Welcome Ceremony
On the beach, a group of illegal immigrants were surrounded by another group of people.
These people were all carrying things that reflected a cold, hard gleam in the dim light—machetes, steel pipes, thick wooden sticks, and some were even carrying stun batons crackling with blue-white arcs of electricity!
"Ah!"
"What are you doing?!"
Who are you?!
The stowaways erupted in chaos, screams of terror and questions filling the air. The women trembled with fear, while the men, pale-faced, instinctively huddled together in a small group, staring in utter terror at the clearly hostile thugs around them. Their dream of a "new world of freedom" had instantly transformed into a chilling trap.
K's heart sank, but his face remained expressionless. His body was slightly tense, on the verge of exploding at any moment, while he quickly assessed the enemy's numbers, weapon configuration, and positioning.
At this moment, the encirclement parted slightly, and a person walked out unhurriedly.
The newcomer appeared to be around thirty years old, short and thin, wearing a flashy short-sleeved shirt, which he left open, revealing a thick gold chain around his neck. He wore a seemingly amiable but actually sinister smile, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and swaggered over to the still-shaken crowd, surveying them like a leader on an inspection tour.
"Quiet! Quiet! Everyone, stop making a sound!" He raised the hand holding the cigarette, gave it a light tap, and said in a deliberately affected tone, "Hello everyone, nice to meet you all, don't be nervous. My surname is Li, and my given name is Kun. You can call me— Brother Kun."
He exhaled a smoke ring, his smile deepening, and his gaze lingered on the faces of several men who looked strong or defiant.
"From now on, we'll be colleagues working together. Let's get to know each other and familiarize ourselves with our... rules."
The atmosphere was deathly still, save for the sound of the waves and heavy breathing.
Sure enough, there's no shortage of daring among the desperados. The middle-aged man, who had been a bit of a troublemaker on the ship, a burly man with a scar on his face, suddenly stepped forward from the crowd. His face twitched, and he glared at Li Kun, his voice distorted with anger and fear:
"Who the hell are you? What right do you have to stop us from leaving? Do you even know who my older brother is? Back in our hometown, he's also..." He tried to protect himself with a show of bravado.
"Hey—" Li Kun drawled, interrupting him. The smile on his face didn't fade at all, but the warmth in his eyes had quickly vanished, leaving only a cold, playful look. "I already said, my name is Li Kun, your Brother Kun, your future boss. As for our company... it mainly deals with internet finance, it has a very promising future."
"Bullshit!" The scarred man seemed enraged by this cat-and- Rat attitude, or perhaps he simply didn't believe in such nonsense, and rudely interrupted again, "I don't care about Li Kun or Liu Kun! Let me leave right now! What internet finance? Isn't it just telecom fraud?! That's what desperate bastards do! I have no interest! I came here to..."
"It seems," Li Kun's smile finally faded, and he sighed softly, shaking his head as if with regret, "That our new colleague has some misunderstandings about the company's business, and... is quite dissatisfied."
He paused, his tone suddenly turning cold, and waved his hand behind him:
"Come on, let's give this new colleague who has a problem a 'welcome ceremony.' Help him understand the company culture."
Before he finished speaking, two burly men wielding solid wooden sticks sprang out from behind him and, without a word, swung their sticks at the scarred man!
The scarred man tried to resist, but he was unarmed, hungry, and exhausted, no match for the thugs who were specifically responsible for "disciplining" him. With a muffled thud, a club slammed into his shoulder blade. He screamed and staggered, but before he could fall, another club swept across his back.
"Ah--!" The scarred man screamed and fell to the ground, curling up and hugging his legs.
"Hey, hey, go easy on them!" Li Kun called out from behind, feigning concern, his unsettling smile returning. "Be careful, don't hit their hands, don't hit their vitals! They need their hands to type on keyboards and generate profits for the company!"
After saying that, he looked back at the remaining stowaways, who were pale with fright and trembling like leaves, and asked with a friendly smile:
"So, fellow new colleagues, now... does anyone still have any questions about the company, or about my arrangements with Brother Kun?"
A deathly silence fell. Only the painful groans of the scarred man on the ground and the sound of the waves could be heard.
However, extreme fear can sometimes breed irrational impulses. In the crowd, two young men who looked to be in their early twenties exchanged a glance, both seeing despair and a desperate, reckless glint in each other's eyes. Suddenly, they shouted, and taking advantage of the thugs' attention being focused on Scarface and Li Kun, they charged towards the gap in the encirclement on the side with fewer people! They ran incredibly fast, almost with all their might, trying to rush into the nearby bushes!
"Damn it! You're asking for it!" The smile on Li Kun's face vanished instantly, replaced by a ferocious rage. "Looks like some people still don't understand human language! You like to run away, huh?"
Before he could finish speaking, someone was already prepared in the darkness. With a few teeth-grinding crackling sounds, two blue-white arcs of electricity shot out and struck the two young men precisely in the back!
"Ugh--!" The two let out short, shrill screams, their bodies convulsing violently as they collapsed forward onto the beach, their limbs still flailing unconsciously, foaming at the mouth.
With a gloomy face, Li Kun slowly walked to the two young men who were slumped on the ground, their consciousness fading. He squatted down and slowly pulled out a machete from his back, its blade gleaming coldly in the night.
"You like running? Your legs are so nimble?" he muttered to himself, his voice not loud, but it sent chills down the spines of all the illegal immigrants.
He gestured to the thugs beside him to roughly tear off the two men's worn-out shoes, revealing their filthy feet. Then, under the horrified gazes of the crowd, Li Kun raised his machete, aimed it at the big toe of one of the young men, and without hesitation, chopped it down hard!
"Ah--!!!" A shrill scream, inhuman in its deafening sound, instantly pierced the night sky, drowning out the sound of the waves.
Then came the second cut, which landed on the toe of another young man.
"Ugh--! Oh my god--! It hurts so much!!" Another young man was also completely awakened by the excruciating pain, letting out a heart-wrenching cry.
Thick blood quickly seeped into the black sand, and the heavy stench of blood filled the salty air. Two young men, clutching their mutilated feet, rolled and howled wildly on the beach. Their cries were so pitiful that they nearly made the other stowaways faint. Several women couldn't help but sob softly, and the men were pale and their legs were weak.
Li Kun stood up, casually wiped the blood-stained machete on one of the young men's clothes, and put it back in his waistband. He looked around, and wherever his gaze fell, everyone lowered their heads in terror, trembling. No one dared to meet his eyes again, let alone resist or run away.
"Now," Li Kun's voice returned to calm, even carrying a hint of a smile, but against the backdrop of this hellish scene, that smile was more terrifying than the devil's, "Welcome to all our new colleagues, officially joining our company. I hope we all... will have a pleasant working relationship."
The black sand beach under the cover of night seemed to have become a silent prison. Only painful groans, suppressed sobs, and the tireless crashing of the waves told the story of what had just happened. K stood in the crowd, his eyelids lowered, coldly imprinting all the atrocities, all the faces, and all the details deep into his mind.