Gang War

Li Qinwu put on the best equipment from the warehouse and made his way to the Fertilizer Gang's territory.

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

A burly man stood atop a platform. He had only one eye; the other was a red mechanical prosthetic eye. He was probably the leader of the Chemical Fertilizer Gang.

He loudly lectured the gang lackeys below, roughly saying that they were going to slaughter those Chemical Gang bastards. They were to risk their lives, earn merit, and receive promotions, money, and women.

The lackeys howled in excitement, wildly waving all kinds of cold weapons, eager to immediately chop the Chemical Gang bastards to death.

Several senior lackeys stood behind the burly man with the mechanical eye, including the Black Merchant Nipall.

Black Merchant 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 the patchwork armor made from metal scraps.

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

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

"Lord Scavenger, Boss Nipall asked me to send you his greetings."

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

"Lord Scavenger, this is your appearance fee. We'll be setting out soon. Please follow us in attacking the Chemical Gang."

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

The underling said, "Lord Scavenger, I'll be following you as your assistant from now on. I'll cooperate with you in battle."

So this was the lookout the Black Merchant had sent. Five thousand wasn't easy money. There was no way Li Qinwu could take the cash, fire a few shots on the battlefield, and run off. Naturally, someone had to keep an eye on him.

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

"What should I call you?"

The underling accepted the cigarette.

"Just call me Little Knife."

Li Qinwu nodded.

"Little Knife, stay behind me and help me keep track of my kills. Your boss owes 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 for exactly that reason. My eyes are sharp. I won't miss a single dead man you kill."

As the two discussed things, the Electronic Eye man atop the platform let out a shout. The Fertilizer Gang lackeys below shouted back and charged in a certain direction, a sprawling mass with no real formation.

Li Qinwu and Little Knife followed at the rear 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 have 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 Poison Insects, 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 a grunt, indicating that he did not care.

After that, more than fifteen hundred hoodlums marched through the Ceramite structures of the Underhive for over thirty minutes.

This army, which looked ready to collapse at a single blow, stomped along shouting and yelling. Every so often, someone let out a hysterical roar, while others banged their weapons against nearby pipes. Discipline simply did not exist.

They soon reached an enormous space. It might once have been an Underhive warehouse, as large as dozens of football fields.

Towering Ceramite metal pillars stood everywhere. The interior was littered with metal scrap, collapsed steel frames, and Ceramite ruins, with only faint light provided by rows of air-status lamps.

This was the S65 Strategic Warehouse, abandoned one hundred and twenty years ago. Later, with the approval of the Bailiff Department, it became a place for Underhive Gangs to settle disputes. The Underhive gangs called it the Duel Arena!

After the Fertilizer Gang's fifteen hundred hoodlums entered the Duel Arena, they waited quietly. Within a certain time, the Chemical Gang would also arrive, and a battle would determine who got the newly discovered Reactor.

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

The place was broad but not empty. Vast amounts of reinforced-concrete rubble, empty giant metal containers, and metal structures filled the space, turning the Duel Arena into a maze.

Li Qinwu spotted a damaged crane, around ten meters tall, with an operator's cabin at its top.

He patted Little Knife on the shoulder.

"Come with me."

Little Knife had no idea why, but he followed Li Qinwu. The two climbed onto the crane and made their way up to the operator's cabin.

Aside from glass, the cabin was made of armored compartments that could provide considerable cover. More importantly, it offered a wide field of view.

Li Qinwu smashed the glass with his rifle butt, set up the PDF semi-automatic battle rifle, and aimed in advance. Its long barrel made it perfectly usable as a sniper rifle.

He took out a magazine loaded with Level 3 rounds and handed it to Little Knife, then gave him a box of ammunition.

"Do you know how to load bullets?"

Little Knife nodded.

"Good. When I start shooting, help me reload and count the kills. Understand?"

Little Knife nodded again.

"I understand, Mr. Scavenger."

What followed was a long wait. Li Qinwu waited until his hunger meter had emptied once. He ate two potatoes and drank some water from his canteen, then simply hugged his rifle and went to sleep in the operator's cabin, telling Little Knife to keep watch and wake him if anything happened.

After quite some time, Little Knife woke Li Qinwu.

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

Li Qinwu rose, knelt inside the cabin, set his rifle against the window, pulled the bolt to chamber a round, and switched off the safety to prepare to fire.

Ahead, in the pitch-black space, a flood of noisy sounds rose up: thousands of footsteps, steel pipes striking the ground, and madmen shouting and screaming.

The Chemical Gang had arrived!

More than five thousand people. That was the Chemical Gang's number. Most wore scraps of cloth, carried steel pipes and long blades, and were skinny, mentally overstimulated Poison Insects. They were cannon fodder.

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

They were built far too unnaturally, probably possessed by Nine Dragons' Might. He just did not know whether those dead muscles would be any use on the battlefield.

The two sides began their standoff. The Fertilizer Gang's leader, Electric Eye, and the Chemical Gang's leader, a woman called Mother, shouted at each other from afar.

Mother was a vampire-like woman with unnaturally pale skin. She wore black leather, and her bald head was tied with a topknot pointing straight upward.

A special device was attached to the back of her head, loaded with various colored drugs waiting to be injected.

The two gang leaders yelled at each other for several minutes. It ended with both sides insulting the other's mother and father. Negotiations broke down, and the battle began.