CHAPTER 35: 35. DAVID EUGENE

"Let me open the door." Sean immediately walked towards the door, leaving Riki who was catching his breath after the pillow attack.

[Your first mission today is to find the identity of the person who has been terrorizing Sean with death threats]

[That person is at the door]

[You must hurry! An attractive reward awaits you]

[If you fail, you will regret it]

Riki immediately darted out the door, seeing that no one was there when Sean opened it.

Riki was lucky because the person he was looking for hadn’t gotten too far. The person was about to go down the emergency stairs. If Riki hadn’t jumped down several stairs to catch the person, he might have lost him.

"Where are you going? Come with me now!" whispered Riki, dragging the person back to the front of his apartment.

Sean had come out of the door, staring at Riki with wide eyes.

Riki caught someone who was covering his face with a mask.

"Gotcha! You think you can just get away from me?" said Riki, removing the mask covering the face of the person he had caught.

Sean was shocked to see a familiar face. The man who had always been friendly to him and often gave him expensive gifts... was the same man who had sent him death threats?

"Boss?" Sean shouted.

Riki turned to Sean, "What did you say, boss?"

"The owner of Golden Entertainment."

Riki looked back at the man he was holding. The man did resemble Vicky, but not too much.

He clearly looked like a handsome, well-mannered man who didn’t cause much trouble.

David Eugene, wasn’t that his name?

"Why did you send Sean a death threat? Even though you knew he was in my apartment, you still came here—"

Smack!

Suddenly, the man managed to push Riki, hit him, and tried to escape.

However, luckily Riki had long legs, and he tripped David, causing him to fall flat on his face.

"Where do you think you’re going? Let’s have a little chat, David Eugene. Quickly tell me why you— Damn it!"

Apparently, David was well prepared. He even had some kind of device to release colorful smoke. It blurred Riki and Sean’s vision, and they coughed because they accidentally inhaled the smoke.

David managed to escape using the elevator.

Riki immediately pulled Sean back into the apartment.

They were able to breathe in plenty of fresh air.

It took them quite a while to recover from David’s thick smoke attack.

"Damn... but at least we know who did it, right? That stupid David, doesn’t he know this building has CCTV in every hallway?" Riki muttered, still very upset that he had let David get away.

[Your first mission to find out the identity of the person who threatened to kill Sean has been successful]

[You have earned a prize that will be randomly selected]

Riki raised an eyebrow. This was the first time he had seen the system randomly select a prize. Usually, the prize was mentioned at the beginning of the mission.

There were always surprises every time the system gave a new mission.

Besides, this was like a game for the system, even though for Riki, it was reality.

[Reward randomization complete!]

[Wow! You have successfully obtained a rare reward in the form of a disguise skill]

[It is a skill that allows you to transform yourself into another person or a new figure]

[This skill consumes a lot of your energy, so it is best to only use it for five hours, after which you must return to your original form]

[Because if you run out of energy, you will be unconscious until your energy recovers on its own]

[The energy in question is not the kind obtained from food, but rather what is commonly referred to as magical energy]

[The magical energy within your body is quite substantial, which is why you can activate the system. However, you must still be cautious not to carelessly use skills that consume a lot of energy, such as the disguise skill]

Riki fell silent after listening and reading the explanation from the system.

Disguise skill, huh? Riki would use it when he really needed it. Because it seemed dangerous to use that skill too often.

But... he wanted to try it out to be sure.

However, that could wait. For now, he would focus on Sean first.

"Sean, Why are you so quiet?" asked Riki.

Sean shook his head slowly, his eyes staring at Riki, smiling bitterly.

"I just didn’t expect that the Boss... I mean, the CEO... no, David—he had always been a good friend to me. He gave me various expensive gifts, especially when I succeeded at something. He was very friendly, warm, and he also guided me well. But why..."

Sean covered his face with both hands. He felt frustrated by the bitter reality he was facing at that moment.

"I’ll get the CCTV footage from the apartment door and send it to Arvin. I hope we find out his reason, but the most important thing is to catch him, Sean. He has hurt you and made you feel afraid."

Sean removed his hands from his face and looked at Riki with pleading eyes.

"Riki..."

Riki shook his head, "Don’t be weak, Sean. Even though he’s been nice to you, behind your back he’s been threatening to kill you. I know he might have been told to do it by his sister, but he still did it, right? That doesn’t change the fact that he wanted to do it. He didn’t think about your mental health or anything when he did that. Why should you feel sorry for him? His smile at you is fake, you know?"

Riki’s words hit Sean like a ton of bricks, making him realize the bitter truth.

"Yeah, you’re right."

Riki patted Sean on the shoulder, then left Sean to get the CCTV footage from the front door of his apartment.

"Don’t go anywhere, open the door only after you know who’s coming," said Riki, before leaving.

Sean just nodded his head and remained silent.

Even though Riki had made him realize it, his head kept thinking about the possible reasons that could make David do all that.

Ugh, Sean hated this. Why was he always weak when it came to other people’s kindness? Why did he always see the good in people, even though it was all fake?

There were no truly good people... even Riki said he would take advantage of him. But Sean thought Riki was better than unconditional kindness... which turned out to stab him in the back.

"I need to soak and clear my mind," he muttered.

***

Riki was too busy today. He went to Little Heaven, then to his office for a while. Then after lunch, he and Jayden went to a vacant lot near the Arcelia River. They met with the architect who would design their restaurant before it was built, so that everything would go according to plan.

"I like classic designs that give a luxurious impression... so that visitors who come feel like they are kings or nobles as soon as they enter the restaurant. I like that kind of impression," said Jayden.

"I think I have some ideas for that. I’ll make the design right away, then I’ll contact you," said the architect.

Coincidentally, the architect was a woman.

According to Jayden, with all the details he mentioned, a female architect would better understand the aesthetics he wanted.

Riki agreed with Jayden. Because he had to trust Jayden and Jayden’s vision of his dream restaurant.

It might be like gambling, but Riki had the business skills that would allow him to get lucky there.

After meeting with the architect, Jayden returned to the restaurant and Riki returned to Little Heaven.

Seeing the flowers blooming there reduced Riki’s stress.

"Looks like you have a lot on your mind, boss," said Evan, placing a cup full of cappuccino in front of Riki.

Riki drank it slowly, then sighed heavily.

Evan chuckled at the sight of Riki looking so tired.

"I’ve never been this tired, Evan... there are so many things I have to think about at the same time. You know, men aren’t like women who can do many things at once. We are created to do one thing at a time. But circumstances force me to do this, and boom! I feel like my head is about to explode."

Evan chuckled again at Riki’s ramblings. He saw Riki back to his old self, full of energy, always enthusiastic about doing things.

However, it would be great if Riki could go back to the way he was before, when everything wasn’t such a mess.

"Maybe it’s because you’re meddling too much in Sean’s problems..."

Riki sighed deeply, "Yeah, I know that... but how can I back out after I decided to get involved? You know I’m a curious person, right? Sean’s problem has become really interesting now, because it turns out that the person who sent him the threatening message was his own CEO, the owner of Golden Entertainment. Crazy, right? I’m still upset that I let him get away."

Evan widened his already large eyes, wanting to know more.

"Then what happened after that? Do you know why he did it?"

Riki sighed heavily again, "That’s what makes me angry. I don’t know his reason, he ran away too quickly. He sprayed some kind of device that made smoke, I don’t know what it was. The smoke made me close my eyes and cough."

"If only we could sneak into his office or something... I’m really curious about that man’s motive. If only we could get him drunk, he might tell the truth, Riki."

Riki suddenly sat up straight, patted Evan on the shoulder, and smiled broadly.

"You’re a genius, Evan!"

Evan furrowed his brow, "Hmm? What did I say?"

Riki shook his head, then finished his cappuccino.

"I have to go now."