A swift and decisive victory in the early stages, a post-apocalyptic survival story in America!

After a light rain, there were some puddles of water on the sidewalk.

An elderly man, leaning on an umbrella, walked unsteadily down the street.

He muttered to himself, his deeply lined face etched with the vicissitudes of life, a testament to his profound understanding of the world.

"Being alone is the best..."

"To fight against this world..."

"It has to be done quietly..."

"Silently, quietly, gently..."

At the entrance of a club, two tall, bald black men wearing exaggerated metal necklaces stood at the door, making no attempt to hide the silver-white Desert Eagles tucked under their coats.

The old man murmured as he passed by, continuing his whispered conversation.

"Useless..."

"It's too big..."

"Their wrists can't withstand the brutality of such a pistol..."

"Killing someone doesn't necessarily require such great power..."

After passing through a dark alley, the old man staggered in, stood in the shadows, awkwardly unbuckled his belt, and began to urinate.

Nobody cares.

Even if someone sees it, pretend you don't.

Who would blame an elderly person who is confused, has frequent urination, urgency, and difficulty urinating?

Shaking off his pants and ignoring the water stains on them, the old man backed up and walked onto the safety escalator.

Whenever someone passed by at the alley entrance, he would stop, as if he were about to go downstairs.

Repeating this process, I arrived at the security entrance, took out the key I had prepared beforehand, opened the door, and slipped inside in one smooth motion.

He spent three days getting close to the owner of the key, and even gave himself away as a bottom...

"All of this is for something more meaningful..."

"All of these are gifts from God..."

He murmured and whispered as he slowly moved forward with faltering steps.

Loud music came from downstairs, and at the entrance to that chaotic paradise, two burly men stood there.

Compared to the two "reserved" colleagues outside who tucked their pistols under their clothes, these two were much more conspicuous. They held their hands in front of them, gripping Uzi submachine guns.

Upon seeing the old man, the two were visibly taken aback. One of them asked, "Hey, old man, who are you—"

The old man, who was walking with a limp, had a kind expression and was as benevolent as any other elderly person. However, his hands moved extremely quickly, and the black umbrella handle drew a dark arc.

At the end of that arc, a slender, willow-leaf-like blade gleamed with a cold, sharp light, a drop of blood hanging on its tip, about to fall.

"It is people who kill, tools are merely a means..."

"Even the best weapons need to be prepared in advance; you can't wait until you think of it to raise your gun..."

"Nice gun, remember to fire immediately next time..."

Muttering and whispering, the old man walked past two corpses that had fallen with a thud and continued forward.

From inside the spring-loaded door, faint male and female voices could be heard.

Pushing open the door, the sound became even clearer.

The room, covered with red velvet wallpaper, was high-end and luxurious. The carpet was thick, comfortable to walk on, and made no noise.

On the huge counter, a naturally extinguished cigar sat beside the table, and another cigar appeared and disappeared intermittently.

On the large sofa, one black and two white figures are pursuing humanity's ultimate desires.

The three, engrossed in their own world, failed to notice the old man.

The old man held the umbrella handle upside down with both hands, aimed the blade at the black man's back, and slowly stabbed it in.

……

……

"This is the third one..."

"No, this is the fourth one..."

"And the first one?"

"have no idea……"

A tall, beautiful woman in a short black trench coat murmured as she walked out of the dark alley.

Her trench coat was too short, only slightly longer than the red pencil skirt underneath. If it weren't for the faintly visible red skirt hem, it would be easy to mistakenly think she wasn't wearing anything underneath.

The light rain started to fall again. She opened her umbrella, tightened her short black trench coat, and strode into the rain with her long legs clad in black stockings and high heels.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out not far behind them. Some people screamed and rushed out of the club, while others went out into the street, guns in hand, looking around.

Car engines roared, and the crowd screamed and shouted...

"It's the same as every other time..."

The beautiful woman sighed and disappeared into the crowd.

Half an hour later, a Honda minivan slowly pulled up in front of a suburban villa.

The "For Sale" sign that had been standing on the lawn was kicked over and placed face down on the ground. In front of the door, the newly hung American flag hung quietly, and a drop of rain dripped from it, landing with a "plop" on the wooden board under the porch.

A middle-aged man got out of the car, carrying a bag of food, and calmly walked through the passageway to the door.

He took out his keys, opened the door, went inside, turned on the lights, and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, as naturally as if he were back home.

But this is not his home.

The house belonged to Jim Saxon, who recently went bankrupt and his family of four were forcibly evicted without taking anything with them.

The house is filled with traces of a family of four's life: the husband's traffic tickets, the wife's beauty salon discount coupons, the eldest son's homework, the youngest daughter's dolls...

After having dinner, the man went upstairs and looked at the group photo hanging on the stairwell wall. He shook his head, went to the master bedroom, and lay down to sleep.

My phone vibrated as dawn broke.

The man got up, turned off his phone alarm, washed up, went out for a morning run, and then went to a nearby coffee shop.

After ordering a Blue Mountain coffee from the clerk, the man went to a computer, confirmed the system was secure, inserted a USB drive, and logged into the dark web.

"There is a new hiring commission targeting a leader of an EU member state. The execution window is expected in three days. The location is Pisa, and the expected compensation is six million US dollars."

"There is a new employment commission. The target is the mistress of a wealthy man from an Eastern European country. The execution window is expected to open in seven days. The location is Krakow. The expected reward is ten million US dollars."

"There's a new employment request..."

Six or seven messages in a row came from the same dark web ID.

The man opened the chat window and replied: "Honey, I still have one mission objective to complete, so I'm afraid I can't accept these requests."

I glanced at my watch. The appointed time had arrived, and soon a message came: "I'm sorry, but these commissions have all been screened by me, and the returns are all quite substantial."

The man typed rapidly: "I can't help it, time is too tight. I have to keep my promise; I can't leave until this task is completed. I guessed this task would be tricky, but I didn't expect it to be this troublesome..."

The reply was: "Yes, especially since it involves that ICE female agent. I've been tracking her these past few days, but I still haven't been able to pinpoint her location accurately. I must say, she's excellent at counter-tracking."

The man shook his head in confusion, pondered for a moment, and replied, "I've conducted some preliminary investigations over the past few days. She's not necessarily skilled at counter-tracking, but rather she's gotten herself into some kind of trouble, so..."

"Kill her, and your job will be done, right? If this doesn't work out for me, I suggest you abandon your principles, leave Los Angeles, and start your next job."

The man muttered as he read the message before him, then immediately shook his head and replied, "No, my principles are the spiritual pillar that has sustained me to this day. Without principles, I am nothing."

"I'll kill her, I definitely will!" the man muttered, typing rapidly: "Reward increased by 30%, find her trail, use every means at your disposal!"

After a moment of silence, the other end replied, "50%. I will hack into the USA federal classified database for you to find clues about her."

"make a deal!"