So… Long story short… These guys are a bunch of pirates who lost their ships and got stranded here. So they started a gang to catch young girls and drug them into slavery to get money to replace their ships.

At least, that was their plan at first until they realised how profitable this was and just stuck around as illegal slavers instead to take advantage of the people who can't fight back.

None of them were particularly known during their pirating days so there weren't any bounties on them which meant that no Mercs found it worth their time to hunt them.

But then they started getting even more members from other pirates who also lost their ships and they're now a rather large gang.

In other words, these people are fucking losers.

The young man offered to give us directions to the gang and sought to leave after that but Amber grabbed him by the neck and told him that he was going to lead us to their hideout personally.

"After all, you're expecting us to work for you for free, the least you could do is to accompany us, right?" She told him.

He looked a little frightened by her proposition but agreed to it in the end.

I guess when you are being forced to go to a gang's hideout who have beaten you up before without a means to defend yourself, it's normal to be hesitant.

He led the way through the station, taking a lift at the end of the street down to a lower level of the station where it felt like we were walking through a maintenance tunnel with all the pipes and wires along the roof.

But it seems like this was also a street of some sort since there were several stalls set up along the way and a few people were also huddled here, some of them sleeping along the side of the wall or passed out with several alcohol bottles littered around them.

I figured the main reason why there were fewer people upstairs in the morning was because everyone else was still unconscious from all the drinking they did the night before.

A few of them gave us unfriendly looks, some of them clearly looking for a fight while others seemed to be of the lewd nature. But when they saw the guns we had on us, they quickly looked away and pretended to be busy instead.

Yeah… Don't come down here without a gun, guys.

Soon enough, we reached a weird looking door that reminded me of those heavy metal doors that you might find in a ship with that wheel thing in the middle of the door.

I think this might be the first time I'm seeing a door that needs to be opened manually instead of automatically.

"They're hiding there… They already have several other girls locked up there too… Please save them…"

Amber turned to him, "Why are you speaking like you aren't going in there with us? You're going to follow us all the way, boy."

"E… Eh? Wait… Wait a minute! But I don't know how to fight! I would just be a burden!"

"Uh-huh… And you already said they captured a number of girls right? How are we supposed to know who is your sister amongst them?"

"You… I mean… Aren't you going to rescue everyone anyway? She will come home once she is freed."

"A brother who would just leave her sister to be rescued by some strangers he just met, what kind of brother are you?"

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"Ugh… I… I get it… Could I… Could I have a weapon at least?"

Amber raised an eyebrow, "You know how to use a gun?"

"N… No? But… How hard could it be, right? Just… Just point it at someone and shoot?"

Lea shook her head, "You are definitely not getting a gun. But really, do we need to bring him along?"

Amber scoffed, "Of course we do. Come on! Let's go before they start using the White Powder and we have less of it to sell!"

So she wasn't worried about the girls being drugged but more because we'll have less drugs to sell if they were to be drugged…

I kind of have mixed feelings about this because aren't we just selling it back into the market for someone else to be used on instead?

But then again… Do I really care?

Honestly, not really. As long as it doesn't affect us, I don't really care that much.

Amber went up to the door and spun it open, the bolts sliding out of their locks with a metallic clang before the door swung inwards to reveal a dimly lit corridor behind it.

All of us armed ourselves and we proceeded past the doors, advancing through the tunnel cautiously.

Amber was leading the way with the young man following nervously right behind her followed by myself and Lea.

The young man kept glancing back nervously, clearly wanting to leave but unable to so he had no choice but to follow along.

The corridor led to a flight of stairs that led further down up ahead and Amber slowed down her advance to creep towards it.

I realised why she did so a moment later as voices echoed from the front.

"Are they not ready yet? The next batch will be coming soon, we need to get ready for them."

"I'm working on it already! They all came in these large packets so we have to separate them by ourselves! This shit takes time, ok?!"

"Whatever, just hurry up before they get here. I want to get this over and done with."

"What? You planning on fucking them as well?"

"Hahaha! Of course I am! They're all illegal slaves anyway so no one cares!"

"Don't let the boss hear you say that."

"What? You think he's not fucking them either? You're stupid if you think that."

"I meant letting him hear that you have the same idea too."

"Well, he won't know if you don't tell him."

We crept over to the top of the stairs and found two thugs crouched over some boxes that were packed with bags of White Powder.

They were taking them out to put them in a pile near another table that seemed to be there to sort them into smaller packages.

I turned to Amber and whispered, "How do you want to do this?"

"Hmm? Just go in and shoot them?"

Unexpectedly, the young man spoke up before I could, "Wait! What if that makes them kill the girls?! You can't do that! They could… They could… Use them as hostages!"

Amber gave him a smile, "Yes, you are right."

Just as the young man breathed out a sigh of relief, Amber raised her hand and shot the two thugs in the head, nailing them even at this distance.

The young man let out a shriek of surprise, only to have Amber grab him by the collar and throwing him down the stairs.

Both Lea and I watched as the young man rolled down the stairs, bouncing on every other step before hitting the bottom of the stairs with a loud crash.

"Party's about to get started~" The blonde haired Merc giggled while lifting up her guns.

I was about to ask why she did that to the young man when someone ran over from below to check what the noise was.

The new guy stopped when he saw the two dead thugs and the young man on the floor, looking more surprised than wary.

I thought that was Amber using the young man as a distraction and making them think he was the one who killed the two thugs when the newcomer spoke up.

"Darrel? What the fuck are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be looking for new marks outside? What happened to those two?!"

The young man didn't even get to answer before Amber slid down the stairs on the railing and fired two rounds into the newcomer's chest, sending him sprawling on the floor on his back.

She then kicked the guy who 'hired' us over onto his back and grinned at him, "Oh look~ You finally look like someone actually beat you up to steal your sister~ You might want to consider doing that next time before lying about getting beaten up by some thugs in your next life. Thanks for showing us where your group's hideout is though~"

Ah… Oh shit… I didn't even notice that…

He claimed he got beaten up by the thugs before they took his sister away… Yet he didn't look like he had any wounds on him. This fucker lied to us…

She stepped on his chest and pointed the gun at his head.

Before she could pull the trigger though, I shouted at her, "Amber, wait!"

She turned to see me rushing down the stairs with Lea following behind me.

"What? Don't tell me you want to spare this bastard, Tera?"

"No, no… This asshole thinks he can trick us? Then he needs some bigger punishment…"

I took aim in between his legs and Amber immediately understood and stepped away, allowing me to blow his crotch clean off with my shotgun.

He let out a howl of pain and clutched the mess in between his legs while curling himself up into a ball.

Yeah… We're going to let him bleed out like that.

In the meantime… We have a gang to clear out for their drugs.

What? Look! There's already a few boxes of them there! Why stop here?