This is really not mechanical ascension

Wang Bo's eyes were filled with terror as the surroundings flew by him at breakneck speed, the ground growing increasingly distant. His heart trembled, and even though he instinctively wanted to struggle free, he felt as if he were bound in steel, utterly immobile.

Bang!

He was thrown out, tumbling several times over the roof. The surroundings were gloomy; years of mining pollution had turned the sky pitch black as ink, with only faint, psychedelic glows shining from the red-light district.

Wang Bo was shaking all over, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of that figure standing not far away, backlit, with indistinct features. Four "tentacles" undulated around him like venomous snakes, slowly retracting behind his back.

"Extended implant-type mechanical arms, a Mechanical Transformation. Who is this big shot?" He shivered as he chattered his teeth, carefully speaking up, "You... you... may I ask what you want with… me?"

"Ma Wu, where is he?" Li Ming asked, his voice deliberately lowered.

"Ma Wu?" Wang Bo's heart skipped a beat, and he thought the voice sounded eerily familiar, but he didn't have time to ponder. He blurted out, "He... he's in the old house."

"The exact location?"

Wang Bo swallowed, "On the street behind Red Light Street, there's a building painted with a black tiger."

"How many people are inside?"

"Not... not many, just Ma Wu and a few underlings. I can... I can lead the way for you, lure them out." Wang Bo said cautiously.

Wang Bo was terrified to the extreme, and before he knew it, the other party was right in front of him.

A rag was stuffed into his mouth, and then his whole body tensed sharply, his eyes widening with bloodshot veins, and then tears began to flow.

His arms had been twisted into corkscrews. "Mmm... mmm..." Extreme pain made his body twist and he let out a whimpering sound, pleadingly looking at Li Ming.

"Not many people? Do you think I'm an idiot?"

Li Ming looked down at him, "In a moment, I'll take the rag out of your mouth. If you dare to make any noise, I won't hesitate to kill you."

Wang Bo was unprepared when the rag was removed from his mouth, but his will to survive held back his instinctual cries of pain, his pale lips trembling fiercely, clamped shut.

"Speak, what's the real situation?"

Wang Bo didn't dare to mess around anymore, and with a hoarse, trembling voice, he said, "That... that's a branch of the Fierce Tiger Gang, overseen by Scar-faced Tiger, with sixty or seventy people inside."

"Sixty or seventy people, Scar-faced Tiger?" Li Ming's gaze on Wang Bo turned even colder, realizing that this guy had just set a trap for him.

Wang Bo cowered under that gaze, trembling, but for some reason, he felt a sense of familiarity in those eyes, as if he had seen them before, and the voice was the same.

Suddenly, his pupils dilated, and he nearly cried out in shock, "You, you are..."

He couldn't finish his words, his mouth was stuffed again, and Li Ming appeared indifferent. Wang Bo had had extensive contact with him; the voice, physique, and other characteristics combined, it wasn't surprising he recognized him.

Wang Bo was horrified beyond measure, even more than the agony coming from his body. Was this person actually Li Ming!?

He found it difficult to reconcile the cold, ruthless man before him, who acted without hesitation, with the meek Nuonuo who couldn't even dare to raise his head in his presence.

"I ask, you answer," Li Ming said seriously.

Wang Bo nodded hastily, and after the rag was removed, Li Ming inquired about many details concerning the place, then fell into thought.

Wang Bo's face was full of flattery, "Li... Brother Li, I was wrong in the past. Please have a big heart, in consideration of our being classmates..."

"What's your code?" Li Ming held Wang Bo's smart terminal and asked.

Wang Bo was startled, not daring to hesitate, he reported a string of numbers, "745297"

His finger wrapped in cloth, he accessed the Star Network, and sure enough, he found a contact saved as "Brother Ma."

Li Ming nodded, "All right, you can go now."

Wang Bo was first stunned, then his face went through rapid changes. Before he could speak, a metal drill came from behind Li Ming and pierced his skull, spilling brain and blood onto the ground.

"Huff..." Watching the scene before him, Li Ming slowly exhaled a breath.

Moments later, after making sure he didn't leave any traces, he stepped into the shadows.

There were still two thousand Star Coins in Wang Bo's Star Network account, but Li Ming didn't dare to transfer them; in fact, he didn't dare to take the smart terminal out.

The wallet he carried with him indeed contained a few scattered banknotes.

A few nearly transparent purple banknotes, interwoven with circles and polygons, complex and beautiful, shimmering with a purple glow, had a face value of only 10.

These were Star Coins, made from special materials and containing a certain degree of energy that could even be used directly as a power source.

They were an anchor in themselves, incredibly sturdy, completely shattering the previous currency system of Blue Star.

"Even a mosquito's leg is flesh," Li Ming pocketed them.

"According to Wang Bo, I can't handle the people in that house right now; I can only lure Ma Wu out," he pondered, Zhang Hu's reputation within the Fierce Tiger Gang had soared in recent years, earning him the nickname "Scar-faced Tiger."

Two years ago, he was favored by a senior gang member and was granted the "Fierce Tooth Tiger" gene seed. It was said that his development progress had exceeded 90%, awakening his core abilities, making him a true F-level life form, and moreover, a high-ranking one.

He couldn't beat him.

Taking out Wang Bo's smart terminal, he clicked on "Brother Ma's" profile, looked through the chat records to confirm the tone and preferences, and composed a message—

"Boss, I've discovered a secret! Come to the back alley of Red Light Street quick!" followed by a location.

"Boss, hurry up!"

Soon, a message came from the other side—"What secret? Always blabbering, if you deceive me again, I'll break your legs."

Li Ming did not reply, letting Ma Wu bombard him with messages until he stopped replying, then he smiled.

"He should be on his way now."

In fact, Wang Bo was not an official member of the Fierce Tiger Gang, just hanging around with Ma Wu.

Li Ming returned to the rooftop to lie in wait.

...

"Damn it, playing these tricks on me, I didn't slap him enough during the day," Ma Wu frowned, the ceaseless music around him and the lascivious sounds of men and women soliciting customers interwove, agitating him even more.

His attention was currently all on that kid Li Ming; he hadn't expected the other's old man to be so bold as to fool the Fierce Tiger Gang.

But this played into his hands; as long as he could lure the kid outside the city, how to control him was still up to him.

"What split in half, I want it all!" he scoffed in his mind.

"Get lost!" Ma Wu pushed away a woman who was leaning on him. He was a true member of the Fierce Tiger Gang, often showing his face alongside Scar-faced Tiger, and many people wanted to ingratiate themselves with him.

"It should be here..." Ma Wu eyed the alley before him, which was so dark he could hardly see the end. A woman in high heels walked out muttering curses.

"Useless trash, even thinking of such a way to skip out on the bill, not a shred of decency," she grit her teeth in anger, passing by Ma Wu.

Ma Wu didn't care and walked straight in, growing even more irate. If he found Wang Bo and there wasn't a satisfactory explanation to appease his curiosity, he was set on giving him a thorough beating.

"Wang Bo! You little shit, get out here!" Ma Wu shouted, without any concern.

"Only him?" On the rooftop, Li Ming's gaze was locked on him, making sure there were no suspicious figures at the entrance of the alley.

"Makes sense; this is the Fierce Tiger Gang's territory, and it's been a long time since any conflict has arisen here. Without a reason, he wouldn't be on guard."

This was also why he had chosen this location for the ambush; if it was too remote, Ma Wu might not come.

"If that's the case..."

Ma Wu, who was shouting, suddenly felt a chill on his neck as the sound of the wind whistled. He looked up, only to see a dark figure falling from the sky, heading straight for him.

"What!" In a panic, Ma Wu instinctively looked up, bringing his arms together in a defensive stance.

Bang!

He staggered back several steps but breathed a sigh of relief—the other's strength wasn't much stronger than his; it was only because he had fallen from the sky taking advantage of inertia that he'd been pushed back.

But the sneak attack had sent his blood boiling and he was determined to make this attacker pay. This was their turf, and a bit of noise would certainly attract attention.

However, before he could speak, he was stunned to find that the figure he had flung away hadn't hit the ground but rather seemed to be floating in mid-air. Illuminated by the faint light from the entrance of the alley, he vaguely saw a silver mechanical arm, firmly propped on the ground.