Gang Melee

Taking the best equipment from the warehouse, Li Qinwu made his way to the Fertilizer Gang's base.

The moment he arrived, he saw the Fertilizer Gang members gathered together. More than a thousand people packed the little space the gang had left after it had been squeezed by the chemical processing equipment.

A burly man stood on a raised platform. He had only one eye; the other was a red mechanical prosthetic. He was probably the Fertilizer Gang's boss.

He loudly harangued the gang grunts below. More or less, they were heading out to kill those Chemical Gang bastards. Fight with their lives, earn merits, get titles, money, and women.

The grunts howled excitedly, waving all kinds of melee weapons and itching to hack the Chemical Gang bastards to death immediately.

Several senior grunts stood behind the one-eyed man with the mechanical eye, including Nipall, the black marketeer.

Nipall scanned the people below from side to side. His eyes were sharp, and he spotted Li Qinwu at the back of the crowd immediately. Mainly because Li Qinwu wore a gray-green PDF helmet, which stood out sharply among all the patchwork armor made from metal scrap.

Nipall pulled over one of his underlings and muttered something to him, then stuffed something into his hand.

The underling nodded, left the platform, and slipped over to Li Qinwu.

"Greetings, Scavenger sir. Boss Nipall sent me to greet you."

He took out a stack of Fertilizer Coupons and handed them to Li Qinwu.

"Scavenger sir, this is your appearance fee. We're heading out soon, so please accompany us in attacking the Chemical Gang."

Li Qinwu accepted the Fertilizer Coupons and counted them. Five thousand, not a single unit short. Very satisfied, he pocketed the money.

The underling said, "Scavenger sir, I'll be staying by your side as your assistant from now on. I'll coordinate with you in battle."

This was the lookout the black marketeer had sent. Five thousand credits was not easy money. It was impossible for Li Qinwu to take the money, fire a few shots on the battlefield, and run off. Naturally, someone had to keep an eye on him.

Li Qinwu pulled out a cigarette and offered one to him.

"What should I call you?"

The underling took the cigarette.

"Just call me Little Knife."

Li Qinwu nodded.

"Little Knife, stay behind me and help keep track of my kills. Your boss said he'd give me three hundred for every Chemical Dog I kill, and three thousand for every Chemical Pig. Don't miss any!"

Little Knife nodded.

"Boss Nipall sent me here for exactly that reason. My eyes are sharp. I won't miss a single dead man you kill."

While the two discussed matters, the big man with the Electric Eye on the platform let out a roar. The Fertilizer Gang grunts below roared as well, then charged in a certain direction in a dark mass, with no real formation to speak of.

Li Qinwu and Little Knife followed at the back of the group. Li Qinwu asked, "How many people did you send out this time? How many does the Chemical Gang have?"

Little Knife said, "We've got over a thousand of our own people, plus more than five hundred hired thugs.

The Chemical Gang has even more. They use injections to control lots of drug addicts, but our equipment is better, we have more gunmen, and Boss Electric Eye has a secret weapon. Heh heh, those Chemical Gang bastards are in for it."

Li Qinwu gave an indifferent grunt.

After that, more than fifteen hundred hooligans marched through the Ceramite structures of the underground Hive City for over thirty minutes.

This army, which looked like it would collapse at the first blow, shouted and hollered all the way. Some people occasionally let out hysterical roars, while others banged their weapons against the surrounding pipes. Discipline did not exist at all.

At last, they reached an enormous space. It might once have been a Lower Hive warehouse, as large as dozens of football fields.

Towering Ceramite metal pillars stood everywhere. The interior was filled with metal scrap, collapsed steel frameworks, and Ceramite ruins, dimly illuminated by rows of air-status lights.

This was S65 Strategic Warehouse, abandoned one hundred and twenty years ago. Later, with approval from the Arbites Department, it became a place where Underhive Gangs settled disputes. The Lower Hive gangs called it the Duel Arena!

After the Fertilizer Gang's fifteen hundred hooligans entered the Duel Arena, they waited quietly. Within a set time, the Chemical Gang would arrive as well, and a battle would decide who got the newly discovered Reactor.

While everyone else chatted and waited, Li Qinwu did not wait. He began looking for a firing position.

The place was vast, but not open. Huge amounts of reinforced concrete debris, empty metal cargo containers, and metal structures filled the space, turning the Duel Arena into a maze.

Li Qinwu spotted a damaged crane, more than ten meters high, with an operator's cabin at the top.

He patted Little Knife on the shoulder.

"Come with me."

Little Knife did not understand why, but he followed Li Qinwu anyway. The two climbed onto the crane and then into the operator's cabin.

Aside from glass, the cabin was armored and could provide plenty of cover. More importantly, it offered a broad field of view.

Li Qinwu smashed the glass with his rifle stock and set up the PDF semi-automatic combat rifle, aiming it in advance. With its long barrel, he could use it like a sniper rifle.

He took out a magazine loaded with Level 3 rounds and gave it to Little Knife, along with a handful of ammunition.

"Know how to load a magazine?"

Little Knife nodded.

"Good. When I start firing, help me load magazines and count the kills. Understand?"

Little Knife nodded again.

"I understand, Mr. Scavenger."

Then came a long wait. Li Qinwu waited until his satiety meter emptied once. He ate two potatoes and drank some water from his canteen, then simply hugged his rifle and lay down to sleep in the operator's cabin, telling Little Knife to watch for trouble and wake him.

After quite a while, Little Knife woke Li Qinwu.

"Mr. Scavenger, those Chemical Gang bastards are here!"

Li Qinwu got up, knelt inside the cabin, braced his rifle against the window, worked the bolt to chamber a round, and switched off the safety as he prepared to fire.

A great deal of noise echoed through the pitch-black space ahead: thousands of footsteps, steel pipes striking the ground, and maniacs shouting crazily.

The Chemical Gang had arrived!

More than five thousand people. That was the Chemical Gang's strength. Most wore scraps of cloth, carried steel pipes and long blades, and were gaunt, drug-addled maniacs in a state of wild excitement. They were cannon fodder.

The Chemical Gang's backbone, meanwhile, consisted of a group of burly men wearing iron armor and carrying long melee weapons and homemade firearms.

They were absurdly muscular. They had probably been infused with Nine Dragons' Might. He just did not know whether all that dead muscle would be useful on the battlefield.

The two sides began their standoff. Electric Eye, the Fertilizer Gang's boss, and the Chemical Gang's boss—a woman called Mother—shouted at each other across the distance.

Mother was a vampire-like woman, with unnaturally pale skin, black leather clothes, a bald head, and a braid sticking straight upward.

A special device was mounted on the back of her head, with syringes of various colored drugs waiting to be injected.

The two gang leaders shouted at each other from afar for several minutes. In the end, it concluded with them insulting each other's mothers and fathers. Negotiations had broken down. The battle began.