Chapter 14 - Provocation

The moment that the young people spotted Henry and Jack walking over, majority of them raised their brows. It was clear that they were not familiar with the duo at all.

But among this group of people, there were two of them that recognized Jack and Henry. Jack also recognized the two, as they exchanged glances.

"What a big surprise it is to see you two here. I'm quite curious about what brought you here." One of the young men asked sarcastically.

He possessed short green hair, grey eyes, a slim body stature and pale skin, more than normal. He had sunken eyes, and looked quite vicious just from his appearance, even though it was quite good looking.

Jack knew this person. This guy was called Simon Philips. He was Jack's and Henry's college mate, but they majored in different courses. Still, there were some units that they shared, making them attend the same class.

He was a personal with a subpar performance in school but was from a rich background. He was actually one of the young masters of Jumbo Hotel, the competitor in business with the Smiths.

This was one of the reasons why Simon hated Jack and Henry. Nonetheless, he hated Jack the most because he was obviously jealous of him.

Not only was Jack's performance in school good, but he possessed an outstanding appearance as well. For that reason, he was obviously admired by many girls, although the majority of them did not know that much about his background from the way that he was keeping a low profile.

But the thing that made Simon hate Jack the most was related to the girl that he was pursuing. She was a campus beauty. Although there were many beauties in campus, this one was amongst the cream of the crop.

Even though he had no intentions of having a long lasting relationship with her, he thought that it would be good as long as he could play with her.

But, the girl kept on refusing his approaches, and she claimed that she was already in love with someone else. She claimed that she was actually into this guy.

Had It not been for the fact that Simon had already investigated, finding out that Jack did not even seem to know the girl, he would have already lost his mind. He would have already found a way to deal with Jack, even if it risked the two families breaking out in a fight fully.

All that aside and back to the present…

"Just came here to pass time." Jack responded nonchalantly, completely ignoring the sarcasm in Simon's words.

"Tsk!" Simon was obviously irritated by that. Nonetheless, he continued, "That's unexpected. I never knew that you were interested in racing. Are you here to spectate or to race?"

As he asked the question, Simon glanced towards the Mazda RX9 that Jack and Henry had come in.

"Oh, we are here to do both. If you want to compete, we can give you a chance of racing against us." Henry suddenly spoke up.

Simon glared at him, but Henry did not even flinch. To him, a person who was having his third life, the intimidation from Simon was simply child's play, amusing to say the least.

Yet again, Simon was not happy. But, he still held himself back, only clicking his tongue.

He then ignored Henry and gazed at Jack before asking, "Are you seriously here to race?"

"I don't participate in any unfruitful races. If there is something at stake, I can at least participate in it." Jack responded as he took a seat.

"Is that all that you want? Then you have it! I'm going to race with you. And before the race, we are going to make a bet. Do you agree?" Simon asked with a scheming expression on his face.

Those that knew him could immediately tell that he was planning something, and it was definitely not the best for Jack. For the majority of the youths around, they simply looked on, waiting for a show.

As for Jack, having already gotten what he wanted, nodded in his heart. As expected, this guy was too easy to manipulate.

"Sure. But I want to make a big bet." Jack stated without even looking at Simon, something that riled him even further.

"Do you think that I'm poor that I can not afford to make a big bet? Tell me, what do you want to get after winning the race?" Simon asked, his voice tinged with anger.

"Money. That's probably the only thing that I can get from you that I can perhaps use to buy some snacks." Jack responded with nonchalance laced in his voice.

"You!" Simon was infuriated further when Jack said that. In his mind, he was thinking that Jack was looking down on him, something that he could not accept.

Still controlled by his anger, he exclaimed, "Fine! I'm going to place a bet of $300,000. If you win, you take the money, but of you lose, I want something from you."

Jack felt that things were getting easier than he had expected. This was not the original plan when he was coming over. But when he saw Simon here, he immediately made the decision to provoke him.

Jack understood Simon a little from the bits that he had been hearing from other people talking around him while I'm campus. So, he had this idea of making him angry, so that he could bet big.

And it seemed that this was working. But, considering that there was a lot of money that they still needed, Jack proved further. "That's all that you can offer? I thought that you could give something more than $300."

Everyone around was left speechless when they heard that. Jack was actually saying that $300,000 was just $300? For those that did not know Jack's background, they couldn't help but feel that he was bragging too much.

As for the ones that knew, they felt that Jack was exaggerating things. $300,000 was obviously not a small amount at all, especially to youngsters like them.

Henry was also looking at Jack with a dumbfounded expression on his face as he sat beside him. He had never thought that Jack could be this shameless.

Not long ago, they had to sell their car in order to get $43,000. But here, Jack was talking as though $300,000 was not that much. Even though the money from selling the car had been increased by Jack's system, nonetheless, this was just too much. Only an idiot would believe what Jack had said.

Simon was left with his mouth hanging open. He was obviously incensed at this point, but he could not vent his anger.

His mind was not thinking in the same direction as the others. While others thought that Jack was simply exaggerating things, he was actually thinking that Jack was looking down on him.

The $300,000 that he had offered as a stake was the money that he had been saving for a few years now. He was planning on accumulating the money to buy another sports car.

He had just been regretting blurting out the money, but could not go back on his words. But he was now resolved to use this money to teach Jack a lesson.

Gritting his teeth, he thought that he would make Jack pay for all this humiliation after he had won the race against him.

So, he spoke with a voice laced with hatred, "You think that $300,000 is small? Then I'm going to increase my stake. I'm adding my customized Lamborghini Huracan. That should be enough, right?"

Jack and the rest that were listening could not help but get speechless once again. They wondered if there was a screw loose in Simon's head.

Still, none of them tried to say anything about it. In any case, they were not losing anything. They could simply sit there and watch the show unfold.

Jack was tempted to provoke Simon again, so that he could add another thing on top of what he had offered. But in the end, he felt that this plan might end up backfiring instead of going through. So for now, he would have to be content with what was offered.

Henry gave Jack a thumbs up in his heart. At this point, he respected Jack on his ways of earning easy money. At this point, he decided in his heart that he would not try to compete against Jack when it came to manipulation.

He might try manipulating Jack, only to be manipulated himself. So, unless he was sure, or he had somehow gotten a master level manipulation skill from his system store, he would not dare to think of competing with Jack.

After Jack had thought it through, he spoke while nodding his head. "That's barely enough to interest me. $300 and an old scrap car. I can accept that. So, what do you want in return after you win?"

Everyone: đŸ¤¯

Everyone felt mind blown by the shamelessness that was being displayed here.

'You call a Lamborghini Huracan that has only been used a few times an old scrap car? Can the one that you came in even compare against this one?' They all thought.

Simon was gritting his teeth so hard that they almost broke. Still, his gums were already showing signs of bleeding, an indication of how hard he was clenching his jaws.

"For me, I only need one thing from you. I want you to come with me to find Joyce. Then, you are going to tell her that you don't have any feelings for her, and she should not even think of the two of you getting together." Simon stated word by word.

"Who is Joyce?" Jack asked a question that left everyone nearly falling from their seats in shock.