NOVEL NEXT Chapter 406: WHAT?
Jorogumo lives solitary lives, both as spiders and as yokai. When a golden orb-weaver (Jorogumo) reaches 400 years of age, it develops magical powers and begins to feed on human prey instead of insects to sustain itself. Jorōgumo's favorite prey is the young and handsome looking men who are looking for love— or other similar favors. When a Jorōgumo spots a man she desires, she lures him into her home with promises of affection and lust, delectation and desire. He is never seen or heard again. The Jorogumo spins silk threads strong enough to ensnare a grown man so that he is never able to escape from its grasp. They also have powerful venom that can slowly weaken a man day by day, allowing the spider to savor her victims' long and painful deaths. The Jorogumo can control other, lesser spiders, even employing fire-breathing spiders to burn down the homes of any suspicious meddlers if they so wish. They are such skillful predators that a single Jorogumo can operate like this for years and years on end, even in the middle of a busy city, piling up hundreds of desiccated skeletons of foolish young men to satisfy their cravings and feed themselves for decades on end.
Exotic lore of the Yokai
[Saturday — 6th December 2030 — 01:30 pm]
[K-Town — The Wild Hunt]
At present, Yui was reading through the information she had received about the activity of other gangs, be it in the vicinity of Los Angeles or other close cities.
It wasn't really like all the gangs out there were absolutely related to the supernatural world. But the truth of the matter was that… most supernatural creatures were either criminals or powerful people that have made themselves known in the financial world.
The Hunters Association as a whole was rather lenient about such matters as long as the supernatural creatures didn't break the laws of the world that had been established behind the shadows of the veil.
"Hmm… So the news about the Fernandez brothers is out, huh?"
Las Vegas was clearly on the verge of a gang war as one of the heavy hitters of that region, the Fernandez Brothers, was found dead in their house some time ago.
Officially, humans only knew that they were attacked by a rocket missile from an enemy gang. This created a huge hole in the walls of their home. But those in the supernatural world knew that this was really not the case. Many criminals and even hunters were investigating the case as they managed to liken this to what happened prior when all humans were knocked out in a radius of one kilometer with the casino that the brothers used to run as the epicenter. This matter was 100% related to their deaths, they just needed to find out how.
As if that wasn't enough, news about how all the accounts of the infamous brothers being ransacked had already been known to all the gangs and thus created an even greater stir in the underworld of the City of Las Vegas. Tensions were high and a reshuffling of the forces would soon transpire inside the underworld of the City of Sins.
"Hacker. I hope you did a really good job and erased all traces that can make us involved in this scene."
[Don't worry boss. You already know how thorough I am in these matters, right?]
Yui nodded her head in acknowledgment. She was not particularly worried about this matter and in fact, if it weren't because announcing the truth would increase the danger rating of Adam in the Association's eyes, she would have announced everywhere that they were the ones who had taken the brothers down by now.
'Giving too much information is never a good thing. Especially so in matters of the underworld.'
One had to know when to lay low and hide the benefits they had obtained at the behest of others.
[Still boss, he is really incredible you know.]
"Oh. It's rare for you to praise someone like this."
[I mean… Duh. I found his files, you know. Like, what in the actual hell? Is he really even human at this point?]
"Hacker…"
[I know. I don't have a loose mouth. I immediately erased all the information I obtained and even increased the security measures on any information that could be obtained about him in the future. However, there is even more information I was unfortunately not able to obtain. The one who protected that info is a literal monster. I can even deem that being to be the 'God of Cyberspace' with the level of firewalls that they have put up.]
Yui shrugged her shoulders in response to those words. She already knew that Adam was a Kaminari. While she didn't know if they had some powerful hackers in their midst, she had no doubt about the level of their cybersecurity. Hacking in the system shouldn't be impossible for Hacker if she just tried hard enough but doing so without being found out by them and then chased to the ends of the earth, as a result, is another matter altogether.
"Anyway, as always, Adam is my lucky charm. Though things are a little complicated, it isn't impossible for us to expand to Las Vegas with the current Chaos and power vacuum that he created by wiping away those brothers."
This was very different from what happened with the Shark Gang. Kang Ho, despite everything he had hidden, was, at least to everyone, nothing more than a gang leader of a small gang inside the very small K-Town.
Yui could now be considered one of the four big gangs in the entirety of Los Angeles, alongside the Great Wolf, the Hanekawa family, and the Feng Clan. But she was still far from the big three in reality. She lacked way too much foundation to even compare her little gathering to them. Well, for now, that is…
Already, the three were posing checks and balances and were actively limiting her on all fronts. She needed a chance to get out of the barricade placed by them and expanding to the City of Sins was a very lucrative prospect for them.
[Isn't Las Vegas super Xenophobic? I don't think the wolves are going to let go of this chance to make Las Vegas the City of Shapeshifters.]
" —And this is why I said Adam is my lucky charm. Remember his idea about protecting the Mermaids and taking them in?"
[Ohhh….]
Mermaids were relatively weak once on the ground but they were still shapeshifters at their core. If Adam really wanted to create his own force, then sending him to Las Vegas with the Mermaids would be the great first step in that direction.
Even if Adam finally separated from her, she would have a great relationship with a force in Las Vegas. A force that she would able to rely on through thick and thin.
"Furthermore, those Mermaids are great at bringing in money."
Most mermaids were renowned artists. But this wasn't really what made them fearsome.
The mermaids and sirens were rulers of the sea which more or less meant that all the riches in the vast and unfathomable sea were accessible to them once they were able to integrate them into their gang.
The group of Mermaids that wanted asylum was quite small, all things considered, and they may have hesitated to bring their fortunes to the ground since they didn't have the strength to protect it.
But what would happen once they had a reliable backer?
Yui just salivated at the thought of all the money she could make from the goods alone. She didn't need much, in fact, only a small percentage of it would be enough to increase her income by an extensive margin.
Yui was in quite a good mood as she imagined her future and made a plan with Hacker about what they needed to do.
But it was then that someone knocked on the door,
"Mammoth? Enter, what's going on?"
Yui's expression became severe, feeling like her good mood was about to get destroyed by the advent of bad news. Mammoth knew he didn't have to knock to enter the room. But the fact that he did so showed something was going wrong.
"Well, boss… Someone happened."
"Stop pussy footing and tell me what's going on."
Mammoth sighed and passed the super VIP reservation list to her. The people with their names on this list were all women part of the supernatural world with great influence.
She read the list silently, at first happy to see that the list was growing but, her smile vanished when she read the last name.
—Name: Inari Hanekawa
Request: A one-on-one meeting with Cinder.
(AN: So, what I did above is something I did only once or twice until now. Basically having a piece of Trivia above at the start. It can be a Quote from a Character or a Piece of information that Adam doesn't necessarily know. Basically, it's a form of world-building. Kinda like what some manga do sometimes with the first pages or what some authors do in their books. The Trivia above will be different from the Trivia at the end of a chapter.
The one above will be information IN my story, For example, let's say Athena have three myth, A Quote above would be Athena's myth in my story, and the one at the end of a chapter would be about Athena as she is known in mythology.
This is very helpful as it can give insight into some info but I don't know what you guys think. It wouldn't be for every chapter. Perhaps once or twice per arc or once every two or three chapters? I will wait until the end of the month to have more feedback on this.)