"You two entertain our guest well. I'll go report to the boss."
Seeing the big guy they had captured was lively, the leading Tyger Claw nodded and left.
Only four people remained in the cramped basement.
He had been hit by a Dump Truck, leaving him dazed and almost convinced he was finished.
Now, his hands and feet were bound, tied securely to a hard bench.
Although he didn't understand why the Tyger Claws had captured him, Jackie was seething with anger.
Now that he had recovered some strength, he wasn't going to sit idly by and wait for death.
He struggled with all his might, but apart from making the chains clank, it was useless.
The guys who tied him weren't blind; given his large physique, they had bound Jackie thoroughly with iron chains, inside and out.
They almost used a gag on him; struggling on his own wouldn't work.
So, Jackie chose to threaten them.
"Let me go now, or I'll punch you back into your mother's womb!"
"Damn you, let me go!"
"Just sit still. Your companion was even more agitated than you earlier, but now he's as docile as a sheep. If you're sensible, you'll suffer less."
The remaining two Tyger Claws were unfazed by Jackie's rage, simply selecting tools from a toolbox, preparing to begin their routine work.
"..."
Reminded by the two, Jackie noticed another unlucky soul in the room.
Right across from him, also tightly bound to a chair, just like him.
But what did 'companion' mean?
Did he know this guy?
He scrutinized the man opposite him, who was scrawny, like a skeleton, and with his fishnet stockings and exaggerated facial paint, he resembled a character from a low-quality Adult Film.
The greasy man hung his head listlessly; the bruises and swelling on his body clearly showed that the Tyger Claws had given him a severe beating.
Even Jackie couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy.
"How was your rest, Brother Finger? You have something to tell us today, don't you? If you don't speak up, you can forget about keeping those few teeth."
Grabbing the few remaining hairs on Brother Finger's receding hairline, a Tyger Claw member tapped his face with pliers, startling him into a frantic plea.
"Don't torture me! I've told you everything I know, truly everything!"
Brother Finger opened his mouth, revealing his few remaining teeth. It was a pathetic sight, yet somewhat comical.
"I don't think you've said everything. How about you tell us about your Hive's cyberware trading routes, where those cyberware parts are made, and through what channels you get your hands on them? Speak!"
The Tyger Claw member lost patience in less than a minute and went straight for the intensity, pinching Brother Finger's chin with one hand and pressing the pliers against Brother Finger's pitiful front teeth.
Watching the two perform, Jackie was utterly bewildered.
What was all this about?
Was this guy called Brother Finger from the Hive?
Why didn't he know?
If it weren't for the iron chains digging painfully into him, Jackie would have thought he was dreaming.
"What, scared to see your companion in such a miserable state? Don't worry, it'll be your turn soon."
The Tyger Claw member sitting on the table seemed to interpret the shock on Jackie's face as fear, chuckling as he gestured with the taser in his hand.
Although he really wanted to curse this Idiot a few times,
Jackie chose to remain silent, preferring to conserve energy. He just watched Brother Finger opposite him with a strange look as the impromptu tooth extraction proceeded.
"Ah!!!"
Brother Finger's almost hoarse voice erupted with rare vitality, and at the same time, a bloody front tooth was tossed into the bucket.
"Damn, still so stubborn."
Tooth extraction was not an easy task. The Tyger Claw member, whose forehead was already sweating, rested his wrist and put down the pliers on the table.
"How about we switch to this big guy? Maybe he knows more than Brother Finger."
Another Tyger Claw member said eagerly, sizing up Jackie, looking for a place to start.
"Well, seeing your companion's misery, aren't you going to say something?"
"What the hell is this? This guy opposite me..."
Jackie looked utterly confused, about to refute that he didn't know the guy called Brother Finger opposite him at all, and wasn't from the Hive either.
But halfway through his words, Jackie saw Brother Finger, pale and bloody-mouthed, pleading with his eyes and frantically winking at him.
"Damn it, I do know this guy opposite me, what about it?!"
Jackie cursed, deciding to go along with the strange setting of this basement.
The two were so confident that he felt he was being led astray.
"Heh heh, I knew it."
The Tyger Claw member had an 'I knew it' expression, weighing the taser in his hand, his gaze sweeping between Jackie and Brother Finger.
"You know, I have an idea."
"'The Art of Interrogation' states that some tough guys who aren't afraid of death will sometimes compromise for the lives of their companions. This is an application of human empathy, hmm, interesting..."
The Tyger Claw member paced as he spoke, walking over to Brother Finger and glancing at Jackie. The next second, the sparking taser was jabbed into Brother Finger's waist.
"Oh ho ho~ ho!!!"
Completely unprepared, Brother Finger immediately let out a Tom Cat-like shriek of agony, his few sparse hairs standing on end, faster than those on Arknights''Smelly Feet' forum.
Damn it, didn't they say they were going to deal with that big guy opposite me? Why is it me again?
Brother Finger's eyes rolled back from the shock, but he cursed inwardly.
Meanwhile, Jackie's eyes darted, and a convincing look of urgency immediately appeared on his face.
"Hey, I'm telling you, don't touch him! Brother Finger is my best brother in life, you can't do this to him!"
Along with his words, Jackie looked heartbroken, as if he wished he could take the torture for Brother Finger.
"You... you, you goddamn..."
Brother Finger, who had just recovered from the electric shock, looked at Jackie's convincing act, too angry to speak.
"Brother Finger, don't worry, I will never reveal the Hive's secrets that you've kept for so long. Just hold on a little longer, you must endure!"
Jackie, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, spoke earnestly. Apart from Brother Finger, who knew what was going on, the two Tyger Claws were delighted, thinking they had indeed found something.
"Heh heh, Brother Finger, let's see how much misery your good brother can watch you endure."
Wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead, the Tyger Claw member put down the taser and took out a chilling cleaver, gesturing with it towards Brother Finger's body... "What!? Jackie was kidnapped."
Upon hearing this news, Berry sprang up like a carp, then became furious.
In the office, when Judy, who had rushed in, first delivered the news, Berry was somewhat disbelieving.
Jackie was such a big guy, who could kidnap him?
But seeing Judy, who was in charge of the monitoring room, point to Jackie's tracking signal on the tablet screen, which had mysteriously vanished a few minutes ago, Berry finally believed it.
"Damn it, it must be the Tyger Claws, those guys are retaliating against us!"
V said frantically, wiping lipstick smudges from her neck, her expression urgent.
For a moment, due to Jackie's sudden disappearance, the entire Hive was in an uproar.
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