Monster Club

Jiang City, Third Satellite City.

To the north of City Three lay a range of black stone hills, almost entirely bare of vegetation. In the pitch-black night, the jagged outlines of the rocks were nearly impossible to make out. There were no buildings or lights anywhere nearby.

Few people came here during the day, and at night, none came at all.

Suddenly, heavy footsteps sounded in the darkness, crunching over gravel. Two figures emerged and quickly approached the hills.

The one on the left was tall and imposing, dressed in a sharp black suit. A tiger's head with vivid stripes jutted above his collar, his gaze fierce and domineering.

The one on the right was lean and muscular, wearing an ordinary T-shirt and shorts. Black fur covered his body, and he, too, had a black tiger's head. Even his eyes were dark. When he bared his teeth slightly in the dead of night, they looked almost like a row of teeth that had gained a life of their own.

These were Suit Tiger and Black Tiger, the two who had escaped from the Tiger Head Gang's underground hideout earlier.

Black Tiger had originally been unable to transform. After that fierce battle, something had happened to him, and he had somehow managed a partial transformation, taking on the somewhat boyish appearance of a human.

Together, they went to a gloomy cave on the side of the black stone hills. They followed the tunnel-like cavern for several hundred meters, until they came upon a lit torch deep inside.

Suit Tiger plucked a yellow hair from his ear and held it to the torch.

Hiss—

The hair curled and burned, turning into a wisp of smoke.

A rumbling sound immediately echoed through the cave. Two large protruding rocks ahead slid apart, revealing a corridor paved with black bricks! Electronic bricks lined the floor, ceiling, and walls, glowing with a misty, rosy light. Their high-tech appearance stood in stark contrast to the desolate stone hills outside!

Faint rhythmic music could be heard further in.

The shifting colors reflected in Black Tiger's pupils, and a hint of curiosity shone in his eyes.

Suit Tiger led him onward. The stone door automatically closed behind them. They passed through the corridor and came to a second-floor railing, where a vast dance floor awash with colorful lights lay below!

More than a dozen swaying, multicolored disco balls hung overhead. Speakers on every side blared deafening music, and all kinds of bodies packed the dance floor below.

Some had wings on their backs; others were covered in scales. Their heads came in every shape imaginable—birds and beasts, oxen and horses, chickens and ducks—all releasing their animalistic hormones as they danced.

Without exception, they were all monsters!

Compared with human nightclubs, the monsters here let themselves go even more freely. Their clothes were more revealing, their movements more uninhibited, and some of what was going on was enough to make Black Tiger blush.

Fortunately, his black fur hid it well. No one could tell.

Suit Tiger was clearly used to all this. He paid it little attention and continued leading him onward.

The club had three levels built into the mountainside. The first was a spacious dance floor, with a stage for the DJ and performers. The second was a quieter bar area, where monsters sat drinking and chatting. The third held private rooms with one-way glass, so no one could see inside.

Suit Tiger led Black Tiger straight to the bar, took a seat, and tapped the counter. "Two Immortal Points the Way, please."

The bartender behind the bar was a lion with golden dreadlocks, wearing a vest and bow tie. He looked up, saw Suit Tiger, and greeted him with a smile. "Brother Huang, it's been ages! I heard the Tiger Head Gang had a little trouble. Everything all right?"

"You really are well-informed," Suit Tiger replied bluntly. "That's why I'm here today."

The lion with dreadlocks glanced at Black Tiger. "I haven't seen this little brother before. First time at the club?"

"This is my Little Black," Suit Tiger replied. "He couldn't transform before, so he stayed hidden at home. This time, he went through a life-or-death crisis and was badly injured. Strangely enough, that gave him some insight, and now he can partially transform."

The lion with dreadlocks nodded. Transformation was quite difficult for monsters. The more clever ones needed nearly a hundred years of cultivation, while the less gifted might need two or three hundred just to achieve a partial transformation.

Even monsters like them, whose overall silhouettes were roughly human, still retained scales, fur, and tails in the details. There was no way they could blend into human society.

Even if they made it into the city, they could only live in the shadows.

Only great monsters who had cultivated for countless years could fully transform. Only they could truly live like humans. At that level, unless they deliberately released their demonic aura, no one could tell them apart from ordinary people.

This Monster Club had been created specifically for monsters like them, those who had only partially transformed.

They longed for the pleasures of the human world but couldn't fit into it, so they could come here in the suburbs at night and enjoy themselves like humans. Surrounded by their own kind, they could relax even more.

The club also gave them a place to trade, pass along information, and build a network. That network could provide a lot of support to the isolated monsters living in the city. No one knew who ran the Monster Club. They only knew that it had considerable influence and branches in every city.

It was a utopia for monsters living in the cities.

"Welcome to the Monster Club!"

The lion with dreadlocks mixed another brightly colored drink and slid it over to Black Tiger, smiling warmly.

"This one's on me, little brother. What's your name?" he asked.

"I... I'm... Hei..." Black Tiger stammered, his speech awkward and halting.

"He just transformed. He's not used to speaking human language yet," Suit Tiger answered for him. "Our family always names ourselves by color and rank. For instance, I'm Yellow Big Tiger, and my brothers were Yellow Second Tiger, Yellow Third Tiger, and so on... Little Black is the youngest in our family, and he was born a black tiger cub, so his name is..."

"I'm Little Black Cub!"

Black Tiger managed to say his name quite smoothly. It looked like he'd practiced.

"..." The lion with dreadlocks fell silent for a moment, then pushed over two more drinks, their surfaces shimmering with a deep blue light. "So, what brings you here?"

"The two who wiped out our Tiger Head Gang were human cultivators. Wiping out the gang was bad enough, but they also killed three of my brothers. I can't let them get away with that." Yellow Big Tiger's voice was heavy. "I want to find two powerful helpers to take those two humans out with me."

"Are they with the authorities?" the lion with dreadlocks asked.

"They're not with the Supervision Bureau, just a couple of busybodies. Apparently, they took five hundred bucks and came to wipe out our gang. Heh." Yellow Big Tiger gritted his teeth, hatred in his eyes. "The Supervision Bureau wouldn't come after us, either. I've never once missed a tribute payment to them."

"That's good, then." The lion with dreadlocks nodded. "I happen to have two who just came in from the Wasteland Zone. You bring out five hundred thousand, and the job's yours."

"They just came from the Wasteland Zone?" Yellow Big Tiger frowned, hesitating.

New arrivals didn't know the rules of human cities very well, which meant they could easily make mistakes. He wasn't sure he could trust monsters like that to help him.

"That's exactly why they're so vicious. If they weren't fresh from the Wasteland Zone, would anyone who'd been living in the city for a while agree to help you kill cultivators?" the lion with dreadlocks said. "Even if you could find someone like that, the price definitely wouldn't be this low."

"All right..."

Yellow Big Tiger clenched his teeth and agreed. It seemed his desire for revenge outweighed his caution.

After thinking it over for a moment, he added, "You have to make the rules clear to them. The rules in the city are complicated. They have to follow my lead and can't act on their own."

"Don't worry," the lion with dreadlocks said with a smile. "They're hungry! They'll make sure the job gets done to your satisfaction!"

"Monsters who've just come here from the Wasteland Zone are all hungry." Yellow Big Tiger seemed to remember something. His voice turned somber as he reminisced. "When my brothers and I first came to the city, we were the same. We'd do anything for money, always fighting just to survive, and we faced death more times than I can count."

"Even in the most dangerous moments, we never abandoned each other. As long as we fought side by side, we feared no opponent! It was that ferocity that let us carve out our own place in City Seven."

"Who would've thought we'd suffer such a disaster now?"

"When Little Black couldn't transform, hiding him and moving from place to place was really dangerous. But not one of us ever suggested leaving him behind. And now, there are only the two of us left... Little Black, you have to carry on for your brothers..."

Overcome with emotion, his eyes filled with tears. Grief and rage mingled as he looked at the last younger brother he had left.

But Black Tiger was staring blankly at the dance floor below, a silly grin on his face.

Following his gaze, Yellow Big Tiger spotted a leopard demon in the middle of the dance floor, wearing a strapless miniskirt. She had a scorching figure, with a full bosom and curvy hips, and her dance moves were utterly seductive. More than a dozen monsters had gathered around her, all drawn in by her charms.

"You little punk!" Yellow Big Tiger smacked Black Tiger on the back of the head. "Your brothers haven't even been avenged, and you're already thinking about this?"

"And you're into leopard print, too?"