Hell's Handbook

Chapter 40: Thor Security Services

Su Jin raised an eyebrow when he saw the banner that the welcome team had prepared. He wasn’t sure about what their guests would think, but he certainly didn’t fancy this cutesy pink banner.

“Who made this thing?” Tang Ning obviously didn’t like this banner either from the way she asked Li Zhikai about it.

Li Zhikai glanced at Li Man, then laughed as he said, “Well, we didn’t have a lot of time to do this, so we just used whatever we had on hand. Don’t scrutinize it so hard.”

Tang Ning frowned but didn’t ask further questions because passengers from that flight were starting to stream out from the gate. It didn’t take Tang Ning and her colleagues long to confirm who their guests were. After all, it was hard to miss a group of fierce and terrifying men who looked ready to kill someone on the spot.

Those men started walking towards Tang Ning immediately when they saw the pink banner with their company name on it. At least the pink banner was good for one thing: it was easy to spot.

“Hello, I’m the leader of the team representing Thor Security Services, you can just call me Kevin,” said a muscular Caucasian man whose Mandarin was actually not bad. He looked like he was in his thirties and tattoos covered his hairy arms. The tattoos seemed to be depicting a scene from hell.

Su Jin made a face at the tattoos. He couldn’t believe someone was actually a fan of hell. He wondered if such people would still be a fan if they had to go through the hellish world of the Handbook.

“Hello, I’m Tang Ning from Stellar Skies. It’s been a long journey and all of you must be tired. Let’s head to the office first,” said Tang Ning as she shook Kevin’s hand with a smile, then turned to her colleagues. “Why are all of you still standing there? Help our guests with their things!”

Li Zhikai led a few other male colleagues over to help with the suitcases, but their expressions instantly faltered when they tried to carry them. These suitcases weren’t very large, but they were incredibly heavy. It was simply impossible for them to even lift them off the floor, especially since most of them hardly exercised.

“Heh heh! I think you should just forget it! I wouldn’t want my bags to hurt your little arms and legs,” said a Black man with equally excellent Mandarin as he burst out laughing.

Li Zhikai and his colleagues went red in the face and could only smile awkwardly. “What’s in these bags? They’re really heavy!”

“They’re all equipment for training. But…if you guys are the ones we’re training, then I think we might not get to use them,” said the Black man cheekily.

“Thomas, that’s enough!” Kevin didn’t like what the other man said and glared at him to keep quiet.

“What are you glaring at me for? I didn’t say anything wrong. You saw that yourself. These fellows can’t even carry our bags. They won’t make good fighters,” Thomas continued to ramble on.

Li Zhikai and his male colleagues were feeling really awkward and Tang Ning felt pretty embarrassed too. She had called all the younger men in the company to help so that she could give Kevin and his team a good impression, but her plans had the opposite effect instead.

“I’ll help!” Just then, Su Jin suddenly walked over and took the suitcase that Li Zhikai had been trying to carry.

“It’s not that heavy! Brother Li, you’re so funny!” After Su Jin took the suitcase from Li Zhikai, he even threw it from one hand to the other. This suitcase that had seemed impossible to even lift off the floor looked as light as paper in Su Jin’s hands.

“What the…” Su Jin’s male colleagues were shocked and even the team from Thor Security Services was surprised. They knew very well how heavy those suitcases were. The suitcases were full of special training equipment and it was very hard for anybody to even lift them without going through training, never mind throw them from hand to hand.

Su Jin proceeded to take the suitcases from his other colleagues, using just a few fingers to carry each suitcase. He had two suitcases in each hand but he looked like they weighed nothing.

“Huh?!” Li Zhikai and the others were speechless. They couldn’t even lift those suitcases by themselves a moment ago. Su Jin did look a little more muscular than them, but surely he couldn’t be that much stronger!

“Shiiiit…are the suitcases empty or what?” Thomas couldn’t believe it either. He picked up his own suitcase to check and confirmed that it was just as heavy as he remembered it.

“I don’t think it’s that heavy either. Hey, it’s not nice to pretend it’s heavy and make our guests carry their own bags, you know?” Ye Yun also picked up one of the suitcases easily. Su Jin’s strength had been shocking, but the fact that a skinny young lady like Ye Yun could carry one effortlessly really flabbergasted them.

“What the fuck is going on?” Everybody in the Thor Security Services team couldn’t help but curse in shock. Kevin’s eyes widened because the suitcase Ye Yun had chosen was his own and his suitcase was even heavier than the others. Ye Yun was barely 1.7 meters tall and didn’t look like she had any muscles at all. How did she manage to carry his suitcase?

Tang Ning’s mood lifted when she saw how impressed Kevin and his team were. Her only explanation for this incredible display of strength was a flippant, “It’s kungfu. Chinese kungfu, that’s all.”

Catered dinner was waiting for everyone at the office, so everybody got into their cars and headed back to the office.

Li Zhikai was in the same car as Su Jin, so he nudged the younger man and said, “That was pretty incredible! Do you know magic or something? That was some David Copperfield level magic!”

“Brother Li, if I were as amazing as David Copperfield, I wouldn’t be working my guts out in this company now. I just happened to be pretty strong.” Su Jin wasn’t sure if he ought to laugh or cry at Li Zhikai’s comments.

“But what about that young lady? I’ve never seen her before? Is she from our company too? Have we been deskbound employees for so long that we’re not even as strong as a young lady like her?” Li Zhikai started doubting himself after he saw Ye Yun lift the suitcase so easily. In fact, all the other men in the welcome team felt the same way.

“You don’t have to feel bad about yourself. Maybe she seriously knows kung fu,” said Su Jin with a laugh.

“Oh please! I’ve been to Shaolin Temple before too and I’ve never seen anybody with real kungfu there. They’re all stuntmen who do things like break rocks with their chest and hold down spears with their throats. Anybody can do those things with some physics calculations,” Li Zhikai scoffed. Then he glanced at Su Jin and added, “By the way, Li Man told me she wants to visit you at your place.”

“Whatever for?”

“Whatever for? You helped her the last time and she wants to thank you for it. Don’t get any funny ideas: she just doesn’t want to owe you anything.”

Su Jin shrugged nonchalantly and said, “Sure. You guys can come over tomorrow night.”

“Okay then. Tidy up that little apartment of yours. I know it’s small, but it’s more important to make sure it’s clean,” said Li Zhikai as he patted Su Jin’s shoulder.

Su Jin hadn’t told anybody else about his new address. He didn’t really have any friends in S City and there was no need to update anybody. But since Li Zhikai and Li Man wanted to come over, he had no choice but to tell them his new address.

“By the way, I moved recently. I’ll send you my new address. Don’t lose your way,” said Su Jin as he texted Li Zhikai his new address.

Li Zhikai glanced at the message and said, “Sure, I’ll bring her there tomorrow.”

The cars soon arrived at the office. Tang Ning arranged for Kevin and his team to take a rest in the meeting room, got some staff to bring them coffee and snacks, then asked Su Jin and Ye Yun to accompany them while she went to grab her notes and other documents to discuss the training.

Inside the meeting room, Thomas fiddled with a toothpick and kept looking Su Jin and Ye Yun up and down, which made Su Jin frown.

“Hey, since we don’t have anything to do now, why don’t we play a little game?” Thomas asked Su Jin with a bored look on his face.

Su Jin wanted to turn him down but Ye Yun gently patted his arm and there was a look of excitement in her eyes. He gave in and nodded. “Sure! What game would you like to play?”

“It’s a bit small in here, so there’s no space for us to stretch our arms and legs. Why don’t we play…arm wrestling? Do you know arm wrestling? Do you guys play that here? Or you’re all glued to your computers? Haha!” Thomas laughed loudly.

Su Jin really didn’t like this Thomas person at all. He was so fidgety and spoke without any filter. Su Jin didn’t bother responding to any of Thomas’ questions and put his elbow on the table, showing that he was ready to start an arm wrestling match.

Kevin was the team leader but he didn’t try to stop this arm wrestling match. He agreed that the way Thomas spoke could really test one’s patience, but he also felt that there was no harm in finding some entertainment while they waited. If Thomas got into any trouble, he’d deal with Thomas individually later.

Thomas’ muscles looked like they were made from iron. Every fibre in his arm looked like they were full of energy and it might explode upon touching. He smiled at Ye Yun, flexed his muscles a little, then slowly sat down across from Su Jin.

“All right, young man! You wanna place a bet of sorts?” asked Thomas with a grin.

“Sure! How about…the loser gets punched by the winner?” Su Jin grinned back.

Thomas continued to grin as he said, “I like the sound of that! Do you have medical insurance? I assume your company would cover that? Looks like you might have to use that insurance soon!”

“Oh? I’m looking forward to that.” Su Jin shook his wrist slightly to tell Thomas that he could go ahead.

Thomas grabbed hold of Su Jin’s palm, then looked at Su Jin as if to ask if Su Jin were ready. Once Su Jin nodded, he started to exert strength. But he soon realized that something was amiss. Su Jin’s arm seemed to be fixed to the table or something. It hadn’t moved at all even though he had increased the amount of strength he used.

Arm wrestling wasn’t just a matter of who had more strength. It required some control as well. Thomas hadn’t used all his strength earlier, but after he noticed that Su Jin’s arm hadn’t budged, he started to use all the strength he had and his muscles looked like they were about to burst.

But Su Jin’s expression remained as unbothered as before, since he wasn’t really using much strength. He had to admit that Thomas was pretty strong, but after taking two body strengthening elixirs, Thomas’ strength was equivalent to the strength of a child to Su Jin.

“Shit!!” Thomas clenched his teeth and exerted as much force as he could.

Su Jin noticed that Thomas was at his maximum, so he suddenly exerted some force and brought Thomas’ arm along with his upper body down onto the meeting room table. They could feel the entire table shake violently and it nearly broke from the impact.

“Good god, what are you made of?!” Thomas muttered under his breath. Then he shook his head at Su Jin and said, “I’ve always heard about how Chinese martial artists have some special technique to release energy. Looks like those rumors were real.”

“Of course, of course. But even without using special techniques, we can be pretty strong too. Mr. Thomas, are you ready?” Su Jin swung his fists. He hadn’t forgotten their bet.

“All right then!” Thomas was a little afraid of what was to come. He hadn’t been able to hold up against Su Jin at all earlier. But a bet was a bet, so there was no room for regrets.

Su Jin wasn’t going to go soft on Thomas either. He was already quite annoyed by the things Thomas said earlier, so he was going to take this chance to teach Thomas a lesson.

Whoosh! Su Jin threw a punch at Thomas’ stomach that was so swift and so powerful that his fist made a noise as it cut through the air.