"Hello there," Ren greeted the Oni gang members with a friendly tone as he walked toward them.
The whole group turned to look at him, but after quickly sizing him up, most of them lost interest — except for one tattooed Oni, who sneered and waved him off dismissively.
"We don't have spare change for you, kid. Get lost."
"You misunderstood. I'm not here to beg for money. Quite the opposite, actually. I'm here because I want to speak with your boss," Ren said, keeping his friendly smile intact despite the rudeness.
Ren had already prepared for this situation. From the memories he'd seen through Lappland, he knew that meeting with someone important in these gangs usually required a small "fee." So he pulled out a money envelope his boss had given him and flashed a blue 1,000 LMD banknote.
"I only want a few minutes to talk. Would this be enough to help me meet your boss?" Ren asked, holding the money up.
The Oni gang members didn't look pleased at all when he mentioned money, which made Ren nervous — maybe he had made a mistake…
But then, the tattooed man's eyes lit up when he saw the money. He stepped forward to grab it — only for Ren to pull his hand back.
"Hand it over, kid, and I'll take you to the boss," the man said, still gruff but far less hostile now, clearly tempted by the cash.
"Could you bring him to meet me first?" Ren smiled politely, unwilling to part with the money before seeing the boss.
"I'm the boss! You're talking to him now, so fork it over!" the man snapped irritably.
Ren didn't believe him for a second. "You're the boss? Is that true?" he asked, turning to the others.
Nobody responded — except one quiet man who had been silent since Ren arrived. He looked up and said flatly, "He's not our boss."
"Fal!" the tattooed man shouted angrily at the speaker, but Fal just ignored him.
Ren took that as confirmation. Judging by everyone's reaction, Fal clearly held some weight in the gang. Ren turned to him instead.
"Mr. Fal, may I speak to your leader? If you don't want the money, I can offer something else," he said, putting the money back into the envelope.
The tattooed man, furious at being ignored, stormed over and grabbed Ren by the collar.
"I changed my mind. Drop the cash and get lost, brat! Or the next thing you'll drop is your rotting life!" he growled, pulling out a dirty, worn blade.
"Please let go. You're forcing me to act," Ren warned, growing irritated.
He still didn't want to hurt the man — not until he was sure he was part of the Oni gang. But from what he could tell, the others didn't care about this guy at all, despite being of the same race. That meant he was probably low-ranked or a new member. Ren didn't want to bother, but he would defend himself if pushed.
"You asked for it, brat!"
The tattooed man lunged, stabbing toward Ren's neck — but just before the blade made contact, it was sliced in half by a mysterious blade. Ren had already cast a stone element shield, but he was still surprised — as was the tattooed man.
"You guys are pretty bold. Causing trouble in broad daylight wasn't enough, huh? Now you're laying hands on my people?"
"Seems like you don't care much about the warnings I gave you," said a pink-haired woman approaching the scene.
"W-What? Lin Yuxia!" The tattooed man's face turned pale as he saw the woman walking toward them.
He immediately let go of Ren and backed away, trembling.
The presence of Lin Yuxia turned the once-casual mood of the gang serious. Even Fal looked surprised. He glanced between Ren and Yuxia.
"Are you with her?"
"No, but we're working together right now," Ren answered truthfully, then turned to thank Yuxia.
"Thanks for the help, Sister Yuxia. Though really, I could've handled that myself," he said, eyeing the transparent, glass-like blade in her hand.
A glass weapon? That's so cool...
"I'm just here to make things go smoothly. I know you're kind, Ren. But sometimes, being nice to thoughtless people only makes things worse. Bribing might work with mafias from Siracusa, but Oni gangs with pride? They value other things more."
"And that thing is strength."
Strength, huh… like those old-school fighter gangs in classic anime?
"I get it now," Ren nodded. He had assumed money would work because of Lappland's memories, but clearly some gangs still valued strength over money.
Well, that makes this a bit easier.
"Mr. Fal, please tell your boss that I want to challenge them to a duel!"
"Hm?"
"Huh?"
Even Yuxia looked surprised — as did Fal. Only the tattooed man scoffed.
"Are you nuts, kid?! You—"
THUD!
The man's words were cut off as a stone pillar shot up, nearly grazing his face. He collapsed backward in fear.
The Oni gang members all looked shocked — except for Fal, who broke into a sweat as he studied the still-smiling Ren.
"What's your goal? You trying to take over the gang by beating the boss?"
"Become the boss? No, not interested. Just tell them: If I win, they follow one order from me. If I lose, I'll do the same."
"One command from the winner… and what if we just don't bring the boss out at all?"
Ren shrugged casually.
"Then I'll have no choice but to go speak with them myself. But word will surely spread that the great Oni gang boss was too afraid to accept a little challenge from me."
[Lin Yuxia (Codename: Lin) Affection Level Maxed – Gained +2,500 Relationship Points]
[Hoshiguma Affection Level Maxed – Gained +2,500 Relationship Points]
Wait… Hoshiguma?!
Ren wasn't surprised to see the system message — but the new name caught him off guard.
"This is interesting. It's been… what, a year or two since I last got a challenge like this?"
A green-haired woman lazily stepped out from behind a door, casually waving to her underlings. The room's atmosphere changed instantly.
Yuxia's face turned serious, and the rest of the Oni gang looked excited.
"Boss, you're finally here!" many shouted, turning toward her.
"Big Sis!"
Fal, however, looked uneasy — like he wanted to say something. The woman seemed to notice and gently patted his shoulder.
"It's fine. I'll handle it."
The only one who looked like he'd seen a ghost was Ren.
Wait a second… isn't that Big Sis Hoshiguma?!
When the gang members called her "Boss" and "Big Sis," Ren finally understood.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Hoshiguma, the leader of the Oni gang and the big sis to this rowdy bunch," she said.
Ren kept a straight face, but inside…
She's really the gang leader!!!
"I'm Zhongli," he greeted, bowing. Hoshiguma nodded and turned to her subordinates to ask something.
While Ren tried to figure out how Hoshiguma ended up leading the gang, Yuxia whispered in his ear:
"Be careful, Ren… she's dangerous. Everyone in the slums knows her. They call her the Queen of Fighters and the Ghost of the Slums. Anyone who picks a fight with her or her gang ends up vanishing. Even my father respects her — her strength is on a monstrous level."
"That bad, huh..."
Ren finally understood why Senior Sora reacted the way he did upon seeing her. So she's famous, huh?
Sigh… should I try using our connection to ask her for a favor? Or just play along with the duel? She's pretending not to know me, too…
But before he could decide, Hoshiguma began walking toward him with her crew.
"I've heard everything. So you're the one challenging me, Zhongli?"
Hearing her use his name so formally, Ren composed himself and nodded.
"That's right."
"Hmm… then if you don't mind, could you answer one question for me? If I lose, what exactly would you want me to do? It might help relieve some of the pressure," Hoshiguma asked with a serious expression, as if she were weighing the answer that might come from him.
Although Ren didn't know why Hoshiguma was pretending not to know him—maybe it was out of anger or to maintain her image in front of her subordinates—he chose to go along with it for now, given his urgency. Still, he decided to explain his current situation to help her understand what he was trying to do.
"I'll be honest with you, Miss Hoshiguma. One of my colleagues has been kidnapped, and the only way to save her is to get help from Miss Yuxia. But she'll only agree to help us if I can convince your gang to move out of this zone."
"I see. So that's what you came here to ask me…" Hoshiguma nodded in relief. It looked like she understood the whole story now.
"Well then, let's not waste any more time. You want to challenge me to a duel, right? So what kind of fight are you talking about?"
Ren froze for a moment at the question.
"Uh… normally, how do people fight here?"
Hoshiguma gave him a surprised look.
"This your first time challenging someone to a fight?"
"Yes… I usually get ambushed more than I do the challenging," Ren replied with an awkward smile, recalling the past few days where most of his battles involved getting caught in explosions to the face—except for that one time with Lappland.
"Haha, that's not a fight. That's just slaughter. There's a difference between fighting and killing. A fight involves staking one's honor. Killing, on the other hand, risks lives. We Oni may have once glorified killing, but those old ways are outdated and don't align with Lungmen's customs. So, we settle things using fair combat rules instead."
"Fair combat rules?"
"Yes… it's simple. We both pick roles: attacker or defender. The attacker must knock down the defender two out of three times to win. The defender must withstand three attacks without falling more than two out of three times. If the defender loses consciousness, they lose. If the attacker causes bleeding, they also lose. Easy enough to understand, right?"
"Yes," Ren nodded.
'Sounds like a pretty fair rule for a duel.'
While the attacker had to find a way to bring the defender down without drawing blood, the defender had to withstand the attacks without falling more than twice.
"How is that fair combat…"
That was when a familiar voice rang out. When Ren turned to look, it was none other than Ch'en walking toward them. Yuxia groaned and massaged her temples in frustration as the expressions of the Oni gang members changed dramatically upon seeing her.
"L.G.D. officer!"
"You… you're with L.G.D!?"
It was obvious that L.G.D. wasn't very welcome here in the slums. The moment they saw her, the previously restrained Oni gang members now openly showed looks of disdain.
Except for Faal and Hoshiguma, who looked more surprised than hostile upon seeing Ch'en.
Hoshiguma quickly calmed herself and spoke in a composed voice.
"You think the duel isn't fair? And… who are you anyway? What's your relation to little brother Zhongli?" Hoshiguma seemed to forget herself a little, slipping into a more familiar tone unconsciously.
"My name is Ch'en, Deputy Chief of Special Investigations, L.G.D. I'm here for the same reason as that man."
"And as you've heard, I disagree with the so-called rules of this duel. But if that's what you want, I won't stop you. However, I'll be the one to step into the ring instead of him!"
'Huh? Miss Ch'en… did you hit your head on something heavy?'
Ren turned to her in disbelief, as if she were a completely different person from the one he knew.
"…" Hoshiguma narrowed her eyes, seemingly about to say something.
But before she could utter a word—
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion erupted behind them.
The entire mobile city shook. The office building behind them started swaying before it lost all stability and began collapsing toward their position.
"Move! Everyone, take cover!!" Ch'en shouted first, but it wasn't much help. The trembling ground made it nearly impossible for anyone to move—except for a select few.
In an instant, a giant stone pillar emerged from the ground, propping up the collapsing building and slowing its descent.
"Hurry, go!!" Ren yelled as he grabbed Yuxia's arm and told the Oni gang members to run, which they finally started doing as the tremor subsided. Hoshiguma grabbed a few slower subordinates and tossed them to safety. Some debris hit her men, but she noticed something peculiar—they weren't injured.
That was because a soft brown shield was glowing around each of them.
'What kind of shield is that?'
THUD!!!
As the building collapsed, a cloud of dust engulfed the area. But even that couldn't hide the vision of one individual, who noticed something emerging behind the explosion's origin.
"What the hell is that!?"
When Ren and Ch'en turned to look, their eyes widened in shock.
A massive blood-red dome had risen, enclosing part of the city—even from a distance, its sheer size was overwhelming.
"That's… Zone 4!!"
'The area where the Thannis gathered!'
Ren realized instantly—something serious had gone down there. And the fact that the entire L.G.D. unit was still here meant someone had already infiltrated that area.
There was only one possibility—
"Miss Texas…"
And the next moment, a system message appeared before him, confirming his worst fear.
[Emergency Mission: Rescue [Cellinia Texas], a wounded colleague, within 1 hour]
[Reward: Two skills of [Cellinia Texas]]
[Failure]: Death of [Cellinia Texas]
[Time remaining]: 59 minutes 59 seconds
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