American homeless people, surviving in the city

Lynch hesitated at Raul's enthusiastic suggestion:

"Should we go to that place again?"

"Although that food truck doesn't require registration, didn't Uncle James see someone who looked like one of the human traffickers from back then?"

"Wouldn't it be better if we went to a different distribution center?"

Raul curled his lip indifferently:

"What does it matter! There are so many people queuing in front of the food truck, and OSL security guards are maintaining order. Even if those weirdos are human traffickers, do you think they can attack us in broad daylight?"

"Besides, it's all from so many years ago. It's hard to say whether James's memory is even clear. Maybe he was just a crew member on some film set?"

"Go for it! At least the relief meals at that place aren't spoiled, and the tacos they gave out last time were really delicious!"

Lin Qi finally realized: "Now I understand why you're so excited."

"You were complaining last time that your tacos were cold, how could you possibly want to eat that food truck's relief meal! I think you just want to see that pretty waitress serving the food!"

"Hehe..." Raul wasn't annoyed that his little secret had been exposed; he just chuckled and scratched his head.

"Uncle James, what do you think?" Lynch turned to consult the oldest person.

Old James's expression also showed some hesitation. After pondering for a few seconds, he sighed softly and said helplessly:

"What Raul said makes some sense. I am indeed getting old, and my memories of the past are not so clear anymore."

"Maybe I just remembered it wrong, maybe..."

"That food truck is quite close by, so since he wants to go there, let's go there again."

"Yay!" Raul cheered.

Seeing that even old James himself wasn't quite sure if his memory was accurate, Lynch didn't say anything more. After putting the old clothes back in his tent, he readily followed the two of them toward the relief food truck.

Starting from Third Avenue, it's about a ten-minute walk to the food truck on Ninth Avenue.

Even though it was the end of the business hours, there was still a fairly long queue in front of the food truck.

Lin Qi glanced around and recognized quite a few familiar faces in the group.

The old homeless man who had spoken to them last time, the man in the suit, and the man in the plaid shirt were all in the line.

Lynch suspected that these people worked or lived nearby and came back at noon to collect a relief meal for lunch.

To his relief, the group of people he had seen last time, dressed in unfamiliar ethnic costumes and suspected of being human traffickers, did not appear in the group.

This made Lin Qi breathe a slight sigh of relief.

At the end of the line were two men in plaid shirts who appeared to be programmers. Upon seeing acquaintances, Raul approached them familiarly.

"Hey guys! I remember you guys, weren't you here yesterday morning picking up your welfare meals? You're here again?"

"Huh? Hmm..."

The guy in the plaid shirt was clearly not good at communicating with strangers. When the social terrorist Raul struck up a conversation with him, he just nodded shyly, then lowered his head and said nothing more.

Raul, however, had no intention of letting him go:

"Looks like this food truck is really popular! By the way, buddy, are you guys programmers? You don't look homeless, you're dressed so politely..."

"Yes, we are indeed programmers." The guy in the plaid shirt smiled awkwardly, his face not looking too good. "We recently lost our jobs, and a friend of ours got sick and needs a lot of money for treatment, so we're completely broke. So, we thought we could save as much as we could, so we came here to get free meals."

His companion nodded, scratching his balding head: "It's all the company's fault. They insisted on sew LGBTQ elements into the game and made us create an ugly character as the female lead. As a result, after the game was released, the company's revenue plummeted, and we didn't even recoup our costs."

"The end result was that the company underwent a so-called 'structural adjustment.' After all that adjustment, none of those idiot leaders left, and it was us, the ordinary workers, who suffered the most..."

"Sigh, Tang En is still coughing in the car. I wonder when he'll get better."

Tang En must be the name of their sick friend.

Hearing this somewhat tragic story, Raul could no longer laugh. Lynch quickly tapped him and apologized to the two of them.

"I'm sorry, my friend isn't very good at talking, and he asked about something that upset you."

Raul lowered his head and apologized, "I hope you can get through this difficult time soon..."

"It's nothing, it's nothing..." The two in plaid shirts waved their hands weakly, not intending to say anything more.

"Sigh, life is tough for people these days," sighed old James, who had overheard the whole thing from a short distance away.

The three chatted as they moved forward with the group.

A few minutes later, the three of them arrived at a place not far from the food truck.

Just when Lynch thought he would receive the relief meal without any trouble and that old James's story was just a tale,

Suddenly, alarm bells rang in his mind.

[Rat's Sense] has been activated again!

Having learned from his first experience, Lynch was able to suppress his instinctive urge to turn back, prompted by his intuition.

He could only sense that there were several entities to his left front that were making him instinctively uneasy.

Even though he didn't look in that direction and didn't even know what those things were, those few beings already made him feel extremely uneasy!

What's over there?!

Cold sweat instantly streamed down Lin Qi's forehead. He stared straight ahead, not daring to look around.

The surrounding environment remained peaceful. Raul was still chatting with others, while old James stood relaxed to the side.

Near the dining car, OSL's security personnel stood idly by, completely unaware of the danger.

Overall, there is nothing dangerous happening at the moment.

But the quieter the surroundings, the more uneasy Lynch felt, fueled by his instinctive alarm.

Lin Qi forced himself to calm down and closed his eyes.

After carefully sensing it for a few seconds, he arrived at a clear conclusion:

The sense of danger that came from this intuitive feedback seemed to be much weaker than the first time I sensed it.

Perhaps it's because this danger source is weaker, or perhaps it's because this danger source's main target isn't itself!

After clearing his mind, Lin Qi finally relaxed a little.

He slowly adjusted his state, making his expression less tense and his body less stiff.

Then, he turned his head casually, looking as if admiring a landscape, towards the direction from which the sense of danger was coming from, to his left front.

To the left is a small flowerbed along the street, surrounded by several benches.

Many homeless people would sit on benches and eat their meals after receiving their relief food.

Although the surrounding environment was messy, the atmosphere was quite relaxed.

However, thanks to the rat's sense of smell, Lin Qi spotted several inconspicuous figures behind the flowerbed!

This is because, from his perspective, these people were all emitting a faint red glow!

Then, Lin Qi noticed the unique clothing worn by those people.

The clothes they were wearing looked very familiar to Lynch.

That was the unfamiliar ethnic clothing worn by the group of people suspected of being human traffickers in Old James's story!

However, because they had been hiding behind the flowerbed and were obscured by the noisy crowd nearby, Lin Qi and his companions had not noticed their presence until now!

The moment Lin Qi saw the clothes clearly, he felt a jolt of electricity run down his spine. He immediately realized that old James's warning was probably not unfounded.

That's not a story.

Those lurking criminals, they've always been there!