Beneath the flickering, disorienting lights and amid the deafening music, stylish, scantily clad men and women swayed their bodies to the intense rhythm created by the lights and beats, surrendering their brains to alcohol and dopamine as they wantonly rubbed against and collided with each other's desires.
Suddenly—
An athletic, black-clad figure vaulted fiercely onto the DJ booth amidst the shifting, dim lights.
The blue-haired, scantily clad DJ froze for a split second before the manic music abruptly cut off. The neon and laser lights also stopped swaying, and a low voice rang out from the DJ booth:
"Routine search by the Patrol Team. Everyone, stand against the wall."
Amidst panicked screams, the lights flashed on suddenly, dispelling the darkness and exposing everyone from their frantic state to the illumination.
Three more patrol officers in black patrol uniforms and holding stun batons walked into the bar, herding the crowd. The stun batons in their hands crackled with sparks.
"All of you, against the wall."
"I'm talking to you, stand up."
The middle-aged patrol officer on the DJ booth watched the search operation below with a calm expression.
Compared to the other patrol officers, his uniform was noticeably more refined, and on his epaulets could be seen three stars and a pair of wing-like patterns, clearly marking him as a First-Class Patrol Officer.
"This officer, I'm the general manager of this bar."
A slightly pudgy middle-aged man walked over, looked at the middle-aged patrol officer on the stage, and said with a smile, "May I ask your name? Why did you suddenly come to search this small place tonight?"
Team Leader Han gave him a blank look and said, "Superior orders, nothing to say."
The general manager of Tieshi Bar could only force a smile and said, "It's just me talking too much. Rest assured, officer, we will definitely cooperate actively with your work."
Team Leader Han swept his gaze across the room. Seeing that the crowd inside the bar had already gathered and stood against the four walls, he jumped down from the high platform, walked into the middle of the dance floor, and looked at Lin Qing and the other two.
"Lin Qing, you check the bar area. Qin Qin, you check that group of people. Wang Hengyi, you check the people over there. I'll handle the rest."
After assigning the tasks, the four officers in charge of the search began to move.
This bar wasn't particularly large. Including guests, bartenders, and waiters, there were only about a hundred people in total.
Even if they had to conduct facial recognition and fingerprint identification one by one to verify identities individually, with four people working together, it wouldn't take long.
Today's databases were extremely comprehensive, allowing for identity verification without even needing ID cards.
Occasionally, they would run into a guest who had too much to drink, threw a drunken tantrum, and refused to cooperate with the search. But with the combat skills formal patrol officers passed their assessments with, they could easily subdue them.
Of course, in the event of an emergency, they would have to use their stun batons.
Lin Qing tucked his stun baton into his belt, held the work smartphone issued by the Patrol Bureau, walked up to the crowd near the bar, looked them over, and said:
"We'll check the Blue Scarf Gang first. You, you, you, and you—all of you, come over here and stand properly. Wipe your fingers clean."
As he spoke, he pointed at several people wearing blue neckerchiefs one by one, singling them out.
The faces of those pointed out showed suppressed grievance and indignation.
This bar was regarded by their Blue Scarf Gang as a stronghold. Nearby squatted the pretty babes they had just been holding in their arms, whom they had been drunkenly boasting to about how awesome they and the Blue Scarf Gang were just moments before. Yet in the blink of an eye, they were being dragged out by these patrol dogs to cooperate with an investigation.
Especially this punk—he didn't even have epaulets; he was obviously just a temporary investigator, yet he dared to act so arrogant?
However, with other patrol officers present, they could only grit their teeth and step out.
Except one of them couldn't help muttering a curse under his breath.
"Damn it, even a temporary dog dares to swagger like a tiger..."
He kept his voice down to avoid being heard by the other patrol officers in the distance. Anyway, temporary patrol officers lacked law enforcement authority, so he wasn't afraid of cursing a few times.
"Hm?"
Lin Qing's eyes turned cold, and he suddenly kicked the man in the shin. The man immediately fell to the ground in pain. Furious, he was just about to stand up when he heard a crackling sound.
He looked up and saw a pitch-black stun baton hovering right in front of his eyes, spitting sparks.
His body instantly shuddered, and he subconsciously shrank back, swallowing the foul language that was about to escape his lips right back down.
"Head up."
Lin Qing looked down mockingly at the man, performed facial recognition with his phone, took his fingerprints, and then suddenly kicked the man right in the face. The hard sole of his boot instantly distorted and fractured the bridge of his nose. Blood gushed wildly as the man clutched his nose and curled up on the ground, wailing.
The patrol team members in the distance glanced over in this direction, ignored it, and continued with their work.
Never mind that Lin Qing was a First-Class Patrol Officer; even if he were just a temporary patrol officer, encountering an uncooperative troublemaker and giving them a couple of kicks was nothing that required intervention.
Of course, temporary patrol officers had no official establishment and weren't valued by the Patrol Bureau, so they didn't dare to offend people casually. Although violently attacking a temporary patrol officer on duty was also the crime of obstructing official duties, getting beaten in private was just an ordinary brawl, and the Patrol Bureau wouldn't specially step in for it.
As for formal patrol officers, even if attacked in private, they would face aggravated punishment. If personal safety was severely endangered, they might even be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Lin Qing continued holding his phone, identifying and recording them one by one.
After making an example of a chicken to scare the monkeys, the others behaved much better. Even those troublemakers from the Blue Scarf Gang stood obediently.
"Order."
Lin Qing mentally summoned the Anti-Entropist Panel again and glanced at the [Current Order Level], which hadn't changed at all.
Naturally.
Just a few punks; they couldn't threaten him at all. Even if they didn't know he was a formal patrol officer right now, since the Blue Scarf Gang dared to establish itself so openly, they certainly had acquaintances in the public security and Patrol Bureau—a simple inquiry would reveal who he was.
Once they knew he was a formal patrol officer, given just this bit of grievance, those few punks wouldn't dare retaliate against him.
Naturally, that wouldn't cause the order level to drop.
He had already confirmed this in his past life.
As long as others posed no threat to him, even if he had enemies, it wouldn't lower the order level.
In his past life, surviving the apocalypse had relied on the early warnings of the [Current Order Level], which had already helped him many times.
...
In the dim area on the other side of the bar.
Two figures were crouching here with their heads down, their lips twitching slightly as they huddled together to converse in low voices.
"Old Camel, can we find a chance to escape through the back door?"
"I've had people guarding the front and back doors the whole time, but now both doors are completely sealed off. Who knows what the Patrol Team took today; they suddenly came to search."
"Damn it, before you formed the Blue Scarf Gang, didn't you say you had acquaintances in public security and the Patrol Bureau acting as your informants?"
"Brother Jiang, today's search team is carrying out a temporary operation. I didn't expect this either."
"What do we do now? Damn, I'm just hiding out at your place for a few days to get some fresh air. How did I get so unlucky?"
"Brother Jiang, if you dare to force your way through and break out by force, you can still escape through that old underground passage route."
"Force my way through? Didn't you see that First-Class Patrol Officer standing over there? He looks like a deeply experienced team leader, so it wouldn't be strange if he's learned combat techniques. Once he uses a combat technique, I definitely won't be his match."
"Brother Jiang, I dared to use this bar as our gang's activity base, so of course I left a backup plan. I can create chaos for you. If you're fast enough, you can escape in the confusion."
"...Alright, then we'll break out toward the main entrance from this temporary patrol officer's direction. That should give us the highest odds."
"He beat my men, Brother Jiang. You can go harder on him—best to kill him. After all, he's just a tiny temporary patrol officer."
"Small matter. I was already finding him an eyesore anyway."
...
[Order level decreased by 0.2]
Just as he was identifying and inspecting them one by one, at this moment, a line of blood-red small characters suddenly appeared before Lin Qing's eyes.
"Hm?"
Lin Qing's gaze shifted slightly, and vigilance instantly spiked in his heart. His left hand continued operating the phone for identification, while his right hand imperceptibly felt for the switch of his stun baton, gripping it tightly in secret.
Suddenly—
"Bang!"
A spherical lampshade on the ceiling above the dance floor suddenly shattered, and thick smoke spewed from it, accompanied by a large amount of colorful confetti used for parties, which fluttered down in a scatter.
In an instant, the view of half the bar was obscured.
At the same time, a robust figure suddenly bolted out from behind the bar, crossing the dance floor in the blink of an eye with superhuman agility and speed!
And the direction he was charging toward was precisely the main entrance where Lin Qing was stationed!
Chapter 11: Underground Fights
"Hah!"
The explosive speed of that robust and strong figure was so fast that even the falling colorful confetti was plowed through, creating a hollow tunnel, and the whipped-up airflow sent the surrounding confetti fluttering away with the smoke.
It was a tall man wearing a black undershirt, his body bulging with knotted muscles, with a stalwart and sturdy build resembling a bear.
The distance between him and Lin Qing was only seven or eight meters. Bursting into action all of a sudden, he charged at Lin Qing like a fierce tiger descending a mountain, his right hand clenched into a fist and elbow cocked horizontally. His thick, powerful arm was already raised high, revealing an elbow joint covered in calluses.
Like a beast baring its fangs!
Yet Lin Qing seemed completely unresponsive, still standing with his back to him, looking at his phone.
At that exact instant, a flash of ferocity crossed the tall man's eyes. The muscles in his right arm bulged completely as he whipped his elbow out in a flash, violently smashing toward the back of Lin Qing's neck!
With his years of honed fatal technique, he was confident that a single strike would shatter this tiny temporary patrol officer's cervical vertebrae!
Right at that moment—
"Hm?"
It was as if Lin Qing had grown eyes in the back of his head; he suddenly dropped into a deep crouch, dodging this horizontal elbow strike while simultaneously thrusting his stun baton backward with a backhand grip—
Accompanied by the crackle of electric current, the tip of the stun baton struck the tall man behind him dead-on, instantly erupting with a burst of blue electrical light.
"Oh no!"
The tall man reacted instantly, his pupils contracting violently.
However, the intense electric current had already surged through his body in an instant. His muscles began to contract and spasm involuntarily, and his body shook continuously out of control.
With a heavy thud, his forward-rushing body collided with the booth ahead of him due to momentum, and he collapsed onto the ground, twitching endlessly.
After dodging to the side, Lin Qing took two steps forward, pressed the stun baton against the back of the tall man's neck, turned it to maximum power, and mercilessly poured the electrical energy into him.
Under a hundred thousand volts of electricity, the tall man wailed and convulsed a few times, passing out in just a few seconds.
[Current Order Level increased by 0.4]
At this moment, a green text prompt appeared before his eyes.
Yet Lin Qing still didn't stop, continuing to channel electricity into the tall man's head with the stun baton.
"Lin Qing."
It wasn't until Team Leader Han's voice came from behind him that he stopped, put away the stun baton, and stood up.
Regrettably, the stun batons issued to patrol officers were designed with high voltage and low current specifically to halt movement, not to inflict injury.
The capacity of their capacitors and the discharge rate of their circuits were both very low, making the current output insufficient to kill.
However, delivering current straight to the head like he was doing caused severe damage; even if the man didn't die, his brains would likely be scrambled into mush.
"Are you alright?"
Team Leader Han moved with great speed and had already arrived at Lin Qing's side.
The other team members also hurried over, and two of them immediately stepped forward to handcuff the limbs of the unconscious tall man.
"I almost died," Lin Qing said with a face full of lingering fear. "This guy suddenly rushed out to ambush me. Fortunately, I was recording a selfie with my phone just then and happened to see him sneaking up behind me."
He lowered his head to glance at the unconscious tall man on the ground, speaking with lingering dread: "His movements just now were very professional. He must have trained in specialized lethal combat techniques and wanted to use a horizontal elbow strike to break my neck directly. It was clear he wanted to kill me."
"A selfie?"
Team Leader Han couldn't help giving him a look—he certainly looked handsome indeed.
"I recorded it." Lin Qing immediately tapped open the selfie video he had intentionally recorded just moments earlier.
In the video, Lin Qing could be seen recording himself with his phone.
Suddenly, the sound of the lampshade shattering rang out, smoke erupted, and as celebratory confetti fragments fluttered down, the tall man abruptly appeared in the frame, followed immediately by the vicious, ferocious horizontal elbow strike.
Then the camera shook violently and went black, showing nothing more except the sound of crackling electricity.
"Good luck."
After watching the video, Team Leader Han slowly revealed a trace of a smile. "Fortunately it was you, and your reflexes and reactions were fast enough to electrocute him down instantly."
With his discernment and experience, he could tell at a glance that the tall man's strikes were so fierce and his speed so swift that they clearly far exceeded an ordinary person's.
Faced with such a brutal and rapid strike, even if an ordinary person happened to notice it while taking a selfie, they wouldn't have had time to react.
It was only because Lin Qing had mastered the 46th Edition Practice Method, bringing about an all-around transformation in his physical fitness, granting him neural reaction speeds much faster than ordinary people, and giving him swift movements, that he managed to respond in time.
Otherwise, anyone else would have already had their cervical vertebrae smashed and died.
"Phew..." Lin Qing also expressed lingering fear, saying, "I almost got finished off."
Though all of this was an act—he had anticipated danger beforehand and deliberately pretended to be taking a selfie to watch his back using the camera—he indeed hadn't known what kind of danger it would be, only guessing that it was most likely man-made.
After all, getting explosives or firearms in this era was far too difficult.
If a small gang could get their hands on them, that would be far too absurd.
Moreover, the order level had only dropped by 0.1. If it were a danger as serious as a gunshot or a bomb, it should have dropped to 0.
Therefore, the high probability was that someone wanted to make a move against him.
"Team Leader."
At this moment, Qin Qin quickly checked the unconscious tall man on the ground and said, "This guy has a very strong physique, and multiple joints across his body have wear and calluses. Judging from the scars and calluses on him, he might be an underground boxer."
"An underground boxer?" Team Leader Han nodded slightly and said, "This guy's moves and attacks were ruthless and precise, clearly lethal techniques. It's indeed possible he's one of those underground cage fighters."
Lin Qing stood aside in silence.
When it came to hand-to-hand combat, he wasn't necessarily this guy's match.
Even though he had also mastered master-level combat and possessed rich experience in killing, surviving in the apocalypse wasn't just about fighting, and he naturally couldn't compare to someone who specialized in life-or-death combat.
Not to mention, people differed in physique and strength. Even if two people both trained in the 46th Edition Practice Method, their explosive power could still have a huge gap.
However, victory didn't depend on who could fight better.
That was why he was standing, and his opponent had fallen.
"Still, why did this guy attack Lin Qing?" Qin Qin asked with a puzzled expression.
Team Leader Han pondered for a moment, then suddenly swept his gaze across the surrounding crowd and said in a cold voice, "Everyone from the Blue Scarf Gang, step forward. I know you're in this bar, Camel. Come out obediently."
"This officer."
A lean young man with a buzz cut stepped forward with an ingratiating smile. "I don't know what business you have with me?"
"You're the leader of the Blue Scarf Gang?" Team Leader Han looked at the lean young man.
The lean young man, "Camel," said with a smile, "I just had nothing to do and organized a little group to drink and hang out. I'm just the initiator; I wouldn't call myself a leader."
"Hah..."
Team Leader Han sneered, not bothering to argue with him, and asked directly, "Since this man is in your Blue Scarf Gang's turf, you should know him, right?"
"This... Officer, you're really wronging me here. I don't know him."
Camel looked completely innocent. "The owner of this bar isn't me, so how can it be considered our turf? We're just here drinking, and I have no idea who wandered in."
"Is that so?" Team Leader Han gave him a blank look and asked, "How did the lampshade shatter? You don't know? Wasn't this trick prepared by you?"
"I really don't know about that."
Camel said helplessly, "Law-abiding citizens like us wouldn't dare approach a lunatic who dares to attack law enforcement officers, right?"
"Law-abiding citizens?" Team Leader Han smiled mockingly.
He knew that from such a scoundrel mixed in the underworld, you basically couldn't get any answers out of them.
Therefore, wasting no more words, he spoke directly to Lin Qing: "Lin Qing, this guy attacking you might be because he didn't dare face investigation and tried to break through and escape. Use the identification system to check him."