New Resolve (continued)

The so-called "overthrow" referred to the act of challenging Kakerou.

In other words, challenging the current boss of Kakerou, its twenty-first leader—Kiruma Souichi!

That night, Yagyou witnessed the gamble on the rooftop helipad of a luxurious building.

At the time, Usogui, Baku Madarame, had wagered everything he had, including his own life, of course.

And the leader of Kakerou, as was customary in an overthrow gamble, had naturally wagered control of the entire organization.

However, since Kakerou's founding, no one had ever won an overthrow gamble.

How had Usogui performed that night?

Terribly!

The gamble Usogui proposed was whether any aircraft would fly over the building within thirty minutes. Usogui bet yes, while the leader of Kakerou bet no.

At the time, Usogui had been supremely confident, as if victory were assured.

Yet thirty minutes passed, and the sky remained quiet, with no aircraft flying overhead!

Usogui had prepared aircraft of all sizes in advance—roughly a hundred in total—but not one appeared before the gamble ended.

The people Usogui had arranged to launch the aircraft had not actually been taking orders from him.

The leader of Kakerou had foreseen that this day would come and had planted his own people around Usogui as undercover agents.

In other words, no aircraft would ever appear during that gamble!

Just like that, Usogui had lost his "strength" and "money," and even the "meaning" of his existence...

As for Usogui's life, the leader of Kakerou had found it uninteresting and therefore had not taken it immediately, letting him keep it for the time being.

And so, Usogui had been left with nothing, utterly destitute...

Even so, Yagyou had never expected Usogui to take part in such an utterly low-grade gamble.

To put his irreplaceable life on par with a mere Kakerou membership, and even put himself in danger—it was sheer stupidity!

"..."

Yagyou sighed helplessly.

Compared with Usogui as he was now, Yagyou was more interested in seeing how the man named Shiraki Uke would perform against that fearsome fighter, Lodem.

But as Yagyou pondered, something beside him suddenly caught the corner of his eye—a spot beneath a table leg.

There lay a pen, as though it had been dropped by accident.

But Yagyou had seen enough to recognize it at a glance: the pen was actually a listening device in disguise!

Q Dalang could hardly have bugged his own room, so it could only have been left by one of the other four participants in the gamble!

First, he ruled out Shiraki Uke and Takaomi Kaji. It probably was not the strange-tempered "man of the divine realm" either, which left only one possible answer—

Baku Madarame had dropped the listening device!

Usogui had lost everything, yet he had prepared a listening device in advance. Could it be that he had deliberately entered this gamble?

And could it also be...

An absurd possibility suddenly occurred to Yagyou.

Could it be that I... no, even the leader, and all of Kakerou, have already fallen into a trap Usogui set in advance?!

The idea was so preposterous that even Yagyou did not know why it had occurred to him.

Perhaps it was because of Usogui himself?

More specifically—when Usogui met the "man of the divine realm" and the "man who sought strength," what kind of expression was he wearing right now?

He's probably... smiling?

"Ha ha..."

As they fled for their lives, Baku Madarame suddenly laughed. He even pulled a pickled plum snack from his pocket and happily popped one into his mouth.

Takaomi Kaji asked, "Mr. Baku, what do we do next?"

Eating the pickled plum, Baku Madarame said casually, "That old man knows exactly which floor we're on. It might be the surveillance cameras, or he might have some other way."

"But none of that matters!"

Baku Madarame pulled out an M9 pistol and grinned.

"Now that Uke's keeping Lodem busy, all we have to do is rush to the old man's office on the fifth floor and subdue him at gunpoint. Then we can't lose!"

Takaomi Kaji was overjoyed to hear that and hurried after Baku Madarame.

But just then, Baku Madarame heard Q Dalang through his listening earpiece, connected to the pen-shaped listening device.

"Lodem, those guys are heading for the fifth floor. They're probably after the room I'm in."

"Kill the man in front of you quickly, then come to the fifth floor and catch the other three like turtles in a jar!"

"...?!"

Baku Madarame's heart tightened.

Sure enough, Q Dalang had used some trick to track their movements precisely!

It was like cheating at a game. If they did not figure it out, they would lose the initiative at every step, and things would go very badly.

"So what method is he using..."

Baku Madarame chewed on the pickled plum, feeling that he was on the verge of grasping the truth.

But Akagi Shigeru, standing beside him, spoke first.

"Heh, so that's how it is."

Akagi Shigeru pulled the coins from his pocket—the ones Q Dalang had lost to him in the mahjong gamble. Takaomi Kaji and Shiraki Uke had won some too.

As for Baku Madarame, he had lost the most, and the change in his pocket had all been lent to him by Q Dalang.

Akagi Shigeru toyed with the coins and smiled. "Funny thing is, we were so focused on running for our lives that we unconsciously overlooked the 'truth.'"

"This is a gamble, right?"

Akagi Shigeru shook the coins in his hand. "We joined this game for the stake—money. So we wouldn't let the 'money' leave our persons."

"If he wanted to plant trackers on us, wouldn't he start by considering something we wouldn't 'leave behind'?"

"..."

Akagi Shigeru's words allowed Baku Madarame to grasp the answer at last.

The coins! The trackers had been disguised as coins!!

With everyone desperately fleeing for their lives and drawn by the huge stakes, no one would pay attention to the "small change." That was precisely the blind spot in their thinking.

"Ha ha, impressive, old man. Now I can come up with plan B."

Baku Madarame had been calculating too many things and had not focused on this gamble, so his thinking had lagged a step behind Akagi Shigeru's, allowing him to arrive at the answer first.

Although he was pleased, Baku Madarame still felt a little sour inside, so he teased, "Let's call it the 'old man' plan. What do you think?"

"Heh, not bad."

Akagi Shigeru waved a hand casually, looking unconcerned. "But either way, we need to hurry."

"Yeah, we do." Baku Madarame nodded.

"Wha—

Takaomi Kaji was stunned and was about to ask another question when a roar suddenly came from behind them.

Thud!

With a dull impact, Shiraki Uke flew backward out of the darkness, as though he had been hit head-on by a truck.

Whoosh!

Shiraki Uke hurtled past the three of them and slammed into the wall.

"Cough—ah!"

He spat blood, his eyes wide as he stared ahead, and growled at the other three, "Stay out of the way!"

The three were not so oblivious, much less so unaware of their own limits. They immediately hurried away.

Deep in the corridor, Lodem came charging toward them, ferocious as a demon and swift as a ghost!

Rumble!

As Shiraki Uke watched Lodem charge straight at him, blood ran from his nose, mingling with the blood at the corner of his mouth and trickling down to his chin.

At that moment of life and death, under extreme pressure, Shiraki Uke's consciousness began to run wild.

The time he had to think stretched out infinitely!

In Shiraki Uke's eyes, the towering, powerfully built apparition beside Ryu gradually began to solidify, and he could finally make out its face.

Ryu raised his hand high, signaling the burly apparition to take good care of this "disciple" of his.

Smack!

The burly apparition swung his palm against Ryu's with a forceful smack, looking remarkably like a slick handoff.

Here he comes!

Shiraki Uke's mind roared as he gradually began to see it clearly and feel it...

A new master, new moves, and the resolve to pursue strength that dwelled in different fists!

A wrestler—