Chapter 494 The Local Gangs Really Have No Manners
There were people everywhere on the roads in the slum.
Men and women of different ages were dressed shabbily, their slippers, shorts and singlets reminding Luke of China many years ago.
They were sitting on all sorts of things too, like stools, plastic chairs, wooden benches and so on.
Some of them were chatting, some were drinking, some were eating, and some were doing house ch.o.r.es.
There were also plenty of kids who gathered to play together, and the most common toy here was the soccer ball.
Even if only a tiny piece of flat land was available, several kids could still have a great time playing with the ball.
The kingdom of soccer! Luke sighed as he continued on.
Truth be told, this place wasn’t any from the dirty and messy slums in Los Angeles.
There were always people living under overpa.s.ses in Los Angeles, in shacks which they made out of plastic sheets. A lot of people slept on the roadside in the prosperous districts too. Here, at least, people still had a roof over their heads.
Wherever there was no money, there were slums.
Luke soon walked into a winding alley.
This alley was only one meter wide, and only two people would be able to walk through at a time.
It meandered through the houses whose walls were very close to each other, which made the alley feel even narrower and more suffocating.
After walking dozens of meters down the alley, heads started to poke out stealthily from windows up ahead and behind him.
Up ahead, a handful of young men appeared.
They had unruly appearances and their clothes were unkempt. Their leader was even bare to the waist.
But almost all of them were holding guns, and several people a little further away on the rooftops were even holding rifles. None of them said anything. They simply surrounded Luke silently, as if waiting for him to speak first.
Luke grinned. “I’m looking for someone.”
The half-naked young man eyed him. “We’re not the police.”
Luke smiled even wider. “No, that’s why I came to you.”
The young man looked at him suspiciously.
Luke had already disguised himself with sungla.s.ses and a beard, which made him look more mature, but he still had a distinctive vibe about him.
With a smile, Luke slowly took out a wad of cash from his backpack and tossed it over. “This is my advance payment. It’s yours whether or not you can help me.”
The people around him couldn’t see anything but the cash.
The people here were far more sensitive about cash than regular people. When they got a good look at the denomination, they couldn’t help but swallow — those were USD one-hundred-dollar bills.
If the entire wad was in the same denomination, that was more than ten grand. For these people, it was definitely a huge amount of money.
The young man subconsciously picked up the cash and quickly thumbed through it; he confirmed that they weren’t fake, and that they were all one-hundred-dollar bills. He grew suspicious. “Wait a minute.” He walked into a house nearby with the wad of cash.
Luke wasn’t worried. He fished out a chocolate and cream lollipop from his knapsack.
He unhurriedly tore off the wrapper and put the lollipop into his mouth.
He was so calm and collected that everybody who was glaring at him felt weird.
Anyone who could be so unperturbed when surrounded by dozens of shooters was either crazy or confident.
Luke sensed someone watching him; it was a teenager.
The teenager, who couldn’t be older than fifteen and was basically still a kid, was licking his lips.
Luke grinned. “Do you want one too?”
The teenager subconsciously nodded, but instantly realized that wasn’t right, and quickly shook his head.
Luke chuckled and took out another lollipop from his knapsack which he tossed to the boy. “Why are you so shy? Can’t a man eat candy?”
This big boy couldn’t help catching the lollipop that had been thrown to him.
The people with weird expressions around them had nothing to say.
This guy was calmly eating candy while surrounded by guns. Who would dare say he wasn’t a man?!
But of course, whether this manly guy would die later, and how miserably, was another matter.
Less than five minutes later, the half-naked young man appeared on another roof and gestured to his fellows. “Bring him up.”
Only then did the surrounding people quietly disappear into the nearby houses.
Only two young men were left aiming their guns at Luke. One led the way, and the other grabbed Luke’s knapsack and indicated for him to follow.
Luke wasn’t really bothered. With his hands in his pockets, he followed them.
There was nothing except some food and candy in the kapsack.
He had put everything else in his inventory before he came here. The knapsack was just a prop and a feint.
These guys had just taken the knapsack and didn’t search him since he was wearing a close-fitting tank top under a thin, long-sleeved s.h.i.+rt and a pair of light, close-fitting exercise pants. Even a knife under these clothes would be easy to spot, to say nothing of a gun.
After taking a few turns in the alley, they entered a very narrow yard and climbed a flight of small, steep stairs. Luke then found himself on a terrace with a shed.
It was still a very plain environment, but there was beer, food, and a cool sea breeze.
Except for the unpleasant smell and the lack of girls and sand, this place could almost be cozy.
A middle-aged man with all kinds of tattoos on his body was sitting in a beach chair. Behind him were two brawny men holding rifles.
The half-naked young man who had told Luke to come, as well as the other two who had escorted him here, stood behind Luke, also with their guns in their hands.
“What do you want?” the tattooed man asked with no trace of politeness.
Luke said, “I want to ask about someone.”
The tattooed man asked, “Who?”
Luke took out a photo from his pocket and tossed it casually onto the table in front of the man. “Lisa Feng, a Mexican doctor.”
The tattooed man raised an eyebrow. He picked up the photo and narrowed his eyes. “Never seen her.”
Luke hummed and said, “Then thank you for your time. Goodbye.”
The tattooed man raised his hand, and the guys around him pointed their guns at Luke. “You don’t seem to know where you are, or who I am!” The man stood up with an M1911 in his hand. “Now, hand over your money, your credit cards, and their pa.s.swords.”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Is this… a robbery?”
The man grinned sardonically. “No, this is teaching you a lesson on how to survive in Rio.”
Luke tilted his head as if in thought. “Does that mean that you won’t kill me?”
The middle-aged didn’t reply. He simply made a gesture, and the two young men behind him stepped forward to grab his hands.
Luke sighed. “You made easy money, yet you still want to rob me. The local gangs really have no manners!”
Saying that, he stepped toward the tattooed man several meters away.