Marcus looked at the list of available dishes on the board. The shop was open-air, with no door whatsoever. It only had 3 walls and the fourth one was a huge entrance.
Tables were not only placed inside but were also placed at the side of the streets. A lot of people were being rowdy. Laughing, shouting, getting into little fights. The chairs and tables that were being used were clearly old and had been broken a lot of times before.
'This is a noodle shop? Fucking looks like a bar. Hell, I wonder what the bars here look like.' Marcus thought
Marcus looked around. He felt like he was back in the Heavenly Realm, Asura Empire. People cursing and shouting at each other and brawls happening here and there. Well, it kinda felt like the Asura Empire minus the shitty tables, chairs, and the rundown building.
Marcus looked back to the time when he first roamed their empire. He didn't get to visit a lot of places but he still enjoyed it a lot.
When Marcus was younger, his mother went to another planet for a meeting. His uncle took him out for a small adventure around the empire for a week. That was Marcus' first step outside the palace without a guard. He broadened his horizons. Aside from breathtaking places, Marcus also saw half-naked girls dancing, Bar brawls, and people drinking kegs of wine upside down.
When Leia finished her meeting and arrived back at the empire, she heard everything that happened. She thrashed her brother until he was black and blue in the throne room with Marcus at the side watching. When Leia finished beating him up, she turned around and that's when Marcus' uncle smiled at him and winked.
Thinking about all this made him miss home and this made Marcus' mood sullen.
A few people noticed Marcus walking in and just standing at the entrance.
A drunk middle-aged man called out to the one who was inside the counter and said" One order to that kid standing over there" He pointed to the red-haired kid standing at the entrance.
Marcus looked for the voice of the man and saw him sitting with a girl on his lap. He then heard him say "Kid this is no place for you...right now since you're not drunk. Go drink, hahaha, the first round is on me. "
'The first round? Is this guy expecting me to drink a second and a third one?' Marcus' eye twitched.
The one serving drinks and food looked at him, raised a drink, and said "Beer."
He doesn't want to get drunk tonight. He is the person who easily gets drunk. One bottle of beer is enough to make him turn red. Not drunk but will make him turn red and gets him a bit tipsy.
"I'll have to decline. I actually just want to try some of your dishes. Maybe I'll start with 2 orders of your burger." Marcus said while walking towards a stool in front of the counter which was not occupied.
"Ordering burgers at a noodle shop? Hahaha, Comin right up." The person behind the counter turned around and started preparing.
"You're actually rejecting my generosity?" The middle-aged man looked at the teen.
Marcus looked at him and said, "Yes." and continued to the stool.
The crowd went silent and looked at him. Some of them were even wondering how much money he has when he walked in. Seeing a teenager alone in the Eastside at 8 pm in the evening, that teen should be welcoming them to rob him. But a lot of them were patient. Noticing that no one made the first move they just waited.
"Hahahaha good. I'm currently busy right now, but watch how I'll make you regret those words later. You think you can make me look bad?" After saying that, the middle-aged man went back and fiddled the young lady who was sitting on his lap.
Marcus can't start anything funny until he catches Krieg.
"You're a brave kid but you should be careful, he's the head of a pretty big gang in these parts." The barkeeper said.
"Thanks for the warning but I can take care of myself. I have a few questions though. First, how many gangs are there in the Eastside?" Marcus didn't really care who these people were. Sooner or later they'll end up under his thumb. So he asked the guy in front of him a question while he lowered his voice and dropped a few bucks.
The barkeeper was surprised at how the young man is so calm about all this.
"Well, there are 2 gangs that control the Eastside. One is the Heller Mafia. They run a lot of shops out here and have most of the lower gangs working for them. The other one is the Dwindler Gang, although they have lesser shops, it is rumored that they practically own 100% of the underground fights. The relationship of the two is pretty bad." The barkeeper stopped talking after this. He just kept wiping the glasses.
Marcus scrunched his brows. He soon understood it and threw a couple more bucks down.
"The Heller Mafia is headed by a man named Sod, he is bald but people don't mention anything about that in his presence because he is salty about it. Though their gang earns quite a sum of money, regrowing hair that will not fall off in just a couple of weeks or months is expensive. This is something I heard the members of their gang talk about when they are here getting drunk.
Next, the leader of the Dwindler Gang is named Duke, who has long hair that reaches his shoulders. If you're smart enough and I think you are, then I wouldn't need to explain why they're fighting." The barkeeper spit in the glass he just picked up and then started wiping it with a towel.
'Fuck that's gross' Marcus lost his appetite after seeing that, he tossed his half-eaten burger to the side. The barkeeper once again stopped talking so for the last time he placed money on the table.
This did not go unnoticed by a lot of people in the place. The barkeeper took the money and sighed.
"The place where no one would rarely touch is the apartment complex over there," The barkeeper pointed towards a building in front and continued "That place is owned by a bigshot businessman, so no one wants to ruffle it up. But there are certain cases in the past though." The barkeeper placed the glass to the side.
"Talk about the gangs," Marcus said. Now he knows why Eva was pretty safe although living in this forsaken place. He could guess why she had those giant eye bags under her eyes. She could not sleep well because she had to be alert in case someone barges in her door.
"Ahem, The Heller gang are close with the gangs in the south part of the city, where the docks are located. While the Dwindler Gang is tight with the people from the north." The barkeeper finished speaking.
Marcus received a transmission from Nexus so he got up and left. The people still didn't move, they just waited. The first one to move is bound to lose.
Until Marcus turned and was out of their vision they no one still moved. The people who were sitting outside also didn't see him anymore after he turned a corner.
Marcus didn't directly head straight to the apartment complex. He still had to change.
"Oh for the love of god, go and get him!" The middle-aged man toying with the girl shouted.
A few of his subordinates stood up first and then followed by some other people. When they turned the corner they didn't see the teenager who was wearing a black long sleeve polo.
A few seconds later lightning crackled in the sky. A bolt suddenly came running down towards the group of people. They were only rank 1-3 Elites. They looked up but failed to dodge. They circulated the mana inside their body and tried to use their powers to create a shield, but before it could even form, they already turned into a crisp.
Marcus zipped towards those that were not hit. He began barraging them with punches and threw bolts of lightning at some.
The people who were still at the noodle shop/bar heard screams and shouts. They stood up including the "generous" middle-aged man.
As they stood on the streets they could see charred bodies.
The middle-aged man was furious when he saw around 20 of his men were on the ground and a few were still trying to run away.
Lupin, the "generous" middle-aged man looked at the people fighting in front. He focused his eyes on the one wearing red. His eyes went wide. He clearly remembered the news. He was a bit scared but when he thought about how much a certain big gang in the south were offering for his head or even just information about his whereabouts. He greedily smiled.
He was not going to call them right away. He was going to fight the 'vigilante' for a bit and maybe get a few scars to prove how hard he worked for it. They might even take him in. Since most of his subordinates were dead and the few are about to die, why not jump into another ship. He is a rank 7 elite himself so he could probably take him on with a little help.
He turned his head to the sides and inspected their strength. 'rank 4 and 5 elites. Not bad. Hehehe' Lupin was delighted, they were not too strong nor too weak. He was worried they might steal his spotlight from him.
"Do you know who that is?" Lupin asked the people around him He completely forgot about the boy that disrespected him. There were around 10, him not included.
They nodded, while some said yes, and a few just looked at him.
"I suggest that we team up and take him down. There is a bounty on his head and if we can take him down then we'll be sitting on cash tomorrow. We'll split bounty evenly between us. What do you say?"
A lot of them had greedy looks in their eyes while only 3 backed off and moved away. They didn't want to be involved in this mess.
"That's okay we don't need 'em anyway. Go!" He commanded.
Marcus who was just about to finish up zipped towards the newcomers.
'What the fuck? I've never seen this kind of lightning user before. Since when can people who train lightning magic turn into lightning at this stage?' Lupin wondered.
"Die!" Marcus shouted.
He activated the 'Destrucstone'. He has no time to waste. He was told that Krieg and his men are coming. He doesn't know how strong they were but if he had to deal with them and also with these people in front of him, that would be a nightmare.
He was pretty sure Krieg won't bring weak ass men when they want to take someone from the apartment complex here.
Krieg could have taken Eva and kidnapped her when she was not in the apartment complex. But he chose to do it when she was there.
Of course, Eva is not the only thing that Krieg was after tonight. His boss Duke. had a friend who had a falling out with the businessman who owned this apartment complex. So he was ordered to smoke it a bit. It turns out that Eva also lived here which is why he went to Eva earlier. Two birds with one stone.
Marcus conjured lightning javelins and threw them at the bastards in front of him. Every single javelin had an aura of destruction. They easily pierced their defense.
A guy tried to sneak up behind him and used 'wind blade', an offensive wind technique. Another one was in front of him who was fighting him head-on. The guy concentrated his mana on his fist and threw a punch. He chained it with another punch but this time it was coated with flames.
Lupin equipped his double daggers and was waiting for a perfect opportunity. He had to let both of these sides wear each other down.
Marcus zipped towards the guy who's skilled with wind magic and took him down first.
Lightning danced in the sky, hitting the people down below whenever he commanded.
-------------------
"What the hell happened to Krieg being the first target?" Nexus staring at the fight below.
Eva was standing outside her door and asked Nexus who was floating by her side "Is that Marcus?"
"Yes, but save your questions for later. Krieg and his men are getting close." Nexus said.