He dangled the contract in the man’s face as he said, "It says so right here. Look at it. The contract says that you’re to tell me how to upgrade the Telekinesis Metac to rank 2 and give me the materials to do so."
The man looked at the contract in his hands and snorted before saying, "You can’t cheat me, young man. That’s not a contract. That’s just a piece of paper."
He even became angry as he said, "If you think you can get some random piece of paper, write whatever you want on it and use it to fleece me, then you’re dead wrong. Change your ways, young man."
This time, Loki laughed. As he laughed, he said, "I see. My bad then."
Then he turned to leave.
But before he could leave, the man smiled and said, "If you are actually sincere about making a deal with me, I have a real contract here with me that we can use."
Loki couldn’t believe what he just heard. But he was curious, so he turned back to the man and said, "How am I supposed to believe you this time around?"
Facing Loki’s rebuke and distrust, the man didn’t feel any shame at all. He presented the new contract to Loki and explained patiently, saying, "Touch it and see. If it is a real contract, you will be able to put your internal energy into it. That’s because a real contract is a Metac, not an ordinary piece of paper."
Loki received the piece of paper and tested it. A simple test revealed that he could activate the paper like a Metac.
So he performed the same test on the previous contract. What he discovered was that it was truly a piece of paper. This made his face as black as the bottom of a pot.
The man saw his face, but ignored it and said righteously, "Only when the contract is a Metac can it be confirmed to be real. So what you have in your hands can’t deceive me."
There were other things that he was hiding about contracts, but he felt that he didn’t need to tell Loki those things. So he kept quiet about the fact that a piece of paper, like the one in Loki’s hands, can also be turned into a real contract.
He also didn’t mention the fact that he was the one who used the piece of paper to cheat Loki, not the other way around. He continued to act like the innocent party as he took back the contract from Loki and began writing down the terms of their agreement.
As he wrote, he didn’t wait for Loki to correct him. He wrote down the exact terms in the previous contract from his memory while humming a little tune to himself.
Meanwhile, Loki’s eyes had frosted over. There was only frigid ice, death, and darkness in his eyes. It was as if his experience had killed the life in his eyes.
He watched the man’s actions with a quiet and cool countenance. Anyone who saw him wouldn’t suspect that he had just been cheated twice.
In fact, Loki expects to be cheated again. This is because he believes that if something happens once, it is a coincidence, but when it occurs twice in a row, it is intentional.
He expects the man to cheat him with this new contract and won’t be surprised when it happens, but he is still willing to go through with the deal if only to learn. After all, experience is the best teacher.
As he watched the man work, he thought to himself, "He is much different from what I know of him. I didn’t think he was capable of doing something like this. Especially not after we shared the same love for mechs."
"It goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. He was probably being pleasant to me back then in order to fleece me."
But then he remembered something. So he thought to himself, "Then again, he doesn’t know me. To him, I am just someone who came up to him and asked for a deal. He doesn’t know me because he can’t remember our previous encounters. The version of him that knows me is dead. I guess this makes me the true living being in the world."
This is the reason why he became calmer the angrier he became. It was because deep down, he realized that he was superior and would eventually have the last laugh.
Meanwhile, the man continued to work diligently. After the man was done with the new contract, Loki took it and gave it a once-over.
He said to the man, "So your name is Tommy. I’ll remember it."
Then he used the still bleeding cut on his thumb to press his fingerprint on the contract. Tommy did the same.
When Loki received the contract to keep as proof, he gave Tommy the 3,000 energy stones. As he did so, Loki said, "Just tell me if you’re going to honor the deal or not. Let’s skip the foreplay and go straight to how you will fuck me over. Don’t waste my time. It is the least you can do."
Tommy received the money and smiled a radiant smile. Then he patted his chest with pride and said, "What do you mean by that? Of course, I’ll honor our deal. I, Tommy, never cheat people."
Loki didn’t believe him, so he remained unimpressed as he stared at Tommy.
Tommy saw that he wasn’t going to get any reaction out of Loki, so he said, "So boring."
Then he said, "Just go and pray. When you do that long enough, your Telekinesis Metac will be upgraded to rank 2. As for the materials you need to upgrade it, I have some here."
After speaking, he picked up a piece of stone from his table and threw it at Loki. Then he returned to working on the workbench.
Loki caught the stone instinctively. He looked at it closely before saying, "This is not what I paid for."