5:00 PM - Times Square.
In the underground parking garage of the InterContinental Hotel, three black SUVs rolled in.
In the middle vehicle, Anna sat beside Alex, briefing him on the day's earnings.
"Mr. Cross, today we took five contracts. Total bounty: $1.24 million. Loot value: $3.12 million, plus 41 Continental Coins, fifty-seven firearms, and eight hundred seventy-five rounds of ammunition."
Alex nodded, satisfied. Today's take far exceeded his expectations.
The credit went to the job at Fairplay Lending Company in Uptown Manhattan. After Anna cleared the building, they raided the company's vault — finding $4 million in cash and thirty-five gold coins.
Of course, the mission wasn't easy. Two floors of the loan company, plus a basement casino guarded by over thirty armed men. Any average crew would've been slaughtered. Only with Anna leading the charge did they walk away victorious.
That single job alone made Alex's day.
So after that, he only picked up two smaller contracts before booking a suite at the InterContinental.
As the SUVs eased into their spaces, eight killers from the flanking cars got out first.
Alex reached for his door handle—
Suddenly, a hail of gunfire erupted.
Ratatatat—! Ratatatat—!
Bullets tore through the air, riddling the brand-new SUVs with holes in seconds.
Luckily, the assassins wore bulletproof suits. Two were unlucky — one took a round through the hand, another across the face — but the rest were unharmed, though all of them cried out in pain from the impacts.
Alex knew immediately: if they stayed pinned here, even the bulletproof suits wouldn't save them. A single grenade tossed into the cars, or one blast to the fuel tank, and they'd all be dead.
His voice thundered across the garage:
"Get back in the cars! Drive! Now!"
Obeying without hesitation, the killers scrambled back inside.
The engines roared, tires screeched, and the SUVs surged forward like wild stallions bolting for freedom.
More gunfire rained down — tat-tat-tat! tat-tat-tat! — peppering the vehicles with hundreds of fresh holes.
Some bullets tore through windows, but the assassins' armored suits absorbed the worst.
Just as the convoy burst through the garage exit, headlights flared. Several cars waiting outside roared to life, giving chase.
Inside Alex's SUV, Anna immediately pulled him into her arms, shielding his head from incoming fire. With her free hand, she fired back through the shattered rear window, squeezing off rounds at the pursuers.
Pressed against her, Alex didn't waste time wondering who sent these attackers. Survival came first.
His mind raced. He summoned the System Mall.
In an instant, he spent 30 Continental Coins, purchasing Close-Quarters Combat LV3 and Advanced Self-Healing LV3.
New knowledge of brutal takedowns and grappling filled his mind. His muscles subtly shifted, burning the skills into muscle memory. At the same time, the pain across his body ebbed away.
Then, with no hesitation, he spent one more coin to refresh the discount shop.
The screen flashed:
John Wick Character Experience Card ×1 – Consumable. Grants 10 minutes of John Wick's peak skills and instincts. Value: 1 Coin (Limited-Time 50% Off).
Talent Recruitment Scroll (Blue) ×2 – Randomly recruits a skilled character from another film universe. Loyalty guaranteed. Value: 5 Coins (90% Off).
Skill Copy Card (Purple) ×1 – Upon contact, copy one skill of LV4 or below from target. Value: 10 Coins (80% Off).
Assassin Recruitment Scroll (Green) ×50 – Summons 50 mid-tier assassins with identical stats and absolute loyalty. Value: 15 Coins (85% Off).
Assassin Training Camp LV1 – Trains White-tier assassins into Green-tier. Duration: 48 hours. Max 10 per batch. Value: 30 Coins (99% Off).
Alex quickly calculated.
That morning, Anna's first job netted them 5 Coins. The later jobs brought in 41 more. He'd just spent 30 on skills… leaving 16 Coins.
"Damn it…" he muttered. Painful, but necessary.
Without hesitation, he bought:
the John Wick Experience Card,
the Talent Recruitment Scroll (Blue), and
the Skill Copy Card (Purple).
The ambush had just become a war.