"What would you like to buy, kind sir?" The boy recovered after a few seconds and spoke in a weak and pitiful voice, but Ray continued smiling joyfully and answered, "Oh, I did come here to buy something…. But what I want to buy isn't here, Franklin."
The boy's eyes widened with surprise and his hands started to shake. "You don't want to make a commotion here. Trust me. It'll end badly for you." Ray shook his head and pointed his finger towards the back of the alleyway. "Let's go to the back."
Ray left the place after finishing his words, heading towards the back of the alleyway, leaving the young boy all alone. "It still stinks over here," Ray stood near the end of the alleyway and waited for the young boy to arrive. After a few seconds of waiting, Ray heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and the young boy appeared from the corner, his expression anxious and nervous.
"Who sent you?" Shockingly, the boy's weak and pitiful voice had disappeared, and was replaced with the rough and hoarse voice of a middle aged man. "Is it Bill? Or Todd? What do you want?"
"Now, now.. I don't think you understand the situation that you're in quite yet." Ray let out a short chuckle before walking towards the boy. "I'm the one who asks the questions, and you're supposed to answer me. Not the other way around."
"Fuck you, you little shit!" The boy, Franklin, yelled loudly at Ray in response, pointing his finger at him as he continued, "You tell whoever sent you to come here themselves if they want to talk to me, and not send some random kid who looks like he still sucks his mother's breasts!"
"So you want to do this the hard way, huh?" Ray replied with a sinister grin as he cracked his knuckles, and Franklin took a step back almost in response. "Don't try to fuck with me, kid!" Franklin continued to scream loudly at him. "You don't know who I am!"
"Oh, but I do, Franklin. I do," Ray continued to speak with a calm and collected expression on his face as he approached Franklin. "I know that you have made some big enemies back at Thames Bay. And I know that you did some pretty bad things when you were living there."
"Wha- How?!" Franklin looked shocked once again, his legs trembling as he took another step back. "Did Bill tell you that?! That fucker! I'll kill him the next time-" Before Franklin could finish his words, Ray suddenly grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up into the air using just one hand. "Didn't I tell you that I'm the one who's going to be asking the questions? Or do you happen to have the memory of a fucking goldwish?"
"Let me fucking go, you bitch!" Franklin groaned with a loud noise as he struggled to break free from Ray's grip, but to no avail. "Bill! I'll get you, you son-"
"Bill's dead." Ray spoke with a cold expression on his face, and Franklin stopped his desperate attempt to escape from his clutches, staring at Ray with shock and disbelief in his eyes. "Dead? What do you mean by that?"
"It's exactly as it sounds." Ray explained with a shrug. He continued, "He's been killed."
"By who?" Franklin asked, and Ray replied, "You know who."
"…Reese." Franklin muttered under his breath before he tilted his head up into the sky and screamed loudly. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
"I can help you." Ray continued his calm and collected method of speech, and a distressed Franklin roared at him with anger in his eyes. "How do I even know you're telling the truth?! You could be a lying piece of shit for all I know!"
BAM!
Ray tightened his grip on Franklin's collars and slammed his body against the wall, making him groan loudly. "Everything I've told you is the truth." Ray leaned forward and spoke with an intimidating voice. "You can either choose to believe it, or you can continue to be a fool and let your ignorance lead you to your death. I don't care either way."
WHAM!
Ray let go of his collar, and Franklin fell to the ground with a loud noise, and he groaned loudly.
"Fuck! Can't you be a bit more careful?" Franklin said with pain in his voice as he rubbed his back, and Ray rolled his eyes in response.
He then knelt down in front of Franklin, who was on the ground, and stretched out his hand and tried to grab his ears.
"The fuck are you doing?" Franklin flinched in response and tried to resist, but he responded a bit too late to the extremely quick Ray caught hold of Franklin's ears and pulled it with intense force.
Crack!
Instead of his ear getting ripped off violently, his entire facial skin ripped away from his face and onto Ray's hands.
"So this is the real you, isn't it, Franklin?" Ray said as he glanced at the skin in his hand, which he instantly identified as fake, and back onto Franklin's real face, which was a bit more older, with a small moustache and a goatee on his chin.
"….. Motherfucker!" Franklin stared at Ray with anger, and Ray chuckled in response. "Aw.. Look at little Franklin over here. Gonna cry?"
He then threw the fake skin away before turning around, ready to leave. "You can choose to accept my help and sell me the good stuff in return, or you can take the risk and hope that you'll never be found. I'll give you one day to think about your decision."
Ray tilted his head sideways and glanced at Franklin for a split second before continuing, "And don't try to sell your customers your shit products with your fake faces, alright?"
"…. Fuck you… Prick." Franklin murmured under his breath with a dejected tone, but Ray had already left the scene by then.
"Well, that went well.." Ray said to himself with a proud expression on his face as he walked towards his motorcycle. Although it might seem like the situation might end up hurting Ray in the long term, this was actually not true. After all, Ray had reincarnated four times by now. And the confidence that he was displaying right now was only due to the fact that he had enacted the exact same scenario in his previous two lives. And in his previous two lives, his relationship with Franklin has only helped him, which was why he was confident in his approach.
And it wasn't like he was lying either. Although he didn't have any concrete evidence showing that Bill had been killed, he already knew that the information was true due to the fact that he was aware of the future. And if Bill Baxter, who was one of Guy Reese's henchmen, really was killed, then Franklin would really have no choice but to come to Ray for help.
"It's not like he has anyone else to turn to for help." Ray knew that Franklin had burned most of his bridges when he tried to get out of Kreese's control. Anyone who knew him would tell you that he wasn't someone who could be trusted.
"I just have to wait-" Before Ray could finish his words, his phone suddenly began to ring loudly.
Ring! Ring!
Ray ended his word's mid sentence and took out his phone with raised eyebrows. The call seemed to be from an unknown number, and after thinking for a few seconds, he picked up the call.
"Hello?" He spoke in a cautious tone, and the person on the other side replied in a cold and monotonous voice. "Is this Mr. Ray Park?"
"This is Ray Park, yes." Ray responded to the unknown person's question, his confusion growing even more as he spoke. "Who is this?"
"Good evening, Mr. Park. I'm Gerald Young, Head of the Hunter Defence Department." The person on the other side gave him information about their identity, and Ray Park's eyes widened with surprise.
Gerald Young?
Although he hadn't been able to meet him in any of his previous lives, Ray did hear the name of Gerald Young, the Head of the Hunter Defence Department many times.
Mr. Young and his team became very famous in the future for creating the Dungeon Accurate Program, which revolutionised the way of clearing dungeons in a quick and concise manner.
But why on earth was he calling him?
Ray thought for a few more seconds. 'Did it have something to do with the discovery of the large sinkhole?'
That was the most likely reason Ray could come up with for the Head of the Hunter Defence Department to call him.
"May I ask why you're calling me, sir?" Ray decided to ask the question straight to Mr. Young.
"I would like to have a talk with you, Mr. Park, if you could spare some time for a meeting." Although Mr. Young spoke politely, Ray could feel the sense of authority that was oozing from his voice.
"Very well." Ray replied after thinking about it for a few seconds.