"Thank you very much!"
Richard Rong was bowing profusely, his head lowered.
After the attempted attacks, I had finally disembarked from my Titan and was standing on the ground outside Rong's Tower. I was here to cooperate with the police, to assist in their investigations and everything. That was how Richard Rong found me. He must have found out about the attacks and rushed down to see what he could do about it (unfortunately, there simply wasn't anything he could do), only to spot me standing right next to my Titan. The massive war walker was too visible a landmark, so there was no way he would have missed me.
"No, it was no problem at all." I tried to wave his gratitude away, but he refused to stop. He kept his head down, his eyes on the ground.
"No, seriously! You saved our lives! Not just my life, but the lives of all my staff working in the building! I can't thank you enough! Even though my brother harassed your wife and did all sorts of terrible things to you…you still selflessly stepped in to help me and my staff!"
He had no idea how the edge lords were screaming at me for helping the family of someone who gave me so much grief. The netizens were yelling that I should have let them all die, as revenge for what Riley Rong did to me. Apparently I was a simp or a spineless beta male all because I decided to step in and save the brother of an enemy.
Listening to such juvenile spout their edgy bullshit was a complete waste of time.
"Look, I didn't do it to gain your gratitude or whatever. I was only doing the right thing. I don't know what the hell your brother did to piss these people off, but they shouldn't be killing innocent people along with him. That's crossing the line."
"My brother…" Richard Rong sighed and shook his head. "He was too ruthless in doing business, bankrupting people by acquiring their companies at any costs, firing staff who didn't agree with him or so much as criticized Lily Ling…I honestly don't understand how he earned billions. He's so…childish and petty. Not like a proper CEO at all."
"It's just a setting for the author to establish, so that the female lead can win the heart of a cold, overbearing but rich and handsome CEO, who's the modern day Prince Charming," I explained. "They only care about the results, that the guy is rich and handsome. Otherwise he's not worth being the male lead."
No wonder all the fangirls and readers hated me so much. Because I was plain and not rich enough. Well…I should be rich now, but because I wasn't the richest man in the city, if not the world (like all the CEOs were), it wasn't good enough. They wanted only the best.
Then again, I wasn't some male lead in a CEO novel. I was just a regular, plain and extremely average guy existing in reality. I couldn't compare to the likes or Riley Rong, but I was satisfied with my current lifestyle. As long as I could live comfortable and continue inventing robots and gadgets, I was more than happy.
"What are you talking about?" Richard Rong asked, confused. I shook my head.
"Nothing. Anyway, you might want to dismiss your staff early today. The police will probably ask a few questions, but by and large I'm sure they are shaken by what just happened, so you should let them go home early and rest. Check to see if they aren't in shock."
"Ah, okay." Richard Rong looked at me in wonder. "You really are a great boss. To think your first reaction is to worry about the employees' welfare over everything else."
"Why wouldn't I?" Employees are people. They are not tools. You should treat them as you would otherwise treat yourself." Do unto others what you want others to do unto you. That was the creed I lived by. As an aside, that included revenge. Just because Riley Rong did me wrong didn't mean that his entire family did me wrong. Richard Rong, as far as I knew, was innocent. I had no reason to hate the guy or take revenge on him.
People shouldn't be responsible for the misdeeds of their family members.
But if they used that as an excuse to attack me, such as Ricardo Rong and Rafaela Rou, then I would fight back. And I already did. They paid for their misdeeds and compensated Lily and me, so I had no other beef against them. I wasn't going to murder them – honestly, I didn't understand the mentality of edge lords who demanded for their deaths – but if they learned their lessons and stopped bothering us, then there was no reason to bother them. If they did bother us in the future, then I would enact an appropriate revenge upon them. Simple as that.
No need for murder, assassinations or "accidents." I was not a psychopath. This was the 22nd century. Modern laws applied. You simply couldn't go around killing people. There would be repercussions and you couldn't cover it up forever.
Just like Riley Rong. At some point, all the people he had wronged had risen up against him and worked together to murder him. If he had been less ruthless and more merciful, he would still be alive.
"The drivers are previous employees who were fired by Riley Rong because of the most trivial and pettiest things," the police explained, approaching me. A detective, judging by his badge. He consulted his tablet, bringing forth more information from the police cloud server. "One of them was fired for leering at Lily Ling. Another was fired for embarrassing her, apparently. Though I'm not sure what embarrassing her was…according to the files here, all he did was raise his voice against her in public when she ran into him or something. And the third was fired because he questioned Riley Rong about his relationship with Lily Ling, advising him against pursuing a married woman. As petty as he is, Riley Rong bankrupted them and made sure they would never be able to find a job in G City again."
So they were driven to such despair and to a corner by the bastard. And with nothing to lose, they were more than willing to throw their lives away to take revenge on Riley Rong. Now that he was dead, they decided to direct their vengeance toward the Rong family or its holdings instead.
Some edge lords might demand that Riley Rong murder them to tie up loose ends and ensure they never get a chance to take revenge (seriously? Imagine if you are those employees who get killed over something as trivial as embarrassing the girl that your boss is chasing after), but then their relatives might seek revenge. So you kill their entire families? Including innocent children too? The more you killed, the harder it was to cover everything up, but I guess some readers out there never considered the repercussions of murder and assassinations.
Bottom line was that Riley Rong made too many enemies with his ruthless actions and now he paid for them. And his family was paying for them.
"Ugh…" Richard Rong was having a headache, nodding as he listened to the police detective. "I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault," the detective replied. Richard Rong gritted his teeth.
"None of this would have happened if my brother didn't go overboard!"
I couldn't deny that. But I wasn't going to twist the knife in their wounds or pour salt onto their injuries. So I remained silent. Instead, I turned around when I heard a familiar voice calling out to me.
"Trevor! Are you all right?!" Lily Ling had just alighted from a taxi and was running toward me, looking worried. She scowled when she reached me. "Why did you do something so reckless?"
"Uh…I don't know how exactly this can be counted as reckless when I'm hiding inside a twelve-meter tall bipedal robot clad in adamantine armor and shimmering energy shields."
"You know what I'm talking about! Taking on three tankers filled with explosive gases all by yourself! And stopping them at such close range! Do you want to make me an early widow or something?!"
"You underestimate my power…"
Lily rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. Instead, she spun around when she heard a familiar voice calling out to her. We spotted Roland Rong running out.
"Lily!" He called out before jumping into her embrace, wrapping his hands around her waist. "You are here too!"
"Oh, yeah." Richard Rong turned to me and bowed his head once more. "Thank you for saving Roland's life too. He was in the office with me. I've been taking care of him ever since his father's death, but I didn't expect the office to be more dangerous than home. It was my miscalculation. If it weren't for you, not just e and the staff working here…even my nephew would have gotten killed in the explosion."
"Uh…right."
"You came for me, mommy!" Roland was squealing to Lily, who looked extremely tired. She ruffled his head.
"I'm not your mommy."
"Yes, you are! Daddy says you are my mommy, therefore it must be true!"
"Roland, you should thank this uncle for saving your life, and the lives of everyone." Richard Rong went over to check on his nephew, but Roland Rog stuck out his tongue.
"I never asked him to save me! Or anyone!"
"You…" Richard Rong sounded exasperated. He shook his head helplessly and turned back to me. "I'm sorry. Roland never listens to me."
"Roland will only listen to mommy and daddy!" the brat insisted. Lily frowned and placed a firm hand on his head.
"Then I want you to say thank you to your uncle here."
"NO! He's not worthy of my thanks!" Roland Rong huffed. "He stole you away from daddy! He's my worst enemy! He must die!"
What the hell…? Was there something wrong with this brat?
"Roland, if you keep misbehaving and being so rude, I will be angry, you know?" Lily gave him a warning. He hesitated and slowly turned to me. Lily gave him an encouraging push. He swallowed and glared defiantly at me.
"You are not my father!"
"Uh…I know that? So?"
"So you must die!"
Before anyone could react, Roland Rong lunged forward, producing a knife from his pocket and stabbing me in the leg. I staggered, blood gushing out of my wound. Roland Rong cackled as he yanked his knife out and stabbed me again…
The last thing I remembered, the police were pulling him away and restraining him while I collapsed into Lily's arms, my consciousness going black from the loss of blood (evidently Roland Rong had managed to rupture one of the major arteries in my thigh).