Gold Rush

Lin Mo’s spiritual sense kept a constant watch.

So far, the only ability he had witnessed was that of the Excavator.

The man who had extracted his power from Qin Suishou, code-named Simulator, stepped forward.

He pulled out a flat box, unlatched the lid, and a bright ray of light spilled out.

Without hesitation, the Simulator opened his mouth and swallowed the beam.

An instant later, a fierce, corrosive aura rose from his palm, accompanied by a faint, barely audible hiss.

Seeing this, the Excavator shrank back and scurried aside, clearing enough workspace for the Simulator.

The Simulator pressed his palm against the exposed metal wall.

The special alloy, reputedly resistant to conventional drilling and blasting, let out a muffled sizzle the moment the Simulator touched it—the sound of acid eating through. The metal surface visibly sank, decayed, and was then punctured, leaving behind a smoking hole.

Lin Mo watched the entire process. He recalled Zhuge Chen’s earlier explanations about the Simulator’s capabilities.

This was a power that allowed one to use others’ abilities as their own. It sounded impressive enough, but in practice, the limitations were far greater than most imagined.

First, extracting an ability required specific conditions.

Second, the duration of the borrowed power was pitifully short—even the updates for a certain tea app lasted longer.

Zhuge Chen had made it clear: a Simulator without teammates to back him up was of limited use. He’d have to expend enormous effort hunting for suitable ability targets, a time-consuming and laborious task in itself. If he wanted stronger powers, he might even need to eliminate the target outright, but those with top-tier abilities were notoriously difficult to deal with.

What’s more, each extracted ability could only be used once and lasted a mere ten minutes.

This made the Simulator rather underwhelming in solo combat—hardly a game-changer.

But with a team backing him, the picture changed entirely.

In just a dozen seconds, the first layer of metal was left in ruins, completely disintegrated.

The Simulator didn’t pause. He pressed both hands against the wall, and the corrosive force continued to spread.

The vault’s outer defenses were multilayered.

They spent several more minutes before the thick, composite wall was fully eaten away, leaving a hole through.

And just beyond that wall lay the gold storage room.

Flashlight beams cut through the mist left by the corrosion. Everywhere they touched, gold glinted.

Stacked on metal racks were gold bricks, reflecting an eye-stinging brilliance.

Each brick was much larger than an ordinary palm, and every piece felt weighty just from looking at it—you could sense its heft by sight alone.

This spectacle was enough to make anyone who saw it gasp.

“Eyes on the prize. Get to work,” Zhuge Chen’s voice snapped them back to reality.

“Uh… Space Pocket, start collecting now.”

The man code-named Space Pocket immediately opened the briefcase he carried with him.

It looked like an ordinary briefcase, but inside, it was linked to a pocket dimension.

The others, well-trained, swiftly began moving the towering piles of gold bricks, one by one, and stuffing them into the briefcase’s opening.

“What happens to the gold if this briefcase breaks?” someone asked, a hint of worry in their tone.

“It disappears completely.”

“All the gold gets sealed in that space, and there’s no way to get it out ever again.”

That sounded terrifying.

The thought sent a chill down their spines.

Their movements slowed, just a little.

They knew the convenience of such a tool came with a risk they could hardly afford to bear.

Still, worry or not, the pile of gold bricks in the vault visibly shrank.

Neatly stacked bars and sealed boxes vanished one after another, startlingly fast.

Lin Mo’s spiritual sense swept over it all. Even a hardened veteran like him could barely keep his cool.

About ten minutes gone.

The power system was about to come back online, and the cameras would soon reactivate.

Not much gold was left anyway.

“Alright. Time to pull out,” Zhuge Chen said, not relaxing for a second. He kept directing the team, now flush with gold, to evacuate.

Once they had left, Lin Mo appeared directly inside the vault.

He raised a hand, repaired the wall, and restored the gold exactly as it had been.

As for the silver that had been disguised as gold and carted off—he could take his time retrieving it later.

The stench was the most unforgettable impression the sewer left on everyone.

It was an intricate network, but it came with a filthy, putrid environment.

Emerging from the grime, the faces of the thieves carried a mix of relief at surviving the ordeal and an undeniable disgust they couldn’t shake off.

Their clothes were sticky, the smell foul—every pore protested.

Luckily, the extraction point was arranged at a car wash.

The place had been bought out long ago, its rolling door locked tight, blocking out the outside chaos.

The makeshift shower converted from the car wash now felt like paradise.

Water hissed, steam rose, and the torrent washed away the grime. That stubborn rot was finally suppressed, replaced by the chemical fragrance of cheap soap.

After they had showered and changed into clean clothes, everyone looked much perkier.

Zhuge Chen was already standing inside the car wash, having shown up at some point.

“I’ve arranged for our higher-ups to inspect the haul. They’re on the way now. If everything goes smoothly, we should all manage to become members of Diamond Dogs.”

The others didn’t seem particularly excited by the news.

Someone even spoke up: “How do you know they’re really from Diamond Dogs?”

Space Pocket slammed his briefcase onto the ground with a dull thud.

“I’ve done my research. Diamond Dogs is most famous for its spatial technology. This briefcase—that’s solid proof. Use it for smuggling, and the profits… who wouldn’t get greedy?” His tone was ablaze with a lust for money.

Zhuge Chen shook his head, his eyes sweeping over the briefcase.

“This thing has an expiration date. If we tried to keep the gold and go it alone, the space would collapse before long.”

He paused, his voice taking on a tempting edge. “But once we’re in Diamond Dogs, something like this might not even be that rare.”

At his words, the car wash fell silent for a moment.

Someone muttered, “Then Diamond Dogs must be really something. What kind of business can’t they get into?”

“Drug trafficking, smuggling, arms deals—they seem to have a hand in anything profitable,” a lanky man chimed in, his tone a mix of longing and contempt.

“So the point isn’t what this one briefcase can make us now,”

Zhuge Chen’s voice rang out again, pulling the conversation back. “It’s that we can use it to open that door. This isn’t just a job. It’s a path—toward a broader world, or maybe deeper into the mire. But at least in that mire, there’s real money.”

The others fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts.

They knew Zhuge Chen was right. What lay before them was a chance to change their fate.

Even if it meant dealing with the devil, it beat crawling through a sewer every single time.