Chapter 3540: Wanting to Take His Place

After his mind went blank for five minutes, the hot-headed Bruce Brown's first thought was: who in this neighborhood is more ruthless and wicked than me?

He was still in that state of outrage, but there was no longer Ye Chen to bear his anger, so he had to find his next opponent.

Soon, a face appeared in his mind—Liam, the person he most feared encountering in this neighborhood.

Liam is three years older than Bruce Brown, but entered society much earlier; in his early years he was also an idle street thug, occasionally robbing passersby or small convenience stores.

But in the past two or three years, Liam joined a few relatively well-known small gangs in nearby neighborhoods and became a gang member.

The gang structure in Australia is quite similar to that in Europe and America; although their organizational structure is not strict, their hierarchy is very clear.

In a city, the strongest gang always controls the most profitable businesses, such as the most lucrative contraband and gambling.

However, the strongest gang cannot possibly monopolize everything; often there are several peers at the same level who divide territories and compete with each other.

In the fields that top gangs disdain to notice, there are still many other gangs—some make a living from the sex industry, others from extortion and protection rackets.

Further down are gangs like Liam's, which have no proper industry and just hide in corners scraping by on leftovers and scraps—for example, top gangs distribute contraband to mid-level distributors, who then take it, adulterate it heavily with impurities, repackage it into small retail bags worth a few dozen dollars, and sell them to bottom-level users.

These retail versions are then sold on the streets by the lower-level gangs.

Take Australia's most prevalent methamphetamine: its high-end clientele includes the rich, white-collar workers, internet celebrities, and nightclub belles—these clients have high profit margins and can drive other consumption, each being a cash cow for gangs, which Liam's kind of small gang could never access; if they dared to push low-quality products in high-end hotels or nightclubs, higher-level gangs would wipe them out in minutes.

This is the concept of territory.

Territory with high-end users is like fertile land or even a gold mine; its owner will spare no effort to defend their interests, and once someone dares to touch their core interests, they will surely strike back lethally.

That's why Liam's gang can only loiter on the streets, selling to poor addicts who can only get a few dozen dollars through stealing, sneaking, or cheating.

Even so, the profit margin is very substantial.

A small packet of contraband worth 100 Australian dollars can bring them at least 40 Australian dollars in profit; as long as their small gang controls a poor neighborhood and covers hundreds of addicts, relying on these drug worms, they can make at least ten thousand Australian dollars in net profit daily—Bruce Brown, though just a low-ranking lackey in the gang, getting a few hundred Australian dollars a day is no problem.

In Melbourne's poor neighborhoods, earning a few hundred Australian dollars a day is already quite good, since Melbourne's median income is around a hundred Australian dollars or so per day; Liam earning a few hundred a day, 365 days a year without rest, can make at least 100,000 Australian dollars annually—in Melbourne, that exceeds most white-collar workers.

By contrast, Bruce Brown is far behind—he wanted to join such a gang but never got the chance; his small crew had no territory of their own, so they dared not deal in contraband, thus having no stable income source; occasionally snatching a bit of money on the street was almost his only income.

A few months ago, Bruce Brown saved a few hundred Australian dollars, said many nice things, and finally got Liam to give him face, eating a meal together.

At the table, Bruce Brown gave all the expensive ingredients he ordered to Liam, while he himself starved and humbly begged Liam to introduce him into the gang; but after Liam finished eating and drinking, he wiped his mouth and told Bruce Brown that someone like him, a little nobody, had no qualifications to join his gang, and even eating his meal was already a demotion for Liam.

After saying that, Liam stood up and swaggered away.

At that moment, Bruce Brown felt utterly humiliated.

Even so, he didn't dare to go settle scores with Liam; he could only silently swallow this dumb loss, while in his heart he vowed that someday he would climb higher than Liam and then step on him.

The courage he previously lacked, Ye Chen gave him now.

So, gripping his baseball bat, he impulsively told his little brothers: "Come on, let's find Liam and take him out—after that, I'll be the hottest new talent in all of South Melbourne; maybe his boss will appreciate me and let me take his place, and then we'll really rise to fame and fortune!"

Psychological suggestion is equivalent to a mental brand—it makes people deeply believe in the suggested content, even to the point of forgetting reality and ignoring it.

Bruce Brown was originally a low-educated thug with even lower quality than his education; his understanding of the world was extremely shallow, and having watched too many gangster films, he always thought that some special opportunity might come along and earn him the big boss's favor, allowing him to rocket to success.

And the psychological suggestion Ye Chen gave him prompted his first thought: to replace Liam with ruthlessness.

Seeing the group mightily heading to the next neighborhood, Ye Chen had Chen Zekai drive the car to follow from afar.

The next neighborhood was even dirtier and more chaotic than the previous one.

Similarly, there were safe injection houses here too, and two of them; around the injection houses and under the nearby overpasses, large numbers of addicts gathered—numerous, at least nearly a hundred.

Because an overpass runs through this neighborhood, many addicts directly set up tents underneath it—tents densely packed, at least forty or fifty.

The reason they all cluster here to pitch tents is that although it doesn't block wind, it blocks sun and rain; for the homeless, pitching tents here is the best option.

And around these addicts, there are always some young people weaving through the crowd—different from these ragged addicts, these young people dress sharply, even wearing flashy gold jewelry; these are the gang members who specialize in selling contraband to addicts.

Among them, a half-black youth with curly hair was puffing on a homemade cigarette, weaving through this crowd of addicts.

He stared intently at a female addict counting cash; after she counted a pile of small bills, she pleaded with a begging expression: "Liam, I'm still short thirty Australian dollars here—can I pay you tomorrow?"

The female addict was exactly the street woman who had earlier tried to pick up Chen Zekai.

Liam said with a face of contempt: "You fucking have no money? Then go sell—anyway, it's not even noon yet, plenty of time; earn enough and come back to me."

The woman begged humbly: "I haven't smoked in a day, Liam—if this continues, I won't even have the energy to serve clients; please, just give me some—I'll do anything! You used to like me serving you, didn't you?"

Liam said disdainfully: "I'm at least now an official member of the Saint Blue Gang—if I accept your service, would I still have face in the gang? You fucking better cut the nonsense and hurry up and make money."

The woman's expression was desperate; she wanted to keep begging, but feared angering him, leaving her torn.

Liam glanced at her, then raised his eyebrows and said: "How about this—I won't say I don't look after you; the stuff—I can give you first, but after you smoke it, you must work hard, strive to take on more gigs, and by eight o'clock tonight, I'll come find you—then you must repay me the principal plus interest, fifty Australian dollars."

"Fifty?" The woman's expression was shocked—she owed thirty Australian dollars, and had to repay fifty in just a daytime, interest nearly doubling; she'd wandered the streets for years and had never seen such a heartless gang member.

But now she had no choice—her body and mind were suffering great torment, so she could only grit her teeth and agree: "Okay, fifty it is!"

Liam skillfully handed her a small packet of contraband, warning: "As agreed—if you can't give me fifty Australian dollars by eight tonight, tomorrow it becomes eighty!"

The woman nodded repeatedly: "No problem!"

After saying that, she hurriedly grabbed the contraband and ducked into a tattered tent.

Liam snorted twice, just about to look for another customer, when suddenly he heard someone shout loudly: "Liam!"

He had just turned around when he saw a black shadow flash toward his forehead.

Bruce Brown's baseball bat came straight for Liam's head, just like when he had attacked Ye Chen earlier—he had already made up his mind to take the other's life.

Liam was lucky and had rich street experience; seeing the black shadow approach, he didn't bother to figure out what it was, and instinctively turned his head to the side.

Immediately after, he felt his shoulder violently explode in pain, both legs going limp.

It turned out the baseball bat grazed his face and smashed directly into his shoulder, shattering his right shoulder into pieces.

Liam felt heart-piercing pain; upon seeing who it was, he instantly flared with rage and shouted: "Bruce Brown, you fucking little nobody dare to hit me?"

Liam's eyes turned blood-red: "Hit you? You're seriously underestimating me, Liam—I today will make you die!"

After saying that, he immediately swung his baseball bat and smashed again toward Liam.

Liam had no weapon in hand; seeing the opponent assume a lethal stance, he could only stagger and run, while Bruce Brown shouldered his bat and leapt into pursuit.

Another group of young people also went berserk, swarming after him in a frenzy—the scene became extremely chaotic for a moment.

At this moment, several other gang members noticed the disturbance and immediately rushed forward.

Liam's shoulder was severely injured, and as he ran, he stumbled and lost his balance after just a few steps, falling to the ground.

Bruce Brown seized the opportunity and rushed forward, about to smash Liam's leg with a bat, when someone nearby immediately pointed a gun at him and shouted angrily: "Put the baseball bat down!"

Bruce Brown's eyes turned red with rage, and he gritted his teeth, saying: "Today, nobody's going to stop me!"

As soon as he finished speaking, two gunshots rang out, and his right leg was blown apart with two bloody holes, instantly losing control and collapsing to the ground.

Immediately afterward, a swarm of gang members rushed in, beating him half to death, and also threw the other guys to the ground and pummeled them mercilessly.

After all, this was Liam's gang's territory and their source of income, with many lackeys gathered here and nearby; as soon as they saw something happen, they immediately swarmed over.

Seeing Bruce Brown beaten beyond recognition and howling uncontrollably, Ye Chen couldn't help but sigh, shake his head, and say: "I thought this kid could play a tough guy for a couple of episodes in a rags-to-riches story, but I didn't expect him to be beaten into this pathetic state right from the start—what a waste!"