Meng Chao’s gaze was clear as he stared into Lu Siya’s eyes.
Lu Siya had to squash her anger.
Naturally, she could not summon even a single elite fighter.
“So, you’re the one who deceived me first, right?” Meng Chao said cordially. “When I asked you on the phone as to whether you can get reinforcements, you told me that you will get a squad of elites from the abnormal beast research department to ensure that everything proceeds safely.”
“But…” Lu Siya took a moment to take hold of her anger before she said, “We could capture Small Insect on our own. Why did you let someone else snatch the credit?! We had actually captured him!”
“But at what price?” Meng Chao retorted. “If Shen Yupeng hadn’t brought his secret police officers and adjudicators, how many innocent citizens would have been injured by these biochemical pets that Small Insect enraged?
“Also, you can see that we’re surrounded by illegal buildings. They easily catch fires and collapse. How could you ensure that the biochemical pets wouldn’t create any tragedies?
“Perhaps to you, the deaths of dozens or even a hundred innocent citizens is a price you can accept as long as you can capture a crucial suspect. It reminds me of how you led the mine exploration team into an unidentified lake with a Lion Dragon Fish in it just to get the first mining rights for the Red Radiance Jade mine. In the end, your entire team was almost wiped out.
“But no matter what, those mine explorers had signed a contract with you, so they knew full well the dangers of coming with you.
“But the citizens here live here because they’re poor, were born here, or have other reasons. They should not become the ‘price’ you have to pay.
“I know that you have a lot of money and connections that allow you to use extraordinary methods to handle things. I believe that even if a tragedy really happened here, you would be able to give compensation fees that are high enough to satisfy the victims’ families. You would also be able to handle the forces of power in Golden Tooth Lair. Then, you would be a step ahead of the secret police and beautifully handle a case that is connected to many major parties. In the end, everybody would be satisfied.
“But the dead can’t talk, and they can’t express their anger or happiness.
“I’m sorry, but this just isn’t the way I do things. I can’t let a tragedy happen right in front of my eyes. If you really created one, I’m afraid there’s no way we would be able to work together again in the future. You might even become my eternal enemy.
“That is why I had to go to Shen Yupeng and… make some preparations beforehand.”
Lu Siya stared at Meng Chao for a long time before she sucked in a deep breath. “So, Shen Yupeng knew about our findings before we even entered Golden Tooth Lair?”
“Correct. He brought a well-trained squad of secret police officers and adjudicators through another entrance,” Meng Chao said. “When we were investigating Jin Yongqiang’s social network and locked down on Small Insect, he conducted a search for information and organized it.
“He also contacted Black Bone and Golden Tooth to have them work with us. Otherwise, how would it have been possible for us to leave Black Bone Colosseum so easily after the ruckus we caused there?”
Lu Siya fell silent. Then, she said, “So, right from the beginning, you didn’t trust me.”
Meng Chao scratched his head. “But you never showed me any reason to trust you! Did you actually think that a male university student like me, who is passionate and has no experience in society, would be utterly bewitched after seeing a fair-skinned, busty, long-legged, rich, mysterious woman like you who is older than me by a few years and gives off the charm of a mature woman? Did you think that I would become stupid and worship your high heels without any conditions?”
Lu Siya glared at Meng Chao fiercely and gritted her teeth before she hissed, “Since you think that I think self-righteous, ambitious, and will do anything to achieve my goals, why did you work with me and even treat me as your friend?”
“The law doesn’t say that I can’t become friends and work together with a woman who is self-righteous, ambitious, and will do anything to achieve her goals!” Meng Chao said matter-of-factly.
Lu Siya was so angry that she was rendered speechless.
She was about to fly off into a rage, but Shen Yupeng suddenly stopped moving ahead of them.
They had arrived at an incredibly narrow and dark alley.
There were few windows on the sides of the buildings, and they were painted black, which was a seldom seen color on the outer walls of buildings. It felt like it was an alley stuck between two cliffs.
Meng Chao raised his head and sensed an incredibly domineering presence behind a window at the seventh or eighth floor.
He was momentarily dazed. He felt like he was meeting a lion who was so old that its fur had fallen off, but its claws were still sharp and looked brand new. It led its pride, and they stood at the sides of the cliffs while staring coldly at the prey beneath them.
“Ms. Jin, I’ve found the person. Thankfully, we didn’t cause too much trouble. May we leave now?” Shen Yupeng asked while looking up.
Meng Chao felt his heart freeze.
The person who was watching them from above was the leader of the largest gang in Golden Tooth Lair—Golden Tooth.
He was a living legend. He had an exciting life full of colorful experiences during the half a century Dragon City struggled in the Other World.
Ever since Dragon City transmigrated to the Other World, faced the zombie crisis and the collapse of order, the gangs gained a completely different meaning compared to the time on Earth.
While zombies, viruses, monsters, and out-of-control superhumans ran rampant outside, gangs were the only things that protected the safe havens of the lairs. They were the successors of an ancient chivalrous and righteous spirit.
The man who was addressed as Mr. Jin by Shen Yupeng stood up during the ruthless, tumultuous era, because he was required to do so.
It was said that he was among the first batch of people infected by the zombie virus but who did not mutate nor die. Instead, he was one of the lucky few who had the seal in his genes removed.
It was said that once he yanked off a large, golden horn from a Golden-horned Beast that had wandered into Dragon City and ground it until it became a golden saber that looked like a fang. That was the origin of his name, Golden Tooth, and it spread like wildfire.
Legends also had it that Golden Tooth Saber had killed more than ten thousand zombies and monsters. He had also defeated all the leaders in more than one hundred hornet-nest-shaped buildings, which made them submit to him. He could then clear the tunnels connecting the hornet-nest-shaped buildings, strengthen them, fuse them together, and build the largest lair in Dragon City, which had lasted until the present day.
During the bloodiest and darkest era in Dragon City, hundreds of thousands of people were protected in his lair. With him around, they did not need to worry about their lives.
The superhumans whose spirit energy invaded their brains and made them lose control over their spirits and nerves had to keep themselves in check when they arrived at his territory. Otherwise, his Golden Tooth Saber would pierce their skulls, regardless of the fact that it was the toughest bone in the body.
At that time, he was not as famous as Battle God Lei Zongchao, but he was a good person who protected the people in his territory. He could not be considered a hero, but at the very least, he was a good man.
Unfortunately, not all pioneers could seize the pulse of time and change with it.
Many other powerful fighters who had a similar background to Mr. Jin appeared. With keen senses, they noticed the fierce trend that would lead to the change of times, and they knew that it would soon crush lairs and gangs.
They immediately followed the waves of change and took the initiative to change their gangs into corporations, then used those corporations to eat up other corporations to turn them into mega corporations, and under the eyes of Battle God Lei Zongchao, those mega corporations formed the Survival Committee. They built the Supernatural Tower to manage all superhumans, so all the scattered forces of power in Dragon City would become focused in one organization.
Many people rode the wind and rose to power at that time. They shot up the ranks and became the leaders of mega corporations, famous figures in the Survival Committee, or even mayoral candidates who competed in the elections in a dignified manner.
There were also those who were attacked overtly and covertly and could not rise back to their feet. They sank into obscurity or died mysterious deaths. Their power, wealth, and forces of power were scattered into the wind and disappeared without a trace.
While all that was happening, Mr. Jin hid in his Golden Tooth Lair and coldly watched the world change.
Thirty years after the creation of the Survival Committee, he was like a living fossil. No matter how the outside world attacked him, he remained standing tall and did not fall.
Dealing with Mr. Jin and his Golden Tooth was always a major problem for the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower.
First, he had a long record of serving the city and was an outstanding figure from the same generation as Battle God Lei Zongchao. He had countless disciples and was involved in various industries. His influence wdas such that he could not fall, or else, with how complicated his spheres of influence were, things would become extremely chaotic.
Second, at the start of the zombie crisis and Monster War, he had contributed to the city by defending it. Countless citizens had managed to avoid being infected by the viruses and the attacks of the zombies and monsters by hiding in Golden Tooth Lair, which he built. It was not an exaggeration to say that he had saved hundreds of thousands of citizens.
But it was also a fact that he held half of Golden Tooth Lair and used the place as his base. He was in control of more than 30% of Dragon City’s gray market and refused to accept any plans to modify the lair, so Golden Tooth Lair gradually turned into a malignant tumor sitting on Dragon City’s heart.
What was even more troublesome was that no one knew just how much fighting power Mr. Jin had.
Decades ago, he was an infamous powerful fighter at the peak of Heaven Realm.
The pioneers who cultivated spirit energy during the early stages of their transmigration to Dragon City did not have any scientific method to cultivate spirit energy. They relied on their instincts and used simple but crude methods to change their bodies, which led to a lot of internal injuries. They sometimes were so severe that it endangered their brains and central nervous systems, which made it very easy for them to go through spirit energy deviation and loss of cultivation base.
But the leader of Golden Tooth had not taken part in any fights for years. No one knew whether he had fallen from the peak of Heaven Realm or had taken a step forward and reached Deity Realm.
In such a situation, no one dared to gather their courage and try to kill the master of Golden Tooth Lair.
Fortunately, he had a sense of propriety and did not want to butt into the affairs of the world outside his lair. He only wanted to manage his territory.
Occasionally, he would even work with the Supernatural Tower to hunt down the out-of-control superhumans who had gone overboard and ruined the order between the legal and illegal forces.
He also did his best to ensure the safety of the citizens who came to have fun in Golden Tooth Lair.
And if someone targeted a guest with ill-will, usually, before the police could come, Mr. Jin would take action and find the culprit and execute judgment on him. Then, he would throw the heavily wounded criminal out of Golden Tooth Lair so that the police could do whatever they wanted with him.
In other words, with Mr. Jin and his Golden Tooth Saber, there was basic order in Golden Tooth Lair.
When it came to this veteran who knew the laws of gray areas so well, before the monsters were completely wiped out, even an adjudicator like Shen Yupeng would not dare to easily provoke him.