Chapter 31: Blackmailed

The voice of the wielder titled 'The Muter' blared in the whole building. The vibrations shook Zhou Qi's heart. Despite his ears ringing and his shoulder dislocated. The loan shark felt a nice sense of release. "I'm f*ckin' safe!"

Zhou Qi wanted to brag and party but got no energy left. He waited for the old man to stop.

"Great, great!" The city lord pulled out a pen and a notebook from his breasted suit, writing something in it.

"I like yar answer brat! Perfect…our minds are alike. You passed my first test." The jumpy city lord strode forwards, banging his back.

“Cough, cough!”

Zhou Qi could only show a crooked smile. He chose to ignore the stinging pain. And the feeling of his lungs almost collapsing.

"Hmnn. It's been a long time since I was this happy." The old man stomped his feet on the ground and heaved. The ground rumbled, lightly vibrating.

The city lord then glanced at Zhou Qi. "You're target is moving towards the backdoor. He got one nice pet. Hmnn, a zealot. Hmnn, not so powerful. Can you take care of it?"

Zhou Qi felt stumped. Is that echolocation? On land!? Nevertheless, he was immediately woken up from his thoughts. "I would do my best to handle it, Sir!"

The old man nodded, "Good then, my granddaughter paid for your service for a lot. I almost thought you were blackmailing her. After all, I saw a lot of money going out from her ZBank. Anyway, I took a lot of hate to make her admit that yar his boyfriend. Not that I acknowledge it yet!"

Zhou Qi stumbled upon hearing the old man's declaration. His lips trembled, it was alas confirmed "Li-Lieutenant Chu?"

"Hmnn, hmnn! Little Chu Chu!" A sweet and kind smile bloomed on the old man's face.

The old man laughed, stretching his arms. He threw a wink at Zhou Qi. "Anyway, I made this hall sound-proofed. So ya got nothing to worry about. Yar targets have not sensed me at all. No one's going to tell my granddaughter about anything. Right men!?"

"Ay, absolutely city lord!"

"You got my word, sir! We'll follow everything you say."

"My lips are perfect lidded and sealed sir!"

"Haha, good, good! I'll throw some bonuses to yar' accounts. So keep up the good work."

…

The old man shifted his eyes and looked at Sasa and Cheng Shi. "How about you two?"

The two looked at each other, puffing their cheeks as if they were holding something in.

"I will Sir City Lord."

"Fine, fine. I promise cool grandpa."

"Good!" The old man then looked at Zhou Qi.

Zhou Qi nodded in thanks. Of course, that's all he could do. He then shifted a glare towards his two 'best friends.'

Then, Lord Calvin moved his eyes towards a few twitching men on the ground. "Men, move faster. Save the victims. I muted all the noise of the ambulance outside. Move them in!"

"Yes sir!" The officers saluted, running and buzzing like busy bees.

"Anyway, I'll take these buffoons with me. We got a lot of things to discuss." Suddenly, two men appeared beside Lord Calvin. One of the men, threw a few rocks on the floor, making it rise from the ground. Soon, a human-sized golem stood up from the stones. It dragged the collars of a few suited men. It was the officials, businessmen, and a few special agents.

"Neh, loan brat. Send me any interesting news. Of course, you could also send it through my granddaughter." The old man winked again. It was clear that the old man wanted to use him to meet his granddaughter more. "I want her to visit me more, kay?"

Zhou Qi felt livid. He wanted to retract and explain everything. But, he feared that he might be bashed…to death.

"System, the danger level of the old man?" He called in his mind.

[System Notes: Extremely Deadly. The system ranks him as an A-Rank. He'll pinch you to death and then you'll go astalavista, baby!]

Seeing the warning of the system, he chugged in all the things he was about to say. Th-this is madness! His face blanched. So, that's the power of an A-rank, huh.

Zhou Qi could only sigh. He changed his mind. His thought was, 'Maybe when I'm powerful enough, I'll explain it to him.'

He raised his head in the ceiling once again, thinking when will that day be. Anyway, the city lord was kinda scary. Zhou Qi wondered what will the ranked top-seaters be like.

"Anyway, continue and finish your job. I just went in to fish these morons. Ya must finish the mission yar paid for." Lord Calvin uttered before turning around. The old man waived one of his hands in the air as a goodbye.

Watching the back of the city lord made Zhou Qi realized how weak he was.

Zhou Qi shook his head. He remembered his mission. He must catch and make that lunatic suffer for bringing the city lord into this mess. No time to get emotional. He moved his head and saw Cheng Shi and Sasa squinting as if they were holding something.

"Pfft." Cheng Shi held it in, only freeing a sweet light beam.

Even so, it was different for Sasa. "Haha. Boss got a bride! Cudd-ly! That lady gorilla is cuddly?! Pfft, haha. Cheng Shi! Cheng Shi did you hear what he said. I, Pfft!"

Bzzt...

Soon, the intercom also opened.

Zhou Qi heard a burst of roaring laughter echoing in his ears. "Hahaha! Boss! You goin' big time? I never thought that, pfft, you have a juicy hidden relationship with the lieutenant. I better spread this to our connections. Heck, this will make our business bigger."

"Fatty." Zhou Qi's face went blank, then black…

"Shut up!" The loan shark decided to ignore everything, fearing that the old man was still listening from somewhere. "We still got to catch a freak."

"Fine, fine, no need to sulk." Sasa walked towards Zhou Qi, tapping his shoulders. Even so, her eyes were in slits as a light teardrop built its way on her eyes due to excessive laughing.

"Fatty is the dude still there?"

"Yep, don't worry he still has his ass fixed over that place. Well, it seemed like his controlling quite a powerful zealot."

"What type? Rank?"

The words of Fatty over the intercom were heard by Cheng Shi and Sasa. Their interest was piqued.

"Wait, let me run USI for you." Sounds of tapping in a keyboard echoed in the ears of the three. "Hmnn, boss. A Rank-C - white-winged tiger."

Silence loomed for a moment.

Sasa raised her head and looked at Zhou Qi, "Do we need a back-up boss?"

Zhou Qi fell in deep thought. If they ganked Shaft and the zealot. A few deaths might happen. Though, he wanted to finish the mission of the system. The loan shark doesn't want to put everybody's life on the line. What's the use of money if you're dead?

After a few seconds of thinking, he tapped his ear-piece. "Fatty ask for help. We don't go for suicidal missions. Tell Lieutenant Chu about this information. It's free of charge. Tell her that it's outside of our expertise."

"I'll tell my cuddly sister-in-law (singing) right away."

Zhou Qi's heart lurched after hearing Fatty's tune.

He could only grit his teeth and wait for the right time of vengeance. "Just you wait!"

"Yes, yes, I'll wait, I'll wait. Pfft, send me a wedding invitation alright! Oh, I remember something, let me send you an interesting audio file I got. You'll enjoy this!"

All of a sudden, Zhou Qi heard his sleazy yet meaningful voice echoing from the audio recording. The time with Reine! The recording boomed like thunder in his ear-piece. He felt his feet getting mushy and weak.

"Mr... D- *bzzt*… Mr. Di…bzzt…Zhou Qi, your order is here."

"Ah, ah, damn feels great! Ahhh. Move it. The hips! Oh, the waiter. My order? Leave them there! We're still exercising here. I'll get that after we're done! Haha!"

"We'll leave them here, Mr. D-*bzzt* Zhou Qi. If you need us, don't hesitate to give us a call."

Zhou Qi's heart galloped, his face paling as if he was dunked into an ice bucket. He gritted his teeth and whispered through the intercom, "Fatty!"

Fatty's chortles shook the intercom. "Hmnp, hmnp. You dare to scare me with the peeking issue, heh. It's a payback buddy. Did you like my gift? Oh, I also saved a video…"

"Very nice Fatty, very very nice. You're really a fast learner." Zhou Qi's grating teeth trembled. "But it's edited, heh. Do you think you could fool anyone with that?"

"Haha, of course, it can! Do you want me to try it? For example, I'll send it to some city lord I know. What do you think will he do? He will like it a lot right? You'll get a night visit probably. Hehe."

The line went silent, letting a few seconds lapse into nothingness and limbo. "So wanna try me, bro?"

…

"Y-you. Fatty! Lower your voice! D-don't. We can talk this out. No need to rush into things, okay."