"Hey there, little buddy. Congratulations on your becoming a Grimlock," the head goon said as he walked over, his muscular entourage trailing behind him.
After my earlier outburst against Maul Fisher, I had already drawn attention. Now, with the goons arriving, I was the center of it all—more so than even the entrance to the Garrison Reserves, the very reason we were all lined up here.
Arriving before me, he said loudly, "Who would've thought a guy who had to use his own corpse as collateral just to buy food would end up a Grimlock with a net worth of over a billion G-coins and a stable income? And who's the beauty next to you—your girlfriend? Man, you really are the luckiest person I know. You went from pauper to prince. Now you've got everything—wealth, women, popularity. So tell me… why the hell aren't you repaying the money we lent you?"
The Zhang Loan Agency was different from the Zenith Guild. Unlike the latter, they didn't care about their reputation or image. These goons even less so. They didn't have a shred of shame or dignity.
In fact, harassing me over the loan only worked in their favor. It served as an advertisement—that even Grimlocks had to repay what they owed to the Zhang Loan Agency, with interest.
On top of that, they clearly were jealous of Crayon's meteorical rise. A few days ago they could have killed him, sold his corpse in black market, and gotten away with it. But now he possessed everything they ever wanted: wealth, women and power. They could watch him grow to newer heights they didn't even know existed.
Now that they got an opportunity to threaten all that Crayon had and built, they were more than willing to participate. The reason they were so bold was because of their status as mortals. The F.O.E. had strict rules in place to protect mortals from Grimlocks. Those rules existed for good reason, but there were always people eager to exploit loopholes.
Still, mortals who dared to abuse these rules to threaten Grimlocks were nowhere near as many as the mortals who suffered because of them. Making these rules necessary and required to be enforced without compromise. Meaning, if there was even a hint that a Grimlock had used their abilities against a mortal, they would face severe punishment, proportionate to the crime.
It was meant to deter Grimlocks and make them use their grim decks responsibly, but mortals like these goons only grew bolder—especially those with the backing of powerful Grimlocks. Hence, they weren't worried about retaliation from Grimlocks they falsely accused in ruins.
Honestly, all these laws seemed to do was let those who already were bold grow bolder, while the real victims continued to increase in numbers.
That meant I had to be very careful with my words and actions before this goons. Because they had the slyness and means necessary to blow anything I do or say out of proportion and hold it against me. And because the law favored the mortals over Grimlocks, they didn't have to prove their accusations, instead I would have to defend and prove my innocence.
I calmly glanced at the goons knowing that they weren't here to collect the exorbitant interests I'd refused to pay and requested an audit.
As much as I wanted to bury Crayon's past and move on with my second chance at life, I hated the feeling being taken advantage of. I know it would be a lot cheaper and less trouble to just pay them and be done with it. However, it wasn't Crayon they were walking all over, but me. I won't just take it sitting down.
Just one glance in their eyes and I knew they were here to drag my reputation through the mud—to give the Zenith Guild's earlier lies about Crayon more weight. There was no reasoning with them. They would twist anything, find any excuse, just to get what they wanted.
Their exaggerated claims about Crayon's supposed financial ruin before becoming a grimlock and my current net worth were clear examples of this. They only needed something shocking to grab the crowd's attention and spread lies about me through word of mouth.
Thanks to my existing popularity, those lies would become the talk of the town overnight. No one would care whether they were true. People just needed something interesting to talk about, something to fill their awkward, hollow gatherings.
Once I was cornered, they would approach me to 'settle' everything with a signature and sweep it under the rug. At least, that was how I thought it would end if I chose to comply. If I didn't, they would keep the smear campaign going until my reputation was beyond repair, and then kill me, dressing it up as yet another celebrity murder-suicide conspiracy.
But these goons failed to understand that my backer wasn't just stronger than theirs, but also far more invested in me— 200 million G-coins more. Unlike theirs, who treated them as expendable, mine did not. The institute wouldn't stand by and let them do as they pleased.
Still, it wouldn't come to that. I planned to handle this myself.
"Gun!" I suddenly shouted, panic lacing my voice. "They have a gion gun!"
With that, I broke out of the line and ran in the opposite direction, dragging a confused Mary with me. The moment we moved, the entire line collapsed into chaos, everyone running for their lives.
The goons were perplexed by my cry and frenzied when they saw the crowd panic and scatter, while the grimlock guards at the gate reacted faster than they could. Some reported in and called for backup, a few secured the entrance, and the rest surrounded them, shouting, "DON'T MOVE!"
"DROP THE WEAPON! DROP IT NOW!"
"HANDS IN THE AIR! SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!"
"GET ON THE GROUND! FACE DOWN!"
"ON YOUR KNEES! DO IT NOW!"
Soon, the goons were cuffed and thoroughly searched by the guards. To my astonishment, they actually found three gion blades and a gion gun on them, along with even more in their parked hover van.
I had only meant to flip the script and throw them off their plan, but somehow the problem solved itself. They were going away for a long time for illegal possession and intent to use lethal Grim-tech.