Reborn as the Genius Son of the Richest Family

Chapter 871: Scar

“He didn’t give me a name or affiliation. He just introduced himself as Seditious.”

Michael marked that in his mind. There were a lot of implications with that moniker, giving this mysterious person the image of someone rebellious, recalcitrant, and defiant.

But this doesn’t make sense. The Artifices in Frick and the Faux-Stil company were meant to be a secret. They made sure no one was going to find out about it. But now, they’re just selling it out into the public?

Perhaps he had it wrong. Perhaps, this Seditious character was a different entity to the ones in charge of the Faux-Stil company.

The fact that he was selling this ’Artifice’ to other people probably meant that he was trying to destroy the established monopoly of Artifices, and want them to become more ubiquitous around the world, while the Faux-Stil company wanted them to be kept in the dark.

Michael would have thought this was a heroic act, if he didn’t know any better. After all, this Artifice gave ordinary people—people who didn’t have thousands of Sand Dollars to spare—a chance to transcend the normal limits of humanity and join the league of Maugnetics.

However, ironically, this came at the cost of their humanity. And he had a feeling that this ’Seditious’ character didn’t disclose it to the people he was selling it to.

“Did they tell you anything about this Artifice? Like, does it have some side-effects?”

“They said that it’s just like any other expedients. Power always comes at a price. Now lucky for me, I’m not desperate enough to have an untested material surgically implanted into my heart.

But I’m betting some people are more desperate enough to take that chance, especially here in New Sparta, where strength can determine whether you succeed and reach the levels of conglomerates, or crash down and burn into the ground.”

Michael pursed his lips. He was worried exactly for that reason.

“What does he look like, this Seditious character?”

Tenzing frowned and crossed his arms on his chest. “I’m sure he was using a disguise. But…hehehe….”

Michael tilted his head at him.

“Unluckily for him, I did recently awaken a new Aubility Power,” Tenzing proudly announced.

If I remember correctly, Tenzing could imbue enhanced gravity on anything he touched…

He hadn’t interacted directly with Tenzing during the auction, but he did see his fight against Beau.

“Don’t tell anybody else, but I got a new Aubility Power that allows me to increase the gravity of someone’s powers, this includes their disguise. Stressing them out and making them more exhausted, basically.

So, when I made contact with him, I tried to get his disguise to drop. It didn’t work, of course; his cultivation was in the 9th stage. But I did notice that a small part of his face was weaker than the rest of his body.”

“Meaning?”

Tenzing shrugged. “This could mean a lot of things. It was either his use of his Aubility Power was sloppy, it could be that I saw it wrong… or it could be that there was a part of his face that was a lot harder to control because of an injury—like this.”

He showed Michael the festering gash on his forearm.

“I think he has the same thing I have on his right eye. But I guess now, it’s just a scar.”

This was a pretty good clue. Now, all he had to do was to look for a person with an almost-rotting scar on his right eye. Easy, right?

“Now, I just need to show this to Alaric and the others. Everyone needs to be warned to stay away,” Tenzing resolved. “Though, it may be better to keep it a secret. Everyone’s feeling the pressure because of the Auberts, and I do not want to give them the temptation.”

Michael perked up. “The Auberts?”

“Yeah, you know them, right? Well, everyone’s been hearing about their achievements constantly, and it’s making them nervous. I mean, they’ve made friends with the Werewolves, the Mermen, and even the Dragons!”

“I heard they’re even trying to make an alliance with the Dwarves,” Michael mentioned.

Tenzing nodded. “Yeah, they tried. But thankfully, that didn’t happen so we’re still in the clear. The balance between companies would definitely shift if they succeeded.”

Michael guessed as much. “Do you know where the Dwarf King is now?”

“Nah, sorry.”

That was unfortunate. Who would have thought that the infamous Dwarves would have a King with restless feet? The guy was just nowhere to be found!

“Thank you, Tenzing. It’s been helpful. If you need anything else, you can ask me.”

Tenzing waved him off. “No worries, my man. We’re Metropolisian….Metropolitan?… Metropolese? Whatever. We stick together.”

“No, you’ve really helped me. Just ask.”

Tenzing scratched his head, embarrassed for a second. “Well, I am planning on buying some more Soo drops, but you probably don’t have any spare Sand Dollars, right?”

Michael smiled. “Actually, if you have more GodForge pieces to sell, I’m willing to buy them.”

“Forget it. Everyone is having trouble with Sand Dollars, I shouldn’t be greedy—you said what now?”

“Do you have more?”

Tenzing stared at Michael, trying to understand his words. “Re—really? You can buy more?!”

“Yeah.”

Immediately, Tenzing rummaged through his giant rucksack, retrieving about three more metallic cubes.

“I have fifteen more kilograms. I would really appreciate it if you buy five more—”

“I’ll take ’em all,” Michael said, taking a pouch from his shadow that contained 150,000 SD in total.

Hearing the hefty sounds of Sand Dollars scratching against each other, the lanky mountaineer malfunctioned.

Michael smiled. Finally, he wasn’t the one getting surprised with enormous amounts of Sand Dollars. It was his time to do it to others!

Not only that, but with 15 kilograms of GodForge pieces, he finally had enough to advance the Dragonborns directly to the 3rd stage! It was about time! Zion would get left behind as he’s the only one who hadn’t awakened his Diva, but whatever.

“HOW DO YOU HAVE SO MUCH?!”