From the shadows of Lungmen’s complex underworld, Lin Yuxia had been watching Frez for quite some time.
She had noticed this undocumented, white-haired anomaly the moment he reported his very first gang.
That particular syndicate had been her target; they had broken her father’s established rules in the lower district.
Grey Tail Hall would have naturally dealt with them in due time, but before they could even mobilize, that stubbornly righteous officer, Ch’en Hui-chieh, received Frez’s anonymous tip and kicked the doors down, sweeping the entire operation into the Lungmen Guard Department’s holding cells.
The second gang marked the beginning of her direct contact with him.
Right after Frez finished feeding them to the authorities, Yuxia sent an associate to reach out.
Acting in her private capacity, she handed him a test—a specific task.
She provided her personal contact information, and barely any time passed before he dismantled a third gang with effortless precision.
Sitting across from him now in a quiet, high-end teahouse, Lin Yuxia felt it was time to officially bring Frez under her command.
She appreciated his methods.
He possessed obvious capability and a pragmatic sort of empathy that suited the streets.
As she prepared to inherit her father’s vast legacy, she desperately needed capable subordinates of her own.
The hardened veterans currently serving her father were powerful, yes, but their loyalty belonged to the Rat King.
They only helped her out of respect for the old man.
Unwilling to remain safely tucked beneath her father’s protective umbrella, Yuxia was desperate to prove her own worth.
She needed to step out of the shadow of the ‘Grey Lin’and forge the era of the’Purple Lin.’ To do that, she needed Frez’s strength.
“There is one hundred thousand LMD in this account.
The PIN is on the back.”
Lin Yuxia slid a sleek bank card across the polished wooden table, her gaze steady as she issued her formal invitation.
“Frez, join Grey Tail Hall.
Help me regulate the lower district.
You are exceptionally capable, and frankly, I don’t care what your past looks like.
I only hope you can stand with us and end the chaos in these streets together.”
Facing the young mob boss’s earnest pitch, Frez casually pushed his dark sunglasses down the bridge of his nose.
He picked up the bank card, flipping it between his fingers.
“I don’t really have any intentions of joining a syndicate right now.
Besides, my new friends have already started calling me the Boss Killer.”
“Boss Killer…”
Lin Yuxia stared at him, momentarily robbed of words.
Frez was indeed a master of the opportunistic backstab; anyone observing his recent track record would assume he simply enjoyed making a living out of selling out underworld leadership.
“Are you not even going to listen to the benefits?” she pressed, leaning forward slightly.
“Joining Grey Tail Hall comes with full insurance, complete monthly welfare subsidies, a highly stable salary, and social security.
Although your rest time can’t be strictly guaranteed and you would need to be on call, our compensation package easily matches the treatment Ch’en Hui-chieh and the LGD officers receive.”
‘Are you guys a mafia or a corporate accounting firm?’
Frez suppressed a dry laugh, keeping his expression perfectly neutral.
“Thank you for your generous kindness, Miss Lin, but I’m really not interested in joining Grey Tail Hall.
My current plan is just to save up some travel funds and see the world.”
“Traveling?” Yuxia frowned, her elegant posture stiffening.
“Have you actually decided on a destination?”
“Kazdel, Ursus, or Victoria, probably.”
Aside from a vague notion of heading to Kazdel eventually to test his strength against the Demon King, Frez hadn’t locked in an itinerary.
There frankly weren’t many pleasant vacation spots on this scarred continent—who told this broken world to be called Terra?
No matter how stunning the natural scenery might be, it would inevitably be scoured and devastated by a Catastrophe.
In a grim twist of irony, those same Catastrophes leveled mountain ranges and carved out the flat terrain that made the cities’ transit possible.
Of course, he had no intention of just sitting around in Lungmen waiting to die of old age or Originium exposure.
If he were just an ordinary man without power, living a quiet, stable life in the slums wouldn’t be the worst fate.
But he possessed absolute power.
He had a cheat.
A man standing between heaven and earth with the Limitless flowing through his veins—how could he ever be content bowing his head to someone else?
More, this dumpster fire called Terra had absolutely no shortage of world-ending existential threats.
The northern Demons, the abyssal Seaborn, the creeping rot of Originium, and the fake Starry Sky above.
No one knew when or where the world line might suddenly fracture.
It wasn’t that he distrusted the operators of Rhodes Island, but compared to putting his faith in a pharmaceutical company, he trusted his own two hands infinitely more.
Since he had transmigrated here, he had to leave a mark.
He had to change things.
And if he couldn’t achieve anything with the power of a god?
Then let Terra burn.
“Is there anything actually good about those three places?” Yuxia asked, breaking his train of thought.
“As far as I know, Kazdel is an active warzone.
Ursus is constantly having border friction with Yan, and the vast majority of its territory is a frozen tundra with a lethal environment.
I don’t know the complex details of Victoria, but even as the strongest empire on the Terran continent, it has its own bloody politics.
Wouldn’t it be far better to just stay in Lungmen?”
“There’s nothing bad about staying in Lungmen, but stepping outside offers a much broader horizon.” Frez smiled, slipping the bank card into his pocket.
“The coming era is going to be full of opportunities, and I don’t intend to miss out on the show.
But if Miss Lin ever has a private commission, please, feel free to patronize my business.”
“Alright.”
Lin Yuxia realized she could only drop the subject for now.
Frez stood up, adjusting his collar.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be taking my leave.”
As the teahouse doors clicked shut behind him, Lin Yuxia looked at his departing back, her shoulders slumping in defeat.
“Dad, you can come out now.”
A moment later, a hidden door smoothly clicked open.
A large, elderly Perro with sharp, calculating eyes walked out, leaning heavily on his cane.
He chuckled, the sound raspy but warm.
“My dear daughter, did I not warn you?
He is not a man willing to live under the shadow of others.”
“But I just don’t understand.
Is there anything truly bad about joining Grey Tail Hall?” Yuxia asked, frustration lacing her tone.
“We might operate out of the light, but I could easily arrange for him to hold legitimate positions.
Could it be he actually wants to be Ch’en Hui-chieh’s assistant?”
The benefits she had just offered were top-tier within Lungmen.
Even Ch’en’s current LGD salary couldn’t compare, not to mention Frez wouldn’t even have to risk his life on the front lines hacking at thugs every day.
“No, little Ch’en won’t be able to hold him either,” Lin Kojui said, shaking his head slowly.
“Little Ch’en is far too naive compared to him.
Little Ch’en is still too young to understand a man like that.”
“Dad, how can you even tell?”
“His eyes.”
The Rat King had observed the young man from the shadows.
Frez’s eyes were entirely different from the desperate, hollow stares of the people in the lower district.
They were brimming with an intense, overwhelming vitality, yet buried deep within that vibrant blue was a deep…
disgust.
Disgust for his own situation?
Disgust for the people around him?
Or disgust for the very laws of the world he inhabited?
Lin Kojui didn’t know.
But he understood one thing with absolute certainty: his daughter could never hope to control a dragon that merely looked like a man.
Stroking his grey beard, the Rat King smiled.
“He only does this line of work because he requires funds.
It doesn’t mean he has any loyalty to the game, and he certainly isn’t the type to settle down.”
Lin Yuxia bit her lip, clearly unconvinced.
She still wanted to keep Frez, to mold him into her right-hand man.
“I just wasn’t well-prepared enough this time.
Next time, I definitely will be.” She muttered, cheering herself up with the thought that she could eventually win him over.
Seeing his daughter’s stubborn pride, Lin Kojui merely shook his head and kept his silence.
Some truths in this city had to be learned through hard experience before they were truly understood.
Meanwhile, the streets were already getting troublesome for Frez.
Barely two blocks away from the teahouse, he found his path blocked by a group of heavily tattooed, ‘kind-hearted’ locals looking for an easy mark.
A brief, entirely one-sided kinetic exchange later, the thugs were groaning on the dirty asphalt, generously contributing their wallets to his travel fund.
“Looking at the time, I should go grab lunch.
Might as well check if there are any decent manga volumes to send to Kiana.
I just hope the idiot can actually read the text on them.”
Dusting off his hands, he strolled down the block and purchased twenty assorted manga volumes.
He then stopped by a bustling street vendor, ordering a large portion of char siu rice and a steaming bowl of fish balls.
Sitting down at a slightly sticky plastic table, he opened his interface and sent the manga as a red envelope directly to Kiana.
After paying the bill and checking the time, a notification pinged in his mind.
Furina had sent a message to the multiversal chat group.
[Furina: It’s about time.
Everyone come online, we can sit and chat a bit before afternoon tea.]
[Wiš’adel: Damn it, why the hell are there Rusthammers swarming the Kazdel border?]
[Group Mission: Saving Private W]
Frez blinked behind his sunglasses, a piece of char siu pausing halfway to his mouth.
A mission?
Right now?
[Akarin’s Note:
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