Most of these Bounty Hunters held a cautious and wait-and-see attitude towards the newly established New Shangqing City government.
Although the current government temporarily condoned the Huaicheng District's previous attitude towards Bounty Hunters, Feng Jun's style after occupying the area suggested that this new ruler would not be an easy person to deal with.
After establishing New Shangqing City, Feng Jun, considering Tian Jia's parasitic incident, doubled the number of guard posts inside and outside the city compared to before.
Now, a curfew was also imposed on certain areas at night, prohibiting personnel activity in those regions after dark.
Some Bounty Hunters were also forbidden from wearing power armor or carrying heavy weapons on the streets; all heavy equipment and vehicles had to be stored in designated locations.
It was because of these prohibitions that a portion of Bounty Hunters had many complaints about the new ruler of Shangqing City.
These Bounty Hunters were accustomed to their freedom; neither the Zhu Hong Business Association nor the Red Hand Mercenary Group had imposed much restraint on them before, so they were unaccustomed to the increased rules now.
Feng Jun and Hei Qin arrived at the building where the Bounty Hunter Guild was located.
It still used the former Huaicheng District building, a hall covering over a hundred square meters.
In the past, it was jointly supervised by five forces, and tasks that were relatively dangerous but not worth deploying troops for would be published here.
As long as the remuneration was suitable, Bounty Hunters would undertake these tasks, such as recovering operational combat robots from abandoned military bases, or retrieving pre-Doomsday technology from companies in the Old Shangqing City Wasteland.
Dismantling fusion engines from old warships in abandoned Harbors along the coast—these were mostly issued to Bounty Hunters in the form of mission commissions.
Now, quite a few Bounty Hunters had gathered in the Bounty Hunter Guild hall, but today they were not there to submit or accept missions.
Some of them were gathered together, arguing loudly, seemingly very dissatisfied with the currently published missions.
These people were all gathered in groups of three or five; some even wore uniform team outfits, easily identifiable as a team, while some lone wolves stood alone in the corner, not interacting with anyone.
These people were either Evolvers who had already evolved or were bio-engineered individuals who had undergone mechanical modifications; of course, there were also beauties like Hei Qin and Jiang Xueling.
However, compared to men, women were still fewer in number.
These Bounty Hunters were actually very similar to mercenaries; Jiang Si Yuan's Red Hand Mercenary Group could be seen as an upgraded version of the Bounty Hunter Guild.
The commonality between them was that both worked for money; the difference was that these Bounty Hunters were either solitary or loosely organized groups, independent of each other and even competitive, but sometimes had to cooperate due to circumstances.
The Red Hand Mercenary Group, however, only obeyed Jiang Si Yuan and possessed better equipment and a larger number of personnel.
At this moment, a group of Bounty Hunters were conversing in the hall.
“Huntianhu, I heard you were almost shot by the patrol with robots the other night when you were out strolling; is that true?” The speaker was a bare-chested muscular man.
He was powerfully built, with muscles as defined as sculptures, standing over six feet tall, with broad shoulders, a wide back, and arms as thick as an ordinary person's thighs.
His skin, roughened by long-term exposure to the Doomsday environment, wore an oversized tactical vest to accommodate his broad shoulders and massive pectoral muscles.
Most striking was his left forearm, a high-tech metal prosthetic limb integrating multiple functions.
The most prominent feature was the explosive projectile launcher on it, capable of rapidly firing explosive ordnance in combat, causing widespread destruction.
The end of the prosthetic was an electromagnetic claw named “Ripper,” capable of gripping or tearing an opponent's armor with astonishing force.
The man he called Huntian E was no less imposing than him, also a towering figure like an iron pagoda, with dark muscles that shimmered like metal.
His eyes were full of killing intent, and he wore a suit made of crocodile skin, rumored to be from a mutated Mutant crocodile.
He looked like a savage who had just emerged from the deep mountains.
The man named Huntianhu snorted, moving his mouth as if to curse, but swallowed the profanity.
He said to another person, “Shi Ke, don't be smug.
When have I ever suffered such a loss before?
Which of the five families in Huaicheng District wasn't respectful to us?
Now, not only do we have to hand over large weapons when entering the city, but we are also questioned about where we go.
Be careful that one day your left arm might also be confiscated by them.
Hehe, once you lose that left arm, you won't be my opponent.”
Shi Ke, who was puffing smoke rings, stopped smiling abruptly.
Just as Huntian E said, he did encounter such a situation on the day he returned to the city; the city guards not only confiscated a large amount of his weapons but also almost took his left arm.
If it were in the wilderness, he would definitely twist that person's head off, but he didn't dare at that time.
As soon as he showed a hint of impatience, more than a dozen robots and UAVs around him aimed at him simultaneously, completely suppressing his irritable heart.
Shi Ke's face twitched, and he directly extinguished the cigarette in his palm with his left hand, then looked at the surrounding Bounty Hunters and said, “Everyone, don't talk about me; aren't you the same?
Now, only one person calls the shots here.
The former Boss Zhu and Commander Jiang have already gone to work for others, and the rest have died.
How could they still care about our petty squabbles?”
Shi Ke paused here, then continued, “We used to get by like this, so why is it not working today?
In my opinion, the new boss just wants to establish a dictatorship, which is why they are suppressing us.
Brothers, can you swallow this insult?”
As soon as these words were spoken, the previously silent crowd began to buzz with discussion; some simple-minded individuals had already been incited by him and nodded in agreement.
Seeing a few people supporting him, Shi Ke became even more energized.
He immediately said, “I say everyone should unite.
Now that we don't have a guild master, everyone should unite and recommend a representative for all of us Bounty Hunters to negotiate with him.
We must fight for our original rights.
We cannot bow to a dictator.”
“No dictatorship, yes freedom~!” Someone immediately shouted loudly.
“Yes, no dictatorship, yes freedom!” More and more people echoed.
As soon as these words were uttered, most of the people around were stirred up by him; some excited individuals even stood on tables and began to shout, as if they were about to rise up and do something.
Shi Ke led the shouting of slogans, but secretly rejoiced in his heart.
His goal was simple: to stir up trouble, then lead all the Bounty Hunters to cause a commotion, forcing the new authority to grant Bounty Hunters more freedom and authority.
