Chapter 161: Tears.

Darkness shrouded the opulent penthouse, the only source of light coming from the twinkling cityscape below. The room exuded an aura of wealth and power, with plush velvet curtains drawn shut, obscuring the outside world. Shadows danced across the walls as Tears, the sole remaining criminal leader in Krey, stood near the floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing out over his empire.

His piercing eyes, the color of icy sapphires, mirrored the cold and calculating mind that resided behind them. A confident smirk played on his lips as he observed the glittering lights of Krey, the city he was cleanly taking over with the help of his boys. With his competition dealt by with some fatass playing hero, an opportunity to seize more power had presented itself, and Tears was not one to let it slip through his grasp so easily.

A flick of his finger on his phone beckoned a well-dressed large man to come through his suite promptly, his face obscured by thick dark glasses. The air seemed to thicken with tension as he stood in front of Tears, awaiting his command.

"I just got an interesting text," Tears' voice echoed through the room. His voice seemed tempered and calm on the surface. "Gather some boys. I think our little vigilante isn't satisfied just taking down Lamar and maybe Dino."

As he spoke, the bodyguard leaned in closer, hanging onto his every word. Working for a gangster and getting into crime wasn't his idea coming out of high school. It just turns out, when you don't give a crap during school, the world shows it also doesn't give a crap about you. The only thing that he found that worked for him was using his naturally big body to his advantage. Somehow that ended him up here to Tears, drawn by the promise of wealth, power, and the safety of knowing that no one was going to fuck with a big criminal.

"I hope you don't fuck it up," Tears continued, his voice taking on a menacing edge. "For your sake." The bodyguard ensured that the boys he was calling were coming in hot with as much firepower as they could get.

The pent-up rage that had simmered within Tears found its way to the surface, fueled by the possibility that someone was trying to fuck over everything he's had to work for. He had worked meticulously to build his criminal empire, and this little fat fuck dared to disrupt his carefully laid plans.

"This city belongs to me and no one else." Tears declared, his voice rising with fervor. "I am not like Dino and Lamar!"

After the bodyguard reported to him about gathering the majority of their boys, Tears couldn't help but get a little confused. Why the hell would there be trouble at Club Neon? Only he and a special few people knew about what went on at Club Neon. Tears knew that none of those that did know about the business that allowed him to pay his men would ever talk about it if they valued the lives of themselves or their loved ones. So that meant they either got lucky, or someone slipped up and gave some mutts a lead.

Tears paced the dimly lit penthouse like a contemplative thinker, his thoughts a maelstrom of uneasiness. On one hand, he was pissed off that someone was trying to figure out that Club Neon was anything other than just a simple club. On the other hand, he felt a surge of caution, a voice in the back of his mind warning him not just to let his men handle this.

He couldn't risk it. Club Neon was too important to his business. Tears suited up and armed himself as he made his way to the entrance of his building. A driver working for the company drove him to Club Neon. On the way there, he occasionally tapped his arm with his finger throughout the entire ride. It could be seen as a depiction of his slight anxiety at this possibly turning out to become a bigger nuisance than he thought. As the night deepened, Tears met up with his most trusted boys at the club to tell him what the fuck was going on.

"Get everybody the fuck out of here. The club is closed for tonight," Tears declared, his voice dripping with authority.

His men exchanged nervous glances before ordering everyone out of the club in a calm and orderly manner. A difficult endeavor considering they were either drunk out of their minds, drugged out of their minds, or confused by the loud and tough bouncers shouting at them. But eventually, everyone was kicked out of Club Neon with promises of half-off vouchers for the unexpected situation. Tears was then told what was going on, and he felt like taking out his pistol and shooting all of them for their uselessness.

"Who the fuck is behind this?" Tears snarled, his icy gaze sweeping over his boys. "I want names, and I want them now!"

His help exchanged uneasy glances, fear flickering in their eyes. None of them wanted to be the bearer of bad news, but one of them finally mustered the courage to speak up.

"We... we don't know, boss," a guy wearing a stained wife-beater stammered. "They came out of nowhere. We didn't see them coming, and they hit us hard and fast. They even turned off all of the lights somehow! We had to rely on the backup generators to restart the power just to know they were here."

Tears seethed with frustration, his mind racing with possibilities. His grip on his pistol tightened as he considered his options. He shook his head. It wasn't the time to get rid of them yet. Those motherfuckers were still in here. After taking the elevator, there was only one way in and one way out. They were going to be riddled with bullets after coming up the elevator.

"I don't care who they are or where they came from," Tears growled. "Stay here and wait for them. I want to see their corpses turned into Swiss cheese!"

The boys nodded, knowing the consequences of failure. They all took up positions near the elevator, scattering throughout the club like newly recruited soldiers, waiting for any signs of life coming up the elevator.

As the night wore on, Tears paced the now-empty club, the silence deafening. He couldn't shake the feeling that some fuckery was happening in his drug factory. The very foundations of his criminal empire were being shaken, and he didn't know what was happening to it. Was he a fucking idiot for sitting here waiting for them to come? Should he have just rushed down in the elevator with the boys?

In a moment of rare vulnerability, Tears allowed his mind to drift back to his early days in the city – a time of struggle and survival, where he clawed his way up from the bottom rungs of society. He remembered the hunger for survival, the relentless pursuit of power, and the cruel sacrifices he had made to become the man he was today.

He had always known that power came at a price, that there would be those who sought to take what he had taken from others. But this... this was different. He had not foreseen this threat, and it ate away at the edges of his sanity.

As the first rays of dawn painted the city in orange hues, Tears made a decision. He couldn't wait for his men to handle this – he needed to confront these assholes personally. He had to deal with this threat personally. Until he saw their corpses himself, this wasn't going to end!

He had always been a man of action and now was no different. When he was crawling up through the city's underground hierarchy, he didn't just sit and fucking wait, hoping that things would turn out well. He took life by the balls and made fucking sure they went the way he wanted them to go. Tears took the modified assault rifle of a yawning asshole and headed toward the elevator with as many boys he could fit inside it. He was prepared to face these assholes with all the fury and ruthlessness he could muster.

The time had come for Tears to show them that he was not to be fucked with. That he was a force of nature. He would stop at nothing to protect his empire and crush anyone who dared to stand in his way. The slow ride of the elevator nibbled on his already jumping nerves. Tears was armed to the teeth along with his boys. They were all ready to do as he asked. Otherwise, they might not see their loved ones later on today.

When Tears and his boys reached the bottom of the elevator, they saw their boys piled up in a corner with guns disassembled all over the floor. The doors to the elevator opened, and as they all stepped out, something exploded, and everything turned into chaos. They could see nothing but white, and breathing was difficult. Tears tried to pull the trigger on his rifle, but he couldn't gather enough strength in his trigger finger. Everything was getting blurry. Why did he feel so damn sleepy…? What the fuck…?

'I'll have to thank Boundless for bringing us to that expensive first-aid class,' Glutton thought to himself while covering his mouth and nose. "Now I know to cover my entrance and exits when going into a place in case of an emergency." Glutton focused his eyes on the person dressed differently from the other armed criminals. "I hope you're important enough to get us out of here, Mr. Fancy Suit."