His foot came down on the tile, a sharp, clear tap echoing out.
Qin Siyang's eyes snapped wide open.
This wasn't the sound it had made when he'd hidden the silver coin beneath it earlier—back then, it had been two dull, heavy thuds. Now, it rang out sharp and hollow.
A cold knot tightened in his chest.
The space beneath the tile was empty.
Did that mean someone had already come for the silver coin?
He had to check, and fast.
Qin Siyang stopped letting the crowd carry him, planting his feet firmly on the tile and refusing to budge an inch, even as people jostled and shoved him from all sides.
"What's wrong with you? Move! You're in the way!"
Just as the people around him were about to snap at him, a group of Sequence Ability users in cold-resistant gear strode past the exit.
The crowd's attention snapped to them in an instant, surging forward in a throng to shout their business offers.
Qin Siyang seized the chance. With no eyes on him, he dropped to his knees, feigning sand in his shoe. He shifted his body to block the tile completely from view, then slipped a finger into the crack between it and the next, prying it up slightly.
By the dim glow of the overhead lights at the safe zone exit, his enhanced vision caught sight of the truth: a shallow dent, half a centimeter deep and the size of a fist, lay beneath the tile.
The silver coin was gone.
Qin Siyang set the tile back in place as if nothing had happened, his mind going blank with shock.
He'd kept his eyes on it the entire time—and yet the coin had been stolen right under his nose.
How was that possible?
It had only been two or three hours since he'd hidden it. How could it be gone already?
Had someone been watching him, lying in wait? Had they snatched the coin the second he'd left it there?
Qin Siyang's hands curled into fists, his body trembling with rage.
The tile hadn't been pried up once. Not a single person had touched it.
Telekinetic theft?
The coin must have been taken by a Sequence Ability user, snatching it when no one was looking.
He scanned the frenzied crowd, searching for the hidden user—but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Qin Siyang forced himself to calm down, his mind racing for a solution.
If he gave up now, he'd be at [Exile]'s mercy forever.
Never.
After what had happened with Liu Dazhi, Qin Siyang would never again let anyone hold leverage over him. He was paying for a service—not to hand a stranger a weapon to use against him.
Damn it.
He cursed silently. If the thief was a Sequence Ability user posing as an ordinary person, he'd have no way to turn the tables.
But if the thief was a member of a god-hunting squad…
Then there might still be a chance to salvage this.
With that thought, Qin Siyang stopped waiting. He joined the others, pushing and shoving his way toward the Sequence Ability users. His enhanced strength would have let him fight his way to the front in seconds—but that would be too obvious, sure to draw the squads' attention.
A terrible idea.
The coin had been stolen mere hours after he'd hidden it. Whoever had taken it had almost certainly been watching him, and knew exactly what he was wearing. If he stood out, he'd be recognized in an instant.
So he forced himself to move slowly, inching forward with the crowd. When he neared the front, he shrugged off his sweatshirt, revealing his young, boyish face—one that looked like nothing more than a student's.
Surely now, the thief wouldn't recognize him.
Qin Siyang prayed silently, hoping the thief was a member of a god-hunting squad, not some random stranger passing by. He replayed every scrap of information he'd read on the Godslayer Camp forum, his mind fixating on one Sequence in particular.
The thief has to be a [Thief] Sequence Ability user. Their skill, [Plunder], lets them seize any object within a certain spatial range around them.
[Plunder] was one of the most overpowered skills in the safe zone—telekinetic theft at their fingertips, a one-way ticket to instant wealth for anyone who dared use it. For that reason, the United Government had banned [Thief] users from activating their skills within the safe zone—on pain of death.
Yet [Thief] users were all but useless in god-hunting squads. Their [Plunder] range was far too small, and the Sequence offered no defensive or survival skills to speak of. If they tried to use their ability on a god, they'd be killed the second they got close. They were nothing more than dead weight—extra bodies along for the ride.
Qin Siyang replayed every detail of the [Thief] Sequence in his mind, his gaze hardening with resolve.
In any god-hunting squad, the one who lingers on the fringes, the most obsequious and unassuming member—they're almost certainly the [Thief].
Now that he knew the thief's Sequence, a clear profile took shape in his mind. He studied every god-hunting squad that passed, watching their body language and demeanor closely. If the members chatted casually and relaxed, he paid them little mind. But if someone lingered on the sidelines, quiet and unspoken, or simpered and fawned over the others—he focused on them, listening intently to their conversations.
Several squads walked by, all talking animatedly about their recent battles beyond the safe zone. Qin Siyang listened to their words, but found no sign of a [Thief] among them. Disappointment pricked at him.
Then another squad pushed through the crowd.
Unlike the others, they cared nothing for talk of god battles. They were animatedly planning which bar they'd hit later to drink and unwind.
A gaunt young man in his early twenties spoke up, his voice hesitant. "Guys, I won't be joining you for drinks later."
"Huh? Why not?" one of the others asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I… " the young man trailed off, his jaw tight.
"C'mon, it's obvious," another scoffed. "He didn't lift a finger out there—how dare he show his face at the bar with us?"
"Yeah, a damn [Thief]," a third sneered. "All he's good for is running errands outside the wall. We'd never have let him join if the Administration Bureau brass hadn't forced him on us."
The team jeered and mocked him, but the young man clenched his jaw and said nothing, his face burning with shame. The others shot him a pair of disdainful glances, then slung their arms around each other and walked away, their laughter fading into the crowd.
The gaunt young man fell behind, walking alone in silence.
But the squad's infighting meant nothing to the frenzied crowd around them. Even a scorned Sequence Ability user was still an Ability user—an existence far above ordinary humans, a chance at a better life, no matter how small.
When the crowd saw the young man was alone, they swarmed him even more fiercely, closing in around him in a tight circle, their shouts of offers growing louder by the second.