Water Pressure Galore

Assassins made their living by taking jobs. There had to be someone assigning work before they had a stage to show their skills. Yet taking one side's money meant offending the other side's business, and it would leave a corresponding brand in the eyes of onlookers. Choosing an employer was therefore a matter requiring careful calculation. In a city this vast, all manner of people inevitably swam together like fish and dragons. So who offered the brightest future?

Did that even need asking? Of course, the official side offered the brightest future!

No matter how loudly civilian gangs boasted their names, they were merely local snakes. The authorities, however, were the true masters of this territory. When a master drove rats and snakes from his house, he never had to consider whether he could defeat them—only whether the reward was worth it. Back in the 1940s, swaggering mafia godfathers had claimed connections all the way to the White House, yet they had still been chased by police during meetings until they scattered like rats with their heads in their hands. The untouchable "bosses" and "magnates" of Kowloon Walled City—when the time came, weren't they still uprooted completely?

Chu Hengkong's former employer had been the godfather of an old-school mafia family. Having spent so long in the underworld, he understood its workings especially well. A starved camel was still bigger than a horse. Apart from the handful of chaotic regions where criminal warlords also acted as the ruling class, official power was always the most overbearing ceiling. Thus, the moment he saw Ji Huaishu, he had decided to recommend himself: making a connection with an official through this chance was the easiest path to rising high.

This time, Ji Huaishu's reaction was finally within his expectations. The blonde girl tossed the goose leg bone into her soup bowl and sneered. "Mr. Assassin, is your head still clear? Our Resurrection Corps is a law-enforcement agency directly under the City Lord. We fight demons, lunatics, and criminal forces. We're bona fide guardians of the city. How could we possibly hire you to commit murder?"

"First, an assassin isn't a homicidal maniac. Just because I make my living with my fists doesn't mean all I know is killing people to silence them," Chu Hengkong said. "Second, your corps is exactly when it needs people most. Adding a fighter like me would be just the thing to put out the fire at your eyebrows."

If he had believed his idea was unworkable, Chu Hengkong would have found a way to escape while they were still on the road. But everything he had seen along the way had only made him more confident: the grand shaman who openly summoned "gods," the wanted posters covering an entire wall at Resurrection Corps headquarters, the badly wounded corps members, and the desolate sight of this city that he had witnessed from high above...

Every sign showed that the local ruling class was gradually losing its grip on the city. They certainly needed fighting strength, especially experts capable of dealing with those vicious wanted criminals. And wasn't an assassin who had just crossed over from another world exactly the sort of man with a "clean" record?

Ji Huaishu fell silent for a moment. She clearly had similar considerations. Chu Hengkong spread one hand, adding one final spark to the young captain's fire.

"I'm a capable man," he said. "You can give me your most troublesome assignments. That way, your subordinates will suffer far fewer casualties!"

Ji Huaishu's gaze changed. Chu Hengkong knew she was tempted. When they had encountered the severely wounded corps member earlier, he had not missed Ji Huaishu's reaction. He had known then that this girl was a good captain who cared about her subordinates. The matter was half settled now, but to truly make the final call, they still had to hear her father's opinion.

"You've raised a good idea." Huaisu's Father wore a smile that was not quite a smile. "Indeed, if you work under Huaisu, we can keep watch over you conveniently, and you won't need amputation surgery for the time being. But business depends on the balance between returns and risks. Letting someone suspected of demon possession move around within the corps is a considerable risk."

He looked deeply into Chu Hengkong's eyes. "Do you have value to match it?"

Chu Hengkong answered confidently, "As long as you're willing to give me an opportunity."

Huaisu's Father leisurely walked out the door. When he returned, there was an arrest warrant in his hand. He sent it sliding across the long table, and a photograph of a fierce, baleful one-eyed brute appeared before Chu Hengkong.

["One-Eyed Elephant" Hugos]

Bounty: 100,000 Flow Pearls.

-

Demon-possessed, holder of a Relic—

Holds Iron Oar Shop at 67 Green Surge Road, with over sixty men under him.

-

Water pressure guaranteed! Beware gunshot wounds!

Chu Hengkong grabbed the warrant. "Dead or alive?"

"As long as it doesn't come to killing anyone, beat him within an inch of his life if you can." Ji Huaishu said, "How long do you need?"

Chu Hengkong crossed his right index finger with the tip of his tentacle, making a cross.

"Hey, ten days?" Ji Huaishu frowned.

"Ten minutes will be enough." Chu Hengkong smiled.

Chu Hengkong swaggered out of Resurrection Corps headquarters. He knew that people were certainly watching his every move, both openly and in secret, but he did not care in the slightest. He held a crude map directly to his destination in his hand—personally drawn by Captain Huaisu—but did not hurry to look at it. Instead, he raised his head toward that wondrous "sky."

Only after arriving at headquarters did he realize belatedly that the place where he had first crossed over had actually been the highest point of this city, while headquarters stood at the "middle level" along the city's vertical axis. Night had fallen now, and the dome formed by the curtain of water had turned a deep black with the coming darkness. It seemed as distant as a real sky. The swords dancing wildly within the Tide appeared tiny from this distance, like schools of fish ceaselessly patrolling above the city.

There were neither stars nor moon in this city's night sky, while the city itself was covered in water trails as though it were "heaven." Streams of deep blue water crisscrossed one another, forming orderly waterways. Wooden boats resembling ancient Viking warships sailed upon them, silently docking at fixed markers to take passengers on and off, like the local equivalent of buses. The city's architectural style reminded Chu Hengkong of his homeland at the turn of the century. Gray residential buildings stood in neat rows within carefully planned blocks, while tangled wires like a mess of hemp hid in the alleys behind them. Outside many floors, flamboyantly worded advertisements glowed with a languid, decadent light.

Yet these buildings were dilapidated, even incomplete. The roads were half new and half old. Many buildings bore cracks from impacts by enormous objects, and in districts farther from headquarters, there were even quite a few half-collapsed ruins. This place had most likely seen war not long ago. He simply did not know whether their enemies had been other humans, or the so-called "demons."

Chu Hengkong did not dwell on it. The mission came first. He raised his silver tentacle, wrapping it around a protruding billboard. The tentacle's secretions were highly adhesive, fixing it in place like glue. Chu Hengkong relaxed its "muscles," letting its elasticity launch him off the ground. He balanced on one foot atop the billboard, his tentacle swiftly retracting before shooting out again to wrap around the next landing point. In this strange manner, he kept leaping onward, darting through the night like an agile, joyful ape.

Traveling could also be used to train his new arm. The more control he gained over its power, the more confidence he would have.

After more than ten leaps, the target building came into view. Iron Oar Shop was a brightly lit three-story house, surrounded by barbed wire and high walls for defense, like an iron fortress in a modern city. Strangely dressed thugs patrolled around it with guns. Their clothes were as chaotic as though they had been looted from every possible place: some wore tactical vests on their upper bodies and tights below, while others wore sandals with complete sets of rusted armor.

Using his tentacle, Chu Hengkong crossed the rooftops of nearby buildings one after another, observing the target structure from every angle with his exceptional eyesight. Its defenses looked tight but were actually lax. The thugs patrolling outside were distracted, and not even all the curtains inside had been drawn. Several hoodlums had opened windows to smoke in secret. Thanks to that, Chu Hengkong spotted gun after gun and dagger after dagger.

These amateurs actually put their armory right by the windows on the middle floor... They didn't even put up barbed wire... Fuck, these days any trash dared to join the underworld. His old boss would blow a gasket if he saw gun storage managed like this...

The undefended roof was a weak point. This sort of common concrete building could be punched through with a little force. He could infiltrate from the roof or a window, seize the armory, cut the power if conditions allowed, then kill them one by one. Under normal circumstances, Chu Hengkong would have chosen that approach. But this was an important first appearance, so he intended to use a method with more "force."

Chu Hengkong released his tentacle and landed lightly at the entrance of the large house. Ji Huaishu, watching through binoculars from afar, was startled. "What's this guy suddenly doing?"

The two thugs guarding the door had the same question. The guard wearing a tactical vest and tights raised his pistol. "Trying to die, asshole! Do you know whose turf this is?!"

Chu Hengkong smiled, then drove an upward elbow into the man's chest. The horrifying impact shattered his ribs and stopped his heart. Guard Number One collapsed on the spot. Chu Hengkong used his tentacle to snatch up the man's pistol, then turned sideways and grabbed Guard Number Two's head, giving it a gentle shake. Before he could even realize what had happened, Guard Number Two screamed from the violent vibrations. His vision spun wildly, and his brain felt as though it were about to turn into a lump of crumbled tofu.

"Bleurgh!"

He dropped helplessly to his knees, vomiting incessantly amid his shattered thoughts. Chu Hengkong picked up the second pistol, but did not continue forward. Instead, he fired repeatedly at the two men's ankles!

When he pulled the trigger, no bullets came from the muzzle—only a swirling mass of water. The Water Bullet carried tremendous force, instantly snapping both men's leg bones and sending their bodies flying from the impact.

"So it really is a water gun?" Chu Hengkong laughed in disbelief. "No wonder the water pressure's so great."

Chu Hengkong exerted force with one hand and crushed the pistol. The severely mangled gun was kneaded into a metal ball in his grip, while colorless water gushed from the gaps. He hurled the metal ball at the tightly shut iron gates before the house, and a thunderous boom rang out. The ball smashed into the heavy gates, blasting them open in an instant!

More than a dozen pairs of eyes inside stared toward the doorway. A young man stood there, swinging a silver tentacle, laughter in his eyes.

"Hands up. Drop your weapons. You're under arrest."