Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

Yamaguchi-gumi Headquarters, Leader's Office

Eguchi Toshinari sat behind his desk looking at a document, but he was clearly not paying attention to it, because a full ten minutes had passed and the page remained untouched.

Just then, the phone on the table rang.

Eguchi Toshinari snapped out of his daze and answered the phone crisply, his voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of anticipation: "Ms. Vermouth, is there some good news?"

A cold voice came from the other end of the phone: "Yes, Mr. Jiang Kou, the time for your revenge has come."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Kou's grip on the phone tightened slightly.

He paused for two seconds, suppressing the surging emotions within him, and said calmly, "Okay, I will proceed according to plan."

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Eguchi."

Jiang Kou put down the phone and sat in the chair for a long time.

Then, he looked down at the corner of the desk—where a picture frame sat.

The photo frame shows a three-year-old boy wearing blue overalls, laughing carefree at the camera.

That's his son.

The side light shone on his face, and his originally refined face was now stretched between light and shadow, making him look like a half-human, half-ghost.

He reached out and gently brushed the glass on the photograph with his fingertips, once, once.

"My child... I will avenge you." He said in a low voice.

……

1 a.m., Shinjuku Ward, Tenmonkan.

From the outside, Tenmonkan is just an ordinary nightclub in Shinjuku. Neon lights flash at the entrance, and several Slavic beauties in fur coats lean against the door smoking. Whenever a customer passes by, they flash a seductive smile and wave to attract customers.

However, once you cross that heavy entrance hall, pass through the long soundproof corridor, and push open the heavy, solid copper door at the end, you'll find yourself in a completely different world.

This is Shinjuku's largest and most luxurious underground casino, and also one of the Shinigami Group's most important dens of iniquity.

In a way, Taras's approach can be considered as drawing inspiration from Takamagahara.

Over the past few years, the underground casinos in Takamagahara have been thriving, especially the one at the Shibuya headquarters, which has a daily turnover of hundreds of millions of yen and has used the platform to cultivate relationships with many powerful and wealthy people. Taras saw this and was naturally tempted, so he spent a lot of money to build this Tenmon-kan.

To differentiate itself, he specially decorated Tianmen Pavilion in a Russian style—a huge crystal chandelier hangs in the center of the hall, the dome is painted with Orthodox style icons, red and gold curtains hang from the ceiling, the bar is full of vodka and caviar, and even the air is filled with the smell of cigars and perfume.

The waitresses were all Slavic beauties recruited from Eastern Europe, with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing low-cut evening gowns, carrying trays of wine as they moved between the gambling tables.

Thanks to this strategy, Tenmonkan became a sensation in Tokyo in just six months after its opening. Some gamblers even traveled all the way from Hokkaido to attend, and Tenmonkan quickly became the most indispensable economic pillar for the Shinigami Group.

At one o'clock in the morning, the casino is bustling with activity.

The giant roulette wheel spun rapidly, and stacks of huge sums of cash were piled up beside the card table. Some people had won all night and their eyes were bloodshot; others had lost everything and their faces were ashen.

Slavic waiters, carrying champagne, moved among the gamblers, occasionally using the exposed, snow-white skin of the winning gamblers to solicit some chips as tips.

Just then—

"boom!"

The casino's heavy bronze doors were suddenly pushed open from the outside by a tremendous force.

The door slammed against the wall with a deafening crash, instantly halving the noise level in the entire casino.

Everyone turned to look at the doorway.

A little girl opened the door.

She looked only eighteen or nineteen years old, wearing a JK school uniform—a white shirt, a plaid pleated skirt, and white knee-high socks. She had her hair in pigtails, and her face was delicate and sweet, like a high school student who had wandered into the wrong school on her way home.

But in her hand, she was also carrying a meteor hammer.

The iron chain was wrapped around his slender wrist, and the hammer head dragged on the ground, scraping against the earth and making a grating metallic scraping sound.

Behind her stood a dense, dark mass of thugs, dressed in expensive suits and bearing the distinctive badge of Takamagahara on their chests. The black-clad figures stretched as far as the eye could see, like a surging wave.

When Nicholas, the person in charge of operating the Tianmen Pavilion, saw this, his heart skipped a beat.

He was a Russian, in his thirties, dressed in an elegant three-piece suit, his hair neatly combed.

Seeing this, Nicholas knew the other party was up to no good. He gave his men a wink, signaling them to call Taras immediately, and then put on a smile and went to meet them.

"Miss Gogo," he greeted her with a slight bow in broken Japanese, "what brings you here so late at night with so many people? What brings you here?"

Gogo twirled the meteor hammer in his hand and glanced at him sideways: "I have a subordinate who came to your Tianmen Pavilion the day before yesterday and hasn't gone back yet."

"Oh?" Nicholas's smile remained unchanged. "Perhaps they had so much fun that they forgot to go back?"

"Enjoyed?" Gogo sneered. "My subordinate never stays out all night, especially since yesterday was our Takamagahara Moon Festival. He wouldn't be absent without a reason; something must have happened!"

Nicholas's smile froze for a moment, but he quickly forced it back: "I see. Miss Gogo, could you provide a photo and information about that subordinate? We can help with the investigation and will definitely give Miss Gogo an explanation."

"Investigation?" Gogo's disgust and impatience intensified. "Stop pretending, you bunch of Russians! I don't believe you at all. Get out of my way, we in Takamagahara are conducting a search ourselves today!"

Upon hearing this, Nicholas's face darkened completely.

The other party didn't even bother to pretend anymore; it was obvious they were just there to cause trouble.

He waved his hand behind him, and the Death Squad security guards around the casino immediately surrounded him with hostile expressions, their waists bulging and their eyes filled with murderous intent.

"Excuse me, Miss Gogo," Nicholas's voice was as cold as ice, "this is Tenmonkan, the territory of the Shinigami Group. You Takamagahara have no right to act recklessly here."

Gogo glanced at him and suddenly smiled.

That smile was both sweet and cold.

"Yeah?"

She took a pistol from her subordinate behind her, raised it to the sky, and fired three shots.

boom! boom! boom!

Gunshots rang out in the casino, the crystal chandeliers overhead rattled, and screams instantly filled the entire casino.

Some people crawled under the gambling table, while others ran upstairs, scattering chips, glasses, and banknotes all over the floor.

Gogo, gun raised, said coldly, "Next up is Takamagahara and the Shinigami Group. Anyone not involved has three minutes to leave. Those who stay after that time—you're on your own!"

These words were like opening a floodgate. The gamblers, who had been hoping for a lucky break, were suddenly terrified and scrambled frantically toward the exits.

In less than two minutes, only Takamagahara and the Shinigami Group remained in a standoff in the huge casino.

"Takamagahara, you really are asking for trouble," Nicholas said through gritted teeth, gesturing with his hand as he looked at the empty casino. "Kill them all!"

Upon hearing this, the Death Squad's subordinates immediately grinned and reached for their waists.

They were an unscrupulous arms organization, and Tianmen Pavilion was one of their most important businesses, so naturally everyone there was armed.

However, the first henchman had just drawn his gun—

boom!

A gunshot rang out.

His head exploded. Blood and brain matter splattered onto the red and gold curtains beside him. He didn't even have time to utter a sound before he fell straight down.

The casino fell silent for a moment.

Peng Yixing slowly emerged from behind the crowd at Gaotianyuan, gently blowing away a wisp of smoke curling from the muzzle of his gun. He then surveyed the crowd, his voice calm:

"From now on, firearms are prohibited."

"Anyone in the Death Squad who dares to draw their gun will have their head blown off."

Peng Yixing's task today is very simple: strictly control the scale of the situation and never allow the conflict to escalate into a street battle using hot weapons.

This is Shinjuku, after all, the most bustling and central urban area of ​​Tokyo. If it's just a gang fight with knives and sticks, it's easy to cover it up. But if it gets out of control and escalates into a firefight with heavy weapons, even a powerful organization like Takamagahara would have a hard time suppressing it.

Upon hearing Peng Yixing's chilling warning, the members of the Death Squad exchanged glances, their hands gripping the gun handles freezing in mid-air.

Two skeptical henchmen exchanged a glance and simultaneously reached for their guns.

Peng Yixing didn't even glance at them before raising his hand and firing two swift and decisive shots.

boom!boom!

The two troublemakers immediately had a bloody hole in their heads and fell straight down.

After that, no one dared to test the waters anymore.

Nicholas's face was ashen, as if he had swallowed a fly. He stared intently at Peng Yixing, then glanced at the little girl dragging a meteor hammer at the door. Finally, he slowly loosened the pistol at his waist and pulled out a baton from behind him.

"Good," he said in a hoarse voice, "Takamagahara, you came prepared after all."

"Then let's settle this with hand-to-hand combat!"

With a roar, he charged forward, swinging his baton. Behind him, the Death Squad's men drew their batons and short knives, howling as they pounced on him.

Gogo tilted his head, revealing a cruel smile. Suddenly, he swung his meteor hammer into a black whirlwind, crashing heavily into the crowd with a piercing whistling sound!

A chaotic battle has broken out!

……

At the same time, at the Honmaki Wharf in Yokohama Port.

This is the largest outer gateway to Tokyo Bay, surrounded by vast, sprawling warehousing and logistics zones. Tens of thousands of containers are piled up like mountains, and massive gantry cranes stand as cold silhouettes against the dark night. The biting sea breeze, carrying the salty smell, crashes into the port area wave after wave.

After the Grim Reaper Group possessed the Black Dragon Society, they naturally took over its most important asset in Yokohama—Honmoku Wharf—and transformed it into a "cargo unloading base." Every night, crates of weapons and drugs flowed from here to various corners of Tokyo.

At this moment, inside a giant steel-structured warehouse at the deepest part of the dock, the lights are on.

Several rows of long tables were set up in the warehouse, covered with white cloths, on which piles of white powder were stacked.

Dozens of workers from the Death Squad were gathered around a table, weighing, packaging, and sealing the packages, their movements so precise and skilled that they resembled a modern assembly line.

In the corner, three guards carrying shotguns were leaning against a concrete pillar, smoking and chatting idly.

No one noticed that in the darkness outside the warehouse, pairs of eyes had already lit up.

One hundred members of the cleaning team emerged silently from the shadows of the containers. Clamped to the corners of the walls, and using the cranes and cargo as cover, they split into three groups and completely surrounded the warehouse.

Commander Qiu Gang'ao crouched atop a shipping container opposite the warehouse, observed for a moment with his tactical night vision goggles, and then whispered an order into his chest radio:

"Action!"

The words had barely left his mouth—

"Splash!"

The heavy iron gate of the warehouse was forcibly blasted open from the outside by explosives!

Immediately afterwards, a barrage of firepower poured in from three directions simultaneously.

Da da da da! ——

The scorching bullets rained down on the warehouse like a storm, making the cardboard boxes on the shelves smoke and the drug powder on the table fly everywhere, like a snowstorm under the lights.

Some of the workers who were packaging drugs were shot to the ground and riddled with bullets, some ran for their lives and crawled under the table, and some tried to escape through the back door of the warehouse, but were taken down by a burst of bullets from the team members who were lying in ambush at the door.

The three guards had just raised their shotguns to return fire when they were simultaneously and accurately shot down by seven or eight tactical rifles. Before they could even pull the trigger, they collapsed straight into pools of blood.

The firepower suppression lasted for a full minute.

When the gunfire finally ceased, the warehouse was filled with smoke. The surviving members of the Death Squad lay on the ground, their hands covering their heads, their bodies convulsing and trembling violently.

"Put down your weapons! Put your hands behind your head! Kneel against the wall!"

Then, the scavenger squad filed in, guns pointed at every corner.

A few individuals, clinging to a sliver of hope, attempted to steal the pistol from their waists. The team members beside them immediately struck them with the butt of their rifles, causing them to collapse to the ground, bleeding profusely, and never daring to make another move.

A few minutes later, all the members of the Death Squad in the warehouse surrendered and obediently knelt in a row with their hands tied behind their backs.

Qiu Gang'ao jumped down from the top of the container, walked into the warehouse, glanced at the person kneeling on the ground, then at the white powder on the table, sneered, and reported into the walkie-talkie:

"Report: We have captured Benmu Wharf. Our side suffered zero casualties, and we have all the necessary witnesses and evidence."

Outside the warehouse, brothers Wang Jianjun and Wang Jianguo stood side by side in the sea breeze, looking at the lights inside. Wang Jianguo's eyes revealed a hint of approval as he praised, "Ao, that kid is not bad."

"Yes, if things continue like this," Wang Jianjun nodded, "his bottle of wine should soon have a name too."

……

The Kanto region was engulfed in bloodshed, and the Kansai region was naturally not to be outdone.

1:30 a.m., Kobe Chuo Ward, sixth floor of the Manmo Building.

Located here is a loan company called "Xingxin Financial". On the surface, it is a legitimate financing intermediary, but in reality, it is the Shinigami Group's most lucrative loan sharking and underground money laundering base in Kansai.

Inside the office, dozens of debt collectors in floral shirts were gathered around the telephone, making harassing calls to borrowers while they slept soundly late at night.

This is a common tactic used by loan sharks in Japan. After a lot of harassment, many victims simply give in and surrender.

The walls were covered with dense lists of debt collectors, stacks of high-interest IOUs were piled on the table, and two old-fashioned safes stood in the corner, containing mortgage documents for countless people.

Tenma, a close confidant of Eguchi Toshiaki, sat in his car across from the office building, coldly observing the brightly lit windows, before pressing his earpiece: "Move."

At a command, more than thirty burly men in black suits filed in, their footsteps echoing in the empty hall, before the iron door was kicked open.

"Who?!"

Before the thugs inside could even react, the Yamaguchi-gumi members had already rushed in like wolves.

Some people smashed the debt collection phone with a stick, some people collected stacks of IOUs into sacks, and some people pinned the debt collectors to the table and hit their faces repeatedly with the back of a knife until the victims were covered in blood and screamed for mercy.

Even the two safes were pried open on the spot with professional tools, and the mortgage documents, black ledgers, and a large amount of cash inside were all taken away.

"We've borrowed the Grim Reaper Group's ledgers," the leader said, squatting down and patting one of the henchmen's faces with a grin. "Go back and tell your boss—Kansai—that from today onwards, the Grim Reaper Group has no more business."

At the same time, in Minato Ward, Osaka.

In a warehouse filled with shipping containers, several members of the Death Squad were frantically loading goods onto a truck—all smuggled high-end goods, such as luxury watches and electronic products, neatly stacked box after box.

"Hurry! Get this shipment out before dawn!" a Russian overseer with a cigarette dangling from his lips shouted.

No sooner had he finished speaking than the iron door of the warehouse was pulled open from the outside.

"It's a Yamaguchi-gumi operation," the leader walked in, glanced at the warehouse full of goods, and said, "We've taken the goods. You have three seconds to get out of here."

"How dare you! Who are you—" Upon hearing this, the foreman was filled with shock and anger, and strode forward to confront him.

"Bang!"

A gunshot rang out, and sparks flew from the concrete at his feet.

"Next time," the leader blew on the muzzle of his gun, "it won't just hit the ground."

The foreman swallowed hard and slowly raised his hands.

That night, from Osaka to Kobe, from loan shark companies to smuggling warehouses, the Yamaguchi-gumi launched a swift and decisive attack in the Kansai region, dismantling seven of the Shinigami-gumi's strongholds, four financial companies, and three smuggling routes in one fell swoop.

Eguchi Toshiaki sat in his office at headquarters, with spoils of war from various places on the table in front of him—stacks of IOUs, ledgers, and a cell phone filled with phone numbers.

He picked up the phone, scrolled through his contacts, and suddenly smiled.

"Taras, this is just the beginning."

……

Takamagahara Headquarters, Top Floor Office.

"Deputy Director Iwata," Ruan Wen said, standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window with a phone in his hand, "the witnesses and physical evidence regarding the Grim Reaper Group have all been compiled. The drugs and weapons at the Honmaki Wharf have also been left intact in the warehouse; the police can take over at any time."

A middle-aged man's hearty laughter came from the other end of the phone: "Miss Vermouth is indeed efficient."

The Shinigami Group has been acting increasingly arrogantly lately, engaging in drug trafficking, kidnapping, and arms smuggling... They don't even give the Metropolitan Police Department any face. Iwata has long wanted to teach them a lesson, which is why he ignored the outbreak of war in Takamagahara this time.

"This time, we really did the Metropolitan Police Department a huge favor."

"It's just my job," Ruan Wen said with a calm smile. "It's a pleasure working with you, Deputy Director Iwata."

"It's a pleasure working with you."

Ruan Wen put down the phone and looked out the window at the bustling yet chilly Tokyo night view.

"Taras, this is just the beginning."