And thus, the two-day bachelor party was planned as such – on the first day of the party, they would spend it in the penthouse. The staff of the hotel would serve them drinks and fine food while they spent the day “bonding” over classic group activities. Such as setting up a billiards or dart tournament. Or gambling their pants off playing poker. Because it wouldn’t be a proper bachelor party if it didn’t result in the creation of blackmail material!

Thus, if getting drunk and losing their pants while gambling didn’t provide them with enough black history to laugh about in the future, there were also backup plans such as playing ‘spin the bottle’, or singing karaoke on the fancy new karaoke equipment they brought in.

In any case, during this party, they would give Swiftrain a couple of opportunities to strike, and if he still didn’t bite, then there was still the continuation of the party tomorrow. The activities of which included skiing and relaxing in the spa.

Though, to be honest, Noah was not at all worried about Swiftrain not biting. After getting into three terrorist attacks, everyone expected Levi and Noah to pay extra attention to their safety in the near future. Knowing this, Swiftrain, too, would expect the future hits to be hard to pull off. Which was why it would be all the harder to resist an opportunity when it revealed itself.

As long as they avoided raising his alarm bells, he would certainly take the shot.

***

Levi strolled around the suite with a spring in his step, monitoring the staff who were finishing up the party preparations. Everything had been going smoothly so far.

Well, nearly everything.

Levi, with his eyebrows furrowed, stopped to stare towards the opposite rooftop through the floor to ceiling window in the dining room. The majority of the glass windows and doors in the condo were one-sided, so while Levi could clearly see the state on the other side, no outside observer could peer in.

“Something is not right,” Levi’s frown deepened. “The entire place is swarming with reporters. The location of the bachelor party must have been leaked to the media.”

Noah sat crumpled in a nearby bean bag chair. Hearing Levi’s pleasant deep voice, his toes curled up, and his cheeks reddened. He cutely fidgeted his bottom left and right, peeking in Levi’s direction from the corner of his eyes.

Noah’s gaze inadvertently caught the state of the west rooftop, and he couldn’t help but yelp, “Eh? So crowded!” The incredulity within his voice lasted only for a moment before turning into satisfaction, “That’s great! With so many people, Swiftrain would feel safe. He’ll definitely take the shot. In fact, it might have been the terrorists who leaked our location in the first place. The more people there are, the easier it is for Swiftrain to hide within the crowd and slip away unnoticed.”

Hearing his darling’s lovely voice, Levi’s frown visibly eased, “But with so many people, there are also too many dead angles. We might not be able to catch the shot.”

Fynn and Levi’s people had set up hidden cameras everywhere in order to catch all movements on the rooftop. Actually, it wasn’t just the rooftop – there were hidden cameras all over the resort so that Fynn could get a clear shot of all arrivals. Since yesterday, Fynn and his team had been screening the footage for Swiftrain candidates. They had been identifying the visitors via facial recognition and tracking their movements to narrow down the suspects. However, with so many people arriving by the minute, Levi was afraid they lacked the manpower to stay in control of the situation.

Noah understood Levi’s worries but didn’t share them. He had his omnidirectional recording device known as Blackie. He had already given this cheat of an AI clear directions to record the movements of everyone in his large monitoring radius. No matter how many dead angles Swiftrain exploited, he would never be able to hide from Blackie’s scanner-like vision that wasn’t even blocked by walls.

In fact, Swiftrain didn’t even need to strike, just showing up was enough for Blackie to deduce his identity. Blackie was also collecting the serial numbers of everyone’s communicators and monitoring incoming and outgoing communications. Though the encryption technology of this world was considered advanced when compared to Noah’s homeworld, in the eyes of a supercomputer made by the most advanced technology in the multiverse, it might as well be nonexistent.

“Trust me, we’ll definitely catch him this time,” Noah reassured, his large doe-like eyes gleaming with confidence.

Levi glanced back at his adorable baby, and the remnants of his frown completely dissipated. How could he muster up any unpleasant thoughts when in the presence of his precious darling? Ah, today, it was as if his entire soul was infused with the warmth of spring! All negative thoughts were blocked from outside by his love shield!

Blackie, (￢_￢;) ‘Oh, yeah. Your so-called “love shield” is super effective. Blocking all kinds of things outside. Negativity. Decency. Common sense…–No, wait, my bad. Can’t block what was never there in the first place. ╮(╯∀╰)╭’

In Levi’s defense, it wasn’t entirely his fault. His precious darling was too distracting! Ever since the events of this morning, Noah was hyper-aware of Levi’s presence. He was acting like a mouse seeing a cat!

Every once in a while, Noah would get distracted, his vigilance relaxing, but then, as soon as Levi approached within two meters distance, Noah would remember certain events and jump up as if he had his tail stepped on. He would then, of course, realize he was overreacting and try to pretend like nothing was wrong. He’d put on a poker face, but this pretend-calm made him look all the more eye-catching because, no matter how he controlled his facial expression, he couldn’t control the pink hue of his face!

And as if it all wasn’t funny enough, all his mental faculties seemed to have been directed into controlling his facial expression, which left the remainder of his body unsupervised. Thus, he was all cutely fidgety, not knowing where to place his limbs. He also avoided meeting Levi’s eyes, and when spoken to, his words would occasionally come out in a stutter.

In short, he was so fucking adorable Levi felt his insides had been so stuffed with sugar that even his blood had turned into caramel. Consequently, Levi’s mouth had been stuck in a perpetual smile for hours now.

He was even magnanimous enough to not pay Trey’s accusing glares any heed. If he had attention to spare, he was better off using it to watch his baby acting shy.

Alas, the more he watched, the more he wanted to tease his cute little kitten. The more he restrained himself, the less he could suppress his wicked desires.

Levi hid the crafty glimmer from leaking out of his eyes, acting like he intended to exit the room. However, midway, he abruptly changed directions towards his baby, blocking the other’s escape route in one swell move.

Levi closed in on his slouching baby like a big bad wolf cornering its prey. And as expected, the prey acted exactly as one – Noah’s eyes widened like a startled deer, and he shrunk into himself as if he hoped the bean bag would swallow him whole. His eyes instinctively darted left and right, and then, realizing how silly he was behaving, he lowered them to admire the carpet.

Levi crouched to Noah’s eye level to appreciate the delectable image of his bashful baby for a moment.

“Mn? Why so nervous?” Levi’s chest rumbled with a laugh, “I’m not going to eat you for lunch!” Then his eyes flashed a devious glint, and his voice lowered, “No guarantees for dinner though.”