Igniting Greed

Heka smeared the blood on his hands onto someone else's clothes before slowly walking toward the nearby stall.

The bloodstained coins in his backpack had already been put back into the money pouch, and he had then tossed the entire pouch into his backpack.

It was far too much money.

If he handed it over, Fat Pig—the man the children secretly called that—definitely wouldn't let him live.

The other party would most likely silence him first and try to pocket the money.

If the owner found him quickly enough and had powerful enough connections, Fat Pig would hand him over. At that point, whether he lived or died would depend entirely on the noble's mood.

After all, he was only a petty thief. If he died, so be it. It was no different from a rat dying in the street.

So he couldn't go back. He could only run.

There were many gang checkpoints in Seapeak Port's streets. Heka had seen children who tried to escape. Most of them had their hands and feet broken before being thrown into the streets.

Though most people on the streets knew the twists and turns behind such things and therefore wouldn't give them even a single coin,

these miserable examples were themselves a warning to pickpockets and streetwalkers.

How much food the gang gave these children with broken limbs depended entirely on how much they earned. In any case, the gang would never lose out.

These people were starving and terrified. They were the gang's natural eyes and ears on the streets, cheap and effective.

Heka knew he wouldn't be able to escape.

He couldn't outrun carriages and horses on foot, while most places that rented them had already received the gang's warning.

The moment he showed any such intention, those owners would personally tie him up and deliver him to Fat Pig.

So he could only hide in the sewers for now. But the sewers were his secret base. Should he bring Tuft of Hair along?

Heka glanced at Tuft of Hair, who had already disappeared into the distant crowd. Only after looking away did he buy two greasy chicken legs from the stall beside him.

The gang enforcer watching him from afar had now focused his attention on him.

Clearly, in the gang's hierarchy, petty thieves weren't worthy of eating meat. As far as the gang's management was concerned, letting them stay alive was already an act of kindness.

Greasy chicken legs cost a full two copper coins.

It was a feast even gang enforcers had to grit their teeth to buy as a treat.

Heka could see the greed in the eyes of the somewhat lame gang enforcer. Perfect. That was exactly the kind of greed he needed.

Heka fished a pouch out from inside his clothes. It was one of yesterday's spoils.

Fat Pig was harsh and greedy, but he was quite capable when it came to exploiting people.

Besides encouraging the children to inform on one another, he had also devised a system: every week, the child who stole the most would receive a good meal and an extra day off.

Fat Pig might have had some good ideas, but the people under him lacked the ability to implement such a complicated system.

He himself had no interest in tallying the brats' earnings. In the end, the system was reduced to checking the number of money pouches on Sundays.

Unlucky yet fortunate, Heka was a top-tier workaholic and had held this less-than-glorious award for more than eight consecutive weeks.

As a result, his theft proficiency had reached 6,790. He worked six days and rested one, putting in twelve hours a day, from when the streets began filling up until the dead of night.

Less than three months had passed since he'd been forced to take a job at this property-transfer company. In other words, he had to complete nearly ninety thefts a day on average.

Of course, the actual number of thefts wasn't that exaggerated.

Most of his proficiency had come from diligent practice during his break times.

Even so, he could still reliably contribute five or six wallets every day.

Hidden by the crowd, Heka stuffed a hundred copper coins into a new money pouch. After hesitating briefly, he stuffed another hundred copper coins inside.

This instantly reduced his savings by nearly a third.

But if he wanted the other party to delay things for him as long as possible, he had no choice but to pay a steep price.

After finishing, Heka casually slipped a money pouch from a merchant-like man nearby.

There were probably about twenty copper coins inside. That was the normal situation.

After all, with a workaholic like him in Seapeak Port, the theft rate had risen sharply over the past few months. People had stopped carrying large amounts of money into the streets long ago.

For ordinary daily use, a dozen or so copper coins were enough.

Heka carried two money pouches in one hand and held two chicken legs in the other as he approached the gang enforcer with the mocking smile.

Only after getting closer did Heka realize that the man's lame leg had been broken recently.

There were still traces of blood on the bandages around the wound, leaked out at some unknown time. It was probably the result of the gang conflict that had been growing increasingly intense lately.

With one leg crippled, the man would most likely only be able to do odd jobs from now on.

The enforcer also looked quite young. Heka could even smell the scent of ambition on him, though it had already begun to fade along with his broken leg.

"That isn't something brats like you should be eating. You stole the boss's money. You're finished."

Heka watched the flames in the man's eyes. The other party had probably taken him for a stepping stone—a stepping stone that could help him win favor with the boss.

Heka didn't answer. Instead, he tossed the money pouch in his hand directly in front of the man. The coins inside clinked against one another, producing a wonderful jingling sound.

"We've got business. Big business."

Heka handed one of the chicken legs to the man, then viciously bit into the other.

"Every penny you have, even if you hide it in your stomach, belongs to the boss."

The enforcer seemed to understand Heka's hint, but perhaps because this was his first time doing such a thing, he still answered cautiously.

"Two hundred copper coins. You take one hundred, I take sixty, and we hand over forty. There's another money pouch here. We'll call it a day after this, and do the same from now on."

Heka raised his head and stared into the man's eyes. The hesitation there was gradually being swallowed by greed.

"Your leg's only broken. You don't need limb regeneration. You just need the injury healed.

"The church can heal it for three silver coins. I once saw a coachman who broke his leg in a fall. His injury was worse than yours."

The enforcer's ambition and greed were completely ignited, nearly burning straight through Heka.

"Healed?"

The enforcer suppressed his excitement and trace of fear as he pressed both hands onto Heka's shoulders.

Heka nodded. He could feel the fingers pressing down on him slowly tightening.

"Did you get this injury fighting those Black Mountainers?"

"Obviously. Those bastards wanted to seize the gang's smuggling routes, so we guarded those places. We killed every one we saw. We've fought several times already, and quite a few people have died."

"And then they put you here to watch us pickpockets work?"

After speaking, Heka pushed the coins in front of him toward the man again.

"Three silver coins are three thousand copper coins. At a hundred a day, that's enough for a month."

"The guy before me did the same thing?"

When Heka heard this, half the weight in his heart lifted.

Although everyone paid lip service to loyalty,

what real loyalty could a gang that filled power vacuums through violence and used them to obtain money possibly have?

"No. He pocketed his share directly in the middle, but you should thank him.

"Because of him, I only need to hand over forty copper coins a day to settle accounts now, instead of one hundred and twenty."

The enforcer took a deep breath. This was a truly lucrative business. Then his eyes shifted, and he pressed the entire money pouch beneath his hand.

"What if I do the same thing he did?"

The flames of greed finally burst out in full. Heka frowned and reached for the money pouch.

But he was still only a child, and his reach was nowhere near as long as an adult's.

The enforcer merely took half a step back, making Heka stagger.

Finally feeling that he had seized control of the rhythm, the enforcer revealed a satisfied smile, pleased with his command of the situation.