Asran awoke from his slumber as the sun shone over his sleeping face.

He tried to get up from the couch, but his body flinched out of pain. Asran's eyebrows knitted together in displeased.

'Shit this body of mine,' last night a few bullets lodged inside his body. Through some unorthodox way, he managed to pop out those metal bullets.

He thought he could recover swiftly from those injuries yet the consequences of using Blood Flash Ignition indeed put a heavy toll on Asran's body.

"I should think about learning a body tempering skill," said Asran.

Asran coughed up a mouthful of blood staining the couch. He shook his head.

"That's going to be hard to remove," the ringing sound of the telephone caught him in his moment of contemplation.

He picked up the phone and was bombarded with a lot of anger filled words. Definitely, something that was making him uncomfortable.

In the end, the person on the other side hung up first.

"Son, who is it? Who called?" The door to the bedroom opened, as Lima's head peeked out from the gap of the door.

She looks groggy with her ruffle hair.

"Nothing mother, it just a person from your workplace," replied Asran.

"Oh my goodness, I'm late for work," Lima shouted out of surprise. Her eyes trailed to the clock wall and saw it was past nine o'clock.

She was about to run out of the door but a pair of hands caught her by the shoulders.

"Mother, you need to rest. Last night was a bit tough on you," being reminded by Asran, Lima recalled what had happened.

Both her hands covered her gaping mouth as she was astonished. She thought she was a goner from last night event yet here she was, alive and well.

"What happened last night? How am I still alive?" Asked Lima.

"It's fine mother, don't worry about it. The cops handled it well..." Asran fabricated a story about a hero that saved the day inspired by the words of that masked man.

Although he felt the notion of being a hero was utterly ridiculous but in this kind of moment it indeed played well with the situation.

He tucked Lima on the bed and by the time the blanket covered her body, she was fast asleep like a baby.

He closed the door to the bedroom as silent as possible, wouldn't want to wake her up.

Yet the sound of the door knocking, rumbled in his ear coming from the entrance door.

His spirit sense scanned like a sonar as he immediately knew who these people were.

He opened the door and met with this smiling bastard from yesterday. It was the loan shark.

"Time for some payback kid, that bitch ain't here to save yo-" Ah Long couldn't finish his words as Asran slapped him to oblivion.

Ah Long heard a ringing sound from his left ear before his head fell to the concrete floor. He didn't know what happened as it happened way too fast for his eyes to follow. The whole left side of his face felt numb.

Asran eyed the other three goons who were looking rather flustered. He thought they would flank him in order to get revenge for their fallen boss yet they stood still with shaken eyes.

At least they knew from that single action, Asran wasn't someone they could afford to mess with.

"I guess you three look more reasonable than your stupid boss here, so..." he stopped his lips from saying another word as an idea came by.

Asran pointed at one of those three.

"You," said Asran.

"Yes," one of the goons stood at attention.

"This boss of yours isn't the big boss, am I right?" Asran asked.

He nodded vigorously.

"Then take me to your leader," Asran chuckled at the thought of speaking those words. He remembered hearing it from somewhere but couldn't remember when and where.

Those three didn't say a word as they were left speechless.

"So what are you waiting for, come on. I don't have all day," said Asran.

"But we-" Asran interfered.

"Do I need to remind you about what happened to this little boss of yours," Asran lightly kicked Ah Long by the gut making him squirming on the floor.

Out of fear, one of them spoke up.

"Yes, I'll take you there boss," the goon even had the wits to addressed Asran as boss.

He led the way and the other two soon followed through example.

"Oi, don't forget this scumbag. I don't want my mother to be surprise after opening the door," the three was quick in their feet and wit. They carried the unconscious Ah Long as they led Asran away.

In a Mercedes E class, five men sat in silence. Asran sat beside the driver while enjoying the view of the city. Since he had been here, he didn't have the time to see his old world that was long forgotten from the edge of his memories.

Although Singapore wasn't his hometown, he did visit this place once.

Yet his memories didn't recall this place perfectly. Well, he couldn't blame his past ability to memorize. He wasn't a cultivator at that period of time.

"Really a long time," mumbled Asran.

"Did you say something boss?" Goon number one heard the mumbling of Asran and was quick to ask.

Asran glanced to the side and saw that awkward smile of goon number one.

"Nothing, I just have a thought. That unconscious bastard is pretty rich for being able to drive a car like this, are loan sharks that lucrative of a job?"

"Haha no boss, this car isn't boss Ah Long's but mine."

"Didn't think even a goon can have a nice car like this," Asran's word pricked the hell out of Goon-number-one's heart.

Goon number one tried to maintained his facial feature to not frown, he wouldn't want to get the bad side of this man. But his attempt was futile.

Asran noticed the minute changes in his facial expression through his spirit sense. There's nothing that could pass through his spirit sense.

"So is the pay good?" Asran asked.

"The pay is good boss, but the money isn't from those loans," Asran perked his ears as he was rather interested in that statement.

"I'm listening," said Asran.

"Well, to begin with, the loan thing is a side job and our company main job is porter and mining service business for portal diving and also portal-based trade," the moment he heard 'portal', his interest was piqued.

'Interesting,' thought Asran.

---

The Mercedes arrived at Jurong East downtown area. Few buildings around the area stood tall, a booming place for business in these recent years.

One of them occupied a four-floor building and was known as quite a shady company. A Mercedes E class parked at the parking lot of this building lot area.

"We're here boss," the three goon led Asran through the entrance gate along with the unconscious Ah Long.

They passed through a few more security gates until they stood inside the elevator.

The goon pressed the basement floor button. Asran thought the boss would occupy the highest floor. He took a glance at the goon and their eyes connected. As if knowing what it meant by Asran's glance, the goon took the liberty to explained.

"The CEO prefers being underground, he doesn't like heights," a peculiar type of person to be the head of a loan shark company.

DING

The sound of the elevator rang. The door opened and right in front of them Asran could saw two men standing by a door. They definitely look the part like a big bouncer along with their stylish sunglasses and clean-cut black suit.

Asran stepped out as the area was dim lighted but even darkness couldn't impede his vision.

"Halt, what business are you here for and why the hell are you bringing an outsider to the boss's private area?" Said one of the security guards.

"Come on Muthu, we're bringing the boss a good fish here. You wouldn't want the boss to lose an opportunity to make a good buck right?" Goon-number-one tried to reason with the security guard.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Fine, raise up your hands boy," the bald-headed security guard asked the slim looking Asran.

Goon-number-one was flustered seeing Muthu acting that rude towards Asran. He didn't want to Asran in a bad mood. Who knows what would happen to him.

"Hey Muthu my man, how about we skip that part, we're on urgent business here," said goon-number-one.

"Save the chit-chat Lim, I got my orders. Step aside before I put my fist on your face," said Muthu.

Lim was cursing at Muthu from the inside, he was trying to save him from being beaten senseless and this Muthu had the nerve to provoked him.

"It's fine, let him do it," said Asran.

Lim was struck dumb founded seeing how rational Asran was. He didn't think Asran could be this tame.

'Why the heck is he looking at me like that, does he think I'm some kind of savage or something,' thought Asran.

Muthu scanned Asran entire body with the handheld metal detector. He was playing along well since Asran did have a motive in mind. Making a scene wouldn't be helpful to his cause.

"You're clear," Muthu opened up the metal door as the group went inside. Ah Long was left outside of the door as he was unconscious.

They walked inside as the place was pretty much filled with arts and crafts. Asran wasn't impress as these things held no value to him.

"The CEO is an art enthusiast, he likes this kind of thing. That one sculpture there cost about two millions dollar, impressive right," Lim tried to lightened the mood but seeing Asran showing a cold response, he shut his mouth.

Walking further inside, Asran saw a person standing in front of a taxidermy beast. It looks like a boar but the size of it was humongous. Standing at a height of three meters and a length of six meters, this once alive beast was definitely a monster in the eyes of ordinary people.

Lim greeted the CEO.

"Hello CEO Andika,"

The man wearing a black suit was gazing at the taxidermy monster boar. He was appreciating the splendor of this creature yet disturbed by the voice of his henchman.

He turned and saw those three along with an unfamiliar face.

"It's you three, where's Ah Long?" Asked Andika.

While both Andika and Lim were having a conversation, Asran spread out his spirit sense to his surroundings. His eyes opened wide as he sensed something behind the wall picture. Within the vault, there was a mound of gems.

It wasn't merely common gems as Asran knew what it was.

'Essence Stones, but how?' he observed further using his spirit sense. 'It's not essence stones but it seems to be some kind of mineral containing spirit qi, although the amount was far from what an essence stone can held, it's good enough to have anything like it.'

His hands felt the itched to just rob this guy in broad daylight but he calmed himself down knowing there's a better reward.

Asran then glanced at the taxidermy monster boar. He noticed a sliver of lingering qi dissipating from its head. The amount was even less than those cheap essence stones knock-off.

'Those essence pebbles probably came from the boar then,' thought Asran.

"So why do you want to see me kid?" Andika directed his question at the dazing Asran.

Asran with his keen sense noticed the stare from Andika.

"My mother is indebt with you, so I'm here as a replacement to pay that debt," said Asran.

"Then just pay, why bother coming over here. Unlike you, I'm a busy man," said Andika. The man in the suit was frowning seeing how his time being wasted by a weak looking man like Asran.

But then...

Asran flashed right in front of him and released a fist right at Andika's face.

Andika couldn't react fast enough and in the end, he closed his eyes out of fear. He felt the strong wind brushing over his face yet there was no pain.

As he slowly opened his eyes, he saw the fist right beside his face. He glanced at Asran who was slightly smiling. Right at that moment, he knew Asran wasn't someone who was weak.

"What's the meaning of this?" Andika took a few steps back as a precaution as he raised his voice at Asran. Although he feared the evol for their strength but he still couldn't show weakness in front of his underlings.

Lim was breaking in sweats as he didn't expect Asran to be this daring.

"Nothing, I'm just showing a bit of my power in order to impress you," replied Asran as he took back his punch.

"Impress me? For what? Just to let you know, there's tons of better evol than you out there," said Andika.

"Well that's that but you don't have an evol working under you, am I right? Wouldn't it be nice to reduce collateral damage while getting more profit in return," Asran heard from Lim that Andika possessed a portal entrance. He bought it at a hefty price but it was worth it and he knew something else. Andika's business was at risk.

The massive amount of wealth he obtained from it was tremendous. But his men kept on dying as the place wasn't a walk in a park for ordinary citizens. He was having a headache thinking of how to maintain his business floating.

He couldn't hire an evol since most of them didn't want any business with a shady company like theirs. Most of them opt for well-established evol guilds.

"So are you telling me, you're here for a job?" Asked Andika.

"Not much of a job but just here to pay a debt," said Asran.

"I don't see how this goes," replied Andika.

"Lim there told me for those who cannot pay their debt will be forcefully working as a porter," said Asran he stared down at Andika.

Andika frowned as he didn't like being stare like that. In the meantime, he glared at Lim for being a loose cannon.

Lim's knees were growing weak and he was about to fall. He couldn't take the stares from his CEO.

"So rather than my mother, I'll take her place," said Asran.

Andika was intrigued having an evol at his disposal but he was still cautious of this man. He had gone through a lot of things before reaching the current him and he knew when something isn't right.

"How do I know that you're not messing with me," asked Andika.

"Then let's write a contract, having a black and white will make you reassure, am I right?" Andika was loving this, indeed it was true that a contract would make his heart felt calmer.

"So let's get to it then, here have a sit brother," Andika flashed a smile as he turned into a friendlier person. Just for the sake of profit, he wouldn't mind faking even a smile. It's scary of how money influenced the life of men.

"But before that, I need you to do something," Asran didn't sit and responded with a request of his own.

Andika froze a bit as he knew something wasn't going to be that easy.

"What is it brother, is there anything that you require?" Asked Andika.

"Burn every document with my mother's name on it," said Asran.

Andika hesitated. Things like that was important for a shady business like theirs. Those black and white justified every action he can do, no matter how harsh it can be.

"Unless you burn everything in front of me, I won't sign any contract with you," said Asran.

Andika's eyebrows scrunched together.

"How do I know that you're not going to run after the documents are burned?"

"I'm an honest man unlike you lots," said Asran with a brazen face.

"It's either my mother or huge amount of profits," Asran tried to enticed this money loving businessman.

Andika smiled as he thought of those money piling up inside his vault. He couldn't resist being more richer.

"Muthu, Samy, go get those documents," his shout rang across the whole basement floor until it reached those two bouncers at the metal door.

Right in front of Asran those documents are being burned like a bonfire. He waited patiently like a statue until everything turned into ashes.

The rest of them gotten bored waiting.

"Can we get down to business?" Asked Andika.

"Sure," said Asran.

It didn't took a second for Asran as he whipped the pen as his signature was signed on the paper.

"So when will it be?"