A High-Stakes Gamble for the Underdogs

"They're here." Sudden footsteps sounded close by, and someone shouted. But another voice immediately cut in, "Don't attack! It doesn't look like them." Emerging from a side alley into the darkness was a squad of over forty people. The man leading them halted and offered a grin under the streetlamp, revealing a mouthful of black teeth. Because of those teeth and his habit of smiling constantly, almost no one in the City of Iniquity knew his original name. Everyone called him Black Tooth, and the gang he led was known as the Black Tooth Gang. In terms of overall combat strength, the Black Tooth Gang primarily took on commissions and only occasionally took part in wild drop hunting; there was a noticeable gap between their abilities and those of the wild bands present. Their appearance here at this moment made little sense. On the spot, three wild band leaders who knew Black Tooth stepped forward to meet him. "Black Tooth, what the hell are you doing here?" "Investing—no, joining up. Will you take us?" Black Tooth said this in all seriousness, then grinned again. "I figure joining right now will get us much better perks than coming in after it's all settled, right?" To this question, the answer was undoubtedly yes. Given the current situation, practically no one held high hopes for the Wild Band Alliance. Choosing to throw in one's lot with them required the courage to be buried alongside them... In the past three days, the Black Tooth Gang was the only team in the entire city that had come forward to join. This logic bordered on sharing life and death—sending charcoal in a blizzard, even if what they brought was just a basket of charcoal ash... If this gamble really succeeded, they would also be considered one of the founding crews. "Are you... out of your mind?" Gu Zhazha stood there, holding it in for a good while before finally blurting out the question. Hearing one of their own say such a thing, low chuckles broke out from the ranks behind him, mixed with good-natured yet exasperated swearing. Black Tooth smiled, looking almost simple and honest. "Not crazy. I hesitated at home, thinking it over back and forth for three days. It was only an hour ago that I finally made up my mind to roll the dice." "Fuck! 'Roll the dice'? You make it sound so easy... Do you fucking know what you're gambling with?" He Guang chimed in. The Black Tooth Gang was different from them. The alliance had been inexplicably cornered and driven to the brink, leaving them no choice but to bet everything, whereas the Black Tooth Gang had nothing to do with any of this. They had choices. If he were in the Black Tooth Gang's position, He Guang thought, I sure as hell wouldn't get dragged into this mess. Not a chance. "Gambling lives—forty-three lives. The brothers in the gang who didn't want to take this gamble have already been paid off and disbanded. Everyone who came here is like me, ready to go all-in in one shot... I'm betting you'll win," Black Tooth said. The confidence he displayed seemed even greater than that of any of the wild bands directly involved. No one could fathom what he based it on. Still, hearing such words just before battle was unquestionably a huge morale booster. Moreover, adding more than forty fighters was meaningful under any circumstances. Black Tooth himself was especially noteworthy—rumor had it his actual strength was likely Grade A eleven-year combat power, and he simply lacked the resources for an attempt at top-tier. The question now was whether they could be trusted. Even if they were undercover moles, they probably couldn't achieve much, but what if they really were?! This was right on the brink of battle. The leaders present glanced at one another, their eyes filled with hesitation. "It's fine. Leader Black Tooth isn't a mole," Han Qingyu suddenly spoke up from the edge of the crowd where Boss Dao's gang was gathered. The leaders all turned their heads toward him. "Listen to him," Old Hugh said somewhat hurriedly, quickly adding an explanation, "Those guys have been relaying messages for Boss Dao all along." Seeing that—and since the leaders present had all visited Ao Yong and Qian Daofeng's place—no one objected any further. The members of the Black Tooth Gang fell into formation. "Thanks for speaking up, A'Jing." As Black Tooth walked past, he glanced at Han Qingyu, said nothing more, and turned to take his place in line. In truth, what Black Tooth was really gambling on tonight was the true combat power of A'Jing and his four companions. He had borrowed the five of them twice from Boss Dao. Over the past three days, he had been pondering two questions: "Why was it that the two times those five were around, even though they didn't seem particularly strong, the fights felt exceptionally smooth?" "Why did Boss Dao's freelance band suddenly rise to prominence a while back?" When those two questions merged into one... Black Tooth suddenly realized that this might be the greatest opportunity in life for him and his brothers. He decided to make this gamble. This man who smiled so simple-mindedly was actually sharper than most—at least far sharper than Boss Dao. Besides, the Black Tooth Gang was by no means the only team that had borrowed Han Qingyu's group of five during that period. Not only was Black Tooth clever, but he was also ruthless enough toward himself... When all was said and done, this remained nothing more than his own one-sided speculation, without sufficient certainty. *Then again, how many people living in the City of Iniquity have any certainty over their own fate?* Standing within the battle formation, Black Tooth silently told himself. By now, the time had reached 6:57. In the Twenty-Fifth District, Qian Daofeng and Ao Yong had just stepped out of a gambling den, stopping about a dozen meters from the entrance. Following Brother Chicken's instructions, they had just placed bets inside on the Wild Band Alliance to win. However, the odds they got weren't the 1:10 Old Tang had mentioned earlier, but 1:6.5. On top of that, there was a cap on wager size: fifty source energy blocks at most. According to an acquaintance working at the gambling den, someone had placed an enormous bet half an hour ago, crashing the payout odds. The owner, fearing insider knowledge, didn't want to accept too many wagers. If not for that acquaintance, they wouldn't even have been able to put down all two hundred source energy blocks Brother Chicken had handed them. "Brother Daofeng, do you think what he said was true or fake? Could the gambling den be lying on purpose just to lower the odds and trick more people into betting? Brother Daofeng... Brother Daofeng!" Qian Daofeng seemed lost in thought, forcing Ao Yong to raise his voice. "Huh?" Qian Daofeng snapped his head around. "You spaced out! What are you thinking about?" "I... I was thinking, why don't we place a bet of our own, Xiaoyong? Ten—no, twenty blocks." Qian Daofeng's gaze was resolute. He looked under immense pressure, yet had made up his mind. Twenty source energy blocks might have taken the two of them twenty or thirty years of savings. If not for the arrival of A'Jing and his crew, they wouldn't have had that many source energy blocks to wager even if they wanted to. "Ah?" Ao Yong's face filled with panic. "Re-really, Brother Daofeng, you really want to bet?" Out of worry for A'Jing and the others over the past two days, the two had made extensive inquiries outside. Everything they dug up was completely unfavorable to the Wild Band Alliance. "Yeah." Qian Daofeng nodded, cautiously glanced around, and looked into Ao Yong's eyes. In an undertone, he murmured, "I'm betting A'Jing is that man." Ao Yong's eyes went wide. "...Yeah!" Qian Daofeng had previously warned him not to guess about that, but in truth, both of them had never stopped guessing. The two hurried back and asked their acquaintance for help. Twenty blue crystal blocks hit the tabletop. With betting slips in hand, the clock on the wall struck seven. "Betting is now closed," an attendant of the gambling den announced. ... "Here they come!" someone shouted from within the formation. Furious footsteps converged from three directions, impossible to pin down by vector or position, while the roaring drone of source energy apparatuses rang out incessantly. *Clang!* The gang leaders drew their blades. *Clang...* Amid a continuous series of sharp metallic rings, over a thousand dead iron greatswords left their scabbards. Blue light from source energy apparatuses flashed across the ranks in sheets. *Whoosh!* "Get ready..." the various leaders commanded in different languages. Han Qingyu and the others turned their heads almost simultaneously and exchanged glances. A familiar sensation suddenly welled up inside them... If they were still in Azure, the next step would be shouting the battle cry: "For all that is..." "Boss Dao has manifested!" Overcome with tension and desperate to bolster his own courage, the mock leader Filio took the lead and hollered the first cry. "Boss Dao has manifested!" The Dao Gang roared in unison for the second. "Boss Dao has manifested!" Over a thousand fighters across the entire formation shouted together. "..." The six of them quietly turned back around. At the far end of the long street, a dark mass of figures finally emerged. The enemy's first exploratory wave consisted of around five hundred fighters... The moment they met, not a single word was spoken. Without even employing any tactics, they lunged forward in a direct, frontal slaughter. It was a posture of disdain and overwhelming suppression, partly executed by deliberate design. Supposedly, at various times in the city's history, newly established factions had collapsed under an initial assault just like this on countless occasions. Their morale shattered before their combat strength ever did. Within the battle ranks, hands and feet began to tremble. Mouths went dry with tension, throats gulping swallowed spit... They feared them. They had feared them for so many years that it had become second nature. Just as they had grown accustomed to fleeing for their lives through the canyons while members of the major factions clapped and sang on the ridges above, treating it all like a festival... In time, they had lost even the capacity for anger. This situation had been anticipated early on. It was precisely why the leaders had settled on a strategy beforehand: against this first wave, there could be no dodging, no outflanking, no retreating. They had to crush them head-on. Crush them, and there was hope. Fail to crush them? If they couldn't even manage that, there would be nothing left to talk about—the already loose alliance would unravel in an instant! "In the past, whenever we ran into them in battle formation out in the wild, we had to bow and clear the way. Remember that?" Before the battle lines clashed, Leader Storm of the Storm Bloodbattle Gang suddenly spoke. No one answered. "Is anyone's spine turning to jelly right now, tempted to go bow down again?... Anyone?! Anyone?!" he shouted again. "Bow to your fucking uncle!" someone in the crowd cursed. "'Your uncle'—Huaxia language, hahaha!" Leader Storm laughed heartily. "Fine! Since none of you want to bow tonight, then here and now, on this street, we're not yielding an inch..." Leader Storm raised his blade at the front of the formation. "Follow me and crush them!" *Thrum... Boom!* Source energy apparatuses roared in unison. The strongest group in the Wild Band Alliance, the Storm Bloodbattle Gang, led the charge in a frontal counterassault. Instantly, the complete battle formations of all six gangs surged forward in their wake. From the flank, a contingent from a major faction suddenly charged out... only to be intercepted and cut off at the alley mouth by Gu Zhazha's gang bringing up the rear. One battle unit after another swept past them, lunging straight into the fray.