Chapter 43 [019] Violent urging for painting, the underworld agent

Chapter 43 [019] Violent urging for painting, the underworld agent

Chapter 43 [019] Violent urging for painting, the underworld agent

The next evening, in the outer city, District 12, settlement No. 49.

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!!"

A gunshot was heard from the small house on the hillside, followed by continuous screams.

"My legs! My legs! Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"

Donald, the leader of the "Clown Group", had an evil smile on his face. He squatted in front of the painter who was writhing in pain, and used the M1911 pistol that had just been fired to comb his ice cream hairstyle.

"Paint quickly! Paint quickly, Van Gogh! If you don't finish your work quickly, we won't have enough time to trade with the 'collector'!"

Donald moved the black muzzle of the gun towards the painter's right leg.

"First the left, then the right... With both legs broken, you should be able to accumulate enough pain to add the finishing touch to complete this soul-stirring work, right? After all, collectors are attracted by the pain in your paintings, so they will buy your works at any price."

"Hahaha! Haha!" Donald's eyes looked crazy. People who were not familiar with him might think that this was a side effect of "happy drugs", but Donald never took those things.

The painter finally stopped rolling, and a large amount of blood flowed from his left knee, forming a pool of blood. The blood-stained man raised his head with all his strength.

This painter looks like a living example of a "down-and-out artist" and indeed looks a bit like a long-haired version of Van Gogh.

"When will you give me freedom? I have been forced to paint 12 paintings like this... I've had enough! And my name is not Van Gogh..."

Donald mercilessly shot the painter in the right leg again.

“Ahhh! Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

The painter was captured by the severe pain again, and Donald blew away the smoke from the muzzle of the gun.

"You are an ungrateful fellow. If there were no Jokers, how could you afford the "blackest pigment" based on carbon nanotube technology with your own financial resources? This pigment is just beginning to become popular even among noble painters."

The "blackest pigment" absorbs light very thoroughly and is generally considered by the art community around Stonehenge to be the most suitable for depicting despair in the dark night.

"Before, you could only do odd jobs and draw flyers for others. If I hadn't named you "Van Gogh" and promoted you extensively, how could your works have been favored by the upper class and even appeared in large art exhibitions?"

"So, shouldn't you try to repay me by painting an unprecedented masterpiece so that the "collectors" can't help but come to see you out of curiosity?"

"Hahahaha! Once we successfully kidnap the Collector, I'll set you free! As long as you can survive the melee! Haha!"

Donald, who had been talking to himself for a long time, discovered that "Van Gogh" had lost too much blood and was unconscious. Donald poked the painter's face several times with the muzzle of the gun.

"It seems he is not pretending. You, and you, drag him to the road at the entrance of the village and use the regeneration chamber over there to revive him!"

Two clowns, also with white powder on their faces, grabbed the painter's hands from both sides. One of the clowns asked:

"Team Leader, what if Van Gogh becomes a Forrester after entering the regeneration chamber? Will he still be able to paint?"

Donald sneered sharply, "You just came to relieve the shift today, right? Every time I urged him to finish his painting, I would beat Van Gogh severely and send him to the regeneration chamber to save him. Isn't he fine? It's just that I was a little hasty today. Usually, I would let him get shot in the limbs but not fall into a coma. He must finish his painting before he can enter the regeneration chamber!"

The clown under his command swallowed his saliva. He had heard about the leader's tyranny a long time ago, but today, when all the clown team was mobilized, it was the first time he had the chance to see the leader.

The clown under Donald secretly vowed that if he wanted to be a painter in the future, the only type of painting he would do would be erotic paintings.

Van Gogh was dragged away with shocking bloodstains. Donald stood up and admired the unfinished oil painting on the bloodstained easel.

"This despair and pain are not enough... When you come back, I will break all the fingers on your left hand, and then..."

At this time, another clown entered the studio and reported to the leader cautiously:

"Team leader, our people lying in ambush near the village discovered that the former Deputy Chief of Police, Han Tiancheng, and his housekeeper have arrived at Settlement No. 49! They seem to be... having a picnic!"

"Picnic? In this shabby place?" Donald frowned and massaged his temple with his pistol to help him think.

“Although Han Tiancheng is the eldest son of the Han clan leader, he has been away from power for a long time... In short, continue to monitor him and don’t alert the enemy!”

After his men left the studio, Donald was still confused: "What does that drunkard want to do?"

※※※

Some people say that Han Tiancheng always wears a white shirt with police pants because he can't let go of his identity as deputy police chief. But people who are familiar with him know that Han Tiancheng just thinks that police pants are wear-resistant and dirt-resistant, so he doesn't need to take them off and wash them all the time.

The corners of his police pants were now stained with dirt and wine. Han Tiancheng sat on the wasteland at the entrance of the village, raised his head and took a big sip of wine.

"Nestor, do you think there will really be a "Bull Fighting Warrior Grand Prix" in a village like this?"

"Master, that's what the advertisement you found said. Let's finish this light meal first."

The man called "Nestor" is Han Tiancheng's old butler. He has a Western face, a gentleman's mustache, and a slender body. The butler's black suit fits him very well and looks steady. He has British ancestry from the Earth era. It is very popular for major families to use British butlers, and it is believed that the balder the butlers are, the purer their British ancestry is. Competing with each other to see whose butler is balder has become one of the ways to show off wealth.

Nestor won the championship in the "17th British Butler Competition", which shows how bald his head is.

However, Nestor's merits are not just his baldness. He has served the Han family for many years with dedication and responsibility. Han Tiancheng and Han Tiancheng's deceased wife both regard Nestor as a family member. Mu Yue was even raised by Nestor.

Although Nestor is a bit old, he is versatile and can arrange everything in an orderly manner. Han Tiancheng heard that there is also a "Bull Fighting Warrior Grand Prix" in the outer city, and suddenly wanted to go and visit it. Nestor not only drove the car smoothly to the No. 49 settlement, but also spread a picnic blanket at the entrance of the village and took out the fresh hamburgers prepared by the chef in advance as dinner.

Han Tiancheng took a bite of the hamburger. If it were his daughter, she would definitely praise the fresh ingredients and the refreshing sauce, but Han Tiancheng could not taste the freshness of anything other than alcohol.

The former deputy chief of police looked towards a regeneration cabin and two vending terminals beside the road at the entrance of the village.

The universal cell solution in the regeneration chamber and the phlogiston battery in the sales terminal are all regularly delivered and replenished by the company's subordinate units. The highway and these things are the final evidence of the connection between Settlement No. 49 and the civilized world.

"Nestor, this place is so desolate!"

The inner city has a particularly prosperous central area, and the outer city also has particularly remote marginal areas, the so-called "suburbs".

The suburbs of Earth are often surrounded by green fields and fragrant rice paddies, but the suburbs of Ring Stone City are completely training grounds for chaos and death.

Take the two gunshots just now for example. The villagers wandering around doing nothing in the sunset didn’t make a fuss at all. Instead of caring about the lives of others, they might as well think about where the next meal will come from.

In Settlement 49, or the "deserted village," all the houses are made of glue and plastic sheets, with the foundation being a broken cement road. If the houses are collapsed by acid rain, the villagers will use their poor wisdom to hide in the potholes on the road.

In the center of the deserted village, a large arena-like building attracted Han Tiancheng's attention. Although there was a huge difference in quality and size, it was at least somewhat similar to the "Bullfighting Warrior Grand Prix" venue in the inner city.

"Mu Yue is such a miser!" Han Tiancheng took a bite of the burger and just held it in his hand. "I went to see her yesterday, and she only gave me 3000 yuan for living expenses! How can this amount of money be enough for me to live for a week? I can't even go to the Bull Fighting Warriors Grand Prix many times!"

Nestor, who sat down with his owner to eat a burger, was neatly groomed and remained alert.

"Master, Miss Mu Yue arranged this to restrict you from gambling and drinking. Daily food and travel expenses are all planned by Miss separately, and will not be used from the 3000 yuan."

Nestor finished his burger first and carefully cleaned his gentleman's beard with a napkin. In order to better perform his duties as a butler, he always deliberately shortened his eating time.

Han Tiancheng suddenly seemed to have thought of something, and he discussed with the old housekeeper in a somewhat flattering manner:
"Nestor, can you... lend me some money? That way I don't have to come to the outer city to watch some fake bullfighting competitions, I can go back to the inner city to watch the real ones... Just lend me 5000 yuan first!"

Nestor shook his head decisively: "Miss Mu Yue told us that if anyone dares to lend money to you, Master, he will be fired immediately."

Han Tiancheng: "Mu Yue has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. She is just trying to scare you!"

Nestor continued to shake his head: "No, I am also afraid of the lady's sharp tongue."

Seeing that the housekeeper refused to compromise, Han Tiancheng started drinking again in frustration. At this time, he found a dirty child walking towards him from the village.

The other person was very young, and it was hard to tell whether he was a man or a woman. He was in tattered clothes, had no shoes, and his hands and feet were covered in mud. The child walked to the picnic blanket and refused to move, staring at the hamburger in Han Tiancheng's hand.

Han Tiancheng didn't like this dirty little kid very much. No one would like to be stared at while eating by a stranger at such a close distance.

The former deputy chief of police looked at the old housekeeper for help, but Nestor seemed to have decided that the child was not a threat, so he ignored him.

Damn it! Isn't it your job as a housekeeper to do embarrassing things for your master? Or do you actually mean that if Mu Yue was here, she would definitely share the food with the children?
Han Tiancheng sighed and put down the hamburger in his right hand, but did not let go of the bottle of wine in his left hand.

“Nestor, go back to the car and get him another burger… Eeheeeh!!??”

Almost at the moment when Han Tiancheng put down the hamburger, the little dirty boy quickly picked up the hamburger, ran back to the village without looking back, and ate while running as if he was afraid that someone would snatch it away.

"Hey! That's the one I bit! I'll give you a new one! Hey!"

No matter how Han Tiancheng called, the child refused to come back. Han Tiancheng finally had to take the new hamburger from the housekeeper and eat it himself.

"It's so poor here," said Han Tiancheng. "If there really is a fake bullfighting competition, I will go and support it. It can be considered as a contribution to the village's economy."

Nestor, who returned from a nearby highway, took two gas masks from the car in addition to the new hamburger.

"Master, we are already at the edge of the 'Bright Sky Curtain'. The air contains a lot of phlogiston ash. It would be safer to wear a mask, right?"

Han Tiancheng looked towards the northernmost end of settlement No. 49. The terrain of the village gradually rose from south to north. This was indeed the edge of the large meteorite crater where Ringstone City was located. Walking further out, one could see the unpredictable original ecological landscape of this planet.

"No, I won't wear it." Han Tiancheng didn't take the gas mask handed over by Nestor, "I don't plan to live that long."

In Nestor's opinion, the deep sorrow of losing his lover rose in Han Tiancheng's eyes again. After hesitating for a moment, the old butler put on a gas mask.

"In order to protect the master and the young lady in the long run, an old guy like me must live longer."

(End of this chapter)