Chapter 3: Recruiting the Gangs

A moment later, Ninglu found an abandoned sewage pipe in the hills of trash on the outskirts of Teziwoke.

Hive Cities develop from the bottom up; when humans first step onto a Planet to develop it, they establish settlements on the surface, and subsequently develop upward over the course of long ages.

Due to reasons such as population migration, most facilities in the Underhive have therefore been abandoned.

He crawled into the pipe, moving forward while stepping through the sludge formed by industrial wastewater.

Ninglu moved forward through the sewage pipe, which was five people wide; after walking for one kilometer, his ears twitched, and the sound waves he captured sketched out a scene of hundreds of people fighting in his mind.

He continued forward for several hundred meters, his hearing sketching out a scene of pursuit.

A scream rang out abruptly; the person fleeing in front collapsed to the ground, and then another scream followed—the person in pursuit had also fallen.

Ninglu tilted his head to listen; aside from the two, he heard no other biological sounds. How could both of them have fallen?

A moment later, he arrived at the scene; the two were already dead in the sewage.

Even in the dim environment, he could clearly see the anomaly of the two: their shoes were tattered, and the soles of their feet were a bloody mess, caused by hundreds upon thousands of crisscrossing wounds.

Ninglu scanned his surroundings, keenly discovering a crystal cluster in the corner of the murky sewage.

【Not a living thing, it is a Thorn Crystal.】

Ninglu knew that Thorn Crystals appeared in the sewage pools, sewage pipes, and other places where pollutants had accumulated for generations in Hive Cities; rather than being a plant, it was more like a mineral growth, similar to coral, composed of dense clusters of fragile and sharp crystals.

A fool who falls into Thorn Crystals will quickly discover its horror; its sharp crystals will cause thousands of tiny but extremely painful wounds.

The greatest danger comes from the toxins and chemical corrosives on the crystals; after entering the wounds, they will turn the smallest abrasion into severe suppuration and ulceration, which will lead to Death if not treated.

Sadly, most of the populace in the Lower Hive and Underhive have no medical supplies, so stepping on them means the rapid end of a miserable life.

【Found a Potion Material so quickly.】

Ninglu bent down to search in the sewage, and soon he found two complete crystal clusters.

He took spare clothes from his backpack, wrapped one Thorn Crystal each with his top and trousers, and put them into the backpack.

Ninglu was in a great mood and continued to move forward; several passages converged, and he saw a platform.

On the platform, two gangs were attacking each other around a forge, using Scrap Laser Pistols to fire at one another.

The leader of the group on the left side of the platform, who had a red cloth wrapped around his head, raised his hand to take down an enemy with a Scrap Laser Pistol, then rolled to dodge an attack, when suddenly his eyes lit up.

He saw a boy who did not belong to the Underhive; his tattered clothing could not hide his handsome face, and he was worth more than this forge.

He immediately rushed toward Ninglu, reaching out to grab him.

"Kid, get over here."

Ninglu shifted his body to the side, and the gang leader grabbed at empty air; the moment the opponent lost his balance, the boy grabbed his wrist, pulled him forward, and then stabbed a silver-gray shard into his abdomen.

He found five Energy Cells on the corpse and stuffed them into his clothing pockets.

To store the "treasures" they picked up, the mutants had over a dozen pockets on their clothes sewn from scraps of cloth of different colors.

The Primarch picked up the Laser Pistol pieced together from different parts; once the gun was in his hand, he skillfully checked the Energy Cell.

【The gangs of Vostonia have better craftsmanship than gangs on other planets; the Laser Pistol made from scrap exceeds the average standard, capable of firing 23 times in total, and can still fire 17 times now.】

Ninglu shouted: "Stop!"

Although he was still just a boy, his voice lacked any trace of childishness.

The two clashing groups only heard a reprimand, sounding like the cold, sharp rebuke of an Arbiter who occasionally came to the Underhive; their bodies shuddered, and they turned their heads to look one after another.

When they saw Ninglu, their eyes all lit up.

On the right side of the platform, the gang leader who had poked his head out spat.

"When is it your turn, kid..."

Before he finished speaking, a bright beam pierced through the vital spot between his eyes, and the corpse fell to the ground.

Both groups were shocked; the distance between the boy and the leader was over thirty meters, which already far exceeded the maximum range of a Scrap Laser Pistol, yet he was actually able to accurately kill the leader—it was simply unbelievable.

On the left side of the platform, several sharp-eyed people discovered that the gun the boy was using belonged to their boss, and the boss's corpse was lying at the entrance of the passage.

"The boss is dead!"

The shout awakened the people of the two gangs; immediately, several people's eyes glowed—they were all gang lieutenants, and now that the boss was dead, the opportunity to rise had come.

They immediately turned their muzzles and launched an attack on their competitors.

As for the boy, no matter how powerful he was, he was only a child; as long as they became the boss, a siege would always be able to catch him.

Ninglu had already prepared to roll and dodge, but unexpectedly found that they were even stupider than he had imagined.

He moved immediately; since these people had encountered him, they were the foundation for him to conquer Vostonia, and now was the time to establish his authority.

"I said... stop..."

As Ninglu spoke, he raised his hand and fired three shots in succession, killing three people from the gang on the left side of the platform, while two others were ambushed and killed by their competitors.

He then finished off the winner of the other gang and looked at the crowd.

"From now on, I am your boss; whoever doesn't listen, their fate will be the same as theirs."

The gang members were all scared silly; they didn't dare to move at all; they had never seen such god-like marksmanship—continuous shooting, one shot per person; they had never even heard of such a thing.

Thus, on his first day arriving in Vostonia, Ninglu established his own gang, with three hundred and ten subordinates.

When Ninglu poured all the Fungus from his backpack into the large vat, all the gang members had green light in their eyes; if it weren't for their fear of his god-like marksmanship, they would have pounced like hungry wolves.

Ninglu stood on the platform, looking down at the crowd below; he knew the Underhive people had little education, so he spoke in the simplest and most plain language.

"I won't treat those who follow me poorly, but I also don't keep trash."

"How much you get depends on your own ability."

"Whether you drink soup or eat scraps depends on yourselves."

He scanned the crowd, seeing that most people were stretching their necks and staring wide-eyed at their own feet, while only a small portion were still scratching their heads.

"Now I have a question to ask; whoever can answer it gets to drink soup."

"First question: where are there Giant Rats nearby, over one meter in length?"

The better the quality of the Potion Material, the better the effect after taking it.

Ninglu was not afraid of them knowing the Potion Formula; he only needed to ask about two types.

"Me," the quickest to react was a thin, bald man, "Boss, Giant Rats are everywhere nearby, and there are plenty over a meter long. I can't give you a number, but there are many in every tunnel and pipe."

Ninglu looked down at the crowd; no one refuted him, and they all wore expressions of regret and anger.

"Very good, you may come up and scoop a spoonful first."

The bald man immediately sprinted, and when he climbed onto the platform, he even twisted his ankle and nearly fell.

He propped his body up with his left hand and stood up immediately, as if afraid the boss would change his mind, and used the spoon to scoop a full portion.

Smelling the fragrance, he couldn't wait to squat down to the side and lick the soup off the top.

The others looked at the quick-reacting bald man with envy, stretching their ears, waiting for the boss to ask his question.

"Second question, who knows where there is Wire Grass?"

(End of this chapter)