The Fake "Hall Master" X and X the Real "Hall Master"

Wennide looked at Qi Zhou and slowly spoke. "What... do you want?"

"Suoerzite is dead." Qi Zhou slipped his hands into his pockets and kicked a stone on the ground. His voice was low, each word deliberate. "I want Stock Solution. Lots and lots of Stock Solution, and I don't want to pay for it."

Wennide relaxed and nodded.

No matter how fierce a beast was, if it had a weakness, it was a trapped beast with a collar around its neck.

Although he couldn't get his hands on the Stock Solution right now, he could use it to keep the kid on the hook, if the kid was strong enough...

A dark gleam of ambition flashed in Wennide's eyes.

"All right, but you know I wasn't qualified to touch that stuff before. Only the hall master has it," Wennide said. He studied Qi Zhou's face and ventured, "I can only help you get that stuff once I've actually become the hall master."

"Then first, let me see if you have what it takes to become hall master." Qi Zhou clicked his tongue softly and said indifferently, "I've already given you the information on Kerien. You decide what to do with it."

He paused briefly and lowered his voice. "Don't worry. I'll be watching you."

Before his words had faded, Qi Zhou leaped up, and in a breath, his figure vanished over the wall of the narrow alley.

Wennide stood where he was, a complicated look on his face.

The kid's words, "watching you," were both an inducement and a threat.

He thought for a long time, but ultimately headed toward the area where Kerien was stationed.

Meteor City was only so big, and the four elders had taken all the good places. The remaining resources were pitifully scarce, and people had to risk their lives to scrape them together. So even if it was only to stay alive, people in the outer district would fight tooth and nail over supplies.

There were countless gangs and factions of all sizes in the outer district. Every day, countless gangs were formed, and countless others were destroyed.

Wennide and Kerien had been bitter rivals ever since the White Eagle Society was founded. So when Wennide entered Kerien's hideout, Kerien, sitting in a corner with an ashen face, didn't even change his expression.

He sat dejectedly on the ground, dark circles around his eyes, and looked up to meet Wennide's gaze.

The wound to his arm had left him almost unable to fight. In a place like Meteor City, someone who had been gravely injured and left disabled had almost no chance of surviving.

His body was crippled, and he had no one left at his disposal. For the past few days, he hadn't even dared close his eyes, and he was already on the verge of collapse.

Now, Wennide's arrival was the final straw.

Wennide looked at him and smiled. "Where are your men?"

A cold smile hung on Kerien's lips. His eyes were like a venomous snake's as he stared fixedly at Wennide. "Don't you already know?"

Hearing that, Wennide narrowed his eyes. "Just asking. Better to be safe."

Kerien gave a mocking laugh. It was unclear whether he was mocking Wennide or laughing at himself.

Wennide's expression changed slightly. The satisfaction in his eyes faded in an instant, replaced by a complicated look.

Where Kerien sat in the corner, blood trickled down his body and slowly gathered into a pool on the floor.

He had plunged a dagger with a notched blade into his own heart.

"I... won't... fall into your hands..." Kerien's face went from dark red to deathly pale, and his voice grew fainter. "And let you... laugh at me..."

His breathing gradually faded away along with his voice.

Wennide stood there, silently watching his bitter rival sitting on the floor. For some reason, a chill suddenly ran through his whole body.

He stood there for a long time before slowly approaching Kerien. Only after he reached out and felt the artery in Kerien's neck did his tense body relax.

He looked outside the house and called, "Hey, I've done what you wanted me to do."

Qi Zhou appeared in the doorway.

He, too, stared at the man sitting in the pool of blood, the "teacher" who had taught him his first "rule for survival in Meteor City." He could hardly describe how he felt at that moment.

This man had died indirectly at his hands, allowing him, the "prey," to turn the tables and kill the "hunter."

He could be considered to have completed his lessons.

Qi Zhou turned around. "Bury him."

Wennide: "..."

The kid who had followed him all the way without making a sound, who had appeared without warning, made him feel an unprecedented fear and an unprecedented anticipation for the future.

Qi Zhou stood on the roof of the dilapidated house, hands in his pockets, silently watching Wennide dig a grave and bury the man.

Wennide filled in the last shovelful of earth and tossed the shovel aside, then looked up and met Qi Zhou's eyes.

Seeing that he was finished, Qi Zhou jumped down and landed in front of him. "Do you have any subordinates who won't obey you? I can help you deal with them first, so they don't all run off before you've officially taken over."

Wennide froze. He stared fixedly at Qi Zhou, looking at him in disbelief as he repeated, "Help me deal with them first?"

"Yeah." Qi Zhou seemed not to hear the doubt in Wennide's voice and went on, "Call them all over to your place. We can look for the ones who don't run later. Otherwise, it'd be a pain to chase them down one by one."

Wennide fell silent, then nodded slowly and firmly, determined to win.

After returning to his own territory, he called over a few of his men and sent them to summon the "subordinates" who had still been his equals a few hours ago.

Qi Zhou stood behind him. When he got tired of standing, he plopped down on the ground, without a trace of elegance.

"How should I address you?" Although he was speaking respectfully to a child, Wennide showed no sign of embarrassment or hesitation.

"Noah," Qi Zhou replied. "Just think of me as your subordinate."

Wennide nodded.

He knew the kid wanted to use him as a front, but he also badly needed the kid's strength.

Then there was nothing to hesitate over. Here was to a pleasant partnership.

Before long, his men returned, their faces bruised and swollen, with several other minor bosses behind them. Each of those bosses had also brought three or five of his own men.

More than twenty people crowded into Wennide's territory. No one spoke, and the atmosphere was freezing.

Wennide looked around at them. His expression didn't change, but surging anger darkened his eyes.

By agreeing to come, the minor bosses were "obeying orders"; bringing men was a show of support that was really meant to exert pressure; and beating up his men was blatant "defiance" of his attempts to give them orders.

Wennide took a quiet breath and kept his voice calm and cold. "Some people still aren't here. Let's wait a little longer."

"What the fuck gives you the right to make me wait here with you?!"

"If you've got something to say, spit it out. If-"

The minor bosses were still cursing in response when pressure like a mountain and a tsunami crashed down on them.

Nothing had happened, and yet... the fear in their hearts threatened to tear their souls apart. They couldn't move at all, not even-

"Who is it...? Who?!"

Cold sweat threatened to break out, but couldn't emerge at all.

They struggled to shift their gazes. Their eyes fell on Wennide, whose face was calm-and on the equally calm face of the white-haired child behind him, his hands in his pockets.

At some point, the child had gotten to his feet. He even wore a faint smile as he kicked at the ground over and over in boredom. Sensing their gazes, he raised his head and met their eyes one by one.

One gray-blue eye, one silver-blue eye-only a monster that had crawled out of hell, out of the darkness, could have eyes like those.

Pinned by that gaze, no one present dared make a sound. Nor could anyone muster the courage to speak under such pressure and fear.

Wennide looked at the people opposite him, who had suddenly fallen silent in an instant. When he noticed their gazes, his breathing slowed for a beat, and his heart skipped one too.

In a voice more confident than ever before, suppressing a wild joy and excitement he couldn't actually suppress, he said firmly:

"I said we're waiting until everyone gets here. Any objections?"

He was so excited that his voice even cracked a little.

As if they hadn't heard the crack in his voice, everyone stood silently and obediently in place, like tamed beasts.

Wennide smiled in satisfaction and raised a hand slightly in a signal.

The next moment, the mountain and tsunami pressing down on everyone abruptly dispersed, vanishing like a gust of wind, as though they had never appeared.

The bosses: "..."

Only then did they realize their backs were soaked with cold sweat.

The child standing behind Wennide, whom they had never taken seriously, had one silver-blue eye that turned gray-blue again. He seemed a little tired and plopped down on the ground, resting his elbows on his knees and propping up his head as he looked at them in utter boredom, his eyes roaming over them.

Everyone he looked at held their breath instinctively-it felt as though a wild beast had set its sights on them, and all they could do was hope it would eat someone else first.

No one dared move a muscle, because any rash movement would bring that terrifying pressure, like a mountain and a tsunami, sweeping over them again.

And so they stood there until the sun was swallowed up bit by bit by the horizon.