Chapter 24
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Chapter 24: Darkness Under the Light
As Zhuang Mian’s cleanup team returned in disappointment, El, hiding in the shadows of the street corner, sighed with relief.
Without a doubt, this youth, whose delicate face had yet to grow a full beard, was the "Heart Snatcher" that had recently caused a sensation in the eastern outer city.
After receiving the power bestowed by a deity, the young boy resolutely carried out his initial thoughts, continually eliminating his targets in the eastern outer city.
El had initially planned to target the few remaining members of the Brotherhood, but he discovered that their hideouts had been heavily sealed off.
After inquiring with familiar faces nearby, he learned that the Brotherhood had been completely wiped out on the very night he sought refuge.
In an instant, El connected this to the kindly smiling psychologist.
Dr. Lin had once told him that the "Paster" had given him a gift, and it seemed that this was it.
El used his minimal network to gather a little information about Dr. Lin Qingliu and the "Paster," but in the end, he found nothing.
He didn’t delve deeper into the investigation; he just wanted a basic understanding of the other party’s situation. He knew digging too deep could lead to himself being exposed.
El locked himself in his home and practiced his abilities for two whole weeks until he could repeatedly use Approximate Exchange at least fifteen times without exhausting himself.
Then, he bought some heart-shaped plush toys, about the size of a heart, from a stall in the Eastern District, and began his revenge plan.
The terrifying superpowered criminal—"Heart Snatcher"—was now on the scene.
The next month was a time for El to showcase his abilities, and it was also a time that drove Zhuang Mian to hormonal imbalance from anger.
The first to die was a gang leader, a black market doctor, and an underground casino owner— the culprits who had caused his family’s ruin. One had lured his father into a gambling addiction, while the other two had drained his father of money and organs.
El had no intention of absolving his father, but these men must be left with none alive; as long as they existed, this area would never find peace.
After completing the initial three collective assassinations, El fell into a brief state of confusion because he was just a boy and could not reach the people he wanted revenge against.
Previously, whether meeting the casino owner or the unscrupulous organ doctor, he only passively accepted the situations because of his father’s influence. Now, actively searching for these men left El unsure of what to do.
Moreover, with these events unfolding, the smarter gang leaders were already in a state of panic, fearing every rustle, and some wouldn’t even meet strangers. They hid in strong basements with dozens of men daily, as if encased in a steel barrel.
El had no way to navigate this situation, but just then, a turning point arrived.
An acquaintance reached out to El with an olive branch, though the acquaintance seemed unaware of its significance.
Zhuang Mian, as the newly appointed public security captain in the eastern outer city, didn’t know much about the local rascals, but the slick characters assigned under her didn’t lack cooperation. Under Zhuang Mian’s instructions, those guys quickly tapped into their network.
Because it involved the lives of those individuals, they were somewhat cooperative. But as people living underground, it was wishful thinking for Zhuang Mian to meet with them directly, so she had to rely on those ruffians to relay messages.
The first time El saw Zhuang Mian was outside the heavily guarded Brotherhood hideout. The handsome young public security captain captured many eyes, but her fierce gaze and the gun at her waist made those street thugs abandon their daring ideas.
Like most suspects, El had a habit of returning to crime scenes. Being skilled at using his abilities and combining previous petty theft experiences, he could skillfully mask his expressions and actions, allowing him to revisit his revenge scenes multiple times, relishing in the thrill of vengeance.
During this process, El also noticed Zhuang Mian frequently entering and exiting crime scenes, and it dawned on him that she might just be the public security captain of his district.
A brilliant idea suddenly struck El’s mind:
Since he couldn’t find his targets, why not let her help him search?
As a young man who often navigated the gray areas, El understood the public security team’s procedures quite well.
When facing major cases, they would provide special protection for those with similar identities, but this required the target to have a clean background capable of withstanding investigation.
Clearly, the identity of black market organ doctors wouldn’t hold under scrutiny, and they would certainly not accept protection from public security officers.
Since they couldn’t withstand the investigation, how would the public security team contact these individuals?
Of course, they would notify them through local public security officers and send two people to pose as friendly watchers.
This presented El with a long-awaited opportunity; he simply needed to remember the smiling familiar faces in Zhuang Mian’s team. As he became better at this, he could identify his targets by locking on to these people.
The money El obtained from those wicked individuals was divided; apart from leaving some for his own essentials, he put the rest into envelopes according to the agreed-upon sharing ratio and tossed them into Lin Qingliu’s clinic.
The plan was successful—Zhuang Mian, who was not very experienced in investigating these gray areas, was unaware that her bold actions were actually signaling the death knell for those gray market doctors in the outer city.
However, even if Zhuang Mian grasped the entirety of events, she would probably only sigh over their deaths, for her true concerns were not the deaths of gray market doctors but rather the cut-off channels for organ trafficking and the reckless crimes of superpowered individuals.
Absolute power must be under supervision, or it would surely breed unwarranted ambitions.
This was a rule Zhuang Mian firmly believed in.
Watching Zhuang Mian’s team’s van turn the last corner, a smile appeared on El’s face as he waited in the shadows.
He had been anticipating this day for a long time.
In his quest for revenge, El displayed a composure far different from most his age. This reserved young man with gray hair had consciously started to create a fixed frequency for the killer "Heart Snatcher" from the very beginning.
Certain inexplicable quirks are common among most killers, and if these men collectively visited Lin Qingliu’s mental health clinic, surely each of their conditions could yield at least one paper.
The "Heart Snatcher’s" quirk was that the interval between his crimes typically ranged from six to seven days.
But now that rule was about to be broken because El had only one last target left.
Taking a deep breath, the boy rose from the shadows and slowly walked toward the boundary between the eastern and southern outer city.
