Gangs

As time continued to pass, the more it became clear to Jules that all of this was real.

He traveled back to the same day two years ago, when all the local gangs were forced to play the game.

A smile formed on his face. His mind started racing about the different things he could do with all the information. If he used it smartly, he wouldn't have any money problems; heck, he could even live a lavish life.

He stared at the other end of the alley with bright eyes full of shine. 'But all of this will only work if I run away from the gang.' He tried to sit, only to feel a burning sensation all over his body. 

The pain was so great that he had trouble breathing. It hurt like someone was poking hot needles all over his body. 

This familiar pain woke him out of his fantasy bubble. This was not the first time he felt such intense pain. He experienced pain much more extreme than the current pain throughout his life.

The memory of a 3- to 4-year-old boy begging on the street under a beggar gang was still fresh to him. From there to joining the gang, the path was full of excruciating pain.

This pain was nothing compared to when, at 5 years old, he had to work an entire month without a single grain inside his stomach.

It was far weaker compared to the time when 10-year-old him had to jump in front of the moving car. 

He did not know why all these unpleasant memories suddenly came to his mind, but they removed all the nonsense of world-conquering and lavish life thoughts from his mind.

From a very young age, staying alive was a war for him, and this war taught him he could not trust anything but himself.

Even if he ran away, there was nowhere for him to go, and both gang members and authorities would hunt him down.

He clicked his tongue. There was no point in running. As a gang member for so long, he knew that the thing done would land him for at least a decade in jail. 

Instead, it was much better to stay in the gang and gamble on the change going through the gang structure.

According to his knowledge, Universal Online impacted most of the gangs throughout the world, as the game offered virtual drugs that provided addicts with the same or even a higher level of stimulation with minimal side effects.

This was the reason, in his past life, these gangs also chose the game to earn more money than continue their dying drug business.

All of that led to a huge transformation in these gangs' structures. Just like any other organization, gangs had their way of finding talented players.

The first method was forcing everyone under them to play the game. Multiple gangs had already implemented this method in secrecy. It was just that now it was time for their Marron city to go through this change.

He knew that the only way forward for him was to ride this wave of change and prove himself through the game Universal Online. After making up his mind, he stopped thinking and forced himself to stand up. 

Enduring the sharp pain, he slowly removed the wet clothes and examined his condition. There was this fist-sized, deep blue mark on his chest, along with multiple dull marks all over his limbs.

He gently pressed on the blue mark. After ensuring his ribs were still intact, he changed into dry clothes.

The moment he was done with his clothes, he fell to the ground, his face full of sweat. At this time, two old members in their mid-20s entered the alley, along with four guys in their late teens following behind them.

In their gang, there were around 10 core old members who directly followed the boss' and vice leader's orders.

Each of the old members was then responsible for 1–2 recruits under them. Then there were a few younger expandables like him who did not have any core members as mentors.

He was just responsible for menial work within the gang. 

Both old members walked toward him. He greeted his teeth, pushed himself up, and bowed down to them. "Good day, sir."

They completely ignored him and walked deeper into the alley to smoke. He dared not to fall and dragged his feet to the side of the alley. He stood with his back supporting the wall.

The other four recruits did not bother him. Soon, other core members came to the alley with their recruits behind them.

Just when the hour was about to end, the last core member rushed in with multiple people's faces full of red and blue markings behind him.

In total, there were 38 members in their group: 14 old members, including the boss and vice leader, 20 recruits, and 4 chore boys.

The boss and vice leader walked in this time. The vice leader nodded his head in satisfaction and said, "Good."

The boss was busy with his phone and said in irritation, "Tsk, we don't have much time. Follow me." With the boss in the lead, others followed him out of the alley.

Jules gritted his teeth and rushed behind them.

They walked through a few small alleys and reached an old, broken factory where two people in dark suits were waiting for him.

At the boss's signal, everyone stopped a little further, and only the boss walked to talk with people in the dark suite. 

One of the old members said, "Look how respectful the boss is."

They saw the boss bowing his head to the other parties.

It was clear these guys must work under Vandra Bhai. Jules knew that even though everyone in their group acted like some gangster, they were nothing but a bunch of goons who did small things for Vandra Bhai.

Vandra Bhai was the leader of the Bullet gang that ruled over the northern part of Maroon City. 

Interestingly, even the members of the Bullet Gang did not have their gang symbol on their clothes. He did not focus on these details in his last life, but now it is clear that even the bullet gang dared not show their symbol in front of those guys.

At this moment, both members of the bullet gang started walking, and the boss motioned for them to follow. This time they walked to an old garage where there were four more groups, just like them, coming from different sides of the road. 

These were other groups that worked under the Bullet gang in the surrounding area. The two bullet gang members did not care about others. They ignored the other groups and walked into the garage full of four mini-buses.

Both bullet gang members entered the leftmost bus, followed by their group. There were only 15 seats inside the bus, so all the recruits and expendables had to stand.

Jules stood at the back end of the bus, taking the side support of a seat. The core member sitting on that seat and others around him stared at him, but he did not care about them.

He knew no matter how much that guy started at him, he would not dare start any mess in front of the bullet gang.

Soon, their bus started moving. It was a 4-hour-long journey as they finally reached a remote area outside the city.

There was a pin-drop silence on the bus. Everyone had pale faces, as none of them knew why they were called to this remote corner.

The bus stopped next to a massive, wide-gray building with no symbol on it. The bus stopped just outside the building gate.

The bullet gang member led them inside to a massive hall full of chairs where Vandra Bhai, along with all the bullet gang members, sat surrounded by other small groups like them.

The moment they entered the hall, everyone froze. Not only the Bullet Gang, but the Kite Gang, Nala Gang, and even the Big Muscle Gang were sitting inside the hall.

All four ruling gangs of Marron City were sitting quietly in the hall, making no fuss. There were two other gangs that he did not know about that were present in the hall.

There were hundreds of people sitting around each of these gangs. They must be all the local groups working for these gangs. With a quick look, Jules estimated that around 2000+ people were sitting inside the hall.

Even with so many people, no one dared to talk loudly in the hall. Jules knew the reason as he looked at the front of the hall, which had this black eagle symbol imprinted on it. Even though this was his second time going through all this, he still started shaking.

He took some deep breaths and wiped the cold sweat on his forehead.

The black eagle was the symbol of one of the most notorious gangs that had control all over their country. Because of this one symbol, all these gang members, who normally would try to rip each other's throats, were sitting without even making any sound. 

This scene reminded him of the famous saying,' Everyone thinks they are gangsters until the real gangster shows up.'

He sighed and followed his group to sit near the Bullet gang. They had to wait for 2 hours before the gate of the hall closed, and multiple people with black eagle symbols on their clothes entered the hall.