When they arrived at the agreed-upon intersection, Geng Di was watching a few old men playing cards under the streetlight.
"Going on a date? I heard that Iron Bucket and the others are forcing you to pay back the money?"
"Where would I get the money?" Bufan took out a low-grade spirit stone the size of a fingernail and flicked it up with his thumb before catching it again. "This damn thing is my food money for a month."
In this world, a low-grade spirit stone was roughly equivalent to one dollar and was, in fact, also called one yuan. A medium-grade spirit stone was worth a hundred yuan, and a high-grade spirit stone was ten thousand yuan.
Trying to survive on one dollar for a month, even if he wanted to buy farts, probably no one would bother to sell them to him.
"Damn, you're having a tough time... So, you didn't let them beat you up, did you?"
Geng Di walked around Bufan and took a look. "You're the first one who owes Iron Bucket money and can still run around lively."
"Are you kidding? I beat up those cowards."
"Awesome! Anyway, as long as you're okay, let's go."
Bufan knew that the fat guy didn't believe him at all, but it didn't matter.
Walking on the road, he asked around indirectly. It turned out that he and the fat guy, as a pair of fellow sufferers, had been working part-time in a small hardware factory to support their studies, and the fellow workers had taken good care of them.
A few days ago, two small hooligans, relying on the name of the Barefoot Gang, chased into the factory to beat up a fellow worker and were beaten up by everyone. Before leaving, they left harsh words and arranged a fight with weapons at the factory gate tonight. Of course, the fellow workers couldn't just back down and readily agreed.
Everyone had a good relationship, and no one wanted to slack off at a critical moment. So, more than forty workers planned to participate in the fight tonight.
"Why not call the police?" Bufan was very strange. In his own world, even thirty or forty years ago, the police should have taken care of things like this.
The fat guy raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to look at him seriously.
"What do you mean by calling the police?"
"Well... the police! Even if not the police, surely someone from the government would take care of it?"
"Brother, are you running a fever? What nonsense are you talking about?"
"Ahem~ I might have read too many books and gotten a bit confused. Isn't there anyone in charge in our country?"
"The country is just a customary concept. The City Lord's Mansion is in charge of management, and the city guards are responsible for maintaining public order. Have you forgotten what happened to your father? Didn't he die in a fight against the Black Flag Gang a few years ago?"
"Oh, oh, I might have been a bit confused after having a fever a couple of days ago."
"You're something. You even forgot your father after having a fever."
"So, the city guards won't take care of a fight like this?"
"If they can defend against monsters and bandits and we can muddle through life, that's already good enough. What more do you expect? Except for inspecting beast poison, the city guards basically only defend against bandits and monsters outside the city. The city is mainly self-governed. So, even if a dozen or twenty people die, no one will care, let alone a group fight..."
Damn! They're so arrogant? I should have wiped out Iron Bucket and his gang earlier.
"Isn't the factory manager going to step in?"
The fat guy curled his lips. "The factory manager seldom shows up, and he only takes care of production. We have to handle this kind of thing ourselves."
"Okay, then shouldn't we bring some weapons?" Thinking about the tough folkways here and looking at the fat guy with empty hands, Bufan didn't feel quite right.
"Are you kidding? Is the hardware factory short of weapons?"
"Oh, right..."
When the two entered the factory, more than thirty workers were already sitting together.
"Here you are?" A skinny black guy walked over with a smile, patted the shoulders of the two, and shouted loudly, "Look at these two little brothers. They're young but so chivalrous."
The fellow workers laughed and cast friendly glances at them.
"Definitely. Brother Wu, how many are you planning to take down today?" The fat guy looked carefree, as if he had participated in this kind of thing many times.
"We still have to be careful this time." A solemn-faced big man stood up and said, "I have a brother who has dealings with the Barefoot Gang. They probably have more than twenty people, but among them, including their leader, the Barefoot Immortal, there are four warriors, three at the junior level and one at the intermediate level.
Although we have more people, we only have Liuzi, an intermediate warrior. So, it's better to plan first. We don't want to suffer losses later."
The bearded man called Liuzi also stood up. "Brother Qi is right. One warrior can fight at least ten ordinary people. We have forty-two people, and there are two kids.
So, later I'll take on the Barefoot Immortal. Dealing with the remaining three warriors will require thirty people. For the remaining twenty hooligans, only eleven of us will be left to handle them. Basically, it's two against one. The situation is quite grim."
Hearing their analysis, everyone was a bit silent.
Although a fight depended on combat experience, physical strength, momentum, and determination, and couldn't be simply compared by numbers, the four warriors were indeed a difficult hurdle to overcome.
The fat guy curled his lips. "Brother Liu, you're underestimating us two brothers. I just awakened my talent today."
"Oh? What talent?" Brother Qi's eyes lit up.
"Sharp ears..." The fat guy originally thought his talent was quite cool, but after saying it, he realized that it didn't seem very useful in this situation.
"Well... it's okay." Brother Qi grinned and asked Liuzi, "By the way, what's your talent?"
"Mine? Wind Hammer. It's a bit useful against ordinary people and can distort their movements, but it's useless against warriors of the same level."
Seeing that the situation was not good, Bufan quickly activated his talent.
To win against a stronger opponent either cost lives or required a lot of thinking.
In front of him, the blurry images gradually became clear and solid, and the scene started to move.
Shouts of battle filled the air, sticks flew, and explosions rang out continuously.
People kept falling down, and once they fell, it was hard for them to get up again.
Wait, why was that three-lipped guy charging at the front so strong?
This guy was holding a pipe fork and was extremely fierce. In the end, half of the people actually fell in front of him.
The other three warriors were also ruthless characters who didn't care about their lives. Although our side fought bravely one after another, it was hard to take them down.
It seemed that one-on-one wouldn't work. What if we used the combat team model to fight several against one? Bufan immediately launched the second round of deduction.
...
The first deduction failed, and the second one still didn't work. Almost within three minutes, our side was wiped out. In one scenario, five died and twenty-eight were seriously injured. In another, seven died and twenty-two were seriously injured. Liuzi was instantly killed by the three-lipped guy in the first round, and the same thing happened in the second round!
Dozens of people were lying in a pool of blood, and groans could be heard one after another.
In the slightly sunken open space in front of the gate, the blood had gathered into large, shallow puddles. Some people's hands and feet were broken, and some people's internal organs had spilled out.
Even so, the members of the Barefoot Gang were still constantly swinging their sticks, hitting the unconscious limbs of those who had fainted.
The crisp sounds of fractures could be heard one after another...
This wasn't a fight. This was a massacre!
"It's okay to cripple them all! Disable anyone who looks unpleasant! As long as not enough twenty people die, I can handle it!"
The three-lipped guy leaned on his pipe fork and shouted inhumanely.
And on the other end of the pipe fork was stuck in Liuzi's eye socket.
The final image was fixed in Bufan's mind.
He glanced at Liuzi, who was actively participating in the discussion, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
"No, that Barefoot Immortal isn't a warrior. He's a samurai!"
Just now, Bufan had been standing there blankly. The fellow workers didn't know that his brain had been working furiously. They thought the kid was young and scared, and didn't think much of it.
It was nice of him to come, and no one expected him to fight to the death.
But suddenly hearing him say this, everyone was a bit surprised.
"Who told you that? Is it reliable?" Liuzi frowned and asked.
"My talent is deduction..."
After Bufan briefly explained, everyone really started to panic. Fighting to the death was okay, but who wanted to sacrifice their lives?
"Brother, is there any way?" Brother Qi looked earnestly at Bufan. A person with such a talent would surely have a bright future as long as he didn't die.
"How long until they arrive?"
"Twenty minutes. And we have a brother keeping an eye on the long street intersection."
"Okay, then everyone, be quiet. I'll make a few more deductions."
All of a sudden, everyone shut up and looked at Bufan.
Now no one dared to underestimate this fight anymore. The opponents were coming to kill!
Conventional methods, unconventional methods, all kinds of ideas were thrown into his mind and tried repeatedly...
In the end, he found that in the face of absolute power, all tactics and strategies were bullshit!
Death... death... still death...
Sometimes it was Liuzi who died, sometimes Brother Wu, sometimes Geng Di, and sometimes even himself!
No, try again! There must be a way!
Looking at the sweating Bufan, almost everyone felt a tightness in their chest.
The fellow workers who arrived later, originally full of momentum, wilted at the sight of this situation.
Were we really going to fail today?
Hmm? Bufan caught such a detail. Some people chased into the factory while fighting. A certain underling of the Barefoot Gang knocked over a bottle, and the liquid flowed onto his foot. Immediately, he screamed and fell to the ground, and a wisp of green smoke rose from the back of his foot.
"What's that room for?" Bufan pointed to a large sliding door at the back.
"It's the electroplating workshop." Brother Qi replied, a bit puzzled.
After another deduction, Bufan's tense expression relaxed.
"Leave that Barefoot Immortal to me."