Barlo Mata was with his family.
The kitchen was bustling; his wife and mother were preparing dinner. In the hands of the skillful housewives, crispy, golden tortillas, filled with cheese and shredded meat, emitted a mouthwatering aroma. Empanadas, resembling large dumplings, were arranged on a plate with sliced limes and tomato chunks, making them look even more appetizing.
Fajita, in Spanish, refers to the diaphragm of a cow, but in Mexico, it's a traditional home-cooked dish. Over time, it evolved to include not only grilled beef diaphragm, but also different cuts of beef, chicken, pork, and seafood, grilled with sliced onions and bell peppers. This is then served with warm butter, guacamole, salsa, and a spicy mole sauce made from over 100 different spices.
The highlight of the meal was Cochinita Pibil, a dish of marinated pork wrapped in banana leaves and slow-roasted, its unique flavor derived from the achiote seeds used.
Barlo was at the moment holding his beloved son and watching television.
"Dad, will Santa bring me presents this year?"
He ruffled his son's hair.
"Yes, my child, because you are my Barlo Mata's son, Santa wouldn't dare not give you a Christmas gift."
Barlo was slightly overweight, with thick facial hair and a noticeable beer belly, making him look like an ordinary middle-aged man.
A burly subordinate with tattoos walked in suddenly. He was holding a phone, obviously having received some information that he wanted to report.
Barlo put his son on the sofa, pulled up his pants, and stood up, gesturing for his subordinate to speak outside. Only then could one see a hint of the commanding aura in his deep eyes.
The two went out of the room and into the pavilion in the courtyard.
A wide artificial river surrounded the Mata estate, and the sound of large animals' exhalations could be heard, which were the hippos that Barlo Mata kept in the artificial river.
He took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, took out a lighter, lit it, and Barlo Mata took a deep drag, then slowly exhaled smoke.
"Did something happen to the Reyes Group?"
The subordinate immediately replied.
"Yes... yes, Filiberto's daughter was kidnapped, they want to keep this a secret, but we have a source on the scene."
Barlo Mata flicked the ash into the river and pondered for a moment.
"Notify Munoz, prepare to move against the Reyes Group, spend more money, let those mercenaries take action, and let our own people conserve their strength. Spread the news about Filiberto's daughter being kidnapped; those hyenas will be very willing to attack a lion showing signs of weakness."
The subordinate was a little puzzled.
"Boss, it's obvious that someone is trying to provoke a war between us and the Reyes Group."
Barlo Mata shrugged:
"Who would believe the kidnapping wasn't our doing? In Mexico, no one but me, Barlo Mata, would dare to touch that Filiberto bastard. If that's the case, we might as well strike first. After the war with the Reyes Group ends, we can investigate who's been up to these tricks."
"Too weak! Too weak! You're too weak!"
Broly's disappointed voice echoed in the basement of the safe house. He was wearing boxing gloves and was sparring with the captured mutant.
The mutant was gasping for breath, his knotted muscles soaked with sweat, his powerful straight punches coming like a storm. The X-Gene in his body not only gave him strength beyond human limits, but also a healing ability far surpassing that of ordinary people. His fractured right hand had fully recovered after only one night.
An ordinary person would have their skull shattered and brains splattered if they took a punch from him. But Broly was like a petrel in a storm, dodging the incoming punches with ease.
This uninteresting fight finally reached the limit of Broly's patience. He struck the instant he dodged a straight punch. The mutant only had time to see a flash before feeling a tearing pain in his abdomen. The pain made him see black, as if he had been knocked out of his body by the punch, losing control of his body.
Looking at the mutant kneeling on the ground, constantly retching, Broly realized that he had overestimated his strength. The mutant's strength was indeed seventy percent of his own, but his martial skills, reaction speed, stamina, and resistance to blows were all inferior to his. In a real fight, he could beat him senseless with just one hand.
Such an opponent couldn't help him improve his strength.
For a warrior, martial skills and talent are only part of determining strength. "If you study alone without companions, you will be ignorant." Sun Wukong's success was due to the hard work of his companions, teachers, and enemies along the way. His strength increased explosively after the Piccolo arc, and powerful enemies like Vegeta and Frieza were also instrumental.
"I'll be back in five days, and I hope you can survive a punch from me, or you'll die."
Broly wrapped the mutant with chains, picked up a bag of food that would last for five days, threw it on the ground, and locked the heavy iron door. The underground cell of the safe house was built very strong, with walls 80 centimeters thick. Even for a mutant, it wouldn't be easy to escape, especially since he was tightly bound by chains.
Broly returned upstairs, opened the refrigerator, took out a sports drink, and chugged it down.
"The Mata Group has made their move. They've posted nearly a hundred bounties on the members of the Reyes Group on the dark web."
Alejandro glanced at him and pointed at a webpage.
The webpage displayed a series of bounties, with amounts ranging from large to small, some in the millions and others in the tens of thousands. The Mata Group and the Reyes Group had been competing for more than a decade and knew each other well, having listed almost all of the Reyes Group's mid- and high-level members.
There were also some earlier bounties on military and police personnel, lawyers, newspaper reporters, TV hosts, and even local mayors who had opposed the Mata Group. The Mata Group had previously put up bounties on members of the Reyes Group, but no daring assassin had ever accepted them.
"The gates of hell have opened!" Alejandro tapped the table with his finger and said, "Those assassins will be very happy to show us the traditional art of Mexico."
Broly stood in the center of the living room, lifting two dumbbells weighing three hundred kilograms each for weight training, doing five sets of sixteen reps. The dumbbell plates swayed slightly, making a heavy metallic clanging sound.
The weight, which ordinary people couldn't even lift, felt as light as a bird in his hands.
"This bounty is just the beginning; Barlo Mata never does anything so simple. Just assassinating a few executives won't shake the Reyes Group. They will soon hire mercenaries to attack the Reyes Group's transfer stations, laboratories, and production factories. We need to find some helpers; just two people aren't like a mercenary group."