Chapter 30: Secret War

“The Red Lions took our shipment?” A burly, tanned man covered in tattoos grunted, staring down from his chair at the man kneeling in front of him, who was bruised and bleeding. “Captain, this is not an easy conclusion to make. Are you absolutely sure?”

“I-i-uhh, no, but all of the enforcers on our payroll are talking about us smuggling guns. I think the Red Lions leaked the information out to them so as to draw more heat to us.”

“It’s impossible for anyone to know about that shipment outside of us. Captain, you are one of the rare few who planned the route.”

“I told you it’s not me! I don’t think it’s any of us. I think it was a lucky hit-” The captain shook his head vigorously as the burly man stood up to his full height, towering over him.

“So you’re saying the Red Lions got it out of sheer luck? Am I hearing things right? Our proud Versia men were stumped by sheer luck?!” The burly man grabbed the captain by the head with one hand, a machete in the other, as he pressed the cold blade against the neck.

“We fix underground matches, casinos, races. We don’t do luck here, Captain. Now, speak slowly about every fact you have gathered.” The burly man let go of the captain, who coughed slightly and nodded vigorously.

“Yes, sir. Our shipment was ambushed in the Seven Snakes district, but nobody around knows about it except for the attackers and us.”

“And...?”

“Sir, that’s all we have...” The captain replied sheepishly with a bowed head.

“Then the course of action is clear. A visit to the Seven Snakes is in due.”

“For a talk, sir?”

The burly man chuckled, swirling a glass of wine as he leaned back into his chair. “Captain, you never negotiate when you’re on the losing end. If the Seven Snakes have our guns, they’ll instinctively know that they have the upper hand on us. Let’s show a bit of force first.”

“Sir, this would be a declaration of war, and we’re still fighting the Red Lions-“ The captain tried to continue speaking, but a machete’s blade was already lodged in the side of his neck, causing him to choke on his own blood. The burly man stood up again, squatting next to the squirming captain, who struggled to remove the machete from his neck in vain attempts.

“The Ilysian Punks have no need for cowards, Captain.” The burly man whispered to the dying captain before snapping his fingers. Two punks came into the office, staring at the captain bleeding out. “Dispose of the body. Throw it into the incinerator or feed it to the arena monsters.”

The two punks nodded immediately, getting to work and hauling the body away. A cleaner servant also quickly entered, moping up the blood. Nobody defied Makoa, who was a sub-leader in the gang.

“Oh, and set an appointment with my tattooist. I have another one to add now.”

Three days later...

The Seven Snakes bases were now fully relocated, spread out into seven different areas with the old place being abandoned. Kyle was still teaching how to engrave, moving between safe houses and fixing irregularities in the etching.

Just as he was done teaching two of the members how to engrave a cooling enchantment onto the handle, Adrian burst into the room, panting. “Sir, the scouts have spotted the Ilysian Punks heading right for us.”

“How many?”

“About a dozen of them, all armed with melee weapons.”

“Earlier than I expected – gather a dozen rookie associates and meet me at the food market. Time for some training.” Kyle smirked. So the Ilysian Punks have decided to start a war instead of negotiating.

At the food market, screams and shouts filled the air instead of the usual hustle and bustle. “Get this shit out of here!” An Ilysian Punk flipped the food stall, smashing the kitchen and scaring the customers around. “This district is soon going to be run by us! Not the Seven Snakes!”

The Ilysian Punks were already at large, sending their lowest rung to mess up the area. They targeted the food market, going through and messing up each of the stalls.

The five engravings that he had added into his upgraded version of the pistol were to make it far more efficient, so much so that even the average human with a bit of arcia energy would be able to fire it up to three times.

Kyle was not particularly proficient in arctech engravings, but he could immediately see issues in the flow of energy and wasteful conversion using his former life’s knowledge. The engravings he had chosen would help to reduce the heat generated, as well as improve accuracy and control the recoil. It’ll be a revolution in guns, and I’ll be at the head of it.

He already had a few prototype parts collected from the associates. He ensured that none of the associates knew more than one engraving each, preventing his recipe from spilling out. However, if he truly wanted to mass produce it, he needed to enlist the help of a factory or two. He began to plan for a few ways in which he could start to dig his hooks into the factory workers. Niko should probably have an idea.

He assembled a prototype pistol, the glossy raw metal surface glistening under the arctech light of the office. Just as he finished putting the different parts together, a new system message popped up.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE]

Item Created

[Enchanted Handgun (Basic)]

A efficient gun with marks of foreign technology.

Active Skill: Shoot – Fire a group of pellets at high speeds

Magazine holds up to eight rounds

MP Cost per activation: 3 MP

[SYSTEM MESSAGE]

Title Obtained

[Arctech Gunsmith (Basic)]

Death handcrafted and delivered at high speeds.

+5 INT, +3 AGI, +10% chance to craft an intermediate pistol when assembling

Updated from novelbIn.(c)om