Caesar left Zaturn's bleeding body by itself and left the molding backroom of the club. It was now deep into the night, and he kept hearing shouts and partying all around.
This was one of the busiest nights of Trough street. Carriages were going in and out of the shed, picking up and setting down customers left and right. Even the largest club in the street was so full that there was a zigzag line outside.
But it was not because of anything that the Capo gang was responsible for.
Ironically enough, it was all because of the rumor going about a new type of Joy that was far and away better than the other products.
Many people wanted to try this new product, even so far as traveling from the other side of the town. He could even see some suspicious individuals questioning some customers, asking them who sold them this Joy and whatnot.
They were probably some spies sent from the other organizations, but it was probably nothing more than a little investigation.
As of now, Caesar's pure Joy was still akin to a rumor or a myth. Not many people have heard of it, much less experienced it themselves. It was still borderline harmless in the eyes of these large Joy producers.
But this was within Caesar's expectations. That was the main reason he sold the Joy himself; he wanted more people to know about his product as fast as possible.
He had an agreement with Berk, but he couldn't wait five days while doing nothing. Speaking of which, he still needed to produce five kilograms in five days. He couldn't produce this all by himself, of course, and this is where his reward would come in.
[Automaton recipe]
[Ingredients:]
[Homunculus skeleton]
[Elf powder: 50 grams]
[Water of life: 1 Liter]
[Dark Slime nucleus]
[Immortal Jellyfish blood: 750 mL]
[...]
[Method to concoct]
[Slather the Homunculus skeleton with the Immortal Jellyfish blood for 2 hours and let it solidify. Once hardened, use elf powder to melt the excess blood and create the automaton body. Insert Dark Slime nucleus into the brain, and use own blood to activate it. Feed the water of life into the mouth.....]
Specific instructions were laid out to him, detailing how to create his own automaton. Thankfully, he didn't have to use expensive machines or specific lab equipment to create it–he just needed the ingredients.
Some of these ingredients were easy to find like the Dark Slime nucleus, which could be bought for 10,000 Parou at an herbalist shop. Some were rare like the Immortal Jellyfish blood and Homunculus skeleton, but with the proper channels, it could be bought with enough money.
The problem lied with the water of life. He cannot simply buy this liquid nor could he just find it out of any deep wells or caves. This does not have any monetary value, per say.
In truth, for some people, they could probably acquire the water of life easily. Some people may even have it on hand right now.
Why? It's because the water of life is simply just water. But it needed to be blessed by a priest.
Caesar's disdain for the church and its clergy was something that was not a secret. The main reason why he even got into this situation was because he wanted to overthrow the church by producing their most banned substance and conquering the world with it.
It's not like he could just walk inside a church and ask for a priest to bless his water. Caesar even joked to himself that he would immediately burn as he entered a church given his 'sins'.
But to obtain a water of life, he would have to confess his sins with a priest into a confessional. Couldn't he just lie? Many people have already tried that.
There was a story about a cheating man who was forced by his wife to confess his adultery to the church to prove his innocence. Of course, the man tried to be smart and lied to the priest. Immediately after the words left his mouth, his body started to burn starting from his legs, to his head.
The fire was invisible, so the wife only saw her husband's skin melt off and his muscles burn until he was only left with charred bones and ashes.
The wife, horrified, ran away screaming but the priest only shook his head. He expected this. No one would be able to get away from lying in an official oath to their god. Not when their confessional was blessed by a cardinal.
Despite this, Caesar was still considering this plan. Of course, he would have proper research and preparations in order to get away with lying in a confessional.
But that was only if he couldn't get any Water of Life from other sources.
Right now, he still had to gather the other ingredients. The problem with this was that searching for these items individually, while not taking much effort, would take a long time. He did not have time.
However, there were some people who collected rare items and sold them off at a high price. A smile formed in Caesar's mouth as he thought of a single fat-faced man. Boban.
Previously, he had blackmailed Boban into blowing up his entire estate filled with his cash in exchange for free Joy ingredients. Caesar could only imagine Boban's face when he comes in asking for these rare ingredients.
Caesar quickly left the club late at night and walked towards Boban's large mansion. But as he walked, he questioned himself why he would need to walk there.
He was now rich. He now had an accumulated wealth of 1 million Parou, which would be considered in the upper class considering his youth. Privileged teenagers in his age were still playing around in their parents' room, while he was already a millionaire.
He walked up to the large shed made of metal. The electrical lights illuminated the lines of people waiting for the next carriage to take them home. Some were sitting on the bench, and some stood up. They were all waiting for at least 30 minutes.
It was common courtesy for people to follow the first-come first-serve rule. But some others would squeeze and push people away just to get first in the queue.
Currently, no carriage was in the shed so everyone had to wait for the next one to come. However, a carriage could only carry one person, or one group.
That meant that the first queue on the line was coveted by many people. The furthest sitting to the right was supposed to be the first in the queue, but there were some people standing that were squeezing into the queue.
At this moment, there wasn't much movement from the queue. Everyone was waiting patiently for the carriage to come. And then it came.
From the dark, a carriage came from the distance with an old man with white hair directing his tired and old horse to slow down. The old man raised his oil lantern to see who was next in line.
"Those who are next, please come to the carriage," the old man said.
The previous stagnant line began to deteriorate into chaos as people from further up the line pushed each other to be the next in the carriage.
Even the original first person in the queue, who had waited the longest more than anyone, was pushed away helplessly. There were some shameless people who had only waited for a few minutes claiming to be the first in the queue.
"Hey! I'm next"
"No! I saw you push your way in!"
"What about you?! You were behind me in the line!"
Although some impatient people were pushing each other, there were at least some people who sat in the benches and waited for their turn. They didn't care when they would be able to depart.
"Kyaaaa!!!"
Suddenly, a sharp screech came from near the club and caught the attention of everyone. Even those fighting for the first spot stopped what they were doing and looked at the commotion.
"WHAT?! ZATURN?!"
A bald man with a scar across his forehead shouted with anger. The people around him couldn't help but shiver as they saw his livid face.
Everyone around here knew who he was. 6 feet tall, bald, a scar as long as his forehead right above his eyebrows, this was none other than the leader of the Capo gang, Kopra.
Kopra's head turned red as he saw a bloodied man being carried on a stretcher. He could barely even recognize his face if not for his signature cologne and his flowery jacket. He couldn't believe someone would do this to Zaturn.
"Where did you find him?"
His subordinates flinched for a second, but they answered immediately.
"It's those kids. They did this to him."
Kopra frowned. Those kids dare bite the hand that fed them? Then they must pay, he thought.
Kopra thrashed the table in front of him, sending poker chips and beer all around his customers. There was an unfortunate man whose head split open after a whole table was thrown at him.
At the sight of blood, several women screamed while men darted out of the club. The busy entrance became even more chaotic as people tried to push themselves out, but only ended up being stuck.
The commotion was like a rabid disease, spreading to those who did not even know what happened. They raced away from the club. They have heard rumors about unsuspecting people getting caught up in gang wars, and they did not want to show up in an obituary.
Even more people rushed towards the shed and tried to push people away from the only carriage in the street. They did not even try to line up.
"Hey old man! Let me in. Don't make this hard for me. My brother in law is the mayor!"
"I'll pay thrice your fee. 30 Parou!"
"I'll pay 50!"
The old man was overwhelmed by the rush of people. His carriage was shaken by these crazy people pushing and damaging his already old carriage. It'll need more than 100 Parou to repair this.
"I'll give you 50,000 Parou."