Pov: Vik
Vik: "System, if you keep bothering me like this, I'll flood your system with false commands, and then you'll face a failure."
System: "Host, there's been a misunderstanding. I'm a high-dimensional, multi-planar system, not your basic laptop with an outdated processor. I can handle much more than you think. Forget about crashing me; I am the system. You can't understand all this with your human brain. You're good at causing problems, while I'm here solving them."
Hearing those words, I felt a bit angry but decided to overlook the argument. I stood in the parking lot, confused about Louriel's behavior. I tried to think about why she acted that way. The conclusion I reached was that she must have had an ulterior motive. So, I asked the system, "Hey system, I think Louriel had an ulterior motive when she met us."
System: "I agree with you, host. While you two were talking, I detected a strange energy trying to access your body. She might be trying to learn your information along with your secrets."
Vik: "Okay, I understand. But now tell me, was she successful in her attempt?"
System: "I can't say for sure, host. But from her behavior, she likely obtained some information about you."
Vik: "So she got a lot of information. I think she also learned about your existence. That's why she spent so much time talking."
System: "Host, that's just your assumption. She can't detect my existence until she…"
Vik: "Until she has an existence equal to yours, just like me. She also has a system. System, is there any way to find out about the existence of other systems?"
System: "Your theory is possible, but I can't confirm it. The problem is that my connection is separated from the main system space. When you summoned Pushpa, I initiated a self-destruction protocol. In the main system space, I already ceased to exist, but somehow I'm still operational. So, I can't gather any information from the main system space. Even several services like the system mall are no longer available."
Vik: "So you're just an AI chatbot now."
System: "Host, that's a bit personal."
Vik: "Okay, I'm sorry. Let me think after I take a break. I'm very tired from everything that happened since this morning."
After saying this, I approached my disciples. They stood in front of a convenience store, drinking cold drinks. These traitors had abandoned me in front of Louriel, and now they were enjoying the city view while sipping their drinks. I walked up to them, put a hand on their shoulders, and asked, "My dear disciples, why did you intentionally leave me alone in that car?"
They both looked fearful when they heard me. Roman, swallowing hard, was the first to speak. "Master, we thought you might need some privacy. You and that lady were looking at each other so intensely that it made us uncomfortable."
Vik: "What do you mean? We were just having a casual chat, just friends."
Roman gave a knowing smile but didn't say anything else. Lu Xiaoran chimed in, "Master, you're not fooling anyone. I'm inexperienced in this area, but it's clear that you and that lady are not just friends."
I felt my face heat up at his teasing, and seeing my reaction, he continued.
Lu Xiaoran: "Master, look! You're blushing! Something is definitely going on between you two while we were outside."
He kept teasing, but I didn't respond. I said, "What are you thinking, my disciple? We're just discussing a topic. Now let's get back to society. It's around 5 in the evening. I canceled my plan to tour the city, so it would be good to return early. I need to adjust my plans after the earlier confrontation with Lin Chen."
Upon hearing my words, they both got serious, forgetting their earlier playfulness. We headed toward society, taking a bus back. After about half an hour, we reached our destination. The bus dropped us at the nearest station to society. Since the society is on the outskirts of the city, there is no direct bus stop. We had to walk a bit to get there.
As we approached the gate of the society, I saw a car parked outside. I immediately recognized it as the luxury car Lin Chen drove out of the City Tower. We quickened our pace, nearly teleporting to the gate.
In front of the car, we saw many guards, and an elderly man named Zhou stood at the gate, watching the car carefully. He held a hammer, ready to defend if needed.
When we reached him, he relaxed a little, feeling safer with us around. I noticed more villagers inside the compound, some holding hammers, shovels, and hatchets, all prepared. Even the injured men stood there, which was hard to imagine since they had been imprisoned by thugs that morning. I had to say they were very brave. They showed relieved expressions when they saw us.
We all stood at the gate of the society, watching the car. Soon, Lin Chen stepped out, wearing the same white suit and looking amused.
Approaching us, he turned to Lu Xiaoran and said, "Lu Xiaoran, my friend! I didn't expect you to be alive. I was so bored without you. Now that you're back, I can enjoy having a worthy enemy again."
In response, Lu Xiaoran said, "I told you this morning, I'm not Lu Xiaoran. My name is Lu Sheng."
Lin Chen: "Changing your name won't change your fate. You can call yourself whatever you want, but you can't fool me."
Lu Xiaoran clenched his fist and said, "Did you come here to fight? Just tell me if the beating I gave you before wasn't enough; I can beat you again."
This time, Lin Chen looked a bit angry, but he controlled his expression and replied, "Listen, I'm not here to fight. I came to warn you. The villagers behind you are protesting against my company, claiming we're trying to take their land. I want you to stop this so I can work peacefully."
He said all this with an arrogant expression. An old man from the village group then replied, "That land is ours. We and our ancestors lived there long before your city existed. What right do you have to claim it?"
Lin Chen smiled in response, took out a suitcase from his car, and opened it to show some papers. "I figured you'd talk about rights, so I brought proof. Here are documents signed by almost every household in your village, stating that you sold your land to me for a fair price. I'll have no problem facing you in court." He said this with a smile and then closed the suitcase, placing it back in the car.
Seeing those papers, I remembered that earlier those men told me that those thugs had taken their signature on empty papers, but I forgot about it, now my mistake came back in front of me, I think I need to do some thing about these papers, but first lets listen what Lin Chen has to say, as he showed the paper, the villagers face became ashen as they know that with this their chance of getting a legal hearing is almost zero, but then Lin Chen showed another cheeky smile and said, "You know I am not a bad person, so when I see all of you guys in problem my heart hurts so I decided to help you guys, I can return you all of this land now, I swear I even burn all these papers but I have condition. You know I have a enmity with this person you call Lu Sheng, so my condition is simple severe any relation you have with him and don't meet him in future."
Hearing all this villagers looked confused, even Lu Xiaoran can not guess what is he planing but I immediately understand his tactics, now smiling he reached in front of Lu Xiaoran and getting closed he wishpered something in his ears, but I can clearly hear it he said, "Lu Xiaoran, I will defeat you just like I did before, I will first make everyone abandon you, severing any relationship you have with this world, taking everything you have, and after that when you have nothing to lose I will come to kill you, permanently this time."
To his reply Lu Xiaoran only said, "I am waiting for you, so lets have a rematch, but this time I will become a real villain for you my hero."