Soulless Players

"Do you think you can escape from me?" Loen smirked. He looked down at Steve kneeling on the floor in delight.

His fingers moved up and down extremely fast as if he were controlling puppet strings; his feet glued near the back door as his eyes pierced through Steve in ecstasy.

On the other hand, Steve was frozen on the floor, staring at another figure of Loen.

Without hesitation, he quickly used his ability. Turning his eyes to gold, he saw through Loen the light that should have existed from him.

'It's him.' Steve murmured. He was indeed right. The Loen who was entangling Raven on the other side wasn't the original but possibly a product of magic.

Steve quickly observed Loen, trying to find anything amiss from him. It was then he perceived a ring on his hands glowing brightly.

He had never seen an item shining as brightly as Loen's ring. Even the diamonds and other precious stones couldn't compete with how bright it shone.

Steve switched off his ability, his eyes returning to their original color. He looked straight into Loen's eyes and threw a question he had been meaning to ask since earlier.

"Why? Why are you doing this to me?" His voice cracked as he asked. His nose was red as he waited for an answer.

Loen's fingers stopped moving. He slightly frowned and was silent for a moment. After a short rest, his fingers started to move but this time, it was faster than before.

Hearing the question, Loen smiled gracefully at Steve. His smile was as if he were a parent looking at his dense child playing around.

"Do you really not know?" Loen's eyes flickered in greed, "After all of this you still don't know?"

Loen clicked his tongue and said, "Well let me reiterate all this to you…"

Loen's left-hand fingers finally stopped and lay down, leaving his right hand raised in a crouched palm mid-air. While he was relieved at this rest, his face still had a slight hint of anger and frustration on it.

All of this happened in a couple of seconds. Shortly, Loen confronted Steve with his whole focus.

"First of all, Do you really expect your small family to hide your involvement regarding your business?"

Loen stared deeply at the air, seemingly trying to recall something,

"At five years old, your intellect brought a huge change in the business world. Hmmm, Franchising is what you called it, isn't it?"

"Then after the plan proved to be a success, at six, you suggested another business scheme of selling ready-to-wear clothes to commoners, thus decreasing the need for tailoring."

"Lastly, at seven and a half, all of a sudden, your family contacted several nobles to build a building for commercial use. Hmm… I think you called it a Mall."

Loen stopped and once again gazed at Steve and said, "You see, your ideas were too out of the norm that even our organization couldn't help but notice them."

Steve trembled and bowed his head, lost in his thoughts. He remembered that his negative karma started when he involved himself in their family business.

It was on this day that he finally knew why. 'I caught their attention,' he murmured.

"You are too abnormal… and peculiar," Loen continued. "We tried to dig your secrets and observe your lifestyle without interfering with your life."

Upon hearing this, Steve's ears perked in curiosity. If what Loen said was the truth, why did he move now?

Loen sensed Steve's curiosity but still continued on recounting, "However, after years of observation, you particularly shown nothing interesting aside from your wit in conducting business."

"Perhaps you're just a talent that appears once in a century!" Loen said in an exaggerated and bragging tone. He then reverted his voice, but now in a teasing and playful tone, "Is what we all thought…"

"You know we were about to move your name out from the list and stop minding about you… But how come you're sticking your nose to another highly confidential person on our list?"

Steve's sweat gushed like a waterfall. He knew where he had gone wrong.

Loen then threw a bomb that made Steve's mind completely blank,

"Pray do tell me, how come you know about Philip whose existence is hidden by the government?"

Steve's mistake was his obsession. He finally knew why he arrived in this tricky position.

'I am so obsessed with Philip that I momentarily forgot that my enemies weren't only the players but also the inhabitants of this world.' Steve lamented internally.

He was too focused on the game that he forgot that the people he deemed as NPCs were also included in the people he must be careful with.

'I looked down on them too much.' Although his mistake was primarily because his his obsession, his attitude of merely looking at the residents of this world as fakes and pawns was what brought him to his demise.

Steve regretted his mindset. If only he didn't see himself as highly compared to those who have no chance of becoming real, this would not have happened to him.

But alas, his regret arrived too late.

"You see, both of you are so peculiar that we couldn't help but be intrigued."

"We have lots of questions, you know. Why are you adamant about finding Philip's location? What's your connection? Why are you both smarter than a child of your age?"

Loen paused and shook his head, "No no no. Let's start first with the thing I'm most curious about." His forehead wrinkled in annoyance when he remembered the rude Raven earlier.

"Stephen Evans, What are your secrets? What can you see when your eyes are gazing at me?"

Hearing the same question he asked at the first-class cabin, Steve's mind reverted to Raven and wished they weren't separated by the mud wall.

But since Steve had already anticipated Loen asking this, his mind was calmer than ever.

"Why now?" Steve asked with a trembling voice yet his eyes remained firm. "Why are you attacking me now?"

This was what Steve was more curious about. He had been looking for Philip for years. If they were observing him all this time, why now? Why did they not touch him and wait until now?

"Well, because we needed evidence," Loen answered unhurriedly, not minding Steve throwing a question.

"You see our organization only moved towards people with out-worldly powers. We are prohibited from touching or even communicating about this with normal people."

Loen giggled and revealed, "Hehehe. I was only testing you by sending my copy and delivering an unharmful poison earlier. But never would I've thought that you're too clumsy to run away from them."

"After showing me a lovely performance earlier, it was already enough for me to move you…"

It was then Steve realized that he was too obvious in using his power. He was too negligent in managing his expression and actions.

'This day is filled with lots of mistakes…' Steve judged. He knew he had no way of escaping from Loen.

But even though he was trapped, he still asked a question relating to his men, "But what would happen to mercenaries? They were just normal people…"

Although their meeting was short, Steve couldn't help but be concerned about them, especially Raven who made him feel secure.

"Don't worry about them. I just put them to sleep and didn't really hurt them." Loen answered in aggravation. His action was too rash, he was sure that the organization would penalize him today.

Loen stiffened as if recalled something, and his lazy and unbothered attitude twisted 180 degrees.

His face quickly turned horrendous and scary, and the atmosphere became colder and uneasy.

He then gazed at Steve and asked him irritably, "Stop asking questions."

"Now, you tell me! Where is the other child hiding?" Loen screamed as if releasing all the frustration he was keeping deep inside him.

"Whh-aat??" Steve replied in confusion. He didn't know why Loen suddenly became angry.

"PHILIP! THAT DARN CHILD!" Loen roared. His shout was so loud that even the train shook slightly.

The wall behind Steve also slightly disintegrated. Loen's full control over his power was diminishing due to his unstable emotions.

"I don't know!" Steve quickly answered. He felt that if he didn't, Loen would strike him dead.

Hearing this, Loen felt more irritated. But after noticing that he was losing his control over the mud wall, he forced himself to calm down.

He raised his left hand and moved his fingers up and down. Shortly, the wall regained its sturdiness.

Although Loen was calmer than before, his eyes were still red, looking at Steve with greedier eyes.

Then he said, "After I'm done with you, I'll make sure to catch that kid and personally dissect his body!"

Steve was shocked upon hearing Loen's clear anger towards Philip. 'Philip was just a coward. How did he obtain Loen's wrath?'

Because Steve felt his end was near, he became more brazen and fearless in his asking,

"What did he do?"

Loen raged and answered with uncontrolled fury,

"HE KILLED EMILE!"