Zhou Lin

In the 19th century, a French writer once described London's sewers as "a terrible big cellar" in his work. Judging from the situation at the time, this statement was quite appropriate.

But in the 23rd century, even the sewers were equipped with lighting equipment everywhere. Therefore, this place no longer had the "scary" atmosphere of the past, and what was left was just disgusting.

If I were a cartoonist, I would draw a cartoon that personified cities around the world. In that cartoon, Foshan would be a martial artist wearing a long gown, and Osaka would be a comedian with an exaggerated expression. , Paris will be a fashionable and changeable girl, and London... will be a fat and restrained uncle.

This uncle is well-dressed, paunchy, serious and unsmiling; he cleans himself up very well, but he still can't completely eliminate the greasy feeling of a fat middle-aged man... so he never leaves his hand and smokes, always hiding himself in the swirling smoke. Among them, holding a newspaper, staring at some news that he may not care about, pretending that he is still the center of the world and the focus of everyone, and then deceiving himself-his opinions are still important.

Many people compare sewers to the city's blood vessels. According to this statement, London's sewers should be uncle's arteries.

What was flowing there was not so much blood as oil... thick, filthy grease.

These solidified and clogged fat filth not only raised many huge rats (of course not as big as Mr. Splinter), but also produced a large amount of unbearable stench gas.

Although the water company spends a lot of money every few years to "skim" the place, the fundamental problem is never solved unless you can get those fools living in the middle-class dream to stop taking the things that make them The food that causes fatty liver disease in your twenties is flushed down the drain, or it will keep happening again and again.

To sum up, so far, at least 80% of London's sewers are still completely closed to the outside world, which is prohibited and unwilling for ordinary people to enter.

Anyone with a little common sense knows that if you walk around in the sewer without putting on an oxygen mask or a gas monitor, and encounter an area with excessive methane and hydrogen sulfide, someone may die.

In fact, almost every year there are several news stories about drunkards or homeless people who accidentally fell into the sewer and died of hydrogen sulfide poisoning.

And this kind of news... is just like the kind of news you occasionally see about someone winning tens of millions in lottery tickets - it may not be true.

Logically speaking, the purpose of creating the news "Someone won the lottery jackpot" is to make people who see the news buy lottery tickets. Then, simple reasoning can be seen that the purpose of creating the news "You may die if you go to the sewer" is to make people who see the news buy lottery tickets. Please don't go to the sewer.

Who would make this kind of news? That must be the person entrenched in the sewer.

The "Killer Alliance" is a group of guys who use the sewers of big cities as their strongholds; except for Crystal County, all first-tier cities in Europe have their strongholds in the sewers.

For an organization like this that specializes in "killing people," it's easy to occasionally kill a few drunkards and homeless people, and then bribe the local media to publish some fake news.

They have been operating like this for many years. Although the history of this organization is not as long as "Qian Ming", their foundation is definitely not shallow.

Today, Jack came to the headquarters of the Killer Alliance in the sewers of London, led by a cadre of the Killer Alliance...that is, the "fake blind man" who met him in the park.

Because they were traveling through "safe areas" and "secret passages", they did not need oxygen masks and monitors and arrived at their destination quickly.

After passing through several corridors, Jack entered a room similar to a reception room and waited; in addition to him, there were two killers wearing jackets, armed with weapons, and looking cold, standing beside the door. One corner and another diagonal corner, and the seats and tables in this room are located in the middle area of ​​the room. Therefore, after Jack sat down, he naturally became in a state of being "under attack from both sides."

Of course, Jack doesn't care about this. He can also handle more dangerous environments. This is just a small scene.

Click——

Not long after, the door was pushed open and a man in his forties walked in.

This man looked very much like a common street thug in movies. He had a shaved head, a stubble all over his chin, a "robust face", and a very muscular body.

He wore a tight-fitting short-sleeved T-shirt on his upper body and jeans on his lower body. Let’s not mention the lower body. Let’s just talk about the upper body. Under the tight-fitting short-sleeved shirt, his bulging muscles and burly torso looked like they could be lifted upside down. Yangliu's arms...are impressive.

Some people, when you see their muscles, you will ask: "Are you working out?", but this man is the type who you don't ask at all and just assume in your mind that he works out for more than six hours a day.

"Hello, Mr. Anderson." As soon as the strong man came in, he closed the door and greeted Jack warmly. He politely extended his right hand and said, "I have long appreciated your name."

"To each other, Mr. Gustin." Jack responded in a moderate tone, and stood up to shake hands with the other person.

The moment the two people's right hands held each other, Gustin immediately began to apply more force. How much force did he apply... It was probably the kind of force that could crush an apple.

This was not an attack, but a test. He just wanted to test how the man known as the "God of Death" would react to this.

As a result, a second later, Gustin's four fingers except his thumb were dug into his thick palm, digging out four shallow bloody holes.

He didn't realize that Jack used "Time Stop", so he didn't know how Jack's hand was retracted. Of course, it didn't matter...

"Ha... that's interesting." Gustin smiled heartily, wiped his bloody palms on his pants, then turned around and sat down on the chair near him, "Please sit down, Mr. Anderson .”

"I don't think it's fun to crush the bones of people you meet for the first time." Jack read as he sat down.

"No, no," Gustin replied, "What's interesting is never what I did, but what I did... what others did." As he spoke, he shook his injured right hand. "Through the 'handshake' thing, I can often test out a person's personality, capacity, and sometimes... I can even see what special abilities the other person has."

"Then let me make a bold guess..." Jack said, "Your hand should be injured frequently."

"Haha..." Gustin said, "Yes, injuries like today are minor. I once had my hand crushed to pieces by someone who held it against me, and another time my whole hand was cut off instantly. Of course... ...I also encountered some strange reactions. For example, there was a guy whose whole hand was crushed into paste by me, but his expression remained unchanged and his tone remained the same."

"Then have you ever thought that just a test of shaking hands might get you killed?" Jack asked again.

"If you come to see me as an individual, I will naturally consider this possibility." Gustin said, "But today you are coming to talk to me on behalf of an organization, so that shouldn't be the case, right?"

When he said this, he looked very confident and his thinking was very clear.

Obviously, he just looks like a reckless man. In fact, he has a good IQ and a good reputation. Otherwise, he would not be the leader of a transnational organization like the Killer Alliance.

"Yes, that makes sense." Jack said, "Then on behalf of the organization, I will tell you straight to the point..." He paused and continued, "Currently we are forming a resistance with the 'Inverse Cross' as the core. Military Alliance, I hope your organization can join as a subordinate, obey our command, and become one of our wings."

When Gustin heard this, he was stunned for two seconds, and then suddenly laughed. After laughing for a while, he recovered and continued: "Mr. Anderson, I think you are serious... Could you please tell me about this kind of situation?" Request, what conditions can you offer?”

Faced with this slightly perfunctory reaction, Jack just replied calmly: "When the 'Sixth Empire' is successful, all its organizations and participants will be rewarded and promoted to positions and titles based on their merits."

These words made Gustin's expression change, and he realized that the other party was indeed serious...very serious.

"I understand..." Gustin thought for a moment and said seriously, "Let's put it this way... Being able to take down the 'Nine Hells' shows that you are indeed powerful, but it was just a small-scale operation targeting a specific location. That's all; 'war' is another matter. I don't think your organization can compete with the Federation on a frontal battlefield. Besides...an incident like the 'Iron Curtain' happened not long ago. Almost all the resistance organizations have been destroyed, and the people are still condemning them. Now you are telling me about the inexplicable 'Sixth Empire' and asking me to bring the entire 'Assassin Alliance' to be your pawn. It is simply unrealistic. In addition, the conditions you gave are almost 'painting the cake', I think... there is no need for us to continue talking."

After saying that, he stood up and said before going out: "Send off guests."

"Wait." Jack stopped the other person before he walked out of the room.

"Is there anything else? Mr. Anderson." Gustin did not look back, but stopped.

"I need to make a phone call to discuss it with the boss. I hope you can stay here until I finish the call." Jack replied.

Gustin sighed, turned around again, and closed the door again: "Okay."

When he finished speaking, Jack had already taken out his cell phone from his jacket pocket and quickly dialed a number.

"it's me……

"Yes, he is here...

"Yes, it was rejected...

"Do you want me to say...

"Well... he is courageous and resourceful, and he is not a person who is willing to be inferior to others, but... he is nothing more than that...

"Okay...understood...

"clear……"

At this point, Jack hung up.

Although the call didn't last long and Jack didn't say much, during the whole process, Gustin's expression changed several times based on the limited information.

At this moment, Gustin realized belatedly that unlike his "handshake" method to test his opponent, today's entire meeting seemed to be a test from the other party.

"Mr. Gustin." Jack put the phone away and stood up, "You just said...if I came to see you in my personal capacity, would you consider the possibility of being killed by me after shaking hands? ?”

Even the other two killers in the room could hear these words... It was a precursor to "use of force".

Gustin is undoubtedly a person with abilities, and he is a master who has experienced hundreds of battles. When someone at close range releases murderous intent, he can naturally feel it.

But, at this moment, he felt nothing.

Jack stood in front of him, and clearly said some dangerous lines, but... Gustin did not notice even a trace of murderous intent, as if Jack was just a passerby without any aggression, even if If you look away safely, he won't do anything.

"I see... Is this the 'God of Death'?" In that fleeting second, Gustin thought to himself, "I thought that the man at the top was just more powerful than others. That’s all, it turns out… I’m superficial.”

Thinking of this, Gustin concentrated 120%, prepared to deal with all attacks, tensed the muscles of his body without hesitation, gathered energy on the body surface, and then replied: "Yes, I said it .”

"Yeah." Jack still looked calm, and even casually took out a cigarette from the inner pocket of his jacket, lit it for himself, and took a long puff, "W-what a coincidence, just now My superior told me that I can leave work."