Chapter 128 – Direction of Development
Lei Yu was thinking, could it be Mr. Hawes? No, impossible. Mr. Hawes and his family is so nice and polite, there’s no way he could be affiliated with these dirty scoundrels of the underworld. Lei Yu didn’t how he should ask them so he simply didn’t bother asking.
They aren’t going after him but it doesn’t mean Lei Yu will just let this go. What was the reason for coming to the U.S.? Wasn’t it about that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Hasegawa? Wanting to start a plague in Tenglong country and had actually killed Lei Yu once, was he going to let him off that easily?
After making inquiries from multiple sources, plus the information provided by Bianca, Lei Yu found out that behind Dr. Tony was a large squad of mutants. Wanting to destroy him and his organization was harder than ascending to an immortal. Add the ninjas that had migrated from the Kou country to the U.S., Lei Yu realized this was not an easy task for him.
Wanting to single-handedly deal with this was impossible so Lei Yu decided to stay in the U.S. long-term to develop his prospects. As for the suggestion proposed by Tenglong’s Chairman Lin Cang Hai? Lei Yu had absolutely no interest at all.
Although the amount of wealth Lei Yu possessed was not considered an amount that can rival a country’s, but it was still not a small number. With $1.3 billion U.S. dollars, wanting to use this to establish a foundation for future developments wasn’t a difficult thing.
Lei Yu decided to have Black Panther come to the U.S. to be his right-hand man. Even though he hasn’t known him for a long time, but the things he has experienced with him made Lei Yu completely satisfied with his performance. He may seem cold and unapproachable on the outside, but Black Panther was in fact a rarely seen loyal person.
That day when Lei Yu used his fearsome lightning ability to force Black Panther to reveal things about Yamaguchi-gumi, he was able to tolerate it for a long time even when he hated the organization. When Lei Yu first used threats, and then incentives of treating him like a fellow brother, even if he commanded Black Panther to die now, it’s possible he wouldn’t even twitch his eyebrow and do it.
Black Panther brought Gray Bear along with him and they both arrived in the U.S. As for their other brothers, they stayed in the Kou country. On one hand, they could still protect Cui Ying Ying’s safety, and on the other hand, there were still matters they had to take care of. After the destruction of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the island had become their exclusive territory and they started a ma.s.sive recruitment effort. Due to Lei Yu’s incident, the Kou country’s economy went into a recession and became one of the world’s largest debtor country. They simply couldn’t afford to keep paying their ninjas so a bunch of them had defected to Black Panther and his group.
Black Panther had the sole support of Cui Ying Ying; and with signed agreements from the Kou country, the two sides agreed to not interfere with each other. However the government treated the Yamaguchi-gumi in the past was how they will treat the new organization now. The only difference was that they wouldn’t create viruses or bacteriums to endanger the world.
So how did Cui Ying Ying afford to employ these ninjas that were in the thousands? As a recently debuted shrewd and clever businesswoman, of course that won’t stop Cui Ying Ying from finding her own way¹.
Once he saw these two men who were considered quite competent underlings to him, a feeling of joy came from deep inside Lei Yu’s heart. When it came to dealings with the underground world, their expertise would be the best. After all, they were pretty much the go to guys that were in charge of public dealings while in the Yamaguchi-gumi, and had a lot of experience in this area.
Everyone gathered inside Lei Yu’s hotel room. There were no outsiders present with only Hu Jiong, Black Panther, Gray Bear, and Ai Er. Even Bianca had not been invited by Lei Yu since she was too mysterious. Even though she had helped him out, Lei Yu was still somewhat worried about her background.
“Young master, what are your plans?” Asked Black Panther
Lei Yu gathered his thoughts and asked: “So how should we recruit and expand our forces? We don’t have any roots inside the U.S., just like how we originally were in the Kou country.”
“Young master, have you forgotten? As long as you have money in this world, there’s no problems that can’t be solved.” Black Panther smiled before continuing: “Once those people with strength and abilities discover gold, they will desperately rush forward. As long as your pile of gold is big and tall enough, then there won’t be any problems at all!”
Lei Yu nodded. “Ah, what you’ve said makes sense. You know when it comes to things like this; I’m pretty much clueless about it. I’m sure you guys understand the reason why I’m doing this. Even though the U.S. is not my country, but according to the situation described by Bianca, this person called Dr. Tony will one day become a threat to the U.S. In order to terminate the threat from spreading to Tenglong country, we will have to destroy their organization for good.”
Lei Yu wasn’t some almighty savior or some sort of hero. But there was one thing that other people could not be compared to him, and that’s Lei Yu truly believed when a person had the strength, they had to carry on burdens and responsibilities correlated to it. If they weren’t capable of it, then they had no right to possess that strength.
“Recruiting soldiers is fundamental in expanding our forces but it’s rather difficult to recruit people dedicated to our cause. Anyway young master, how much capital do you have? If there isn’t enough, can we see if Miss. Cui can do something about it? I believe she will fully support you at all costs.” Black Panther asked.
Lei Yu shook his head and smiled. “My guess is the cash on hand she has isn’t as much when compared to mine. The initial capital of our plans isn’t a problem so you don’t have to worry, just do what you must. But you need to remember that we’re not going the underworld route. We only need to expand our powers to a certain extent that’s good enough to rival Dr. Tony and Hasegawa’s forces.”
Everyone nodded. Lei Yu then continued: “First of all, not only do we need some common ordinary people, but we need those with special abilities. We will have a lot of work cut out for us in recruiting both sides.”
Lei Yu clearly spoke his thoughts in detail to everyone present. After a few days of familiarizing themselves, Black Panther and Gray Bear started to know the ins and out of New York City. After these two were injected with a formula that Lei Yu found in the hard drive, their bodies were greatly improved. And the sickening stench that had once weighed down their hearts had disappeared. How can this kindness they’ve been show be put into words?
Because Black Panther and his group had bodies combined with the genetic makeup of animals, Lei Yu only used a single component of the upgraded mutagen H series injection. With an extracted single component, it wouldn’t cause any negatives effects of a double dose of mutagen. Back then, the Yamaguchi-gumi felt the component was too expensive so that’s why they didn’t give it to Black Panther and his group of mutants.
A few days later, they didn’t have that much progress but Hu Jiong’s side had a small breakthrough.
While he was in the Bounty Hunters Guild, Hu Jiong was familiar with some of the bounty hunters. Even though they couldn’t chat with each other while they were in the premise of the guild, but privately and on occasion, they would meet up to chat and drink together. And this pastime happened to be how lonely people would meet up.
After conversing with them, Hu Jiong revealed what his thoughts were. These bounty hunters expressed their willingness to leave the guild but their condition was of course related to money.
This wasn’t a problem for Lei Yu. What he was worried about was how to stay operational. Start a business? He wasn’t the material for things like that. And he couldn’t grab Cui Ying Ying from the Kou country and bring her here. And he couldn’t just let the money in his pocket keep on depleting. There’s an old saying where sitting idle will one day empty a mountain of gold, so what methods can he use to maintain a stable income?
“Young master, I have a method but I’m just not too sure on how to implement it.” Hu Jiong said after thinking awhile.
“Quickly tell us.” Lei Yu had no ideas at all.
“Underground fights are very popular in the U.S., and you should know how they work. We could also start one and become the banker and open up bets. There will naturally be lots of people interested in it.”
Lei Yu thought for a bit and shook his head. “It’s a good idea but isn’t gambling something considered a vice? I mentioned before that I didn’t want to develop our organization through the underworld route.”
¹ – And that’s how the author avoids coming up with a way to fund them.