Chapter 20 - Xu Nian

"Do you know the triangle law?" Xu Xiaoyou asked."Triangle law..." Aphra made a thoughtful gesture.

"Right, it’s unrelated."

Aphra: "..."

The woman on stage finally got to the point.

Her expression turned serious, the sudden change making the new employees below uneasy.

"Our C Department company values one thing. Never ever show any mercy to the collection targets."

"Paying one’s debts is perfectly justified, don’t sympathize because of their experiences, and don’t feel pity because of their families; it will only harm yourself."

"Every loan we give out is clearly stated on the contract with the interest rate and repayment date, as well as the cost of not being able to pay it back. If they borrow from us without assessing their risk and ability to repay, that’s their own foolishness, incredibly foolish."

"Understood?"

Despite realizing something after the brainwashing, the new employees barely reacted and responded in unison.

Xu Xiaoyou sighed.

Until now, these new employees might not have realized that Cosmic Heavy Industries is not some outstanding model enterprise but a bloodstained predator, a massive shadow pressing down on this steel jungle, drawing nutrients from the people’s resources to make itself grow mature and lush.

The emphasis of Cosmic Heavy Industries is not "Heavy Industries," but "Cosmic."

Its shadow covers countless Nest Cities, and its scope is certainly not limited to heavy military industry; various armaments are just the main development direction, the foundation of their dominion over the Nest Cities under their rule.

Outside, the cityscape was a forest of buildings and busy traffic. Under the shadows of the holographic billboards, violent crime was happening every moment.

The Cosmic Tower is so massive, located at the city center, a landmark building, occasionally seen in the corners of the city, often blocking out the sunlight.

Behind everything people could see in their daily lives, there was its shadow.

Its roots had already deeply embedded themselves into this steel forest.

When the nutrients from this Nest City were completely extracted and became worthless, it would be abandoned.

People were the same.

Aphra didn’t know what the girl beside her was thinking, so she waved a hand in front of Xu Xiaoyou’s eyes:

"Senior, Senior?"

"Sorry, I just spaced out for a moment," Xu Xiaoyou smiled.

The woman on stage seemed to be playing some video, causing a commotion below.

Xu Xiaoyou was not interested in watching this, lowering her head and thinking about her own matters.

Upon seeing this, Aphra opened her mouth wanting to say something but didn’t know how to begin.

Wasn’t she rude in the elevator earlier? Running away with her head down like that.

She should apologize to Senior Xu Nian. Clearly, Senior Xu Nian is so gentle, how could she think of him as a bad person?

The people from the Security Department were all so strong; Senior Xu Nian was surely transferred here for technical reasons, like her teacher, who works in mechanical prosthetics research.

It must be like this!

Thinking so, the girl seriously looked up, but when she saw the scene on the big screen, the light that just appeared in her eyes went out again.

Xu Xiaoyou noticed that lots of glances suddenly fell upon her, and she looked up, puzzled.

The screen showed a dim room, with the overhead incandescent light flickering constantly. A brawny figure was tied to a chair, struggling endlessly, as if sensing some overwhelming terror approaching.

A figure at this moment emerged from the shadows, taking a pair of pliers handed over from someone beside them.

Under the incandescent light, the young man’s eyes appeared sunken, his face thin, and his dark circles heavy, giving an impression of insubstantiality.

Wearing a white shirt, with a suit draped over his shoulders, his thin body appeared loose and slouchy.

His lips slightly curved, his face stained with fresh blood.

The young man approached the struggling brawny figure, and suddenly stabbed a small knife in the man’s palm.

"Mm! Mm..." Feeling the stimulus, the brawny man’s body trembled violently for a moment, leaving only fear in his heart.

The brawny man felt a hand placed on his head, gently stroking.

"Hey..."

A slow, deep voice sounded, very faint, like a terminally ill patient.

"Mr. Chen, you should know that paying one’s debts is perfectly justified, right?"

The brawny man kept nodding.

"No, you don’t know."

"Ah!"

The brawny man felt his index fingernail being clipped and pulled out, the pinched pain almost made him faint.

Cold sweat poured out, and only now was the cloth over his eyes removed. Upon seeing the young man’s appearance, he shook his head, an adult, yet tears welled in his eyes.

The young man’s figure was a blurred reflection in his pupils, a sinister look, like a pale devil.

"If you knew, you wouldn’t have gambled away your last money at the casino yesterday."

"To call you scum would really insult the word scum; sending your wife and daughter to the Moon Store just to get some gambling capital. Truly beyond saving."

"Spare me... spare me..." the man wailed.

"Spare you? Hahaha..." the young man laughed, the gun in his hand against his own forehead, "Please, if we spare you, who will spare me?"

"I’m in a hard situation too, I’m just a debt collector, so many people are watching me. Who knows, tomorrow someone might send three Cleaners to take me out."

The young man smiled, "Don’t you agree?"

Another fingernail was pulled out, the intense pain almost driving the man insane, eyes glaring wide, with heavy breathing like a raging bull.

He howled madly, standing up and breaking free from his restraints, rushing towards the young man.

The chairs in the room and such were knocked over in disarray.

In the brief struggle, the young man couldn’t dodge in time, and was rammed against the wall by the man, with the dull sound suggesting a hard hit. Just as the man’s fist was about to land on the young man’s face, several figures in animal masks emerged, pulling the man away and pinning him to the ground in no time.

"Madman, Xu Nian, you’re a fucking madman! Do you know how many evil deeds you’ve done, do you think you’ll have a good end? No one will spare you!"

The man roared exhausted on the ground, until gunshots rang out, and his eyes gradually filled with scarlet.

Everyone in the room froze, and the young man just shook his head in frustration, seemingly not yet recovered from the previous impact. He looked at the others in the room, putting away his gun.

"Why are you all standing there, quickly search for anything of value on him. Though given his usual bad habits, there’s probably nothing valuable. Just send him to the Fresh Meat Restaurant as a piglet."

"Oh, by the way, stop recording, you’re ruining my reputation."

At the end of the video, the young man’s hand reached for the camera.

The video ended and no one spoke for a long time.

The whole room was silent.

Xu Xiaoyou was too.