Chapter 173
Chapter 173
A Walking Lottery (1)
In the filthy bar, only the sound of the pendulum of the wall clock swinging back and forth echoed through the room.
For such a shabby bar, the liquor it sold was high-end. Kairus pulled the cork out of the bottle with his mouth, then filled his glass and spoke.
“You were under the protection of the Lantern Gang. And you’re saying you don’t know anything?”
“We… truly don’t. Survivor, we are absolutely not lying.”
When I swirled the glass, the ice clinked.
“Even if I believe that, it doesn’t solve the problem. In the end, it means you’re of no help.”
After draining the glass in one go, Kairus rose from his seat and, with a swift motion, vaulted over the bar table.
“You don’t know anything? If I dig through this place and find even the slightest information tying you to the remnants of the Lantern Gang, you’d better be prepared.”
Beyond the bar table stood a steel door that looked fairly solid. Kairus drew Flicker from the two swords at his waist.
There was no particular need to use Flicker. When Kairus simply placed his hand against the door and exerted force, the door warped with a creaking sound and the hinges screamed.
With a loud thud, the door fell backward.
“Even if you’re the Survivor, rummaging through another organization’s materials so recklessly is…!”
The forehead of the one who had been protesting against Kairus’s attitude slammed into the bar table with a bang.
“Shut it.”
Watching the other Operations Committee members build their own kingdoms, gather people, and stack up walls, Kairus had thought about it in his own way.
And he had succeeded in reaching his own conclusion.
The office of Kairus, which the people of Bennett City now called the Nest, held no meaning for him. If it was destroyed, he would simply get a new one.
There were only three members, but their combat power was overwhelming. There was a method used by powerful individuals who roamed without settling in one place.
‘Plunder economy.’
Among the things accumulated by those who had established their own strongholds, he would take what he wanted.
Kairus decided to become a robber who robbed robbers. Of course, he had no particular intention of sharing what he seized with the suffering masses. If the other party possessed something Kairus needed, he would simply go and take it.
“I’m not saying I’ll loot everything. Let’s just take a look.”
Through this method, the only thing Kairus took was information. Extorting the wealth they had amassed would easily create enemies.
But information?
Information was not something that became unusable just because it was shared with someone else. Its value might decrease somewhat, but even if someone stole the information he had gathered, it still remained with him.
“….”
After seeing the one who had tried to protest smash his head against the table, no fool continued to voice complaints.
“Let’s see.”
What Kairus was searching for here was the flow of money these bastards had paid to the Lantern Gang under the pretext of protection fees.
It must have headed somewhere. From there, it would have been deposited into a bank or transferred elsewhere.
If I traced the path along which the money steadily flowed like that, I would eventually reach the Lantern Gang’s wallet.
‘Once the head dies, the money he’s been piling up becomes awfully tempting.’
The leader was dead, but the money remained. Then what would those more than five thousand bastards be thinking?
They would want to slip Tapas’s sleeping money into their own back pockets. From there, the pursuit could continue.
“Benifor Butcher Shop.”
While flipping through the ledger, Kairus muttered the name of the store that kept catching his eye. The man who had been holding his breath behind him spoke.
“They used to take orders from the Lantern Gang and manage four or five organizations, including ours.”
“And now?”
“They’re still acting like the boss.”
After hearing that much, Kairus snapped the ledger shut and grinned.
“You don’t like those sons of bitches, do you?”
“…Is there any organization that would like bastards who rampaged around backed by the Lantern Gang’s authority and are still trying to act like bosses?”
They had grown large because they had taken plenty under the Lantern Gang, so no one could touch them.
“Now they’ve got nothing, but they’re still demanding protection fees.”
“What do you mean they’ve got nothing? If you’re still paying just because they tell you to, they must have a decent size of their own.”
At Kairus’s remark, the man who had been voicing complaints until just moments ago shut his mouth.
“Want me to wreck them? You didn’t like me tearing through this place either. I can do at least that much.”
Power resides where the majority believes it resides.
In the Valorn Empire, power rests with His Majesty the Emperor. Because everyone believes so.
In the Aylan Republic, power rests with the citizens. Because everyone thinks so.
In Bennett City, power rests with the strong.
And Kairus possessed the greatest individual strength in this city.
“Are you… serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? Spill anything that seems like it might be connected to the Lantern Gang.”
Whether Kairus’s words would become a joke or reality depended on what was said next.
“The Lantern Gang divided their territory into five large sections.”
Within each section, they selected organizations of considerable size and assigned each of them a portion of the territory.
In exchange for managing their allotted areas and collecting protection fees, they received the Lantern Gang’s protection.
Kairus unfolded a city map.
“You know the locations, right? Mark only the five biggest ones.”
At Kairus’s words, he obediently unfolded the map and marked five locations.
“By this afternoon, the organization you mentioned will be holding a mass funeral.”
“Th-thank you. Then… where should we pay the protection fees from now on?”
Kairus let out a small scoff and thrust his head right up to the man’s face.
“This bastard. Trying to get a foot in the door right away.”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant…”
As Kairus stared at him without breaking eye contact, the man’s voice gradually shrank.
“Why would you pay protection fees to me? I have no intention of managing you separately.”
Kairus had no intention of overseeing them. He would simply show up out of nowhere, take what he needed, and handle the occasional thing they wanted in return.
“Life’s foundation is every man for himself. Survive on your own.”
With those words, Kairus looked over a few more documents before leaving the bar.
“I should take care of what I said I would.”
Whistling, Kairus strolled toward the place called Benifor Butcher Shop.
There were no customers in the butcher shop, and not a single piece of meat on display. It was obvious at a glance that it wasn’t a place that actually sold meat.
When Kairus opened the door and stepped inside, a hulking mass of muscle who had been dozing on a folding chair near the counter opened his eyes and looked at him.
“…!”
Then his eyes and mouth flew wide open, and he sprang to his feet.
“Survivor! What brings you here!”
“Ah, fuck. You’re loud.”
Frowning, Kairus waved his hand dismissively at him.
“I came to hold your funeral.”
There was no room for negotiation. After extorting information in exchange for a favor, he couldn’t bring it back to the bargaining table now.
[Survivor Kairus suddenly shows up and takes whatever he needs as he pleases, but in return, he might grant a small request.]
[Kairus’s visit might just be like winning the lottery.]
Just that much. Not that he always granted requests, but that he might.
That was the kind of rumor about himself Kairus wanted circulating in Bennett City.
‘The important thing isn’t that I grant a request. It’s that I might grant one.’
Certainty breeds disappointment, and someone who demands a corresponding price every time he gives someone what they want is not a ruler but a merchant.
That would be troublesome. Besides, Kairus had only one body. In any case, the point was—
“Did we… do something wrong? If you tell us, we’ll fix it. We’ll definitely fix it!”
It meant that this future where they were smashed to pieces could not be turned into a negotiation. Of course, if they surrendered, he intended to let them live.
If they had time to beg for their lives. The man’s head thudded and rolled across the floor.
“Don’t feel wronged for going first.”
It would all be settled within a few hours anyway. Kairus sent wind sweeping through the butcher shop and found the hidden space.
“So it’s the floor. Why does everyone build their base underground like this?”
It was like being buried in a grave before even dying.
After a brief moment of thought, Kairus stomped down hard. With a grinding crash, the floor of the butcher shop caved in.
‘Well, I am using Flicker right now.’
If they tried to resist, it wasn’t that they absolutely couldn’t. If they dug in, they could hold out for hours.
After all, the strength of a battle gear user depended heavily on the output of their battle gear.
The problem was his name value. Just the fact that Survivor Kairus had come personally had already completely shattered their will to fight.
“Run, run away!”
As soon as I broke open the door leading underground and entered, the gathered men saw my face and tried to flee as if they had seen a ghost.
‘They should just beg for their lives.’
I couldn’t say I didn’t understand their instinct to run. In this city, was there anyone who spared you just because you begged?
Probably no one but Kairus.
But there was no need for Kairus to step in and offer useless advice.
There was a vast difference in the rumors that spread afterward depending on whether he killed them or spared them once the job was done.
“Oh? Where do you think you’re going?”
When Kairus saw them trying to escape through the emergency exit, he didn’t bother to stop them. If he truly wanted, he could throw whatever was at hand and block their path.
‘But then they’d really surrender.’
Following self-imposed rules like this was, in truth, a kind of hypocrisy. It wasn’t so much that he genuinely wanted to spare those who surrendered, but that he was twisting things to avoid being bound by his own rules.
“Shit… let’s try something!”
There were only so many exits, and too many people. There was a limit to how many could successfully escape.
And unfortunately for this organization’s boss, he had been lingering far from the exit.
The escape route connected to the outside, so drafts of cold air flowed in. Still, as the boss, he somehow pulled himself together, urged the others on, and drew his weapon.
“Try what? Today’s the day fresh meat comes into the butcher shop.”
Even if the enemies, whose morale had already collapsed, raised their weapons at their boss’s urging, they couldn’t possibly mount a proper resistance.
When Kairus swung his sword, bodies that had once been people were chopped into pieces and dropped to the floor, all manner of liquids and solids spilling out from within.
Those who managed to escape would live. It didn’t matter. Once the head and the executives were taken out, a criminal organization usually fell apart on its own.
“You… bastard!”
The leader hoisted a massive stone hammer and swung the heavy thing at Kairus with all his might. The weapon itself wasn’t battle gear. Judging by the bulging veins writhing beneath his skin and the grotesquely swollen muscles, he had undergone a procedure.
With a thunderous roar, the hammer struck Kairus. A shockwave burst outward, walls collapsed, and stone dust and debris clouded the view.
“You son of a… you’re nothing—”
The severed arm, along with the enormous stone hammer it had been gripping, fell to the ground.
“I’ll finish that for you. You’re the one who’s nothing.”
In the end, it was a one-sided massacre. Kairus was a walking natural disaster, and to stop one natural disaster, another was required.
Big or small, a typhoon was still a typhoon. There was no way for a person to stop it.
That principle applied even to Kairus now, wielding Flicker instead of Veil of Plumed Mist.