"Should have kept one alive," Leia said, prodding one of the corpses with her boot. Eric, squatting beside it and stripping the corpse of armor and other gear glared at his girlfriend.
"Told you."
"I thought we'd have a chance later on," she replied, then grimaced. "Was wrong lah."
"Uh huh." He wisely didn't add more, knowing there was little to be gained by pushing the point. After all, the attackers were still dead and even if the pair's planned pincer movement had been a little late, neither of them having noticed the group creeping up on the main attackers till it was a little too late; no one had died.
They'd just had to go in, a little harder than expected.
Arthur said as much, content to let the team peel the armour off their enemies. After all, he was still recovering, bandages slapped all across his bodies, tightened such that he was not in danger of bleeding out anymore.
"No need to ask either," Lam said, pulling the arm up of one of the corpses. He showed the inside of it where a tattoo had been done. "I bet you'll find this on them all."
"What is it with gangs and tattoos?" Rick asked, as he kept a lookout with his shotgun in hand. "They're so... ugly."
Arthur had to admit, he was right. The stylized number four was a rectangle - the mouth in Mandarin characters, and sometimes even lips or a screaming face with teeth was added by the artist - with two strokes down either side like drapes. While each of the gang members had something similar, they also weren't all the same.
"So you can't leave easy lah," Jan said. "Once in, you're in." Jan and Mel were over by the corpse of the modified floor tiger, finally freeing the massive beast stone that was within. They had also cut off the tails, knowing that if they were lucky one of them would actually stay behind. There were a few crafters who wanted it back in town, and the Tower would purchase it if not.
She grinned evilly a moment later. "You know you got one too, right?"
"I do not," Rick said, jerking his chin up. "I don't do tattoos."
"Seal," Yao Jing called out.
That froze Rick up, and Casey let out a high and tinkling laugh. "You didn't think about that, did you? What are your parents going to think?"
"They'll be fine," Rick groused, glaring at her.
Casey let out another chuckle, staring about like Rick on watch. After a moment, she looked at the silent Arthur. "So he lied to you?"
"Harish?" A grimace was his answer. It certainly looked like it, which was surprising to him. He'd thought he was a lot better at reading others. Also meant that his favors were so much hot air.
"Maybe not," Uswah had been crouched over the attacker that had nearly gotten Arthur, the one who had led the charge. The strongest fellow, at least in Arthur's opinion. Though he hadn't seen enough of the fight to confirm that. She was tracing a finger along the neck, rubbing at the blood there before she finally sat backwards, rocking on her heels in the squat. "He's not 04."
"Then?" Arthur asked.
"Ghee Hin." She raised her hand, and through the blood, he saw some darkness. "Ink. He covered his own tattoo with some ink and ash, to make it look like a mouth." She grimaced. "Though it's hard to tell."
"Sorry, next time I'll kill him in a more convenient location."
She snorted at Arthur and continued. "Doesn't matter. I saw his face going in and out of their base. Followed him back to the Ghee Hin's headquarters and saw them greet him. Always something a little strange with the way he acted among the 04."
"So what? He's their liaison?"
"Or a mole." She shrugged. "Not sure."
"Susah lah." Jan muttered. "Always the Ghee Hin."
"They're not a small group here..." Casey said, warningly. "This is their main floor. And outside..."
"Outside, they're going to be more of a problem," Arthur said, firmly. "If they're targeting me here, it's for sure because they don't want me out there. Which means when I come out, they're going to be after me anyway."
Casey had no answer to that. A dour silence fell over the group as they realised their predicament. Arthur closed his eyes rather than look at the rest, turning over the new knowledge and his options. None of them were good, as far as he could tell.
Ignore the news, act like nothing happened. Keep them guessing a little bit, or maybe a lot if they hid the armour and goods. It might keep their attackers at bay, at least from direct confrontation. So far, they'd been using the 04 as catpaws; but after this attack, Arthur wasn't sure there were that many left of the group that were willing to work outside the bounds of Harish's orders.
Unless he was really just playing Arthur, and these guys weren't a splinter. At which point, things were even worse than he thought and no amount of prevacation would stop or slow the attacks.
They could come back, make no accusations and just showcase the goods and armour. A silent show of strength, acting as though putting down the group hadn't been touch and go. If they had focused on killing his friends rather than just targeting him, they might just have lost a few people.
As it was, it had been touch and go. Especially for him.
"Play ignorant? Or declare war," Arthur muttered out-loud. He couldn't really see many other options. Try to negotiate something, perhaps; but since they'd gone straight to trying to kill him, it didn't seem like that was much of an option.
"You could try talking to them." Casey received quite a few skeptical looks at her words, and she let out a sigh. "I could try talking with them for you. Find out what it is." She frowned. "It might not be all the Ghee Hin who have a problem with you."
"We can't fight them," Mel said firmly.
"Not alone," Jan agreed.
"So, we get allies lah." Yao Jing said.
"Like the 66?" Uswah said. "From the first floor?"
"Exactly like that," Arthur said. "Except we double up." He frowned. "If they're not all in on it."
"The UN don't care. Not about Malaysia. They're just a branch," Lam pointed out.
Rick looked a little lost, which Arthur didn't blame him. After all, local gang politics probably wasn't something that his family had trained into him with any degree of thoroughness. Certainly not local gang politics outside of the Tower.
"The United Nations are an international group. They're more like, umm, a gang of gangs? Loosely affiliated, set-up across the world, helping one another level up. They concentrate in Advanced Towers, don't do much in Beginner Towers except get their members through. It's why they don't have a presence on lower floors," Arthur said. "Even in the real world, they're more a North American thing. But they like having international branches because..."
Now he trailed off, because the reasons for that, he had no idea about.
"Lets them test out new Towers and get a wider variety of skills," Casey said. "They're also focused on North America and having different skills or cultivation techniques from the various Towers lets them develop their people more widely. Each Tower challenges are different, so it's useful to have a wider variety."
Arthur nodded. There were some Towers that were entirely night based - or cave based - and as such, you had to acquire quite a few night or sight based Traits and techniques to survive. A lot of rogues came out of those Towers, or sneaky warriors and mages. Then, you had the ones with platforms everywhere, that required you to climb, jump and spin through the air. No surprise that movement techniques dominated.
He even heard of a Beginner Tower that was a series of arena challenges, one after the other. Like a gladiator, fighting through different cities. The cultivators that emerged from those were the deadliest duellists around - and quite often, horribly useless in most other scenarios till they ran a Beginner Tower or two.
Another reason why Arthur actually preferred the Malaysian Tower, though that might have been his nationalistic side showing up.
"So, you think thel help us here ah?" Eric asked, getting the conversation back on track. "'Cause they're not scared what we become in Malaysia?"
"Maybe. They might not want to get involved," Arthur mused.
"I can ask." Casey looked concerned as she continued. "But you need to be careful. I can't commit the Chin's to the fight. Only my Aunt can."
"And you think she'll use it to tie us tighter to her, make her a benefactor like you?" Arthur asked.
"Yes."
"Well, good thing you're all part of the same group, right?" He grinned, unrepetantly. Which, of course, was a lie. The Chin's might own Prime Group, but the large multinational company had multiple industries and competing groups within. Anything he committed to here would have effects in the real world.
But that was a problem for the future.
Though he couldn't help but note how Rick frowned even further.
Politics. Love them or hate them, you had to deal with them.