Deal With The Devil (1)

As the evening passed by and night had started to arrive, while Ronald was leisurely standing around the corner of the masquerade ballroom without a care in the world seemingly waiting for something to happen, Iris, who was allowed to follow him this time around, was extremely tense at the moment.

Why?

Because while it might just seemed like a normal and typical masquerade party hosted for rich people on the surface, the people who were attending this masquerade party were far from anything but normal people.

That's right, the actuality of this masquerade party was for extremely dangerous people in various different kinds of fields to come out and meet each another, and perhaps even get acquainted with one another.

There were all sorts of people, ranging from international criminals, triads, serial killers and assassins to corrupted public officials and terrorists.

And that's what made Iris extremely distraught.

After all, her sunlight doesn't belong in this place at all!

Of course, Iris had tried to disencourage Ronald multiple times and had even thought about knocking him out beforehand just so that he doesn't actually show up to this masquerade.

But since she couldn't muster up the courage to harm Ronald, even if it was for his own good, she just had to grit her teeth and pray that Ronald doesn't end up offending too much people here to the point where she couldn't protect him at all.

However, it seemed like trouble had made its way towards Ronald first, since...

[Warning! Warning! This building is currently being besieged right now and will get overrun soon.]

[All unit personals including overseers and hired agents, please make your way towards the ballroom while all attending guest please follow the closest clearance staff near you in a calm and timely manner to a more secure location.]

[Any guests willing to participate in the fight please quickly head over to the second floor of the building and talk to a sentinel for more information.]

[We apologise for the inconvinece and we promise that we will compensate you once we clear anything out.]

Immediately right after the announcement from the intercom was finished, the entire ballroom went in a frantic frenzy despite the announcement saying otherwise.

Since this masquerade party was essentially suppose to be a meet and greet for some of the most dangerous members of society, the entire building was heavily armed and guarded to the teeth.

The building was so guarded in fact, that not even China's military personnels could breach the building even if they wanted to unless if they decided to commit a war crime.

So the fact that the building was currently being breached right now, along with the fact that the announcement from the intercom even allowed guests to come join in the fight proved to everyone that whatever the hell is out there is definitely something that they couldn't go up against.

With all of that in mind everyone immediately started pushing, shoving, getting fights, and even started killing one another with their bare hands in order to stay closest to the clearance staffs as possible.

Using the havoc as an opportunity, Ronald immediately ditched Iris behind before she could even react, quickly blended in with the crowd, and slowly made his way to the backstages of the ballroom.

Afterwards, Ronald picked up a crystal ball that was the size of his hand, and threw it against the black painted walls, which promptly opened up a small door on the wall that seemed to reveal an extremely dark and misty passageway.

Then after making sure that nobody else was lurking nearby, Ronald swiftly entered through the passage.

***

After spending about 10 minutes walking through the dark and errie corridors...

"Phew, I should be safe here." Ronald entered an extremely dark room with the number 13 on it and announced in a relieved tone.

The moment that Ronald had closed the door behind him however, glints of red light started to lighten up the entire room.

And there, it was revealed that a woman who seemed to have long light black with a stripe of dark cyan hair and emerald colored eyes was seen to be sitting behind a black office desk, staring at Ronald menacingly.

"Take a seat on the couch in front of you." The woman stated in an apathetic tone and gestured for Ronald to sit on the black leather couch a few meters away from the desk.

Upon hearing this, Ronald wasn't too surprised about the woman's indifference towards him and took a seat as he was told.

"Now tell me, why are you here?" The woman leaned up against the table and propped her chin on both of her hands.

"Well you see, after I heard what the announcer had said on the intercom, I quickly rushed out of the ballroom and ma-" Just as Ronald could finish his bullshit story however...

"No, I mean why are you at the masquerade party?" The woman glared at Ronald like a beast hunting its pray and asked in a imperious voice.

"What do you mean by that?" Ronald pretended to not understand what the woman meant and said confusedly.

The woman didn't reply back immediately but took a moment to thoroughly examine who was behind that fully covered up black and gold masquerade mask.

And after affirming that she indeed didn't examine the wrong person...

"Ronald Kuangge, aged 21. Born in China. Half American and half Chinese. The only son of the Kuangge family and next person in line to inherit the family wealth. Father's name is Arnold Smith, aged 54. Born in the US. Fully American but inherited the surname Kuangge after marriage. Single-handedly grew the Kuangge family to where it is today. Not much is known about the mother but has been confirmed to be dead." The woman stopped for a brief second before continuing onwards.

"Although the Kuangge family in China seems weak on the surface and has no influence anywhere else besides the city it resides in, it is one of the greatest and strongest families in the US and can easily rival that to a Royal family. While the family's connection to the underworld is prominent in the US, it has no connections to the underworld in China." After finishing stating all of the bulletpoints about the Kuangge family the woman had in her head, she snapped her finger, which prompted one of her subordinates to come in and pointed a gun directly at Ronald's head.

"Last chance. Tell me why you're here."

When Ronald had heard everything that the woman has told him, even though he should've been surprised about this information, he wasn't.

Excluding the fact that he had known about it in his previous life, even though it was never mentioned in the novel that the Kuangge family's main power was from the US, the fact that Ronald had managed to live for 7 years in this hellhole of a world despite being a minor villain proved that his background wasn't as simple as it appeared on the surface.

Anyways, with that being said...

"Alright, I'll get straight to the point then, the Kuangge family wants your help." Knowing that he couldn't hide his identity from her, he took the mask off and then stated in a polite tone.

Using the fact that the woman infront of him knew much more about the Kuangge family probably more than anyone else in the first half of the story, Ronald decided to use it as a front for his main purpose.

And to be completely honest, Ronald believed that the woman was willing to take him up on the offer as well.

After all, even though Ronald was fully aware that the woman infront of him was actually more powerful than his entire background alone, she couldn't reap the benefits due to some restrictions that she had to face.

But contrary to what Ronald had believed in however...

"Ronald... you truly are as stupid as the rumors make it out to be. While it may seem like you have the biggest background in the world in the eyes of normal people, there are just some things in this world beyond your imagination, and where you will never be able to compete in, no matter how big your background is."

"And in my eyes, you don't even remotely meet the qualifications to even look at a picture of me at all."

"However, since you've managed to find this hideout on a stroke of luck, I'll be merciful and give you a painless death."

And just like that...

BANG!