Lukas shrugged, "I had some doubts, but I guess they still use this place. Well, that's fine. We can get that guy to take us to their real base."
Xiaozhi raised one brow slightly. "And you didn't think to warn us beforehand?"
"Nothing bad happened so it's all good." In the face of Mike's cheerfulness, Xiaozhi had no choice but to let the matter go.
"Nice to see that someone understands me."
"I've got your back bro."
"Wu Shen, follow me. Mike, secure the area." Lukas finally put away his phone and head for the stairs.
"Got it, boss."
"F*ck me."
Following close behind Lukas, Wu Shen climbed the stairs, and with every step he took, the snoring grew louder.
'Sounds like a f*cking boar.'
They continued in silence and approached a door. From the cacophony that was a tired man's groaning, the boys were sure that this was the room with the stranger.
Lukas held up three fingers and pointed at the door. Wu Shen nodded and readied himself with baited breath.
The three fingers changed into two, and then one, and when all slender fingers were folded, the boys kicked the door open and rushed inside. The room was the same as the one downstairs. Dirty, stinky and overall disgusting.
Startled awake, the man stood up in a hurry and shouted at them,
"Who are you?!"
Faster than the above average weighing man could react, Lukas kicked him in his meaty midriff and sent him crashing to the floor. Before the man could stand once more, Wu Shen was by his side with a gleaming pistol held tightly in his hand.
Holding the man at gunpoint, Wu Shen leered at the man,
"Get up, pig. Take us to your hideout."
'You're the ones who knocked me down...'
When the man made to yell at them, Wu Shen stuffed his mouth with the gun's muzzle.
"Want a hole in the back of your throat? Get a move on."
"E-Eek?! I'll do it, I'll do it!"
"..." Lukas who watched from the side could only wonder where the high-school delinquent learned to do such a thing.
Looking a bit excited, Wu Shen noticed Lukas' complicated gaze and said, "Don't you watch T.V?"
"I see."
Wu Shen took the gun out of the meaty man's mouth and held it to the back of his head once more.
"Get moving."
"Y-Yes!"
Lukas walked in front whilst the man and Wu Shen walked behind. They were back downstairs in no time.
The mood in the room was slightly off. Looking around, Lukas quickly noticed that his good friend Mike was nowhere to be seen.
Wu Shen also realised that the annoyance called Mike had disappeared. He waved Xiaodong over. "What happened?"
"An associate of this man removed that board over there," Xiaodong pointed at the window Xiaozhi had been looking at earlier. "And when he saw all of us, he dropped what he was holding and ran, so Mike took Zhifan and a few others and ran after him."
"I see."
"By the way, leader... Is that the man who was snoring?"
"Yeah."
"Did you check if he has any weapons on him?"
"...No..."
At this, Xiaodong restrained the man as two other boys patted him down and found two knives, a gun and a phone.
"Nice." Xiaodong ran over to Lukas and handed him the items.
"Keep it."
"But I already have a gun."
"Keep it as a spare." Turning to the others, Lukas pointed at the window and said, "Let's go."
As the last of them were about to exit the building, Tingting spotted their boys running back towards them and alerted Lukas. To his amusement, slung over Mike's shoulder was a thin male who looked like he had been mugged; his face was beaten black and blue and the only piece of clothing covering him were his underpants.
As soon as Mike was close enough, Lukas questioned him on the man's state.
"Caught up to him. Then he tried to pull something out of his pocket. Zhifan head-butted him like a bull and smashed his face in. knocked some teeth out too." Mike panted and threw the man to the ground whilst Zhifan and the others collapsed in a sweaty heap. "He looks thin, but he's slow and heavy as f*ck. The others freaking stripped him and took everything he had." At this, Lukas glanced at Wu Shen. He remembered how his boys had restrained the meaty man immediately.
'Just how did you train them?'
"Got it. Good work."
Taking in their out-of-breath states, Lukas couldn't help but be worried. "We're gonna go to their base now. Can you guys still go on?"
Zhifan retied his messy hair whilst Mike gulped down a bottle of water.
Lukas took this as a sign that they could still go on.
"Let's head out."
. . .
The meaty man led them to his base which wasn't that far off from the building.
Similar to Wu Shen's old base, they stood before a large warehouse dirtied with graffiti and moss. The windows were smashed in and it's overall appearance simply screamed 'low-life's hideout'.
"This is the place?" Wu Shen nudged the meaty man with the gun.
"Yes! Now let us go!"
"No need to be so impatient. We'll free you soon."
"Tch."
Noticing that Tingting, Xiaozhi and Yu Jing intended to enter the base along with them, Mike held out an arm to halt them and said,
"I think It'd be best if you wait for us outside."
The three looked at each other and shook their heads.
Tingting said stubbornly, "Where you guys go, we go."
Xiaozhi and Yu Jing nodded hard at this statement.
Lukas accepted their strong desire to help and reassured Mike. "I guess it should be fine. It's not like they're a big organisation anyway."
"If you say so." Mike grumbled and lowered his arm.
They had thin and meaty open the entrance for them.
The boys stepped inside hesitantly, and were glad to see that there weren't that many people inside. Only about twenty men were loitering around. Though they were slightly outnumbered, it was better than the enemy having ten times more men than they did.
Making way for Lukas, Mike and Wu Shen, the boys who entered first stood to the sides.
In a low yet loud voice, Lukas asked,
"Who's the one in charge?"
A man about thirty with an unkempt appearance stepped out.
"Who the f*ck are you?"
"...That's what I wanna ask you. The f*ck are you?" Lukas wanted to spit at this man's face. He had asked for the boss and some nobody actually stepped out.
"The f*ck do you mean?"
"Where's your f*cking boss, I didn't ask for you, did I?" Lukas had no patience with this man.
"What do you want, kid?
A low voice rumbled in the near distance. Immediately, the room silenced as the enemy bowed their heads for their gang boss.
'This, this is the kind of respect I want but will never have.' Lukas grumbled inwardly and sighed as he stole a glance at Wu Shen.
The old man was clean shaven and had a head of finely trimmed white hair.
As the old man came closer, his wrinkled face crumpled even further,his expression taking on the form of one who had tasted something extremely sour.
"So it's you."
Lukas chuckled. "Did you miss me? I sure missed you."
Both sides watched in bafflement at how their bosses seemed to be familiar with each other.
The old man smoothed his eyebrows and spat a glob of white on the patch of ground near Lukas' foot. "Unhand my men, kid. Leave. I do not wish to talk to you."
Lukas cocked an eyebrow as he stepped away from the filth. "I see prison didn't teach you anything."
"Kid. The one thing I regret most is letting you live that day."
"You didn't 'let' me live, old man. You had no f*cking choice."
"Haha. You make this old man tear up. What did you bring your little friends here for? Surely you don't believe you can get rid of me with just a bunch of children?"
The enemy erupted in laughter at the thought of mere children targeting them. But even as they laughed, their hands were at their belts, prepared for the fight that would come.
"How about a little demonstration?"
Wu Shen's pupils shook for a second before stilling. He understood what Lukas meant straight away. And even as his fingers trembled on the trigger, he still executed his boss's orders.
*BANG*
The meaty man fell face forward to the floor. His blood splattered upon impact and dribbled out.
The thin man's face paled and he struggled to escape from Mike's grasp.
*BANG*
The second shot seemed to enrage the enemy's boss.
"How dare you?!"
Lukas shrugged. "Hand this place over to us, and nobody else gets hurt."
"B*llsh*t! None of you will leave this place!" Spittle flew as the old man turned red.
"Well then..." Lukas flicked his hand, and a loud clicking sound echoed as all his boys simultaneously raised and cocked their guns.
"Farewell, old man."