"Special circumstances? Oh oh, I get what you mean, Heavenly Artisan bro! I heard from Sister Almond that you're being watched by Order!"
"Our Zheng City boss isn't at the base right now, so we definitely need to be careful!" The blonde-haired youth said with a chuckle.
"Right, so come with me for a bit. There's something I need to tell you." Lin Yu said calmly.
"Me too? But what about my shift?"
"Find someone to cover for you. I'll take responsibility if anything happens." Lin Yu said decisively.
The blonde hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Alright, wait a sec bro." He took out his phone and made a call. "Hey, Little Ma? Come cover my shift. I've got some other business."
Lin Yu waited about ten minutes until another youth with green-dyed hair arrived on an electric scooter. This was the Little Ma that the blonde had called over. Little Ma seemed less familiar with Heavenly Artisan, greeting Lin Yu somewhat stiffly after taking over the shift.
"Deputy leader, I'm here to cover for Leizi." Little Ma said.
Lin Yu gave a solemn nod, learning that the blonde's name was Leizi. He was aware that Heavenly Artisan held the position of "deputy leader." Although newly joined to the Marauders, Heavenly Artisan was already First-Tier and had passed his first Promotion Trial - making him an exceptionally capable individual who naturally received special treatment and status.
"Let's go." Lin Yu said simply, glancing at the blonde. He handed the keys back to Leizi while fiddling with his phone, putting on the appearance of handling important business. The blonde didn't dare delay or ask what Heavenly Artisan was busy with, simply taking the keys and walking ahead while Lin Yu followed.
Actually, Lin Yu was just scrolling through Heavenly Artisan's private messages in the Marauders app. His reason for going through all this trouble to have the blonde lead the way was simple - although the blonde had naturally handed the keys to Heavenly Artisan, Lin Yu had no idea how to use them! While he could probably figure it out by observing the pool hall, that would definitely seem suspicious. To smoothly enter the Marauders base without raising any suspicions, Lin Yu had to take this roundabout approach. Fortunately, it was worth it.
The blonde led Lin Yu to a "private room" in the corner of the pool hall. After they entered and the blonde closed the door, he walked to a power distribution box in the corner and unlocked it with the keys. Then he pulled down one of the circuit breakers that looked completely ordinary, and...
A mechanical sound came from beneath the pool table in the room.
"Clank..."
The pool table slid aside, revealing a metal trapdoor in the floor. The blonde took out another key from the set and opened the trapdoor, exposing a downward fire escape ladder.
"Let's go, bro!" The blonde said with a smile before leading Lin Yu down the ladder. The trapdoor above automatically closed soon after.
When they reached the bottom, Lin Yu looked at the solid but aged concrete walls and dim lighting, casually remarking, "No matter how many times I come here, it always feels so troublesome..."
The blonde agreed: "Yeah, it's not like Order would openly declare war on us anyway. I don't know why headquarters insists on having every branch's base underground. Our Zheng City one is even converted from an abandoned civil defense facility - no cell signal at all. Who exactly are we guarding against? Does Order have missiles or something?" He complained freely.
Lin Yu nodded. No wonder the passageways down here looked so proper - they were originally civil defense structures. Soon, the two reached the end of the tunnel where a metal door stood. The blonde went up and kicked it.
"Open up!"
"Boom!"
The sound echoed through the tunnel before the metal door slowly opened, revealing a spacious, brightly lit area. Though the ceiling remained rough with exposed pipes and wiring, the floors and walls were no longer bare concrete - marble tiles covered the floor while the walls had plaster and wallpaper.
The space, large enough to shelter over a hundred people, was divided into two functional areas by gray and black floor tiles. One side had a sparring ring, exercise equipment and shooting targets - clearly a training area. The other had sofas, a bar counter, TV and refrigerator - obviously a lounge. Currently four people were practicing boxing in the training area while about a dozen more were gathered around the TV in the lounge, eating, drinking and chatting while watching a Japanese shounen anime about sailing.
"This place is actually pretty well-equipped, almost like some internet company's employee benefit floor." Lin Yu was quite surprised. It seemed the Marauders organization was quite humane.
The blonde looked at Lin Yu and asked quietly: "Heavenly Artisan bro, so what exactly do you need me for?"
"To help me recruit people, of course." Lin Yu walked to the lounge's bar counter and snapped his fingers. "Friends, if I may have your attention."
Several players who had been drinking and watching the anime's climactic battle scene turned to look. "Oh, Heavenly Artisan, what's up?"
"Heard you got beaten so badly by Order that you ran with your tail between your legs!"
"Losing your hammer really messed you up, huh!"
Whether intentionally offensive or just casual teasing, Lin Yu could tell from their microexpressions it leaned toward the former. As expected, relations between members in this organization were likely quite poor - especially for someone like Heavenly Artisan who got promoted to deputy leader immediately upon joining. News of Heavenly Artisan having his hammer stolen by A Nian had spread throughout the organization after he sought help from the Zheng City Marauders leader.
If the real Heavenly Artisan were here, he'd probably take these words to heart - maybe even challenge them to a fight then and there. While the Marauders prohibited members from killing each other, "intense sparring" was permitted. But today it was Lin Yu standing here, so while he put on an angry expression, he ultimately seemed to "restrain" himself, giving them a cold look.
"Right, I admit losing my hammer has affected me greatly."
"Today I had to make our boss fight Order's elites, and I feel guilty about that..."
"So I've decided we can't keep dragging things out with the Free Alliance."
"I'm issuing you all a personal commission - I'm going to retrieve what's mine personally."
"And...I'll have my revenge on those who attacked me today!"
"Commission fee: 100,000 yuan!"
"If any First-Tier experts among you are willing to join...I'll pay 500,000 yuan!"