Chapter 72: Thanks, I Had a Blast

TL: LittlePeach

Rat-tat-tat! Bang!

"Kurgh!"

"A Hongmen Society bastard broke through here!"

"Stop him!"

The Shanyuan Society bastards screaming and collapsing under the hail of my pistol fire.

As I climbed the stairs step by step, the Hongmen Society members who'd heard my gunfire came pouring inside in a rush.

"I am Zhang Chen of the Hongmen Society! Follow me!"

"Let's go! Follow Zhang Chen!"

"Raaaaah!"

The Hongmen Society's charge, its momentum revived.

The Shanyuan Society members' momentum flickered and faded.

As we pushed our way up the stairs step by step, the corpses of Shanyuan Society members piled up until I was practically kicking them out of the way.

At this rate, it looked like the whole apartment complex would fall to the Hongmen Society.

'Backing just one side throws off the balance.'

The moment I made up my mind, I slipped a step back as if to catch my breath and took stock of the Hongmen Society's numbers.

Then, hidden from the guys pushing ahead, I ripped the Hongmen Society armband off my shoulder in one sharp motion.

"I'm Le Wei of the Shanyuan Society! I'll chew every last one of you up!"

"Wh-what?!"

The guys flinching in terror at the declaration behind their backs.

Rat-tat! Bang!

"Le Wei-ssi? He made it back alive from Dandong?"

"Raaaah! Kill them all! Kiiill!"

"Help Le Wei-ssi!"

At that, the Shanyuan Society bastards who'd been cowering in hiding sprang out and joined in on my double-dealing.

Right after nearly every Hongmen Society bastard was dead, several bewildered gazes turned toward me.

"Y-you, who are you? You're not Le Wei-ssi?"

"Fooled you, didn't I? I'm actually Zhang Chen of the Hongmen Society!"

"Wh-what?!"

Rat-a-tat-a-tat!

"Aaaaargh!"

"F-fuuuck...."

Le Wei, or Zhang Chen.

Shanyuan Society, or Hongmen Society.

As I flip-flopped back and forth a few times, playing both sides like that, the numbers of the Shanyuan Society and the Hongmen Society began to dwindle, steadily and evenly.

Ammunition resupplied itself endlessly on the battlefield, and the melee steadily devolved into an all-out dogfight.

All the while, the Shanyuan Society's apartment complex kept staining red, redder and redder, with flame and blood.

By the time the HK416 magazines I'd brought along were running dry.

"Let's have a look...."

I reached the apartment rooftop and gazed down leisurely at the scene below.

The battle looked much the same wherever my eyes landed.

The Hongmen Society members kept flooding in from somewhere without end, boring deeper inside, while the surviving Shanyuan Society remnants scattered here and there and kept up the melee.

Voices of every kind echoed through the complex.

"From now on, treat anyone coming up as the enemy! Don't let a single soul inside!"

The Shanyuan Society remnants were spread out all over, but the bulk of the survivors had gathered together in the north apartment building.

While they desperately kept up their standoff, the Hongmen Society members who'd taken up position dutifully fired RPG warheads and pounded the building to pieces.

Fwishhh.

Kaboom!

'Are the Irobuchi-kai bastards really even inside this complex?'

As I quietly looked down over the battle, I couldn't catch even a glimpse of anything resembling a junkie.

Just as I was starting to feel a strange unease, wondering if all my efforts so far had been for nothing.

Vrooom!

"Ooh?"

Then an astonishing sight unfolded.

From a corner of the north apartment, several cars that had been hidden who-knows-where came bursting out with a roar of engines.

'Was there a hidden underground parking garage?'

Crash!

The big SUV out front cleared a path, shoving aside the pickup trucks strewn across the complex with its bumper.

"Die!"

"You fuck!"

Bang!

Rat-tat-tat!

As the SUV drivers who'd forced the path open were gunned down, a sedan behind them, viciously picking up speed, shot through the wide-open lane and made a swift getaway.

Watching it send out the sacrificial lambs first, then race for the exit alone without hesitation, I felt certain.

Either an Irobuchi-kai executive, or a Shanyuan Society executive.

Given the timing, it was one of the two.

Vrooooom!

"Ssssss.... Can I pull this off?"

Even as I muttered it to myself, my body moved on reflex first.

Because before I could seriously weigh whether it'd work, this was the only window I'd get.

Sprinting out past the rooftop railing, and leap!

Whoooosh.

My body plummeted, dropping fast.

A dizzying height, high enough that I could feel the wind shoving hard against my whole body.

'Is this actually going to work?'

As I fell, slicing through the air from the rooftop, I twisted my body this way and that, precisely adjusting the direction of my descent.

Having steadily lined up my trajectory, as the ground drew near before long, a thought suddenly struck me.

'If I spread my body out into an X, doesn't that increase my impact area?'

The instant I twisted and spread wide at that brilliant idea.

"Hup!"

Craaaack!

One of my outstretched arms caught the sedan's nose halfway and slammed down on it.

As if struck by a bolt from the blue, the hood, hammered by the full acceleration of gravity, tore half open and crumpled.

Unable to withstand the sudden pressure, one of the front tires blew out with a pop.

Screeech!

"Holy shit...."

My body half-buried in the asphalt that had cratered in every direction.

Getting to my feet from the crater I'd punched into the ground and looking back at the road, I saw the speeding sedan rolling over sideways, tumbling like something out of a movie.

Crash-bang!

Smash!

Watching the spectacle, I couldn't help letting out a dry laugh.

"It actually worked."

Honestly, even I really hadn't known it would actually work.

With no other vehicles coming out behind it, I ambled over to the sedan at my leisure.

"Ngh, nnngh...."

"Heave-ho."

The sedan looked like a receipt someone had crumpled and smoothed out in their fist a few times.

Checking inside the car, the driver was passed out with blood streaming from his head, while the man in the back seat at least clung to consciousness, groaning.

A man in an expensive-looking designer shirt, dangling from his seatbelt.

'An Irobuchi-kai executive, I'd bet?'

If he was Irobuchi-kai, Japanese would naturally get through to him.

I wet my lips first.

"Are you all right, hyeong-nim?"

"Ngh, ugh.... Does this shit-heap look all right to you? Quit standing there and get me out already, yooou...."

The guy answered in Japanese.

Okay. Gotcha.

"Ngh, nnngh. What the hell fell out of the sky to leave the car like this...."

First, I drew my pistol.

Thanks to having the holster slung at the small of my back, it was in fine shape.

Clunk.

I rested the muzzle against the head of the guy, who was still dazed and half-conscious.

Even in his flustered state, the sensation must have jolted him with sudden, all-too-real texture.

"Huh? Eeek!"

As if his wits had snapped back for a moment, the man looked at me, startled.

He hastily waved his hands.

"W-wait! W-we, we've got nothing to do with your feud. W-we, we were just people renting the apartment space. Please, just spare me!"

"You even know who I am?"

"Uh.... aren't you a member of the Hongmen Society?"

I could practically hear from here the man's eyes rolling and darting around as he looked at me.

Since things had come to this anyway, I figured I'd press him on a few things.

"Let's start with introductions. Your name?"

"Y-Yamamoto Shigeharu."

"Position?"

"The Irobuchi-kai's.... Southeast Asia branch chief."

There we go.

A big fish had shown up, right on cue.

Yamamoto gulped down a dry swallow and carefully parted his lips.

"A-and just who the hell are you?"

"Me? I'm Le Wei's Zhang Chen."

"...What?"

"Wait, is that not it? The Shanyuan Society's Hongmen Society, no, no. I keep flip-flopping and getting confused...."

"...."

"Let's just go with Zhang Chen."

I thought it over for a moment, then just shook my head.

Now that the Shanyuan Society and the Hongmen Society had half-annihilated each other anyway, it was a moot point at this stage.

When I immediately switched my tone and spoke to him, the man's face hardened.

It was the expression of someone who'd sensed he was being openly mocked.

"There's one thing I'm curious about, so, if you answer every question nice and promptly, I'll let you live."

"Wh-what is it?"

"I heard your main base is in Angeles, in the Philippines, but where exactly?"

"...."

He gulped down a dry swallow and clamped his mouth shut.

At a glance, his reaction was odd.

Having lied as easily as breathing my whole life, I found the change in his expression stood out all the more.

"So it's not Angeles? That place is just some kind of front, then?"

"...."

I traced a star shape with the muzzle across his forehead, where cold sweat trickled down.

The man's trembling grew worse, but he kept his mouth shut, as if he'd sooner die than give up the answer.

Anyway. Judging by Yamamoto's reaction, Angeles didn't seem to be the right answer.

Vrooooom!

"Hm?"

Then, having set off belatedly, an SUV carrying Irobuchi-kai members came charging well past the entrance, chasing after the sedan from a distance.

Still hanging upside down, Yamamoto looked back at the sight and grinned triumphantly.

"You son of a bitch! You're gonna croak now! My men are gonna turn you into Swiss cheese!"

I immediately checked the weapons I had on me.

I lifted the HK416 slung over my shoulder, but, rattle.

"Oh dear."

Maybe because I hadn't been able to mind it while falling from the roof, the barrel was badly bent.

The other was the VP9 in my hand, and luckily this one was in good shape.

"Shoot! Shoot him dead!"

"B-but if Yamamoto-san catches a bullet in the process...."

As the guys spilled out of the SUV and fumbled about, unable to get their act together, I calmly leveled my pistol.

Bang!

Bang, bang!

"Gurk!"

"H-hurry, do something!"

With precise aim, I whittled their numbers down one by one.

Bang! Rat-tat!

They fired back too, but it showed they were drug peddlers with no professional training.

Because even though I stood there in plain sight, not a single bullet came near me.

After casually dispatching all five of them like it was nothing.

"Looks like I've got myself a free SUV."

"...."

"Didn't you say something just now? What was it, turn me into Swiss cheese?"

"...I-I didn't say a thing, boss?"

When I gave the sedan's side a light kick, a horrified Yamamoto trembled and shook his head frantically.

I crouched down once more and shoved the now-warm muzzle at him.

"You're not gonna talk about your main base, are you?"

"...."

Gulp.

I heard the sound of a dry swallow.

Bang!

"Gurk!"

If he wasn't going to tell me, there was no more reason to sit around here trading questions.

After planting a bullet in his chest, I started looking the car over, inside and out.

There was nothing that looked particularly special inside.

Soon I made for the SUV without hesitation.

"Hm?"

Behind the wrecked vehicle, an object had rolled out of the half-open trunk.

A hefty aluminum case.

Lifting it lightly, whatever was inside, it was seriously heavy.

Roughly the weight of two and a half sacks of rice.

Fwooosh!

"Whoa there."

No sooner had I picked up the case than flames shot up from the sedan's hood, which had barely been holding on.

Ready to blow at any second, so I hastily grabbed the case and bolted.

Then, since I was on my way out anyway, I gave a quick search of a Hongmen Society pickup truck abandoned nearby.

'No Claymores, huh....'

Along with handy everyday weapons like a box of pistol rounds and some grenades, thunk.

"Oh."

An RPG-7 launcher tube and warhead came rolling out of the crate.

Genuine Russian-made, at that.

There was no leaving this behind.

"The Shanyuan Society's stuff was Chinese-made, but the Hongmen Society must be loaded, huh."

With the case in one hand and the crate I'd hastily packed the weapons into hugged in the other, I quickly stuffed them into the SUV's passenger seat.

Maybe because everything had gone according to plan?

The drive out felt as carefree as heading off on a picnic.

When I climbed into the driver's seat of the SUV, engine already running, perfect for driving off.

Ka-boom!

"Oh dear."

Yamamoto's sedan exploded beyond the rearview mirror.

At the same time, I hit the gas and passed the entrance of the Shanyuan Society hideout complex.

Inside, the raucous battle was still raging on.

Kaboom!

Boom!

Rat-a-tat-a-tat!

"La-di-da."

But hey, none of that was my problem anymore.

*****

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