The massive printing press in the basement of Kwun Lung Lau fell silent after automatically producing the ominous sketch labeled "We are always watching." The three survivors stood around the unsettling artwork, exchanging worried glances as an indescribable dread settled over the cavernous space like a suffocating blanket.
"We need to leave. Now," Chen Xi was the first to break the oppressive silence, her voice maintaining its characteristic calm even as an undertone of urgency crept through. "They've infiltrated this machine, which means they know exactly where we are."
Ah Zhe's hands trembled slightly from adrenaline as he hastily packed his equipment, double-checking each piece to ensure nothing critical was left behind. "Where do we go? Do you have other safe houses?"
"Yes," Chen Xi replied, methodically wiping down surfaces to eliminate any fingerprints or DNA evidence they might have left behind. "I'll take you to a military-grade facility—Faraday cage, electromagnetic shielding, counter-surveillance equipment, the works. Even if Leviathan is as advanced as they seem, they shouldn't be able to penetrate that level of security so easily."
The trio quickly evacuated the printing facility through Chen Xi's pre-established escape route, emerging in Kwun Lung Lau's underground parking garage. In the dim artificial light, an ordinary-looking Toyota sedan waited silently for them. Chen Xi fired up the engine, and the vehicle glided soundlessly out of the parking structure into Hong Kong's midnight streets.
Twenty minutes of careful navigation through back roads brought them to a seemingly unremarkable residential building in Kowloon Tong. Chen Xi led them into the basement, past a steel door requiring biometric identification, and into a space that looked like it had been transplanted directly from a military command center.
This was indeed, as Chen Xi had promised, a military-grade safe house. Metal mesh embedded in the walls provided electromagnetic radiation protection, while the ceiling-mounted ventilation system featured biochemical filters. Equipment in the corners operated silently, continuously scanning for electronic signals that might indicate surveillance or intrusion. The entire room functioned as a modern-day bunker, completely isolated from the outside world.
"This should be safe," Chen Xi exhaled with relief, settling into a high-tech swivel chair. "This is one of the Pigeon Society's emergency outposts in Hong Kong. Even the government doesn't know it exists."
Leo took a seat on a metal chair, acutely aware of the strange energy continuing to flow through his body. Since Odin's activation, his senses had become unnaturally acute—he could perceive the subtle humming of every electronic device in the room, even sense the flow of electrical current through the wires embedded in the walls. But he kept these changes to himself, quietly observing everything around him with his enhanced perception.
In his field of vision, Odin's system updates appeared discretely:
`System initialization progress: 15.3%`
`Environmental Risk Assessment System activated`
`Loading new function modules...`
Ah Zhe was inspecting his equipment, ensuring nothing had been damaged during their hasty escape. "What exactly is Leviathan? How is their technology so advanced?"
Chen Xi remained silent for a moment before beginning her explanation: "Leviathan is a product of the Balance organization's schism. Originally, the Balance's philosophy was to use technology to create equilibrium, but internal disagreements arose about how to define 'balance.' One faction believed technology should liberate everyone—that's our Pigeon Society's ideology. The other faction concluded that ordinary people were too foolish, that only elites deserved to control technology and wealth. That faction became what we now know as the Leviathan Cult."
Leo listened intently, but simultaneously sensed something wrong with the room. Odin's system displayed subtle anomalies in his enhanced vision: electromagnetic field fluctuations, slightly irregular airflow patterns in the ventilation system. Though these irregularities were minute, they generated a growing sense of unease.
At that moment, one of the LED lights flickered briefly.
"What was that?" Ah Zhe immediately noticed the anomaly.
Chen Xi frowned, moving to the monitoring station to check various indicators. The screen data showed everything operating normally, but her instincts suggested otherwise. "Probably just a minor power system glitch…"
Before she could finish the sentence, every screen in the room flickered simultaneously, then displayed the same message in perfect synchronization:
`Found you.`
All three froze instantly. Even this military-grade safe house had been penetrated by Leviathan.
"That's impossible," Chen Xi stared at the screens in disbelief. "This is a Faraday cage—theoretically completely isolated from the outside world!"
Leo suddenly experienced an intense wave of crisis intuition, as if some massive threat was rapidly approaching. He couldn't determine whether this was Odin's warning system or his own instincts, but the feeling was undeniably real and urgent.
"We have to go!" he said with sudden urgency. "I have this incredibly strong feeling that they're about to find us!"
Chen Xi looked at him with puzzlement, but years of field agent experience had taught her to trust intuitive warnings. "Pack up everything. We're leaving!"
The three rapidly gathered their equipment, preparing to abandon this compromised sanctuary. As they prepared to exit, the room's ventilation system suddenly emitted an unusual noise, followed by a faint, unfamiliar odor seeping through the air circulation.
"Sleeping gas!" Chen Xi immediately recognized the threat. "They want to capture us alive! Cover your nose and mouth!"
Using their clothing as improvised filters, the trio quickly escaped through the safe house's emergency exit, which connected to the nearby sewer system—Chen Xi's backup escape route. They crawled through narrow drainage tunnels for over ten minutes before finally emerging from a concealed exit point back to street level.
"Where do we go now?" Ah Zhe gasped, still catching his breath.
Chen Xi wiped sewer water from her face, her expression growing more serious: "If even military-grade safe houses can't protect us, then we need to reverse our strategy completely."
"What do you mean?"
"We go to the most dangerous place," Chen Xi pointed toward Sham Shui Po's industrial district in the distance. "There's an abandoned textile factory there—no electricity, no network, no modern technology whatsoever. No matter how advanced Leviathan is, they'll never expect us to hide somewhere even homeless people would avoid."
An hour later, they finally reached the abandoned textile factory in Sham Shui Po's industrial zone. This place was indeed, as Chen Xi had described, a corner forgotten by time itself. Rusted machinery, crumbling buildings, and scattered broken glass created an apocalyptic-feeling refuge that seemed to exist outside the modern world entirely.
Chen Xi guided them deep into the factory complex to a relatively intact office space. From a hidden storage cabinet, she retrieved basic living supplies and a laptop computer that looked ancient but had obviously been specially modified.
"This computer has been specially configured," she explained. "It's not connected to any network and can only access pre-downloaded offline data. No matter how sophisticated Leviathan's tracking capabilities, they can't trace a completely offline machine."
Leo finally felt a sense of relief. In this primitive, decaying environment, he paradoxically experienced a strange sense of security. Odin's system also seemed to calm down, no longer issuing danger warnings with the same intensity.
"Now we can think clearly about what's actually happening," Chen Xi opened the laptop, revealing pre-collected data about Hong Kong's financial systems. "Look at this information—Leviathan has begun conducting penetration tests on Hong Kong's financial infrastructure."
She indicated several charts on the screen: "Hong Kong Stock Exchange data traffic has increased abnormally over the past week, but actual trading volumes haven't risen correspondingly. This phenomenon has only one explanation—someone is conducting massive simulated trading operations."
Ah Zhe leaned closer to examine the screen carefully: "Simulated trading? For what purpose?"
"Testing system responses and capacity limits," Chen Xi's expression grew grave. "It's like a hacker testing a website's firewall and server capacity limits before launching an actual attack. Leviathan is probably searching for vulnerabilities in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's trading systems."
Leo studied the data carefully, and through Odin's enhanced analytical capabilities, he began perceiving patterns that others couldn't notice. Within the seemingly random data fluctuations, there was a regularity he couldn't name but found strangely familiar.
"Have you considered," he said slowly, "that if Leviathan really intends to attack Hong Kong's financial system, their objective might be more complex than simply making money?"
Chen Xi looked at him intently: "What do you mean?"
"I feel… they might be testing something much larger. Hong Kong is Asia's financial center. If they can successfully control Hong Kong's financial system, that would prove they have the capability to control any financial center worldwide."
This possibility plunged the room into heavy silence. If Leo's speculation was correct, they weren't facing just an attack on Hong Kong, but a war against the entire global financial system.
In this weighty atmosphere, soft footsteps suddenly echoed from outside the room. All three immediately became alert, but the footsteps quickly stopped, followed by rhythmic knocking: three short, two long, three short.
Chen Xi frowned: "That's a Pigeon Society code… but I didn't contact anyone to come here."
An elderly voice called from outside the door: "Mr. Li, you have mail."
The voice carried the heavy accent of native Cantonese, belonging to someone who seemed to be waiting patiently outside without attempting to force entry or speak further. Chen Xi carefully approached the door, observing the situation outside through a hidden camera. She could see a simply-dressed elderly man holding an envelope, standing patiently in the darkness.
"Can't make out who he is clearly, but he knows someone named Li is in here," Chen Xi reported. "He's using the correct code."
Leo felt his enhanced senses analyzing the situation. Though Odin's threat assessment indicated low danger levels, the timing and location seemed impossibly coincidental. After everything they had experienced—the printing press's supernatural surveillance, the military safe house's compromise—could this really be a legitimate contact?
"We should see what he wants," Leo finally decided. "But carefully."
Chen Xi nodded and opened the door. The elderly man stepped inside, and when the light illuminated his features, all three were struck by his appearance. This was someone they had never encountered, yet his eyes held profound wisdom suggesting he had witnessed far too many of the world's hidden truths. More intriguingly, when his gaze fell upon Leo, it carried complex emotions—nostalgia mixed with relief, and a deeply buried sadness.
"Mr. Li," the old man spoke with formal dignity, "someone entrusted me to deliver this letter to you. He said that when you're ready to learn more of the truth, you would understand why you needed to receive this correspondence."
He handed Leo a substantial envelope, clearly containing more than a single sheet of paper. Most remarkably, the envelope bore no written address or return information—only a dove symbol sealed in wax.
Leo accepted the envelope, feeling its considerable weight. When his fingers touched the wax seal, Odin suddenly generated a series of alerts:
`Biometric marker detected`
`DNA match rate: 85.7%`
`Advisory: This item demonstrates direct genetic correlation with user`
What could this mean? Before Leo could process this information fully, the old man had already turned toward the exit.
"Wait!" Ah Zhe called after him. "Who are you? How did you come to have this letter?"
The old man paused at the threshold without turning around. "Some discoveries must be made through your own journey. I am merely a messenger completing his assigned task."
He stepped outside, then added, "However, if you truly seek answers, tomorrow at 3 PM, visit the New China Tea Restaurant at 168 Prince Edward Road West. Remember—only Mr. Li should come, and he should come alone."
With that cryptic instruction, the elderly messenger vanished into the industrial night, leaving the three staring at each other in bewilderment.
Leo looked down at the envelope in his hands, emotions swirling through his mind like a storm. New China Tea Restaurant—that was precisely where he had eaten breakfast every morning, where he had last encountered the mysterious elderly man working crossword puzzles.
"That can't be a coincidence," Ah Zhe said skeptically.
"In our world," Chen Xi replied, securing the door and reactivating their primitive but effective security measures, "there are no coincidences. Everything is part of some larger design we don't yet understand."
Leo returned to his makeshift seat, staring at the dove wax seal. Odin continued analyzing the envelope but couldn't penetrate its contents. He understood that opening this letter might once again fundamentally alter the trajectory of his life.
But he also knew there was no path backward. From the moment he had decided to open that first mysterious package, from the instant Odin had awakened within his consciousness, he had been drawn into a game far more vast and dangerous than anything he had previously imagined.
And now, the next phase of that game was about to commence.
In Sham Shui Po's forgotten industrial wasteland, three young people sat surrounded by the ghosts of Hong Kong's manufacturing past, confronting an envelope of unknown origin and a mysterious appointment that promised answers—or deeper mysteries. What they could not know was that in another corner of Hong Kong, an elderly man sat in a 24-hour tea restaurant, slowly sipping milk tea and waiting patiently for tomorrow's revelations.
The outside world continued its relentless routine—Hong Kong Stock Exchange servers still pulsed with electronic life, global markets still fluctuated with the rhythm of human greed and fear—but in the invisible digital realm, a war that would determine the fate of civilization's economic foundations was quietly intensifying. And Leo Li, this formerly ordinary file clerk, was destined to become the focal point of this unprecedented conflict.
The shadow network stretched far beyond mere computer systems and trading algorithms. It encompassed human relationships, generational legacies, and the fundamental structures that governed how wealth and power flowed through modern society. As Leo held that sealed envelope, he was holding much more than paper and wax—he was grasping the key to understanding just how deeply the tentacles of this ancient conspiracy had penetrated every aspect of contemporary existence.