It is an old tradition of the Carlos Clan to have young children in the family serve as executioners.
Jack had done this kind of thing many tis before, so he skillfully pulled out his gun, loaded it, and aid it at the "traitor's" head.
Unlike those who enjoy torturing and abusing their opponents, he only sees killing as a ans that needs to be done, so he would only execute in a clean and swift manner.
However, just as he was about to pull the trigger, the "traitor" suddenly began to sob and tremble uncontrollably... The voice sounded very young, not like the "butcher traitor who killed dozens" the Patriarch described.
Jack was a bit puzzled, but under the urging of his relatives and companions, he pulled the trigger anyway.
The gunshot rang out, and the "traitor's" head instantly blossod into a dazzling flower of blood before Jack's eyes.
However, at the mont when a piece of bloody skin splattered onto Jack's hand, through the tattoo on the skin, Jack suddenly froze, gaping in shock.
He rembered the person's identity.
This guy was never a "traitor," just a small vendor who couldn't pay his dues because of poverty, only half a year older than Jack...
He used to often play with Jack, and now, just because he owed less than 1000 silver cannons, the family sentenced him to death.
Jack lost control for a mont and questioned the Patriarch why they had to do this.
But the Patriarch just left a few sentences and turned to leave.
"Special tis, special asures."
"You may think it's a small amount, but if this person is not killed, he will beco a hole in the family, making outsiders think the Carlos Clan has beco weak, a target to be bullied."
"So we can never open this gap, better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one go."
"Born into this family, everything we have must be sacrificed for the family, even if it's your life or your father's life."
Jack is not a fool and naturally understands the Patriarch's ways.
But he couldn't agree, or rather, fundantally could not accept it.
From this mont on, Jack understood.
The family, or to put it another way, the Cartel Group under the family's na, in essence, is a Demon Cave that distorts humanity.
The life of an individual is not important, the morality and etiquette that were once upheld are just fine clothes on a rotting corpse, unable to change its wicked soul.
If the family needs to, it can deceive and sacrifice any mber, making them die for false lies and glory, in exchange for the family itself... or in other words, the vested interests to gain more capital.
Jack deeply loathed the family he once held in high esteem, and at the sa ti, loathed himself for committing the sa unforgivable sins.
He had thought about leaving, but for the family, leaving is tantamount to defecting... By then, not only he would end up on the family's wanted list, but his father and sister would also suffer torture.
He wasn't alone... Having seen the cruelty of the family, he cherished his family even more, so he couldn't do it.
Helpless, Jack could only continue to muddle through life.
Several years passed in a blink.
During this ti, Jack felt every day was a tornt.
Although underage children don't have to follow relatives into gang fights, Jack still had to do "executions" and "interrogations."
Even though he tried to slack off, letting many people go under the pretense of laziness during interrogations, he could never avoid executions.
Feeling his hands drenched in the blood of innocents, Jack felt terrible.
No amount of fine wine, gourt food, beautiful won, or luxury cars could dispel the nightmares that visited him every night in his dreams.
Perhaps his only solace was his growing "Chica."
Soya was like a little sprite, naturally lively and active, often playing hide and seek with the bodyguards in the vast estate, sotis pestering Jack to tell her stories.
Whenever sitting by the little girl, Jack would feel as if his dirty, disgraceful soul was being washed by clear water, becoming slightly cleaner.
However, there was one thing that always troubled Jack...
Soya wouldn't call him brother, nor would she call that drunken father "dad."
She always called Jack by his full na, a habit she picked up from sowhere.
But it wasn't a big problem.
Although Jack always felt sowhat regretful about it, he also thought that soone like him didn't deserve the title "brother."
In so sense, Soya might be the pure self Jack dread of, so he never let Soya get involved in the family's business, only wanting to raise her as an ordinary girl.
Later, at just ten years old, Soya sohow got hold of a pamphlet full of phrases like "freedom," "equality," and "love."
This deeply fascinated Soya with the slogans in the pamphlet and the beautiful world akin to Utopia it promised.
She said she wanted to beco a doctor without borders in the future, to help the wounded civilians and Rebel Army on the battlefield.
This made Jack very anxious...
After all, Soya was Jack's precious gem since childhood, he couldn't bear the slightest harm to her, let alone let her go to such a dangerous battlefield to beco a doctor...
However, after Soya explained her dream over and over, Jack gradually understood it.
"Let everyone going hungry have food to eat, let every child go to school, let everyone in the world have their own 'ho.'"
To be honest, Jack was also drawn in.
He thought about it for a long ti and eventually agreed to Soya, saying he might fully support her.
The two hooked a pinky promise that once the family was out of crisis and beca the respectable Carlos Group again, they would stop killing and start saving people instead, becoming "Rangers" who help the weak.
But they never got the chance...
On a winter's day in 2074, while playing snowball fights with Soya, Jack suddenly received a new "execution" assignnt, and the Patriarch requested him to take Soya along.
Jack wanted to refuse, but the guards around him didn't give him the opportunity and imdiately took him and Soya to the execution room.
When the blindfold was removed... when a steel knife was pushed into his hand, Jack finally saw the "traitor" before him.
This ti, the traitor's face wasn't covered.
His drunken... flushed face was all too familiar to Jack.
This person was nad Joe Carlos.
He was the father of him and Soya.
Through the verdict-like accusations of the Patriarch, the sowhat bewildered Jack understood the ins and outs of the matter.
It turned out, Joe, after waking from inebriation yesterday, suddenly inexplicably fled the family and, through the smugglers, used the broken silver he had saved over the years to buy two tickets to leave Nest City for the Moon Colony.
Perhaps it was the only ti in his life that his conscience surfaced, Joe thought he couldn't let his children continue to live this life of licking blood from the knife edge.
He had turned to drinking because he hated this life.
He wanted Jack and Soya to board the spaceship, leave Nest City No. 3... or even leave this planet. That way, even if the Carlos Clan wanted to, they couldn't settle accounts.
But he was so irrational.
Years of alcohol had ruined his brain, making him forget that the Carlos Clan also had spies among the smugglers.
Therefore, he was naturally caught.
According to the Carlos family law, leaving the family settlent without permission is akin to defecting.
So, the Patriarch brought Joe back, and then handed him over to Jack to execute personally, with the requirent that the illegitimate daughter also observe...
This might be the most difficult mont in Jack's life.
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