Chapter 12 : Debt Collector

On Eretre, a day happened to be the same as Earth, exactly twenty four hours consisting of roughly eleven hours of daylight and thirteen hours of nighttime. In truth, it wasn't the same in some of the neighbouring and farther planets.

For instance, Jota, one of Eretre's neighbours, experienced 42 hours per day; 18 of those in sunlight with 24 in darkness. This might seem a lot but one should recall that a day in Venus is 5,832 hours (243 Earth days) whereas in Mercury it was 1,408 hours (almost 59 Earth days) or 4,224 hours (176 Earth days) depending on how one wanted to define a day [AN: too complicated to explain but in AN section]. Although there were places with shorter days like Jupiter or Saturn, none of the habitable planets of the Kellan solar system were like such.

Eleven hours might seem much but they easily went by for Lucas and it was nighttime soon. At that point, Lucas realised he was hungry but didn't leave the store either. Instead, he used his communicator and ordered for a meal before resuming his activities which was mostly educating himself on the world.

Apart from educating himself about his new world, Lucas had spent a significant part of his time revisiting an old love of his; metallurgy, the study of metals. Back on Earth and even in his first life, Lucas loved studying about materials, especially metals. In his first life, he worked on them with his hands and developed a passion for the art. In his second life on Earth, Lucas developed a passion for the science of the subject and went as far as becoming a world-renowned scientist for his groundbreaking research in metals and materials.

Now he was in a new world that seemed to have combined both of his past world experiences, Lucas' interest was hyped. Just as he had suspected, this new world had an assortment of new and old metals and materials so there was so much to learn about even after he had finished comprehending all the knowledge from the tome. Before Lucas knew it, he fell asleep deep into the night after being overwhelmed and woke up the following day.

[[ Estimated time until renovation completion: 6 hours ]]

There were still a few more hours before the store's renovation and Lucas decided to spend the time reading again.

One might wonder why he lacked an interest in moving around but to Lucas, it was best to know more about the world before doing so. This wasn't like with his first transmigration to Earth where he was born into the world and so could easily fit into it. At the same time, he was a victim of speciesism here, to the point that he was almost kidnapped less than an hour into his transmigration.

Without being able to refine stellar energy, Lucas' next best option was to fully understand this world before moving around.

However, Lucas wanting to live in peace didn't mean that he would get his peace.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

"Hey, open up."

A loud knock sounded at the door just as Lucas woke up from his sleep.

Normally, he shouldn't have been able to hear the ravings from the speaker, but the latter was putting in so much force into his knock and yelling provocatively, such that even if Lucas wanted to ignore it, he could still hear them.

Infuriated as well as perplexed, Lucas went downstairs to see who it was.

"Reminder: No one except the host can step into the building." The system informed Lucas.

"I know. I just want to see who it is." Lucas replied. He indeed wanted to know who it was. Lucas hasn't had much contact with anyone so far as he had only been in this world for barely two days with today being the third.

"Who is it?" Lucas asked.

"What do you mean who is it? Did you forget it's time to pay your weekly fees? Open up and don't try to run from me." The voice on the other side said.

"Weekly fees? What weekly fees?" Lucas was confused.

"What do you...hold on. Your voice sounds strange. Aren't you Ramon?" The speaker asked.

Lucas' eyes glistened strangely. Ramon was the name of the previous owner of the building; the man who sold it to Lucas.

'It seems like there's more trouble with this.' Recalling that the man he met in the pub told him that Ramon was interested in finding a buyer to settle his debts and move out, Lucas had an inkling of what was going on.

Ramon probably owed a large amount of money and was making weekly payments on them while trying to find a buyer for the building. Once it was sold, rather than clearing the debts, he used the money to escape town and start a new life.

The problem was that, the creditor had yet to receive their full sum with the interest, so they wouldn't easily give up and might even try to seize the house. However, Lucas wasn't worried about that. The deal was approved by the city government so that meant there was nothing sketchy about it. Ramon was also confirmed to be the owner of the building and it wasn't being used as a collateral for his debts, otherwise the deal would have been flagged by the city government and he would have been notified back then. In other words, there was no way the creditors could take it from Lucas' hands so Ramon's debts had nothing to do with him.

Once he figured that part out, Lucas confidently replied back.

"No, I'm not. Ramon sold this place to me just yesterday. I'm the new owner."

"He what?! The heck you mean? Open this frigging door right now!" The other party began shouting at the top of his voice. From the tone, Lucas easily identified the speaker to be a male.

"I'm sorry but I can't. Whatever issues you have with Ramon, go settle them yourself." Lucas ignored the other party and walked away.

"Hey, you better open this door right now or you'll regret it. Do you know who Ramirez is? I work under Ramirez. Ramon borrowed from him and I'm here to receive the payments. It would be wise not to make any stupid mistake and open this door right now."

Lucas ignored the fellow. With the system's assurance that no one could enter this building during the renovation period, he wasn't scared of anything. As for after that, Lucas had a feeling that the system would unveil a couple of surprises to him which might turn out useful.

"Hey, can you hear me? I know you can. Open the door right now."

The party on the other side kept talking and knocking, but after realising that Lucas was a 'stubborn' individual, he gave up and left.

For Lucas, this experience wasn't one he liked. He tried contacting Ramon but realised that the other was avoiding his calls. This further verified his earlier suspicions. Ramon might have even been expecting this to happen.

Nonetheless, none of this dampened his resolve. Lucas simply filed a report of harassment to the city guard corps and left it at that.

Meanwhile, the spy who was lurking in the dark watched all this happen and it made him all the more insecure. After a moment of contemplation, he finally reached a decision as his gaze on the building sharpened.

This night, he would strike.

. . .

On the other side of the door was a young man who dressed stylishly and had braided purple hair. Hyumans were genetically different from humans, and some of them had naturally coloured hair just like the young man.

The young man had a frown on his face as he left the area after banging on the door yet receiving no response. He hailed a hover-cab and moved away.

A couple of minutes later, the young man alighted from the vehicle at a certain virtual gaming store and watched as the cab left. He wandered around the area for a few minutes, then began walking in the direction opposite the store. At times, he would turn in one direction, then walk a circle around a block before moving in the opposite direction. This went on for while and looked pointless but at the same time, the young man was actually moving further and further way from his starting point. It took thirty minutes of this seemingly pointless action until he began walking in a specific direction with a smirk on his face.

At the same time, a couple of dozen metres away, a figure appeared with a frown and mumbled, "Lost him."

Meanwhile, the young man, who had a victorious smirk on his face, soon reached a building that wasn't anything special. On the outside, it appeared to be a fruit store, which didn't stand out in any way. While supplements and the like were quite popular, organic food still had its place in the market.

He walked in and said a few words to the cashier, who then led him to a room with a hidden elevator that descended downward.

A deep voice in an intimidating tone greeted the young man as soon as he exited the elevator.

"What took you so long?"