Chapter 353: My Brother
Chapter 353: My Brother
Chapter 353: My Brother
The same attack naturally wasn't going to work twice in a row, and this time, Mole's steel pipe failed to strike any targets.
The companions of the inmate who had just been killed were just about to retaliate when both of them were struck by a sharp pain in the Achilles tendon. As it turned out, Armadillo had snuck up on them before attacking them from below.
Armadillo liked to attack people from underground in the psychic world, and he was employing the same tactics in the real world, sneaking up on the two inmates while they were distracted by the chaos before slashing their Achilles tendons with a penknife.
After the two of them collapsed to the ground, Armadillo plunged the penknife straight into their eye sockets.
Blood instantly began to gush forth, making a sound resembling a leaky pipe, and the two men were spasming uncontrollably on the ground while their life force rapidly slipped away.
Prior to the arrival of the scavengers, a group of inmates with the swastika-like marks on their shoulders converged onto the scene.
They were led by a man with deathly pale skin and no eyebrows.
Upon arriving on the scene, he didn't immediately seek retaliation. Instead, he seemed to be rather impressed as he turned to Armadillo and Mole.
"That was quite impressive. You two would make good additions to our faction."
"Get fucked!"
Mole spat directly at the man, sending a globule of phlegm mixed with blood splattering onto his face.
Instead of being enraged by this, the man grinned as he wiped his face clean, then said, "For killing members of my faction, you'll either have to die or join my faction. Of course, if you want to join us, you have to do three things first."
"Get the fuck..."
Mole was a complete and utter psychic mutant, and when he flew off the handle, he didn't have any concept of fear or life and death.
He didn't like the look of the man, so he wanted to kill him.
He had never feared any opponent in the psychic world, and he certainly wasn't going to back down in the real world, either.
However, right as he was about to escalate the conflict, Adam laid a hand on his shoulder from behind to calm him down a little.
As a result, he returned to his senses and recalled that they had an objective to complete while in prison. With that in mind, he looked around at the inmates converging on the scene. With so many people ganging up on them at once, they were screwed regardless of whether they chose to fight these men in the real world or invade their psychic worlds.
He wasn't afraid of death, but he couldn't die before he fulfilled his promise to his brother.
"Alright, what do you want us to do?"
"We've only just arrived in the third area, and what we have to do now is gather all of the labor points in this place."
With enough labor points, this place was no much different from the prisons of 100 years ago.
However, without labor points, this place was truly hell.
Labor points were the currency here, and just like in the outside world, everyone in the prison was being controlled by Mechguard and the currency.
"You killed three of my men today, so you have to pay with three lives. Kill three leaders of the factions in the third area, and I'll let things slide. Otherwise..."
The man didn't finish his threat, but his intentions were already very clear.
After that, he departed with the rest of his men.
Right after they left, the scavengers arrived to dissect the bodies for their artwork.
"Nobody fucking move! We were the ones who killed them, why should we let you use their bodies for free?" Somehow, Mole had suddenly transformed into a businessman, and he declared, "Anyone who uses my stuff needs to pay me 30% of the labor points they receive! If you're fine with that, come take whatever you want. Otherwise, piss off!"
Mole was being very aggressive and overbearing here, but he had displayed sufficient power to back himself up, and he wasn't asking for a very steep price, so no one wanted to oppose him.
Soon, a plaster sculptor took a body as a model, and after that, a craftsman who specialized in making wine flagons took the head of another body.
Thus, the three bodies were quickly dissected and sold like animals in a butcher's shop from a century ago.
"Looks like we've got money for lunch now. It'll be my treat."
"Thanks, Boss."
Adam had always been referring to Mole as "Boss" in order to appeal to his child-like sense of vanity, but at this moment, there was a genuine sense of respect and emotion in his words.
Given how many times they had endured life-and-death situations together, Mole had truly become a brother of his. Even Hook, who was once Adam's closest friend, often backed out at the first sign of danger, but despite their complaints, Mole and the others were always willing to put their lives on the line for him.
Adam didn't want them to die, and he definitely didn't want them to die because of him.
It could be argued that Hook had been swept up in Adam's business because of his dream to become a celebrity influencer, but Mole and Armadillo were in prison solely for his sake.
With that in mind, he said, "Boss, we've only just come here, so I think it wouldn't be a good idea to make enemies out of everyone."
"Are you saying what I did was wrong? They were going to kill you!"
"I'm not talking about that, you definitely did the right thing just now. I thought that they would be willing to let me off the hook if I complied with their demands, I didn't think that would make them deem me as unworthy of living. The fact that you were able to see through them right away shows that your intelligence is truly unmatched."
"Well, that's a given!"
Mole was always extremely receptive to compliments on his intelligence.
"However, if we keep doing things like this, we'll definitely land ourselves in trouble eventually. There are only three of us, and we can't drag our enemies into the psychic world unless there's no other choice."
"Adam's right," Armadillo chimed in. He had always been the one who was most supportive of Adam. "We have to rein in our tempers and focus on executing our plan."
"What are planning to do then?" Mole asked.
"I'm fairly certain that Thilan convinced the southern congress to carry out this transfer of inmates. He knows our objective, and he did this to create more chaos so that we can take advantage of the situation and implement our plan."
"That guy's just a lackey, does he really hold that much sway in the southern congress?"
"It's not a matter of how much sway he holds. Instead, this transfer of inmates is something that's beneficial to the southern congress as well. They want to kill us, but they're afraid of the public backlash that could be directed at them if they get found out, so it's also in their best interests to muddy the waters in the hope that we'll die in a large-scale prison brawl."
"That makes sense. As expected, your intelligence is second only to mine, Adam. What should we do then?"
"It's very likely that a major riot is going to take place in the near future, and we're only three people, so our power is limited. Hence, I suggest we join some factions so we can better our chances of survival and pit these factions against one another."
"Which factions do we join?"
"I think we should try to join as many factions as possible, and it would be best if we split up. You two can try to join the Survival of the Fittest faction, while I'll try to join the Desert Gang. These two factions have the most members, so it would theoretically be best to stir up trouble in these two factions."
"Alright, then it's decided."
……
As it turned out, conflicts were arising even sooner than Adam anticipated.
While he was still finalizing his plan with Mole and Armadillo, the first round of brawls was already breaking out in the massive factory.
The reason for the conflict was very simple: the newly arrived faction wanted to take more energy bundles, but most of the energy bundles in the third area were already being taken by the Desert Gang, so there was a direct conflict of interests.
At a time like this, there was no use in negotiating, and that wasn't the style of Darvaza Prison anyway.