Chapter 566: The Ryong Family’s Dragon Clan Mercenary Group
– On the next day, early in the morning –
Hawking got up and noticed that Xu Cheng and the others had all gone into the big hole that the Falcon Clan mercenaries were excavating. There was even a small river near it.
From outside the hole, he could already hear Li Wei making loud noises due to excitement.
Hawking really wanted to go down and take a look too, but he restrained himself to not to.
Seeing Hawking trying to save face and acting like a demure woman, Xu Cheng said to him, “If you want to go down and take a look, then go.”
Hawking couldn’t help it anymore and walked down the hole, and he was completely stunned.
It turned out that the river outside seemed to be connected to one in the cave. With the big mechanic arm operating, Li Wei and the others were using shovels to collect the broken rocks. If Hawking wasn’t mistaken, the shiny stuff in the rocks were rough diamonds.
Xu Cheng picked up a piece that was about the size of his thumb and said, “Look at this one, it’s colored and is about 5 carats! The color and clarity are both world-class, and there are a lot more rough diamonds of this grade. Last night I searched their inventory, and you might be shocked. There are quite a few kilograms of this. How much do you think this cave is worth if we mine it well?”
Hawking smacked his lips. Just one bucket of this was already worth a lot of money, not to mention that they were mining out more and more.
Seeing his dumbfounded gaze, Xu Cheng laughed. “Maybe, this is why everyone’s eyeing the Land of Mercenaries. Originally, I was even a bit worried about how to get more money to buy more firearms. But now, I can just use this.”
Hawking asked, “You are planning to get this out and sell it?”
Xu Cheng replied, “Not for the time being, we got to take it slowly. We have to try to create a transport channel that belongs to us. Right now if we try to export it, it would only be intercepted by other forces.”
Then, Xu Cheng stuffed the biggest colored rough diamond into his pocket, planning to make a big diamond wedding ring for his wife.
At this time, Luo Yi, who was on sentry duty, ran over and said, “Big Brother Cheng, someone’s here.”
Xu Cheng wiped his hands with a towel and came out.
At the gate of the city, there came three armed vehicles.
All of their clothes had the character “Ryong” (TL note: Dragon in Chinese) embroidered on them.
Seeing the logo, Xu Cheng’s eyes narrowed.
“Aiyo, someone from Huaxia too?” the bald guy on the truck saw Xu Cheng and asked curiously.
Xu Cheng nodded. “What’s the matter?”
“What’s the matter?” The people on the trucks laughed.
“Is this your first time coming to the Land of Mercenaries?” The bald guy glanced at the Deviant Corp’s flag. He nodded and smacked his lips and said, “No wonder, I’ve never seen this ugly logo before. Probably some new group. But, that’s not our problem, we are just following orders. Same rule, you gotta pay the protection fee that’s due.”
Xu Cheng frowned.
At this time, Luo Yi said in a low voice by his ears, “Big clans eat small clans, and small clans have to stick together. They are the old Ryong Family’s mercenary group, and over one-tenth of the land here belongs to them. All the small clans have to pay the big clans of the area a protection fee.”
Xu Cheng nodded. He looked at those people and asked, “No sh-t, we just recognize flags, not time. I heard the Falcon got wiped out last night, and coming to check today it really seemed like the case. Damn, you guys got pretty big balls, even daring to take down Falcon. Not bad, but the rules can’t be broken, even if you are also from Huaxia. Here, there’s no such thing as compatriots, just people from the same clan.”
Xu Cheng raised his brows. “How much?”
The bald guy: “We charge by headcount.”
Going by headcount was one way to limit small clans from growing. After all, small clans didn’t have much money, and they didn’t make much from robbing and killing. If they want to expand their clan, they must pay a bigger protection fee that they wouldn’t be able to afford. Without money, they also couldn’t expand. This was just a strategy for big clans to control the size of smaller ones so they didn’t grow out of control.
If you started having more and more people and were able to fund them all, then they would know that you probably found crude oil or some type of mine. They would then take down the clan all together and have the cake all to themselves.
“We have 9 mercenaries in total right now, how much?”
“What? 9?” The baldie laughed. “Who are you joking? 9 people could take down Falcon? I can already see from here that there are more than 9. We are going in to count.”
Xu Cheng said, “They are all engineers we invited in to build stuff.”
Baldie: “That counts too!”
Xu Cheng directly blocked the road ahead of the pickup truck. Lifting his chin slightly, he looked at the baldie with a dangerous gaze, and the latter also looked down at him.
“If you don’t want our Dragon Clan to stomp you into your own ground, you better not use that arrogant look with me.”
Luo Yi pulled Xu Cheng back and whispered to remind him, “Big Brother Cheng, just bear with it for now. It’s not time for us to make them our enemy yet.”
Xu Cheng finally moved his body out of the way, and the trucks directly drove past him and stopped at the center of the city. Then, those mercenaries from the Dragon Clan arrogantly walked around the city and began counting.
The baldie stood at the top of the car and looked at him and said, “You better behave in the future. This isn’t like in Huaxia where you can call the police. Sometimes, trouble could come because you were moving your mouth too. In the future, it’s best that you cooperate with us, and pay however much you need to pay. Or, you can also tell us that you don’t need the Dragon Clan’s protection, and I believe those homeless mercenary groups out there would love to come and knock to take over your home.”
At this time, his men came to report the number.
The bald man snorted at Xu Cheng and said, “You have to pay 500 thousand in total, in three months. Also, why did you get so many engineers? Let me tell you, without our permission, you are not allowed to build the town to a certain size, nor can you turn the city into one focused on business, got it?”
“They are just here to build some better places to live. We won’t do any of those things you mentioned,” Xu Cheng said, growing a bit impatient.
“That’s for the best then.”
Just then, someone came over and said, “Boss, we found a hole.”
The baldie directly jumped off of the truck and was about to head over, but Xu Cheng suddenly pulled him back and said, “It’s just a hole for us to store firearms, no need to make a fuss about it.”
“Oh really?” The baldie grew a bit suspicious. “Then why are you nervous?”
He insisted on going over.
Xu Cheng grabbed his arm instantly, using a ton of force. His eyes and aura were giving off strong murderous intent, enough to make the baldie feel like he was suffocating. He felt like he couldn’t move anymore.
“I said, don’t go over!” Xu Cheng reminded him again.
The baldie swallowed his spittle. After staring at Xu Cheng for a bit, he finally said to his subordinates, “Come back, we are done here.”