Ken looked at Derek and his entourage. He was surrounded by nine people with various style of clothing, tattoos and piercing. He estimated that the youngest would be sixteen and the oldest would be twenty one. Beside murder, rape and other crimes worthy of capital punishment, group of young men would be able to saunter out of their crimes.
"Yes, I'm new here." Ken answered Derek calmly, although he was completely surrounded he wasn't afraid of them. 'I've just gotten superhuman strength, if you think I would be afraid just because there are a lot of you, then that would be a joke.' Ken thought inwardly.
Derek looked at Ken in interest. "Do you know us?" Derek encountered this types of people before, but once they know who they were they would cower in fear.
Ken nodded calmly. "I'm perfectly aware of who you are."
"Really? but it seems you don't really kno-"
Ken interrupted Derek by saying. "Honey badger gang, 1 of the top 3 local gangs of San Jose. Just because you're part of a large gang doesn't mean every one is afraid of you." He said calmly and undaunted.
His words caught everyone's attention, be they Derek and his entourage and bill. Every one had an incredulous look in their face except Derek and Ken.
Bill was sweating profusely when Ken release that bomb shell. 'Damn, if I knew you were trouble I wouldn't have entertained you, now I risk my shop being trashed just because you're unafraid of death.'
Even the members of the honey badger gang found the situation ridiculous and funny at the same time. After all they were infamous for trashing and beating someone up, there were even people hiring them to specifically hurt and injure someone.
Although few civilians dared to come in conflict with them it isn't a rare situation, because there's no lack of brave people nowadays, San Jose has a population of almost 800,000 so it isn't that strange if someone wanted to put up a fight.
Suddenly almost everyone roared out in laughter.
"Do you hear that boss?! this kid isn't afraid of us!"
"That's right! that's right! even if there's a lot us he isn't afraid!"
"Let me teach this imbecile a lesson!"
The entire shop was drowned by laughter, but Ken was completely unfazed, he knew for a fact that he could break and pulverize every single bone in their body. 'Heh, laugh all you want but we will see who has the last laugh.' Ken mocked them in his mind.
Derek raised his brows at the unexpected bravery of the person in front. "Oy, how about you tell us your name before we break your arm?"
Ken answered with mockery in his voice. "Ken's my name, but we will see who will break who's arm."
When he said that the whole place was suddenly engulfed in silence. Bill held his breath while the entire gang looked at him with murderous eyes. Someone stepped out of the group.
"Boss let me deal with this arrogant prick!" the person who step out was about 5'6 tall with defined muscle and a ferocious face. Just one look and you would be able to identify him as the muscle of the gang.
Ken looked at his opposition and size him up. 'This guy must be regularly visiting the gym, I used to envy this kind of build but now...' He looked at his arms that was like a sculpted statue.
The burly guy thought Ken was scared when he saw him looked at his arms. "It's too late to back out now." He said with a sinister smirk on his lips, he looked at Derek for confirmation and after seeing him nod, he strode in Ken's direction with clenched fist.
When he was about five meters away from Ken, the door suddenly swung open and was followed by a resounding shout. "Whoever dares to lay his hand on that man, I will break both of their arms!"
All the people in the shop were stunned, who were so bold to claim that he would break their arm. They turned their head in the direction of the door and saw a burly young man in a sando with camouflage print and military cargo pants.
Bill heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the man who entered, but to the honey badger gang the man was like a plague. That's right, the man who entered is none other than Lucas.
"Tell me who dares to injure someone in my territory!" Lucas looked at the honey badger gang fiercely.
Ken found Lucas appearance puzzling. 'It can't be a coincidence that he suddenly showed up just when a fight was about to go down... Yes, that's right, this Lucas is part of the Zesto Gang, they were formed out of necessity so it wouldn't be weird if they have informant in every part of town in case the other gangs cause trouble.' Ken looked at the sole member of Zesto Gang and decided to be a spectator for now.
"I asked who dares to beat someone in my territory?! are you deaf?!" Lucas pointed at the members of the Honey Badger Gang.
The faces of the members of the Honey Badger Gang suddenly turned livid, although they weren't a match for this abnormally strong man, that doesn't mean he can humiliate them, it would be a tarnish to the name of their gang.
"Don't go too far Lucas!"
"That's right! do you really think we're afraid of you!"
"We have more people than you!"
The members of the Honey Badger Gang shouted at Lucas, trying to intimidate him.
Lucas said slowly. "I asked, who dares to beat someone in my territory?"
Ken thought. 'This Lucas really has a character.'
Derek stepped out of the group and looked at Lucas with an unprecedentedly serious look on his face. "Lucas, are you challenging the Honey Badger Gang? do you want to start a gang war?" although their group was no match for a single Lucas, that doesn't mean he could humiliate them in public, and as the leader of this group he definitely could not let him do so, else he would have to face the wrath of the higher ups.
Lucas expression turned serious when he heard Derek saying gang war. "I'm not challenging anybody, I'm merely asking who wants to injure someone in my territory."
Ken raised his brows when he saw Lucas being restrained by Derek with mere words. 'It looks like this gang war is something big, usually in movies guns were involved and casualties would rise from both opposing parties with innocents getting caught in the cross fire... I wonder if it was like that in real life.' Ken thought inwardly.
"No one is trying to injure or hurt someone, we're merely buying construction material and got into a verbal dispute." Derek said and looked at Ken, after all this entire scenario was caused by him. He really hope this guy would play along, he just wanted to get out of here.
Lucas also looked at Ken before asking doubtfully, after all he rushed here without confirming if Derek was trying to injure someone. "Is that true?"
Ken pondered on what response whould he give, he could give the Honey Badger Gang some trouble by saying they wanted to injure him but that's just it, there's no more benefit for him, in fact it would put a crosshair on his back should he choose to do so, after all this gang doesn't have decent people and he definitely didn't want any trouble since he was just starting to build his farm. 'Hmm, I should get them to compromise since I probably won't be able to get them to give up the delivery.'
"Yeah, that's right, we were arguing whose construction material should be delivered first."
Lucas still looked at them with doubt but decided not press the issue. "Since that's the case how about a compromise?"