268 Pablo Diablo’s Real Face

When Pablo sat down in his chair, only then did the two guests sit back down.

“Not bad, just a little bit of trouble from a few foolish groups,” Derrick replied. Then he looked at Pablo who was sitting opposite him. “What did you call us here for?”

“I received information from the Black Hole,” Pablo answered straight away. His face turned serious.

“Black Hole?” Derric and RB repeated simultaneously. Their faces also turned serious with a hint of worry.

“What information is that?” Derric asked.

“It’s not officially confirmed yet because James just told me. But soon, you’ll be receiving the news directly from the Black Hole.” Pablo said, then continued, “New rules have been issued. The fee is increasing again and Black Hole will take over all the businesses held by The Deadly Square groups that have fallen.”

historical

“What? So, the Black Hole is going to take hold of it all? Will that be fine? We’re going to be cornered, aren’t we?” Derric asked with a panicked face.

Pablo nodded slowly. “I was thinking the same thing. I don’t have a problem with the increase in the fees. But, Black Hole took over all of The Deadly Square’s remaining businesses? Honestly, it also makes me worry a bit. But what can we do? We can’t stop them anyway,”

Derric was silent for a few seconds, then looked back at Pablo. “Then, regarding that matter, what do you want to tell us?”

.....

Pablo lifted the short fat glass of dark brown liquor on the table beside his hand. Then he took a sip of the liquid to moisten his throat before speaking, “Since the burden we are carrying has grown, we can no longer help you in bribing the police, even for a penny. Maybe, after this, we can’t help you much with defences too,”

Derric couldn’t believe what he was hearing. All support from Dragger would be revoked? That meant the Beast Empire had to walk on their own two feet without anyone’s help. Would they be able to survive that way?

“H-have you thought about it carefully, Pablo? You know that the cost of bribing the police is not small. It’s not that I can’t afford it, but I’m just worried that one day we will have problems with the payment. If our place is closed, then we can’t be worker supplier for you guys again, you know,” Derric explained.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Derric. The Handway police don’t easily close illegal businesses. You’ve seen evidence of the three downed Deadly Square groups. Even though they couldn’t pay the police anymore, their business never got a crime investigation or appeared in the media. In this dark world, we are only a part of it, not its whole,” Pablo replied.

Indeed, in Handway City, Dragger and the rest of The Deadly Square weren’t the only ones that drive big business in the dark world.

Like a wide and deep ocean, you didn’t know that there was something bigger than the greatest. There were more ferocious than the fiercest. And there was something more terrible than the most terrible.

Derric gulped. “If that’s your decision, fine then. But, maybe I’ll make some changes to our business contract as well,”

Pablo raised an eyebrow. “Say it. I want to hear it.”

Derric gulped again, trying to manage his nervousness but failed. “We’re going to increase the rent fee for workers. If our expenses are getting bigger, that means we have to increase our income as well. So, I hope you can understand that.”

“What percentage?” Pablo asked while fiddling with the lip of the glass with his finger.

Derric glanced at Pablo’s finger. He knew that this high school boy was not happy with his decision. “Thirty percent.”

After Derric answered, Pablo raised his gaze to look at him. His lips slowly curved into a smile. “Thirty? Are you kidding me? Even the discounts you’ve given so far haven’t covered what Dragger has given to Beast Empire. Are you serious about your request?”

“I know Dragger has been helping us all along. But we’re still not independent enough to survive alone. If you stop all the supports at the same time and Black Hole also increases fee rates, then there’s nothing left for us.” Derric explained with a puppy face.

However, Pablo was not affected by that at all. His face still looked cold and relaxed. “Then.. how long should I wait? Two months? Six months? One year?”

Derrick was silent, and couldn’t answer that question because he himself didn’t know when his group would be independent without Dragger as support. Even today, they were unable to handle the two groups that were harassing their business.

At first, Derric had thought of asking Dragger for a little help. Before, he thought Pablo called him to ask for more females like that time, which made him come with RB who worked as head of captives management.

If Pablo did ask for additional female workers, even in an urgent situation, Derric would accept it on condition that he received a little help. But it turned out to be a mere hope.

“You can’t do it, Derric.” Pablo shook his head with a chuckle. “Until then, Beast Empire will depend on Dragger. Then, why would you even think of raising the price for us? Isn’t it ridiculous?”

“Th-then how do we survive at this rate?” Derric asked Pablo.

“Hey, loser,” Pablo glared at him. “You are a grown man. Are you sure, asking a high school boy what you should do?”

Derric was surprised at Pablo’s cold and harsh attitude. Usually, Pablo was always friendly to anyone. However, in fact, the current situation made Derric realize that this was the true face of Pablo Diablo.

Pablo was a cruel and cold guy who hid under his high school uniform, acting like a childish student so that people would underestimate him. But in fact, he was a frightening monster. It turned out that Juan Xavier’s suspicions had been true all along.

“You knew this from the start, didn’t you, Derric Hubbert?”

Derric looked back at Pablo with a pale face.

“If I wanted, Dragger could have snatched all of Beast Empire’s business in one move. If I didn’t pity you back then, there wouldn’t be a Beast Empire name today. And you, Derric, are still living around the trash cans and the sewers, squeaking like a mouse expecting dinner from today’s garbage heap.” Pablo continued.

The way Pablo declared his power over the Beast Empire was cruel. As Pablo had planned; to him, this was all a business. He poured money in the beginning as capital to see the Beast Empire formed.

It was like putting your seed in a woman’s womb. He watched his child grow up in someone else’s body. Then, when the child was born, he would take it as his own. But of course, he would be kind enough to make the child’s mother a free nanny on condition that the nanny must remain submissive to him.

Beast Empire was that mother. Pablo used them to develop a big business, so he didn’t have to worry about managing the business to grow.

He just needed to give some money and input, and let the money-mad men grow his business. Then, when the business had grown big and profitable, Pablo just had to harvest the results, because, in the end, the business was his.

‘Fuck! You are a cunning monster, Pablo!’ Derric exclaimed in his heart.

Although feeling furious at being taken advantage of, Derric ended up nodding. “Fine. On this matter, I succumb to you. I won’t raise the price of the workers just for Dragger.”

Pablo smiled with satisfaction. Then in an instant, his face turned friendly again. It was as if the conversation had never happened.

The man with the eccentric style got up from his chair, and then approached Derric and RB who sat next to each other. He stood behind the two men and put his arm around their shoulders. “Thank you for taking your time to come to my humble home, Gentleman. That’s all I want to say,” He winked.

Derric smiled wryly. “You are very welcome.”

Pablo returned the smile as he patted them on the shoulder twice. “Looks like your phone is ringing, Derric,”

It was so tense that even Derric and RB didn’t notice that there was a ringing incoming call from Derric’s cell phone that he put in his white coat pocket.

The man with golden teeth sighed as he looked at his phone. That was Juan. Then he swiped the green logo on the phone screen and put it to his ear.

It only took two seconds for Derric’s forehead to instantly furrow. His face turned tense.

Juan reported to Derric that their main warehouse had just been attacked by Black’s group. Meanwhile, their two transit warehouses were being attacked by Jita Kyoei.

Derric dropped his hand, hanging limply with the phone which felt as cold as a block of ice to him. RB, who noticed Derric’s strange behaviour after receiving the call, immediately asked him, “Did something happen?”

Derric then looked in horror at the dreadlocked man beside him. “All of our human warehouses were attacked. The culprits were Black and Jita Kyoei,” he answered in a trembling voice.

“What?!” It felt like RB’s jaw would fall to the floor.

“They’re too strong. Juan said our men can’t hold them back.” Derric said with his face down. His voice sounded like a mumble.

“This is a disaster!” RB grabbed her hair with both hands. He couldn’t believe it could happen. Then, he looked Derric in the eye. “We have to ask Dragger for help, Derric. There is no other way. Otherwise, we’ll be over!”