Chapter 640: Chapter 544: Human? God? (Please Subscribe!) _1
The Fighter sat across from Henry Alis.
Henry Alis was confident he held all the cards. He assumed the man had sought him out for negotiations, so he took out a bottle of his treasured red wine -- made from his own vineyard -- and poured a glass for both of them. Curiously, he asked, "Whom do you work for?"
"Tongtian." The Fighter threw out the English name.
"Tongtian? The newly established debt collection organization that’s rumored to be involved in money laundering?" Henry Alis recalled the organization immediately. Although Tongtian had not been established long, its commission from the huge sum of debts collected, as rumored, was lucrative. They had an impressive track record.
Many tried to imitate this debt collection approach, but none had achieved similar results. To collect a debt, the debtor needed to agree. Until now, people knew only that Tongtian was skilled at exploiting others’ vulnerabilities, but the specifics of their operation remained a mystery.
Compared to debt collection,
Tongtian’s money laundering business was nothing notable, as there were too many others involved in the same trade. However, when it came to collecting massive sums of debt and maintaining an impressive record, only Tongtian led the field.
The Fighter nodded in acknowledgment.
"Where are my men outside?" Henry Alis asked, referring to his six bodyguards.
"They’re all dead," the Fighter responded calmly.
Henry Alis’s complexion changed. His bodyguards were dead?
Although he had suspected this, the truth still unsettled him. This...didn’t seem like the groundwork for negotiation; it felt more like retaliation.
Comforted by his trump card ’Venomous Python,’ Henry Alis regained his composure. Losing some bodyguards was a simple matter—money can replace them.
"What is your purpose here?" Henry Alis questioned, squinting.
"Your life, and your money. But primarily, your life," the Fighter replied.
His words rung like a bell, echoing in Henry Alis’s ears.
They wanted his life?
This was far different from what was expected.
They weren’t here to negotiate.
They were here to kill.
Right then, his face whitened somewhat.
"Is there no room for negotiation?" Henry Alis asked in a deep voice. Despite his shock, his face betrayed no sign of it.
Negotiation.
The first to flinch
Loses.
The Fighter shook his head, "Anything but your life can be negotiated."
At these words,
A ripple of panic flashed in Henry Alis’s eyes. The other man had essentially sentenced him to death. It seemed any chance of a peaceful resolution was gone.
"Can I purchase my life?"
Henry Alis took a gentle sip of the red wine in his glass. The familiar taste calmed him, and he fixed his gaze on his fellow Caucasian.
"No," the Fighter shook his head.
"Sigh...What if I refuse?" Henry Alis smirked, amused by the absurdity of the negotiation. This was an insult. He was an arms dealer, he controlled the tenth-largest assassin organization in the world, ’Venomous Python’. He would not stand for this.
"The fate of the people hunting nineteen kilometers to the west rests in your hands," the Fighter said calmly.
At this,
Panic flickered across Henry Alis’s face. He couldn’t keep his cool. Finally, he understood what was meant by Tongtian’s ability to exploit others’ weaknesses. Though it wasn’t entirely like that, it was close enough.
"If I give you the money, will you let them go?" Henry Alis’s voice shook slightly. His son and his family were out hunting there. They hadn’t returned for lunch. Besides money and red wine, his family was all he had left in the world.
Thinking of his precious grandchildren made the arms dealer’s heart soften. Even a villain had a family.
But that was not a reason to avoid death.
"Of course, provided you cooperate and they won’t retaliate against us," said the Fighter.
The Fighter’s words swayed Henry Alis’s belief. As far as he knew, Tongtian had never killed a debtor and had always kept their promises. Although he wasn’t a debtor, it was close enough. More importantly, he had no other choices.
"I agree, I’ll order ’Venomous Python’ to cancel the assassination task against Ling," said Henry Alis, trying to assert his worth.
"I’m sorry to tell you this, but ’Venomous Python’ probably no longer exists. My deepest apologies," responded the Fighter with a slight smile. This ’deepest apologies’ was thick with sarcasm, wiping out Henry Alis’s last bargaining chip.
"What do you mean?" Henry Alis asked anxiously.
"Your three-story building in San Francisco, and your assassin squads spread across different continents, are probably meeting with your God by now," said the Fighter. This statement shattered Henry Alis’s last line of defense.
"What? That’s impossible!" Henry Alis bellowed.
But the man in front of him had no reason to lie.
All his hard work was gone?
Shaken, Henry Alis slumped onto the chair.
"What about the other assassin organizations?" Henry Alis summoned his remaining spirit to ask. If Tongtian was taking him down like this, what about the other assassin organizations? He didn’t want to be the lone chicken slaughtered.
"Just like you, to avoid trouble, all three assassin organizations will be eradicated. Not many of their assassins will survive," the Fighter replied evenly.
Henry Alis was stunned by the Fighter’s ’lofty words’.
"Have you already started acting, aren’t you afraid of offending the entire assassin world?" Henry Alis asked in a low voice, such behaviour was absolutely provoking, and no one had dared to do so until now.
"Who cares, what does it matter if they all band together, they are nothing but trash, just kill them." The Fighter said.
Cold.
The bone-chilling cold spread throughout Henry Alis’s body.
Just kill?
What arrogance and insolence was this, the assassin organizations around the world combined were not even considered by the other party, the Fighter’s conviction and disdain were real, he could feel it, this was not cocky talk, but the confidence of Tongtian.
This confidence.
He was curious about its source. Apart from state-level forces, no one else dared to be so brazen, offending the entire assassin world and even threatening to kill them all.
This was not a joke.
"Who are you exactly?" Henry Alis asked with a frown.
At that moment, he seemed to remember something. If Tongtian and Ling were on the same side, then there was a huge plot in this.
Just that this guess was a bit vague, he didn’t dare to believe it.
If all this was part of a huge force, he couldn’t imagine who was playing such a big game. The United States? Russia? Huaxia? Or those high-ranking bankers?
"You don’t need to know, you just need to know whether your bargaining chip can move us and let us spare your family."
As soon as the Fighter finished speaking, Henry Alis, who thought he had a chance, pulled out a gun from his waist and pointed it at the Fighter’s head. He knew that even if he killed the person in front of him, he probably wouldn’t survive, he just wanted to create a chance to negotiate.
Even submitting to them was preferable.
Instead of just dying.
"What do you mean by this?" The Fighter calmly stood up, his face not showing any fear.
Henry Alis also took several steps back to avoid being defeated by the Fighter in close combat. After all, he was not young and definitely couldn’t beat the young man in a fight. As he pointed his gun at the other party, his sense of control returned.
The Fighter walked towards Henry Alis step by step.
"Don’t move." Henry Alis shouted, retreated a few more steps to keep what he thought was a safe distance. His voice echoed in the underground wine cellar. For some reason, Henry Alis felt a chilling aura in his beloved wine cellar.
"Really, you’re forcing me to act." The increasingly humane Fighter shook his head helplessly.
Then he walked towards Henry Alis.
"Don’t come over." Henry Alis screamed. n𝚘vp𝚞𝚋.com
It seemed like the Fighter didn’t hear him at all.
"Bang..." Henry Alis fired a shot at the Fighter’s leg.
But the person in front of him sidestepped and avoided the bullet, then continued to walk towards Henry Alis at a slow pace. Henry Alis was taken aback and raised his hand and fired another shot, this time aiming for the leg again.
"Bang..."
Unfortunately, he missed again. Henry Alis noticed something wrong, but he only took it as bad luck.
"Bang..."
This time he was cruel and shot straight at the Fighter’s heart.
This time.
Henry Alis truly saw how the person in front of him dodged it. With a barely noticeable flicker, the man in front of him avoided his bullet at an almost imperceptible speed.
Instantly, a chill rose from the bottom of Henry Alis’s heart.
Still not giving up.
He began to shoot continuously.
"Bang bang bang...click."
"Clang clang..." One by one, the empty shell cases fell to the ground, making a metallic sound.
The magazine was empty.
But the Fighter was already in his face.
Henry Alis was completely stunned. What did he see? A man who could dodge bullets, at such a close distance, that calm expression, as if he had just done something trivial.
Such a person.
What could he use to kill him?
Was he a man?
Or a god?
Henry Alis’s whole worldview had collapsed.
"You’re a devil, you’re a devil, Satan, Satan." Henry Alis kept muttering. Even when the Fighter took the gun from his hand, his hand did not drop, keeping the shooting posture.
The Fighter didn’t say a word, just quietly looked at him, and the wine cellar was filled only with Henry Alis’s monologue.
A few minutes later.
Henry Alis, with his reshaped worldview, came back to his senses, staring at the Fighter, his eyes full of despair and even a hint of relief. To die at the hands of such a person, it would not degrade his reputation.
"Now, please make your choice."