BXBX NOVEL Chapter 162: Pawn
162 Pawn
Moby\'s true intentions were to keep Travis close, on a leash as his loyal dog, a pawn that he could use to extract valuable information from the Zexis clan without turning him into a demon, reducing his chances of failure and removing a great deal of stress in the off chance that he is caught by them or betrays him, which would lead to his secret being completely exposed.
If they found out that he and Moby were not on good terms, they might replace him with someone else, or, even worse, kick him out of the gang for being useless or for wasting their time, both options being something that Moby did not want.
Travis was a person who he had already dominated with his will, scaring the shit out of him during the exam. He highly doubted that he would betray him after what he had done to him, making him easy to manipulate and a free source of information.
If the gang kicked him out, Moby would lose an important pawn, forcing him to waste time finding a replacement spy who he doubted would even be half as effective as the gang thought that Travis and Moby were friends of some sort, making him the perfect messenger between both of them.
Even if he told the new spy to pretend to be friends, the gang would be easily able to pick up that it must be a trap or scheme of some sort and act accordingly.
But even despite all of those facts, Moby had no choice but to decline, there was no way in hell he would associate himself with any gang. He answers to no one and has no plans of being bossed around and ordered by those pathetic scum.
"I am sorry Travis, but I must decline. I have absolutely no plans of joining any gang of any sort. It is not about you, it\'s just that I want to be independent you know? No hard feelings right?" Moby said with a wide smile, declining Travis\'s offer.
As soon as Travis heard Moby\'s response, his already unsteady eyes became even warier as they shifted towards the ground before he took a big gulp of saliva.
"Hey, kid! What do you mean you decline? Do you even understand the honour you are being bestowed? I have worked my ass off in the gang for months and I\'ve only reached 12th rank and you just come along declining the 3rd seat? Are you fucking brain dead or are you just being so arrogant to the point that you are as good as blind!" One of the men standing behind Travis roared, his face turning red from anger with a visible blood vessel popping out of his head, attracting everyone\'s attention to their area as they formed a circle around them, most pulling out their phones to film what was inevitably about to go down.
"Are you a fucking pussy? We can easily take him down if we teamed up! You heard how he so casually declined the…" The angry man said before being immediately and abruptly cut off short.
"I have no time for games now, can\'t you tell that I am in a hurry?" Moby said in a cold, distant voice, his eyes turning into glowing purple deadly slits, infusing his arms and legs with pure demon energy as time began to slow down all around him.
With one single step, he immediately disappeared from his previous location, leaving a small crack on the marble floor as it seemed like he had almost disappeared into thin air, looking like a blur in the eyes of the many spectators. In the next second, the sound of 2 heavy blows was heard before Moby reappeared right behind the two men who just proceeded to fall flat on the ground, their eyes rolled to the back of their heads leaving nothing but white in their eye sockets, making the crowd laugh and cheer.
Even if they were distracted, with just 2 simple blows, those 2 big, burly B ranks were effortlessly taken down. From the looks on the faces of the crowd, most of them were not at all surprised, after all, they knew Moby\'s capabilities as a world-class fighter, not to mention that his power level was greatly higher than his opponents, it was only natural for him to win, but, it was good entertainment and drama none the less which made people extremely excited.
As soon as Travis saw what had just happened, he felt a familiar, eery feeling ravage his entire body… The atmosphere felt all too similar… His entire body began to quiver in fear as he was now barely able to move, his teeth clacking uncontrollably.
As Travis slowly and reluctantly turned around to face where that horrible feeling was coming from, he saw the face of a pure demon, a wide grin plastered on his face, his purple eyes staring deep into his soul with immense pressure coming his way, making him even more scared that before as his legs melted into jelly, falling right on his ass, trying his best not to piss his pants.
The less than pleasant sight of the demon in front of him made his nightmares come back to life as they played over and over in his mind, almost like he was hit with an immense wave of PTSD.
In a split second, he was fully reminded why he promised himself to never fuck with Moby Kane if he did not want what had happened to him in the exam to repeat its self or even worse…
"Hey! Travis! I would like to have a quick chat with you… Follow me…" Moby said with a big, friendly smile on his face, reaching his hand out to help Travis up,?his eyes of sin still active making him look like he was about to drag him to the depths of hell.
However, no matter how scared he was, he just had to accept. If not then he doubted his own safety and life, and if he died, how would he be able to get money to save his mother?
The fact alone was more than enough to make Travis steel his resolve enough to move forward and grab Moby\'s hands as he pulled him back up on his now slightly less shaky feet.
"Follow me," Moby said with a smile, walking out of the encirclement of students surrounding him, Travis nodding back before following right behind him trying his best to be as confident as possible, making them all disperse and go back to what they were doing before as if nothing happened, ignoring the two men who were knocked out on the ground like they were obstacles, no one really wanting to call a teacher or take them to the nurse as it was none of their business.
The supervising teacher who was currently on the other side of the cafeteria could help them out when they get the chance.
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Moby led Travis to the back of the school, somewhere that he knew would be unoccupied, allowing them to talk freely.
As they were no longer in the public eye, Moby could finally stop playing pretend. Now that he implanted the thought that he and Travis were friends in front of many people, Travis would be mostly safe as the gang would definitely keep him as a useful tool. However, Moby knew full well that his plan could easily backfire as the gang might get the wrong idea, thinking that he and Travis were closer than he meant them to think. That might lead to them keeping Travis as a hostage until Moby comes to save him, something that he would of course not be willing to do which might lead to Travis being thrown away and abandoned.
Yet, Moby was still willing to take that chance as he believed that the more likely outcome would be the first, he would get nowhere otherwise.
Right now, Moby\'s current objective and why he had asked Travis to talk was to try and suck him out of as much information as possible pertaining to Ray\'s location and if the Zexis gang had anything to do with why he was not responding.
Moby could have of course just forced him into letting him take a peek into his brain. But, he would need to get express permission from him to willingly do it, not to mention that the entire process would have taken too long.
At times like these, he really wished that he had more stats in mind... A stat that he had been neglecting for so long as it did not give him any power level boost. More mind would allow him to manipulate and control more people, something that he was only now seeing the true value of. There was more to power than just strength. This realization made him make up his mind to finally start focussing more on the mind stat, assigning more stat points there as he felt like it would be well worth it in the future.
For now, he just needed to trust his instincts that Travis would be truthful with him, and even if he was being deceptive, he still had a way of making him talk and stay 100% loyal, he knew his weakness… As long as the Zexis gang doesn\'t give him a better offer, something that he doubted would be the case, then he should be completely safe.
Still, even in the case that he was betrayed or his plans were found out, it would not be a big deal as he did not reveal any important information to him. He just wanted to use Travis for as long as possible, something that he knew would not last forever.
"Okay kid, no more pretending, I only acted nicely towards you there to save your guts because I still have uses for you…"
"Y-yes, sir! I am well aware!"
"You haven\'t betrayed me have you?"
"N-never in a million years!"
"Good! Now I just have 2 simple questions, what information do you have about Ray Gwane? Does the Zexis have any affiliation with his whereabouts?"
"I am extremely sorry but I have no idea who that is you are talking about…"
Travis said those words with truly honest-looking eyes, making Moby highly doubt that he was lying. However, Moby was not stupid, he knew full well how deceptive people could be even right in front of his face.
"Are you sure you don\'t?" Moby asked once more, activating his eyes of sin, looking at Travis like a predator about to eat his prey.
"Y-yes I-I am sh-sh-sure," Travis replied in a shaky voice, backing up onto the cold wall behind him, closing his eyes as to not look at Moby\'s terrifying figure that brought back memories of their previous encounter, praying to dear god that what had happened before never repeat its self again, it felt like he had already lost several years of his life just from the fear and stress of that incident alone.
"1 million dollars right now if you tell me any useful information about him, I am not joking…" Moby said in a confident voice.
Moby knew Travis\'s main weakness, his drive in life, money. Money that he needed to pay for his mother\'s medical bills for her unknown sickness. Nothing to him was more important. And, from his total of 16 million dollars, 1 million would be well spent in guaranteeing Travis\'s loyalty.?From the way that Travis answers, he would know everything...
When Travis heard the words "1 million dollars," many thoughts ravaged his mind.
1 million dollars was a ridiculous sum of money, it would be more than enough for him to pay off his mother\'s medical bills. Travis had a feeling that Moby was not joking and being 100% serious. From the bottom of his heart, he wanted that money. But sadly, to do so, he needed to lie to Moby as he truly did not know where this "Ray Gwane" person was, something that he couldn\'t bring himself to do.
Travis was not dumb. He knew that If he had told a lie, it would not end too well for him. As soon as the lie would be discovered, he would be hunted down no matter where he fled, subjected to dying a miserable painful death before he even got the chance to pay off his mother\'s bills.
Plus, if he lied to him now, it would mean that he was lying to him on the first question which would mean that he might not even give him the money in the first place and could be just a test.
Or, he would only transfer the money after he confirmed his claims were true, not before. And he would be in no place to demand otherwise.
No matter how much it pained him to decline 1 million dollars, he had no choice but to do it…
"I am sorry, but I truly do not know who or where this Ray person is… I would never dare to lie to you no matter how much money is on the line…" Travis said in a shaky yet firm voice.
"I see… at least I know now that you are being honest with me… How about I cut you a deal? For your information and spying services, I will pay you appropriately. Whatever Zexis pays you I will pay you at least double? How does that sound? It\'s like I am hiring you, It would be too immoral if I made you work for free right? Your mother needs the money, doesn\'t she? But, just know that I have my ways of knowing that you are lying, and if I find out then the life of your mother will be the least of your problems..." Moby said with a devilish smile, giving him an offer he could not refuse, even further tightening the existing collar around his neck.