Round 2: Beat It-Escape

Foreword:

Life can be reduced to a simple choice: either busy yourself to survive, or rush to die.

--Stephen King

[Part 1: Shameless Bastard]

"Give me two pork chop buns!"

"Fuyanni shouted, leaning against the counter. His eyes were bloodshot; he had driven over a thousand kilometers and was nearly exhausted."

For a moment, the two Long-Armed Apes and Horse-Faced Monkey brothers were at a loss—clearly, these two guests had already taken them for employees.

Billy went into the supermarket, leaving Susie, who was helping the criminals cover for him, at a loss for what to do.

Should we ask for help? Ask these two strangers for help?

They don't look like good people either!

The young Black woman was wary, her heart filled with hesitation and doubt.

How can I call for help? If I'm discovered, my head will be blown off!

Those two criminals were incredibly accurate marksmen; they only needed one shot to take down the supervisor! It was a headshot that shattered his skull—a one-hit kill!

Should we pass them notes? Use hand gestures? Write coded messages?

No, no, no, no! Susie! You don't have time! Susie! That guy has already gone to another part of the supermarket! He's gone far away! He's about to run to the refrigerated section!

"Sir! Wait a minute, sir!"

Billy, stopped abruptly by his impetuous younger sister's call, quickly asked, "What's wrong?"

The other two cashiers were in the same state, sweating profusely and anxiously. It would be disastrous if the body in the freezer were discovered. The Long-Armed Ape's hand remained hidden under the counter, ready to draw his gun at any moment.

Susie quickly said, "The supermarket is already closed, and the fresh and chilled goods aren't fresh anymore. We're planning to get rid of some near-expiry food in the middle of the night. If you buy meat that's about to expire and get sick, our Huimin Supermarket's reputation will be ruined."

"But I just want to take a piece of meat with me, is that not allowed?" Billy frowned and said angrily, "Why? Why?"

Susie asked, puzzled, "Why?"

Billy grew increasingly agitated and frantic. "Why is it that whenever I want to do something, someone corrects me, rejects me, and everything seems wrong! My teacher is dead! FF doesn't want me anymore! Now I can't even buy a piece of meat? So what if it's about to expire?!"

"--Good heavens, miss! Look at the rain outside! And look at the time!"

Billy has an extremely strong self-destructive tendency, and his mental state is very poor.

"Your supermarket is called Huimin, so please be kind to me, one of the common people! I just want to take a piece of meat with me, four hundred grams? Five hundred grams? To share with my brother. Tomorrow morning, we'll find a budget hotel and have it cooked in the communal kitchen!"

He gestured wildly, his hair standing on end, and continued to shout, trying to explain the reasoning clearly.

"Whether it's rotten or smelly, do you think I've never experienced eating rotten meat?"

Fuyanni and Billy were from Lawrence Madison's Little Brotherhood. They both came from the slums and grew up scavenging for leftovers in the trash, so they didn't care how unpalatable near-expiry food might be.

Susie was so distraught by Billy's yelling that she lost all her courage and dared not stop him anymore.

In that instant, the Long-Armed Ape could no longer contain his excitement and, with trembling hands, gripped the gun to continue killing.

"Hey! Brother!" Fuyanni quickly called out, "Why are you being so mean to a girl! Don't cause her any trouble!"

Billy then came to his senses and finally realized that something was wrong with his head; he couldn't control his emotions.

What angered him wasn't the supermarket, but the fact that nothing went his way.

"Oh!" Billy stomped back to the front desk in a huff.

Now it was the Long-Armed Ape's turn to be embarrassed; his gun-wielding hand was covered in sweat, and his body had become stiff.

Fuyanni turned around and asked, "Aren't you out of pork chop buns?"

The Long-Armed Ape immediately said, "Excuse me!"

Fuyanni immediately grabbed some fast food from next to the supermarket counter, effectively ending the game prematurely.

"Isn't it right here? Mihama's mother's pork chop bun, a specialty of your District 54. It's still in the packaging. Could you open it for me and heat it up?"

"Oh, heat it up, heat it up a bit." The Long-Armed Ape, looking blank and dazed, took the food and headed towards the microwave.

Without giving it much thought, Fuyanni asked the other cashier Horse-Faced Monkey, "Hey buddy, two more packs of cigarettes, Marlboro, how much is that?"

Horse-Faced Monkey immediately got up to fetch the goods. He knew the price of cigarettes, but he froze when calculating the price of the pork chop buns.

He doesn't know how to use a barcode scanner, has never used one before, and has no idea how much a pork chop bun costs.

"--that!"

Susie gestured with her hands, one for two and one for seven.

The Horse-Faced Monkey tilted its head. "Twenty-seven?"

Fuyanni: "Together. Let's smoke together."

Horse-Faced Monkey: "Two twenty-sevens?"

Fuyanni: "Why don't you just scan it and see?"

Horse-Faced Monkey: "Two twenty-sevens? Plus cigarettes?"

Susie hid behind Fuyanni, making hand gestures incessantly.

Horse-Faced Monkey's CPU is about to burn out; his math scores are comparable to Brother Seven's.

Fuyanni: "Yes, twenty-seven plus twenty-seven, plus fifty-five and fifty-five."

Billy, watching from the side, was furious; his face was almost red with rage.

The Horse-Faced Monkey's eyes bulged, its mouth slightly open, revealing protruding buck teeth, and its tongue trembled.

One hundred and sixty-four!?

Fuyanni shouted, "Oh yeah!"

Susie cheered, "Whoosh! Great! He figured it out!"

Billy was immediately infected by the jubilant atmosphere, raising his hands and clenching his fists. "Well done!"

Monkey Bro's face was full of happiness. He felt encouraged and recognized, which made him feel more comfortable than ever before.

Even the Monkey God, busy at the microwave, was infected by this inexplicable surge of passion. He raised his gun high and pulled the trigger hard.

"Bang!--"

"Bang!--"

"Bang!--"

The bullet jammed, and several pieces of plaster fell from the ceiling. At that moment, Fuyanni was so frightened that he hugged Billy.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Billy instinctively wanted to draw his gun as a precaution, but neither of them were armed. This road trip would take them through many checkpoints, and many areas did not allow civilians to carry guns.

They were not an anonymous combat unit, but rather apprentices of a gunsmith. Originally, the first thing the two brothers wanted to do upon arriving at Lieyang Fort was to buy guns.

An eerie silence fell over the scene once again.

Ape God gave an awkward smile. Monkey Bro picked up the payment QR code and instinctively shrank back upon hearing the gunshot. Susie crouched behind Fuyanni, her heart filled with fear.

Fuyanni and Billy both looked at the ape god, unsure of what to do.

The gunsmith instructor said that there is no chance of winning against an armed thug with bare hands.

"This is my gun," Ape God explained immediately.

Fuyanni: "I know, I understand."

Ape God: "I didn't mean to. I was just too excited, you know? This is the first time in my life I've felt this happy doing math problems, so wow! So wow wow!~~ wow!~"

Lacking cultural education, the ape god could only express his feelings through gestures and movements.

With the gun pointed at the crowd, Fuyanni immediately pulled Billy down to squat.

After the gun barrel swept across the supermarket, the two brothers stood up again.

They were covered in sweat, watching the frenzied supermarket employee, and whispering amongst themselves.

"Has the people of Lieyang Fort always been like this?" Fuyanni asked.

Billy wasn't sure. "I don't know. Maybe that's it."

Before setting off, the two brothers investigated the local customs of Lieyang Fort, a place severely affected by the rampant Madness Butterfly. Although Zero Platform and its sects and doctrines were nowhere to be seen, the White Shark Association constantly influenced everyone in the city.

"Listen! Listen! Calm down! Calm down!" Fuyanni shouted sternly.

The Monkey God also calmed down.

The reason he was so obedient was not because he wanted to be a law-abiding citizen.

Now that Ape God and Monkey Bro have successfully robbed the store, there's a large amount of cash in the cabinet waiting for them to squander.

If they commit murder at this critical juncture, then things will be very difficult to predict!

A corpse might still be manageable; it could be buried; the militia in Lilan Street could be bribed; other methods could be used to resolve the issue.

With three corpses, things are a different story! Just carrying them out of the supermarket and cleaning up the bloodstains and bullet holes would require finding help, which would only create more problems. And if Susie turns against them, the trouble will only increase.

At first, the Ape God and the Monkey Bro had no attachments; they figured if they died, they would die—they were just two worthless lives.

But now, the more than 30,000 yuan in the cash register makes them reluctant to die, and makes them afraid to commit crimes.

Billy grew suspicious. "Kid, is that gun in your hand really yours?"

This doubt arose because Billy, a skilled apprentice of the gunsmith, noticed that Ape God's hands were not large, yet the gun he used was a 1911 from the Springfield Arsenal—a very new gun, and judging from the serial number, it was from a batch produced in January 2032.

The Springfield 1911 is very similar in design to the STI 2011, but due to copyright issues, it cannot be directly called the STI 2011. The secondary weapon that Hasben Madison gave to the gunsmith was also a Sig Sauer 1911.

These pistols are mostly issued to military and police personnel. The Springfield Arsenal pistol is the cheapest in its family—it should be equipment for the militia, purchased in batches and distributed to soldiers on duty.

Even the ape god's fingers couldn't reach its empty sling; it's hard to imagine how this underling was going to use this gun.

At that moment, the ape god nervously and guiltily replied, "It's mine! It's mine!"

Fuyanni whispered a reminder, "Billy, don't provoke him. We can't fight back."

Billy's years of experience fighting counterfeits had instilled in Billy a kind of ingrained mindset. He believed that as long as he bought exorbitantly priced insurance, these merchants would be powerless against him, and it seemed that even if he died in an accident, it wouldn't matter.

"Really? Can I see it?"

At that moment, the Ape God had lost his mind. As if possessed, he seemed to want to prove his innocence and handed the gun forward.

"This is mine! This is mine!"

This is the kind of force that the Ape God has always dreamed of. Usually, these militiamen swagger around with their pistols. The guns they carry have beautiful plating and sharp lines, completely different from the cheap goods sold at small workshops.

He was absolutely certain that this was his gun, the one he had stolen, and the one that belonged to him.

"It doesn't have a detailed serial number; it's a counterfeit." Unlike the militia weapons Billy had anticipated, this Springfield 1911 lacked a more detailed serial number stamp.

Fuyanni laughed, "What are you doubting, Billy! Let me tell you, the militia here have to pay for their own guns, and the White Shark Association even buys weapons for the War Gang brothers! The militia is rotten to the core!"

Just as Fuyanni said, the militia had to purchase their own firearms, and this particular gun was clearly obtained by the militia on the black market; it was not legal. Like every ordinary person in Lieyang Fort, it was produced in a private workshop and was a counterfeit product bearing the Springfield name.

[Part ② Dangerous Relationships]

"You scared me to death, bro." Billy was wondering if there was a story behind the patrol car outside, and perhaps it was related to this gun.

The gun was pushed off the table and into the hands of the Monkey God.

The Monkey God kept explaining, laughing it off, "I was just too nervous."

Horse-Faced Monkey, still holding up the payment QR code, said, "Yes! He was just too nervous!"

Ape God: "I like to shoot when I'm happy!"

Horse-Faced Monkey: "He always ends up in jail for this, fifteen days each time."

Ape God: "I'll make sure the safety lock is on!"

As he said this, he raised his gun, engaged the safety, and deftly twirled it around, proudly brandishing the weapon before finally putting it in his pocket like a cowboy.

Fuyanni paying for the meal, two steaming hot pork chop buns were served to them.

Billy was about to grab the food when Fuyanni devoured it in a flash. Before his brother could react, Fuyanni was already licking his fingers.

Billy: "You!"

Fuyanni: "Order it yourself if you want!"

"Give me two more," Billy said, taking cigarettes from Fuyanni's pocket and squatting down in a well-ventilated spot near the supermarket entrance to smoke and relieve his boredom.

After finishing his meal, Fuyanni was overcome with anger and sat down wherever he could find a spot. He fell asleep almost immediately, and it's unclear how long he will stay asleep.

Susie was anxious as she watched. If these two guests didn't leave, the culprit wouldn't leave either!

She felt like an ant on a hot pan, caught in the middle, suffering terribly. At this moment, she was even more anxious than the Monkey King and the Monkey Bro.

"Guests! We're closing soon!"

Billy replied impatiently, "Let him sleep."

Susie quickly said, "But we're about to close!"

Billy yelled, "Isn't this supposed to be a people-friendly supermarket? What happened to the promised benefits? Yipin Fresh is open 24 hours a day now! What's wrong with you staying open all night? Will you die?!"

"Yes," Susie was about to say the truth when she saw the Ape God staring at her with a vicious look in his eyes, "You won't be able to get out of bed! I have to go back to work tomorrow morning! Sir! You should control your companions!"

Fuyanni lay sprawled on the restaurant table, snoring and drooling.

Billy walked over to his friend and started shoving him, but when he couldn't wake up no matter what he did, he started banging on the table.

The table was welded to the floor, and the angle iron frame was connected to the iron cage of the air conditioner's outer casing, which transmitted the vibrations to the freezer area.

Finally, the cabinet door opened, and the supermarket manager's body hung by the door, sliding outwards along with it.

This corpse was unlucky in life and even in death. It slid more than 70 centimeters and fell into the trolley. The trolley followed it forward. Because there was a fish stall next to the fresh food freezer, the counter for killing fish and chopping bones had to be set up on a high place to facilitate the drainage of sewage. The trolley rushed down the slope.

It slammed hard against the table, scaring Billy half to death.

Fuyanni, who was already suffering from neurasthenia, immediately woke up, grabbed a chair from the dining table, and smashed it hard! The supermarket manager's head exploded again, and his already limited brain matter, mixed with ice shards, splattered out!

"Holy shit!" Billy finally snapped out of his daze.

Fuyanni then cursed, "Fuck! Did I kill someone?"

The sharp iron leg of the chair smashed the supermarket manager's head, leaving him completely disoriented.

This is not Fuyanni's fault. He had just woken up when he saw a Little Red car rushing out of the dark fresh food section. There was a strange man with a pale face in the car, who seemed to be about to pounce on him!

He had no time to think, relying solely on instinct to unleash his knightly combat skills, using the most ruthless techniques to deal the highest damage.

It seems that Ming De cannot favor these people; an invisible and intangible misfortune surrounds this supermarket and this city.

The ape god roared, cheering that he had been exonerated of murder. "Yay!"

Everyone looked at the Ape God, including the Horse-Faced Monkey, whose face was filled with disbelief.

"So naughty! So sad!!"

The ape god quickly and meekly agreed.

"That bastard! He deserves to die! You did well, righteous man! I will keep your secret!"

They weren't the only ones who suffered; it wasn't just the people at Huimin Supermarket.

Another militiaman, who lost his gun and vehicle, is now in a metal barrel on a fishing boat on Lilan Avenue, about to face the wrath of criminal gangs.

"The thing is in my car! I swear!" the militiaman said confidently. "It's in the trunk of my car! That aphrodisiac was originally intended to be sold to you along with the car, Radish Bro!"

The militia member known as "Carrot" was also a survivor of a previous drug trafficking case. He escaped Clark and Banner's pursuit and survived in disgrace by using the Soul Power bestowed upon Manager Todd.

To atone for his crimes and escape death within the White Shark Association Society, he must perform an extraordinary service.

What constitutes a tremendous achievement? Helping George Joshua woo the War King's sister is a tremendous achievement!

After much deliberation, Radish realized that the only way to make amends for his mistake was to offer a pillow to his master when he was tired. So he found a new way: he colluded with the militia to buy potent aphrodisiacs, drove the militia vehicles over the blockades of other gangs and the difficulties of his rivals, and delivered the gift to Chairman Joshua.

But now the truck is gone, and the goods are gone too.

How could Radish possibly swallow this insult?

"It's not about the money, young man."

Radish hunched over and slapped the militiaman's face.

"Life can be reduced to a simple choice: either busy yourself to survive, or busy yourself to die."

His face turned fierce as he pinched the militiaman's cheek.

"These things have nothing to do with money. What you're doing for me is a matter of life and death!"

He then launched into a scathing attack.

"Think it over! Use your damn pig brain! Think about it! Where did your car go?!"

The militiaman shakily raised his hand, and in the torrential rain, he saw the patrol vehicle on the riverbank.

It crashed into a tree and almost fell into the river.

Radish Bro had already started pouring cement into the iron bucket. He thought the militia were playing a trick on him, wanting to play the silly game of "Look! It's an alien."

"You think I'm easy to talk to? Hmm?"

"No, no! No, no, brother! No, no!" The militiaman was so scared he almost peed himself. "No! I'll tell you! My car is right on the shore! Please take a look! Please, please take a look!"

Radish Bro poured in a lot of cement, and while changing into a cement bag, he caught a glimpse of the patrol vehicle on the shore.

"Holy shit!"

The militiaman shouted angrily, "There must be some bastards who stole my car! Radish Bro, I'm innocent! Lilan Avenue is your territory!"

"No, no, no, I'm not that powerful." Radish was worried. Lilan Avenue was not under his jurisdiction. He had no jurisdiction now. If he returned to the Zhan Gang, he would have to abide by the gang rules. Chopping off one or two fingers would be considered lenient.

Militiaman: "Oh, then you'd like to go and take a look?"

"You fucking go first!" Radish thought this was a trap set by the local gangs on Lilan Avenue, so he kicked the militiaman off the fishing boat.

The militiaman fell into the artificial river and soon disappeared.

--Brother Radish Bro then remembered that he had thrown the bucket and cement down with it, and now the militia were all dead.

His rubber-headed brain couldn't work anymore, so he simply jumped ship and secretly went ashore. He squatted on the shore for a while to make sure there were no other members of the War Gang around.

He approached the patrol car and found that the handbrake wasn't engaged; it seemed to have coasted all the way here, crashing into a poplar tree on the riverbank before coming to a stop. However, without the car keys, he couldn't open the trunk.

There was no one else around, and the sound of rain drowned out everything.

He found a rock and prepared to smash the rear window of the Ford Explorer and use the divine power bestowed upon him by Manager Todd to retrieve the cargo.

The sudden gunshot startled him! It came from inside the supermarket!

"I was right! Some bastard from the War Clan is definitely trying to kill me! They're not leaving me any way out, are they!"

Radish Bro no longer cared about the goods; he only wanted to unleash his soul power and go on a killing spree. He had suffered too much humiliation and hardship along the way.

How could Todd's personally promoted talent, an outstanding young man who inherited the soul power of George Joshua, be so utterly defeated and humiliated by two ordinary people and two traffic cops?!

He didn't understand! He was indignant! He wanted to open the eyes of these short-sighted competitors!

So Radish Bro went outside the supermarket and peered inside.

--Fuyanni just happened to lift the chair and smash it down on the supervisor's head.

This woke Radish up. He hadn't even seen the supervisor's face clearly, only knowing that a vicious, bloodthirsty thug with bloodshot eyes, like a demon, had just killed someone!

With a fucking chair? Good heavens!

Could a chair really smash a person's head like that? Could it cause that much damage?

Are all the leaders of the war gangs so corrupt now?!

This immediately made Radish Bro want to back out.

He was just about to leave--

--Susie climbed out of the window, seizing the opportunity to escape.

They bumped into each other.