After tracking down Bennet inside the cafeteria, Euri went over to talk business. But the baldy seemed pissed for some reason. He wasted quite some time yelling at people over calls while Euri stared at his shiny head blankly.
Throwing his comcell away after a particularly heated argument, he finally turned his focus on Euri.
"You've had enough time to think about how you want to get back at them, right?"
"Sure." Euri shrugged. "Just give me their identities and location. As long as I can locate them, I'll consider us even."
Bennet's face darkened. "Consider us even?"
One of his cronies pointed a finger at Euri and elaborated on their bossman's response.
"You retard, does the boss need your consideration?"
"This is about protecting his image. Those three fuckers messed with the wrong gang!" Another crony declared.
One of them had a sinister look on his face as he leaned by Bennet's ear and whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Boss, I think this kid just implied that you owe him this, and unless you give him what he wants, he'll hold a grudge against you!'
Euri was once again tempted to start a fight. He had a lot of punches, kicks, and wrestling moves to dish out on these guys before they could truly get even. Seven years of their casual bullying had made every ordinary student in this school harbor some degree of grudge.
But he quickly caught himself midway through the decision. It seemed that the newfound strength was getting to his head.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Let me rephrase it. If you could help me, Bennet, I'd be very grateful," Euri said before Bennet could start yelling again.
But Bennet shook his head, and Euri's heart sank.
"You need to listen to my findings first before you make any decision. You live in a... rough neighborhood. So you should be familiar with the organizations that control those peripheral areas of Peacock District. Have you had any run-ins with the men from Faceless Gang before?"
Euri couldn't recall any such name. Hesitant, he said, "No. Are you saying those three assholes are members of this Faceless Gang?"
"Yeah, just as I expected," Bennet sneered.
"There is a reason why you haven't heard of the gang. It's sort of like a secret association of members from all the gangs of this district who share a certain belief, if you know what I mean..."
Seeing Bennet wink at him emphatically was a bit of a shock, but the surprising news he had delivered was even more impactful. Euri had to reassess the feasibility of his plan of revenge once again.
His opponents weren't just members of a gang; they belonged to a huge cult too?!
Bennet's implicit hint wasn't lost on him. If it was an ordinary cult, then he wouldn't have brought it up. The cults that mattered in this age were those connected to alien creatures, outsourced from the alien planes beyond the dimensional gateways. The powers they worshipped could physically manifest anywhere, provided the requirements were met.
"How powerful is this hidden association? How's their relationship policy? If something happens to those three guys, what kind of retaliation should we expect?"
One after another, Euri fired away the questions rising in his heart. Bennet's eyes twitched at the last one, and he scanned Euri from head to toe as if he was seeing him properly for the first time.
"They do their best to maintain secrecy, but not when it comes to displaying their power and influence. Like I said, they have men in almost every organization out there; big gangs, local groups, underground establishments—everywhere. People have been targeting them since their emergence, but that usually results in gruesome deaths and missing reports."
"If all the bigshots took action together—"
"They did try," Bennet said before Euri could finish. "But there are too many of them, and they grow like weeds on fertile land. Peacock district has a registered population of over fifteen million. Half live in the Peacock's Tail—the slums. Thirty percent of that half are associated with gangs directly or indirectly. It's impossible to put a filter on all of them.
"Over time, even the top dogs had to accept that a secret network will always exist among their men. As long as this network isn't being used against their interests, they have to pretend not to care."
"Damn..." Euri leaned back on his seat, dispirited. "So there's no way to take revenge for the beating I suffered?"
"I didn't say that," Bennet said, a shrewd grin making its way to his face and lighting up the fire of hope in Euri's heart.
"The thing is, when an organization grows big enough, there will always be disagreements and internal conflicts within it; if not among the top brass, then among the grass-feeders. Same goes for Faceless Gang. They have people from numerous other gangs who are openly fighting over interests all the time. So even when they discard these identities to pray together to their alien overlord, some dirty motherfuckers are scheming against their fellow worshippers."
Suddenly leaning forward, Bennet whispered, "And I have managed to contact those who are scheming against your assailants through a secret commission that cost me twenty-three thousand credits. Since you claimed that one of my guys robbed about the same amount from your house, don't let me catch you mentioning it again!"
"...Of course, absolutely, my mouth is zipped." Euri nodded like a chicken. Back then, he had dropped that lie casually to test Bennet's attitude. Seeing Bennet talking about the debt so seriously made it hard for him to not burst out laughing.
Maybe in return, he could tone down the thrashing he'd give Bennet one day.
At that moment, one of Bennet's cronies spoke up again, running two steps ahead of his boss as usual.
"Also, maybe you're too retarded to get this, but boss doesn't want any more info leaked about your run-in with those thugs. It's for everyone's benefit if this incident gets forgotten. You don't want to be tracked down as a suspect after taking revenge, do you?"
"I understand. But are you absolutely sure that your contacts will sell out the identities and locations of all three targets?" Euri asked eagerly.
"They're too ambitious to care about three worthless assholes from the gutters. Don't you worry about my side. You have other shit to be worried about, such as how and when you want to go after them, whether you can handle it if there's an emergency, and if you get caught, what to say, what not to say..."
Bennet pretty much threatened Euri to keep mum about their cooperation for the next couple of minutes, going as far as giving him an oddly specific percentage of how many bodies buried in the abandoned housing projects near the hills belonged to snitches.
"Speaking of projects, did you see what was going on in the principal's office this morning? I wanted to go myself, but...er..."
It was well known that the only guy Bennet feared in the school was the principal himself. Due to the overwhelming number of complaints against him, the principal had begun a practice of punishing Bennet wherever and whenever he saw him nearby.
In a corporate design, if Bennet was the asshole General Manager, then Principal Serique was the tyrant Director.
Euri then spent a minute explaining the climatic scene in the administration building, naming the Bloodfly Clan directly as a small act of vengeance for the ear twists.
"Bloodfly Clan..." Bennet revealed a cowed look. "Those guys are even more brutal than any eager gangs that want to earn some infamy. People who cause trouble for them get backstabbed by their own business partners, or get straight up murdered out there during dimensional expeditions."
Not particularly shocked, Euri said, "The Principal isn't an idiot. I doubt the Bloodfly Clan came here to intimidate him. From the very beginning of this whole Scholarship project drama, it was clear that something deeper than the leaked news was happening. It's unlikely for the founder of that trustee board to fall out with Mr. Serique over allegations of misappropriating funds."
Bennet cast a sharp look at him. "You know something?"
Euri shook his head. "Just a guess, man. I've seen similar incidents play out in many big companies. Usually, it leads to exploiting some loopholes in business contracts by staging these dramatic public scenarios."
Seeing how confused Bennet looked, Euri stood up to leave. "Who knows, maybe the Bloodfly Clan is in cahoots with the trust's founder, baiting Helios Clan into making some rash decisions after seeing the plight of their staunch supporter, Mr. Serique."