Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

"These people went against you personally, Nel. They MUST be found! You understand?"

Tristan wasn't joking about kneecaps. Not entirely, at least. Someone did a despicable thing to Tristan's friend, and they had to be held responsible. Properly.

They had to learn their lesson.

However, Nel stood his ground.

"I won't look for them, and neither should you, Tristan. Hey, you said it yourself—this article is total trash! If this is the worst they could come up with, I don't have to care about them! You don't expect me to chase after every hater online, do you?"

"This isn't just any hater. Either people responsible found your family, or they ARE your family. The worst they can do is much worse than an article."

Nel just shook his head, dismissing Tristan's argument.

"No way! Who do you think I am? They aren't going to chase after me in person, and I'm not going to chase after them with a lawsuit! Anyway, I'm going to talk to Mr. Writfield about this, he'll offer something more… appropriate."

He pulled out his phone in a deliberate move to look away from Tristan.

Tristan's already prominent frown deepened.

He could probably convince Nel if he really put himself into it. He could hypnotize him, even, and Nel will be none the wiser.

But Tristan felt like he had to draw at least SOME line about what he was willing and unwilling to do. Manipulating his friend was not something he felt like doing.

No, it was the opposite. The very thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. Being manipulated by someone you trusted…

Tristan didn't want to become like his brother.

It's not like Tristan had many friends. So far, Nel was the only person who admired Tristan so genuinely, while still being on the same level with him.

'But this situation can still easily be much more serious than Nel thinks. Even ordinary people can have psycho stalkers that start with innocent love notes and end stabbing them with a knife. At the very least, I have to make sure this isn't one of those cases.'

And perhaps after finding out all the details, Nel will change his mind about retaliation by himself.

***

Since Nel didn't want to cooperate on this, Tristan was left to find all the information himself. Thankfully for him, but not for Nel, this was incredibly easy.

Nel was performing with his real name, and he had told Tristan the name of the town he was from before. All Tristan had to do was to open the phone telephone directory, and there they were.

Angela and Frederic Mayar.

That evening, Tristan wrote down the address from the directory and went to his second job as a criminal mid-boss.

In parallel with making a project together with Nel, Tristan had been settling more and more in his new position.

Cuatro Angulos had fully withdrawn from their former territory, and King Lion Gang had descended there, scaring away smaller predators. Tristan wasn't directly involved with the latter, but he did a lot of work organizing things.

In recent days, thanks to all the filming and recording, his Pop-star skills and charisma had improved by another bit. Besides that, he had left an impression on all people in the production crew, also earning his points, and all of them went into Tristan's governing skill.

With the help of that, Tristan controlled the distribution of drugs from King Lion Gang's stash to street dealers.

To help both the takeover of Cuatro Angulos' territory, and selling the drugs quicker, Tristan put some of his subordinates to find the dealers who worked with Cuatro Angulos before, and sell the drugs to them. And King Lion Gang had its own familiar dealers as well.

The cash was flowing nicely, and Leon Clavon was kept happy.

Besides that, King Lion Gang's people were gradually uncovering stashes and important documents left by escaping Cuatro Angulos' people, finding more valuables.

Usually, Tristan would be fully focused on sorting through them and finding the best use for them, but today he had a personal task.

He couldn't visit Nel's parents himself—they lived several hours of driving away from the city and it'd be too suspicious. So instead, Tristan picked one of his subordinates for this job.

This man, Kevin, was the one Pierce and then Tristan often used for more subtle tasks. Unlike many other gangsters, Kevin didn't actually look like a thug, or even a fancy thug. He just looked like a finance student he had been before he decided that breaking and entering was less stressful, but just as profitable, than a 9-5 job.

Inside the office that belonged to Pierce earlier, Tristan now was sitting at the dead man's table. He didn't have time to change a lot about this place, but the first thing he did since moving there was to put a couple of tasteful rock album covers on the walls.

The place was too sterile and creepy without them. Even tasteless lion decorations were better.

Tristan gave Kevin, who was sitting in the guest seat, a printout of all the information.

"Go to this address, and talk to the couple who lives there, Kevin. I want to find out everything about the recent interview they did, and I want a recording of it. Why, to whom, how much of it was truth. But no violence! It would be best if they think that the inquiry was entirely innocent. Perhaps you can pretend to be Nelson Mayar's curious fan, or his manager.

Threaten them with a lawsuit for slander… Well, I trust you can come up with something."

Kevin nodded.

"I will, Mr. Hayes. But… may I ask, why…" He made a vague gesture in the air. "How does this even relate to our organization?"

In response, Tristan stared Kevin dead in the eyes. His voice resonated in the very bones of the other man.

"Didn't you hear about the cat? Just do it and take your payment."

In the thrall of that voice and these eyes, even people with stronger willpower could've only bowed.

"Of course, Mr. Hayes. I apologize."

Tristan smiled as Kevin left his office, but the smile was fleeting.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

For now, he could only wait for the results of Kevin's investigation, and who knew what it would unearth.