Chapter 14: Tax Collection Only Within Machine Gun Range

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Protagonist:

Milton

Mins

"Sir, the pharmacy is right under this house. The sewer terrain is complex; ordinary people can't find the way. I'll take you there!"

The house above is just a cover?

The real Black Pharmacy is actually hidden below?

Milton frowned, his wariness rising sharply. He kept the possibility of firing at any moment, and replied, "Lead the way. Keep your footsteps light. If I suspect you're deliberately making noise, I'll shoot immediately."

"Yes, yes! Sir, you really don't need to be like this. No one here can threaten you."

"Shut up. Lead the way."

"..."

The light in the sewer was very dim, visibility poor, so at any angle that could hide a gun line, Milton would inevitably have Olivo stand in front of himself.

If a crossfire was possible, then Olivo would act as a meat shield blocking one side, while Milton himself stayed ready to counter the other side at all times.

This sewer space was even larger than he had imagined... similar to a teaching building, a massive underground system — that kind of indoor environment, the defender holds a huge advantage!

Tap, tap, tap...

The extremely faint footsteps of the two people echoed in the sewer. They walked a distance of about ten meters.

The sewer wasn't a particularly quiet environment; the two's footsteps couldn't travel too far.

Just then, Milton suddenly heard, from a room ahead, a girl's extremely low, extremely low sobbing and pleading, followed immediately by the sound of a door closing. The entire sewer fell quiet again.

If the surroundings had been any noisier, Milton might not have been able to hear that sobbing at all!

When encountering this kind of situation, Milton should have ignored everything and cleared all unexpected factors first.

But... that sobbing sound was a bit familiar!

It seemed like he'd heard it somewhere, but he couldn't recall it for the moment.

Milton pondered for a moment, thought of the possible clue in the system prompt, and so slowed his pace once more, moving with the smallest motions toward the room from which the sound had come.

Olivo opened his mouth to remind Milton he was going the wrong way, but then remembered the warning against making noise, and so could only follow helplessly.

Ten-odd seconds later, Milton arrived at the room's doorway.

From the external outline, this room wasn't large, and the door leaned against one side of the wall, so it wouldn't face a crossfire.

After pressing close to the door, Milton could hear the sounds from inside again.

"... Hehe, little girl. Usually this kind of good stuff is only for the boss to play with..."

"Please... let my father go... I won't resist..."

"Resist, resist! Resisting is what makes it fun! You, your father, and that stinking bitch mother of yours — don't you all love to resist?"

Upon hearing the word "mother," a clear note of collapse appeared in the girl's voice: "Let my father go... today's matter wasn't done by us... please believe me, I beg you."

Hearing this, Milton had already remembered whose voice this girl had.

Liya!

That righteous little girl from the fruit stand not long ago!

Why is she here?!

Milton didn't bother speculating further. Kill that rapist, then ask her directly later.

Thinking this, Milton directly reached out and pushed the door open.

In the vast majority of cases, the bed won't face the door directly. Opening the door now, Milton would most likely face a side profile — not too much danger.

The man inside was very relaxed, not the slightest vigilance toward his surroundings, still laughing wantonly: "Our men died at your fruit stand, and you say this has nothing to do with you? Your Inspector mother wasn't this stubborn when she was gnawed alive by dogs back then. Should've recorded her begging then and shown it to you, haha..."

"Please... don't say it... please..."

Creak...

Before the words were finished, Milton had already pushed the door open.

What met his eyes was a girl with an utterly collapsed expression, disheveled clothes, making futile resistance, and a man naked from the waist up, half his pants pulled down.

He heard the door opening, hurriedly tried to turn his head, but was caught by his waistband, his whole person presenting a kind of absurd, ridiculous look.

A very conspicuous handgun hung at this man's waist.

TEC-9 submachine gun.

This... Milton's gaze froze a little.

Fan Kang Gang hitman!!!

Why would he appear here?!

Though his heart was shocked to the extreme, the speed of Milton's hand didn't slow in the slightest. In the blink of an eye he squeezed the trigger.

Click!

A light sound, the bullet left the chamber, precisely drilling into the hitman's temple.

He didn't even have time to make a sound before he fell onto the bed, giving the blanket and mattress a new red-and-white color scheme.

Liya subconsciously, fearfully tried to burrow into the blanket, but saw a familiar face.

That kind-hearted Inspector sir.

I... am saved?

Thinking of the terror and extreme humiliation just now, the girl's collapsed emotions were about to burst forth.

But Milton immediately raised a finger signaling the girl to stay quiet, simultaneously called Olivo in from outside the door, closed the door, and then calmly asked: "I ask, you answer. One thing at a time. Don't panic. The more you panic, the less I can solve the problem."

Actually, Milton was also bewildered, also at a loss... he only had a small-caliber pistol on him, 19 bullets, a freshly seized TEC-9, and nothing else at all!

And killers numbering several times his own were in the very same place as him! No numerical advantage, no tactical advantage, a single person conducting CQB is purely courting death!

No, it should be said that you are the one being CQB'd!

If luck runs bad, it's very likely that right now, just on the other side of his own wall, a killer is standing!

But at this time, Milton no longer had the qualification to be at a loss.

Calm down! Calm down... I still have the information advantage! The killers haven't discovered me yet!

Liya forcibly held back the impulse to cry, her eyes red as she nodded.

Milton pointed at the corpse on the ground and asked: "Did you come here yourself, or were you brought here by these people?"

"I, I came myself..." Liya was a bit flustered, wanting to defend this pharmacy, "Inspector sir, 'Boss' and..."

Click!

Liya hadn't even finished speaking before she saw Milton rack the pistol slide, raise his hand, and put a bullet into Olivo who was looking at him with lecherous eyes; the bullet directly blew open his skull.

Execution shot; Olivo didn't even have a chance to speak!

This person had lied in the previous intelligence; the Black Pharmacy was fundamentally not as ferocious as he described, otherwise Liya wouldn't have come voluntarily, let alone voluntarily defend the pharmacy.

As long as there is concealment, then this person has a problem.

And the current Milton had no time to distinguish the size of the problem, why he concealed part of the intelligence. Killing him directly was the most efficient, safest choice.

Milton didn't bother with the corpse on the ground, continuing to ask: "Killers... how many of these gun-toting guys are there in total? When did they come? Where are they roughly distributed? Do they have any other weapons?"

Liya was startled by the inspector's ferocity, but still replied tremblingly: "Six, six total, about an hour ago they came, right now they should all be in the rooms on the pharmacy side, seems like they didn't bring other weapons."

She faintly felt that Inspector sir, through that question just now, had determined that Uncle Olivo did something bad...

Milton nodded: "Stay quiet, wait here, no matter what movement you hear, do not make a sound. Recall the layout of those rooms, tell me when I get back; if you can't remember clearly, say you don't know, absolutely do not provide false intelligence, I won't blame you."

Finished speaking, Milton turned to prepare to open the door — those killers would soon realize a teammate was missing, he had to return to the car at the fastest speed, put on his equipment!

Round trip within 10 minutes, and cannot be discovered by anyone.

As for other questions, ask after the fight.

The killers' stupid amateurism and various intelligence misdirections caused Milton to make a serious misjudgment.

What safe house, there fundamentally isn't any safe house!

The stronghold the Fan Kang Gang killers chose is his motherfucking right inside this Black Pharmacy!

In Milton's understanding, as the defender, shouldn't they go to the most familiar indoor environment, take out the spare weapons from inside, arrange traps and trick mines, stay vigilant at all times, wait for reinforcements or for the curfew to pass?

Even if forced by circumstances to occupy a certain property as a temporary stronghold, they should still quickly clear out or detain unrelated personnel, dispatch at least one person to stand sentry at the door; what does having only an old man outside acting as a guard mean?

Still able to let people in casually? Still able to be tricked into opening the door by a single sentence about something lost inside?

Who could have thought this leaky ghost of a place could be the enemy's stronghold?

Even still have the fucking mood to fool around with a woman?

Stupid beyond the range of Milton's common sense understanding!

In Milton's mind, he always believed what he had to attack was a place full of traps, enemies holding lethal weapons hiding in every corner of environmentally complex rooms, a safe house approaching a military fortress.

The system again gave rather misleading intelligence "the pharmacy perhaps has clues to the killers" — making Milton think the killers were not in the pharmacy, only that from the pharmacy he could find intelligence on the killers' hideout.

In fact, this intelligence wasn't wrong either; the clues really were in the pharmacy — do the killers themselves not count as clues?

"I overestimated the enemy too much... counts as being countered by a scrub once. Good thing I used a silenced weapon, good thing the indoor environment was spacious, good thing I was cautious enough, didn't expose myself, otherwise me coming here without a bulletproof vest, just bringing a pistol, would purely be delivering my head."

"Gangsters aren't special forces, where would they have the organization and discipline I imagined... next time I must absolutely learn the lesson."

"But... this also proves their ambush against me really had zero preparation!"