His dark eyes were fixed on the assassin's face.

"Take your hands off your waist. Put your hands behind your head and squat down."

K paused for half a second, then suddenly realized what was happening.

This man wasn't carrying a gun! He wasn't even breathing properly!

He's just a useless piece of trash now, completely exhausted!

"Go to hell!"

Enraged, the assassin drew his tactical knife and lunged, but Lu Jingyan advanced instead of retreating. He sidestepped, locked the assassin's throat, and threw him over his shoulder! With two crisp "crack" sounds, the assassin's two arms were dislocated by standard military police restraints and were trampled underfoot like dead dogs.