Putting all the details together, the passerby immediately thought of a place: the illegal trafficking and scam ring that had been active lately.
The two of them soon arrived at a sleek high-tech entrance. There was a scan required to get in. Gail's face was full of excitement.
Wishing spring, here I come.
The moment Gail stepped inside, he was immediately targeted. A shadowy figure muttered, "Another one on the hook. Shut the doors."
The one speaking was a heavyset man. He told his men to go easy. Don't kill anyone. They still needed to be able to work.
The sound of the doors locking gave both Gail and the kid a start. Then a crackling sound rose up behind them. A man wound up and swung at Gail. The kid shouted a warning.
Gail barely glanced over. Did this guy skip breakfast? That barely tickled. Only knocked off five HP. At the same time, his passive skill Reclaim triggered and his HP instantly recovered.
"Hey there, this is the Lark Den, right?"
The man was a D tier demon. He figured Gail was just putting on a show, taking a full hit and still talking that casually.
More men appeared. Gail told them they were here to have a wish granted. But looking at everyone around him, he was starting to wonder if they had come to the wrong place.
The blonde thug nearly choked, laughing. "Still dreaming at a time like this. It's idiots like you, greedy and gullible, that make what we do so easy. Use your head. There's no such thing as a place that grants wishes."
The alcohol was hitting Gail now. "Rubbish. Hand over the demon race's wishing spring right now."
The men doubled over laughing. "You actually believe in the wishing spring? That's a bedtime story for children. Are you for real right now? We are the largest illegal trafficking operation in the entire Dusk Realm. We lure fools like you here through scams. Play nice and you'll spend the rest of your life working our mines. Cause trouble and we harvest your organs and sell them. Either way, nobodies like you disappear without anyone batting an eye."
He looked Gail over and figured he wasn't much physically, but he could probably handle some weapons assembly.
"Be a good dog and know your place."
He never finished the sentence. He was already airborne.
The other thugs stood there in shock. Who am I? Where am I? What just happened? The man was embedded in the ceiling and not moving.
Gail was fuming. How many times was this going to happen? Ever since his rebirth, it had been one shattered hope after another.
The blonde thug could tell this one was trouble. He told his crew to suit up. Time to teach this guy a lesson for fighting back.
Then came the gearing up moment, straight out of a superhero movie. Every bit of it reeking of high technology. In no time, they had transformed into three armored warriors. And honestly, it looked pretty impressive.
One of them began charging up, eager to show Gail just how cruel the world could be, and to test the latest B tier plus battle armor while he was at it.
One word. "Get him."
And they swarmed Gail all at once. Little did they know they had walked straight into exactly what he wanted. Every single time, he had come so close, and today he had knocked back a good amount of liquor, so the frustration was really building. These guys were actually doing him a favor.
Gail was deeply frustrated, completely suffocated and weirdly excited at the same time. He threw one punch and the air itself seemed to explode. The shockwave ripped across the ground, kicking up clouds of dust. Their armor disintegrated like it had been through a furnace. They dropped to their knees immediately.
This guy was on a completely different level.
Gail, on the other hand, looked absolutely miserable. The suffering was real.
One of them played the sympathy card, claiming they had been tricked into coming here too. The organization was too powerful. There was no escaping. They had no choice but to stay and do their bidding.
By now, Gail had sobered up a little. What was this guy going on about? Wait. Powerful organization?
The blonde thug sensed a lifeline and jumped in. "You'd be shocked if I told you we've got the highest ranking official in the entire Dusk Realm backing us. And once our general gets here, you're dead."
The three most powerful officials in the Dusk Realm. So it was one of those guys all along. Some old snake had the nerve to run a scam operation right under his nose.
Just then, an iron door slowly swung open. The blonde thug lit up like he had just been saved. "Ha! The general's here. You're finished."
Gail glanced over. Before he could say anything, a voice came through.
"Hey, you the one causing trouble in here?"
The one who walked in was the heavyset man from the security monitor at the entrance. One look at the man's face, and Gail knew exactly who was behind this whole operation. It was Maro's doing.
The blonde thug was stunned. "How? How do you know who our boss is, and how dare you talk about him like that?"
Gorman assumed one of his careless men had let something slip. Little did he know his own face had given it away. He was Maro's younger brother, Gorman.
The blonde thug sensed he was in serious trouble and started stammering apologies, but the next second, his head exploded like a watermelon. The kid was horrified. That was brutal.
Gorman thought they were all completely useless. Not worth keeping around if they couldn't even handle a nobody. The other thugs who had come with him couldn't place Gail at all. He was a complete stranger to them.
Gorman looked down at Gail. "You know too much. Guess you'll be staying here as fertilizer."
Gail sensed Gorman actually had some ability. Time to give him a shot at getting the job done.
"Then go ahead and try to kill me. You've got ten minutes. If you can't finish me off, then you're the one who dies."
Gail's expression at that moment was more than a little unsettling. Everyone was taken aback. Nobody had ever made a demand like that before.
Gorman was completely thrown. What is this guy's deal? Ten minutes? This was an insult. Gorman felt deeply humiliated. He was going to send Gail's head flying in one second flat.
The remaining thug immediately recognized it as the general's signature power move. By the looks of it, Gorman wasn't leaving Gail any room to survive.
Gorman's killing blow only knocked off five hundred of Gail's HP. All that buildup for practically nothing. Gail's HP instantly refilled.
Gorman was stunned. "That's impossible."
In Gail's eyes, Gorman was only marginally better than the rest. At the end of the day, still a waste of space. "Hey, did you skip a meal or something? Try your ultimate."
Gorman felt insulted all over again. This kid actually had something to him.
As the ten minutes neared its end, Gail started losing his patience. "Come on already. Are you capable or not?"
Gorman was provoked. This guy actually dared to look down on him. He was going to make him regret it. Gorman launched himself at Gail and landed a critical five hit combo, hammering away at him relentlessly, then followed it up with an eight hit super combo. He refused to believe he couldn't finish Gail off.
At that moment, the thug finally remembered who Gail was, and broke into a cold sweat.
The ground had been beaten into rubble. Gorman was completely gassed, doubled over panting. But the next second, Gail was back to full HP.
"Come on, you're not done yet. Don't stop."
Gorman felt like this was the third time he had been humiliated.