As we neared the Temple area, I parked the motorbike way further out than the last time and decided to make my way forward on foot. The last time I did this with Siva, I had wanted us to get stopped and brought in. This time around, I needed to rely on stealth. The plan was not to gather information through conversation. The plan was to take someone.

  Specifically, I needed to incapacitate and capture one of their members. Preferably someone high enough that they had augmentations already installed. Then I would bring him back for interrogation and… uh... experimentation. I did not love how that sounded, even in my own head, but today was not about feeling good.

  Before heading in, I asked Eva if she could locate an unguarded 7-Eleven or Cold Storage so I could top up my potions.

  Her reply caught me off guard.

  Eva: You don’t need to visit a supply store anymore, Chris. I am your supply store.

  Chris: What do you mean?

  Eva: I brought my supply module with me when I disengaged. Think of it as your personal supply store now. It only works for you.

  Chris: What the fuck? How? You know what, never mind. I don't want to know. So, I have access to everything now?

  Eva: Yes. You still need to purchase items with gold as usual. Whatever you pick will go directly into your inventory. Here, take a look.

  A new tab appeared in my HUD.

  It was a store interface. It even had categories, a search bar, and a layout that looked suspiciously like an Amazon landing page. Somewhere, in another universe, a UX designer was probably very proud of themselves.

  That… was actually awesome.

  I needed a minute to go through it properly, so I ducked into a nearby housing block and took the stairwell up a few floors. Halfway up, I sat in the dim concrete corner and started scrolling.

  It took longer than I liked, but I finally found what I needed. I topped up on Mana potions and bought a handful of [Mute] spell scrolls. They were the same condition poor Farisyah still had back at camp, and I had not realized the [Mute] status did more than stop someone from speaking. It also prevented spellcasting and even cut off chat.

  That was perfect.

  My biggest expense was an [Greater Invisibility] potion. Unlike the trenchcoat, this one did not give me seconds of invisibility. It gave me hours.

  I had half a mind to activate the speed boots and just zip my way in, but I did not trust the place enough to be that careless. I was worried about traps, and they had a speedster of their own. If I got caught out in the open, I would not even get a chance to think my way out of it.

  So I forced myself to do it the slow way. I leaned on my Urban Ranger stealth skills and took my time, moving carefully and keeping my breathing steady. It was still morning, and I had enough daylight to be patient. The only thing I did not have patience for was the Singapore heat but I equipped the trenchcoat anyway. If things went sideways, I wanted instant invisibility without needing to fumble through my inventory.

  Instead of heading straight to West Gate Shopping Centre, where Siva and I had been brought the last time, I skirted the area and shifted my attention to JEM Shopping Mall, it was close enough that it might as well have been part of the same fortress, and I wanted to see how wide their net really stretched.

  I climbed a nearby housing block and used it as an observation point. The sentries were there, exactly as expected, stationed along the outside of JEM. They looked sharper than before, and the way they kept scanning the open spaces told me they were not just killing time. They were waiting for retaliation, or at least they were worried enough to act like it.

  I watched for a few hours, trying to catch a pattern in the way they moved, but there was nothing clean or predictable about it. They did not rotate. They did not wander. They held their positions like they had been told not to move unless told to.

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  From where I was, I could not see anyone with obvious implants or augmentations. For a while, I started to think I was going to have to change tact, until I noticed someone walking the line.

  He moved from sentry to sentry like he had authority, stopping just long enough to speak before moving on again. He was tall, better dressed than the rest, and he would have looked almost normal if my eyes had not caught on his hands. At first, I assumed he was wearing steel gauntlets, like Linda had earlier.

  Then I equipped my [Deadeye Scope] to be sure.

  Those were not gauntlets. His hands were metal.

  That was enough. Target confirmed.

  I made my way down, keeping him in view through the gaps between staircase landings, tracking his route until I reached the ground floor. I took a steadying breath, drank the [Greater Invisibility] potion, then moved the [Mute] scroll into my hotlist where I could trigger it fast.

  Once the invisibility settled over me, I started forward. I kept my steps light, and I picked my path like the ground was made of glass. I avoided the shrubs. I avoided loose stones. I avoided anything that could make a sound loud enough to turn heads.

  I only needed to get close once, and I needed to time it right.

  I do not even know why I did it, but I found myself crouching as I shadowed him, staying just behind his blind spots as he moved from one sentry to the next. From my earlier observations, I knew the sentry after the next one was posted further out. That gap was my opening.

  He finished talking to the last sentry and started walking again. There was a slight bend in the path ahead where the line of sight broke for a second. No one would see him there unless they were already looking.

  I matched his pace. My heart was beating too loud in my ears. I moved in until I was close enough to smell sweat and sunbaked fabric.

  At the bend, I reached out and barely brushed the tip of his shirt with two fingers.

  I activated the [Mute] scroll.

  His reaction was instant. He spun around like he had felt someone breathe on his neck, eyes wide, hands halfway raised.

  He saw nothing.

  I did not give him a second to think. I drove my fist into his stomach.

  Hard.

  The air left him in a strangled cough and he folded forward. I hooked an arm under him, hauled him up like a sack of rice, and slung him onto my shoulder before his knees even hit the ground.

  Then I triggered the Boots of the Speeding Garrick.

  The world snapped into motion.

  I sprinted across the road, cutting straight through the open like I was begging to get shot, then threw myself into the residential estate on the other side where the blocks and corridors broke up every angle.

  He thrashed on my shoulder, metal hands clawing at my back, boots scraping, trying to twist free. I tightened my grip until my forearm burned and kept running, weaving between pillars and parked cars, using the concrete as cover until I was out of the area.

  Seconds later, I was back at the motorbike.

  I cut the speed, dropped him onto the ground, and pulled duct tape from my inventory. I worked fast, hands moving in a blur. Wrists bound first. Then ankles. Then I taped over his mouth and eyes for good measure, because I was not taking chances.

  He was breathing hard, shaking, staring at empty air before I covered his eyes.

  Then I realized I was still invisible.

  He could not see his assailant.

  Good.

  I wanted him scared.

  I hauled him onto the back of the bike and draped him over the seat like a deer carcass I had found on the roadside. Then I swung my leg over, gripped the handlebars, and sent Eric a private message before I rode off.

  It took a moment before he replied.

  Eric: Meet you where again? And you want me to do what? Dude, are you insane?

  I told him I wasn’t, and that I was on my way whether he was ready or not.

  I did not tell him the real reason I was only bringing this up now. I had done it on purpose. If I had warned him earlier, he would have had time to argue, time to panic, time to talk himself into saying no. This way, he’d be forced to make a decision with me already in motion. It was manipulative as hell, and I felt a twist of guilt in my gut, but I kept riding anyway.

  There was another long pause.

  Eric: Fine. I’ll be there. Alone. But you’re crazy, man. You’re crazy…

  I closed the chat and kept riding, but I did not head back to New Jurong.

  I turned toward the cemetery instead.

  The engine hummed under me, the wind pressed against my face, and the body behind me shifted with every bump in the road. Eric’s last message kept replaying in my head like a stuck notification.

  He was not wrong.

  I was crazy.