The Old District.
Compared to the central district of Northveil, time seemed to move much more slowly here.
The roads were still kept clean, but the traces of age were obvious. Most of the buildings on both sides had been constructed more than a decade ago. Their exterior walls had begun to fade, and the signs along the streets were nowhere near as bright as those in the commercial center.
Sunlight after the snowfall fell across the accumulated snow.
The entire street appeared unusually quiet.
Occasionally, a vehicle passed by at a slow pace.
Most of the time, the only sound was the wind moving across the rooftops.
One o'clock in the afternoon.
Lucian stepped off a bus.
He did not hurry toward the target area. Instead, he slowly walked along the street like an ordinary tourist visiting the place for the first time.
He held a cup of hot coffee he had just bought.
His pace remained unhurried.
From time to time, he stopped to look at a building by the roadside.
Occasionally, he lowered his head to check the map on his terminal.
He completely blended into the passing crowd, giving no indication that there was anything worth noticing about him.
The closer he got to the target area,
the fewer people there were.
The number of commercial shops began to decrease.
In their place were rows of low office buildings and relatively small warehouse structures.
A faint smell of metal and engine oil lingered in the air.
This area had once been one of Northveil's earliest industrial zones.
Later, as the city continued to expand, most of the companies gradually moved elsewhere, leaving behind only a small number of warehouses and logistics companies that were still operating.
According to the information compiled by the technical staff,
only four buildings remained as genuine targets that needed to be confirmed.
Lucian did not approach them directly.
Instead, he stopped in front of a convenience store nearest to the area.
Through the reflection on the glass,
almost the entire neighborhood was within his field of view.
He opened a map.
But his attention remained focused on the surrounding environment.
The first building.
A logistics warehouse.
Its main gate was open.
A truck was slowly backing into the loading area.
Several workers continuously moved cargo back and forth.
The engine of a forklift remained running.
The entire warehouse appeared to be operating normally.
No matter how he looked at it, there was nothing unusual.
The second building.
A storage center.
Several medium-sized transport vehicles were parked inside the yard.
Workers were checking the cargo.
Every vehicle entering or leaving was registered.
The surveillance cameras at the entrance were clearly visible.
Everything was orderly.
The third building.
An abandoned factory.
Large sections of the surrounding wall had already collapsed.
Weeds covered the yard.
The iron gate was secured with chains.
The thick snow showed no new footprints.
From the outside, many of the factory windows were already broken.
No lights.
No sounds.
It looked exactly like an abandoned building should.
Lucian only glanced at it
before shifting his attention away.
Finally,
his gaze settled on the other side of the neighborhood.
An old office building.
Four stories tall.
Its gray-white exterior walls had already begun to show their age.
A sign for a consulting company still hung above the entrance.
But its color had long since faded.
Without prior investigation,
it would have been difficult to imagine that the company had actually ceased operations nearly a year ago.
Two ordinary sedans were parked in front of the building.
No company markings.
No special license plates.
The glass doors remained closed.
Occasionally, someone could be seen walking out from inside.
But there were very few of them.
Fewer than five people throughout the entire afternoon.
And every one of them wore ordinary clothes.
They looked neither like employees
nor visitors.
After leaving, each person quickly blended into the surrounding streets.
None of them returned.
Lucian stood quietly in front of the convenience store.
He did not immediately draw a conclusion.
The number of people alone was not enough to prove anything.
What truly deserved attention was the feeling the entire building gave him.
It was too quiet.
Although this was nominally an office building,
there was almost none of the noise normally associated with an office.
No doors constantly opening and closing.
No one carrying documents.
No delivery personnel.
Not even a single food delivery rider had arrived.
Compared with the logistics warehouse next door, which was still operating normally,
the contrast was striking.
Lucian raised his terminal,
pretending to check the map.
But from the corner of his eye, he slowly scanned the exterior wall of the office building.
The next moment,
his gaze paused for an instant.
Surveillance cameras.
There were more than he had expected.
Two above the main entrance.
Two covering the parking area.
And another at the side alley.
More importantly,
the cameras had not been installed like those in an ordinary office building, where they would only cover the main entrances and exits.
Their fields of view almost completely covered one another's blind spots.
No matter which direction someone approached from,
they would enter the range of at least one camera.
Lucian did not continue observing.
He simply memorized the position of every camera.
Then he turned and left the convenience store.
He continued walking slowly along the street,
as if he were merely taking a casual stroll.
When he passed the office building, he did not look up.
Instead, he naturally walked past on the opposite side of the street.
Through the reflections in the windows of the vehicles parked along the road,
he also took in the side of the building.
There was another inconspicuous metal door there.
Its location was extremely well hidden.
It would easily be overlooked under normal circumstances.
Just then,
the metal door suddenly opened slightly.
A man wearing a dark baseball cap stepped out.
He was carrying an ordinary document envelope.
His expression was calm.
After locking the door, he did not linger.
He headed directly toward the end of the street.
The entire process
took no more than a dozen seconds.
Lucian's pace did not change at all.
He simply continued forward.
Only after passing through the entire block
did he slowly look back while taking a turn.
The man had already disappeared into the crowd.
And the side door
had once again returned to its original silence.
As if nothing had happened.
Lucian did not stay any longer.
He slowly left the target area along the street.
Only after walking two blocks away did he stop beside a bench in a park.
He was now far enough from the old office building.
Yet from another road, he could still re-enter the same neighborhood.
He sat down.
He placed his coffee beside him.
The terminal screen slowly lit up.
Displayed on it was a map of the district he had just finished recording.
Lucian did not rush to enter a conclusion.
Instead, he first reorganized the scenes he had witnessed in his mind.
Logistics warehouse.
Normal.
Storage center.
Normal.
Abandoned factory.
No signs of human activity.
Old office building.
An abnormal number of surveillance cameras.
Very little personnel movement.
A concealed side door.
He lightly drew a circle beside the final item.
For now,
among the four buildings,
only this one was worth further investigation.
But it was not enough.
Based on these observations alone,
he still could not determine whether this was the final convergence point of the communications.
Time slowly passed.
Two o'clock in the afternoon.
Lucian returned to the old district.
This time,
he did not pass through the main street.
Instead, he slowly circled around through the narrow paths behind the buildings.
There were almost no pedestrians here.
Several vehicles that had apparently not moved for a long time were parked along the road.
The snow still retained traces from the snowfall several days earlier.
Lucian moved forward while observing his surroundings.
Soon,
the rear of the office building gradually came into view.
Compared to the front entrance,
this side was even quieter.
There were no signs.
No parking spaces.
Only a narrow alley less than four meters wide.
Several large garbage containers stood at the entrance.
Other than that,
there were no other facilities.
He slowly reduced his pace.
His eyes naturally swept across the entire building.
There were no obvious company markings on the rear.
All the windows had their blinds drawn.
Nothing inside could be seen.
The only thing he could confirm was
that one of the rooms furthest inside on the second floor
had a faint light showing between the blinds.
There was nothing strange about having a light on during the day.
What was strange was that
it was the only light in the entire building.
Lucian silently memorized its location.
Then he continued forward.
When he reached the end of the alley,
he did not go any deeper.
Instead, he naturally turned around
and returned to another street.
The entire process
contained no unnecessary pause.
And he made no attempt to approach the building.
Three o'clock.
Four o'clock.
Time passed little by little.
Lucian constantly changed his observation positions.
Sometimes he sat on a bench by the roadside.
Sometimes he stood at a bus stop.
Sometimes he entered a nearby convenience store.
He always maintained the appearance of an ordinary passerby.
Until the sun gradually began to sink,
the number of people in the old district noticeably decreased.
The logistics warehouse finished its work for the day.
The last truck slowly drove away.
The storage center also gradually shut down.
The streets once again fell silent.
Only the old office building
remained exactly as it had been during the day.
No one came out.
No one went in.
The curtains remained closed.
Only that single light on the second floor
never went out.
Lucian stood at the corner of the street,
quietly watching everything.
The quieter it became,
the more abnormal it seemed.
In a normal office building,
people would always leave when the workday ended.
But here,
it was as if time had stopped.
Just then,
his terminal vibrated softly.
There was no sound.
Only a single encrypted message.
It was from the technical staff.
[Building information updated.]
[The legal representative of the consulting company died two years ago.]
[The company dissolution application was never completed.]
[Ownership of the property still belongs to the original company.]
[No tax records have been filed for nearly a year.]
Lucian's gaze narrowed slightly.
The company had ceased operations,
yet its dissolution had never been completed.
The building had also remained connected to power.
Combined with everything he had observed today,
it was clear that someone had been using this building all along.
Only the people using it
were not members of the original company.
He closed the terminal.
Then looked toward the office building again.
The sky had gradually darkened.
Streetlights came on one after another.
The snow reflected their dim yellow glow.
The entire old district became even quieter.
Lucian glanced down at the time.
7:07 p.m.
He did not act immediately.
Instead, he continued waiting.
8:00 p.m.
9:00 p.m.
The old district became completely silent.
Fewer and fewer vehicles remained on the road.
Pedestrians had almost disappeared.
The logistics warehouse had gone dark long ago.
The storage center was dark as well.
Throughout the entire area,
only the second floor of the old office building
still had that one light shining.
Nothing changed.
No one entered or left.
The curtains were never opened even once.
Lucian slowly exhaled.
He had been waiting for the entire afternoon.
It was enough.
Most of the information that could be confirmed
had already been confirmed.
Waiting any longer
would not reveal anything new.
His eyes swept across the building once again.
The positions of the cameras.
The side door.
The height of the walls.
The surrounding streets.
The possible escape routes.
Every detail
quickly arranged itself in his mind.
A few seconds later,
Lucian lowered the brim of his hat.
He turned and walked into an unlit alley beside him.
The night gradually deepened.
The wind began to blow again.
Snow slowly drifted from the rooftops.
And his figure
gradually disappeared into the darkness.
Tonight,
he was going to approach that building for real.
But not through the front entrance.