"You want to consolidate all the factions here, big and small?" Aris was startled by Zhang Heng's plan. In fact, it was not just him; the other members of the Patrol Team were stunned as well.
After all, extorting Iron Shackles and rewriting the rules and order of the black world were two entirely different things.
There were plenty of people here more ruthless than Iron Shackles. He might have been fierce enough in front of those petty thieves, but in this area, he could only be considered a minor player. He and his few men would not even make a ripple before the larger powers.
Even so, they had twice as many people as the Patrol Team. If a fight had really broken out in the tavern just now, the Patrol Team would most likely have been in serious trouble.
Taking down even one Iron Shackles was already this difficult. It was hard to imagine what would happen to the Patrol Team if they faced those major factions.
Thus, it was not only Aris. The other Patrol Team members also doubted whether Zhang Heng's words were true. Unlike Aris, however, they probably hoped Zhang Heng was lying. Though Aris had made a lot of sense, most of the patrolmen still wanted to make money with Zhang Heng—as long as making money did not cost them their lives.
"That's right, but this has to be done step by step," Zhang Heng said. "Our status as the Patrol Team makes us well suited to collecting protection fees, but we are not suited to directly intervening in gang conflicts. At least not yet. That would easily put the other factions on alert and make them unite against us. So first, we need to take down Iron Shackles and his gang. We'll use