There was a long history of conflicts between cartels in Kowloon.
Even at the time of the first formation of the slums, there was a great deal of friction between small gangs, and today, only two forces had survived, dividing the overarching slums.
They were the Red Blood Alliance and Blue Mage.
Most gangs that existed at the time had no choice but to choose to be absorbed or pledge their loyalty under either of these two.
For a long time, these two groups fought to gain the supremacy of Kowloon. However, no winner could be reached, and eventually, after failing to cope with the accumulated damage, a dramatic ceasefire agreement was signed 10 years ago.
Naturally even after the ceasefire, there were some behind-the-scenes conflicts and people died, but it was a peaceful enough time compared to before when dozens of people died each day.
But now, the atmosphere of Kowloon, which had been quiet for a while, had begun to stir again.
“…How the hell am I supposed to interpret this?”
A middle-aged man with a black eye-patch on one eye said.
The man’s name was Vlad, the second generation boss of the Red Blood Alliance and a notorious B-Rank Villain.
And right now In front of him was a terrible scene.
Dismembered bodies of his companions and blood stains everywhere. He had never seen such a terrible tragedy even when all-out war broke out in the past.
He had witnessed countless deaths, but what he saw now had almost made him squint without realizing it.
“…”
Controlling his boiling anger, he calmly examined the corpses.
I need to figure out who did this first.
The severed section of the bodies was very neat.
On top of that, there were no traces of them fleeing, as if they didn’t have time to run away.
They were all killed at the same time.
Was there anyone here who could kill so many people in one attack?
There was naturally nothing he couldn’t kill once he made up his mind, but he wasn’t confident he could handle all of them as neatly as this assailant.
“Who the hell did this…”
After staring at the bodies for a while, a big man standing next to him spoke.
“Isn’t it obvious?! That son of a bitch Chris is the only one who could have done this!”
“…”
As the man said, Chris, the boss of Blue Mage, was the only one who could commit such an elaborate slaughter in Kowloon.
It would also explain the scene in front of them if it was the wind magic he was so proud of.
But…
I don’t have the slightest idea why he would do this…
He couldn’t think of any reason.
Knowing his personality, he was like a fox who always calculated thoroughly, considering the advantages and disadvantages.
Was there any reason at this point to break the ceasefire agreement by revealing his true intentions?
“I can’t think of a reason no matter how I look at it.”
What the hell was he plotting? Or maybe this was another trap?
The moment when his head was getting more and more clouded, a man next to him shouted with a flushed face.
“Hyung! Why are you thinking too much into this? This is an obvious provocation! It’s revenge for what happened last year!”
A year ago, an incident had occurred in which one of the Red Blood Alliance’s executives was killed.
Vlad, who had lost his sworn brother due to this incident, became furious and eventually planned for war, ignoring the peace agreement.
But fortunately, there was no war.
This was because Chris, who had judged that it would do more harm than good if a war broke out, had raised the white flag first and apologized politely.
And, as an apology, he had handed over some of the members who had committed the murder, along with a portion of their own territory.
After the terrible death of such members, Vlad had hung them up on the plaza and the case was brought to a close.
But…
Since then, Blue Mage has gradually expanded their territory.
Not in the way of outright murdering like before but in a clever way of disguising it as accidental deaths without leaving any evidence.
For this reason, Red Blood Alliance had enough evidence as far as Vlad was concerned, but there was no proper evidence, so his anger had been boiling.
And today, dozens of his companions were killed all over the place. As terrible as how he had killed the members of Blue Mage a year ago.
From his point of view, they were just low-level members who he didn’t even know their names, but the fact that Chris had touched their members so openly, no matter how hard he thought about it, there seemed to be no other possibility than a declaration of war.
He remained silent as he measured the two sides in his head.
We’re a little bit at a disadvantage.
It was half and half if he was being generous, but if he calmly analyzed the situation, they were inferior.
This was due to the difference in the number of executives that had been removed little by little over the past year.
Frankly, it was hard to say there was a chance of winning. They could win if they were really lucky, but one wrong mistake and they would suffer a near-collapse.
However, if he left the situation as it was, from tomorrow, Blue Mage would be more active in pressuring them.
What should I do about this…
His forehead wrinkled.
Soon, a large man next to him struck the hammer on his shoulder against the floor and shouted.
“If hyung keeps acting like this, I’ll go alone, so don’t try to stop me.”
The man carried the big hammer on his shoulder and stomped out.
When Vlad saw it, after a long sigh, he made up my mind and spoke.
“Wait.”
The gaze of his eyes shifted.
In order to lead this cartel, he had tried to be as temperate as possible…
I have no reason to put up with it if that’s what he wants.
He spoke to his executives nearby.
“You all know our side is inferior, right?”
“That’s fine! We just need to kill two for every person that dies!”
“I can’t take responsibility even if you die.”
“Haha…Why nitpick over something like that?”
The executives answered with an outspoken, hearty look.
Upon hearing their answers, Vlad looked at them with a grave expression.
“Good. It’s do or die. Let’s take this opportunity to take over Kowloon.”
Thus, the Red Blood Alliance broke the long-standing peace agreement and began to prepare for war.
* * * * * * * * * *
“Haa…”
I let out a long sigh. Where do I even begin? I really hate these kinds of treasure hunt quests.
How the hell was I supposed to find Jane in this vast place?
And a high-grade box was at stake too…
The difficulty and complexity was much higher than previous Challenges.
If it was a task to kill Jane, it would have taken some time, but it wouldn’t have been this much of a headache.
I’ll just have to grab a person one by one and ask.
As I walked down the streets of Kowloon agonizing over the matter, people with coordinated blue clothes and accessories that looked like a cheap team uniform suddenly appeared.
“You there! I’ve never seen you before, where are you from?”
The one standing in front of the group approached me with a frown. He seemed to be the leader.
“Hey! Why aren’t you answering my question?”
“Hold on a second, I think he’s an outsider.”
“Outsider?”
They talked amongst themselves before looking me up and down.
“Hehe, we haven’t had an outsider in ages. Thanks to him, we’ll have some pocket money.”
“Now that you mention it…That sportswear looks pretty good.”
“That’s good. He’s about the same size as my child. I’ll take it.”
“Crazy! Your child is not even three years old!”
They surrounded me with teasing smiles. There seemed to be no one among them who knew how to use mana properly.
I asked one of them.
“Ahjussi. Do you know where Jane is?”
“Why? Is your mother’s name Jane? If it’s near here…”
Wuung–!
Swiik–!
He didn’t seem to want to answer, so I just cut off his head. I was very busy today and had no time to ask every person twice.
The man’s decapitated body spewed blood and collapsed on the spot as his head rolled and stopped near the other guys.
“H-huh…?”
“Ahjussi. Do you know who Jane is?”
They had puzzled looks on their faces for a moment before immediately taking out their pistols and shouting.
“Shit! He’s a Red Blood Alliance bastard. Attack!”
Bang–!
Bang–!
They fired at me, but I didn’t avoid it or use my skills.
With all of my stats being over 5.0, my body’s durability had become impenetrable to such destructive power of a pistol.
Ding, Ding–!
Crushed bullets fell to the ground.
Hm…it still hurts a little.
I just did it as a test, and it seemed my durability wasn’t to the extent where I couldn’t feel any pain yet.
Through the holes in my sportswear, traces of red swelling as if I had been stung by a bee could be seen.
But…
My skin quickly returned to its original shape. I smiled at the sight.
< Transcendent Regeneration >
Classification: Ability
Grade: A
Description: Drastically increases the recovery speed of the body by consuming mana.
This was the A-Grade skill I had obtained from the high-grade box before entering the institute during the gacha spree.
Hehe…as expected, this was really amazing.
As could be seen from the intuitive explanation, this skill could restore my body indefinitely as long as I had mana.
In other words, there was no need to be cautious with my body anymore.
“M-monster…”
They looked at me as they slowly started to step back.
And when their eyes met mine, they immediately turned around and shouted.
“R-run!”
Well, I only needed one person to interrogate anyway.
Swiik–!
I left one of the fleeing guys behind and cut off the rest.
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