The noise from the crowd was deafening, and Jonas could make out Brow yelling obscenities.

“Fuck! That's my guy!” Brow laughed as he watched his fighter show off for the crowd by pumping a bloody fist in the sky. Jonas caught his breath and looked down at his opponent, who was unconscious and covered in blood. It had been a decent matchup, but Jonas felt like he was on another level, and it would take guys at Garth's skill to defeat him. Jonas was leaving Little Wrath City undefeated, with Bannji being his last match. He knew that his escape was nigh, but whether he would escape alive was another question.

“You like that?” Jonas gave Brow a bloody smile. “Give the people what they want, right?”

“You choked the fucking life out of him. How the hell did you bleed so much? On second thought, don't answer that. If you're winning fights, you can keep your secrets.”

“Fair enough. Just chalk it up to me having a great immune system. It was a good match, Bannji is a great fighter, but he's not at my level,” Jonas chuckled as he and Brow left the cage and began walking down the pathway back to the lobby. The citizens of Little Wrath City reached out to touch Jonas, not knowing it would be the last time they had the chance to do so. If he died in his escape attempt, perhaps he would become a legend among the people. Maybe that was wishful thinking.

The first time Jonas had entered the arena had been an exhilarating experience for him, and he felt that out of all the bad experiences he had while enslaved by the Hurts gang, being cheered for wasn't one of them.

Soon the lobby doors closed behind him. Jonas heard the arena sounds drown away, replaced by the bustling noises of the circular lobby. Fighters filled the room, anticipating their next duel, and a hundred gangsters from different gangs were on guard. Jonas knew that it was near impossible to break out using the lobby, and seeing all the obstacles, made him feel confident in his decision to go out the front doors of the Hurts gang.

“The day I decided to make you a fighter,” Brow chuckled as dollar signs filled his mind. “Was the best decision I ever made in my life.”

"Very true," Jonas felt rising anxiety as he wondered if the riot had started. "Let's get back. I need to shower."

"For sure, no problem," Brow led Jonas to the back entrance that led to the waiting room of the Hurts gang. He nodded at the two guards on either side of the door, and they opened it for him. "Anything you want? Any special requests? You earned it, so don't be shy."

"Just the mini fridge," Jonas felt a tinge of guilt, knowing he was about to betray Brow. His manager's friendly attitude and generous offerings made it hard to betray him, and Jonas would have preferred Brow to be rude and arrogant like he was in the past.

"I'm still working on that. You know how everything in Hell is self-powered, right? Electronics are so expensive because of it. However, I'm acquainted with a guy who deals in kitchen appliances, and he's going to get me one for three thousand Stones. They usually go for five thousand. Just be patient, and you'll have it in no time."

"No big deal," Jonas' voice was pleasant, but his expression was blank. "Say, Brow. Whatever happened to my Hellphone?" The two of them left the waiting room and entered a deserted hallway.

“Hellphone?” Brow scrunched his eyebrows. “It’s in my room, and you better not ask for it because that’s one of the few things I can’t reward you with.”

“How about my freedom?” Jonas steeled himself and spun on the spot.

“Huh?” Brow turned around to face his fighter, but a bone-crunching kick to the chin was the last thing he saw before his vision went foggy, and he collapsed onto the floor.

“Sorry, Andrew,” Jonas lowered his leg and looked with mixed emotions toward the man that had brought him both misery and glory. “I don’t think I’m the best thing that ever happened to you,” he crouched and began searching Brow’s pockets until he found a silver key that he knew unlocked the private room. He took his unconscious manager by the feet, dragged his body around a corner, and tucked him inside a utility closet.

Jonas quickened his pace as he quietly walked down the hallway, and his heart hammered because he knew that there were usually two guards in front of the entrance doors. When he stepped into the main foyer, the two guards turned to look at him.

"Where's Brow? Don't you fight today?" A rather large gangster pointed at the blood-soaked Jonas.

"I already fought, hence all the blood and wounds," Jonas shook his head. "Brow's grabbing a drink in the lobby. Oh, and that's Vice President Brow to you," Jonas walked past them and toward the fighter's barracks. They had no reason to stop him, perhaps if he was just a regular slave, they could have beaten him down, but both knew they weren't a match for Jonas.

Once Jonas was out of sight, he quickened his pace and made for the private rooms. He knew which one belonged to Brow, and it wasn't long before he slipped the key into the hole and entered the room.

He didn’t have time to admire the plainness of Brow’s room, but he did notice an eye-catching poster of the Sun City Flames football team, and Jonas wondered how he had never known that Brow liked sports.

Ignoring his guilty conscience, Jonas began pulling open the doors and drawers of Brow's nightstands and cabinets, but unfortunately, he didn’t come across his Hellphone. The last spot to check was a wooden desk, and he noticed that the bottom drawer had a lock—he prayed that it was the correct key. Thankfully for Jonas, the key fit perfectly. He pulled open the drawer, revealing stacks of papers, and underneath them was a black Hellphone.

Jonas took a triumphant breath of air as he picked it up and shoved it into his pocket, and then he turned on the spot and made for the door. Brow was unconscious, gang leadership was unaware and outside the headquarters, and he had his Hellphone. So far, the plan was working as intended, but he still had more work to finish.

Jonas wasn't surprised that the riot had yet to make its way past the barracks, and his heart hammered in anticipation of what he might find just two hallways away. His pace quickened, and he was nervous for his friends. Jonas didn't hear any noise until reaching the large wooden doors of the training room. The thick doors were muffling the sound, but as he approached, he realized that screams and shouting were coming from the other side. His heart was hammering, his Sin Scars were glowing, and he took a few deep breaths before pushing the door open and quickly closing it behind himself.

It was absolute pandemonium, and a tidal wave of screams and curses pierced Jonas' ears and made his body go into fight or flight.

Slaves, fighters, and gangsters were brawling for their lives, and although he didn’t have time to count, there must have been at least sixty people. Jonas' heart hammered as his eyes scanned the room until he spotted a gangbanger on top of a slave, beating him to death. Jonas ran over and kicked the gangster in the head, and the force of the blow sent the man blasting onto the ground, where he lay limp and motionless.

“Jonas!” Simon called out, and Jonas turned to see his friend was only a few feet away.

“Duck!” Jonas shouted, and Simon dived to the floor as a guard swung a club past his head. Simon kicked his leg and tripped the gangster toward Jonas, who threw an uppercut. The punch instantly dislocated the gangster's jaw, and he fell unconscious.

“Fuck,” Simon tried to catch his breath, “Good news, or the bad news first?”

“Give me the good news first,” Jonas started examining the details of the riot, trying to find out how many guards were left, who was participating, and where the top-fives were.

“Okay, the riot started without a hitch; Ralph, Pete, and Jaden began beating the hell out of the guards. My job was to protect the door and be sure the guards couldn't go for help. The last time I saw Johnson, he and Theo made a charge for the slave room so that they could free all the slaves. I saw a few come through the doors, but not all of them."

"How long ago did the riot start?"

"It's been going on for about five minutes. Honestly, you arrived just in time."

“What's the bad news?” Jonas looked nervous. "Quickly, I need to help Johnson."

“None of the top-fives showed up, not a single one. We waited til the last minute, but eventually, we decided to start the riot without them."

“What the fuck?” Jonas looked stupefied. It seemed impossible that none of the top-fives had shown up for the riot. "Where are Ahmed and Yuki?"

“I don’t know,” Simon shook his head. “Xiao Lin came in about an hour ago and spoke to Ahmed privately. Then the two of them left and never returned. As for Yuki, she never showed up, and no one has seen Garth."

“Keep guarding the door,” Jonas took a deep breath. He couldn't spend all day worrying about the circumstances, and he needed to finish the first stage of the riot, with or without the others. “We’ll regroup and rethink what to do. I'm going to help Johnson.”

"Good luck," Simon held out a fist, and Jonas bumped it with his own, then ran through the training room and toward the slave room.

“Jonas!” Ralph caught sight of him. “None of the other top-fives showed up for the riot. I have a shitty feeling that someone ratted us out."

“No shit!” Pete yelled while viciously beating a guard unconscious.

“Fuck it!” Jonas' anxiety had reached its peak. “We already started the riot. It doesn't matter anymore. Just focus on beating all the guards!”

Jonas pushed past a bloody slave, knocked another guard unconscious, and charged toward the opposite end of the training room. He sprinted through the stone hallway and towards the storage room where his journey had begun.

Johnson was not having a good time, and although he had managed to free about half the slaves from their cages, it didn’t do much good considering that nearly a dozen gangsters capable of Sin were in the room and fighting back against the riot.

Thankfully, many blue-collar fighters had been brave enough to join the riot, and when Jonas entered the room, he saw that they were in a bloody brawl that had knocked over cages and left dozens of unconscious bodies on the ground.

“Johnson!” Jonas yelled. “Help is here, bitch!” He leaped into the brawl and made his way toward his friend.

“Get off me, you fat fuck!” Johnson was on his back with an extremely large gangster on top of him, pushing a metal rod down against his throat. However, when he heard the voice of his good friend, Johnson felt a surge of rage pump through his body as he began to push the rod back. Then, for his counter-attack, he kneed his opponent right in the groin, causing the big man to yelp and lose his grip. Seizing the opportunity, Johnson slipped out from under the gangster and kicked him hard in the chin.

The big gangbanger wasn’t unconscious yet, so Johnson began stomping on his head until blood leaked out, and he stopped moving. “Took you long enough, you asshole!” Johnson leaped over an overturned cage and jumped onto the back of a guard. His teeth sunk into that gangster's ear, and he twisted his neck until the ear was torn clean off, and a sickening scream penetrated the slave room.