Tanaki stared in disbelief, his eyes wide with shock. He had seen many strange and unexplainable things in Neo-Tokyo, but this was something else entirely.
A man, dressed like a mage and a demon, had just pushed open the massive metal gate to his base with his bare hands. It was impossible... it shouldn’t be possible! IT WEIGHED 18000KG’S!
He didn’t know what to think.
Who was this guy? No...what was this guy? How could anyone possess such incredible strength? It was beyond human..hell, it was beyond any of the cybernetically enhanced monsters he dealt with.
Tanaki’s gaze drifted across the monitors, watching the live feeds from the security cameras. He saw the man kill his guards just by standing, then enter the warehouse. He watched him walk through the rows of crates and boxes, paying no mind to the cameras that watched him. Then kick open the metal door and began descending into the HQ of the black snakes.
Tanaki clenched his fist, his knuckles going white. He was angry, furious even, but he was also scared. Scared shitless. This guy had just killed his guards, with just his presence and now was casually walking into his headquarters like it was a walk in the park!
Tanaki took a deep breath. He needed to stay calm and think. He had to do something. But what? He didn’t know anything about this guy. He didn’t know his name, who he worked for, or even why he was here.
Tanaki picked up his radio. “Alert all units...” He barked into the microphone. “We have an intruder. This is a code red emergency.”
There were three types of emergencies in the black snake gang.
Code Red was the highest rank of emergency. It was a top priority threat that needed immediate attention and mobilization of all forces.
Code Yellow was the second highest rank of emergency. It was used for potential threats or situations that required a significant response from the gang.
Code Green was the lowest rank of emergency. It was used for minor disturbances or issues that required minor attention, like a petty fight between members or a minor break-in attempt.
If there was something higher than code red then Tanaki would say it but there wasn’t.
The radio cracked to life as various voices came through, confirming that they heard the emergency alert. Tanaki set the radio down and stood up from the seat, looking at the monitor that was displaying the hallway the stranger was in.
Tanaki walked out of his office, passing by several armed enforcers who were stationed in a hallway. “Where’s my helicopter?”
Tanaki wasn’t going to risk it
One of the enforcers stepped forward, saluting the boss. “It’s...out of service..”
Tanaki’s eyes widened in stunned disbelief, anger quickly filling him. “What do you mean it’s out of service? It was working just fine yesterday!”
“Yes boss but... apparently there was a critical malfunction during the test..repair team are on it though..” the enforcer replied, he was clearly nervous about the thought of giving his boss this news
Tanaki clenched his jaw, his frustration reaching boiling point. “Dammit!” He slammed his fist into the wall. Ouch, it hurt like a bitch. He wasn’t young anymore.
The enforcer winced at the sound of the impact. Sir! What about the other vehicles? We have a few SUVs...” The enforcer suggested, trying to placate the enraged boss.
Tanaki sighed, calming himself down. “Fine. Make sure they are fully fueled and ready to go within five minutes. I’m leaving the base, tell team 8,7,6,5,4 to intercept the intruder. Team 3,2 come with me.”
The enforcer saluted once again. “Yes boss.” He said and promptly turned away and started barking orders into his radio.
Tanaki ran a hand through his hair. This was bad. This was really, really bad. This was the second worst day ever, just before his 20th birthday.
—————————————————————
Hayate stepped out of the staircase and was instantly met with a hailstorm of bullets. Hundreds of bullets, all aimed at him. But he didn’t flinch, didn’t even blink.
Every single bullet harmlessly bounced off before reaching him, ricocheting and embedding themselves in the concrete walls.
The individuals shooting at Hayate stared in disbelief. They had never seen anything like it. Every bullet they fired at this guy simply bounced off him as if he was made of some impenetrable substance. It was surreal, downright impossible even.
They were about to reload but then Hayate walked forward a bit more and all of them came into the aoe of [death].
They all died instantly, falling to the ground.
Hayate walked past the corpses, shaking his head a bit as he stepped into a large hallway. There was no one around. Hayate also now turned off his [death] skill. He wasn’t here to needlessly kill.
The large hallway was eerily silent, the only sound coming from the overhead fluorescent lights. Hayate continued walking, his footsteps echoing against the concrete floor.
He passed a few doors, each one labelled with a number and a name, probably offices. He paid them no mind.
The hallway was long, leading further and further into the base. Hayate could sense the presence of people. They were probably hiding, waiting for an opportunity to ambush him. Then he came to a halt as he heard the sound of voices coming from an entrance to his right.
Hayate moved closer, pressing his back against the wall and peeking around the corner.
He could see a dozen or so individuals gathered in the next room, some of them heavily armed and others not. They were talking amongst themselves, discussing what sounded like some sort of plan.
Their voices were hushed, so Hayate could only make out bits and pieces of the conversation. But one thing he was able to hear clearly was the words “Intruder”. It was clear they were talking about him. Just then, from behind he heard footsteps and someone threw something at him. It was a grenade.
Hayate barely had time to react before the grenade landed at his feet. It exploded.
The explosion went off with a deafening bang. However, nothing had happened to Hayate. Even his cloths weren’t dirty.
The grenade had done damage, but just not to Hayate. A part of the ceiling had caved in, exposing the electrical wiring and insulation. Chunks of concrete from the walls were broken off, leaving gaping holes. The floor was littered with debris and a thin layer of dust floated in the air.
The individuals in the next room were caught off guard by the explosion. They froze for a moment, their conversation abruptly cut off. Then, they quickly gathered their wits and prepared their weapons, expecting an attack.
They stepped out into the hallway, looking for the source of the explosion. Their eyes widened in shock and disbelief upon seeing Hayate but Hayate just raised his hand. [Dominate] he said, one of the men. Probably a grunt was under his mind control. “Attack anyone you see.” Hayate said to the guy and continued walking forward as behind him, friends had turned into foes.
The man under Hayate’s control obeyed his command without question. He turned on his own comrades, attacking them with ruthless efficiency.
The others reacted quickly, but they were caught off guard. They had no idea what was happening. Their friend was suddenly attacking them, his eyes glazed over.
“What the hell? Jim! What are you doing?!” One of the individuals exclaimed as he evaded a wild punch from their friend.
Jim responded by launching himself at the individual, tackling him to the ground.
Hayate walled a bit and his eyes landed on the one who had thrown the grenade. It was a young man, probably no more than twenty-five. Hayate targeted him with [dominate] and the man’s eyes instantly glazed over, a vacant look crossing his features.
Hayate gave the same order to this one also, telling him to attack his friends.
The man nodded, like a puppet obeying his master’s commands. He immediately turned on his fellow gang members, and ran past Hayate.
Hayate stopped at the cross section. He was facing three paths, straight ahead and to the left and right. However, his path was blocked by three groups of men, all armed with guns.
Ten men from the left, twenty from the front and fifteen from the right.
The men from all directions started firing at him simultaneously. The air was filled with the sound of bullets whizzing past, each one narrowly missing him. He stood there, unfazed by the hail of bullets, but this was starting to get annoying. And it seemed like all of these people were intentionally just buying time.
“where is your boss?”
Hayate shouted.
The men didn’t respond, instead they upped the rate of gunfire. Hayate activated [death] just for a moment. The people surrounding him, all 45 of them. Died. Hayate stood in the midst of the massacre he had just caused. Dead bodies littered the floor, their eyes wide and lifeless. He had just killed 45 men in an instant. It had been a mistake. He had miscalculated the area of effect of his skill.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
He shook his head, annoyed at himself for making such a simple mistake.
He rubbed his face, letting out a sigh. What was done, was done.
He resumed his walk, stepping over the bodies.
There was a door straight ahead. This must’ve been it. Hayate opened the door and was met with a scene he was not expecting.
The room was filled with what looked to be explosives. Rows of crates and bags lined the walls, each one filled with various types of explosive materials. It was a bomb-maker’s dream, an entire room filled with enough explosives to level a city block.
The room was quiet, eerily so. It felt like even a slight sound would set off a chain reaction and turn this place into a fiery inferno.
Hayate carefully walked through the room, avoiding any suspicious looking wires or levers, just in case some genius had the foresight to set up a booby trap. Just then, the room exploded.
————————————————————
Tanaki watched as his wristwatch, a one of only the 500 made limited item ticked down to zero. The whole base shook, the sound of explosions getting closer and closer until a massive cloud of fire erupted through the roof of the now destroyed warehouse.
Tanaki was in one of the many SUVs that was rapidly speeding away from the scene. His heart was pounding in his chest. A base could be made again and of course there were around 10000 tnt’s worth of explosives in there. That man who had infiltrated the base was 100% now dead. No one could survive something like this at point blank.
Before the base had exploded, it had been evacuated, although from what one of his enforcer’s told him, there were around 223 members present out of the 300 total so 77 members had died.
Tanaki leaned back in the seat, trying to calm his nerves. He kept repeating a same phrase in his head, like a mantra. “That man is dead. Dead, dead, dead.”
Meanwhile, back at the base. The entire base was now a giant inferno. Flames shot up from different points, reaching into the dark night sky. The remaining members, 223 in total, stood at a safe distance, watching as the once formidable headquarters of the Black Snakes was reduced to ash and rubble.
Just then, everyone present there saw something that they could not believe. A man, not wearing any armour and not showing any evidence of being hurt at all, was walking out of the inferno.
It was the man who had attacked their base, the one who had turned their home into a graveyard.
They had expected to see a burnt corpse, but instead, they saw a completely unscathed man.
He should be dead. He should be a smouldering pile of ash. The flames lapped at his body, but had zero effect on him. No one spoke a word. They could only watch, dumbfounded. He walked forward, his footsteps echoing against the rubble and debris that littered the ground.
As the man continued walking forward, something extraordinary happened.
Wings sprouted and spread from his back. The wings were massive, each one easily twice the size of the man’s own body. They extended from his back like a bat’s, but were covered in glossy, black feathers. They were the wings of a carrion. They spread out, casting a long shadow on the ground below. It was like he was some sort of devil incarnate, sent here to claim their souls.
The man walked a bit and then he stood there for a moment, staring at the other members. No one had the audacity to speak, all of them were too stunned at the seemingly impossible sight before them. It was like witnessing a miracle.
After a few moments of tense silence, the man finally spoke up.
“Do any of you know who I am?” He said, his eyes sweeping across the gathered members.
No one responded, they were all too afraid to speak. A few of them shifted uncomfortably.
The man let out a cold chuckle, the sound sending chills down everyone’s spines. “Well, since no one wants to speak up, I guess I’ll introduce myself.” He said, his wings flapping slightly.
“My name is Lucifer.”
The man’s words sent a ripple of disbelief through the assembled group. Lucifer? Didn’t that name mean the devil? Surely, it was just a coincidence, right?
However, as if to confirm their thoughts, the man continued speaking. “Yes, I am Lucifer. My name is Lucifer. Just Lucifer. And i only came here for one thing. I just need your boss.”
One of the enforcers, the team leader of team 6, gathered his courage and stepped forward. He was clearly trying to appear brave, but the fear was evident in his eyes. He walked up to the man, standing a few meters away.
“What do you want with the boss?” He asked, his voice shaking just a tiny bit.
“I just want to have a little chat with him. Nothing more, nothing less.”
The team leader swallowed hard, his throat suddenly feeling very dry. “The boss isn’t here. He left before the base self-destructed.”
“I see. Well, that’s unfortunate.”
He paused for a moment before continuing. “Where did he go?”
“I-I don’t know.
Lucifer’s eyes narrowed, his wings ruffling slightly. “You don’t know? Or you don’t want to tell me?”
“Look, man. I’m telling you the truth. I don’t know where he went. He just left before we destroyed the base. He could be anywhere by now.”
Lucifer let out a deep sigh, his expression turning into one of irritation. “Well, that really is unfortunate.”
He looked around at the other members, his gaze sweeping across them like a predator sizing up its prey. “You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, would you? Any of you?” there was a collective silence. Not a single one of them spoke up. They were all too afraid to even open their mouths, fearing what might happen if they answered him. “I see, so no one here knows where your boss is”
Lucifer let out another sigh. “That’s quite unfortunate for all of you.”
He looked at the team leader, who was sweating bullets at this point. “You. What’s your name?”
“It’s Jake. Jake McAllen.”
“A lot of foreigners here it seems like,” Lucifer said to himself his voice a whisper.
“Jake” Lucifer repeated, testing the name on his tongue. “Tell me, Jake, do you know how many of your fellow members died?”
“I-I don’t know the exact number, but I’d guess around 70.”
“Hmm, 70. That’s quite a loss, don’t you think?”
Jake nodded weakly. “Yes, it is.”
“You know, Jake,”
Lucifer began, his voice almost soft, almost.
“All of those deaths could have been avoided if your boss came directly to me. Right now, everyone here. I will kill all of you in 10 minutes from now on if your boss Dosent come back.”
“W-What? You can’t be serious!”
“I have no interest in killing you and your members. In fact, I’m actively trying to avoid killing anyone. But I do need to talk with your boss. So, if he doesn’t come back within 10 minutes, you all die. Simple as that.”
The man’s words didn’t match his actions at all. He had slaughtered 70 people just moments ago, and now he claimed he was ‘actively’ avoiding killing? A hypocrite truly. Jake opened his mouth to protest, but no words came out.
Two of Jake’s teammates, fuelled by desperation, used their leg boosters to launch themselves towards Lucifer. They had metal fists that could crush skulls with a single blow, but as they made contact with Lucifer, they bounced off him as if they had hit a wall. Lucifer barely flinched, his expression never changing. He looked at the two men as they stumbled backwards.
“I won’t lie, that was a decent attempt. Bravo.”
He said sarcastically.
The two men, both team mates of Jake, looked at each other in disbelief. How had he not even moved? They had hit him with a combined force equal to that of a SUV at high speed.
Lucifer then raised his hand, and he muttered something to himself. As soon as the words left Lucifer’s mouth, a blue glow emanated from his palms and out of them, two sets of glowing, luminescent chains shot out, wrapping themselves tightly around the two men. Binding them tight.
They struggled against the chains, but they were strong, almost like metal. They were held tightly in place, unable to move an inch, and floated just a bit above the ground as if sitting on a hover board.
“There. That should take care of you two.”
Lucifer said, his gaze turning back towards Jake. Before Lucifer could say anything, Jake ran over to the leader of team 4. He was one of the few who had a neurochip thus he could directly call the Boss and Jake didn’t have it. “Hey, you’ve got a neurochip, right?”
“Yeah, I do. I’ll call the Boss..just give me a moment.”
“Do it. Tell him to get his ass here right now, or else we all die.”
The team leader hesitated for a moment, but the fear in his eyes was too great. He nodded, activating his neurochip and called the boss. After a few seconds, the boss picked up.
“hello? How is it over there? No signs of that man righ—"
“You bastard, get your ass here right now. Or else all of us here are gonna die.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, then the tanaki spoke, his tone tense. “What? What happened over there?”
————————————————————
Hayate, who was pretending to be Lucifer, watched the scene unfold before him. He was still reeling from the explosion that had just happened. He had intentionally been careful not to cause any serious destruction, trying to avoid unnecessary casualties. Yet, they had still attacked him, attempting to blow him up without even thinking twice.
If it weren’t for his strength and his ability to survive that explosion, he would’ve been blown to bits.
Hayate had initially had another plan for dealing with the Black Snakes, but now he was thinking differently. The events of the day had changed his plans. Instead of just dealing with their boss, he was now considering a full takeover.
It was a risky move, for sure, but if he could pull it off, it would be a major win. Of course, he wasn’t going to trust any of them. Not at all, but it would be good to have a source of information and people to do stuff which he said.
Besides, it would be fun. But also hard. He didn’t consider himself to be very smart. Running an organization would be hell. But, the potential benefits outweighed the risks.
He was just going to have to somehow figure out how to do it.
Hayate mentally went through his past experiences. He had been the leader of a small club back in middle school and had also led his friend group, the AOH. Sure, it wasn’t exactly the same as running a criminal organization, but there were some overlaps. He figured he’d just use the same concept but on a much larger scale.
That is, of course, very hard. The main problem was keeping everyone in check and making sure they didn’t try anything stupid or rebel against him. And with what he was doing right now, even if he did obtain the Black snakes there was going to be a lot of people who didn’t like him whom he’ll have to remove.
He would have to figure out who to trust and who to dispose of, and how to manage the various factions within the organization. Which he didn’t know how many there even were of.
But one thing was for sure. He had to establish his authority from the very beginning. He couldn’t afford to show any weakness or hesitation, or he would be eaten alive but maybe after that he would try to be a good boss.
But he already knew he was going to be a good boss. He wasn’t going to go around killing anyone who didn’t listen to him like some dictator. He was just going to have to find some way to keep everyone in line. With fear or something else, that he does not know.
Maybe something like a carrot and stick policy. Rewards for good behavior and punishment for bad behavior. Except the punishments would be alot more harsh.
He would also have to figure out a way to keep the organization profitable. After all, a business like the Black Snakes had to make money somehow. That would most likely be a headache since most of, if not all of it would come from illegal stuff.
And of course, he would have to deal with the authorities. No doubt they would be on his case soon enough. He would have to learn how to keep his operations under the radar and avoid detection as long as possible. Which would make it much harder to operate. “That’s a problem for future me to sort out..”
Hayate said to himself in his mind. He couldn’t worry about everything at once. It has been not even a full on day since he has come to the future, and his body count is already over 50+ and soon enough he was going to be the leader of a criminal organisation.
It was all happening so fast – in just the space of a day, he had gone from an ordinary human to a overpowered demon who has killed more than 50 people and is about to be the leader of a criminal organisation.
Hayate paused for a moment, an old memory came to mind. In particular, he remembered the times when AOH would go to war with other teams in Hollow. In Hollow, guild wars were a big part of the game. Guilds could declare war on each other, with the winning guild earning points, rewards, and power. The losing guild would be penalized, losing points and having to pay reparations. Guild wars could be initiated through a system in the game, and would involve large-scale battles between the players of the two guilds. Most often than not the battles happened in respective players guild bases and it was a really epic spectacle.
In war, guild bases could be attacked, with the goal of taking out the base and eliminating all its defenders. Some guilds would even set up trap for the attackers Although it was expensive.
There were also guild tournaments in which the strongest guilds fought against each other.
“That’s right... I used to be the one leading the charge during those days” Hayate muttered to himself, a small smile creeping up his face.
Those were fun times, really.
He often ended up doing 50% of the heavy fighting as he was the only pure mage In the guild but it was all worth it for the thrill of battle. He remembered the thrill of leading his team to victory, the satisfaction of seeing their enemies fall before them. It was a feeling like no other and one he had missed, even if he would never admit that out loud.
AOH had never lost against any other team.
However, right now. He was alone. All alone.
Back then, he had a team of AOH members supporting him. It was a team effort, a collective goal.
But now? He was flying solo. He didn’t have a team, and he didn’t have anyone to rely on. It was just him against the world. But he wasn’t going to lose. As one of the only members left from Aoh except for taro he was going to uphold their legacy of never losing.
