1 001: The Man with the Mask (1)

May, Night City.

Hao Emperor International Club.

The night sinks like water, and is as profoundly secretive.

Tara Summer opens her eyes to wake up, only to be met with endless, jet-black darkness. The silence around her is as black as thick ink. The darkness, like a demon, with its teeth bared and claws dancing, is terrifying and chilling.

Tara Summer squeezes her eyebrows and feels her around to get up off the ground. She instinctively takes two steps forward, and with a thud, accidentally bumps into a vase. The vase topples over on the carpet, and although the sound of its impact isn't loud, it reverberates strangely clear in the dead quiet of the environment.

Tara Summer stops in her tracks, and based on the echoes of the vase's crash, guesses that she is in a large enclosed room.

With furrowed brows, she continues to feel her way forward. As soon as she takes her first step, she hears a slight stir. Although the sound is extremely faint, she senses it distinctly.

There is someone else here!

"Who is it? Who's there?" She turns anxiously towards the direction of the sound. In the inky darkness, she can't discern anything, but the strong aura is impossible to ignore.

As soon as she finishes speaking, a steady sound of footsteps can be heard. The footsteps are getting closer, and even though she cannot see the person, she can still feel the domineering pressure.

As the footsteps approach, Tara Summer retreats to the point of tripping over a sofa and falling onto the floor.

"Hmm." She gently grunts, touching the back of her head that was hit once again, cursing in her heart: God damn it, can this day get any worse? First, she gets randomly knocked out on the street, wakes up in this pitch-black and desolate place, and then bumps her head again. Is she destined to become a bumbling fool!?

Just as she's grumbling to herself, the sound of footsteps suddenly goes silent. Through the darkness, Tara Summer feels like an icy and sharp gaze is inspecting her.

Inspection? In this extreme darkness, there's nothing to see, and yet an inspection? What nonsense! She must have damaged her brain, hence the hallucination!

"Hey..." She sits on the carpet, about to speak, when all of a sudden a "beep" sound rings out, and the previously closed curtains of the French window start to open slowly.

Tara Summer stares at the opening curtains. It's the fifteenth of the month, a full moon night. The bright moonlight pierces through the window, instantly covering the entire luxurious Persian velvet carpet in front of the window.

She takes a look around and finally grasps that she is in a luxurious and opulent bedroom. Everything in the room is golden and glittering, especially the large bed in the center of the bedroom, which is extravagant to the point of speechlessness.

"Ah!" As she shifts her gaze, her eyes fall on a tall figure standing about ten steps away, and she gasps in surprise.

"You... you...you..." With widened eyes, her face slightly pale, Tara Summer swears she has never seen such a person in her life—

A man, it's a man!

He stands in the moonlight, tall and straight. His statuesque figure is bathed in pallid luminescence, akin to the god of the underworld, ghostly and mesmerizing.

He is clad in a black suit, wearing a half silver-black mask. His cool lips, resolute chin exposed in the moonlight, and his jet-black hair, further highlight his rebellious and chilly aura.

Though the man is simply standing there, his aura exudes an imposing and sharp vibe. His gaze, hidden in the shadows and as sharp as a blade, paired with his sculpted and deep facial features, radiates a compelling masculine charm. Like a cheetah, he appears extremely dangerous.

"Who...are you?" Tara Summer stares at the man not too far away.

*****

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