Seeing that there was not much for them to do, Ren Wei breathed out a sigh of relief. As much as he was prepared to press the trigger to assist Jin, he was only human and was afraid of the repercussions of going against multiple triads without official police backing.
Gupta and Abdul were also relieved that there was no need for any intervention. Should the mobs enter the apartment building to search for them, it was bound to cause unnecessary trouble and damage to the residents here too.
Overseeing the additional negotiation and discussion after the surprising death of De Tian, the police trio continued to keep vigilant and kept their Captain informed about this unforeseen turn of events.
“Good thing Mao had the foresight to spread the police force just in case. Without De Tian, we should have no problems getting most of the Ruby Rats lackeys off the street.” Abdul praised Captain Mao after the latter revealed that they were ready to intercept the dispersing gangsters.
“Old Mao knows what he’s doing. He had been the commanding leader against various riots before.” Ren Wei said as he continued to watch out for possible threats that would try to deal a blow to a potentially unsuspecting Jin.
He recalled a case where he was supposed to guard a VIP, but the assailants had taken advantage of the chaos they incited to shoot the VIP. It had been a painful mistake in Ren Wei’s career, and he promised himself never to make the same mistake. His primary focus was on the rooftops, especially the area’s he would choose as a sniper himself.
“Your intuition is as potent as always. Bearing east. Near the Wacdonald’s roof.” Gupta pointed out as a potential assassin he spotted and began to move away from the window to give Ren Wei some space to move into position since the target was slightly out of the range from where he was lying on the coffee table.
“Good thing these Triad Bosses never learn not to repeat the same trick, I guess!” Ren Wei grumbled as he rolled himself towards Gupta instead of standing up. He had already more or less adjusted his sights. He knew he might only have mere seconds before the assassin takes his first shot. Abdul assisted by pushing the coffee table to the side too so his sniper rifle would have better stability too.
“One shot?” Gupta smirked, and the other two immediately understood what he meant as they joined his smirk.
“Five,” Abdul said.
“Ten” Ren Wei replied as he took a deep breath in, exhaled and adjusted his sights. His Musket Muskrat cultivation shone brightly within the room, not caring for anything else as Ren Wei wanted to have just one shot. He breathed in once more and squeezed his trigger halfway.
*BAM*
Right when the assassin heard that familiar sound, he tried to dodge instinctively along with his rifle, but it was too late. The shot went through his neck, and his body was pushed back with the impact of the bullet. Blood splattered all over the roof of Wacdonalds.
Ren Wei had used a technique to delay the sound of the impact, providing a feint to the enemies. Even though it was just a few microseconds later, it made a huge difference for his target.
“Damn it!” Abdul said as he searched his pocket for some spare change and placed it on the coffee table and it was more than ten Yuan. He looked at the owner who was still terrified of the sound of the rifle and tapped his shoulders.
“Thank you for your service to the police, Sir. Buy yourself some beer to calm your nerves.” Abdul said as he pointed the hefty amount of change on the table. “Just consider this a friendly thank you for being an honest citizen. Hope we did not mess up the place that much.”
Afterwards, he aided Gupta to clear the place a little while Ren Wei was squatting on the balcony and checking through his spotting scope if there were any other possible assailants in the area.
“Seems clear.” Ren Wei thought to himself as he and the rest went to Wacdonalds to check on the dead assassin sniper. The lifeless body was still there indicating that the sniper most likely had been working solo.
“Let’s go, guys, we need to catch some bad guys to earn our paycheck.” Ren Wei confirmed the body, and they went ahead to assist the rest of Tiangong District police to catch the Ruby Rats.
——-
Previously when they were on standby due to the Central Police’s orders to not interfere, Captain Mao had given into Detective Xue Ping’s and Lee An’s orders to arm the policemen in riot gear.
They reasoned that the Central Police’s orders were simply ‘not to interfere’ and allowed the fight to be spread out of the designated area. It did not mean that they could not do anything if those gangsters were out of the designated shopping district. Thus, Captain Mao had allowed all the police to suit up and wait for further instructions.
Thus as soon as Ren Wei’s group had reported the situation where the Ruby Rats were running out of the district, the police had already manned their police checkpoints at every exit near Tiangong Shopping District even though they were mostly guarded by the veteran gangsters of various Triads.
In the subsequent hour, Captain Mao had ordered the search and capture of any gangsters that were involved in the terrorism of Tiangong Shopping District, including those gangsters who were merely securing the area.
All were allowed to use lethal force, and their improved weapons were no joke. Each of them was equipped with at least Grade 3 defensive inscriptions on their riot armour and helmets while their guns had the capability to shoot specialised rubber bullets that inflicted as much pain as standard issued bullets (since the gangsters were all mainly cultivators, they would survive from it).
Tear gas was also deployed, and the policemen who had trained in Jin’s dungeons indeed fared better than most of the gangsters. Granted the gangsters were already injured and tired out from the fight against Jin and the Three Eyed Tiger Triad. Many openly surrendered while others fought to the bitter end until they were brutally captured by the police.
Even the Triad Bosses were not just given a free ticket to pass, but Chen Xun’s combat driving allowed him to escape despite having several police riders’ attempt to chase after him. The detectives asked for more reinforcement to chase after them, but Captain Mao told them to close an eye and focus more on the goons.
As much as they despised that order, they belayed their burning desire and focused on the small fries. The detectives cursed knowing that even if they caught the Triad Bosses, it would do no good since they practically had police immunity due to their underworld influence and the Royal Zodiac’s backing. That is unless there was a very valid reason to clamp them down, such as drugs. Ironically, drugs and human trafficking were considered more severe crimes which even the Royal Zodiac Clans frowned over.
——-
Soon after, Detective Xue Ping and Lee An went to the ‘terror’ scene and saw the sad state of Tiangong Shopping District. While it might be just a quaint shopping district which managed to pick up some slack due to the rise of a particular dungeon supplier store, this destruction would practically disable the operations in this place.
“Boss Jin! I am happy that you are still safe and sound just as the reports had stated.” Xue Ping greeted Jin who was outside his store apologising for the trouble brought to all the customers that were sheltered in his shop.
The customers, on the other hand, were grateful for the Dungeon Supplier’s aid. Mostly they were surprised thinking that he was a goner when he had decided to go out to protect them. While they were not there to witness his heroism, the injured Three Eyed Tigers were apparently a very talkative bunch and had spread the exploits of Jin to them.
To make it worse, some had even captured Jin on video, killing De Tian with just one blow and uploading it into the net. The System argued that while it could go into the net and remove the clip, it would be better if Jin had more exposure especially when the Shopping District had suffered a substantial blow.
“It would have been worse if Ku Wai and his men had not been here with me. Please do not arrest them. They are not the bad guys.” Jin asked and Xue Ping laughed.
“They are still the bad guys, just less bad than others. Our resources are limited, so we will prioritise capturing the big bad ones.” Xue Ping agreed, and Ku Wai smirked at that particular comment.
It was Ya Bai, the Triad Boss for the Three Eyed Tigers who ordered the group to stay with Jin as he had the foresight to predict what would potentially happen if they tried to escape. Besides, it was their princess who ordered to protect the dungeon supplier.
“Boss Jin! Thank goodness you survived!” Lai Fu slapped Jin on his back so hard that he nearly fell forward. Taking a look at Tiangong Shopping District, he could only sigh heavily. He had been there for many years, but this was the worst thing to ever happen to it. Even the Pachinko Incident seemed like a joke in comparison.
“Let’s just be thankful for our lives have been spared. Our stores may not be intact, but we can always rebuild them.” He Rong chimed in as he heard from the injured Three Eyed Tiger members the story how the Ruby Rat Triad Boss wanted to buy up the whole place cheap.
“You are right. Only I doubt our insurance will be sufficient to cover this kind of damage.” Si Fang, the owner of Lele café was devastated, seeing what little remained of his café after the whole affair.
“You may not have to worry about that, Jin had already bought the whole place up. Given his status, you can be assured that they will pay out what you are owed.” Ya Bai reassured them. Though the owners did not know his true identity as he looked just like a nobody from the streets, they were more excited by the fact that Jin had bought the entire place.
“Yeah…technically, I already paid the down payment for this place…” Jin did not care to explain how he got it but assured the owners that everything was going to be fine. “One thing is for sure, you do not have to worry about the state of your stores. Get the insurance money, rip those companies back for ripping your money.” Jin teased them a bit, and the rest of the store owners who were sheltered in Jin’s store was given the same assurance as well.
“Hmm, you did kill De Tian, and you seemed to have some form of backing to buy the whole place down to prevent the Triad Bosses to buy this place… We will trust you for now.” Si Fang, who was also the Tiangong shopping committee lead, aided Jin to calm the masses down and told them to trust the dungeon supplier.
Besides, he was also the one who had supported them to improve their business indirectly and had now become their landlord. They decided to trust him and return home for now. Meanwhile, Jin had other agendas since he now possessed the entire Shopping District for himself.
But first, he had to follow detective Xue Ping and Lee An back to the police station for a full statement. “Si Fang, tell the owners not to do any reconstruction work…I have something in mind that might prove to be a better solution.” Jin asked, and Si Fang promised he would contact the rest to inform them of their new landlord’s decision.
