The information broker sighed. "Your caution is bordering on paranoia. It is good that you are cautious, but you don't need to go to this level of caution with me."
"See, I hope we can cooperate in the future. For that, I have tried to keep our relationship safe and respectful. I haven't tried to investigate you or spy on you at all."
The lie came easily without batting an eye. Kelvin didn't buy it at all. He wrote in his phone and said, "What is this whole thing about?"
The man put his arm to his chest and said, "Let's start with Introductions. I am Pauli, but my friends and enemies call me Spider."
Kelvin asked, "Why? A spider is not an ant. Spiders aren't even insects."
Pauli replied, "They call me Spider because I have a large network of sources of information and because I am always listening. Now what is your name?"
Kelvin's phone replied on his behalf, "You can me, Riptide."
Pauli clapped. "That's good to know. Now Riptide, we are here because of the mission I put up. As I said before, that mission was a test. It was a test meant to determine the worth of prospective members of my cabal."
"I put up that mission for 500,000 dollars to fish for targets that are currently too weak to actually succeed in killing me, lack money, and have not been scooped up by a cabal yet. In short, I needed raw, untapped talent."
"Many people have taken my mission for many reasons. Clearly, all of them have failed in killing me. Most of them failed to escape after failing, and very few managed to escape. You are one of the few that managed to escape despite facing two of the most difficult obstacles I could think of."
"I know you might be unhappy about the fact that this ordeal has put you in a lot of danger and trouble. I believe it is understandable for you to be unhappy or angry. For that, I am sorry."
"I want you to know that I didn't intend to kill you. My test was to see your through worth. It was to separate the rabble from the gold."
"I selected Zain to test you because you once managed to tear down a reinforced wall in order to escape from Red Dream. I thought your claws were sharp enough to threaten him but not enough to kill him."
"The test ought to have ended if you could actually threaten him, so I was unhappy to find out that you ganged up on him to kill him. That's why I had you go through another dangerous test."
"Now that that has ended, I hope we can put it behind us and start a future of coorperation together. What do you say?"
Kelvin replied with his phone, "I was paid. You don't owe me anything."
Pauli smiled. "I like that attitude. That's good. Let's move on to my proposal."
"Like I said, I am part of a cabal. We are the intermediate between a gang and a league. We are not as large, open, and loose as a league. But we are not as close knitted as a gang. We are larger than gangs and have far larger reaches too."
Kelvin knew this. He had heard about cabals. He knew the hierarchy. Gangs became cabals, and cabals eventually became leagues. It was like the difference in the relationship between nuclear family, extended family, and family friends.
He also knew that the size of the three didn't necessarily adhere to the norms. Some leagues can be as small as gangs, and some gangs can be as large as cabals. The Patriarch's gang was an example of a gang that was large enough to rival some leagues.
But he wasn't going to quibble about these details with Pauli. Instead, he listened attentively to what he had to say while making sure the guards were not making any suspicious movements.
It was Wrath that was doing most of that. It had already caught many suspicious actions from Pauli himself. But Kelvin behaved as if they hadn't noticed anything.
Pauli continued spinning his tale, "You have passed the test, so I want you to join my cabal. You have a lot to gain if you do. There are two main advantages that you will gain. One is short-term while the other is long term."
"The long term goal is related to the foreign battlefield. You might not have heard about it since you are an amateur, and it is something that was just put in place recently. But you are sure to find out about it if you decide to go to the professional league and successfully advance to it."
"If you enter the professional league and decide to also participate in the foreign battlefield, you can participate together with my cabal. We will work together to survive. We have a lot of resources, information, and assistance that we can render to help you survive."
"You don't know exactly what we are capable of, but just think about the kind of help you will get if you have someone like me and Zain as your teammates. At least you know that I am not easy to kill, and I have a lot of talented people in my cabal like you. We definitely won't drag you down."
"The long-term benefit might not interest you at all if you decide to remain in the amateur league. Fortunately, there is the short term benefit. That benefit is the information network I have at my disposal."
"I won't be vague about what I can do for you, but let me start by pointing out why you are. You are here because you took the bait I put on the league. Maybe you have encountered other problems with missions through the league part from my bait and the issue with Red Dream or not; I'll tell you now that it was not a coincidence."