Chapter 536.1: MY SON IS WORTHY

In the wasteland, a settlement of over 500,000 people was undeniably large, but when broken down, it was still just 500,000 people. If the same thing had happened in Triumphant City or Ideal City, a disturbance involving a few thousand people would have been little more than a sneeze.

But in Boulder Town, which was riddled with entrenched issues, that sneeze became the fuse that ignited a full-blown crisis, nearly knocking out its front teeth in the process...

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The next day at noon, Yalek, head of security at the Vega Trading Company, rubbed his ruddy, alcohol-sweetened nose and crawled out from a mountain of empty liquor bottles.

Sometimes he felt he might be an awakener too, just not obviously so. He once followed his boss to the northern suburbs and stayed at the Highway Town Hotel. There, he saw so-called awakeners in blue coats keel over after five or six drinks, but he himself was a genuine, undefeated heavyweight drinker.

That was why the boss always brought him along.

On one hand, he was big enough to intimidate the malnourished factory workers. On the other hand, his alcohol tolerance made him the life of the party. When the boss and some socialite started getting flirty at a party, Yalek would know his place and pretend to pass out drunk.

Shaking his groggy head, Yalek reached for his clothes, stretching his stiff neck as he prepared to return to the factory to sleep. But before he could move, the door to the private suite burst open.

A disheveled Vega rushed in, with his ever-expressionless secretary Aaron trailing behind.

"You pig! What the hell are you still sleeping for at a time like this?!"

The look on his boss's face instantly told Yalek something was wrong. Ignoring the pounding in his skull, he quickly asked, "Boss, what happened?"

"What happened? You seriously don’t know what kind of mess you made of the thing I asked you to handle?!" Vega’s spit flew as he screamed, and Yalek scratched his head, utterly confused.

"You mean... that guy reading the newspaper, Spielberg? I already contacted Phyllis and had him locked up."

Vega’s face contorted with rage, his nose nearly twisting out of shape. "I told you to take him in! Not everyone! Who’s gonna run the factory now, are you expecting the conveyor belts to run themselves? Or are you gonna do it?!"

Yalek turned pale. "No way! I swear, I only saw Phyllis take one guy!"

"But now they’re all inside!" Vega growled through gritted teeth. "Now I have to figure out how to get them the hell out!"

Behind him, Aaron let out a heavy cough. "I’ve asked around, the workers walked in there on their own. They said they would not abandon a single comrade... That union is the real root of the problem. If we don’t find a way to break them apart, their numbers will spread like a virus. And when that happens, it won’t just be one factory at risk, it’ll be all of them."

The Vega Trading Company didn’t just own the Goodtaste Food Processing Factory. It had numerous food-related businesses.

Vega’s expression shifted slightly. "Then we’ll have to ask Mr. Sid to step in."

Aaron nodded. "That’s my recommendation as well... and it’d be best to bring in some workers from outside the city. They may be unskilled, but the production line must not stop."

That absolutely couldn’t happen. Vega didn’t consider asking that man for help, but the situation was already beyond what he could manage alone.

It was like hedging inflation risk with copper mines. If everyone did it, the exploit would be patched instantly, and only the New Alliance would benefit.

If one person refused to work, he could be replaced. But if everyone did it, then mass firings became a joke...

This kind of underhanded tactic... These people were completely immoral!

As his boss walked away, Yalek hurried to catch up, tugging on his clothes as he followed, mumbling to himself, "Are these people crazy? Marching into jail on their own..."

That place was damp, dark, and sealed tight. What was the appeal...?

...

In a luxury estate in the Inner City...

Sid sat on a couch, staring intensely at his trading device. His face alternated between joy and anguish, occasionally slapping his thigh with curses or cheering after a successful trade.

His wild mood swings had even driven away the most sycophantic of his servants, except for his wife, who remained by his side.

Watching her husband on the sofa, Bonnie wore a look of gentle affection. Sometimes she felt like her husband had become a child again, growing younger with age.

"Darling," she said, her arm curling behind his neck as she leaned on the sofa, her voice soft and warm, "You’ve been staring at that thing all day. Don’t you have time to look at me?"

Sid finally tore his eyes away from the tiny screen, forcing a smile through his stiff face as he looked at his beautiful wife. "I’m just... Admiring our son’s achievement."

Bonnie’s smile dimmed slightly. He hadn’t even noticed she’d changed perfumes. That palm-sized device seemed to have cast a spell on him, locking in all his attention.

Unaware of his wife’s disappointment, Sid felt a surge of smug satisfaction. Through repeated wave trading and careful reinvestment of his 6 million chip capital, his S coin holdings were worth nearly 10 million!

And the best part? Just moments ago, that 10 million had jumped to 11 million.

He had already made back everything he invested!

Sid’s face lit up with pride. Making money wasn’t that hard after all... maybe it really was in his blood.

Every time he thought about it, he couldn’t help but feel proud of his son. That brat had finally made something of himself! He deserved his bloodline!

He hoped that Kumiter and Kishur’s bond would be as strong as their fathers’, like him and Malvern. It was a bond strong enough to be passed down across generations.

That mattered more than any business empire.

Landlords failed because they didn’t understand unity. When wolves came, they tucked tail and ran. But the nobles endured, because the palace wasn’t owned by just one man. When wolves came, they simply became part of the feast.

Just then, the butler entered and bowed. "Sir, Mr. Vega is here."

"Vega?" Sid frowned. "What’s he here for?"

The butler bowed again. "He said... He had an urgent matter to discuss with you. He’s already downstairs waiting."

Bonnie rose from the couch and kissed him on the cheek. "Business is important. Whether it’s Liszt or Vega, they’re good people working for us. Don’t keep him waiting. I’ll give you two some privacy."

Sid nodded and cleared his throat, glancing toward the butler. "Send him up."

"At once." The butler bowed and left. Moments later, a flustered Vega came rushing in.

The smell of liquor on him made Sid frown slightly, but he suppressed his irritation and spoke calmly, "What’s got you so worked up?"

Vega blurted out, "Sir, something terrible has happened!"

"Cut the nonsense. Just tell me what happened." Sid placed the trading device on the table and kept half an eye on it as he spoke with clear impatience.

"Our factory... The workers were all arrested!" Vega looked close to tears as he explained everything from the day before.

Sid listened with a confused expression and repeated what he had heard to confirm the timeline. "You bribed the industrial zone guards to arrest that poor bastard who reads the paper... and the rest of the workers got arrested too? Can’t you just get them out?"

That shouldn’t have been difficult.

But Vega looked like he wanted to cry as he continued, "No... It’s not like that. The workers went in on their own!"

"Are they crazy?!" Sid shot him a glare and snapped, "Why the hell do you care? Let the damn peasants sit in there if they want."

"But... Half the factory is empty. And it’s not just ours. Sir... One troublemaker isn’t scary, but a group of them? That’s a pressure cooker ready to burst. This is a serious problem! You, no, we have to act!"

Half the factory workers gone?

Sid paused, finally grasping the seriousness of the situation.

Actually... It wasn’t difficult to understand why that happened.

It was like his household maids, he often changed them, but that wasn’t a big deal. He was a generous man. He never begged them to stay and even gave speeches at their weddings.

But if all the maids quit at once, he certainly wouldn’t allow it.

After all, he couldn’t have male servants doing his wife’s hair.

"What’s your plan?" he asked.

Vega replied patiently, "I looked into it. It all started with this guy named Spielberg, the newspaper reader. He formed a workers’ union... That is the root of all evil."

"And what has he actually done?"

"Not much... Or rather, it’s not nothing, but..."

"Enough." Sid waved him off. "Just squash the damn bug."

Vega froze, alarmed. "We... We can’t do that, sir! Killing one roach is easy, but the eggs scatter everywhere. If we must take him out, we need to do it quietly and leave no trail."

Sid was amused by the cowardice.

What a joke. He was a noble, for heaven’s sake. Why the hell should he explain killing anyone?

If they needed a cover story to quell the outer city’s anger, that was Dulong’s problem. What else did he keep that mutt around for?

Still, seeing Vega so desperate, Sid decided to let it go.

Shifting his gaze from the spineless worm, he looked back to the trading device and muttered indifferently, "Fine. I’ll make a call later."

Vega asked cautiously, "Who do you plan to give the job to?"

Sid snapped, "Find a convict to take care of that Spie-what’s-his-face. No need to use one of our own people to do it."

He knew the rules. Unlike those hotheaded kids Kumiter and Kishur, he wouldn’t just set the house on fire. Finding a desperate fugitive in the wasteland was easy. People lined up to serve him all the way to the gates of the great walls.

"It’s Spielberg... I know you wouldn’t mess that up, just wanted to be sure," Vega added meekly.

It wasn’t the best approach, he preferred bribery and splitting those workers apart by causing internal strife, but his master clearly didn’t want the hassle.

Well, so be it.

Seeing Sid was no longer paying him any mind, Vega muttered a farewell. But just as he turned to leave, he noticed that Sid’s eyes were glued to the screen on the table.

He had seen a similar device with his son before, one of those S coin trading tools Kumiter and Kishur had pushed him to buy.

He had scoffed at it, but hadn’t stopped his son, in fact, he had handed over a small fortune. After all, Sid was his patron, and Malvern was Sid’s friend. Even if S coins sounded dumb, pleasing those two men was the smart thing to do.

What he didn’t expect... was that the legendary Sid would be playing with it too, and enjoying it so much, his breathing and heartbeat seemed to sync with the chart lines...

Something about it felt wrong, but it wasn’t his place to say. "Sir... What is that? Looks fancy." Playing dumb, Vega pretended it was his first time seeing it, hoping to flatter Sid.