Gold Medal Killer

In a factory on the outskirts of town.

A crackling sound rang out through the desolate woods. Dry, yellow leaves crunched beneath heavy footsteps as two enormous figures strode through the trees.

They were the brothers Yellow Big Tiger, dressed in a suit, and Little Black Cub, whose entire body was pitch-black.

A tall jeep was parked outside the factory. The lion with dreadlocks from the Monster Club leaned against it in a leather jacket, smoking a thick cigar.

"Sorry we're a few minutes late," Yellow Big Tiger said as he approached. "We had to cross the railway, and a train came by, so we hid for a while."

"No worries," the dreadlocked lion said with a smile. "I just got here. I'd barely lit my cigar when you showed up."

"Where's the killer?" Yellow Big Tiger asked.

"Inside." The dreadlocked lion took one mighty drag, smoking the enormous cigar down to his fingers. The flame reached his fingertips with a whoosh. He closed his eyes and gave his head a shake, then exhaled a huge cloud of smoke as if his soul had left his body. Only then did he slowly open his eyes. "Come with me."

Yellow Big Tiger turned to his younger brother. "Don't copy him. Smoke like that and you'll get lung cancer after three cigars."

"Can't help it. Those brothers inside can't take much excitement," the dreadlocked lion said with a hint of helplessness. "They get worked up whenever they see a spark."

Just inside the factory's main entrance was a spacious workshop piled high with broken machinery. There was no one in sight, so the dreadlocked lion led them upstairs to the second floor.

"They're that volatile, and you're sure they're reliable?" Yellow Big Tiger asked with a frown.

"All I can tell you is that they're the strongest Gold Medal Killers I can get in touch with right now," the dreadlocked lion said. "Back in the Wasteland Zone, the two of them once teamed up to kill a Gang Realm cultivator! Since coming into the city, they haven't failed a single job. Every target's been wiped out cleanly. The only downside is, well..."

"What?" Yellow Big Tiger asked.

"Sometimes they kill the client, too." The dreadlocked lion hurriedly added, "They just have tempers. Don't provoke them and you'll be fine."

As he spoke, he pushed open the door to the second-floor workshop.

The two tiger demons immediately saw another pair of monster brothers inside.

They were both over two meters tall when standing, half-transformed monsters with brown fur and massively developed muscles. Their heads were tiny in proportion to their broad bodies. Their heads looked a little like a mouse's and a little like a deer's, and their wide black eyes seemed vacant.

Both monsters wore ill-fitting coveralls, one denim blue and the other camouflage green. One even wore a cap at a crooked angle. All in all, they looked... not too bright.

Yellow Big Tiger looked at them and asked, "Deer?"

Behind him, Black Tiger guessed, "Kangaroos?"

The monster in camouflage green swayed over to Black Tiger. Suddenly, he raised his hand and brought a hammer down hard on Black Tiger's head.

Clang!

The blow was powerful and lightning-fast. If it had hit a person, it would have crushed their skull.

Fortunately, Black Tiger had a tough body. He was only knocked to the ground and let out a roar of pain. "Roar!"

"What are you doing?" Yellow Big Tiger immediately took a fighting stance and shouted, "Trying to double-cross us?"

The one in denim blue pulled out a weapon of his own: an oversized wrench splattered with paint. He took up a fighting stance.

"Calm down!" The dreadlocked lion hurriedly pushed the two monsters apart, then told Yellow Big Tiger, "You two, watch what you say. I told you, they have tempers!"

"What did I say?" Yellow Big Tiger asked angrily as he helped his brother up.

"You..." The monster in camouflage green stammered, "You called us mice. We're... noble Rhinoceros Deer!"

"Got it, got it," the dreadlocked lion quickly said. "These two brothers are Rhinoceros Demons. They were born in the Wasteland Zone and don't have names. Just call them Big Rhinoceros Deer and Second Rhinoceros Deer."

Most monsters in the Wasteland Zone were wild. Even after gaining intelligence, they had little concept of naming themselves.

The tiger demons in the Tiger Head Gang could name themselves by color and birth order, coming up with names like Yellow Big Tiger and Little Black Cub. In the Wasteland Zone, that made them an intellectual family.

The equivalent of human PhDs.

"Kangaroos aren't... mice. And what's so... noble about Rhinoceros Deer?" Black Tiger got to his feet, clutching his blood-soaked head and gritting his teeth.

He wasn't very fluent in human speech. Normally, he spoke just a few words at a time, but that hammer blow had forced him to speak in full sentences.

Big Rhinoceros Deer, dressed in denim blue, was relatively more level-headed. He put away his wrench and said, "My younger brother isn't very bright. Don't take it personally. Back in the Wasteland Zone, other monsters looked down on us because we were Rhinoceros Deer. It left us with a bit of a complex."

"I've never seen Rhinoceros Deer cultivate to their level before," the dreadlocked lion said with a smile, sensing the tension had eased. "The two brothers have trained their bodies until they're almost indestructible. And they've got a special headbutt technique—nothing can stop them. They'll ram through anything, gods or Buddhas."

"As long as they can fight," Yellow Big Tiger said sternly. "If they can kill my enemy, I'll let what just happened slide."

"We've never failed to kill a target," Big Rhinoceros Deer said coldly. "We only ever kill more than requested, never fewer."

"No need to kill more," Yellow Big Tiger said. "You understand the requirements, right? You have to follow my orders during the operation. The target isn't an idiot. If you give yourselves away even a little, he'll alert the Supervision Bureau..."

Before he could finish, Second Rhinoceros Deer, in camouflage green, swayed over to Yellow Big Tiger and suddenly raised his hand.

Another hammer blow!

Yellow Big Tiger had become wary when he saw him approach, but the other monster's speed and strength were both beyond what he'd expected. He couldn't dodge in time. With a clang, he was knocked to the ground!

"Rrrgh!" he roared in pain and anger.

"What are you doing?" Black Tiger took up a heart-ripping stance.

"Calm down!" The dreadlocked lion stepped in to break things up again. "I forgot to mention: the brothers have one word they can't stand. As soon as they hear it, they get triggered and become extremely volatile."

"Exactly!" Big Rhinoceros Deer's eyes were red, but he kept himself under control and held back his younger brother. "You didn't know before, so I don't blame you. Just try to be careful from now on."

"What word?" Yellow Big Tiger stood up and demanded angrily.

The lion didn't dare say it. He only replied, "Think about it. Obviously, it's that word!"

Black Tiger guessed, "Could it be... the word 'idiot'? People call them stupid Rhinoceros Deer, don't they? Maybe it upset them? They... they can't stand people calling them... stupid."

After Black Tiger finished speaking, he looked up and saw four blood-red eyes.

"You guessed right," Big Rhinoceros Deer said, staring straight at him. "Don't say the word 'stupid' in front of us."

"And don't say 'stupid Rhinoceros Deer,' either," Second Rhinoceros Deer said, his gaze icy.

"You just said it several times, didn't you?" Big Rhinoceros Deer's voice turned as ominous as a vengeful ghost's.

"No." Black Tiger covered his head and backed away. "I didn't mean to call you stupid Rhinoceros Deer. I was just explaining the situation. Maybe other people keep calling you stupid Rhinoceros Deer. This time it was my fault. Can we let it go, and I promise not to do it again? I absolutely won't say 'stupid Rhinoceros Deer' again. I won't even say 'stupid'! If I say 'stupid' again, I'm a stupid dog! Hey... Big brother, help me..."

With danger closing in, his normally halting human speech suddenly became fluent, and he even started talking a mile a minute.

The two enraged Rhinoceros Deer glared with bloodshot eyes. Demonic flames surged several meters into the air around them, their terrifying presence plunging the entire workshop into dead silence.

Black Tiger felt utterly hopeless. He turned to his big brother for help, only to find Yellow Big Tiger and the dreadlocked lion huddled in a corner, discussing the finer points of smoking cigars.

"I'm telling you, you have to light the cigar before you smoke it," Yellow Big Tiger said.

"Would you look at that!" The dreadlocked lion gave him a thumbs-up. "A real connoisseur."

"Don't act like you've got nothing to do with this! Your act is so fake!" Black Tiger roared. "Do you think I'm a complete idiot?"

"You're still saying it!" Big Rhinoceros Deer raised his wrench high.

"You keep... saying it. You... haven't stopped!" Second Rhinoceros Deer wiped the blood off his hammer and raised it again.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

Clang, clatter, crash!

Smack, smack, ah!

Screw you!

Boom—

In the secluded factory, the dull thuds of a beating rang out alongside miserable screams.

Yellow Big Tiger sneakily glanced over and grimaced. "How long are they going to keep beating him?"

"They usually stop when they get tired," the dreadlocked lion said with a click of his tongue. "I told you they were powerful. Look at that surging demonic energy. Cultivators below the Gang Realm can't even break their skin."

"Yeah, you weren't kidding."

"I told you, you can leave this to me."

"Why do they keep hitting him in the head? They aren't going to beat my brother stupid, are they?"

"Hey! Did you just say it?"

"No, no, no..."

"I heard you."

"Shut up, you bastard!"