Qiantiao Comes to the Rescue

"Get ready to fight."

"Yeah."

Neither Suren nor Kai was the type to resign himself to fate, even in such desperate circumstances.

There was no longer any room for them to retreat in the alley. They planned to make one final charge once the monsters dug through the rubble blocking the entrance.

That charge would likely decide whether they lived or died.

But to their surprise, just as the monsters were about to claw through the rubble, the gunfire outside, which had already died down, suddenly started up again.

"Reinforcements?"

Suren and Kai exchanged a look, each seeing disbelief in the other's eyes.

The only people who could have come to save them were the Green Street old hands.

But with so many monsters, and not a single Professional among them, how could they have fought their way in?

Kai seemed to think of something. "A High-Tier Professional must have arrived! Let's hope it isn't an enemy."

Suren tightened his grip on his flintlock, his gaze sharp. "No matter who it is, the monsters outside have been drawn away by the gunfire. This is our best chance to break out."

"Yeah."

Kai nodded. "Then shall I make a move?"

Suren nodded.

Kai took a deep breath. The mantis blades on both his arms flashed coldly, and several cracks appeared in the wall of rubble.

"Charge!"

With a sharp shout, Kai smashed through the stones and rushed out first.

Suren followed without hesitation.

Both had been prepared to face a tide of monsters after breaking out and fight another bitter battle. Yet the moment they rushed out, they found nothing!

Taking a closer look, apart from the corpses they had killed earlier, there were barely any monsters left in the tunnel.

Looking farther ahead, they saw a group fiercely exchanging fire with the monsters not far away.

The two leading them were a blue-haired rakshasa with four arms, wielding four long blades and radiating murderous intent, and another man built like a bear, his rock-like muscles knotted beneath crimson skin.

One swung his four arms through the monster horde as though chopping vegetables, sending severed limbs flying everywhere. The other charged like a raging bull, exploding monsters with a single punch and scattering blood and flesh in an utterly savage display.

The two alone had carved a path through the monsters, leaving corpses strewn across the ground.

"They're so strong!"

Suren's eyes narrowed. Though he had never seen Sister Chijou activate her Alchemical Implant before, he recognized that gambling-addicted young woman from the familiar four long blades.

As for the red-skinned giant, Suren remembered him vividly. He was none other than Golon the "Red Demon," the Tier 2 Professional who had appeared at the Gladiatorial Arena!

Hadn't Qiantiao returned to headquarters?

And why had Golon come along for the rescue? Could he have joined the Cross Society?

Neither Suren nor Kai had expected their rescuers to be these two.

The Green Street old hands following behind the two bigshots spotted Suren and Kai and cried out, "Captain! It's Captain Kai!"

The old hands rushed over. Seeing that their captain was unharmed, every one of them breathed a sigh of relief.

"Damn, Captain, you're fucking awesome. You actually killed so many monsters."

"Haha, I told you Captain would be fine."

"Captain's the best!"

"..."

The old hands made a noisy fuss. As long as their captain was alive, that was the greatest stroke of luck.

By then, the Mutated Monsters in the tunnel had been slaughtered almost to the last.

The scattered survivors had also fled back into the depths of the tunnel.

Qiantiao looked at Suren and Kai, and relief showed in her eyes as well.

She put away her long blades, and her Augment Armor melted back into her tattoos.

She walked over and teased, "Yo, little Kai. You really do have a tough life."

Kai was in good spirits. Though he had just escaped danger, a smile already hung on his face. "Sister Chijou, it's all thanks to you getting here in time. If you'd been any later, you'd probably have been here to collect our bodies."

After a pause, he asked, "Oh, Sister Chijou, hadn't you gone back to headquarters? Why are you here?"

Qiantiao explained, "Mr. Golon and I were discussing something, and we happened to be nearby in the Redwood District. When we heard that the Steam Party had ambushed you, we came straight over."

As she spoke, she looked at the mountain of monster corpses, a faint trace of surprise crossing her face.

The number of corpses was rather astonishing.

And on closer inspection, there were two types of wounds on the monster corpses: gunshot wounds and blade wounds.

The blade wounds naturally came from Kai's ability, but what about those gunshot wounds?

With Qiantiao's experience, she could tell at a glance that the vast majority of the gunshot wounds on the Mutated Monster corpses had been fatal single shots.

One or two could be called luck, but when every corpse bore that kind of wound, such marksmanship was quite remarkable.

Thinking of this, Qiantiao seemed to have guessed something. She looked at Suren, curiosity flashing in her eyes.

They had become quite familiar at the casino, so she did not speak to Suren with any reserve. Still, she did not mention the corpses on the ground and merely asked, "Suren, are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Thank you, Sister Chijou."

Suren had no intention of saying much. He gave Qiantiao a polite smile.

Kai could take the spotlight. Suren was perfectly content being an unnoticed little nobody.

Qiantiao did not ask further. "Good. Let's get out first. There's something strange underground. There may be unusual mutagenic substances here, so it's best not to stay too long."

She had naturally noticed that there were an unusually large number of monsters in the Underground Chamber, and nearly all of them were species she had never seen before.

There had to be some powerful mutagenic factor in the environment.

If nothing else, staying here too long was not necessarily safe.

Hearing this, no one dared delay. They quickly tidied up the battlefield, then all withdrew from the Tube Building.

Breathing in the outside air, Suren felt his whole body relax. The intense battle had left him somewhat exhausted.

But the moment they reached the surface, the rescued Kai's face turned cold. He immediately called out to his brothers, "Brothers, move! Now it's our turn to settle the score with those sons of bitches from the Steam Party!"

"Those Steam Party bastards dared to make trouble on our turf. This time, we'll break their goddamn legs!"

"So many brothers died this time. They have to give us an explanation!"

"Yeah, fuck them up!"

"..."

The old hands became fired up as soon as they heard they were going to war on the Steam Party's turf.

Qiantiao did not seem the least surprised by Kai's decision. Not only did she not try to dissuade him, she even egged him on with an expression that suggested she loved trouble. "If you're going to fight, do it early. Otherwise, once the higher-ups from both sides get involved, the most likely outcome is sitting down at the negotiating table. Then not only will we have suffered for nothing, we'll definitely have to pay compensation. Those brothers will have died for nothing."

But fighting was one thing, and someone still raised a concern. "Sister Chijou, if we march over there so openly, won't they be waiting to surround us? What if their higher-ups get involved?"

Qiantiao was thoroughly familiar with this sort of conflict, and her tone was certain. "Don't worry. No matter how shameless those Steam Party bastards are, they'll have to swallow this loss. Their higher-ups will definitely show up, but they still have to follow the rules of the underworld. A fight definitely won't break out."

After a pause, she added lazily, "Besides, Mr. Golon and I are here. If anything really goes wrong, the Cross Society higher-ups aren't pushovers either."

With Qiantiao saying that, the Cross Society members all found their confidence.

As Qiantiao watched everyone prepare to seek revenge, she looked at the silent Suren beside her and seemed to offer an explanation specifically for the two survivors. "This time, the Steam Party reaching so far into our territory is directly related to infighting among the Inner City financiers. But the chairman and the others are still negotiating many of those matters, and it involves power struggles at a higher level, so I can't say too much."

In other words, the conflict was expected and unavoidable because of the struggle at the top.

Green Street was a lucrative piece of meat in the Outer City, and it happened to lie on the border between the two gangs' territories. As the defending side, they could not launch an attack first. But once attacked, they had to strike back.

Listening from the side, Suren quickly understood the meaning behind Qiantiao's words.

This ambush was not merely a simple territorial dispute.

It was like border disputes between great powers in his previous life. Conflict might be expected, but that did not mean you could launch a preemptive nuclear strike just because you knew conflict was coming.

Too many interests were involved behind it all, along with struggles between different powers.

The Cross Society and the Steam Party were the two largest gangs in Old Lindun's Outer City. They were tied not only to countless gang members, industries, and affiliated forces, but also to the interests of the Inner City backers behind them.

Street fights among the lower ranks over territory were normal, and they were also a form of competition tacitly allowed by the higher-ups on both sides.

Small clashes meant limited losses, while still allowing them to determine who was stronger.

That was how gangs fought over turf: either you got beaten down, or you could not afford to keep fighting and admitted defeat by giving up territory.

The Steam Party and the Cross Society had fought countless times over Green Street.

Kai's predecessor as Green Street captain had been killed in one of those gang wars.

Everyone wanted the profits, but the adults could not step in every time children got into a fight.

If the higher-ups fought over every minor matter, it could eventually become an all-out war between the two gangs.

No one could bear the consequences of such a large-scale war.

Not even the chairmen of the two gangs!

If one disobedient "Steam Party" disappeared, the Inner City backers could immediately support a "Boil Party" in its place. Interests were eternal, not winning or losing.

It sounded cruel, but in Old Lindun, in the Outer City, in the gangs, the lives of those at the bottom were worth so little.

The gang members had long understood that.

If the Steam Party had handled today's ambush cleanly and wiped out Kai's entire team, there would have been no trouble at all.

That was also the norm in gang warfare.

Everyone might know who had done it, but without catching them in the act, no one could do anything. You could send people to assassinate them in return, provided you were not caught with evidence.

But now, Kai and Suren had survived, while the Steam Party members' corpses still lay on Green Street territory.

The nature of the matter had changed.

That was evidence.

The Steam Party was in the wrong. Now that Kai and the others were going to strike back, the other side would have to swallow its anger even if they were unhappy.

Kai handled matters as decisively and efficiently as ever.

After briefly treating his injuries, he gathered several hundred people from nearby blocks and headed straight for Steam Party territory.

They directly smashed up Red Hair Kuntu's turf. When they were about to overturn Sith's turf as well, they were stopped by the Steam Party's higher-ups, just as expected.

Then the higher-ups from both sides stepped in and sat down at the negotiating table, bringing the gang fighting to a halt.

Compensation, ceding territory, and a temporary truce.

It was the same old standard procedure.

Suren did not care about the negotiations between higher-ups, but he followed along and harvested many fragments.

It had to be said that the Steam Party truly deserved its reputation as the "New School." Its members' mechanical proficiency was far above that of ordinary people. Any random member knew at least some Mechanical Knowledge. After hitting several locations, Suren stripped away quite a bit of Mechanical Knowledge, going directly from a mechanical novice to Intermediate Mechanical Entry.

After this battle, the Steam Party would probably lie low for a long time.

Suren would also have time to improve himself in peace.

But after the brutal battle in the Tube Building, his need for Alchemical Implants became even more urgent. A Professional without an implant was far weaker than one with it. Marksmanship alone was not enough for him to survive in the brutal Outer City.

Finally, several days later, the once-a-month Black Market auction opened.

Thanks to Ancient Navigator and Simple Yet True for the tips. Thank you.