A little while later, after dropping Maya off at home, Dylan was now at the construction site for work. He picked up two sacks of cement to carry into the frame of the unfinished building. "Thump," he set them down in front of a male coworker and the cement mixer.
"Dylan."
Dylan turned to see a man in his thirties, wearing a plaid shirt under a safety vest, jeans, slightly overweight, with glasses and a thick mustache. The man was the foreman overseeing the project workers.
"What is it, Mr. Barney?" Dylan asked.
"Management called for you. Leave your work for a minute," Barney answered.
"Alright, sir," Dylan replied.
Dylan immediately walked over to the temporary office, which was set up in a container with windows and air conditioning to keep it cool inside. Inside, there was only a desk in the front and a computer. A middle-aged woman turned to look at Dylan and lowered her glasses.
"Oh, Dylan, Mr. George is calling for you. Just head right in," the woman said, pointing to the partition that divided the inside of the container into two sections.
"Yes, Ms. Rebecca," Dylan said to Rebecca, who handled the project finances and admin.
After that, Dylan walked to the partition door, stepped inside, and closed the door behind him. Inside, he saw a middle-aged man with glasses and a receding hairline. The man immediately looked up at Dylan in front of him.
"Have a seat, Dylan," George said with a hesitant but firm tone.
Dylan immediately sat down. Then George slid a money envelope across to Dylan, which naturally confused Dylan because he knew today wasn't payday.
"What's this, sir?" Dylan asked.
"This is your severance pay. As of today, you no longer work here, but before you ask any questions, let me explain," George said.
Dylan was shocked, but he stayed quiet and didn't ask. He just waited for an explanation from George, who seemed hesitant to speak, as if he was about to deliver some heavy news.
"Yesterday, the son of our construction company's owner came to the site. He saw you, and of course he knows you because it turns out he's a friend from your school. He told his father that you are a troublesome person who is currently suspended from school for being caught stealing exam questions and distributing them so everyone passed with perfect scores. He also said you took something that belonged to him and even beat up his people when he confronted you," George said.
"What... that's impossible, sir... I didn't do anything like that!" Dylan shouted angrily and stood up.
"I know. I've known you for two and a half years since you started working here. I know very well that you're not what they're accusing you of, but his father doesn't know you, and his son managed to convince him that you're unstable... His father immediately ordered us to fire you. I tried to protest because I know you—you're diligent, always on time, and your work is clean—but he wouldn't listen to me," George said.
Dylan couldn't argue anymore seeing George's stressed face. He clenched his fist and then sat down.
"May I ask who the son of our construction company's owner is, sir?" Dylan asked.
"His name is Charles Peterson. He's in the twelfth grade, just like you," George answered.
Dylan immediately remembered that he had indeed beaten up three people in front of the school gate while wearing his construction worker uniform, and the company's name was clearly visible on his safety vest, when he was helping Ellie and Maya, who were being harassed by Charles according to their story. Dylan smiled and looked at George in front of him.
"It's okay, sir. I accept it, and this isn't your fault," Dylan said.
"Thank you, Dylan. I'll call you when there's another project. You still remember what I taught you, right?" George asked.
"Yes, sir. Thank you for the two and a half years of working together," Dylan said.
"You're welcome. Once again, I apologize that I couldn't do anything," George said.
"It's alright, sir. I understand your position as the project manager," Dylan replied.
Dylan took the envelope, looked at the money, and then put it in his pocket. After that, Dylan took off his helmet and vest, then said goodbye to George and left immediately. As he walked home,
[Do you want revenge on the person named Charles, sir?]
"Yes. In another month, I could have become a permanent employee at that company, and now I'm forced to quit because he's jealous that Ellie is close to me. But the painful part isn't quitting; it's that he slandered me without knowing anything about me, like he wants to kill my character. That's absolutely outrageous," Dylan answered.
[Alright, sir. One moment.]
"What are you going to do?" Dylan asked.
CATS remained silent, not answering. Then Dylan continued walking along the sidewalk, annoyed and angry. A moment later, "Swoosh," a screen popped up in front of Dylan, displaying the company structure. It turned out that Charles's father, named Richard Peterson, was not the sole owner. He had an older brother named Jeremy Peterson, who held a 55% stake in the company, while Richard only held a 45% stake from their family inheritance.
In addition, Richard did not one hundred percent run the construction company, which was the family business. He had his own, quite large, printing business. He handed over one hundred percent of the decision-making to Jeremy and only offered input as an advisor.
"Hey... where did you get this data?" Dylan asked, confused in his head.
[I hacked their data.]
"Huh... really?" Dylan asked.
[Please read the rest, sir.]
Dylan read the continuation, which contained only data on the projects the construction company was currently working on, including commercial and residential projects. Then the screen displayed the project he had worked on and the list of employees. His name was listed with a note to be fired for engaging in many illegal activities outside the project, and the one who filed the protest was Richard Peterson. HR immediately flagged Dylan's name and was going to conduct an investigation, but Richard bypassed it to fire him immediately because it was harming their family.
"Hmm... interesting. So what Mr. George said was true," Dylan thought in his head.
After that, the data also dissected the Peterson family, who had been wealthy for a long time. Charles was the only child of Richard Peterson and Emily Peterson. Since childhood, he had been pampered by both his parents, his uncle, and his extended family. He was the golden boy, and if he did anything wrong, it was considered merely an accident and was always atoned for by his family.
Whatever came out of his mouth was instantly obeyed by his parents and extended family, because he was the future heir of the Peterson family, even though he actually had other cousins.
[So, what will you do, sir? Surely you know what you want to do thanks to your quick thinking skill.]
"Yep. We're going to the Red Leaf Construction office... but before that, let's go to the internet café for a bit. I want to create my own project," Dylan said with a sneer.
[Very well, sir.]
Dylan then turned around and changed his direction. He walked towards a building where the internet café was located to make something there. The next day, after school, "Tap," Dylan stood in front of a tall building named Red Leaf Construction, carrying a thick folder in his hand.
"Come on, CATS, let's go in. We're going to make sure that the 'golden boy' isn't as golden as they think," Dylan prompted in his head.
[Yes, sir.]