Caesar saw the mountains of cash sitting right in the center of the room. Some were piled up in stacks, and some were chaotically mushed together. It was hard to believe that all of this money was worth 10 million Parou.
It had not even been a full day before Rola and her group finished selling the 5 kilogram batch of Joy. They worked fast, faster than even Caesar thought.
Caesar decided to run up to the mountain of money and dive towards it like it was a pool from a river. Sheets of money exploded into the air as Caesar swam in a pool of his own money.
As soon as he touched the money, a satisfying bell sound rang in his head and a wall of text appeared floating in his vision.
[Level Up!]
[Caesar's status]
[Title: Crook]
[Lvl. 5]
[Exp to next level: 0/50,000,000 C]
[Vitality: 35+100]
[Strength: 33+100]
[Dexterity: 34+100]
[Intelligence: 9,999]
[Investment option unlocked!]
He had once again leveled up not one day after the last one. Others would have found the prospect of earning 10 million Parou in one day an impossible task, but Caesar achieved it. He successfully broke his level limit and achieved a boost in his stats.
"What are you doing?" Rola appeared from the door to the side and gave Caesar a weird look.
"I'm swimming in my own money. Do you want to join me?"
Rola shook her head. She could hardly believe that Caesar had this childish side to him. She always thought he was some sort of devil who had stone cold emotions while manipulating everyone in one breath.
But the sight in front of her made her question if this was real or not.
Caesar ignored Rola and focused on the new ability he had just unlocked. Last time, he was given the lucky box, which gave him a Miracle drug out of nowhere. Suffice it to say, Caesar had great expectations for this one.
[Investment option unlocked!]
[Investing is the act of giving resources in the hopes and expectations of generating profit or income. Would you like to invest now?]
[Y/N]
Needless to say, Caesar chose the yes option as fast as he could think of it.
[Investment option utilized…]
[Searching for suitable resources…Miracle drug found!]
[Instructions:]
[To start the initial investment, soak the Miracle drug in your blood. Once the drug has fully absorbed it, gift this Miracle drug to a potential candidate.]
It seemed that the voices in his head wanted to invest his Miracle drug by giving it to someone else. If someone else heard this, they would have immediately tried to deafen themselves as they think that this kind of command was unreasonable.
Why would anyone give away a Miracle drug? Anyone in their right mind would consume that Miracle drug for themselves, and if they don't want to consume it, they could always sell it to the black market.
A Replica-class Miracle drug could cost up to 10 million Parou alone! Nobody would give this away for free.
But Caesar was not a nobody. He knew something that nobody else knew. He knew about Heaven's punishment, which would prevent anyone who consumed it from breaking their human limits.
Caesar would never consume a Miracle drug for this reason. That's why he was already starting to think about what he would do with the Miracle drug he got from the loot box.
[Benefits for investment:]
[100% Miracle power copy]
[With the binding contract instilled into the Miracle drug, the investor would also get the full power of the Miracle drug that the beneficiary would gain. (Heaven's punishment would not be transferred into the investor)]
Immediately, Caesar stood up from his pool of money with wide eyes, with the mountain of money ruffled to the side. This new investment option that he unlocked from leveling up was beyond what he thought was possible.
Ever since he knew about Heaven's punishment, he had always been trying to think of a way he could get power. He had to gain the powers of the Miracle drug without consuming the Miracle drug; an impossible task.
But this investment option obliterated his problem straight out of the park.
As long as he gave this Miracle drug to somebody else, he would gain the powers of the Miracle drug. This was the best case scenario that he wanted.
"What's wrong?" Rola voiced out her concern seeing Caesar look like someone had just told him some very surprising news.
As soon as Caesar saw Rola, an idea immediately formed in his head. Wouldn't it be nice if Rola, the innocent and naive Rola, was the very first experiment in this investment option?
Caesar was more than pleased with Rola's abilities, especially with the drug business. She was someone that could prove themselves to be extremely helpful.
The problem now was how to convince her. Rola was a bit apprehensive in creating a long-term contract with anyone right now. She would definitely reject Caesar's offer of giving her the Miracle drug. She would know it was suspicious.
Just as Caesar was thinking of that, hurried footsteps and troubled panting appeared running towards the door.
"Haa…Haa…Rola! V-v…Vrija was taken away!" Mitre exclaimed. Written on his face was obvious fear and a little guilt.
"What happened?" Rola immediately tensed up. She tried her hardest to remain calm and act as if she got her shit together.
"We were on our way home when suddenly, a group of guys started to surround us. We immediately escaped without any hesitation, but Vrija…she didn't know how to escape…"
Vrija was this new girl that joined the group. She was one of the newest people who joined after Rola and her group went back to the orphanage. She didn't have enough experience nor training to fight back.
"We tried to fight back, but they just showed us the patches on their shoulders. It was a circle with a cross in the middle! That was the emblem of the Krabers!"
Rola's heart sank immediately. This was one of her worst fears. She knew that this would be a possibility as soon as Caesar suggested they use the Krabers' name to go under the radar.
Now, it looked like someone from the Krabers finally found out that someone was using their name to sell pure Joy and they finally decided to retaliate.
"Rola, we have to go get her! They let us go and told us to come get her!"
"But those are the Krabers! They will kill us!"
"So what, do we just abandon Vrija?!"
"No…but what can we do? They are Miracled while we are only human! I'm only human!"
Heated discussions filled the room, with others crying, others punching the walls, and there was Rola, keeping her cool trying to douse the fire by calming everyone and telling them everything was going to be okay.
Caesar watched from the sidelines.
"I'll go to the Krabers. I'll ask for forgiveness." Rola declared her noble sacrifice.
Her group immediately wanted to dissuade her decision. Rola was the heart of the group, and they all knew that they could never have gotten this far without her. There was no way they would let her walk into her own death.
"Wait!" Uver shouted. "I saw those guys. They weren't from the Krabers."
"What do you mean?"
"I saw their patches. They were badly made, not like it was done by a professional, and I saw them a few days before without wearing the Kraber uniform. There was no way that they were from the Krabers; they would never take off their uniform."
It seemed that the droopy-eyed Uver had sharp eyes that saw some suspicious stuff from the kidnapping event.
"Rola," Uver uttered. "I saw one of them with a Capo gang cap hidden in their pockets."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm confident in my eyes."
Rola finally understood what happened. It was not the Krabers that kidnapped Vrija, it was the Capo gang disguised as the Krabers.
It seemed that they finally decided that it was the time to retaliate. After all, Rola and her group left the Capo gang with a bloodied and disfigured Zaturn lying in a pool of his own blood. They have killed people for far less.
When Rola thought that she was up against the Krabers, her immediate thought would be surrendering. The power difference was just too big.
But now that she knew she was dealing with the Capo gang, she had a little bit of hope. The difference between the Capo gang and the Krabers was like comparing an ant to a lion.
"This is a trap," Caesar finally intruded.
Rola nodded. She knew this was a trap. This was an obvious trap set up by the Capo gang, but Rola had no choice but to take it. She had to save her family no matter what.
"They're getting desperate. They realize they can't get around the church, so they're luring you out." Caesar commented.
"I know. But I have to go there."
"No. You and everyone here will end up dead if you go there. You don't have the strength. It's better to plan things first now and gather your strength. They won't immediately kill her."
"Even if I wait, nothing will change. I am still powerless."
Caesar smiled but quickly changed his expression to one of seriousness before Rola could see it.
"I can help you with that."