CHAPTER 48: A TAKEOVER (5)

"Um... Thanks for making this quick...?"

Upon their realization of the difference in strength. Ash could just do whatever he wanted.

It even made it slightly awkward for him that Ash even started saying "Excuse me," as he administered the verdant wolf venom.

When all the guys, even the gang boss, who needed an even higher dosage of the verdant wolf venom to infect, had all undergone their seizures, the process was complete.

A connection was born between them and Ash.

An understanding between each and every one of them with Ash was born and grew stronger in an instant.

The feeling of reverence bloomed in their minds whenever they looked and thought of Ash.

And just like the animals of the forest, Ash began looking at all these people as if they were a part of his family.

Now, everyone inside the building had carried Ash’s gift within them.

Giving them the plague endurance skill from surviving the verdant wolf’s venom and receiving Ash’s blessing.

Well, unless the unfortunate guy who was blasted by the front door of the hideout.

The poor guy didn’t make it out alive after a concussion and loss of blood.

But that didn’t mean Ash would just toss him away like trash.

"Don’t forget to eat your protein! You won’t grow any bigger if you don’t fulfill your daily protein needs!" He shouted.

Caw.

A raven then entered the room, put away the broken door parts on top of the man as if they weighed like a piece of paper, and began munching.

As for Ash, he began administering more diseases to his new family members.

Just like the residents of the forests, the humans also received the same set of 4 diseases.

The one that made their bodies tougher, another to make them stronger, a mental defense just to be safe, and then a basic ability to spit out acid biles as a freebie.

Every present member of the Strong Arm gang received those 4 diseases and abilities.

But Ash decided to give the boss, the one who succeeded in making the tiny scratch on his titanroot, a bonus for his achievement.

Just like the gang’s name, the boss’s ability was related to strength enhancement.

It was one of the most basic abilities that people awakened.

But how strong their abilities turned out to be was based on their talent, or in this case, luck on their awakening ceremony, and also how hard they worked to improve their skills.

The gang boss was a high tier 2 awakened human.

A commendable feat that not every human on Earth could achieve.

It wasn’t any once in a generation talent. In fact, he was far from it because the peak level of awakened humans was in tier 3.

But still, for someone who had to live in the slums to reach that level, it was an achievement.

To increase the boss’s ability even further, Ash gave him two more abilities.

The berserker thorn and the steelbark ability.

With his innate capability and talent, the boss easily received those gifts without any problem.

Ash even saw a potential for the boss to awaken a tier 2 disease.

But that had to wait.

Ash needed to make sure he didn’t lose his first ever capable human family member because of his own curiosity.

Starting from all the members present inside the building, the change soon came to the whole Strong Arm gang.

The gang members were told to report back to their hideout at least once a day.

And every time someone new came into the hideout, the members just shared every disease that they got along with Ash’s mana that they carried.

Just like that, the diseases and blessings spread.

In just a single day, Ash now had slightly more than 20 new family members.

They all revered him. And Ash cared for all of them equally.

It was an excellent start for Ash to start spreading his roots deeper into the slums of the city.

"Now I only need to think of a way to convince people to go out to this new ’clinic’ that was run by a gang..."

While Ash was busy with his new plan, the news of his action earlier this afternoon quickly spread around the slums.

The people didn’t know what had actually happened.

What they all knew for a fact was that a mid-sized gang had just been attacked.

By a single man wearing a cape that barely showed a small part of his face.

They didn’t know who the culprit was. What happened to the gang, or whether the Strong Arm gang was even still running.

And the latter news was a very important matter for a certain group resting in the center of the slum.

The place where the real gangs who run the place operate.

"So? What did you get?" The man sitting behind the table asked.

Despite having a chair available in front of him, another man continued standing when he answered the man’s question.

"It’s true, boss. Strong Arm had been attacked.

Their door was blasted open, and there were members standing guard by the door, but nothing was visible on the inside.

There were some kind of vines blocking the view inside the building.

We wanted to check inside ourselves, but there’s something strange."

The boss, who still sat laid back on a very comfortable-looking office chair, raised his eyebrows.

"Something strange?"

The underling nodded and continued explaining.

"Yes. We’ve seen other members going inside the building, but we saw none of the present members or the others who went inside ever went out again.

Other than the two guards who stood right in front of the door, there’s no one who had left the building since entering it.

Even Jack couldn’t be seen anywhere else in the slum."

The boss leaned on the headrest, his eyes staring at the ceiling. Seemingly trying to figure out something

’It made sense that Jack wouldn’t be outside his hideout if he heard his base was attacked...

And it would explain how the commotion died down that quickly if Jack was already inside the hideout when the intruder came and attacked.

But... Why is it so quiet?

Even if the attacker was a tier 3 awakened, Jack wouldn’t go down that easily.

He could’ve at least escaped and reported here to ask for back up if that was the case...’

The boss played with the pen on his table.

Everything was possible to be done digitally now, but no one could hack onto a piece of paper. Hence, his trust in it was second only to his own mother when she was still alive.

’Jack wasn’t the most loyal subordinate, but I don’t think he would make such a complicated story if he wanted to switch sides or betray me...’

The Strong Arm gang suddenly went silent as if their whole mouths had been sewn tight after making such a commotion wasn’t supposed to happen.

They were a gang under his banner, one of the biggest local gangs in the city ,which was in charge of the human stuff in the slums.

Be it the place where people lived or the few unique ’jobs’ people could take, his gang was the biggest one, other than the two other main gangs, which were in charge of something else.

They trusted Strong Arm to take care of that certain part of the slums.

Any problem the Strong Arm received should be reported to them.

If Strong Arm hadn’t said anything all this time, then there could only mean two things.

’Either they had betrayed me or they no longer existed...’

The former option was almost impossible to happen.

Anyone living in the slums with a working brain knew that betraying one of the main gangs was a death sentence.

No matter the reason, they would disappear. Either by death or by being banished.

’And even if he got his brain upside down, Jack would never dare to betray me...

It was either that he was killed and the gang members had joined the attacker, or Jack was convinced enough by this attacker to dare to betray me...’

A thought then ran through the boss’s mind.

’If a single man really had such a capability, then... We might be able to do something...’

The gang boss made his decree.

"Prepare our men. If by nighttime Jack or anyone didn’t come here to report, we will march there."

The underling nodded his head and hurriedly ran out of the room.

Back at the two story building where the Strong Arm gang used to reside, their new boss was currently busy with remodeling.

All members of Strong Arm had become his underlings.

Ash had made some room in the basement, using his titanroot to reinforce the space to make it tougher and using vines to make it more soundproof.

The newly inducted members of his family were currently getting used to their new bodies.

They didn’t get some fancy new abilities, but the physical enhancement and endurance boost they got were the same as if they had just awakened a tier 1 ability.

As for the people who had physical enhancement ability in the first place, the enhancement they received doubled instead.

Tom, the knife guy, was now as strong as a low tier 2 awakened.

While Jack, the ex-boss of Strong Arm, had finally broken through to tier 3.

Becoming a low tier 3 awakened in just a few minutes.

A feat that he wasn’t able to do even after a decade full of hard work.

And with the steelbark armor ability, he was confident that even he could now survive a clash with the strongest man in the city, the city’s governor.

While all the members were busy testing out their new abilities, Ash was still busy on the first floor of the building.

He wanted to create the reception room and the operating room for his new clinic.

He took this very seriously. Even considering the best angle where his patient would be the most comfortable when lying down on his vine bed.

He was so focused on this that he was unaware that dozens of people had gathered a distance away from his new base.

Ready to raid him once the night fell.