American comic: From Beijing with Love, starting with a mutant.

The gerbil, clutching the metal box, stood at the edge of the crack, hesitant to approach.

The corners of the box were pried open and deformed. Inside, besides several spare keys, there was a magnetic card and two brass round plates.

The King of Cards reached out to take it.

The gerbil shrank back slightly.

Wolverine raised his eyelids, the tips of his steel claws reflecting a cold light.

The gerbil nearly threw the box away: "I'm not refusing to give it to you! I just..."

Stephen Chow wiped the butcher knife on his trouser leg and then sheathed it.

"Comrade Miguel, there's no need to be so tense during the meeting." He patted the gerbil's shoulder lightly.

"We all saw you run away just now."

The gerbil's face twitched, its eyes involuntarily glancing at the landslide debris on the ground.

"I really wanted to run away." His voice trembled.

"The secret passage led outside the abandoned mine. After I crawled inside... I heard a sound."

"A child is crying. A very young one, crying until he has no strength left, but still calling for his mother."

He sniffed, sweat running down his face, leaving deep lines of dirt on his skin. "I'm not a good person."

"I stole parts, sold counterfeit goods, took money from both sides, and also racked up a huge gambling debt."

"But I don't want to hear those sounds when I go to sleep in the future."

Stephen Chow reached out and took the tin box.

"To err is human, to forgive divine." He opened the box and rummaged through it. "Your resume...it's not up to par for the background check. But..."

He looked up, grinned, and said, "There's still a chance to salvage the outsourced positions at the grassroots level. Our company doesn't look at what you did before, we only look at what you want to do now."

The gerbil was somewhat surprised: "You're hiring at a time like this...?"

"Of course." Zhou Xingxing took out the two brass round plates and examined them against the light.

"The most important thing in life is to have a dream. My dream is to recruit all the unemployed mutants into our organization."

The King of Cards burst out laughing, almost dropping his toothpick.

The gerbil pointed to the half-collapsed wall on the right side of the incineration workshop: "The lower level of the vault is over there. The main entrance was blocked by a landslide, but the old ventilation and maintenance shaft is still open."

He pulled out a brass round plate from the box and stuffed it into Stephen Chow's hand.

"It's narrow inside, so you can only climb up one by one. There are three automatic shut-off valves in the middle, in case of a landslide, someone might sneak in through the ventilation shaft to steal the vault."

Zhou Xingxing arrived at the repair wellhead.

It was pitch black, with charred oil stains clinging to its edges.

"I'll go first."

He handed the briefcase to the King of Cards.

"Cousin, the state-owned assets are entrusted to you for safekeeping."

The strategist took the box and scoffed, "I'm not your company's finance department!"

"The capable should do more!"

Stephen Chow turned to look at Wolverine: "Logan, you cover the rear."

Wolverine snorted in agreement.

It's very hot inside the maintenance well.

Zhou Xingxing had only gone in for a dozen meters when a "click" sound suddenly came from the pipe wall in front of him.

The red light is on.

White, high-temperature steam sprayed right in my face!

"Damn it!"

With lightning-fast reflexes, Stephen Chow pulled out a butcher knife and, following the pipe wall, stabbed it into the gap on the side of the steam valve.

"laugh!"

The steam was forcibly deflected and sprayed onto the sheet metal above.

The second layer is a circular steel cap embedded in the pipe wall.

It's relatively spacious here, enough for several people to stand side by side.

The King of Cards pulled out a coin, and his fingertip lit up.

The coin was attached to the lock cylinder.

"Snap." No response.

The King of Cards frowned and threw out a second card.

"Slap slap."

The lock cylinder remained completely still.

"Damn, triple insurance?"

The purple light flashed three times before the clips on the inside of the steel cover popped open neatly.

"This crappy place is even stricter than the French central bank."

Just as the gerbil was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a "beep beep" sound came from above its head.

The red light flashed, and the steel gate closed ahead of schedule!

Wolverine roared and pounced, bracing himself against the edge of the gate with his arms.

The muscles in his shoulders and back bulged out inch by inch, and blood flowed down his arms.

"Let's go! I can't hold out for ten seconds!"

The gears of the steel gate made a "click-clack" sound, like an iron beast biting its prey.

The gerbil scrambled through, and Gambit followed, dragging his box.

As Wolverine emerged last, the steel gate slammed down with a bang, slicing off half of his boot sole.

He kicked the wreckage away and cursed a very dirty word.

At the end of the ventilation shaft was a rusted maintenance door.

Stephen Chow cleaved it in two with a single stroke.

A blast of cold air emanated from the lower level of the vault, where three makeshift cells lined the wall.

The first two rooms are empty.

There were drag marks on the ground, and bloodstains stretched all the way to the distant freight corridor.

There was a child's sneaker in the corner, with a crooked rainbow painted on the surface.

In the last room, four people huddled in a corner.

The boy was so thin he was just a skeleton, with transparent membranes growing between his fingers.

The old lady had a full head of white hair, and her skin was so dry and cracked that it resembled a dried-up riverbed.

The girl, around ten years old, had one blue eye and one gold eye, and her face was covered in bruises.

There was also a young man with a face full of burns, and the remnants of insect wings on his back were drooping.

Upon hearing the door open, all four people simultaneously shrank back.

Wolverine's steel claws snapped out half an inch with a "whoosh" sound, then abruptly retracted.

"Oh shit!"

He let out a low growl, turned around, and slammed his fist against the wall.

A hole was created in the concrete.

The strategist stared at the little girl for a long time before finally managing to utter, "I've seen a lot of bastards..."

"But these suit-wearing bastards..."

Stephen Chow didn't say anything.

He took the briefcase from the strategist, then took out some compressed biscuits and water and placed them at the door.

But no one dared to make a move.

After the King of Cards used the spare key to open the door and let the group out, the little girl stared at Stephen Chow for several seconds before crawling over and grabbing the water bottle.

She didn't drink it first.

Instead, he handed it to the old lady next to him.

Stephen Chow turned around and went to rummage through the filing cabinet next to him.

The cabinet was unlocked and filled with shipping labels and file folders with photos.

[Targets of Credit Collapse]

[Targets for Acquisition of Healthcare Debt]

High-risk supernatural assets

On each sheet of paper, a name is followed by a debt, medical record, eviction notice, and unemployment certificate.

Stephen Chow's finger stopped on a child's file.

The guardian died.

The house was repossessed by the bank.

The welfare system is out of service.

Ability Assessment: Resaleable.

He folded the paper and stuffed it into his inner pocket.

They specifically prey on people who are penniless, homeless, and without anyone to care for them.

The King of Cards took a closer look.

"Those suit-wearing bastards from Yinfeng, they really know how to calculate things beautifully."

While they were looking at the documents, the gerbil crouched down at the bottom of the cabinet and touched a silver encrypted key with its fingers.

His eyes darted around, and he quickly stuffed the item into his sleeve.

The movements were very gentle.

Stephen Chow caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye but didn't say anything.

He had just put another stack of transfer slips into the compartment of his suitcase when he felt a jolt above his head.

The vault lights flickered twice, and concrete debris fell in a flurry.

A muffled, thunderous explosion came from afar, along with the sound of propellers from above the ground.

Getting closer.

The gerbil turned pale: "It must be Silver Peak's men!"

The King of Cards looked up, and his ears twitched.

"Judging from the sound, it'll be cut through in three minutes at most."

Wolverine's claws snapped out with a "whoosh," illuminating the cell doorway with six beams of cold light.

"Then let them all stay."