ch.7

I arrived back at the group's hideout just in the nick of time, 10 minutes late that is. I may have spend a little too much time playing games in the arcade, who would have known that the Dc universe had Street Fighter and that it was even better than the one in my universe.

Something I did not think was possible. How do you improve on perfection, you ask?

The answer is you can't, but like with all impossible things the Dc universe has found a way to make it reality, no matter how improbable.

Zheng was already there waiting for me outside the warehouse, tapping his right foot restlessly.

"I'm only a few minutes late, don't get your panties in a bunch."

Kids could be so impatient sometimes.

He glared at me for the gall of implying that he wears women's underwear, his glare had a lot more heat in it than I expected in response to a joke, but then I remembered that I was talking in Mandarin and that some expressions don't translate well.

Instead of apologizing like I probably should, I did the adult thing and ignored him. He will get over it.

He gave up a minute later after noticing that his pitiful glare wasn't working on me, and turned his attention to something else.

See kids, the lesson here is that if you ignore your problems they will resolve themselves soon enough.

That something else turned out to be the bag I had brought with me.

"What's in the bag," he asked eagerly, already having forgotten that he was mad at me, "more food?"

"Nope not this time, it's just the papers my 'customers' need to sign," I answered, showing him the folder full of blank papers I remembered to buy while I was kicking ass at Street Fighter.

'I totally wasn't losing to some brats….I just have to practice this new version and then they will see, they will all see!!'

'Cough! just ignore that'

Fang was already suspicious of me and my non-existent boss, no need to make it worse by showing up without any paperwork.

Zheng's face fell dramatically.

It felt like I just kicked a hungry puppy.

"I will treat you to an all you can eat buffet next time."

I threw a bag filled with candy that I had bought at the arcade at him.

"Until then those have to do."

I had been saving that candy for a rainy day, but I was feeling kind of bad for the kid. He had been a good acquaintance to Alexander and even though I was still a little vexed that the group hadn't let Alexander join them, I was mature(just barely) enough to understand that it wasn't Zheng's choice to make.

Besides, I had already eaten 2 of those bags and probably needed to stop before I have to waste soul energy just to fix my teeth. Being 8 again had given me a serious sweet tooth.

Catching the bag, he looked at what was inside it, and just like that his face went from disappointment to drooling when he saw that it was full of candy.

Gross.

"Thanks!"

We finished our back and forth, and started walking to our destination, the location of which I didn't know.

"Where are we going?"

"To an abandoned office that we found, it's not far just a block from here."

We passed the time walking to the abandoned office talking about this and that, all the while Zheng was stuffing his face as fast as he could with candy as if he was afraid that I would ask for them back.

Which was honestly tempting....don't judge me, I can quit whenever I want!

>>>><<<<

The first thing we noticed as we neared our destination was the sounds of a commotion coming from inside, it sounded like 3 different voices were yelling.

Coming to the door we saw that Fang was standing at one side of a half dismantled office, with 7 other people who I assume were my 'customers' standing at the other side.

7 was less than I had hoped for but honestly far more than I expected in such a small time frame as 4 hours. There were 5 men and 2 women all looking worse for wear, it makes sense that there would be more men than women, women had a lot more to sell to get drugs.

The woman looked especially bad which again made sense. If they were here then it means that they could not even sell their bodies anymore, and were truly used up, but what I didn't understand is why Fang was here alone without the rest of the group, just as I was going to make my presence known to ask my question, it gets answered for me.

One of the 3 men that were screaming and making a commotion when I arrived, suddenly pulls out a knife and rushes Fang, attempting to stab him.

Before I could think to intervene, Fang grabs the arm holding the knife, twists the offending arm behind the man's back, and kicks his feet from under him leaving him on his knees in record time.

Crying out in pain he drops the knife, he tries to struggle for a second but a hard fist to his exposed side takes the fight right out him together with his breath and he is left groaning in even more pain.

It all happened so fast that no one had time to react before it was already over.

Fang looked around at the other 'customers' to check if any of them would like to try their luck with him, all the while twisting the arm he was holding like he was about to break it. The answer turned out to be a big fat no, even the other two men which had been making a commotion together with the attacker were looking away and cowering quietly like this whole scene had nothing to do with them.

Note to self, if I ever fight Fang I should keep my distance or at the very least boost my physical attributes a few dozens times before the fight.

"What is going on?" I asked, after recovering my composure and walking inside.

Not even surprised by my entrance, Fang just calmly explains everything like it was a regular tuesday and he wasn't holding a grown ass man in an arm lock.

"These guys," he gestures to the man he was still holding in an arm lock and the rest of my 'customers' watching him warily from the side, "were just getting a little impatient, but it's all good now, it won't happen again," Fang explains cheerfully, "will it?" He gives an extra hard twist this time.

"No!" the man croaks pitifully in pain.

"Good," Fang replies drily, letting the man fall on the ground as he finally lets him go.

"Riiight, I apologize for my lateness, I had some important business to deal with," I lied shamelessly.

...what?

Street Fighter is important dammit!

"But now that the situation has been resolved we can get down to business."

I look every one of my 'customers' briefly in the eye to make sure they are paying attention before continuing.

"The deal I am going to offer you is simple, I give you a bag of cocaine," I get one of the baggies out of my pocket and show it around, making more than a few of my 'customers' swallow.

"And in exchange you have to sign something for me."

when no one said anything I assumed they all understood and agreed to my terms, even Fang's attacker who had silently slouched to his associates when I was giving my speech.

"Ok, get in an orderly line, I hope that my friend here doesn't have to showcase his skills again."

"-_-"

Ignoring the awkward silence, I turn my attention to Fang and leave them to sort themselves in a line.

"You have somewhere I can do this privately?" I ask him.

"Yea, there is a cubicle in the back that you can use," he replied.

"Okay, give me a minute to settle in and then start sending them in one by one."

"That wasn't part of the deal."

"Don't be a cheapskate, I will pay you an extra 200," I replied rolling my eyes.

Going into the back I find the cubicle Fang was talking about with a reasonably intact desk in it. Taking all the bogus papers from the folder I bought with me, I exchange them with contracts. I'm not about to conjure a contract in front of my 'customers' the less they believe me when I make a deal with them, the better the chances they would sell something as 'worthless' as their souls to me for a bag of cocaine.

The first to come in a minute later is the guy that attacked Fang. He walked in acting all high and mighty like he hadn't had his ass kicked a minute ago and was too important to deal with a kid like me. Which clearly wasn't true otherwise he would be somewhere else right now but whatever makes him sleep at night, I guess.

Getting right to the chase I gave him a contract to read.

I could see the moment he was done reading the contract, because the condescending look he has been throwing at me the whole time he has been in my presence went up a level.

"Read it out loud," I told him, even though I already knew he read it, I had to be 100% sure he understood what he was reading.

"In exchange for my soul and my silence about this deal until said otherwise by Alexander I get a bag of drugs."

I changed the contract a little so that they couldn't talk about the deal unless I said so. After I have enough power I can get rid of it, or change it a little so that I can network and people can tell their friends about me.

I could see how stupid he thought I was the whole time he was reading the contract, he even started laughing after he was done.

"Are you for real?"

"Yes."

"I just need to sign this and you will give me a bag of cocaine?" he asked again for certainty.

"Yes," I answered again, handing him a pencil to sign with.

He did so with a flourish, I took the contract from him checking if everything was in order, his name turned out to be Li Wei.

When I saw that everything was in order, I reached into my pocket and handed him one bag of cocaine from it.

The moment I handed him the bag his soul flew out his chest and into mine almost making me shudder from doubling my power so easily.

I could feel the contract start to burn up now that its purpose was fulfilled but I used my power over it to keep it from burning for a few more seconds. I don't want to clue Li Wei in that something supernatural was going on and make a believer out of him, if he figures out that he really just sold his soul to me he will probably do something stupid like attacking me.

He will figure it out when all his desires and emotions dry up in a month leaving him nothing but a lifeless robot, normally I would add the losing of his creativity too but well look at him there isn't much to lose at this point.

I waved him away and let the contract finally burn up when he left the room after shooting me one last condescending look.

I closed my eyes and let out a sigh, who knew getting powerful was this hard. You don't know how hard it was to resist the compulsion to conjure a fireball in front of that fool so that I could see the realization in his eyes before incinerating him. Opening my eyes, I called for the next 'customer' and hoped that this one didn't turn out to be as irritating as Li Wei.

I would love to tell you that people wouldn't sell their souls this easily, that Li Wei was the exception to the rule and not the norm but I would be lying.

I ended up getting 6 new souls that day.

The truth is people just don't care or believe in their souls, especially not desperate addicts. If it can't be seen or proven to exist it is just not that important in the eyes of humans and certainly not as important as the drug that an addict so desperately was in need of.

The only person that didn't take the deal ended up being one of the women. It turns out that she was deeply religious, the moment I offered her the deal she started cursing me out as a demon that was trying to tempt her, which to be honest is a sailed ship at this point if she was here trying to score some cocaine, but whatever blame the devil I guess.

Her I just mind wiped and made to think that she changed her mind and didn't want the drugs anymore. I even made her believe that she was going to turn her life around, and compelled her to sign herself in a rehab clinic after leaving here.

What…

I can do a good deed once in a while, maybe it will balance out my karma. I will surely be needing it, after condemning these people to an inevitable life as drones, until their bodies just give up on them two months from now.

This is the Dc universe you never know.

After Cleaning up after myself, I walked back to the front of the office to find Zheng and Fang waiting on me and no more 'customers' in sight.

Zheng was trying to sneakily eat candy from the bag I gave him without Fang noticing so that he didn't need to share any and Fang was pretending that he didn't notice Zheng's obvious chewing.

Getting some money out of my pocket, I handed Fang 2000 Yuan, 200 per contract, the 200 for the extra work, and an extra 400 just because I'm a good hearted bastard, while one of the 7 deals didn't work out it wasn't their fault.

That much money would have been an unimaginable amount of money to me a day ago when I was starving on the streets, but now it was barely anything, something I could just give away. Power really does change your world's perspective and what was truly important. More power.

"Thanks, I will find you guys if I need more work done," I said after a moment when they were done salivating over the pile of money.

"You mean your boss right?" Fang asked.

"Yea," I answered, but we both know what I really meant.

I left through the broken door of that demolished office an order of magnitude more powerful than when I walked in not even an hour ago.

Having a broken power is so much fun!