Matthew's roar made the whole place go quiet right away. The rugged, brawny men stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Matthe.

Then, they all looked at a tall man with a buzz-cut, tanned complexion, and sharp eyes. The latter was around six feet tall. His name was Everett Pennington, the head honcho of the group of burly men. Noticing Matthew intervening, Everett asked, "Who are you? Do you have the power to make decisions around here?"

Upon seeing Matthew, Tracy had the same look as a hungry fledgling seeing its mother return. Feeling like she'd found her lifeline, Tracy hurried over to Matthew.

"These people just barged in out of nowhere, Mr. Grant. They demanded you to show yourself and pay up, claiming that you owed them money. When I said you were not around, they started smashing things. That man took the lead." As Tracy spoke, she pointed at Everett. The latter sported a cold expression and walked up to Matthew. He asked loudly, "Are you Matthew?"

Matthew furrowed his brows.

Everett strutted around with his chest puffed up and spoke confidently as if thrashing the company was something he was perfectly entitled to do.

Everett's demeanor was worlds apart from the rowdy and troublemaking thugs. If Matthew had to take a guess, these guys reminded him of Trevor, especially the way they carried themselves.

Matthew had a rough idea who these troublemakers were and became furious. "That's right. I'm Matthew."

Everett shouted, "You owe our boss some money! Pay us back now!"

Matthew looked at the mess and snapped, "I'll pay what I owe. But why are you smashing my company?"

However, Everett just brushed off Matthew's complaints. "We were only wrecking the company earlier. But if you don't play along, we'll start hurting everyone instead."

With that, Everett waved his hand, and the people next to him swiftly wielded the steel pipes from their belts. Then, they started inching closer to the employees.

It looked like they'd immediately start taking action if Matthew refused to comply.

Among the staff, Emily walked out of a laboratory and witnessed what had unfolded. She blew up with anger.

"What's the deal with you, Matthew?

I brought in these remarkable researchers to aid my research on the toughest project. Can't you at least provide a safe and quiet environment?"

Matthew was rolling his sleeves up, ready to make a move. But upon hearing Emily's words, he quickly decided against it. He had gone through a lot of effort to get them here. He couldn't afford to scare them, let alone have them hurt.

Matthew flashed a smile at Emily. "Sorry about this, Professor Bolton. I'll have this sorted out in a minute. It promise it won't disrupt your work."

Emily didn't bother if Matthew could handle it. She simply said her piece and left. "Hurry up. And don't let this happen again, or I'm out of here. Everything was fine, but now the lab has turned into a total disaster."

After making her point, Emily headed straight back into the lab. Her time was limited, and she had better things to do than deal with this.

Matthew gazed at Everett. "You say I owe your boss, yeah? How much are we talking about? Where's the proof?"

Everett pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "No clue about the amount you owe. My job is to cuff you and let you settle it with the boss." Spotting the handcuffs, Matthew's eyes flared up in anger.noveldrama