<b>Chapter </b><b>139 </b>


    Briar deliberately chose the darkest, narrowest alley and walked in. Sure enough, the footsteps behind her followed without hesitation<b>. </b>


    Perhaps the person thought that in this deserted alley, a weak little girl like her had nowhere to run and would be easy to handle, so they didn’t even bother hiding their breathing.


    It was the sound of a dry branch snapping underfoot.


    Briar stopped at just the right moment. Without turning around, she swiftly shifted to press herself against the wall. The person behind her rushed <b>up</b>, and just as they were about to close in, she turned, firmly grabbed their shoulder, and before they could react,nded a heavy kick to their stomach.


    She had used seventy percent of her strength in that kick. Even seasoned mercenaries couldn’t take a hit like that, let alone someone with such slow reflexes. This guy wasn’t a trained assassin. A muffled grunt sounded, followed by a heavy thud.


    Briar flicked on a high–powered shlight that had appeared in her hand at some point, shining it directly into the person’s face so brightly that they couldn’t even open their eyes.


    When she saw the mess of colorful hair on the ground, her brows raised, and she gave a mockingugh. “You got some nerves. Daring to follow me?”


    The many on the ground, his face twisted in pain, fear making him unable to speak aplete sentence.


    Briar’s face remained expressionless. Under the harsh shlight, the ends of her upturned eyes gleamed with cold arrogance. “Speak. Who sent you to follow me?”


    This guy looked like a typical street punk. There was no real malice or killing intent in his eyes. Clearly not someone sent to assassinate her.


    The man said, “I’m Billie Buckley, the big shot on this street. Someone paid me one thousand dors to follow you<b>, </b><b>rough </b>you up a bit…”


    As he coughed and inched backward, trying to get away from this terrifying woman, he cursed inwardly. ‘Damn it, they said she’s a weak little girl. She kicked me, and it hurt so much!‘


    He felt like his organs had all shifted, maybe even internal bleeding. When he got back, he was definitely going to squeeze more money out of that guy. This pain wasn’t worth it.


    Briar nced at his pale face and chuckled coldly. “So your life is only worth one thousand dors? Pretty cheap.”


    Billie’s face turned even paler, his whole body going limp with terror as he panted desperately. “Sorry! I was wrong, please, have mercy! I swear! won’t do it again…”


    Briar grew impatient with his babbling. She grabbed him by the cor and mmed him against the wall. “You want to live or die?”


    If her strong hands weren’t wrapped around his neck, Billie might’ve dropped to his knees on the spot. “Live! I want to live! I swear I wasn’t trying anything, I’m just strapped for cashtely. I won’t do it again!”


    Briar pulled out her phone, brought up a photo, and shoved it in front of his face. “The one who sent you. Was it him?”


    “Yeah! That’s him! He looks all prim and proper, even wears sses…” Billie blurted out, practically jumping out of his skin.


    The person in the photo was none other than Sawyer, the university doctor at Shoneport University.


    ‘Well, well, things are getting more and more interesting,’ Briar thought.


    Justst night, Frank had been tailing Sawyer, and now, Sawyer had hired some street thug to follow her.


    So no matter who was acting, they all wanted to pin things on her.


    “I… I told you everything. Please let me off this once, I really won’t dare do it again…” Even if they offered ten thousand or a hundred thousand <b>dors </b>


    <b>14.18 </b><b>Sat</b>, 16 <b>Aug </b>


    now, Billie wouldn’t take it. He was too scared to spend money he might die for.


    Briar nced at the time on her phone. They’d been in the alley for five minutes already. Five more to go.


    Ten minutes was enough for a person to do all sorts of awful things to someone else.


    She let him go. Briar wasn’t even worried he’d run. Just one casual nce from her, and Billie stood bolt upright, obedient as could be.


    They stood in silence in the alley for the full ten minutes. By the end, Billie’s face was pale. He’d even búried.


    started thinking about where he wanted to be


    After staring toward the alley’s exit for a few seconds, Briar retracted her gaze and asked coldly, “You know what to say when you go back, <b>right</b><b>?</b><b>” </b>


    Billie might’ve been weak, but street punks like him were masters at reading the room. He knew he was safe, at least for tonight. “I know if that <b>guy </b><b>asks</b>, I’ll say I knocked you out with a blunt weapon and gave you a good beating. Is that… is that okay?”


    Briar smiled faintly. She didn’t say if it was okay or not. She just turned off the shlight<b>, </b>sped her hands behind her back, and strolled slowly out of the alley.


    Billie, despite his pain, stayed pressed against the wall<b>, </b>unmoving. Only when he was sure she’d truly gone did he clutch his stomach and limp out of the alley, step by painful step.


    “Holy hell, that hurt!” Billie muttered, “I must be cursed. Took a job for one thousand dors and ran into <b>a </b>real deal. I nearly lost my life! That punk better not show up again, or I’ll gather my men and beat the crap out of him!”


    He grumbled his way down the street, disappearing into the dark. Meanwhile<i>, </i>hidden in the shadows, Briar stood silently. Her eyes, glowing faintly red with rage, gleamed in the darkness.


    ‘Sawyer Hemsley, I won’t let this slide,‘ she thought.


    The quiet street was empty, and the slim figure of Briar wandered slowly, pausing here and there. Fortunately, this was an old district full of elderly residents who had already gone to bed by this hour.


    Finally, near the end of the street, she found a suspicious location. She marked it on the map, then turned and used the same pace Sawyer had shown during his nighttime jog in the surveince footage, retracing the path while avoiding every known camera, all the way to Shoneport University, calcting <i>the </i>timing precisely.


    By then, it was already 11:30 pm. Briar left the peaceful old district and returned to a street bustling with traffic.


    She took a deep breath, found a blind <i>spot </i>not covered by surveince, and sent the route she’d just mapped to Larry, who was currently offline.


    Briar: [Larry, find a familiar face and check out the marked location.


    likely one of their safehouses in Shoneport.]


    After sending the message, Briar deleted it, wiped her browsing traces, and hummed a tune all the way back to Moonspring Estate.


    Three hourster, Larry had just returned from a business lunch with a partner when he saw the message. Normally unaffected by alcohol, he flushed with excitement. After all this time, they’d finally found a trace <i>of </i>those people in Dasmieca.


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