“AAAAH”
BRUK
A guy just slipped and tumbled down the tunnel entrance, falling butt first violently into the ground. He was alive and mostly uninjured, but definitely in a lot of pain. “Get away from there, quick! Before —”
“AAAAAH”
“GYAAAA”
BRUK BRUK
Two more guys slipped and fell down. Crushing the first guy underneath them. Paulie flinched when he saw the scene. In front of him, three grown men groaning in pain while in a pile.
“Up there! Stop for a second! We got an incident!” Paulie shouted through the tunnel. Informing the people above to stop going down. “Okay.” A voice echoed from above the tunnel. Once he got confirmation, Paulie helped the three grown men up. “You’re all fine. A little banged up but fine. Go further inside and talk to that girl and skinny man over there. They will organize all of you.” Paulie pointed at Kisara and Bern, who were busy talking to the new members and tracking their numbers. Thanks to Bern’s lecture, Paulie could now count up to a hundred, and he roughly counted at least forty new people joined them. Paulie could not help but a bit worried. Their numbers grew a bit too quickly.
“You’re good! You can come in again!” Paulie shouted, informing the people above that it was now safe to enter. He could hear the sound of small pebbles falling and feet planting themselves slowly on the narrow tunnel. People had started to go down again, and he could only hope no one fell on the butt again.
“Paulie,” Paulie turned around to see two kids armed with muskets, Cooper and Yenn. The two, and Cooper’s clique had also joined the raid against the beggar king. They played more of a reserve role. Positioning themselves a bit far back and on the rooftops, preparing themselves to provide rear cover in case the group needed to run away.
“Paulie… did we really recruit all of these people? How many?” The raid against the beggar king was relatively easy, so Cooper and his clique basically did nothing during the raid except chilling on the rooftop. Once they saw the massacre started, they packed up earlier to the hideout believing they already won. They were genuinely surprised when the first batch of new recruits came into the hideout, they heard nothing about this.
“Yeah, Coop. We got like… Fifty? Forty? Probably around thirty people joining us.” Cooper chuckled at Paulie’s unsureness. “You should learn more math from Bern instead of smoking that devil lettuce all day.”
“I learned better when I’m high, Coop.” Paulie joked… No, he was serious. “Sure you do, bud. But seriously though, how do we end up recruiting them? Last I saw you guys were in the middle of killing a bunch of them.”
“Actually… We’re recruiting them for you, Coop. The people we killed are the one our new kids don’t like. The rest got to join.” Paulie explained. “Huh… Wait, for me?” Cooper was about to accept the explanation as it was until he processed the reasoning. “Yeah, Regulus said you could use more beggars for your information gathering or something… so we got more beggars. Aren’t you happy?”
Paulie was teasing Cooper a bit, but he actually felt a bit touched. He remembered he commented that he wished he had a bit more manpower so they could cover more area. He did not expect Regulus to hear that comment and actually acted on it. It’s not like he said that comment in front of Regulus or anything. “Cool. We got more lackeys.” Yenn commented, she too was happy she had more people to order around. She finally felt like a proper second-in command of Cooper’s cliques.
BRAK
Someone slipped and fell on their butt, but this time it was not one of the new adult members, but one of their newest street urchins, the one-handed Napier. “Stop! Someone fell!” Paulie immediately informed the people above. “You okay there… uhhhhm… Napier?” Paulie, Cooper, and Yenn looked at Napier with concern. Before Regulus, they used to have members with dismembered limbs. All of them died, so they could not help but feel worried for Napier.
“I’m alright. I’m alright.” Napier tried to assure them as he stood and smacked the dust out of his butt. He knew the three meant well, but he could not help but feel a bit of anger when he saw their eyes that were pitying him. “All Good! You can come down again!” Napier took the initiative to inform the people above. He then approached the three, knowing that they were pretty much leadership figures within the gang.
“Nevermind the fall… is there something I can do to help the gang? I’m ready to do anything.” Napier was eager to prove himself. While he knew this gang would treat him well unlike most gangs, he did not want to end up in the bottom of the hierarchy anymore. He wanted… to be important.
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“Uhhhmm… not really right now… unless you know how to write?” Napier's face dropped. “Write?” He did not know how to write… or read. “Yeah, we’re pretty much just organizing our new members right now. So if you know how to write, I’m sure Bern and Kisara would appreciate it.” Paulie pointed at the two busy people, who were now accompanied by Regulus who was just chilling next to them, playing with his Copper Azul.
“I…” Napier felt embarrassed about his inability to write, and he did not want to admit it. Paulie caught on to his inner feeling, “Hey, don’t worry about it. Most of us also can’t read or write. It’s not a big deal — Coop, you got something for him?”
Cooper pondered, he then looked at Yenn who just shook her head. “Honestly, no. Not right now. We’re just waiting until Kisara and Bern are done with their records. Then we’ll probably brief the new people on what their role will be and where we will post them. So if you want a job from us… you gotta wait until all of this mess is sorted out.” Napier was a bit dejected after hearing Cooper’s explanation, but it made sense. “I guess I’ll just wait around. Thank you, you three.” He waved the three goodbye and wandered around the cave aimlessly.
He wondered if he should just approach Regulus and ask him for work. He did not seem to be the type to be angry if approached by his lackeys… but… at the same time he did not seem to be the type of leader to delegate day-to-day tasks to his other members. Judging by what Napier had observed, a few kids were in charge of most of the gang’s operation, while Regulus only made big decisions or delegated on important matters — one that required his superhuman strength. Napier got the feeling that if he asked Regulus for work, he'd be sent to dig with the Molrrets. While he wanted to contribute, digging was not what he had in mind.
Napier then noticed two people who were standing a bit far from the commotion, a bit far from Regulus. He knew these two, D’aka and Uri, the two heavy hitters in the gang. Napier only had been a part of the gang for less than a week, but he could tell that most combat related operations would either be led by these two, Tera, or Kisara. If it were them, they might have an important job that could help boost Napier’s standing within the gang, however he decided to not approach them directly. Uri was not as friendly as most of the other people in the gang — and D’aka was just not that talkative. Napier decided to hang around them close enough where he could eavesdrop on the two, but not close enough that they realized he was eavesdropping.
“I don’t like this D’aka.” Uri said with a hint of anger and dissatisfaction. “The urchins that Kisara brought are one thing. These people… I don’t trust them. What is Regulus thinking?” D’aka reflexively chuckled when he heard Uri’s question. “If I know him. I’m pretty sure Regulus not thinking much. He probably decided this on an impulse.”
Uri laughed. He could not help but agree with D’aka. Regulus did not seem like a deep thinker to any of them… unlike John. “Yeah… Yeah. You’re right… But still D’aka… what do we do if… if we got another ‘John’ incident?” Napier wondered who John was. Once in a while, he heard one of the old members mentioned that name. But to his knowledge, there was no one named John among the old members of the gang. He tried to gauge D’aka’s reaction to Uri’s question, and all he could see was a sad, sour face.
Uri continued talking while D’aka remained silent. “I’m really sorry for bringing this up. But one of them might betray us — tried to kill Regulus. And when that happens, it will be us who died — not Regulus. Heck, it might not even be a betrayal. One of them might simply mess up and lead us to our death.”
D’aka spoke up. “If it’s a mistake — then there’s nothing we can do about it. That’s just the reality of our life. If we mess up, we die. Don’t hold grudges for our members' mistake Uri. You might be the one to mess up.” Uri had no other option but to concede to that point. “Fine, I can agree with that… but what about betrayal? As Regulus likes to say, they’re a part of the herd now. And we all know for damn sure that Regulus not going to do anything to them if they betray us. He knew about John’s betrayal before any of us… yet he just let John be. The maniac threw a grenade at him for fuck sake.”
Napier was surprised to hear the word ‘grenade’. He never saw one in action, but for all he knew, it’s an explosive that could tear a person apart — and Regulus seemed fine. How strong was he?
“To be fair about the grenade — it did not even leave a scratch on him. If anything it helped get off the zombies that were on top of him.” D’aka seemed to justify this grenade incident while Uri looked annoyed with it. Napier on the other hand was just confused. Grenade? Zombies? What the hell happened? He was deadly curious now.
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Regulus is invincible. John didn’t try to kill him back then… but he still betrayed us. What do we do if any of these… Cowards, decided to sell us off? They pretty much turncoat on their old gang and joined us. What’s our guarantee it won’t happen again?”
D’aka let out a heavy sigh. “I really don’t want to imagine killing or executing our own members Uri… but… If the worst scenario does happen… then we’ll be the one to deal with it.” D’aka’s tone and eyes were serious. He was ready to do the dirty work for the gang. Even Uri was taken aback by D’aka’s conviction. “Heh, I didn’t know you got that in you. You and me, ensuring the gang’s safety. I like that… but just us?”
“You got someone else in mind?” Uri pondered for a bit. While he knew it would probably be him and D’aka to execute the dirty work, they would need someone else to help monitor the entire gang. “I’m thinking Paulie and Cooper. They can help us find any potential traitors.” D’aka nodded to Uri’s suggestion. They always relied on Cooper’s information gathering ability, he was a logical addition if they wanted to root out traitors. And Paulie, he might be a lazy person…. But he was surprisingly a good judge of characters. He was the only one who was not surprised by John’s betrayal — and he was the only one who truly understood John’s motivation behind it.
“Yeah, those two sounds good. Anyone else you have in mind?” Uri pondered some more. He knew he and D’aka would be the one to do the dirty work… but as the gang got bigger, they would need more people they could trust to do the dirty work. “Tera and Kisara?”
“Not Kisara,” D’aka immediately interjected. “Tera, sure. But Kisara… No, not her.” Uri thought about it a bit. He could tell D’aka was doing a little bit of favoritism towards Kisara, but at the same time, Kisara was not the type to be able to do cold-blooded action such as killing one of your own. “Alright, just Tera then. That bitch is crazy enough she’ll get rid anyone who go against Regulus without question.”
D’aka and Uri continued discussing how they would deal with traitors, but Napier decided he heard enough. There was no way he could insert himself into the conversation and offered to help them with purging any potential traitors. He was still a new member, he had not earned their trust yet.
Napier stood, ready to look for other opportunities, until he realized a boy was standing in front of him. Napier knew the boy, Grigori. Napier’s opinion about Grigori was a bit mixed. He seemed like a normal bratty kid to Napier, but somehow, a lot of the kids in leadership positions trusted him. Napier could not help but wonder if Grigori earned those trust because he was Regulus’ best friend or because he truly deserved it.
“Hohohoho, Napier, you were eavesdropping huh?” Grigori said with a big smile. Napier was shocked that Grigori managed to catch him red-handed. He struggled to form a word, an excuse before Grigori stopped him. “No worries my boy. I understand how you feel. You want to contribute, no? To be an important member in the gang?” Napier did not expect for Grigori to hit the nail so precisely. He could only nod, getting swept in Grigori’s flow.
“Well, you’re in luck, Napier. I’m looking for some thieves for my pickpocket operation. You want to join?” Grigori offered Napier his hand, waiting for a handshake. Napier was not sure yet what kind of person Grigori was, but the way Grigori spoke to him — it felt like he was talking to an equal, and Napier could not help but shake his hand. “Alright, Grigori. I’m in.”
Grigori’s smile got wider, “Welcome to the team, Napier.”
LitRPG Dark Humor Overpowered MCAI Companion
HEAVEN HAS A HACKER PROBLEM
Bash died doing what he loved: exploiting the system.
Now he's in the Shard, a gamified afterlife where the rich play god and the dead grind dungeons.
Armed with a pure INT build and really bad jokes, he's ready to BASH it all down.
"A lot of stories claim their MC is a 'glitch' or a 'hacker,' but Bash actually acts like one."
— RR Reader
"It may not have crazy aliens but it has the same kind of energy as Dungeon Crawler Carl."
— RR Reader
a-?BOOK 1 COMPLETEa-?