Chapter 7 - I choose to beat you up !

The slums was bustling of activities, here Tang Ling was transporting a cart for an old lady who sold pancakes.

"Yah~! Grandmother, are you alright from setting a stall here ?" asked Tang Ling while holding the stall.

"It's no problem, I still need to thank you Tang Ling, the wheels broke yesterday so the Old Elor needed about a day to repair and change the wheels... Take this quarter credit." the grandma shoved a quarter credits to Tang Ling.

"No problem grandma, if you please, take caution" grinned Tang Ling. Well, it was pretty unnecessary, everyone here payed a tax to a group known as Black Tiger Group as protection fees. The group name was fierce but they weren't tyrants, they protected peace unto their territory as long as one payed the right amount of money. With their good morals, they almost never requested a higher taxes and higher ups never exhorted money from the common populace. It could be said that they're the most peaceful group in the entire slums. In fact, almost all grey zones are under the control of Black Tigers.

"Uh... It's pretty good. 2.5 credits for today... Not bad, at least we can have black breads with some savings."

If he could catch up some interesting deals, he would have more than enough credits to save up. Even though that he had 1000 credits in hand, he still needed to work hard. This money would be used to create new opportunities of making money; not just limiting oneself.

This work also helped the community and if karma existed, he would have better good deeds.

Tang Ling returned with Ducke and counted their money. This place was pretty secretive and is somehow safe. This place was the Houshun Factory which used to produce dolls and shoes here. It was a popular location both for buyers or people who seeked employment but 5 years ago, the factory was shut down by a high-official man in the Boa Feng City. In these times, the Houshun Factory was used as a gathering point for many people but the upper floor was only discovered by Ducke while trying to find a spot and for many years, the team would use it for discussions.

"We've gathered about 4 credits, 2.5 on me and you only gathered 1.5" said Tang Ling. He frowned; normally Ducke would get about 2~3 credits per day, this was not normal.

Ducke could only shrug : " These times, the Black Tiger Group don't fare very well... I just saw some thugs around here. While gangs won't do something extreme like robbing one's home or going to the 'Market place' or any importants locations as it would just be like a slap on the face, they have no problems to enter to secluded locations. Expect that our 'business' to be bad for a few days or weeks".

"Don't worry Ducke, here's 100 credits" Tang Ling said while holding a bag full of credits. It was money for Ducke to live frugally for these days. He already knew that the Black Tigers didn't fare well. The upper-classes who didn't want to see a great power which had the same influence as them to appear in the slums. The thugs in the street was only a sign of it; they wanted to supress the growth of Black Tigers.

Here in Bao Feng City, the higher classes were all corrupt. Not everyone was like the shameless Fatty Buo Dong who apologized and gave 1000 as compensation. These people didn't care about justice or morals, as long that it had their benefits; they could twist the situation and make it like 'justice'.

After giving 100 to Ducke, they left the secret room and started going to the appartements. They needed to be quick and stealthy. Thugs sometimes goes rampant after 5:00, it was 2 hours after school (no matter what, the Empire has strict security in schools, when it's end of school, the security is increased).

Tang Ling and Ducke took the usual path, the route was not large and it's fast to reach the destination. Taking the least populated areas and going through blind spots, they didn't expect to see a group of persons waiting for them.

They were 4 brawny men waiting for them, they all had some sort of weapons. Surely, they weren't here for just greetings...

"Yo little guys, take out your money !" said one man.

(These guys are after their money ! But how could they have known ?)

"Hehehe, you may not know but we observed (stalked ?) you for quite a bit of time so we definitely know about your whereabouts. We give you two options : you either give us the money you have right now or we will take it by force. Make your choice. You have 10 seconds" said an another man while counting his finger.

Tang Ling looked Ducke, Ducke also looked at him. Seeing the others faces, they smirked.

" We'll choose to beat you up !!"

This was a form of communication, when there's an enemy, they look to determine their strenght. When they looked at each other and saw the other making a sign, it meant that the enemy was weaker than them. Confirmation and procession.

Ducke rushed over the first guy and with a punch, the man collapsed. As for Tang Ling, he sent flying one man with a special technique. Normally, the duo was physically stronger than normal people and trained into a special technique to augment their fighting prowess. Well, the techniques wasn't that good as it was learnt from peeking in the Black Tiger recruits training but was still better than having no style, plus with the experiences of the Game World, Tang Ling's body was futher enhanced so battling two-vee-four costed a lot of stamina but they could still manage it.

[Stamina : 5/10]

Tang Ling and Ducke was tired and hungry from the all the hard work and the battle, but it was pretty fruitful. They looted a dagger, a baseball bat and a few credits from the thugs. They managed to drag themselves to home and went to the their respective appartements and ate their meals.

"Huff, huff. As always, the meals of my little sister is still the best !" Tang Ling cried out of joy. Within slum, the food here are really bad and restaurants of the 'presentable' was expensive as f*** ! No one dared to try eat at there, the 'presentable' part of the Bao Feng City was just a mix of a tourist spot and rich persons. 85% of the people just live in the slums.