Ch.72Their Plan! (6)

#072

“Did these bastards trade their eyeballs for marbles, fuck! Are you proud of getting your ass kicked after trying to extort money from someone built like that?!”

“No, we thought three of us could obviously win…”

“Yes, it is something to be proud of, you idiots! And of all people, it had to be that fucking guy…”

The man who had shot at Dexter first and collapsed was looking at him in despair.

“What the hell are you talking about, Martin!”

“Ah, fuck… Chief. That guy is the reason my gang fell apart!”

“What kind of bullshit is that? Don’t tell me that muscle mountain is the one who fought your gang alone, kidnapped Hector, and disappeared?”

“Yes, you moron!”

No wonder he seemed familiar—he was revealing his own identity.

Dexter grinned as he watched Martin snap at the man called Chief.

“Hey, Martin. Long time no see. I thought you were going to welcome me with two large pepperoni pizzas, but I guess not?”

Dexter taunted him while clenching and unclenching his fist.

Despite having been beaten by Dexter before, Martin was just trembling but showed no sign of running away.

Looking at Martin, Dexter pondered.

‘He’s less scared than I expected. Why is that?’

Dexter quietly thought about the day he was shot.

“……”

Then he realized.

He remembered that he hadn’t been able to respond adequately at the time, and that Martin, who was standing in front of him now, had been the first to get hit with the stun blaster.

It seemed Martin hadn’t noticed what happened since he was the first to pass out while the rest of his gang was unconscious or sprawled on the ground.

‘Ah, of course he wouldn’t know since he was the first to go down.’

This was actually a good thing.

‘In the end, it means I get to beat up one more guy.’

He had been living too nicely since coming to Earth.

The Dexter who had vowed to return ten hits for every one he took was gone, replaced by someone who handed $60 to a man he’d never met before.

‘This isn’t right.’

When living in space with Eliya, wasn’t there a time when his name was feared even on frontier planets?

Thinking he had become too soft, Dexter looked around.

‘Is there anything I can swing?’

Then he spotted a pipe about the thickness of his wrist attached to the exterior wall of the building.

‘This should do.’

Dexter gripped the pipe with one hand.

“Hmph.”

As he pulled the pipe toward himself, it detached from the wall, unable to withstand Dexter’s strength.

The pipe he removed from the wall appeared to be about 3 feet (approximately 1m) long.

‘Good thickness too.’

It was a solid pipe, though slightly rusted, that had been firmly attached to the exterior wall.

Dexter seemed to have exerted only minimal effort, but the crew members were shocked to see the thick pipe come off the wall so easily.

“Is that guy even human?”

“I think we’re totally screwed.”

“These idiots have no eyes to see with.”

The men glared at the three injured men who had called them, cursing them out.

Suddenly finding themselves being blamed, the three men could only retreat to a corner without saying a word.

Dexter gripped the pipe tightly and swung it around.

-Swoosh, swoosh!

The sound wasn’t what you’d expect from swinging a pipe.

The expressions of the men watching were quite a sight.

“We’re really fucked.”

“How the hell are we supposed to dodge that?”

Dexter seemed pleased with the pipe, grinning as he looked at the crew members.

“Hmm, this is perfect. Aren’t you going to attack? I’m all ready.”

Since he had already brought the crew, he needed to show some action.

Martin, who used to be in Hector’s gang, was the first to point at Dexter and speak.

“We can’t lose with these numbers! Attack him now!”

Martin’s words were exactly what Dexter wanted to hear.

At the same time, the men around Martin began to rally together, and the man called Chief, who had been hesitating, charged at Dexter.

“Aaaaargh!”

Chief swung his aluminum bat down at Dexter like he was hammering a nail, but Dexter didn’t bother dodging and instead held up his pipe at an angle.

The aluminum bat wanted to hit Dexter directly in front of it, but it slid along the pipe instead.

“Fuck this.”

As the aluminum bat went in a completely different direction, Chief cursed angrily and started swinging horizontally.

But there was no way Dexter would be hit by such mindless swings. He dodged slightly and swung his pipe toward Chief’s side.

“You’re practically begging to be hit.”

-Whoosh, thunk!

“Huurk.”

Chief’s breath was cut short by the excruciating pain, like several nails being driven into his body.

As Chief faltered, Dexter quickly swung the pipe multiple times to prevent him from getting up.

-Thunk, thunk, thuunk!

“Hnngh…”

Seeing Chief trembling from the sudden pain, Dexter swung the pipe more, knocking him to the ground.

Seeing his unexpectedly brutal moves, Dexter ran quickly toward the men who were still hesitating and shouted:

“Anyone who doesn’t block gets their head cracked!”

With those words, Dexter targeted a man who was trying to protect his head with both arms.

-Thunk!

The man’s arms collided head-on with Dexter’s swinging pipe.

“Aaagh!”

Dexter didn’t have any specialized techniques for wielding melee weapons more efficiently.

However, Dexter’s inhuman strength itself was a technique.

Though the man barely managed to protect his head, there was no way his arms could withstand the pipe Dexter was swinging.

He tried to put strength into his arms, but no strength would come, and instead, a heavy pain rose from where the pipe had struck.

“Hng, hnnngh!”

The man had suffered a fracture in less than a second.

For such a man, his only hope wasn’t courage to stand against Dexter, but his legs—the only means of escape.

“N-no!”

He immediately tried to turn and run, but Dexter aimed for the moment he was about to take a step and swung the pipe at the back of his neck.

“…!”

As soon as the man called Chief collapsed from Dexter’s attack, three men rushed at Dexter together.

Dexter also approached the men, prepared to take a hit or two.

-Thud, thwack!

Whether fortunate or unfortunate, the iron levers and baseball bats the three men swung hit Dexter directly on his arm, back, and shoulder, but it was more bearable than expected.

‘The nanobots are starting to work.’

As if they had been waiting for Dexter’s action, the nanobots helped reduce the pain in the areas he was hit, along with the secretion of adrenaline, allowing Dexter to fight with confidence.

With the help of the nanobots, Dexter swung the pipe toward one man’s hand to show that the three men’s attacks were ineffective.

-Thunk!

As the man dropped his weapon due to the numbing pain shooting through his hand, Dexter quickly thrust his foot into the man’s solar plexus.

“Urgh!”

As the man who was hit in the solar plexus collapsed, Dexter jabbed another man’s Adam’s apple hard with the pipe.

“Kuh!”

While the man couldn’t breathe, Dexter began a barrage of pipe strikes.

Even the man who had been relatively unharmed started to get hit as Dexter began swinging, unable to keep up, and his stance crumbled.

The remaining two were human scum who had experienced or committed all sorts of atrocities in America’s high-crime areas.

They might have laughed off most evil deeds, but the fact that Dexter was smiling cheerfully while swinging the pipe made them fear him in a different way.

“Th-that crazy bastard.”

“Wasn’t he with that lunatic hippie old man earlier?”

“So he’s just as crazy!”

As the three men were sprawled out, unable to resist, Dexter rested the pipe on his shoulder and looked at the remaining two men.

“Personally, I’d prefer if you put up more of a fight, but the mood doesn’t seem right.”

Looking at the two men, Dexter pointed the pipe at Martin.

“You, if you were lucky enough to survive, shouldn’t you have quit the Vegas Disciples or Crofle or whatever? How could you not resist and join another gang?”

“I-I came out of loyalty.”

“Loyalty my ass. Aren’t these guys sprawled here your brothers? If your brothers got hurt, you should have attacked me relentlessly.”

“These guys aren’t my brothers.”

Dexter just snickered at Martin’s defiant response.

“If you can’t even talk properly.”

Frustrated, Dexter swung the pipe toward Martin’s neck.

-Thunk!

Unable to withstand Dexter’s strike, Martin immediately collapsed. Dexter sighed deeply and looked at the last survivor.

The survivor spoke with a trembling voice.

“W-wait! Wh-what do you need! Huh? Drugs? Guns? Whenever you need anything… kuh!”

Without further ado, Dexter swung the pipe, beating the survivor until he collapsed.

“P-please stooop!”

Not satisfied, Dexter approached the sprawled crew members, poking each one who seemed to show a reaction, looking for more spots to hit.

The three men who had already been beaten by Dexter could only tremble as they watched him mercilessly beat the last person.

“Phew.”

Dexter placed both hands on the pipe standing on the ground, sighing as he celebrated the release of his pent-up emotions.

It felt like all the resentment he had been holding in was released in an instant.

The areas where he had been hit were still throbbing a bit, but he had given more than he received, so Dexter was sufficiently satisfied.

“People really shouldn’t just endure things.”

The three men who were the cause of this incident could only nod at Dexter’s words.

Feeling sufficiently satisfied, Dexter threw the blood-stained pipe at the three men.

“Eek!”

“Why are you dodging? Pick it up now.”

At Dexter’s command, one of the three men hurriedly picked up the pipe from the ground.

The pipe was bent in various directions and covered in blood.

“Clean it.”

“What?”

“I said clean it. Thoroughly.”

“W-why do I need to clean the pipe?”

“Just clean it when I tell you to. Why so many questions? Do you want to taste the pipe too?”

‘Fucking muscle freak.’

Yielding to Dexter’s threat, the man reluctantly cleaned the pipe with his clothes.

“Can’t you make it shinier?”

“I-I can’t without water.”

“Well, can’t be helped then.”

Dexter had the man clean the pipe to remove any fingerprints that might have been left on it.

After confirming the pipe was reasonably clean, Dexter called to another man.

“Hey.”

“Y-yes, yes.”

Displeased with the response, Dexter frowned and said:

“Say ‘yes’ only once, punk.”

“Yes.”

“Get lost.”

“What?”

When unexpected words came from Dexter’s mouth, the man responded in confusion.

“I said get lost. I’ve already beaten you guys, so I don’t feel like beating you anymore.”

“O-okay, understood.”

As the old saying goes, ‘The last to remain is the devil.’ The three men who had avoided the fate of the sprawled crew members thanks to being hit first secretly sighed in relief.

“I came to the clinic here, and if I see you again, you’ll really get beaten to death next time.”

“We won’t come anywhere near here!”

“So get lost.”

As Dexter waved his hand dismissively, the three men grabbed the pipe Dexter had swung and started running away in a hurry.

“Really, all sorts of things happen.”

Feeling unburdened, Dexter headed back to his pickup truck to go home.