NOVEL NEXT Chapter 31: Vipers Demise!
Vipers Demise!
Chapter 31: Viper Is dad!
Looking at the silent author, Vira spoke first:
Vira: "What?"
Author: "Someone commented that my talk with you might get annoying if done every chapter."
Vira: "So?"
Author: "But writing this is fun, and..."
Vira, interrupting in the middle: "Then just ask the other guys. Didn't you say you have nearly a 3K-to-1 ratio of views to chapters?"
Author: "You heard the guy! Comment if it's really annoying to you when you read. While I won't completely remove them, I might just remove a few in the future!"
After getting a name and a legal identity, Vira pulled James—not the instructor, but the one Vira had poisoned with his thinking, so much so that he began to only eat stolen food—along to travel around the world.
He wandered for just over half a year. During this time, he also planted what I like to call "Seeds of World Domination." It's not really one, but it could be. Not now, though—it's completely useless. Even worse, it drains the resources of the main organization in Leicester to function.
Essentially, as he had done when he was three, Vira gathered people wherever he went, killed or stole from the locals, and fed the poor. Then he left Nicolas to handle the rest and ensure survival. It was a good thing Peter was a talented young man, or—well, let's just say with the workload on his shoulders, he would have collapsed long ago.
Vira was like a drunkard, littering and vomiting everywhere, and Nicolas, who had to clean up the mess, worked as hard as he could. But even with Peter's help, he couldn't manage every single one of them. Vira seemed to have a mysterious charm; he could gather people in a day, and most of them seemed loyal. But no matter what, when his traces began to cover every town he stepped in, it became too much. Nicolas couldn't handle the workload. And as the lower leaders in the organization had their interests constantly threatened, quite a few of them betrayed Vira and started harming the organization for their own gain.
This made Vira return sooner than expected. He was pretty pissed, but when he got back, he didn't do much. Aside from those who had traded information to the London gangsters and gotten people killed, he left alone those who had taken bribes or skimmed off the top.
Although Vira knew they were bad, he was wise enough to understand that if he killed them all, he'd suffer a severe lack of manpower. He also didn't think he was such a great man that he could make people work for free—well, except for Nicolas. That was Luna's contribution: all those who did things for him free of charge, wholeheartedly, were his friends. Unfortunately, animals can't really lead humans.
He could have done it himself, but Vira didn't plan on chaining himself to a chair for the sake of people and an organization he couldn't care less about. If not for the convenience it provided, he might not have even come back when Peter called him for the nth time.
Speaking of Peter, he found himself a girl—one of the silent girls Vira first adopted. She was young, but with just a five-year age difference between her and Peter, no one cared. Then again, Peter was the strongest in town, so no one would dare comment on his choice. Since Vira was rarely around, and Nicolas didn't like attention, especially until he had settled all the organization's matters and returned to being a politician (but that was for the future), no one really said anything. The only potentially troublesome aspect was that Peter had started putting his own interests ahead of Vira's in order to provide for his soon-to-be wife.
So, unlike before, when Peter was solely loyal to the one who gave him everything, now his loyalty was divided between Vira and his family. Fortunately, Peter hadn't become greedy. He still had the same nature as before, and his wife, coming from a slum herself, valued a good life that was based on a warm family with him.
Because of their nature, Peter and his wife had lived to serve Vira for a long time. After all, Vira couldn't have tolerated someone high in position abusing power or potentially rebelling against him. But after observing Peter for a while and realizing that aside from taking a bit of money occasionally, he didn't do much, Vira decided to let go of his intent to kill Peter and simply went back to traveling.
This time, he returned even sooner—this time for his second loss of the year. Viper seemed to have gotten ill. And the best place for animal care was back in Leicester. Because of his desire to let his friends live just a bit longer, Vira had invested heavily in medicine, even more than in technology.
While they might not have produced any immediate results, this initiative attracted a lot of medical and technical talent to the area. To ensure that they remained and helped the town Vira now had full control over, he started a talent program. It wasn't a great deal—it just provided talents with whatever resources they needed, whether it was a lab, tools, or even money for their families. Even those with skill, though, were treated like small leaders, able to command the gang members as they saw fit.
All of this not only laid the foundation for a future talent regime, covering all fields—unlike now, where only two fields were supported—but it also ensured that the best medical professionals were here.
And they were wonderful. Naturally, Vira didn't think about any of that when he got the news that Viper had died.
Sitting in the chair outside the emergency room, Vira's face was expressionless. Nicolas, who had hurried there upon hearing the news, spoke up.
Nicolas: "Don't worry! They are the best!"
Vira seemed not to care for the comfort, but he still looked at Nicolas and said, "Go in and see if they do their best. I remember you used to be a doctor."
Although Nicolas had been a human doctor, he went inside as ordered. He knew Vira didn't need him there, but he also had to be inside to protect the doctors in case Viper passed. Training great doctors took time, and even then, finding true talent was useless without luck.
It had already been a few minutes since Viper was taken inside. By the time half an hour had passed after Nicolas entered, Vira's patience was wearing thin. Each second felt like a droplet of water slowly eroding a rock—at first, it didn't seem like much, but over time, it wore him down. His eyes slowly reddened as he stared, unblinking, at the red lights.
But soon, Nicolas came out. He had wanted to protect the doctors, but when Vira heard the news of Viper's death, he saw Nicolas' red eyes and the gun in his hand and decided against it. It wasn't that he feared being shot for this old man; he didn't care about dying. It was just that Vira's mental well-being was more important than these doctors.
After delivering the news of Viper's death, Nicolas stood aside, silent and still.
Seeing him remain quiet, the doctors knew they might not make it out alive. But their years of saving helpless animals seemed to have worked in their favor. Life, it seemed, was still on their side, as a woman burst through the hallway, breaking free from security, screaming and shouting.
But the commotion stopped abruptly as she was shot in the forehead by the pistol in Vira's hand. Her speaking had ignited something in him, and he emptied all 15 remaining bullets into her body, which lay dead on the floor after the first shot.