14 Principal, What are you Doing Here?

Constantly scouring the rapidly developing internet, the great sage was able to find a few suitable locations for the factories. Following the map displayed in front of my eyes, I walk west of New York, towards the old factory district.

I took a leisurely walk for around a few hours, finally arriving at the factory site. I know some might say why not just teleport straight to the location.

Well, the answer to that question is, boredom is the curse of the overpowered. It's better to live like a regular human once in a while. Enjoy the little things in life and not rush through things.

The evening glow of the setting sun cast an eerie shadow on the factory district. Walking along the road with factories left and right, a feeling of abandon filled the air.

"Hey, great sage, are you sure this place is still being used. It feels like its abandoned."

{Yeah, its been abandoned for about a year now. Strange accidents kept happening around these parts. Workers died in accidents, companies failed and personal lifes of people managing these parts were disturbed.}

"Don't you think you should have mentioned this to me before leading me here. And why did you even choose this place as the 'best location for all your plans'. This place creepy." I snapped back.

"Why choose a place where people have been known to die? To be honest, anything around here that tries to harm me will probably end up having both their arms eaten, then both their legs, then we will eat your face right off your head. You will be this armless, legless faceless thing, won't you? Rolling down the street like a turd in the wind…."

{Hey, stop your monologuing and movie references. And no, no one will end up 'like a turd in the wind', because there is no one who would do you any harm here.}

{You remember that drug cartel you took down a few months back, the one guy with the weird laugh, Esteban 'The Grin'.}

"Oh yeah, Esteban, what a weird lad, his laughing sounded somewhere between a hiccup and a cat chocking on a fur ball. Yeah, what about him?" I ask back, ignoring her cute little angry retort.

{Well, apparently that guy's gang had stored most of its liquid properties in a warehouse in this factory area. To not draw attention to his organisation and keep away some snooping eyes and fingers, he asked his people to 'haunt' this area. They made some accidents happen and spread rumours. It worked a bit too well and this whole area ended up abandoned.} The Great Sage explained.

{So there no one here in this whole area. Most of the factories have what we require, and the price is way cheaper that what you would get originally. The price dropped down a whopping 26%. The guy who owns these factories originally had them on rent, but the rumours made him bankrupt. He's willing to sell for a few million, the factories, along with the land rights. And this area's not bad. Secluded neighbourhood, so no one could waltz around, the size is pretty big honestly, it could hold all of our current plans and still have space for a few more. And again, it's cheap.} continued the great sage.

"I appreciate the explanation, but why are you such a cheapskate." I ask back, annoyed at the double mention of the pricing.

{I'm you}

"…"

"…"

"Yeah, never mind that. So, who's the owner. Let's buy this place."

{He's the principal of MSST, and lives in Queens. Fun guy.} answered the great sage.

"…"

This time I teleported back to Queens and walk towards the apartment listed by great sage.

I knock on the door and rang the bell, waited for a few seconds before a short man in an open bathrobe revealing his shorts and dirty shirt opened the door.

His lifeless eyes placed deep in his sockets looked up and met my eyes. An expression of desperation flashed across his un-shaven face before he stuttered out, "I-, I know I'm behind on the payments, just give me a few days, I just had a potential buyer call regarding the place a few minutes ago. I have a good feeling about his one. So just give me 2 days, please. Please."

I could see tears building up in his hollow eyes as he clung on to the last hope that was me.

"Mr. Morita, it seems you're mistaken about my identity. I'm not a debt collector, nor anyone from a bank. I called a few minutes ago regarding the factories." I reply in a calm, soothing voice, attempting to calm the man down.

I could see his eyes brightening up just a bit, as he looked at me closely.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. It seems I have mistaken you for someone else. I apologise. Would you like to come in." he asked, changing his disposition to be as polite as possible.

I nod and follow behind him to the living room. The apartment was almost empty. It seems the factories shutting down impacted him quite harshly.

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