“This was supposed to be an easy fight!” A aty hand slamd the wooden table, causing the map made out of parchnt on the table and empty mugs of ale to tremble. The sa hand pointed nacingly at a group of young n, who flinched slightly.
“All you had to do was defend against the Red Lions, and instead you idiots turned it into an ugly fight that got one of the repaynt fodder killed for nothing. We lost control of that entire block!” The owner of the hand berated the group, chiding them for their incompetence.
“It wasn’t our fault – Riker was too strong! We need more equipnt and train-” One of the guys complained, infuriated at the one-sided scolding.
“You’re useless, Damian. If I was there, I could easily beat him with one hand tied behind my back. Back in my heyday, I used to be the champion in this district! , Ulon Baktar! Even the Ardent Cretins knew about my na.” The gang leader of the Seven Snakes smacked his chest with that sa aty hand.
Then why don’t you go there and fight yourself, huh? Damian internally raged as Ulon Baktar went on a spiel about the good old days and how the Seven Snakes used to be a great gang, controlling more than three districts in the South Sector. Now they were a small-ti racket, barely a factor in the criminal underbelly of Raktor.
The only reason why the twenty gang mbers remained behind was that they were far too weak to join the other gangs, as well as being locals of this district right here. Their friends, family and acquaintances were all here – leaving the gang ant their relationships would be subject to abuse by Ulon. Damian grimaced, shooting an angry glare at Ulon. If only I had enough strength to kill him in a duel…
“Don’t you know how I beca gang leader? I duelled the previous one as per tradition, winning easily! It is ALL of you, the useless trash, that is dragging down the reputation we once had!” Ulon accused.
Before Ulon could continue his monologue any further, the door burst wide open, with Kyle Hawthorn entering, dragging the badly beaten-up Riker, who was still slightly whimpering as his wounded limbs were continuously cut by the rough flooring. Kyle had Riker’s enchanted tal pipe strapped to his belt, his clothes still drenched in dried blood.
Tossing Riker to the side without care, Kyle walked up to face Ulon directly, who was still sitting behind the table. “You are the gang leader of the Seven Snakes?” Kyle asked stoically.
“Al-Alvin, I heard from Damian that you were badly hurt. They thought you dead! Where did you find Riker? Was it another gang that intervened? Did we get back the block?” Ulon was happy about seeing one of Red Lion’s goons in terrible shape, focusing on Riker’s bruised face with glee.
Kyle snapped his fingers once, a light but sohow extrely clear and attention-grabbing sound. “Answer the question.”
Ulon was slightly taken aback by the sheer confidence that Alvin now radiated. Instead of replying directly, Ulon was more angered by the fact that this lowly repaynt fodder had the audacity to act like he was in charge. “Yes, I am your gang leader, and I order you to get back into formation behind Damian before I punish you again! Seems like the gang fight has made you forget how we run. You belong to !”
“I heard you killed the previous leader in a duel. I challenge you to a duel for the position of the gang leader.”
The entire room was shocked. The weak Alvin now suddenly standing up to Ulon? What in the world has gotten into him? He had just ‘co back’ from the dead.
Ulon squinted his eyes. “You do know it’s a life-or-death duel, no?”
Kyle didn’t respond, rely staring right at Ulon’s plump face, waiting for his reply. The nonchalant expression on Kyle’s face irked Ulon even more.
“Good; if you want to be beaten to death so much, I’ll happily oblige. I won’t be killing off my property so soon, though – I’ll have you taste punishnt!”
“Very well.” Kyle imdiately delivered a strong frontal kick to the table, smacking right into Ulon and toppling him over in the chair. The table cracked apart in the middle from the force, causing Ulon to be caught off-guard and slightly disorientated from the shock as he tried to get up.
Before Ulon could recover, Kyle grabbed the enchanted tal pipe from his waist belt, running up and smacking it as hard as he could on Ulon’s undefended head. A loud snapping sound was heard, Ulon’s forearm shattering in a desperate attempt to block.
[SYSTEM SSAGE]
Item
[Enchanted tal Pipe (Basic)]
A pipe to bend the rules
Active Skill: Reinforcent – Increased force when hitting
MP Cost Per Activation: 2 MP
Duration: Thirty Seconds
Cooldown: Two minutes
Instead of crying out, Ulon bore the pain and began to try and fight back while he still lay on the floor, throwing a few punches and kicks, runes on his necklace glowing green. A green aura enveloped Ulon, healing the wound on his forearm like magic and nding. “Hah, you think you can-“
Another quick smack on his arm interrupted Ulon, cracking his forearm again, followed by a flurry of rapid hits. Kyle wasn’t about to let Ulon heal normally, continuously whacking.
“Wai-WAIT! STOP!” Ulon scread, sticking his other good arm out, which was unceremoniously hit by the enchanted tal pipe too. Kyle whacked with consistency, never stopping and with a constant breath, as though he was pounding a dough of bread.
The beating continued for three minutes, the necklace’s glow beginning to faint. Ulon could barely talk now, his face a complete ss covered in blood and snot. Kyle finally grabbed the tal pipe with both arms before smashing it right down on Ulon’s head, a soft little spurt echoing through the office.
None of the other mbers dared to move during the entire duel, shocked by the sheer brutality revealed by Alvin. It was as if a different human – no, a monster had awoken within Alvin.
Kyle was about to raise his tal pipe to hit Ulon again when a ssage appeared.
[System ssage]
Killed [Ulon Baktar], 500 EXP
[SYSTEM SSAGE]
Level Up!
Level 2 ---> Level 9
[Stats Increase]
All Stats Increase
Bonus Free Points Granted
[SYSTEM SSAGE]
Title Obtained
[Usurper (Basic)]
So, climbing the ranks huh?
5 STR, 3 DEX, 10% damage to those of higher authority
Kyle rested his bloodied tal pipe on his shoulders and bent over to rip Ulon’s necklace from his neck, curious about the source of the green aura.
[SYSTEM SSAGE]
Item Obtained
[Necklace of Healing (Basic)]
For the timid of heart.
3 INT, 3 VIT, 1 CHA
Active Skill: Heal(Basic) – Restore a tiny amount of health
Cooldown: Ten seconds
Kyle glanced around at the frightened gang mbers. “Anyone else want to try ?”
The gang mbers shook their heads rapidly, including Damian. While Ulon was a slob and a lazy leader, there was no doubt he was well-defended and had a solid constitution. The number of hits Kyle had to deliver to kill Ulon was a testimonial to that. Kyle didn’t even look tired out, his eyes still staring directly at them with rapt attention.
“No, leader.” Damian bowed imdiately, a slight fear erupting on his face as he realised that Kyle could maybe beat all of them up without breaking a sweat. If I couldn’t beat Ulon, I can’t beat Alvin now!
“Good. From now on, the gang is under . The na shall remain the sa. Who’s the oldest gang mber here?” Kyle asked.
The gang mbers looked at each other, completely confused about Alvin’s apparent mory loss. Did he really not rember anything about the gang? “I’ve been here the longest, about five years now, Alvin.”
“Ok, the rest of you, dump the two bodies into the nutri-recycler or the airlock and get out. You stay. Also, from now on, my na is Kyle, got it?” Kyle motioned with a dismissive tone.
Expressions of utter confusion were apparent to the gang mbers. They begin to whisper among each other, wondering if Alvin finally went senile or was pushed to the edge by the near-death experience, creating a bipolar personality. What the fuck was a nutri-recycler?
A loud and clear snap rang through the room again. “I said, got it?” Kyle stared them down with a stern expression, causing the rest of the gang mbers to nod their heads vigorously, exiting the room while carrying the dead Ulon and unconscious Riker.
Kyle kicked the broken table apart, retrieved the sohow structurally sound chair and sat down on it before staring right at Damian. “Na?”
“Alvin, do you not rember ? What happened to you in that fight? I swear I didn’t an to abandon you; it’s just…” Damian rambled, before looking up into Kyle’s eyes, seeing that he was extrely serious and not in a joking manner. The blotches of blood that stained his clothes added even more intimidation.
“My na is Damian, leader.” Damian formally replied after a few seconds, to which Kyle finally nodded.
“I’m going to be asking so questions. You will answer imdiately and directly to the best of your abilities.”
Damian nodded. Did he lose all his mories, and a bipolar personality took over or sothing?
“Good. I only need to know four things. First, economic factors. What is the current state of the economy? Average debt per person?”
“Eco-what?” Damian was already lost.
Kyle took a deep breath, knowing this was going to be tough.
“Fine. What is the population of the city?”
“Yes, sir, the city of Raktor is ho to approximately eight million people. We are currently in the South Sector.” He did lose all his mories.
“What is the level of technology here?”
“Level of technology…? Well, most of the new stuff runs on arctech, machinery and so on. I’m not sure how to explain it…” Damian scratched his head.
Kyle frowned visibly, causing Damian to tense up slightly. “How does this city make money? Do you have a currency system?”
“Ah yes, the city is a big trade hub, so most of the money cos from trading and services. We’re at the edge of the empire, bordering two other nations. There are a few factories, but they are still fairly new and not scaled up yet; mostly research. The currency is rakels.”
“So a nascent industrialisation society…”
“Na-sce-nt?”
“Ignore that. How does the Seven Snakes make money now?”
“Oh, the usual. We provide protection services to traders and stall owners in this district as well as other shops. We also trade in alcohol and own a few brothels. Or at least we used to.”
“Alcohol?”
“Yes, wine, moonshine, the usual. There’s a citywide ban on alcohol and many other things now, so the gangs have been fighting or negotiating for every inch of territory to cash in on potential custors. That was why we were fighting for that area, Alv… Kyle. Leader, sorry.”
Kyle’s eyes seed to light up. It seems that one of his first steps has already been accomplished. “How rich are we right now relative to the rest of the city? Top 5%, I assu?”
“Pe-rc-ent? What’s that? Actually, we’ve been in debt since three months ago to another gang called the Crimson Swords.” Damian said with a sheepish smile.
Kyle’s eyes imdiately lost their light, but he was unfazed. There was still a chance.
“You ntioned arctech; what’s that?”
“Arctech is equipnt that relies on energy, specifically arcia energy. Can be found stored in arcite ore.”
“Arcite?”
“A mineral that provides energy, other than living beings and leylines. Sothing that powers weapons like your tal pipe.”
Kyle checked his still bloodied tal pipe, noticing the runes on it. It did not activate when he was swinging it for so reason.
“How big is our gang? This can’t be all the mbers, right? Where are the rest? I was told by the Red Lion mber that we control an entire district.”
Damian was a bit ashad, seeing Kyle ask it with such confidence. “This is the full strength. Twenty n are all we have. We barely have any money to recruit any more. We used to be bigger.”
Damian watched Kyle grip the tal pipe even harder, causing him to tremble slightly as Kyle’s face seed to simr with rage or disappointnt.
Kyle pondered for a mont before realising sothing missing. “Are drugs banned? Psychedelics? Hallucinatory products?” Kyle tried every term he could think of.
“Ps-ki-eric-ks? Drugs? What? If you’re talking about hallucinations, an engraved array or a potion would be able to inflict illusions. We have alchemists in the city, though such potions are ridiculously overpriced and hard to procure. Nobody uses them…”
A small smile appeared on Kyle’s face as he heard the keywords he wanted to hear, which only frightened Damian even more. It was the smile of a businessman knowing he’s found a hole in the market.
“Now we’re getting sowhere.”
WELCO TO RAKTOR, KYLE HAWTHORN
Level 9
Max HP: 34( 0)( 0)
Max MP: 0( 0)( 0)
Max STA: 34( 0)( 0)
[Status Effects]
NONE
[STATS]
Race Human Class ??? STR 43( 17)( 0) DEX 39( 13)( 0) INT 36( 10)( 0) VIT 30( 0)( 0) CHA 20( 10)( 0) Free Points 40 [EQUIPNT] NONE [SKILLS] NONE [TITLES] [Forr Cri Lord]
A bigshot in your previous life, so much for that, huh?
10 INT, 10 CHA
[Martial Arts Training]
The best things between you and death are your fists
10 STR, 10 DEX
[Murderer]
Everyone has to start sowhere
2 STR, 10% Increased Damage to Humans
[Usurper (Basic)]
So, climbing the ranks huh?
5 STR, 3 DEX, 10% damage to those of higher authority
Reviews
All reviews (0)