NOVEL WEB Chapter 68: Problem
Nick stood there in the dimly lit hallway, staring at the closed door for a few more seconds, as if it might suddenly swing open.
He waited and waited for a few more moments, but the doorbell didn't ring again, nor did the two thugs outside try to pound it down, to his relief.
Although he felt he could take them on, since he could detect the first guy's strength when he blocked the door with his foot. In that moment, Nick knew that his strength was quite a bit higher than the man's — and he could probably crush the guy's foot if he used all his strength to slam the door shut with it jammed, but held back in the moment.
Since they were only there to intimidate him, he wasn't going to go so far as to antagonise their boss without first getting a full picture of the story.
A few seconds of silence passed, followed by the sounds of shuffling and an annoyed grunt as the two men probably picked themselves up off the floor.
Then… footsteps.
They were leaving.
At least for now.
Nick exhaled slowly and leaned his forehead against the wall, suppressing the urge to groan out of annoyance.
"First Dido, then Beast Slayer, and now some dollar store gangsters trying to run rackets on my front step?" he muttered under his breath.
"What's next? A talking dog claiming I owe him lunch money from years back?"
Still, he knew better than to treat this like a closed matter.
If there was one thing he'd learned — other than how to not die on a daily basis in the Beast Domain — it was that people like that never took 'no' for an answer.
They took 'no' for a challenge, a reason to come back and annoy him some more.
Nick's mind stirred. He reached out to his comm and looked through his contacts for a specific number.
Ring… Ring…
Ri—
"Yo, Nick! Sup my man, how you doing?" Kai's familiar voice greeted him from the other end of the call.
Nick calmed down instinctively at the sound of his friend's voice, as no matter the situation, the guy had still gone out of his way to help him in an intense moment of need.
"Kai, I need to ask you something… Just where the hell did you move us to!?" Though, he didn't make an effort to hide his annoyance with the whole situation.
There was a brief pause on the line before Kai's voice came back, tinged with confusion.
"Huh? What do you mean, where? Did you forget the address or somethin—"
Nick rubbed his temple, pacing slowly through the apartment as his irritation started to bubble once again.
"Not that you… Huff, whatever, forget that part. Two guys just showed up at my door demanding protection money."
Another pause ensued. Longer this time.
"…What?" Kai's voice had lost all of its usual joking, casual tone after hearing that.
"You're messing with me, right?"
"I wish," Nick said half jokingly. "They showed up out of the blue and started talking about how this whole block belongs to some gangster called 'Whitesteel' or something like that. Said everyone here has to pay up if we want to stay 'protected.'"
Nick knew this reason was just a sham.
What reason could they possibly need to be protected for!? There wasn't any danger of beasts or criminals in this area since it was more central and away from the rural areas.
Rather, the only reason they'd need protection, was because Whitesteel and his goons would be the one's they need protection from!
It was the typical strategy small time gangsters and criminals liked to use, demand money from innocent victims, and if they refuse to pay up, attack them or forcefully take it anyway!
It served as both a deterrent and a reason for other unfortunate victims to play along and pay them, they played the role of villain and the hero…
"Whitesteel…?" Kai repeated, still in disbelief. "I don't recall ever hearing a name like that, he's probably the leader of some street level trash gang. To even dare operating in my family's area… the audacity!"
Nick stopped pacing and inwardly felt relieved at Kai's equally concerned and annoyed tone.
A small part of him thought that even though it sounded ridiculous, that he might be in on it.
"Well, either way, I doubt they are just another ignorant gang of street rats like you said. They seem to know someone on the inside, since not only did they make their way inside the building unhindered, but they also knew that someone had recently moved into my apartment. They've apparently tried the door a couple times before in the past two weeks."
Kai was silent again, and when he spoke next, his tone was full of anger.
"Those fuckers! I knew something felt off when I looked at the rent amounts last month… There was a different property manager listed to your area than the others. Didn't think much of it at the time, figured it was just the normal internal reshuffling big corporations like my dad's go through all the time…"
"Looks like your 'reshuffle' opened the door for some bad apples." Nick muttered.
"This is bullshit!" Kai snapped.
"This place was supposed to be clean, my old man deals with all the property developments, and trust me, he wouldn't let scum like that operate on his turf if he knew!"
Nick raised an eyebrow.
"So what now?"
Kai didn't hesitate with his answer.
"I'm gonna go talk to my old man. This isn't just a favour to you, so you don't have to worry about that. If this Whitesteel and his goons are sniffing around out properties and extorting our tenants, that's gonna make my dad flip."
He hung the call up there, seeming already dead set on finding his father to inform him of this situation.
Nick looked at his comm for a second, then sighed and tossed it onto the couch.
It eased some pressure of his shoulders, but he doubted things would end with just that…