There once was a very powerful gang in Leviathan.
Everyone feared them and bowed their heads whenever a member of that gang walked by, and this was all thanks to its great leader.
This gang would choose nicknames based on fish, and its leader had the nickname Shark.
He was very charismatic and also extremely strong. But he didn't abuse his power and treated his subordinates with care and his enemies with an iron fist.
Shark would always lend people money, and if they couldn't pay it back, he would get it back from them one way or another. This made him rich and also feared throughout the city.
The other gang leaders were somewhat equal to each other, but upon meeting Shark, they would all have to bow their heads in respect and fear.
Leviathan had its own city governor, but the true overlord of the city had always been Shark.
He controlled the city from the shadows, and he kept some blackmail information on the governor, so he was basically untouchable.
It may have looked like Shark had no weaknesses and would stay as the ruler forever, but his weakness appeared when he chose to marry a woman he loved and have a daughter.
The other gang leaders worked together and created a devious plan where they used Shark's family to force him to either sacrifice himself and his power or sacrifice his family.
Shark wasn't a cruel man at heart. He did use force, but it was never because he found it fun.
He mainly used it against the people that owed him money, so he chose to save his family without a moment's hesitation, losing his life in the process.
After Shark's death, the gang leaders didn't keep their promise and also killed his wife to ensure that Shark's gang wouldn't rally around her.
They kept Shark's daughter, Dora, alive because she was only 13 at the time and they didn't feel threatened by her.
Years quickly went by, and Shark's gang, Ocean's Abyss, quickly fell apart.
Without its charismatic leader, the other gang members started doing whatever they wanted, and because of the differences in opinions, the gang split up into three parts.
One part of the gang chose to leave and join different gangs throughout the city. The other two parts created their own gangs.
One was called Starfishes and the other one was called Piranhas.
The Piranhas leader was Swordfish, and he was the previous vice leader of Ocean's Abyss.
Swordfish always wanted to be the gang leader, but because he knew that Shark would always be better than him in everything, he decided to keep being his right-hand man.
So when he heard of Shark's death, he quickly tried to seize leadership to take revenge on the gangs that killed Shark.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn't good at managing the gang's business, so he was one of the biggest reasons that Ocean's Abyss split up.
On the other hand, the leader of the Starfishes was Shark's daughter, Dora.
Once Dora reached twenty years of age, she also tried to become the leader, but this only made the gang war worse, and the once-greatest gang in all of Leviathan turned into a ragtag group.
---
Finn had entered the bar Drowned Fish, which was once the headquarters of Ocean's Abyss.
Currently the Starfishes and Piranhas were fighting like every day, wanting nothing more than to keep the place for themselves.
The bartender was a good friend of Shark, so he remained neutral and just calmly wiped the bar counter while everyone around him was fighting. To him, this was a daily occurrence, but after he heard someone walk into the bar, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
Nobody liked going into the bar other than those two gangs, out of respect for Shark, so the bartender was surprised to see Finn enter.
Everyone who was fighting stopped and also stared at Finn, with suspicion filling their eyes.
One of the people measuring Finn with their gaze was Swordfish, who sat in one of the corners of the bar, and Dora, who sat on the opposite side of the bar.
The quest Finn had heard about in his previous life was that a player could choose to help one of the two gangs take over the other one.
In Finn's previous life, the Starfishes won, and Dora became the leader, but the gang never reached its past glory.
Finn also wanted to join the gang war, but he didn't want to choose Starfishes like the previous player had done.
Nor did he want to choose the Piranhas.
No, what Finn wanted to do was become the new leader of those two gangs and make them into a gang of his own.
He didn't like bullying civilians or anything of the sort, but if he were to follow Shark's footsteps and only use violence against his enemies, Finn believed that he could not only create a strong gang but also help the innocent people live better lives.
The current state of Leviathan City was dire because there were five gangs fighting over the leadership, and a lot of innocent people died every day because of the gang fights.
So, Finn wanted to change that.
"Hello sir. Would you like a drink?"
The bartender smiled at Finn.
"Do you serve anything strong here? Seeing how big of a pussy everyone here is, I seriously doubt it."
Finn laughed, trying to antagonize everyone as much as possible.
He wasn't overconfident because he knew his strengths, and to lead a gang, he had to start leading with fear. After that, he could build a better relationship and slowly become a liked leader.
"What the fuck did you just say?!"
"Are you friends with those bastards?!"
"He is not with us! I thought he was with you!"
The two gangs started shouting at Finn, and they finally became united after seven years. Well, they weren't united, but they had the same goal. Beat Finn up for badmouthing them on their own turf.
One of the Piranhas gang members started walking towards Finn.
He was around 180 cm tall, but his body was filled with muscles. He was bald and had the picture of a tuna fish tattooed on the side of his head.
"Don't you know where this is? You better get on your knees and start begging."
Cracking his knuckles, the big guy tried to make Finn scared, but instead of being scared, Finn was pleasantly surprised.
He thought that they would all jump at him, trying to crowd him.
Finn had a plan on how to escape that situation, but he still preferred a one-on-one fight because that was when he could really show off his skills.
"Of course, I know. This is a bar that once belonged to a great man with a strong gang, but now it's inhabited by weak pieces of shit that try to leech off of his past glory."
Suddenly, Swordfish and Dora, who were a little calmer than the rest, both furrowed their eyebrows and stared at Finn with a murderous gaze.
"Look here, big guy. If you can stay awake for more than a second against me, I'll start calling you my master and do anything you want me to. How about that?"
The crowd immediately burst into laughter because they couldn't even imagine how Finn, with his skinny-looking body, could defeat someone of his opponent's caliber.
Finn knew that Leviathan City was a fairly low-level zone, and because of the strong equipment and powerful skills that he had, he knew that he wouldn't have a problem defeating some no-name gang members.
"Sure. But what if I lose?"
The guy in front of Finn jokingly asked because he didn't take the situation seriously at all.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you. You will just take a long nap."
Smiling, Finn answered. He didn't plan to kill the gang member in front of him because if he was about to take over the gang, he would be killing his own gang member.
But this only made the others laugh even louder.
"Then come get me."
After these words were said, the big guy in front of Finn suddenly stopped smiling and only blankly stared into space.
Before feeling like the whole world turned dark, the man felt like a hard, blunt object hit the side of his head, and even though he tried his best to stay awake, his brain shut off and he fainted.
THUD
His body fell to the ground, and this loud noise silenced the entire bar. Everyone stopped laughing and started looking at Finn differently.
Some managed to see how he pulled out a dagger and used the backside of it to hit his opponent in the temple, but most of them just saw the fight end before it even fully began, not knowing what had really occurred.
Most of them were scared of him because they didn't even manage to see the strike that hit the guy.
"Anyone else wants to step up and show me my place?"
Finn mockingly said while looking around.
Suddenly two people stood up from their seats and walked over to Finn.
One was Swordfish, who had long blue hair and a skinny face with blue eyes, and the other was Dora, who had short blonde hair and green eyes.
She wasn't the most beautiful girl Finn had ever seen, but she was the type that, the longer you looked at her, the more gorgeous you found her.
"What is your purpose for coming here?"
She asked while holding the hilt of her dagger, which she had tied to her waist. Swordfish didn't say anything, but he had already unsheathed his sword and stood at a safe distance from Finn.
Finn looked at the two and smiled to himself.
"I came to make you an offer."
"An offer?"
Both of the leaders looked at Finn in confusion.
"I know how the Hounds are trying to take over you guys, so I want to make you an offer. If I manage to take care of that gang, I will become your leader, and if I lose, I will die trying."
Finn clapped his hands.
"This is a win-win situation for you. If I kill their leader, then the Hounds will stop bothering you, and if I don't, you won't ever see me again. Of course, you would have to hand the leadership over to me if I were to kill the Hound, but at least you won't have to serve him."
The Hound was the leader of the gang called Hounds that was threatening to attack the last remaining forces of the once-great Ocean's Abyss.
"Screw you!"
"Leader my ass!"
"Go f-"
The gang members around the bar started cursing Finn, but when Dora and Swordfish raised their fists, they all shut up.
Dora and Swordfish both knew that if they didn't unite, then they wouldn't be able to defeat the Hounds that were threatening to attack them.
But if they were to accept Finn's offer, then they would lose the leadership they fought so hard for.
"I refuse. I won't let you become the gang leader. We will think of another way to deal with them."
Swordfish immediately refused because he didn't want to hand his position over to someone else.
"…How can we be sure that you aren't a spy sent by the Hounds or some other gang that wants to devour us?"
After looking down at the ground for a bit, Dora then raised her head and asked.
"Simple. Do you think that if there was someone as strong as me in the other gangs, they would be able to hide it for so long?"
"True…"
Dora held her chin and nodded, but that only angered Swordfish.
"Are you actually considering this guy's offer?! If you want to give the leadership up so much, then just give it to me!"
He shouted, but that only made Dora frown.
"Do you think I don't know how incompetent you are when it comes to making money?! If you were at least half as good as my father, our gang wouldn't fall apart!"
She shouted back, and seeing this, the other gang members also started to get riled up again.
"Shut the fuck up, you slut!"
The gang leaders started shouting at each other, and soon the bar was filled with an arguing crowd again.
"…Haaa. Will you accept my offer or not?"
Finn's patience was running thin, so he clapped his hands and looked at the gang leaders.
"No way in hell!"
Swordfish was the first to answer.
Dora didn't answer instantly and thought about it. She was smart because her mother liked teaching her, and she knew that if they continued like this, then their gang would be erased sooner or later.
"You are strong. I will give you that, but I don't know if I can trust you. So, I will go with you, watch you fight the Hounds and I will give you my answer after watching you."
She looked at Finn, but he immediately saw through what she was trying to do.
"That sounds pretty unfair. What if I destroy their gang, and then once you realize there is no other threat, you will run away? …How about this!"
He suddenly grinned and looked at Dora and Swordfish.
"Both of you can go see how I do things, but if I survive, then you won't be able to back out. If you do, I will kill you."
If Finn wasn't wearing the scary black skull mask, then the crazy grin he had on his face would scare them away from this deal anyway.
"No! Fuck you!"
Swordfish was really against Finn's idea, but Dora looked at Swordfish with her eyebrows furrowed and went to his side to whisper something to him.
"Do you realize what will happen if we stay like this? We will die sooner or later. I say we give this guy a shot, and if he turns out to be a scumbag, we can kill him before he kills us."
"…"
Swordfish was still against the idea of getting help from Finn, but he also knew that if he remained greedy and insisted on staying as the leader, then there would be no gang to be the leader of.
He also saw how strong Finn was, but if they team up with Dora, they might be able to beat him.
"Fine."
"We accept."
They both looked at Finn while nodding because they believed that he would probably kill a few of the gang members and then die, which would also help them because that would weaken the Hounds and get Finn off their back.
"Pleasure doing business with you."
Finn could guess what they were thinking, but with the plan he had created beforehand, he was sure that everything would end up just like he wanted it to, and their two gangs would soon be his.