Chapter 239

The diner was still. The smell of spilled coffee and the faint metallic tang of blood lingered in the air. The robbers lay scattered across the floor, groaning softly in defeat. As the door chimed shut behind the hooded figure, a collective breath seemed to exhale from the room, as if everyone had been holding it the entire time. For a moment, nobody moved. It was as though the entire diner had been suspended in time, processing the sheer speed and intensity of what had just unfolded.

Then, all at once, the murmurs began.

"Did you see that?" a man seated at the counter whispered in disbelief to the waitress beside him, his fork halfway to his mouth, frozen in mid-bite. "I mean, they took down four guys. Four! Just like that."

The waitress nodded, still wide-eyed and trembling slightly. "I—I don't even know what happened. It was so fast," she stammered, clutching the edge of the counter for support. "One second, they were just sitting there... the next—bam!"

At a nearby booth, a group