Logan waited in the lobby for a moment before a mature, uniformed woman walked out. He glanced at the name tag on her chest: Sophia Chu, Client Manager.
"Are you Mr. Logan?" Sophia Chu asked politely, her smile professional. "Please, follow me."
Logan nodded and followed Sophia to the VIP room.
Sophia began by explaining the process of purchasing physical gold bars.
Buying physical gold often results in a loss if the price doesn't increase by at least a few dollars per gram, due to additional costs like processing and service fees.
But Logan wasn't buying gold as an investment, so losing a bit of money didn't bother him.
"I've already looked into it. Let's proceed with the transaction."
They went through the steps: selecting the specifications, opening an account, and filling out the paperwork.
Everything went smoothly, except for Sophia's lingering gaze, which made Logan a bit uncomfortable.
With his $25.4 million, at today's international gold price of $412 per gram, after deducting processing and service fees, Logan could purchase 60 gold bars, each weighing 1,000 grams.
Logan chose 1,000 grams per bar because it was easier to manage—two bars were enough to upgrade his space.
After buying the gold bars, he could choose to store them in the bank or take them home.
Logan opted to take them home.
Sophia Chu retrieved 60 gold bars from the safe, laying them out one by one on the counter.
Her eyes grew increasingly eager as she looked at Logan.
With this large an investment in gold, Logan was undoubtedly a major client.
The thought of earning a commission worth two months' salary made Sophia Chu find this young man more and more appealing.
Logan averted his gaze, looking elsewhere.
When he returned the duplicated gold bars tomorrow, this woman might just want to devour him.
The VIP room was separated from the lobby by a large frosted glass window, with thin stripes allowing a partial view of the lobby.
Bored, Logan scanned the bank's lobby, and suddenly, his gaze froze.
He noticed something off about one of the people in the crowd.
Upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn't just one person, but four.
These four men were dressed normally, appearing casual as they sat in different parts of the bank, waiting in line.
Even the bank's security guards hadn't noticed anything unusual.
But Logan had survived eight years in the apocalypse, had seen many ruthless criminals, and had killed more people than he could count.
He could tell at a glance that these four men were exuding a deadly aura!
This was still a peaceful time—how could ordinary people have such a murderous aura?
Could it be?
Had he stumbled into a bank robbery on his very first visit?
Logan racked his brain, trying to recall if there had been any news of a bank robbery in Haishi before the apocalypse, but he couldn't remember anything.
Had his return triggered some kind of butterfly effect?
As if sensing Logan's gaze, one of the men turned his head. Logan quickly looked away.
Haishi was one of the safest cities in Xia Country, and this was the largest bank in Haishi. Who would dare to rob it?
Everyone knew that robbing a bank was never worth the risk.
Maybe he was overthinking it.
The others couldn't see into the VIP room from the outside, but Logan still felt uneasy.
Better safe than sorry.
This was his entire life savings—if it were stolen, he'd have nowhere to cry.
Turning his head, he whispered urgently to Sophia Chu, who was still counting the gold bars, "Hold on, I'm not buying today."
He didn't know when these four men had entered, but his suitcase had been quite conspicuous, and he had walked straight into the VIP room.
If these people had other intentions, he might already be a target!
"What?!" Sophia Chu thought she had misheard.
"I said, I'm not buying today. I'll come back another day." Logan kept his voice low.
However, Sophia felt Logan was playing games with her. After all this effort, with the gold bars laid out, he was telling her he wasn't buying?
Was her commission gone?
Sophia was furious, and her voice rose in volume:
"Sir, your transaction has already been processed, and the amount has been deducted. If you want to cancel—"
"Cancel it!" Logan cut her off, hoping she'd quickly put the gold bars away.
Sophia's face turned blue with anger, but she forced a smile.
Instead of putting the gold bars away, she continued to argue with Logan.
"Mr. Logan, these gold bars are already yours. If you want to return them, it will go through the buyback process, and you'll lose the processing and service fees."
Logan glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw one of the men approaching the VIP room.
The man appeared to be in his thirties, dressed in black casual wear, with a close-cropped haircut and unremarkable features. But there was a hidden fierceness in his eyes—this man had killed before.
And despite being of Asian descent, something about him gave Logan the impression that he wasn't a local.
That one glance convinced Logan that his suspicion might be correct!
Sophia Chu was still droning on about the rules.
Logan cursed inwardly—this woman was clueless!
He leaned in and whispered urgently, "Put the gold bars away! If they're stolen, it's your responsibility!"
Sophia was infuriated by Logan's stubbornness, her chest heaving with anger:
"Mr. Logan, the gold bars are still here on my counter. Even if they're stolen, it's the bank's responsibility. Please don't change the subject."
Logan's focus shifted: "So you're saying if they're stolen now, I'm not liable?"
At this point, a security guard, sensing something was off, approached the man.
The VIP room typically handled large transactions, so seeing someone approach it made the guard instinctively wary.
The guard walked up to the man with the close-cropped hair and blocked his path:
"Sir, for regular transactions, please wait in line in the lobby."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know."
The man smiled apologetically, as if about to bow in apology.
But Logan's pupils suddenly contracted.
A black handgun quickly emerged from the man's pocket and was pressed against the guard's abdomen. A gunshot rang out, and the guard fell to the ground, blood pouring from his abdomen, staining his once-clean uniform.
In the next second, the other three criminals also drew their guns!
Each fired a shot at the guards who had pulled out their batons.
Gunshots and screams echoed through the lobby.
And then came the blaring of the alarm.
One of the bank staff behind the counter had immediately pressed the alarm button.
But the close-cropped man had already fired a shot to break open the VIP room door.
Logan locked eyes with the man.
Seeing the greed and murderous intent in the man's eyes, Logan immediately dropped to the ground.
He curled up in the corner, hands over his head.
If you asked him what to do in a dangerous situation, Logan would confidently tell you: If you can fight, fight. If you can't, run. If you can't run, play dead.
They had four guns, and he was unarmed.
Stand up and be a hero? Don't be ridiculous—staying alive was the priority.