“You said it yourself, so kill him. Take out that John guy first, hang his corpse outside, then organize a counter-hunt and kill every assassin who dares to take our contract. That solves everything.”
War Chariot’s answer was crude and simple, but one had to admit, it was the most effective solution in the district.
But…
“John lives on Paul’s side.”
Edwin called up the map, pointing at the Factory District:
“The Factory District itself prohibits violence, and Paul’s background isn’t simple. Making a move on his turf will be troublesome.”
“Then lure him out!” War Chariot answered without hesitation. “Set a trap and make him jump in.”
“How do we lure him?” Philentina shook her head and countered, “Right now, there are barely any members of the entire Haitie Society who aren’t on the bounty list. Who knows which madman he’ll target first. Are we supposed to have everyone move around in groups from now on?”
“Paul only protects guests inside his shop. Once they leave his turf, he won’t intervene even if they die at his doorstep. We’ll have people stake out the entrance of the Yellow Banner and hit him the moment he steps out!”
Gold Tooth offered a seemingly feasible plan, but Volvo directly rejected it:
“John is an expert in blood-and-flesh source energy. Changing his appearance isn’t difficult at all. Moreover, according to the recordings from nearby equipment at the location where Iron Mask died, he likely possesses strong electronic warfare capabilities. Trying to box him in through surveillance will be difficult.”
“This won’t work, that won’t work, might as well surrender!” War Chariot slammed the table in anger. But just then, a voice suddenly rang out—
“That’s a fine idea!”
This voice, belonging to no one present, made the officers furrow their brows. Yet no one uttered so much as a word of rebuke, because the one who pushed open the meeting room door without any announcement was none other than Theodore, the heir of the Haitie Society.
Watching him stride into the conference hall, Edwin frowned. “Heir, the Chairman said…”
“The old man only said I can’t leave headquarters. What, does this conference hall not belong to headquarters?” Theodore directly cut off Edwin’s words, swept his gaze around, taking in every officer, and then said, “If I recall correctly, I count as an officer of the Haitie Society too, right? A meeting of all officers without inviting me—that’s not appropriate, is it?”
Edwin chose to shut his mouth. Whatever he said here would make him, the strategist, look bad. He might as well wait for what this young master had to say next.
Theodore didn’t care about that either. He simply grabbed a chair and spoke without preamble, “I listened outside for a bit. Only War Chariot’s proposal was reliable—surrender and you lose half!”
“Heir!” War Chariot’s face darkened. Those were only words spoken in frustration, but Theodore didn’t give him a chance to explain, directly saying:
“Find a middleman to pass on the word that we submit. Invite him to negotiate. Ask if he’s willing to come to the Haitie Society as an officer. If he’s not willing, give him a sum of money to stop taking contracts against the Haitie Society…”
“But…” War Chariot tried to speak, but was nudged by Gold Tooth beside him—
“Are you stupid? Once he’s out, whether it’s negotiation or making a move, isn’t that up to us?”
“Putting aside whether he’ll come, first of all, this will offend the middleman.” Volvo was a veteran; he knew very well what kind of people these middlemen were. Using them as scapegoats could easily bring trouble onto oneself.
Theodore had already prepared for this. He directly said:
“Then just tell the middleman straight up it’s a trap. Don’t tell me those middlemen are saints of integrity and rules! Pay them enough, demand confidentiality—those people won’t want to damage their own reputations after the fact either.”
“The plan is feasible, but the premise is still that the other party is willing.”
Edwin thought over the feasibility, nodded, and responded:
“Finding a middleman willing to do this is easy, but the other party might not accept.”
“There’s still a chance of that.” Volvo, who had been skeptical earlier, chose to agree this time. “I’ve already checked. This John only came to the district recently. He has no personal grudge against the Haitie Society. If he’s targeting us, it’s either for money or fame. Since that’s the case, we’ll give him a reputation of ‘one man crushing one of the nine major gangs,’ plus a considerable protection fee. There’s no reason he wouldn’t accept. In fact, if he’s truly willing to join, I think we can let bygones be bygones regarding previous matters.”
“Exactly.” Gold Tooth nodded in approval of Volvo’s idea. As the officer in charge of business, he was the most amenable to recruitment. Hearing him say this, a glint of severity flashed in Theodore’s eyes, but he still nodded and said:
“There, problem solved. Simple as that!”
“That’s too humiliating! Taking the initiative to bow down to an assassin? If word gets out, how will we establish ourselves in Shengluo Tan?” War Chariot finally couldn’t restrain himself. Edwin could only sigh upon hearing this:
“War Chariot, the reason we occupy the best turf in the entire Western District isn’t because you or the Chairman can fight, but because the Chairman has connections above. As for the rest, none of it matters. Our top priority is stabilizing the Society so it doesn’t become an empty shell by the time the Chairman returns. As for everything else, it’s not a problem. In fact, if he’s willing to join, then with a legendary assassin like that, who would dare look down on us?”
“And if he doesn’t join? Trick him out and kill him. If that gets out…”
“It won’t get out.” Theodore cut off War Chariot. “Dead men tell no tales, and the middleman is our accomplice. As long as the man dies, the story is ours to write. We could say we genuinely tried to recruit him, but he was too greedy and negotiations broke down. Or we could say he’d already taken our contract before coming, and agreeing to the recruitment was just a ruse to lure us civilian officers out!”
He swept his gaze over everyone, his eyes finally landing on Edwin.
Seeing this look, Edwin understood that it was time for him to make a decision.
As a strategist, he actually didn’t want this kind of authority to lead gang affairs, not to mention there was still an heir in the gang!
But since the Chairman had entrusted the gang to him, he had to stabilize the situation.
Thinking this, he ultimately nodded:
“Then we’ll go with the Heir’s plan. Volvo, you go find a middleman. Find one with a tight lip, and pay them enough!
“War Chariot, when the time comes you’ll be the one tanking the frontline. Start thinking about where to place the battlefield first. It’s best if it’s in a neutral zone, or else I’m worried he won’t come.
“Philentina, track John’s activity patterns. Though we’re not planning an ambush, we should at least have an understanding of his behavioral model. Build the model first.
“Oh, and recall the trusted captains back to headquarters in batches. On the surface it’s to contract our forces due to the recent assassinations, but in reality it’s to prepare them for training. Put those virtual training pods to use. Use Iron Mask’s data as a baseline, load in the materials Philentina obtained, crank up all the values, and make a few training hyperdreams. At least get the grunts prepared so they don’t freeze up when it’s time to pull the trigger!”
Some people probably didn’t even read the worldbuilding carefully. I won’t speak for Dayan, but it’s written clearly enough on the Gelian side. They call it a federation, but it’s actually just isolated island cities. The wilderness is dangerous, there’s no public transport, and traveling it requires reckless adventurers willing to gamble their lives.
In other words, each city in the Gelian Federation can be viewed as an independent “territory.” There is no wilderness; territory is extremely limited. The land available for resource extraction and factory construction is finite.
Under limited resources, is it better to spend ten thousand on improving a job that a two-hundred-cost talent with decades of stamina can do from fifty points per day to five hundred points per day? Or spend ten thousand to improve the work of ten fifty-cost expendables, who might die at any moment, from five points per day to ten?
Doing both high-end and low-end only makes sense when it’s profitable. Right now the high-end market (actually the stronger portion of the low-end) isn’t even saturated, so why touch the low-end?
You can look at the Western superpower for comparison. Its healthcare is so expensive most people can’t afford it, so why not simultaneously develop high-end and low-end medical equipment to make small profits on high volume? Because not making money is a loss! Child safety seats cost hundreds or thousands, so why not produce affordable ones? Because the expensive ones sell themselves!