?Vernon also furrowed his brows.
"That's not a fake," Vernon said with quite a lot of annoyance. "Wyntor gave me this just a couple of days after you bought 30% of Dark Dream."
"But it's fake," Nick interjected. "That's not the contract I signed, and that's also not my signature."
Vernon's annoyance rose.
What the fuck was Nick talking about?!
This was the contract!
First, his son had died, and now, somebody was accusing him of falsifying contracts!
Today was truly not his day.
"Fine," Vernon said as he put the contract away again. "If we go to get your copy of the contract, will you finally accept and sell your shares?"
Nick stood up. "Let's go and get it."
The next moment, Nick and Vernon started to walk out of Kugelblitz.
They walked past Wyntor's corpse and the guards without stopping.
The only thing that Vernon did was sigh after throwing a glance at the corpse.
Since Vernon was an Expert, he had no issues keeping up with Nick while he was jumping down from the top end of the middle layer.
Less than a minute later, the two of them landed on the lower layer and ran towards the Outer City.
Then, they entered Dark Dream.
After they went into Nick's office, Nick searched through his documents for a while before he found the contract.
He read through it, and a satisfied expression appeared on his face before he slammed the contract onto the table.
"That's the contract!"
"That's the clause!" he shouted, pointing at the death clause.
"And that's my signature!"
Nick pointed at the bottom of the contract.
Vernon's eyes widened in shock before he started to read through the contract very carefully.
Then, he glared at Nick.
"Was this your plan?" Vernon asked.
"What?" Nick asked.
"You had this issue with my son, but you knew that you couldn't kill him since he is the only reason why Dark Dream still exists. So-"
"Don't!" Nick shouted aggressively. "Do NOT accuse me of killing Wyntor!"
"I did not kill Wyntor, and I did not fake this contract! You're the one with the fake contract!"
Nick's eyes narrowed.
"And I'm starting to think that you're the one that planned all of this," he said with a threatening tone.
A deep well of rage rose inside Vernon, but he kept it suppressed.
"You faked your contract," Nick said. "And then, you killed Wyntor to get all of Dark Dream for free!"
"You thought that you could just walk all over me since I am only a Veteran."
"Silence!" Vernon shouted in anger. "This is a baseless accusation! The fact that you insinuate that I would kill my own son for a couple of credits is insulting and disrespectful!"
"Insulting and disrespectful?" Nick repeated with a snort. "For a father, you got over your son's death really quick. Barely ten minutes passed before you were talking about money again!"
BANG!
Nick's table broke under Vernon's force. "Now, I'm certain! You instigated all of this! You killed my son!"
"No, you killed Wyntor!" Nick shouted back, glaring back into Vernon's eyes.
They glared at each other for some seconds.
And then, Vernon's rage vanished as an icy coldness came over his face.
"It doesn't matter," he said calmly. "An upstart from the Dregs might not know this, but the city also has a copy of all important contracts for situations exactly like this."
"We'll just go to the city, demand the contract, and when we inevitably see my contract, your little scheme will crumble."
Vernon looked at Nick.
Surprisingly, Nick looked quite calm.
"That's what I should tell you. Sure, let's go to the city."
Then, Nick walked past Vernon, who looked at Nick with suspicion.
Nick seemed very good at putting on a false front of confidence.
But Vernon wouldn't fall for it.
Most likely, Nick would try to escape, and Vernon wouldn't let him.
The two of them left Dark Dream again and entered the Inner City.
Vernon kept a close eye on Nick all the time.
Eventually, the two of them reached the central administration building on the lower layer.
When the clerks saw Vernon's uniform, they immediately prioritized him and took the two of them into a room.
Vernon told them why they were there, and the clerks left quickly to get the contract.
Contracts regarding the ownership of Manufacturing businesses were not stored in such an insecure location.
These kinds of important contracts were held in a secure place in the upper layer of the Inner City.
Nick and Vernon just stayed in the room.
Vernon kept an eye on Nick since he was sure that he was getting desperate.
Nearly half an hour of silence passed.
During these 30 minutes, the two of them kept throwing aggressive glances at each other.
Eventually, the door opened, and a big group of people entered.
Vernon looked at the seven people who entered with annoyance. "Why are all of you here? This is just about a contract."
Two from the group looked with suspicion at four others from the group, who seemed just as suspicious of the two from the group.
The seventh and last person was the only one that seemed neutral.
"We just want to make sure that everything is going according to policy," one of them said.
Even though all of them wore the city guard's uniforms, there were still a couple of small signs that showed their identities.
Four of them worked for Kugelblitz, and two of them worked for Anatomy.
There were two Specialists, two Experts, and two Veterans.
The last person was the clerk from earlier, who was carrying the contract.
"Good," Vernon said before motioning for the clerk to approach.
The clerk walked to the table and revealed the contract.
The guards looked suspiciously at each other, ready to attack.
Nick and Vernon looked at the contract.
A moment later, Vernon's face became white as his eyes widened.
Meanwhile, a victorious smirk appeared on Nick's face.