359: Chapter 359: Brothers (Double-Length Chapter Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets) 359: Chapter 359: Brothers (Double-Length Chapter Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets) Mining Group headquarters building.
In the gloomy underground warehouse, a long, heavy-duty truck slowly drove out.
“Going to haul mining machines to the wilderness again today?
I heard it’s very dangerous outside the city.”
The guard at the door took the cargo transportation list from the driver’s hand, glanced at it, and verified it through the smart system.
He gazed briefly at the passenger seat, where there seed to be a shadow sleeping.
“What can I do,” the driver, a middle-aged man with an honest face and a sturdy build, passed a thick old cigarette to the guard,
“My daughter is going to junior high, and my wife wants a bigger house, money money money, everything is about money.
Although this job is dangerous, earning a little bit more is just that.”
“Sigh, none of us have it easy.
My kid’s also starting elentary school soon.”
The guard accepted the cigarette, lit it with an electronic lighter, placed it in his mouth, waved his hand, and opened the access control, “Safe travels.”
“Thanks.”
The driver waved his hand, rolled up the window, and started the vehicle.
The long, heavy-duty truck exited the underground warehouse and headed down the road that stretched into the night.
The car’s ornants swayed gently, and next to the steering wheel, a fra with a picture of a family of three vibrated slightly.
A ordinary couple nestled close together, with a cute girl standing in front holding a teddy bear and sporting braided pigtails, all smiling happily at the cara.
“Is this your child?”
A soft inquiry ca from the passenger seat, “How old is she now?”
“Yes,” the driver let down the window and lit a cigarette, “If she’s still alive, she’ll be twelve in a couple of days.”
“Still alive?”
The person seated in the passenger seat was taken aback.
“Three years ago, a few workmates and I banded together to organize a strike at the mine to protest the Mining Consortium’s increase in work hours,”
The driver spoke with the cigarette in his mouth, the thick smoke blurring his visage, “The Consortium had the Ice Wolf Gang kidnap my wife and daughter.
By the ti I got back, all I found were their cold bodies.”
“Sorry.”
The person on the passenger seat said softly.
“What’s there to be sorry about,”
The driver took the cigarette from his mouth and flicked it outside the window, “Our crappy mutual aid society is just a bunch of lonely lost souls who should have gone to hell long ago.
We’re just hanging onto this world by a thread of hatred, unwilling to leave.”
The truck flashed past on the road, the flickering street lights illuminating the cheeks of the person in the passenger seat.
He was a young man in his twenties, with a face as sharp as a knife and sharp eyes.
“The last batch of parts has been stolen, assembling them will take about thirty minutes.
Are you guys ready on your end?”
The young man changed the subject.
“We’ve secured a batch of small chas; you’ll have a dozen brothers to cover you.
The Ice Wolf Gang’s boss definitely has more than one C-level cha, so be careful,”
The driver paused for a mont, “Actually, you should’ve had more ti to get used to things since you just got back, but the Consortium has big moves planned in the next few days.
We don’t have any ti left, and that’s why the Old Foreman called you back early.”
“He’s already told .”
The young man nodded gently.
“I’ll go with you today.
I’ll lead those brothers.”
The driver said slowly.
The young man looked up at the driver, “It’s going to be very dangerous this ti.”
“I’ve lived long enough already,” the driver sucked hard on the cigarette, finishing it in one go, and flicked the butt out the window, “Before I die, to send a few of the Ice Wolf Gang bastards to hell…
it’s worth it.”
As he spoke, he looked at the young man, “But you, you’re so young.”
“I’ve been dead for two years already,”
The youth took out a tattered auxiliary study material from his bosom, the cover of which was covered with bloodstains.
He glanced at the material, “Heaven just won’t take , forcing to bring more bastards down to enrich the population of hell.”
“Hahaha.”
The driver laughed heartily.
Everyone sitting here was a dood, solitary soul.
The driver turned off the autopilot, cut off the vehicle’s network, and switched to full manual control.
He glanced at the auxiliary study material in the youth’s hand, “Do you have kids?”
“No, I have a brother,” the youth looked down at the book in his hands, the cover of which was stained with mottled, dried blood that had been there for who knows how long, “He did well in school, went to high school, and he’s also very well-behaved, not like who ssed with gangs and did not pursue a proper career after graduating from middle school.”
“How is he now?”
The driver glanced at the old auxiliary textbook.
“There were so accidents later on, I haven’t been ho for two years,” the young man looked out the window, “When I went back a few days ago, there wasn’t a single person left at ho, it seems the Consortium is pursuing him.”
Understanding the implication behind these words, everyone in the mutual aid society had so entanglent with the Mining Consortium.
With the thods and style of the Consortium, if there wasn’t a single person left at ho, it likely ant there was truly no one alive.
He could empathize with what the young man was feeling.
After joining the mutual aid society, one would generally sever ties with their original family and friends, live under an assud na.
This wasn’t done out of ruthlessness, but because they had amassed enough hatred against the Consortium that any action could bring disaster upon their family mbers.
Although, most mbers of the mutual aid society had in fact no family left.
Very few would take this path until it was the last resort.
The young man seed to have a special case; when he joined the mutual aid society, his family was still alive.
But he had left Rock City a long ti ago and during his lengthy exile, he might have always clung to the mory of his family.
Until he returned to Rock City and saw that empty ho, all mories turned into despair.
The driver understood very well the feeling of such devastating disappointnt.
Just before seeing the corpses of his own family, he also harbored endless hope.
“Your brother might still be alive,” the driver said, glancing at the youth, speaking softly to comfort him.
But he also knew that his words were re consolation.
There were few who could survive under the consortium’s pursuit; most beca unnad bodies in the crematorium while still wanted.
And after all, the one being pursued was a defenseless child.
“Maybe,” the youth gazed out the window, a bright wanted advert flashed by, the photograph showed a gentle and shy-smiling youth,
“He was the youngest child at ho, always so well-behaved and sensible since he was little.
He could have gone to university, found a good job, had a happy family…”
——
“So all this happened just because your father got accidentally involved in a protest against salary cuts, and he didn’t even plan to join the protest, prepared to accept the Consortium’s demand for pay reduction?”
Yoen stared blankly at He Ao, feeling a surge of anger in his chest.
He had thought his own misery was enough, until he learned of his ‘good friend’s’ experiences.
“And for this slight protest, the Consortium directly killed your father and several of his coworkers?
Because of this, one of your brothers died, another disappeared, another was jailed, both your sisters are dead, and your mother too?”
Yoen trembled as he spoke these words.
He believed that the missing brother probably had died a long ti ago, and the one in jail might have been ‘suicided’, but his friend was already tragic enough; he didn’t want to voice the more brutal truth.
If it were him enduring all this, he might have gone mad long ago.
Thinking this, he observed He Ao’s calm face, blood stained on the sowhat juvenile cheeks.
Maybe, his good friend wasn’t ‘unsane’ after all.
“Hmm.”
He Ao simply nodded lightly at all of Yoen’s questions.
Just as calm as when he shared these things with Yoen.
He had not yet told Yoen that Nell had actually obtained an Ancient Sword tainted with divine contamination.
If it weren’t for He Ao, who had forcefully endured that crazy contamination, then Nell would have also beco a monster manipulated by the Evil God.
“This damn Mining Consortium.”
Yoen spat in disgust.
At this mont, the two were in the data center located beneath the Ice Wolf Gang’s headquarters, with He Ao’s bracelet connected to the data link of the room.
This wasn’t the first ti He Ao had done sothing like this; the last ti, he had controlled all the equipnt of the Wilderness Wanderers Factory in the sa way.
Because it was unchallenged for a long ti and rarely attacked, the security asures at the Ice Wolf Gang headquarters were even less stringent than those at the Wilderness Wanderers Factory.
He Ao had effortlessly brought Yoen into the data center.
In the ti it took to speak, Eve had already taken full control of all smart devices.
Countless surveillance images flashed by, and He Ao quickly located the place where Yoen’s grandmother was being held captive.
It was a rudintary dungeon, not far from the underground data center.
With Eve’s help, He Ao smoothly found a shortcut to the dungeon door.
He Ao had Eve shut off the dungeon lights.
“Who’s there?”
The gang mbers guarding the dungeon were startled; there were more than a dozen of them, so standing in the corridor and so at the door.
The lead gang mber raised his hand to send a ssage to the upper levels.
Just then, a hand lightly patted his shoulder.
He looked up, but only with the faint glow from the bracelet did he see an unfamiliar face.
He instinctively raised his gun to fire, but the person who had patted his shoulder was clearly faster.
A flash of light and shadow, and that person had already twisted his neck.
In his last mont of life, he caught sight of his assailant pulling two short swords, emitting a red glow, from his waist.
The red luminance swept through the pitch-black space like a hunting ground in the night, claiming life after life.
Yoen stumbled after He Ao, but he had barely taken a few steps when he tripped over sothing and fell to the ground.
He reached out his hand and touched it; it was a still-warm corpse, and his palm was filled with sticky blood.
At that mont, the bright lights turned on again, and He Ao stood in the blood-soaked corridor, surrounded by dead carcasses.
Yoen looked up at He Ao, whose face was calm, even icy, and suddenly felt his good friend might actually be the craziest monster in the city.
But what of it?
He staggered to his feet; this world needed such a crazed monster, one that could break all chains.
If possible, he, too, wanted to be such a monster.
He Ao sheathed his short swords, surprised by the quality of these gang mbers; they didn’t run away, they didn’t panic, and they mostly launched lethal attacks at him the mont they saw him.
These elite gang mbers were sowhat like the loose form of undeveloped rcenaries.
Of course, their quick reactive assaults also ant that not a single one was left alive in that corridor.
He Ao only killed those who attacked him.
He lifted his head, surveying the scene around him.
The dungeon consisted of a tal corridor and silver tal ‘cells’ on both sides of the corridor.
Each cell door had a transparent glass window through which you could easily see inside from the outside, but it seed you couldn’t see outside from within.
About half of these cells were occupied, the prisoners mostly weak won or children, with a few looking robust, seemingly miners.
At this mont, these people were leaning on the windows in the doors, trying to discern what was happening in the corridor.
He Ao walked to the end of the corridor and opened the door of the second-to-last cell.
In the cell sat an elderly man with white hair and an aged face.
His eyesight seed to have failed him, as he was fumbling to stand up.
Upon seeing He Ao, he asked in a soft voice, “Nell?
Have you co?
Why did the power suddenly go out and then co back on, dazzling my eyes?
What on earth is happening here, and why are they trying to catch us?”
The elderly man knew ‘Nell,’ having often visited Yoen’s ho before.
Then, he would be taken out to be compared with Yoen.
He Ao removed a black blindfold from his waist, “Grandma, we can leave now.
It’s very bright outside; you’ll need to cover your eyes.”
At this ti, Yoen also fumbled his way to the door.
The dungeon seed relatively isolated from the other buildings; fewer people ca by, and it would take so ti for the mbers of the other gangs to co over.
“Yoen, can we go back ho now?”
The elderly man looked at Yoen, asking with so confusion.
“Grandma, wait a bit longer,”
Yoen said softly.
At this mont, He Ao also put a blindfold on the elderly man.
Yoen shouldered the elderly man, limping out of the cell.
“Why do I sll blood?”
The elderly man wrinkled his nose.
“There is a slaughterhouse nearby,” Yoen replied offhand, “where they kill so very bad dogs.
Grandma, let’s get out of here first.”
“Since when are dogs ever so bad.”
Grandma was a bit puzzled, but she didn’t ask any further.
He Ao led Yoen and the elderly man through the underground passages towards the outside.
He also opened the other cell doors in the dungeon on the way, but he didn’t attend to them; several strong-looking n, who seed to be miners, were protecting the won and children following behind him.
During this ti, so people discovered them, and then they went to eternal sleep.
The elderly man had fallen asleep on the way, his snores faint.
He Ao was very gentle in his actions, trying not to wake the elderly man and careful not to attract more people from the Ice Wolf Gang.
Thanks to Eve’s assistance, He Ao only took the less traveled shortcuts, and Eve was manipulating the surveillance, covering it with past records from the sa ti period to block the ‘eyes’ of the Ice Wolf Gang.
The miners naturally helped He Ao manage the rest of the people, and those who had been rescued maintained their silence, not making any unnecessary sounds.
However, these people hadn’t been very cooperative at the start; in fact, so had been reluctant to follow He Ao through the dark and cramped passages.
But after one of them showed a tendency to make a fuss, He Ao politely suggested that he would ‘invite’ her and the people around her back to the dungeon.
If they couldn’t keep quiet and careful, He Ao felt it would be safer for them to stay in the dungeon than to co out.
After all, in the event of chaos, He Ao wouldn’t have ti to take care of them, and the dungeon was indeed safer than the outside.
So everyone quieted down, especially after seeing He Ao’s swift, precise, and ruthless ‘self-defense’ moves against mbers of the Ice Wolf Gang, they beca even more docile and sensible.
When a few people walked out of the Ice Wolf Gang headquarters without any obstacles, the Ice Wolf Gang hadn’t even realized that the dungeon was open.
He Ao hailed a car for Yoen, helped him and Grandma get in, and leaning on the car window, he asked softly, “Has the money been transferred?”
Yoen glanced at his wristband, “They said that according to our request, it has already been transferred through the cryptocurrency account.”
“Good,” He Ao nodded slightly, then softly continued, “When you get to the north gate later, leave the city directly without any hesitation.
Initially, they’ll think you won’t dare to leave the city and will only search for you within.
We need to take advantage of this ti difference.
Soone will et you outside the gate.”
Yoen was taken aback, realizing upon hearing these words, that his good friend had already anticipated this mont when he saw him.
After all, there is no signal in the wilderness; arranging a rendezvous at the last minute is impossible unless it had been arranged before everything started.
Looking at He Ao, he noticed He Ao had no intention of getting into the car, “Aren’t you leaving?
It’s going to be dangerous here very soon.”
“I have so,” He Ao stood up straight, looking back at the Ice Wolf Gang headquarters, “personal matters to attend to.”
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