"This was all planned!" Musa shouted louder than Roland, making him go silent and turn around to glare at him, his eyes demanding an explanation.
"I got in touch with the person who posted this bounty, and he ordered me to do this for extra pay." Musa paused to take a breath and continued.
"He wanted us to test the prince and hand him the video, and he's paying 50,000 laris on top of the 2,000,000 lari bounty for just this."
Roland's eyes widened in shock as he processed Musa's words.
"2,000,000 laris bounty?" Roland mumbled in disbelief and continued, "And 50,000 just to test him a bit?"
His tone and expressions changed so quickly that one might think a spontaneous reaction was happening inside him.
His entire anger subsided in an instant, hearing about the amount they were receiving.
He knew that the bounty on a prince's head would be huge, but this was life-changing money.
One could easily retire in their life with a family of 6 with this kind of money.
Roland barely made 24,000 laris a year, and that was considered good.
"I-I see! Mhm! W-What else did the benefactor ask us to do?" The tone shift took Musa by surprise, but he understood him.
Even if he gets 10% of that money, he could quit doing these shady jobs for Roland and open a business to sustain himself.
"I'm glad we are on the same page now." Musa nodded, and just as he was about to answer Roland, he was interrupted by something.
"I told this guy to make the Prince fight some people for me to witness." A voice resounded in the room as a person materialized there out of nowhere.
Roland and Musa both froze in their spots, their heart jumping out of their chests, and their words stuck in their throat.
They didn't even sense the man coming, and the danger they sensed from the man was terrifying.
Even though they weren't proficient in sensing the spirit energy, they could still sense the unfathomable gap between their powers.
They turned their head mechanically towards the new man, and saw a silver-haired man who was pale like a corpse.
Even though Musa was double his size, he didn't dare say anything to the silver-haired person in front, and just nodded like a broken doll.
"I am a man of few words, so let's skip the introductions, shall we?" Even the man's normal tone sent shivers down their spines
They wanted to say something, but the man's presence didn't allow them to.
"Pay attention to the screen, lads." The second he gave them this command, they followed through instantly, almost as if they were being controlled by his words.
Their breath seemed to freeze as the silver-haired man's eyes focused on the flickering screen.
"The show is about to start."
…
In the dark room, Lucien was peeking through the keyhole and saw a man standing on guard right outside the room.
He wondered if this room was intentionally soundproofed, or was the man had been instructed to ignore any form of sound.
Either way, he didn't like the fact that he was dancing on someone's palm right now, and he was even being watched right now.
He had equipped himself with the broken leg of the chair, the broken end still sharp enough.
Lucien had already confirmed that the door wasn't locked, just as he expected, and he armed himself with anything available.
He backed down a bit, mentally preparing himself as he quickly bolted towards the unlocked door, hitting it with all his energy.
Bam!
The door flew open, slamming into the guard's back. He staggered—but before he could even shout, Lucien was on him.
He wasted no time, and he swung the chair leg with full force towards the falling guard.
The guard's eyes widened as a sharp wooden stick was plunged deep into his neck before he could even scream.
Just as he was about to scream in pain and inform others about the blond guy escaping, another stick came streaking down and was thrusted deep inside his mouth, the blood splattering all over Lucien.
The guard was struggling, writhing in pain, gurgling and choking on his own blood, but Lucien didn't hesitate.
There was no remorse in his eyes as he drove the chair leg down again, and again, and again.
In just a few seconds, silence returned.
The blood was nasty and warm, just as he remembered from the war.
Lucien's breath was still shallow, despite killing a human, since he was used to this nauseating metallic stench of blood.
He had no guilt for killing a person who wasn't innocent.
Lucien checked the corpse, and apart from a few currency notes and a bar of protein bar, there wasn't anything in the pockets.
'Hmm!?' While he was checking the body, he found something under his belt.
A gun.
He knew a bit about guns from Lucien's memories, but not how to use them.
Lucien never had any use for learning this weapon, since these hot weapons were only ever useful for people who weren't exalts or weaker exalts, and Lucien had bigger dreams than that.
He was more focused on learning the sword, just like everybody else.
But he had seen people using them in the movies, and that was the best he could find in Lucien's memories.
He took out the gun and noticed that it was already loaded with a magazine.
'There should be a lock… somewhere. Didn't they always do something with their thumbs in the movies?' Lucien tried looking around, but it was too confusing for him, so he just left this to lady luck.
He took out the protein bar and popped it quickly in his mouth, eating the first piece of food since he arrived in this world.
A weird sensation ran down his torso as he gulped down the only bar of protein at once.
His legs nearly gave up, but this wasn't the time.
Lucien took another look at the gun he held and tried fiddling with it, when suddenly, he accidentally pressed the trigger.
Bang!