Chapter 33: Metal Body

"Man...I thought it would just be a crappy game, but it's unexpectedly interesting..."

Inside Colt's room, he was lying on his bed playing the game to which Taylor had sent him an invitation.

The game was quite simple, using the location function of the smart watch, it created a maze based on the surroundings, you started from your neighborhood and had to collect various gems that were scattered all over the map.

What made it interesting was that it used real images and marked special places for the player, such as famous places, the home of some local celebrities, and even the home of friends who also played the game when you had unlocked more parts of the map.

Normally Colt was not one to play any kind of game as he preferred to spend his time training, but because the boss explicitly told him to take the day off, he could not train.

Nor was he much of a movie watcher, even in his free time, so today he had spent his time trying to find ways to distract himself, such as cooking, reading something, watching a movie reluctantly, cleaning his house, etc.

Unfortunately, everything was boring soon after he started, so today he had been completely bored.

As for the option of going out and socializing with the other members of Metal Body, although Colt was much more appreciated and respected than Taylor despite not being a guardian, Colt didn't want to do it as he didn't like to socialize much unless it was necessary.

So, with nothing else to do, Colt had tried to spend the day taking nap after nap, which worked very well for the time being, although...maybe it worked too well.

Since he'd been taking nap after nap since 12 or so in the day, by the time it got dark, he wasn't even a tiny bit sleepy!

The pugilists themselves were far more energetic than the supers of other classes, so a well-rested pugilist, even if it was only a rank (D) pugilist, could stay awake for 3 days straight if he wanted to.

Therefore, despite the fact that it was already 11 p.m, Colt had resigned himself to spending the night lying in his bed staring at the ceiling, regretting his earlier decision to sleep through the afternoon.

Then, with nothing better to do, Colt decided to see a few inspiring phrases in Palu, it wasn't a hobby or anything like that but he enjoyed reading those, nd unexpectedly, just when he opened Palu, he receibed an invitation for a game.

He originally wasn't going to accept the invitation because he didn't get along with Taylor and didn't trust what he could send...but since he had nothing to do and was dying of boredom, he decided to try it once.

From that moment on, he had been going through level after level, visiting different places and learning more about Nightown City.

Who would have thought that what seemed to be a simple Palu game would be so addictive?

Currently, Colt had a total of 190 accumulated gems, he only had 10 left to go to the next level, so he was focused on not hitting any walls or bumping into any monsters.

However, just at that moment, he felt a sudden itch in his nose.

"Ah-ah-Achoo!"

Colt let out a loud sneeze, accompanied by the sound of him dying in the game.

"...Haa..."

Seeing that he had died, Colt just let out a gentle sigh and resigned himself to starting a new game. He wasn't frustrated or irritated because he had already gotten used to it.

In spite of having bathed rigorously, he could still feel the itchy powder and hot sauce sometimes, causing him to sneeze or feel an itch in his body from time to time. As for his eyes, he only felt a persistent but very mild itch.

Although he hadn't been beaten up like Taylor, he had been left with these effects, which were not comparable to the time the attacker used them against him, but they were still somewhat annoying.

"HEEEELP-!"

"!"

But just as he was starting again, he heard a scream, somewhat far from where he lived, but he heard it clearly, it was a cry for help.

Colt quickly got out of bed and headed for the door, grabbing a hoodie on the way and leaving his apartment before heading towards the direction of where he had heard the scream.

Although he was not a guardian, as a member of Metal Body, the security of District 30, which was under the protection of Metal Body, was also his responsibility, but, well, more than anything, it was due to his sense of justice.

In fact, the main reason of why he didn't got along with Taylor, in addition to his disinterest in socializing, was that there were many rumors and testimony from some members that said that they had seen Taylor take advantage of the residents of the South Zone.

The rumors mostly involved young people, with Taylor often taking money from them or beating them, and although there had been fewer reports of theft by Taylor in the past few months, it was because he had focused his attention on one particular young man named Noah.

With that as evidence, Colt himself wanted to teach Taylor a lesson for damaging the reputation of Metal Body and was just waiting for the boss to give him the order, but for some reason, the boss didn't say anything about Taylor's behaviour, leaving Colt unsatisfied.

Fortunately, someone did teach Taylor a lesson, and although it wasn't him, Colt was glad about it.

Colt knew that he was in Metal Body, a gang which took advantage of people living in the South Zone, but the way they operated was not through intimidation or fear like Wolf's Fang, but through necessity and profit.

Of course, he didn't think that he was a good person or something like that, but he just didn't like when a strong person took advantage of a weaker person, that's just how he was.

'Metal Body...'

Now that he was thinking about both gangs, Colt remembered the story of Metal Body, which reminded him a lot of the story of a hero who put an end to evil...or at least that's how he saw it.

Originally, there were no Metal Body or Wolf's Fang in the South Zone, instead there were more than ten different gangs, with each occupying at least one district, except for District 1.

In those days, the South Zone was no different from the outskirts of the city, where robberies and kidnappings were commonplace, and murders, though not every day, happened too often to be called rare.

There were several reasons for this kind of chaos, but the main ones were due to an overflow of monsters on the outskirts of the city, which forced the Hunters to take care of them, the lack of Heroes because of another attack by the Laers Guild and the police trying to stabilize the situation in the rest of the city.

With all 3 main forces in charge of the security of the city busy, the gangs that occupied the South Zone had a free pass to do whatever they wanted, creating great terror among the inhabitants of that area.

Fortunately for the inhabitants of the South Zone, a certain group of people came to District 31 from the outskirts of the city seeking refuge from the monsters overflow, and among these people, there was a man named Garel Cranyne.

That person, upon seeing the type of situation the South Zone was in, knew that he could take advantage of this chaotic situation to his advantage.

So, determined to change everything, he organized the refugees he came with, who were rank (D+) and (C-) supers and came to an agreement with the people living in District 31.

In exchange for them getting rid of the gang that occupied the district and giving them protection from other gangs, the inhabitants would have to pay something to what Garel Cranyne called "Right of Floor".

The Right of Floor meant that everyone living in that district would pay an amount of money depending on the type of housing they lived in, if you owned your own home, then you would pay 50 credits per month per person in the home.

On the other hand, if you rented a floor, then the person who paid was the owner of the building, since the building was theirs, and in terms of payment, it was the same as before, 50 credits per person.

Of course, there were people who were not satisfied with that, mostly the buildings owners, but they couldn't really do anything, it was either that or remain at the mercy of other gangs after all.

After reaching an agreement, neither short nor lazy, Garel, along with his group of refugees and several local people, expelled the gang that occupied District 31 at that time, forcing them to leave the South Zone and establishing their dominance over the place.

That's how one of the strongest gangs in the South Zone, Metal Body, was formed, the name originally was a nickname given to Garel by the other gangs when they saw his ability, but over time the whole group began to be called that way.

However, that was only the beginning, after he took over District 31, he went on to District 30, 29 and so on, ending the chaos in the South Zone and at the same time strenghtening the organization.

The other gangs, seeing that Garel's group was too strong for them to defeat on their own, decided to form an alliance and hire another rank (C) super from the outskirts of the city to help them deal with Garel's group.

Unexpectedly, the hired super not only did not help them, but took over the alliance and began a great reform, eliminating the weak and filtering the strong, thus forming a group that could face Garel and even managed to take away several districts from Metal Body...Wolf's Fang.