Chapter 700.2: The Rise
He was incredibly calm, clearer than he had ever been.
He knew the more brazen he appeared, the more they would assume he had powerful backing, and the more they would fear whatever had given him such audacity.
They weren’t wrong. Axin did have their backing. He also had a gun they had given him.
Sweeping his gaze across the stunned faces, Axin continued with undiminished momentum. “... Go on. Huddle together and talk to the iron men. Ask them to fight the Empire somewhere else. Or send another coward to talk to His Majesty, ask him to hand over the port and the Governor’s Manor to the iron men!”
Looking at the speechless crowd, he sneered coldly, “... You won’t dare. You only dare bully someone who looks easy to bully, someone you know very well but not quite, someone who always works hard, takes beatings and insults without fighting back, someone like me, standing right here.”
“I’m the one driving you out, right? Then come kill me. And then watch your houses go boom as they crack into rubble! The Empire’s soldiers will use them as cover, the iron men in the Governor’s Manor will use them as targets. When they’re done and leave, all you’ll have left is sand and dirt! Come on, don’t you have hands?!”
No one moved.
No one even spoke.
Axin breathed lightly. He had never spoken so much in his life, let alone in front of so many people. But he was already here, like a rat cornered by a wildcat.
All he could do was bluff. If he showed fear, they would really kill him.
Clenching his teeth to steady his trembling shoulders, Axin forced himself to recall the lines he prepared the night before. “It’s me, the poorest of the poor, the one you despise most, who negotiated a fair price for you, so your worthless shacks can be exchanged for at least four fat pigs you’ve never even touched in your lives!”
“40,000 Xilande Coins! If you tear them down yourselves, they’ll give another 20,000. That’s a benefit I fought for you! Me, I did it!” He roared until his voice grew hoarse. The crowd erupted like a pot of boiling oil.
40,000 Xilande Coins! Another 20,000 if they dismantled the houses themselves!
Those mud huts weren’t worth even 20,000 Xilan coins, probably not even if someone wanted them. And even if they were, no one would buy them.
Many people were tempted. As Axin said, the sum was astronomical to most people living here.
With it, they could build a roomy house in the countryside and buy three or four fat pigs.
And with pigs, they would be landowning farmers, far better than scraping by in this slum on odd jobs.
Seeing the crowd waver, Vikram panicked. He lived by collecting protection fees, extortion, and petty theft, activities tied to clearly defined turf.
Without the street, he would be a stray dog, forced to fight other dogs for scraps.
He would be torn apart by fiercer creatures!
He didn’t oppose selling his shack for a good price. But it should at least be a sum that guaranteed him comfort for the rest of his life, enough to make him a true Wolffolk, not a mongrel mixed in with those poor wretches!
“Wait! Why only 40,000?!” Vikram stepped forward with a fierce expression, trying to look as ferocious as possible. If he brought some people to negotiate with the iron men, maybe he could get more,
But before he could finish, a sudden gunshot cut him off.
A bloody hole appeared in his forehead. Vikram stared in stunned disbelief at the young man whose arm was shaking violently. A moment later, he collapsed heavily, red blood and white brain matter splattering across the ground.
He didn’t know that someone had been aiming for a long time.
At the sound of the gunshot, the crowd erupted in panic, like monkeys splashed with scalding oil, retreating in fear rather than surging forward.
Jai stared in disbelief at the ratfolk youth holding the gun, as if seeing something heretical, his voice trembling.
“You... You killed someone...”
“Yes. Let me be reborn as a beast next life.” Hiding the trembling of his finger and arm, Axin slid the gun back into his pocket, tossed out the words coldly, then looked around and continued, “And you? Are you taking the money and getting out, or do you want to end up like him?”
Just as he had expected, no one cared about the corpse.
People died on their street every few days, from hunger or illness, and no one paid attention.
Even if the Governor’s Manor right next door, no one cared.
What they cared about was the gun in his hand, the gun bestowed by the iron men, the symbol of authority, even if it now held only 11 bullets.
Besides that, they also cared about themselves. Or rather, about money.
As for Vikram, that guy was already dead.
Few people had liked him while he was alive, let alone when he was lying on the ground, dead. A mass grave would be his final destination.
The man who had been standing behind Vikram swallowed, suppressing the panic on his face, and stared at the young man standing amid the crowd as he spoke. “Can you... guarantee you’ll help us get that money?”
Axin answered without hesitation. “I promise.”
The man hesitated for a moment, then nodded and stepped forward.
Axin stared at him without blinking. Though panic raged in his heart, none of it showed on the numb face that had just seen blood.
One step.
Two steps...
At three meters away, the man suddenly stopped, took a deep breath, and said, “... Thank you for everything you’ve done for everyone.”
His throat clenched as he continued, “Like you said... this place will soon become ruins. Even if we don’t take the money, nothing will change.”
The surroundings fell quiet for several seconds.
People seemed surprised by his agreement.
But soon, scattered voices began to rise.
“That’s true...”
“The price is already pretty good.”
“The Emperor wouldn’t give us anything.”
“My shack’s been leaking for a while anyway. I was planning to rebuild.”
Once someone took the lead, everything became much easier.
Those words, though tinged with hesitation and reluctance, conveyed a clear meaning, approval and praise for Axin.
Seeing the crowd submit, Axin let out a breath of relief. He didn’t thank the man, only looked at him indifferently. “What is your name?”
The man answered respectfully. “Kunal... I am a Dogfolk.”
Axin nodded. “From now on, you will follow me.”
Joy flashed across the man’s face.
Just then, from a sky that had somehow filled with dark clouds, fine raindrops began to fall, one after another, onto the bloodstained mud.
At the first sign of rain, people sprang into action like dogs hearing a feeding bell, rushing to the hemp ropes where clothes and sheets were hung, clutching them to their chests, afraid of them getting wet, and even more afraid someone might snatch them in the chaos.
Axin merely squatted down, picked up a shell casing from the ground, and used his trembling thumb to wipe away the mud clinging to it.
“Go bury him,” he said, doing his best to keep any hint of fear out of his voice.
Standing in the rain, Kunal bowed respectfully, like a loyal servant. “Yes!”
Not just Kunal. Several other men also grabbed Vikram by the limbs and carried him away beyond the square.
From that moment on, they were all his underlings.
None of it needed to be said aloud.
Still squatting in the rain, Axin didn’t stand up. He simply stared at the patch of blood in the distance that the rain hadn’t yet washed away, his gaze unfocused.
It was his first time killing someone. He realized that as long as he didn’t think of a person as a person, but as livestock, it was easier than he had imagined.
Even though his arm was numb, his grip aching, his legs too weak to stand...
...
“Damn it, it’s raining.”
“Find somewhere to take cover.”
Near Rowell Camp, in the slums bordering Blackwater Street, four players patrolling an alley suddenly noticed rain starting to fall, and it looked like it would get heavier, so they moved under the eaves of a nearby house.
Unfortunately, the eaves were too narrow, and the wind kept blowing. No matter how close they pressed to the wall, rain still splashed onto their armor.
The Type 5 Light Cavalry exoskeleton had decent water resistance, but water seeping into the gaps of the ballistic plates was a headache, and some moving parts would need re-oiling and maintenance.
The more complex the machine, the pickier it was about its working environment. The only thing truly rugged was probably Goblin Technology’s Mosquito drones.
Maybe... They should hire a few NPCs to handle this sort of work.
As Mountain River Dreaming was thinking this, he noticed several pairs of glossy black eyes staring at them through a half-open window. He looked to Zero Rush, the team’s perception specialist.
Zero Rush shook his head. “No killing intent.”
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