Filed to story: A Bullied Boy Died: A Mafia King Woke Up In His Body
“Holy shit. Have you ever seen the common area look like this before? I didn’t even know it could look like this.” They murmured among themselves, admiring the work they’d done. Ulon had never done anything like this before, and suddenly Kyle did not seem like such a bad leader after all. They knew they would have never cleaned up the place if it were not for his orders.
“Every day.” Kyle suddenly said, causing the gang members to turn around and face him.
“Every day, I will come into the common area. If it does not look like this, Damian will be held responsible. You will all report to me in this manner, standing in a row every morning at the crack of dawn, understood?”
“Yes, sir!” After witnessing the fruits of their work, the gang members were much more receptive to Kyle.
“The structure of membership is now redefined. All of you are associates, except Damian, who will act as both underboss and acting captain from now on. Through the training and vetting process, you will then be inducted as ‘vipers,’ proper high-ranking members. Work hard.”
Damian’s face glowed brilliantly, knowing how big it was to be declared the underboss, the effective second-in-command. Ulon had never allowed anyone to be the underboss in his entire reign.
The gang members, now associates, were also excited about receiving training. None of them wanted to remain weak and disheveled like they had been under Ulon, nor be as dumb as the guy who was still out cold near the trash pile. The band of misfits was already making bets on who could become a viper first.
Kyle beckoned for Damian and Keith to follow him, returning to the office. “Do you understand now?”
Damian nodded vigorously. “You provided seemingly meaningless orders, but all the small tasks eventually became something great. It instills into them a simple idea: ‘If I listen, good things will happen.’ The membership hierarchy is great as well.”
“Not as eloquent as I would put it, but yes. All tasks I give will point you toward a greater goal or objective. Moving on, the physical training program shall be done in this manner, with the objective of strengthening their overall physical capabilities first and foremost. Write down what I am about to say.”
Keith nodded, sitting at Kyle’s desk and scribbling down whatever the man dictated. Some of the words flew way over his head and had to be replaced with something that sounded similar. Soon, the training regimen was completed on parchment.
Damian took the paper and went over it. His eyes bulged as he continued reading each line. “This… This is madness! No human can exercise this long without assistance! How can we possibly complete this?”
“With these.” Kyle retrieved a dozen Stamina Potions he had bought in from Haui’s shop, placing them on the table.
Stamina Potion (Basic)
Restores a moderate amount of stamina.
Recommended Dosage: One bottle for an adult human male every eight hours.
Ingredients:
Poair Leaves, Water, remaining ingredient unknown.
Cooldown:
30 seconds
Supply and Demand
In the Red Lions’ base…
The Red Lions were much larger than the Seven Snakes. The gang controlled four districts, with more than three hundred men in total.
Each of the three subordinate districts was controlled and managed by their respective sub-leaders. They were now eyeing the Seven Snakes district, which would be an easy kill, but they weren’t the only enemy facing the Red Lions. Both larger and smaller gangs were trying to test them with small skirmishes.
No gang wanted a full-on bloodbath between them-they were there to make money, not to be mass murderers.
At this very moment, the sub-leader of the adjacent district to the Seven Snakes was training hard against a wooden dummy in a massive training yard nestled between buildings. Winding up a punch that caused the reddish armor set to elicit striking neon-blue lines reminiscent of arcite fuel, he delivered a devastating strike, cracking the wooden dummy figure into half.
Two Red Lions associates ran up to him, getting down on one knee while waiting for the sub-leader to acknowledge their presence. Panting, he grabbed a towel from a servant and wiped off the sweat on his scarred forehead. He ran his other hand through his spiky, dark-red hair before tossing the towel back and fixing his gaze on the two underlings. “Speak.”
“Boss Wrent, we still can’t find any trace of Riker. We suspect one of our rivals has imprisoned him.”
“Who?”
The associates looked at each other before one gulped and bowed lower. “Boss, we think it’s the Seven Snakes.”
A bellowing laughter rumbled through the yard. “The Seven Snakes would dare to act against me? The Left Paw of the Red Lions?! Ridiculous! That fat slob Ulon and his twenty hooligans could never pull off such a feat.”
“But Boss, Riker was last seen heading toward their district, where we recently took over ownersh-“