CHAPTER 97: GREAT SUCCESS

In a luxurious house, 4 figures were sitting around a wide table.

On one side, there was a man that seemed to be in his late 40s wearing an expensive suit with 2 beautiful women wearing exposed clothes on his right and left, pressing their bodies tightly on him as he wrapped his hands around them.

On the other side, there was an ugly man whose age couldn’t be determined by look. His face was covered in scars and old burn marks, wearing an old long coat.

Judging by his look, he seemed to be a beggar. Yet, there was a wide smile that didn’t leave his face as he took a sip of coffee.

"It’s been a long time," The ugly man said, his voice leaning toward sarcasm. "Dad. And thank you for the coffee, it looks expensive."

The man in suit suddenly slammed a black bag on the table. "Take this money and leave, Michael. None of us ever considered the other a family."

Michael looked at the bag with a raised eyebrow. "The movies are really a scam. I was expecting a hug with a dramatic apology, not the money of my kidney that you have sold."

He began scanning the house. "But I have to admit, you used it well, Noir. I’m rather surprised you didn’t waste it in gambling."

Noir let out a sigh. "Take the money and leave. Everything between us is done now."

Michael shook his head in response. "Everything personal? Maybe yes. But in fact, I’m here for a business, not family meeting. It was just a happy coincidence that I found you."

He then took a piece of paper and handed it to Noir.

"Business? Are you sent by someone?" As Noir began reading the paper, his eyes widened. The women in his sides held similar looks.

His face had a look of pure disbelief and horror. "How—!"

"Ahem..." Michael cleared throat, cutting Noir off. "Noir Haytham, you are a loanshark involved in selling weapons to a terrorist organisation, money laundering, and some rape cases."

His smile widened, turning into something that sent shivers down Noir’s spine. "I judge you guilty, therefore you shall die."

Immediately, Noir tried to pull out a gun, but Michael reacted faster.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

He shot 3 bullets, 2 of them killed the women instantly, and the third pierced Noir’s hand.

*Bang!*

The last bullet hit his head with extreme accuracy, ending his life in an instant.

After a moment, the deep scent of blood and coffee lingered through the air.

Michael crossed his legs as he enjoyed his coffee. In his face, there was no guilt, no sorrow, no regret, no nervousness, no fear.

Only a calm smile remained on it.

Suddenly, his smile vanished as he cursed: "Fuck! I forgot that I have to clean this now."

He stood up and held the money bag with satisfaction. "The money of my kidney and 20k dollars for killing 3 scums without guards? Not bad for my 5th mission."

His eyes landed on the corpses, especially his father who had 2 holes in his body.

For the first time, Michael’s expression turned into sadness as one thought lingered in his mind.

’How nice would it be if I had a living trash can to erase corpses. This man smells like dogshit!’

•••

"How nice it is to have a living trash can to erase corpses. Glutton, you are the best!"

[Wait, that’s not a complement. I feel offended!]

My gaze was fixed at Glutton and the mana core on the clean floor. He was even generous enough to lick Lynn’s blood! He was really a great son.

Thinking about how her soul may still be here, I opened my mouth. "Lynn, you were involved in working with demons for 2 years. Your actions may have caused significant harm for innocent people and could have caused more harm in the future. You knew this, yet, you continued helping them."

Taking one last sip of coffee and restoring the empty cup, I stood up and coldly said: "I judged you guilty, therefore you had to die."

I walked away and stood before the cell, scanning the demon inside of it.

"What shall I do to you?"

I had only 2 options: The first was to cripple him and extract information from him too. He definitely knew more than a normal manipulated whore.

The second option was killing him directly in his weak state, ensuring that he wouldn’t cause harm.

It was really hard to choose one.

"Can I eat the core?" Glutton suddenly said as he landed on my shoulder in his raven form.

A mana core suddenly appeared in his beak. He looked at it with hunger.

I asked him curiously: "When will you become full?"

[Oh, about that... I won’t.]

"..."

"You won’t?"

[I don’t really have a stomach. I can keep eating and growing forever. The problem is that if I didn’t eat anything with mana for a week, my power would start decreasing until I fall into slumber.]

I nodded. "So that’s how it works. But no, give me the core. Unlike you, I can’t eat mana crystals."

[But—!]

"No but." I said firmly as I took the mana core from his beak.

We literally had a chest full of mana crystals beside us, yet, he didn’t want to leave a Tier-1 core! I should have named him Greed.

Holding the core in my hand, I absorbed it instantly, leaving only some dust.

I felt some energy refining my core, but it was barely visible due to how weak the core was.

’At least I can absorb mana cores.’

It was common knowledge now that the aether cores could absorb mana cores, aura cores, and anti-mana cores, but it was nice to confirm it myself.

After looking at the demon for a long moment, I decided to kill him.

He was an Exalted. He had an unknown Tier, unknown Trait, unknown affinities, and maybe unknown soul-bound artifact.

I wasn’t ready to fight someone like that.

Using wind spheres, I stood at the top of the cell. There was an opening that led to the liquid in the cell.

I took 4 bottles from my storage, opened them, then threw them inside the liquid.

They were 4 different types of Tier-5 poisons and one of them contained my radiation. It was better to be safe than sorry in this situation.

After a moment, the demon suddenly opened his eyes in shock. He started trembling in pain while opening and closing his mouth.

At the same moment, I brought my finger close to the liquid and began to send high currents of purple lightning.

After 5 minutes, the demon stood motionless.

[Can I eat him?]

"Why the hurry?" I smirked. "Your dish isn’t cooked yet. Help me to accelerate the process."

[Oh! Yes sir!]

Together, we sent our lightning to the cell for 10 minutes. The liquid was boiling and the demon’s flesh was burning.

All of a sudden, the demon, who was supposed to be dead, twitched aggressively as he tried to break the cell with blood leaking from all his holes.

Eventually, he stopped moving for the last time.

I waited for 30 more minutes before finally pressing on a button that opened the cell.

*Thud!*

The demon fell lifelessly on the ground.

"Glutton," I called. "Will the poison harm you?"

"No..." Glutton answered while looking at the demon with saliva dripping from his mouth.

I smiled at him. "He is all yo—!"

Before I could continue my talking, Glutton began eating the demon. His sharp teeth were tearing apart the burning skin and flesh of the demon.

Even though he was burned, the demon’s body was still hard to cut even for Glutton. He had to enhance his teeth that could even eat crystals just to eat the demon.

I clicked my tongue. "Tsk, control your hunger. I won’t steal him from you."

While waiting for him to finish his meal, I replaced all the crystals in the room and stored the crystal chest in my inner space. It was safer than storing it on my ring.

When I returned my gaze to Glutton, he was now significantly larger while holding a big black core in his tentacle.

Looking at his eye, I saw some hesitation in the way he looked at the core.

"Don’t you dare! Give it to me." I teleported beside him and grabbed the core.

He stared at it with disappointment before murmuring: "That’s not fair..."

Ignoring him, I absorbed the core in an instant.

My eyes widened as a huge surge of energy refined my core. The feeling was great and addictive.

"Judging by its size and all the energy I received, it was definitely close to becoming Tier-5!"

I nodded in satisfaction as I took Glutton and left the place. My job was done here.

I got some mana crystals, information about 4 traitors, killed a demon who was 1 tier above me and a guilty woman, then fed Glutton.

For me, that was a great success, and the start of my journey to reduce the dangers of the academy.

After all, among the 4 traitors Lynn told me about, I had seen one in the academy.

Now all I needed was some information and an opportunity.