Hero or Villain, Both

The next morning, we met with the owner of the auction hall once more.

When he saw us, he treated me completely differently from before.

After all, he had received the message from his backers that he was to listen to us from now on.

In short, he had been told that they had given up on him.

With no one backing him, he could only turn to me since I had said that I would get rid of his backers. He knew that I was the one that had been powerful enough to make this happen.

As such, he could only rely on me for this.

"Tell me about all the different businesses that you run."

The owner of the auction hall was surprised to hear this, but he quickly recovered and started telling me the information that I asked for.

"Not enough." I said in a decisive voice once he finished explaining everything.

The owner of the auction hall just looked at me with an awkward look on his face.

There was a part of him that seemed embarrassed because of what I said.

After all, what I had called not enough could be considered his life work. Everything that he had told me was built up by him after he had worked hard to establish this underground auction hall.

But now that it was being called 'not enough', these words really left a mark on him.

Still, there was nothing that he could say when he saw the look on my face as I said this.

I didn't bother comforting him since he was nothing more than a lowly pawn.

In fact, it was better to say that he was nothing more than a puppet since that was what he was now that I had bound him with my magic contract.

Instead of offering kind words, I just said, "We'll be expanding. I want to see this network double by this time next week."

A bitter smile appeared on the face of the owner of the auction house when he heard this.

After all, it wasn't as if doing something like this would be that easy.

There was a reason why he hadn't been able to expand all this time.

The businesses that we were discussing were all underground businesses. That meant that these were businesses that usually engaged in illegal matters, businesses that couldn't be seen in the light of day.

Since they were businesses like this, that meant that there were usually people that protected these businesses.

They were people like the ones that the owner of the auction hall hired to protect the auction hall.

It wasn't as if they were that weak if they could do business in the same place as the owner of the auction hall.

So that was why he had never been able to expand.

"If I can take you down, why can't I take the others down as well?" I said with a faint smile.

The owner of the auction hall wanted to say something, but he found that there wasn't anything that he could refute with this. The things that I said seemed quite logical since he had already seen proof of it…

Seeing the way that his expression changed, I added, "I'll send Daluka and his squad to take care of this matter. I'm sure that you've already seen how strong they are. They should be enough to take care of those people."

The owner of the auction hall was surprised to hear this, but then he quickly nodded as he said, "Enough, it's more than enough."

I gave a satisfied nod when I heard this.

I had been right about this owner of the auction hall.

He was someone that knew when to change his tone and when to follow along.

Someone like this would be able to help manage this underground side of my business without a problem. Or at least until I found someone that was better than him, then he would be replaced.

But for now, it seemed that he understood what I wanted.

"Get it done within the week. Once you're done, I have other things for you to do as well."

The owner of the auction hall just nodded before leaving after I waved my hand to dismiss him.

When I was alone, I said to myself, "It'll take at least a week before it can start."

Though it seemed like I was talking to myself, I wasn't actually talking to myself. I was talking to the other avatars through the shared senses.

The ones that I was talking to in particular were the Demon King Val Zahar and the Barbarian King Conan. They were the ones that would be receiving the goods from this new network that I was setting up.

It was only through the underground network that I would be able to move goods to the demon territory and the wilderness. That was why I pushed the owner of the auction hall to build up this network as soon as possible.

Both of them said that it was fine, but I knew that they would prefer it if I did it sooner.

After all, they really needed the resources from this in their territories.

Conan especially needed it because the timing was getting tight.

It was only a matter of time before the Iron Fist Gang dealt with their problems and started mounting an attack on the town. The more supplies that they had, the better it would be for them when that happened.

But right now, I really couldn't do anything since the network wasn't established enough.

I thought that it would be bigger, but it was disappointing that it was this small.

"Well, it isn't as if I can do anything about it. I just have to make my business bigger, both the above ground and underground portions." I said this with a sigh.

Unlike the others that were having grand adventures, my job was to sit behind a desk and build a business empire.