14 [Syndicate]

Now despite his newly amassed wealth Haley hadn't let himself forget about his thirst for revenge instead it had grown stronger over the year that he had been silently building up his wealth and increasing his power and although he might lack physical prowess currently if he wanted to he could hire hundreds of mercenaries to join him and bulldoze Leonard easily but he didn't want things to end as simply as that.

'The fat pig mentioned him and his family, a true crime syndicate to the core then, true revenge would be annihilating them all and making them wish they had never tried to murder me.' Haleys' thoughts were murderous as he tapped his fingers on the desk in his room, only to be stopped by an alert that appeared suddenly on his desktop that caused him to grit his teeth.

[Alert! ModCo has taken down this modification due to it being analysed to be harmful, your account will be suspended immediately!]

'Fuck, luckily I moved out all of my funds in case something like this happened - it was going to eventually I just didn't expect them to be monitoring me that's the only way for them to have responded before anyone judged whether it was dangerous or not with their own life.' Haley himself admitted that it was truly a gamble to install an AI Assistant onto your own nerve system but there were people who were daring enough, or people rich enough that tested the modification on a slave first before installing it themselves that would discover the truth.

Of course, having his account suspended wasn't outside of his expectations entirely, he had in fact expected this much sooner when Medical Analysis had its benefits truly discovered by then they would face public backlash for trying to remove the modification but for removing a mod that no one had even tried yet? They could say whatever they wanted without repercussion.

With a soft sigh Haley closed his desktop and stretched as he stood up before making his way down to the basement.

Just as he reached the ground floor he heard the old man, James, arguing with someone outside; curiously he peeked out of the corner of the window to see a black limousine in the dirt driveway blocking the exit entirely, a middle-aged man in a black suit that looked like a bodyguard was speaking to James calmly but he could hear, and see, the anger of the old man so without containing his curiosity he yawned and walked out of the front door.

The sound of the front door opening and then closing caused both of the men to stop and turn to look in his direction, with a small wave he nodded at the old man who nodded back before sighing and shaking his head - he motioned for Haley to go back inside but before he could react the middle-aged man had already strolled past him and was in front of Haley within moments.

"You are?" He said, he looked down at Haley condescendingly as if he was lower than an ant in his eyes; his eyes irritated Haley but he couldn't do anything without escalating the situation, "Don't you think it's only polite to introduce yourself when intruding on someone else's home?" He questioned calmly and with a relaxed expression as he leaned against the wall.

The middle-aged man seemed offended by his lack of deference as his face contorted into both anger and disgust, "Your home?" He said as he gritted his teeth, "Old man who the fuck is this kid?" He shouted at James who had now calmed down and had a much more relaxed expression on his face.

"The new owner of the item you're looking for, he paid fifty-million luna upfront; think you can mess with him?" He asked smugly as he gave Haley a small thumbs up, 'What's he trying to involve me in now?' Haley asked himself bitterly but didn't let his bitterness appear on his face and simply grinned at the middle-aged man.

He could sense the hostility the man had for him growing every second as if he was mere moments from lashing out but there seemed to be something restraining him, Haley could see his eyes dart to the black limousine with a flash of hesitation as if he was waiting for someone.

Haley had already suspected that this guy was simply someones lackey, no one would send such a brute for something worth so much money, not unless they were purposefully trying to cause trouble that is.

As expected mere moments later the hesitation seemed to disappear, 'Must be a HUD message.' Haley thought leisurely, he could see the mans eyes move as if scanning the air as he read something - the moment he finished and locked eyes with Haley he revealed an evil grin and tried to strike him in the face unexpectedly.

But all of this was within Haley's expectations, he might have no fighting experience but the increase in his physique was no joke - he could easily lift 100kg which he tested with a makeshift weight of old junk drone parts he had put together, it wouldn't be wrong to say that even without any fighting experience there was no way for him to lose unless the man could throw a punch with more than at least a 70kg force behind.

The few things that happened next were a surprise to the man but something both Haley and the old man just took as an expected reaction, the old man clearly knew how terrifying Haley's strength was right now. It wasn't possible for him to defeat a bullet to the brain or heart but it was more than enough to take down most opponents in hand-to-hand combat.

Lazily he dodged the mans fist and followed up with his own punch, the man was slightly surprised but simply decided that Haley had been lucky, "Stupid kid, do you think you cou-" He was cut off mid sentence by a sudden force to the stomach winding him and knocking him off his feet.

He fell down the steps to the front porch of the house and laid there groaning in pain, from behind he could see the door to the limousine open slightly before immediately shutting which caused him to be slightly interested as to who was within but he had a feeling it would put him in unnecessary danger by doing so - his intuition was telling him so anyway.

Haley just watched calmly as the middle-aged man stood up slowly and began to limp back to the limousine, he shot one last venomous look at Haley before getting in, the limo disappeared quickly after that leaving only the old man and Haley to look at each other.

Haley was the first to break the silence, "So who were our lovely guests?" He asked slowly, "and what is it that I brought from you huh?" The old man shook his head before replying, "One of the three crime syndicates of the dome, as for what they want... Lets go to the basement before we discuss that."

With that the old man walked past him and into the house leaving Haley to curiously follow as his interest began to pique as to what was so valuable that they couldn't speak about it in public.

...

In the black limousine returning to the city, the middle-aged man sat there cradling his stomach with one of his hands but despite the pain there was a look of respect on his face as he faced a man sitting opposite him, "Young Leader why didn't you let us shoot that fucker?" He asked trying to not sound as if he was accusing him boss.

"Do you think someone who could spend so much would have no background? Before we discover who that brat is no one is to make a move. But, saying that... I didn't expect him to be strong enough to injure you Brother Six, a Luna like you shouldn't be so easy to defeat." He said with a chuckle much to the embarrassment of Brother Six.

"I didn't expect him to be so strong either, if I hadn't used my powers to protect my stomach you'd probably be taking a corpse back with you." He said bitterly, Brother Six glanced at his HUD which was notifying him that he had internal bleeding and three broken ribs, bitterly he looked at his boss and said, "Can you call Sister Three to patch me up? This new mod is a real life saver, I didn't detect the internal bleeding at all!" He said with a smile of relief, "Medical Analysis huh? I'll have to treat the creator to a drink one day."

Both men in the car chuckled and let the rest of their trip pass by in silence.