Kelvin discarded the corpses of the first two by dismembering them and feeding the pieces to incursion zombies. Then he carried the three boxes and returned to the black market in hopes that they would accept the slave and return his money. It was the only chance of getting back his 20 million dollars.
Along the way, the two of them didn't talk to each other. Their mood was heavy and dark, just like the night. In fact, the night was better off because of all the glowing crystals created by the incursion.
There was at least some light in the dark. But there was only anger, frustration, and indignation between them.
Kelvin was angry, but he wasn't angry at Wrath for what she did to him. It is, as she said, she had no responsibility to warn him that he might be wasting his time and 20 million dollars on a null.
He can admit that she has a point about that. So the person he is truly angry with is Icon. Even though he is not angry with her, it doesn't mean that he is going to elevate their relationship and trust her.
He just can't trust anyone. He has been raised to believe that trust is for the weak and relying on others is for sheep. If he is to be truly fit to survive, he must be able to do so on his own, or he will become impotent without assistance.
He believes that to be true even though he hates the man who taught him that. It is just as he told Wrath, he hates his father for enslaving him and putting him through pain, but he doesn't hate the lessons he was forced to learn.
He understands that it was possible that Wrath wouldn't have tried to force him if she knew about his upbringing. But he is not going to tell her the truth about his upbringing because he doesn't trust her.
Eventually, he returned to the black market and met with a bot. He didn't know if it was the same bot he spoke with before or if it was another one, but he didn't point out that they were actually the same, and he didn't care enough about that for the moment.
Instead, he went straight to the point about his intentions to return the man. He explained that he had made a mistake in what he wanted.
The bot listened attentively to his explanation and said, "Very well, honored guest. We have a lenient return policy, so the product will be accepted. We will just have to make sure that it is intact and has not been tampered with in anyway. Then the product will have to be resealed and repackaged."
Thia made him sign in relief, but the bot wasn't done. It continued, "This will cost you a service fee of 10% of the value of the product. We will return the 90% to you if we find the product to be intact. If we don't, then you will gain nothing from us, and you won't get the product back."
Then it asked, "Are you sure you still want to return the product, honored guest?"
Kelvin sighed and nodded. "Yeah. You can check it."
"The authentication process will take a few days. Please come back in a week to receive the result of our investigation. In the meantime, hold on to this code and issue it to any bot to claim your return after a week."
Kelvin left with the code and with his emotions only mildly appeased. He felt like saying some harsh words to Wrath for making him waste his time and potentially all of the 20 million dollars he spent on the Null. But he was too angry to talk to her.
He was also determined not to be the first one to break in their war of silence. He returned home in silence, slept in silence, and woke up in silence. He almost made the mistake of greeting her in the morning, but he remembered her little stunt and caught himself early.
He worked out in silence, showered in more silence, and ate in silence too. The silence almost became unbearable for him when he began planning his infiltration of the Black Mantis gang. He wanted to ask for her opinion many times, but he soldiered through.
He bore the absence of her jokes, informative interjections, and harmless digs at him like a champ. He didn't even look at her at all during the whole week it took him to prepare for the infiltration.
It was tough, but the good news was that he was beginning to return to the kind of person he was before he met Wrath. He didn't smile anymore. He didn't talk with others. He viewed everyone and the whole world as his enemies.
He became an emotionless robot that worked out, ate, slept, planned how to kill, and killed people efficiently. While he made some mistakes without her help, he managed to do everything on his own and prove that he didn't need her.
A week passed, during which he came up with the plan to infiltrate the gang as a guard. Unlike before, when he infiltrated the Purple Drag Gang, guards were allowed to use guns and enter the fortress with weapons. This meant that there would be gunfire if he messed up.
Also, unlike the Purple Drag gang, the members of the Black Mantis gang didn't get high on their product. Black Mantis doesn't use his ability on them at all. They were more like high-quality bodyguards at a high-paying job. They are always sober and vigilant. This increased the difficulty of his mission further.
They were so vigilant that the second in command of the gang and head of security was a lady who could sense when others were lying or telling the truth. She always screened every customer that would approach Black Mantis for their intentions. And sometimes she screened the gang members too.
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A/N: How do you suggest he bypass the lie detector if he encounters her?