Pinnacle Mountain State Park.

Since Pat Bright had died, Kyle and Swen, who suddenly found themselves without a superior, had continued their tasks out of inertia as low-level drug dealers.

The tasks Pat Bright had assigned them previously were to pick up and deliver goods and then hand over the money. The entire process was orchestrated by Pat. With Pat gone, one of the pickup points they had used before was still in operation—Double River Park.

Kyle and Swen, previously under Colin as lower-level hoodlums, had been intercepted by Pat Bright during a delivery due to the unstably stacked cargo in the car. With a conflict imminent, Kyle had drawn his pistol, but Pat Bright then revealed his identity. He was a member of the team and was in charge of the cargo transportation this time.

As for Kyle and Swen, they were directly assigned under Pat Bright, taking on the aliases Robert and Ed to work in the state park, managing the park, and waiting for tasks from Pat Bright.

Pat, the pickup, unstable goods—if you remember the previous details, you should guess it was the time Jimmy intercepted Pat on the road. By then, Kyle and Swen had already been assigned to the park while Pat was transporting that batch of goods, which were concealed in the pickup's bed behind a stack of faucets.

Pat Bright had high demands for Kyle and them while working in the park: to keep a low profile, not to mingle with the locals, not to bring women back, and so on. For the two low-tier dealers, these demands by Pat Bright were inescapable.

However, Pat still underestimated them. Kyle Bly, tall with a height of 190 cm paired with a muscular build, short curly hair, and a full beard, was quite eye-catching. He was quite popular in the park, well-regarded by both fellow staff and visitors. His only flaw was a past leg injury that made his walk slightly uneven.

Swen, on the other hand, epitomized the saying "looks can be deceiving." Standing short next to Kyle at just over 170 cm, a bit overweight, and with a sparse mustache, describing him as a greasy middle-aged man was not overstated.

Swen was perpetually sloppy in appearance, which looked totally unreliable. Nevertheless, he possessed a quality Kyle didn't—Swen was articulate and knowledgeable, something his Master's degree certificated could affirm.

Swen even broke Pat Bright's rule by starting a relationship with a female employee from a supermarket.

The death of Pat Bright was, strictly speaking, somewhat related to them both.

Some time ago, they had been assigned by Pat Bright to traffic drugs across state lines using a football to conceal the drugs. They drove to Louisiana to meet an old man.

After they collected the money, they headed straight back to the park, utterly oblivious that the old man's only relative, his grandson Nick, followed them back to the park.

Nick saw Kyle and them handing the football to the white-haired old man, Pat, setting his target on him.

In the night, unnoticed, Nick slipped into Pat Bright's house. What transpired between Nick and Pat Blake was unknown, only that a fire happened that day—the case Jimmy was investigating. From what Jimmy had seen at Frank's, it seemed Nick had walked straight into a trap.

Now, Jimmy knew that Pat was still alive, having left Arkansas and gone elsewhere to live, but the people back at the park didn't know.

Kyle and Swen handled the goods and the money. The money that Pat had previously withheld was now entirely in their hands.

With increasingly large amounts of money, they began to worry. As the lowest-tier foot soldiers, they lacked freedom and required a superior to direct them.

Since the drug supply was still ongoing, it indicated that the upper tiers of the team were still operational. Although they now lacked a middleman like Pat, the process was still smooth. If they ran off with the money now, they would definitely be blacklisted and hunted by the entire team.

Kyle tried contacting Colin's subordinates and Colin himself but couldn't reach anyone. He didn't yet know that Colin had long been killed by Frog, and they were technically under Frog now, although Frog hadn't yet arranged for someone to contact them.

Kyle and Swen were like a sail-less wooden boat, now just drifting with the flow, taking things one step at a time. At a crucial time, Swen's girlfriend got pregnant, leading Swen to spend much of his energy on her, leaving most of their work on Kyle's shoulders.

We return our focus to Jimmy, who is currently patrolling the roads, targeting a Ferrari. Forgive Jimmy for being broke; he couldn't recognize the model and guessed based on the emblem alone.

Jimmy sped up to follow the sports car and turned on his police lights. Unfortunately, the sports car paid no attention to the police car behind and sped away. Jimmy followed for a few minutes before giving up as he couldn't catch up, blaming his poor vehicle. On roads with little traffic, the acceleration of the sports car was indeed superior.

Jimmy reported the failed car chase to the dispatch center, reported the license plate, and then let it go. The dispatch center's system would record the license plate with a note about fleeing from the police; next time, luck wouldn't be on their side.

Jimmy slowed down and continued driving. A car ahead caught his attention—a blue sedan, driving normally, but because of a previous case, he recognized it among three blue sedans he had seen in hours of footage.

Jimmy immediately picked up the radio to call the dispatch center. After checking the license plate, he discovered another phony license. Since the case had been transferred to the State Police, he couldn't go directly and take the car himself. If a shootout erupted, whether he could handle it was one thing, but if everyone ended up dead, there would be nowhere to complain.

Contacting the State Police through the dispatch center, he started to follow the car from a distance without turning on his sirens or lights, just as if he were patrolling normally.

What Jimmy didn't expect was that the driver of the car ahead had noticed the police car a long time ago. Sensing that something might be wrong when he saw the police car continuing to follow, the driver timed the lights and passed through an intersection just as the light turned, leaving Jimmy stuck as they sped away.

Jimmy, inexperienced, suffered a setback. For criminals, having a police car nearby was critical, potentially meaning prison time. Seeing a police car trailing, whether or not the target was themselves, the first instinct was to flee.

Jimmy crossed the intersection and continued for a while but lost sight of the blue sedan, so he reported back to the dispatch center.

Having several setbacks today, Jimmy couldn't be bothered to fuss any further. He drove back, patrolling on his way to the station, killing time as he went.