Chapter 19: People Were Captured

In the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of the group. Looking at them, at their disheveled and anxious appearances, Rod couldn’t help but frown. It seemed different from what he had imagined—nothing serious seemed to have happened.
The person who came was none other than Curlyhair, leading the group. Behind him were two others he recognized—members of the Reaper Scythe Squad, and also part of his own first team. All of them looked rather disheveled, but not as if they had just returned from battle. Rod remembered ordering them to rest after last night’s fight. It was only noon; everyone should still be resting or just waking up. There was no way they would go back to battle so soon! They weren’t that hardworking, and without his orders, they wouldn’t act on their own.
“What’s the matter?” Rod asked, standing in front of them as they gasped for breath. After a moment of silence, he pressed them to speak.
“Boss, this time… it’s trouble. Something’s happened!” Curlyhair said anxiously, looking at Rod, though his eyes darted around, as if avoiding his gaze.
“What’s the matter? Stop beating around the bush. Tell me clearly, or get back there!” Hearing Curlyhair’s words, Rod grew impatient. He felt relieved, certain that it wasn’t anything serious—at least nothing related to the city walls. If it were about that, they would have told him directly. Their evasive behavior and guilty expressions revealed a lot to Rod.
He examined their appearances carefully. Though disheveled, they didn’t have any serious wounds—more like signs of a fight. Rod began to guess what had happened.
“No, boss, please! You have to cover for us this time. Otherwise, we’re really done! We’re finished! Damn it, at Camp 11, aside from a few kids, those damned guys—we got into a fight with them and lost!” Hearing Rod’s words, Curlyhair grew anxious and spoke hurriedly, putting on a pitiful look to appear innocent.

“Damn it, I knew those bastards of yours wouldn’t do anything good! Hmph, why did you get involved with them? Who else would bother coming after you? Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to! Solve your own problems—don’t embarrass me here. Deal with it however you must. If you can’t handle it, then face the consequences. Our Death Scythe Squad can’t afford such shame!” With a bitter smile, Rod spoke in a gloomy tone. These guys really have endless energy; it seems the night battles weren’t intense enough to drain their energy, so they keep causing trouble during the day.

Rod naturally was aware of the instability in Iron Bar Town these past few days. He had seen many troublemakers causing chaos, but he had been too lazy to deal with them—lacking the time, energy, and mood. Yet, as expected, trouble found him when he tried to avoid it. These guys had gotten involved in things he didn’t want to be part of! The thought made him angry.

“Stop, boss! Really, aren’t you just going to stand by and watch us get bullied? That can’t be right. We’re brothers, right? You’re our leader—how can you not help when your subordinates are being mistreated?” They urgently pulled at Rod, who was about to leave.

Looking back at the people surrounding him, Rod smiled faintly, his smile tinged with anger. “What’s the matter? Planning to force your way in? You guys think you can still get bullied? Lei Ao, if I haven’t developed dementia, I believe you’re a beginner-level imperial warrior. And the other two—probably gold-level warriors. If the three of you don’t go bullying others, how come you get bullied instead? If you can’t fight, at least run. If not, then you don’t deserve to be bullied!” With a cold laugh, Rod spoke sarcastically.

Then he took a deep breath and calmly looked at them. “Tell me, what exactly happened? Is there something else you haven’t told me?” Their hesitant expressions made Rod suspect there might be more to it.

“Boss…” Rod’s words stunned the curly-haired guys slightly, who then showed faint bitter smiles and embarrassment.

After pondering for a moment, under Rod’s direct gaze, they all felt a prickle on their scalps. Unable to bear it any longer, they looked up at Rod, who was watching them with a half-smile, and sighed. Curly Hair realized they could no longer hide it—even if they tried now, it would be discovered eventually!
They turned to look at the two people beside them and, after reaching a consensus, stopped avoiding Rod’s gaze.
“Planning to tell us?” Rod’s eyes naturally noticed their actions, and he asked with a faint smile.
“Uh, this time it’s a tricky situation! We had nothing to do this afternoon, so we planned to go out and buy some liquor to drink. It’s been a long time since we’ve had any alcohol, and we felt like it. So, with everyone’s agreement, I took a few of us to explore the city!
Who knew that as we passed by Camp 11, we suddenly ran into a bunch of brats—eight or nine of them, acting very arrogantly as they walked towards us, laughing and talking. We knew those guys; they’ve become quite notorious in Area C these days. They like to bully weaker or individual people, doing all sorts of bad things! Clearly, they’re not good people! Lately, with the situation stabilizing, they’ve even pulled off some big crimes, causing quite a stir! Although we hate them, we don’t want to get involved—we don’t have the mood or time! But just as we saw them grabbing another female mage and starting to harass her, we couldn’t just ignore it. How could we stay silent?”
As he spoke, Curly Hair grew agitated: “Those brats took advantage of their numbers to bully us unjustly. In the end, we couldn’t hold back anymore and fought back for a while.
We didn’t expect those bastards to get even bolder and start attacking! Of course, we weren’t going to let them bully us, so we fought back.
We didn’t realize that among those guys were a few strong fighters—two imperial-level warriors, five gold-level warriors, and two silver-level warriors! There were only six of us on our side… and in the end…”
Curly Hair stopped speaking, panting heavily as he looked at Rod. Clearly, anyone could see he was still furious.
“And that’s how it ended?” Rod asked with a slight smile, finding it quite amusing.

“Yeah, that’s it—we’re at a disadvantage!” The man next to Curly spewed out in frustration. “There were three more people, right? Where are they?” They had said there were six people; how come only three were left now? Where had the others gone? As these words were spoken, the atmosphere turned gloomy instantly. The three men’s faces twisted with shame, anger, and deep frustration. “We were captured. We told them we were from the Scythe of Death Squad. Those guys didn’t just ignore us—they got even worse after hearing that! They grabbed us three and said they wanted to teach us a lesson, to make us learn our place! They said some awful things too, clearly not taking the Scythe of Death Squad seriously at all! We fought hard to get free and were about to go back for more help when we ran into them again!” Another man added, his voice filled with frustration. The resentment in his words was almost amusing. “Captured?” Rod frowned, surprised. It was indeed unusual to have people captured like that. “Yeah, they took us to Camp 11. There are many of theirs there, and we couldn’t get in. That’s why we came back. Those brats really think they’re something special. If I don’t deal with them today, I’ll regret it!” At this point, Curly stopped hiding anything and spoke angrily, with a rebellious vibe. “Boss, hurry over! Jim and the others are still Silver Warriors—they can’t handle this. I’m worried those B-class scum will do something brutal. Other than that, it’s fine.” Seeing Rod deep in thought, the two men beside Curly grew anxious and urged him quickly. “What? Jim? The other two are Sambik and Kambi?” Hearing the names, Rod’s eyes widened as he shouted. Jim—it was him! Rod quickly guessed who the other two were. Losing his composure, he started shouting. Maybe it would be okay for others, but who were these three? How could he stay calm? “Yeah, what’s the problem?” Curly asked, puzzled, with no time to wonder why Rod suddenly knew their names. “Damn it, you troublemakers! Lei Ao, go back and get more people—hurry! Get all our brothers out. I’m going to check on them first. If those guys are causing trouble again, get moving!” Once confirmed, Rod flew into anger, shouting loudly before rushing forward eagerly.

Seeing the sudden change, the few of them were slightly stunned—the shift was too fast for them to react. They really didn’t understand why hearing those three names could cause such a big change! However, Rod’s words excited them, so they didn’t think much of it. Curly Hair quickly responded and rushed off like the wind toward his own camp, while the other two also went excitedly with Rod straight to Camp 11! They knew there was going to be some interesting action this time—with their hair flying, could those people still have a good time? They had to raid Camp 11 this time.