Silence lingered around the room as everyone kept staring at me.
"I..I'll get shy if you guys keep staring at me like that!!!"
"..."
"Ight this is getting embarrassing. Now I don't need to remind you all that I have all the evidence against you here."
I pulled out my phone, dangling it in front of everyone. After a few moment, Jerome coughed and spoke up.
"Okay. So what do you need?"
"I still think we should put this bastard in the ground." Sesha hissed.
"Simple. As a previously mentioned, I simply want to make some money. It simply doesn't make sense to sell your dru...ahem product online. It's too risky and likely would not reach the right audience. As long as you ensure supply, I can find the right buyers. What do you say?"
"A salesman? You? Hmph don't make me laugh." Sarah spoke out.
"Of course, I am the best there is. Let's think about this rationally. Who would be most willing to buy that fake stuff? Is it people who are rich and has experience about the market? Or is it going to be people who are poor and has no experience about the Creatine market? I plan on selling them at Trop, a place with a bunch of teens, separated from their parents and guardians, desperately trying to become stronger. Now tell me, would that place not be the perfect business venue for us?"
Everyone looked at me with astonishment. Especially Jerome.
"Are you crazy? Don't you know the ris-"
"The risk? Ya of course I do. But how do you expect to make money without risk? Simply laying on your ass and expecting fortune to come your way is plain stupid. So how about it? Take a little risk and see how much profit you make off of this idea or just sit around and get nothing? Even with my idea, you barely lose anything. If someone gets caught then it will be just me after all."
Jerome thought for a while. Just as he was about to speak, the old man suddenly spoke out,
"So what do you get out of this, Kez?"
I looked towards old man slightly. He looked over 70 at least and had a bald head and a face of wrinkles. The system seemed to think this man was no even a ranker. I slowly smiled and said,
"70%"
It took them a couple moment to comprehend what I was referring to and then utter chaos descended in that room. Everyone was yelling and cursing at me. For a moment, I felt like I was in an Asian fish market, not that I have been to many of those. I had spent a little portion of my life in Indonesia. Back then, WW4 hadn't started yet and the world was a different place, or at least it felt that way. I didn't have much money on me back then, just enough to get by. But surprisingly, I didn't hate that life. In fact, there was a certain charm to it—a rhythm to the days that I had found myself desperately longing for even after that horrific war had ended. But now, years later, I found myself in a different place, surrounded by different people and facing different challenges, feeling the same charm and rhythm that I had longed for all these years. What is it that made me feel this way? I doubted it was something so mundane as the simplicity of that life or the connection to the everyday world. In some ways, this feeling was why I could face everything that happened to me after coming in this world with a certain sense of calmness and confidence. It was as if someone was telling me that no matter what I do, everything would be fine. Did I also feel that way back in Indonesia?
'There's no point reminiscing about the past.' I thought, shaking my head.
By then, the chaos somewhat subsided. The credit for that would have to go to Jerome and his ability break the sound barrier with his voice.
"That's absolutely impossible" Jerome spoke out.
"Impossible? Are you kidding me? I am taking all the risk here. What are you doing? Providing me with fake products that I will have sell for around 400k-500k? How much is you total production cost? 100 AP? 1000 AP? Be glad I am even willing to give you even 30% of the profit."
Jerome was about to shout in anger but then hesitated as if considering something. But before he could say anything, Sesha yelled out.
"100? 1000 AP!!!!??? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING. The production cost is over 200k. Do you eve-"
"STOP!!!" Jerome yelled out.
"Oh...why did you stop her? Heheh tell me, why exactly is the production cost so high?"
"There is no need for you to know!!"
I frowned and looked at them all, wiping off the relaxed smile I had donned on my face. I simply got up. Everyone was startled at my move. I simply proceeded towards the door. Halfway there I stopped.
"If you don't want to tell me then that's fine. There are many other ways for me to make money. Go on with your current strategy. Surely nothing bad would happen in the future...HAHAHAHA"
"You dare? If you expose us then you lose out too."
"Don't worry, I don't plan on exposing you. But good luck with this business of yours. Surely nothing bad will happen to it."
"...what are you planning?" Jerome cautiously asked.
"Oh nothing and everything. The key thing is that I hold all the cards here while what you hold is pretty much nothing. If you won't respond to my goodwill, then I will have to take another path."
"You wouldn't dar-" Jerome tried to speak out but then remembered his last encounter with Kez. Even when he was at death's door, he simply prioritized revenge. From his understandings, Kez was psychopath. So, would he do something to take revenge even if it goes against his benefits? Of course, a psychopath like him definitely would. Suddenly, Jerome felt unfair. Why did he have to go and kidnap this maniac among everyone? The unknown source had paid him good money to kidnap Kez for some time. It was a strange request because the source told him to ask the Jolkev family for ransom. It didn't matter if they received the ransom and if they did then they could even keep the money, but the key part was that Kez would be held hostage for at least 10 hours. They had failed and not only did they not get paid from that party, but they even got stuck with the maniac they kidnapped.
"Look...Listen if you truly want to be our partner and work with us then you should be more lenient. We will let you keep 20%. How about it? We will consider you as one of us."
"Jerome, are you serious or are you trying piss me off even more?"
"Look how about 30%? That's a lot since we will be basically doing most of the work. Acquiring the ingredients for that stuff is not exactly easy. Although our product is fake, it still uses monster core shards to appear as real. One would not know be able to decern its authenticity unless they use it for a couple months. You know how much those core shards costs. We will be losing money if you take 70%. Also, we don't have a license for purchasing core shards, so we buy it from another group and they take a large fee for their services too. There...I gave you the whole truth."
I slowly turned back. Suddenly, the relaxed and amicable smile was back on my face. I slowly walked towards them as if we are childhood friends and sat back down.
"Ah that make sense. Although I couldn't help but notice that there were a lot of suspicious things about the story that you are not telling me. But that's alright. We are friends after all. I will let my friends keep them secret...for now...hehehe...But what I can't do is take such a big fucking risk for measly 30%. I might be a little eccentric but I am not stupid. 50%. I am sure there are certain ways for you to lower production cost."
"Did you not listen to a single thing I just said??? I didn't withhold anything and 50% is an impossible sum. We can give you 35% and that's it. Either take the deal or leave. If you take more than that then we will lose money and eventually our business will crumble. So, taking more than 35% is same as you simply ratting us out."
I pretended to think for a while. I had already decided. Even at 20%, I would've taken the deal. It was simply too beneficial for me. I knew I could sell these for around 2-5 million AP!!! Why? Because I knew exactly who would be desperate for something like this and how desperate they would be. I could simply tell them that I sold something for 400k while actually selling them for 2-3 million and they would believe it because no one would be stupid enough to buy low quality creatine for 2-3 million. But thanks to the novel, I knew many of these stupid people. But of course, the more I get to keep, the better it is so I kept bargaining. I also didn't want to come off as stupid.
"35%? I am still on the losing end. Jerome, you sure are a miser. Fine, for the time being, I will settle for 35%. But in exchange I want the full story of how you operate and which party you are cooperating with."
Jerome thought for a while. After a while, he simply said
"Fine. That is acceptable. But we will form an official contract. Do you understand the contract of Crono?"
I nodded. Contract of Crono was a type of restriction. This type of restriction could be casted by a ranker of Law path. That ranker would have to be higher ranked than both parties and both parties would have to agree for the contract to form. Failure to comply with the contract will result in bodily injuries and even death!! Law path rankers are very low in numbers and most of them are low ranked, so these types of contracts are extremely rare among higher ranked people.
"Good. Let's do it right now." Jerome got up and proceeded towards the door, anxious to form the contract before Kez had a change of mind.
***
As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting a warm orange glow across the downtown skyline, Kez began his leisurely walk home. The air was thick with the scents of summer freshly cut grass and the faint aroma of street food from the evening vendors. It was that golden hour when the crowds thinned out, and the frenetic pace of the day settled into a more leisurely rhythm.
Kez's footsteps echoed softly on the pavement, mingling with the distant hum of traffic and the occasional chirp of crickets. He took a deep breath, letting the nostalgic ambiance wash over him. He felt great. The contract was formed. Apparently, Law rankers had their own office where they charged their clients certain fee to perform the contract for them. There were additional things added to the contract like how both parties can't betray or harm one another and stuff like that. But for someone like Kez who has seen the MC of the novel bypass many restrictions using loopholes in contracts, this simple restriction won't bind him too tightly. He could already think of numerous ways to bypass the 35-65 rule of the contract. So, he felt awesome. He had the urge to start laughing like a maniac, but he didn't want to ruin the ambiance environment around him. When was the last time he had enjoyed a walk some much? He couldn't remember.
As he approached his neighborhood, the streetlights flickered on, casting long shadows on the ground. Kez smiled to himself, remembering his hometown. A hellish place full of aura of misery, sufferings and depression but he still liked that place. It was hard to forget home after all. The lights came on. The world seemed much quieter now. He slowly looked up at the night sky. It was bright and full of stars.