Look closely. A burly man leaped down from an absurdly enormous motorcycle designed in a towering platform-heel style.
His black leather boots landed on the muddy ground. Dust stained his dark green military uniform, while the huge white cloak with purple trim draped over his shoulders bore the enormous words "Second Generation."
Yet the clothing beneath was extremely thin. His collar hung open, revealing the ghost-dragon tattoo across his chest.
He was the leader of the Ghostfire Syndicate, president of the Ghostfire Syndicate, and commander-in-chief of the Special Assault Squads—Explosive Oni, Tenmon Soji.
Not long ago, the captain of his Third Special Assault Squad, "Passionate Landro," had been killed by a woman called "Azure Empyrea."
And so, just moments earlier, he had led the Ghostfire Syndicate in completely annihilating the Kowloon Stronghold.
Although the Kowloon Stronghold was not one of the four great gangs, it ranked immediately beneath them.
They had entrenched themselves in an abandoned electronics recycling plant in Barcelona, where they had constructed an enormous fortified settlement.
The most troublesome part was that they also possessed secondhand weapons salvaged from the facility, as well as a gigantic heavy combat mech.
The Ghostfire Syndicate had lost many people dealing with them. Even one of its Special Assault Squad captains had been killed.
Yet even after the Ghostfire Syndicate turned the Kowloon Stronghold's headquarters upside down, they still found no trace of any "Azure Empyrea."
It was only when one of his underlings received a recruitment advertisement from the Taixu Gang that Tenmon Soji finally learned the truth. The force that had wiped out the Ghostfire Syndicate's Chinatown detachment had never been the Kowloon Stronghold at all. It had been the Taixu Gang.
The misunderstanding had arisen not only because of the Kowloon Stronghold business card Vill-V had given them.
The Kowloon Stronghold had built a massive fortified settlement atop a mountain of scrap—Kowloon Stronghold—and had taken its name from that.
Their armed forces were called the Scavenger Teams. As the name suggested, they relied on high-tech equipment collected from the recycling plant's mountains of scrap as their source of weapons. Some of it even consisted of advanced military hardware discarded by official armed forces.
Yet in the eyes of the Ghostfire Syndicate bikers who had encountered the Taixu Gang, the Taixu Gang was even more thoroughly a bunch of garbage pickers.
They claimed, "No one understands trash cans better than we do."
It was said that they had started out by rummaging through trash cans and had found endless ammunition, medical kits, and coins in utterly ordinary roadside bins.
What kind of roadside trash can had things like that inside it...?
It was said that they had even published works of trash-can literature:
(Trash cans. During the lowest point of your life, you once felt that you suited them perfectly.)
(Two trash cans. One stood upright, polished to a mirror shine. The other lay on its side, covered in rust.)
(You wanted to walk over and set it upright, but in the end, you did not. Trash cans had their dignity as trash cans too.)
("Is there something special about this trash can?)
"No. It is ordinary and utterly unremarkable, just like me."
"Ah, I am nothing but a worthless pile of garbage. A trash can is the only place where I belong."
(You stared at the trash cans for a long time. They seemed to change. The cold iron rims were no longer mottled with rust, and the dents in their sides had smoothed out considerably. A golden glow seeped faintly from beneath the lids—sweet and enticing.)
(For a moment, you even thought the trash cans had transformed into treasure chests.)
(No. You bent down and reached into the trash can, retrieving a piece of metal from the bottom. Hard work had finally paid off. You had found treasure!)
(You turned around, only to find your companions staring at you with complicated expressions.)
("Once a person... sets foot on this road... there is no turning back.")
(You opened the trash-can lid with the resolve to die and immediately saw that strange object emitting an overwhelmingly foul stench.
(For an instant, you seemed to enter a state of meditative stillness. Your eyes followed your nose, your nose followed your heart, and your hand shot out to seize it.)
(Yet there was no joy in your heart... because your companions had all covered their noses and abandoned you.)
Not only had they published books, they also possessed an abnormal obsession when it came to claiming ownership of trash cans.
The Ghostfire Syndicate bikers who roamed throughout the city frequently found postcards inside trash cans all over town, each bearing a message with a different implication.
"Friend, you have crossed the line. This is not something you are permitted to touch." (Preservation)
"Your curiosity drove you to open this trash can, but... it is my lover." (Elation) "This trash can already has a temporary resident. Unless you can present proof of ownership, please find another bin." (Order)
"Why are you so obsessed with opening every trash can in the city? What do you hope to gain from it?" (Erudition)
The contents were so entertaining, and people became so curious about what would happen next, that many passersby and gang members also joined the ranks of those rummaging through trash cans.
Afterward, they too became part of the Taixu Gang.
Some scavengers from the Kowloon Stronghold even said that the Taixu Gang's people were the true scavengers.
That was why the Ghostfire Syndicate had mistakenly assumed the Taixu Gang was another branch of the Kowloon Stronghold.
After all, true to its name, the Kowloon Stronghold had nine separate Scavenger battalions.
Furthermore, a major reason the Ghostfire Syndicate had found it so difficult to destroy the Kowloon Stronghold was that the Taixu Gang had sold them Shang-Zhou Bronze Swords.
"This Shang-Zhou Bronze Sword is no ordinary object. It is said that immortals from ancient Shang-Zhou Shenzhou forged it from mystic iron, and it was only recently excavated from Duke Ji's ancient tomb. The mud on it has not even dried yet.
"The original price... was eighty thousand, but today it costs only 999! We're practically selling it at a loss."
Of course, that was merely Magician's sales pitch. Not a word of it could be trusted.
The actual material used in the Shang-Zhou Bronze Swords was a copper-nickel alloy mixed with a little lead. Handling them too often could stunt your growth, while the material cost amounted to only a few credits.
As for labor costs, those were even cheaper.
When screening potential gang members, the Taixu Gang separated out those with improper intentions. This technology had already existed during the Great Cataclysm in the Three-Body world, and it was also one reason so many wise people later knew only truth, goodness, and beauty and could not tolerate the slightest impurity in their sight.
Although the selected people had not committed any crimes, they were villains-in-waiting and latent criminals.
Some had even joined the Taixu Gang purely to leech off it and cause destruction.
Naturally, Vill-V could not punish them merely because they might commit crimes in the future.
Sending them to work in factories was the best solution.
They had work to do, food to eat, and no free time. Even if they were bad people, they would have no opportunity to cause trouble.
Those who performed well could even be promoted and receive raises. Of course, that was merely an empty promise dangled by the Taixu Gang.
Even if they cut corners or stole some copper-nickel alloy mixed with lead to take home, causing their families' growth to be stunted as well, Vill-V did not particularly care.
Naturally, she would not completely ignore them if they stirred up trouble. Modern factory capitalists had devised many systems for controlling workers. Even without using all of them, Vill-V could ensure the factory operated normally.
Once the factory finished production, the problem of sales was handed over to Magician.