In the coffee shop of Luoshan Zi during a late shift, Gloria was ready to run for a quick delivery, which was relatively close to the docks area. After opening the door with her foot, she reminded Gabby the temp waitress before completely going out: “Gabby, remember to double check the filters in the new coffee machine. And make sure the milk foamer is working.”

“No problem! On it right now!” Gabby answered from the kitchen.

Gloria closed the door, holding a paper bag filled with bakeries and a tray of three drinks and gradually started accelerating towards the address. She was already familiar with the area, so she already knew where it was in general, she just needed to find the unit when she’s in the building.

The entrance to the docks area was on the other side of the street. And since time was getting late, the sun was setting, and the moon appeared in the sky. The people in the docks area were packing up and were ready to go home.

The building to which Gloria was heading was a ten storey apartment complex in the residential area overlooking the Mud River area. It was an old building with visible stains from weathering on its exterior. But even with old infrastructure, the less than ideal surrounding area and its lack of fences and a gate separating it from the rest of the area, it was still one of the most sought after places for rent, purely because of the location.

Yet things seem different now - when Gloria walked to the entrance of the building, she saw posters stuck to the message board beside the door. There were several of them, the latest was on top, and the earlier ones were stuck underneath. She lifted through the small pile of “looking for tenant” posters, it looked like the earliest one was from more than a month ago.

“Huh.” Gloria shrugged, then tried pulling the front gate. It appeared that she did not need to buzz anyone, as the gate just swung right open with her pull.

The address was on the fourth floor, room 417. The customer was someone who, at least from what she could remember, never ordered from the coffee shop before. Maybe she was someone who would come in.

“Coffee and bakery delivery! Zishan Cafe!” Gloria knocked on the door and announced herself.

The door slowly creaked open, after the sounds of several locks being opened. A short woman answered the door, with a full head of messy hair, two very obviously dilated pupils and reeking of chemicals and obvious stains on the fingertips. “I’m - I’m sorry? Who are you?”

“Zishan Bakery and Coffee, you called and ordered?” Gloria asked with a light frown - she was beginning to suspect if Gabby took down the wrong apartment number, as this confused woman in front of her seemed to be in no condition to order anything coherently.

“That’s me. ” A man’s voice came from behind this short woman. Then a tall and hairy man with equally messy hair and beard came to the door, his body odor struck Gloria before he even appeared before her: “I ordered five donuts, three pineapple buns and three coffees. You have them?”

“Here.” Gloria tried not to frown at the layered, pungent smell and handed the food and drinks over.

“Okay.” The man looked into the bag, then reached into his pocket on his greasy pants and took out a new looking bill and handed it to Gloria: “Keep the change.”

Gloria took the bill and felt it with her fingertips then looked at it under the light - it was more than twice than the delivery was worth. The bill appeared to be legitimate, so she just reasoned it was because the man was on drugs.

“It’s legit. We’ve just got paaaaaaid.” The man spoke with slurring words and an intoxicated and lewd smile, while looking Gloria up and down: “You know, if you come in and spend some time with us, you can earn three times more than this. Wanna come in?”

“Thank you. ” Gloria took a step back, noticing the offended look on the short woman’s face: “But no, I’m good, thanks.”

“You’re sure? It’d be fun and - ” The man tried to ask again.

“We’re not sharing! We’re not sharing shit!” The woman raised her voice and slammed the door in front of Gloria.

When Gloria turned and started walking away, she could still hear them arguing.

On her way back, she passed through the same street on the side of the docks area. And this time, a strange feeling arose. It was something in the wind, in the air, and even in the sky above. At first, she just thought that it was because the sun was setting. But as she looked around and expanded her senses by pushing her Qi, she felt that something just seemed off - she just could not tell what it was.

After sensing this and a short moment of consideration, Gloria decided to rush back to the coffee shop, and got ready to close down.

“Gabby, take today off early.” When Gloria came back to the coffee shop, she saw that there were only two customers waiting in the shop, so she said to the young woman sharing her shift, while handing the big clean bill directly to her: “Here: I’ll mark you completed the shift.”

“Woah - what’s happening? ” Gabby was a bit worried when she received the bill: “Something wrong?”

“No - nothing wrong. It’s just - looks like the - the weather is getting bad soon, I don’t want you to go through the trouble. So I am thinking maybe we should close down early. We don’t have many guests anyway.” Gloria found a quick excuse, but she quickly noticed something from Gabby’s tone: “Wait - is something bothering you? Something wrong? You seem worried.”

“Oh? No - no, it’s just - ” Gabby immediately shook her head: “It’s just some of my friends have been losing their shifts, so - ”

“Oh, I see.” Gloria sighed: “No, it’s not that. That will be left to the owner. She hasn’t said anything.”

“Okay.” Gabby nodded: “Let me finish up the two drinks first?”

“Sure.” Gloria nodded.

Gabby seemed still worried when she left. And Gloria, not attempting to make her worried on the off chance that she might stay around in the area, actually cleaned up the store and closed down. She chose not to go home after this. Instead, she texted Sue that she would be home late, and started looking round the area for a place where she could just wait around. She decided to stay and look at what might be wrong herself. Sue was just a civilian, though she should have already known that Gloria and Gyuu Park were practitioners of the de facto forbidden mystic martial arts. Gyuu Park, on the other hand, looked like he had a ton on his plate, and Gloria just did not want to trouble him until she had something solid.

Luckily, there was a place for Gloria - a 24-hour internet cafe, which also served drinks and snacks, hidden in a small alley in the neighborhood.