“You are…” Leo mumbled as he squinted his eyes. “Simon Belford?”

“Wowza!” Melvin gasped. “Simon Belford?! The son of the richest man in the entire world?! What a surprise!”

Leo didn’t seem to find Melvin’s exaggerated reactions much of a surprise even if he knew who Melvin was, and instead said, “You know, listening in on other people’s conversation isn’t a good-natured trait to have.”

“But it is a good trait for a budding entrepreneur,” Simon rebutted with a cheeky grin. “Long time no see, Leo.”

“How long has it been… a year or so?” Leo chuckled. “Even though we’re in the same school, we haven’t even met once at all.”

“An unfortunate truth indeed…” Simon paused. “But, regarding that groundbreaking revolutionary product of yours…”

Taking the obvious hint, Leo explained, “It’s a… potion. The creator gave it the name called steroids, and with our clinical tests and gathered data, well… you can just read it yourself.”

Leo grabbed a nearby stack of papers and gave it to Simon which he accepted gratefully. He eyed the papers with clear interest in his emerald green eyes as he began to browse through and skim past the data and long winding paragraphs written in monotonous black and white.

But, the more he read, the slower his pace became. His face turned into a deep frown as he read more and more.

“This…” Simon looked up, unable to articulate the deep chaos inside him.

“Pretty crazy, right?” Melvin laughed and took the stack of papers away from Simon’s hand. “World shattering, even.”

“Indeed,” said Simon. He looked around the empty bakery, and whispered softly, “And this is all true?”

“All true,” Leo answered.

“Well damn,” Simon mumbled. He ruffled his hair and stared at the stack of papers on the table, unable to believe what he had just learned. “Are you guys looking for more investors?”

“Yep! My family had already poured a decent amount of money into this business proposal, but more wouldn’t hurt. Though to be warned, we’re only planning on spreading this thing around near or after the start of summer break.”

“Hmm… it’s still fine. I can wait for a while,” said Simon.

“So, how much are you willing to pay then?” asked Melvin.

“A million gold,” Simon said flatly.

“…”

“Oh,” said Melvin.

“So, does that mean I’m in-“

“Where did the money come from though?” Melvin interjected. “I’m not doubting you, but better be safe than sorry, right?”

“Don’t worry about that, it’s from my personal savings. It’s actually father’s gift for my last birthday, but I still had a lot of money back then so my savings just kept piling up more and more, although it is still a huge portion of that so no, I can’t invest more than that,” explained Simon.

“Great, great!” Melvin praised. “You’re literally a godsend to us!”

“Indeed,” Leo agreed.

“But…” Simon hummed. “I’m kind of curious. Who exactly created this… steroid potion.”

“About that,” Melvin hissed. “It’s kind of a… secret. A privacy issue, kinda. The creator wants to remain anonymous regarding her identity since it is kind of a big thing to create. Oh, who am I kidding, she’ll probably flaunt it later once we start selling the product and use that as an anchor for her to become the head of the Alchemist Guild.”

“Right. I expect myself doing something similar if I had created something like this,” Simon agreed with a smile. “Fame and prestige are powerful tools after all, so why not use them? Anyways, am I part of the agreement now?”

“Of course!” said Melvin. “As for the contract, we’re still refining the details. I expect you don’t want to talk about all the shares and stuff in a bakery, right?”

Just as Simon was about to respond, the cute girl behind the counter suddenly walked up to them with a glass of orange juice and gave it to Melvin.

“Oh, thanks for that,” said Melvin as he grabbed the glass of orange juice with squinted eyes.

“No problem, sir,” the girl smiled and stepped back, but as she did so, her leg collided with something from behind and her body began to tilt backward.

Simon widened his eyes as he felt something bump against his leg, and with the reflex of a Mage, along with the girl slowly falling to the ground, he immediately lunged forward without thinking. He stretched out his hand in a bid to grab her back while extending out his other leg to stabilize his unstable position so the two wouldn’t accidentally fall together.

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Oh, you fool, Melvin silently smiled.

In the next moment, the girl’s eyes changed to a golden color at speeds incomprehensible to the naked eye and Simon stopped moving like a robot for a split-second. It was only for a short moment though as the liveliness in his eyes returned and he clumsily helped the girl stand up.

“S-Sorry for that, sir!” she bowed with a flushed face.

“Don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it.” Simon wore a wry grin. “It was my fault anyway.”

The girl once again bowed and said sorry before leaving. Simon sighed and sat down on his chair, while Melvin wore a teasing grin.

“How embarrassing,” teased Melvin.

“Shut up, you wood wanker,” clacked Simon. “You’re lucky we’re part of the same team now, or else I’d have destroyed your family for offending this young master.”

“How scary!” said Melvin sarcastically.

Leo, who was silently listening as a bystander, calmly took a sip of warm tea and ignored the two’s cringe-ass dialogues.

…

“See you later,” said Rob.

“See you later!” shouted Holly from the door. She waved goodbye with a wide grin on her face while she carried a large paper bag loaded with bread. Food truly is the key to a person’s heart, and Holly was no exception. Free food was just an instant dopamine rush for her brain and she loved it.

“Don’t slack on your mana control training!” Rob reminded.

“Yes, I get it already, teacher!” Holly rolled her eyes, bid one final goodbye, and closed the door.

Now all alone inside the bakery, Rob sat down on the chair behind the counter, closed his eyes, and his body trembled for a moment before stopping. When he opened his eyes, there was an extra sense of vigor unlike before as Rob groaned loudly.

“Fuck,” sighed Rob. So much for being Mammon Heist, the secret boss of a secret organization. I still have to do all the mind fucking myself, but there’s a price one must pay for certainty.

He waved his hand and pulled out a loaf of bread from the pocket space inside his storage ring. He munched on it and drank a vial of colorless liquid in one go. Soon, he regained his mental serenity and washed away his mental exhaustion, because who wouldn’t use drugs to heal all of their mental problems?

Okay, that’s one male lead down, Rob thought while checking out a name on a mental list. That only leaves Kain Vizwel, Rhett Convir, and Lance Bloodthorn - three lucky bastards with insane levels of luck.

‘Fucking hell, I only have 6-S after slaving Simon, but this does open the possibility of me connecting my luck with him and his father later which would boost my luck to over 50-S, subtracting that by the cost of slaving the other two male leads…’

‘I’ll be left with a little bit over 3-S. Although once I connect my luck with them, it should soar to over 25-S at the bare minimum without any potential risk to the empire, so that’s an overall net positive.’

Rob sighed helplessly as he took another bite out of his bread. Ugh, so much for a happy-go-lucky first life without any schemes or planning.

So much for that protagonist lifestyle, but oh well, it’s still fun not having to strain my brain too much with all of the supreme-level schemes I had to deal with back then. Rob chuckled. It’s like playing against a complete newbie at chess.

Even my earlier mistake of using alchemy magic and meddling with souls publicly under Tyr’s potential scrutiny is easily handled with a casual steal. If this was those old foggies, well… beings who are older than me, they’d be hunting me with an army of angels and demons already.

Rob silently laughed at the ease of his plans. All it took was a steal, and a little nudge, and Tyr was none the wiser. Information is key in these types of schemes, and since Fortune Stealer is essentially his supreme power condensed into one single golden finger, he can steal anything, and he can even overcome its lack of raw power (for now) by sacrificing a portion of his luck.

Okay, first things first, increase my luck, and target the other male leads so I can boost the power of the royal faction and take control over the Vizwel Empire.

Once that’s done, well, I don’t know. I’ll probably go on to expand my organization to different parts of the world and expand my numbers, something like that would be enough… probably.

…

Bang! Boom! Crash!

Lights exploded and flashed in a blurry dizzying painting of moving colors. Vague splotches of glowing green surrounded a dark gloomy landscape somewhere underground. Far away from the source of this strange view, three humanoid entities can be seen moving around at breakneck speeds, appearing from one point to another as their swords and claws clashed against the blob of dark ink in the form of a human man.

The dark inky thing seemed to overpower the blond man and the half-wolf human though, as it swiftly shifted into a new view of them deep inside three different craters, full of bruises and blood, perhaps at the brink of death, even.

“Well, well, well, it seems like the mega-talented Kain Vizwel and ultra cool werewolf Rhett Convir are nothing but mere… trash,” the shadowy man taunted and approached the two defeated men lying down on the ground in utter despair.

But, as he approached the duo with slow and steady steps, he paused. The strange vision soon cleared up, showing a blotch of wispy shadows wearing a strange white lab coat and a pair of glasses staring directly at the source of the strange vision.

“Who do we have here…,” the thing said ominously and disappeared.

The scene shifted left and right as the source of the vision tried to locate the man who disappeared. One can feel its anxiety and fear as if it wanted to run away, but there seemed to be a great burden and responsibility it carried that prevented it from doing so.

Eventually, the scene shifted as a giant hand grabbed the source of the vision’s head, covering its entire view in darkness. The hand then opened, revealing the shadowy man’s whimsical grin and mortifying gaze.

“A spirit of time… How fascinating,” the man whispered. “So perhaps you’re seeing me far out into the future, Annabeth Auburn.”

“Fufufu, what a desperado indeed by this helpless world!” the man laughed loudly as if he knew something far beyond the limits of this ignorant spirit. “Am I perhaps in your dream, or a nightmare? I hope so, because this would cause your memories to be really vague and disjointed.”

“Oh well, here’s my little gift to you, dear hero,” the man continued and squatted down on the ground.

The vision then shifted and pointed at Kain Vizwel’s face. A giant hand then grabbed his hand, and like crashing a soft marshmallow, Kain’s head simply… exploded. Brain matter and blood splattered out in a horrific explosion of colors, leaving the rapidly degrading scene in red.

“Yeah, I just killed this guy, so if you want to save him, you better act quick!”

The vision finally shattered, causing the endless darkness to shatter into fragmented shards of colors as Anna finally woke up.

“What… was that?” she mumbled, her forehead and back sweating profusely with the strange, blurry, and chaotic dream she could barely remember.

The only thing she could clearly recall was that visceral end - that explosion of scarlet-red blood left a deep trace of horror in her soul as her eyes trembled in crystal-clear fear.

Whatever that was, it meant something far more than just a simple dream.