The goblin pushed his round glasses up the bridge of his nose, the lenses reflecting the light of the bathroom stall.

He tapped a few more keys, frowned, and then tapped them again with the aggression of a woodpecker holding a grudge.

On his screen, a digital auction counter was ticking upward at a rapid speed. It wasn't just a battle to buy shares. It was like a massive event was taking place between the two sides.

[Current Bid: 27,000,000 Credits per share]

"Twenty-seven million?" Kaelus grimaced. He should've been happy that the value of his company was skyrocketing, but something didn't feel right.

[New Bid: 28,000,000 Credits per share]

"The price just jumped again," the goblin said. "Twenty-eight million. No, twenty-nine! Whoever this person is, they are legally insane. They aren't even waiting for the counter-bid. They're bidding against themselves!"

Leo massaged his temples. The vein in his forehead was throbbing so hard it felt like it had its own heartbeat.

"So," Leo said, his voice dangerously calm. "You're telling me that while I'm hiding in a toilet trying to buy my own company for a reasonable price, some lunatic is turning it into the most expensive asset on the planet?"

"Essentially, yes." The goblin stopped spamming the keys. "You're broke. Relatively speaking. You can't even bid for the available shares. It's a good thing that you kept the majority with yourselves, or you would have been kicked out of your own company."

Leo stared at the toilet door. He felt a sudden, profound urge to kick it off its hinges.

"Can you find out who it is," Leo said with clenched teeth. "I don't care if you have to use illegal means. I want a name."

"I told you, I can't track the exact ID," the goblin shrugged, hopping off the chair. "But I did manage to intercept the user handle attached to the account."

"What is it?"

"The_Dark_Shadow_of_Justice."

Leo stared blankly. "That sounds like something a chuunibyou teenager would come up with."

"There is also a bio attached to the profile," the goblin added, checking the publicly available profile of the buyer. "It says, 'I dwell in the night so the light can shine. Hurt him, and you face the abyss.'"

Leo's jaw dropped. The sheer cringe of the sentence made his skin crawl.

"Is there nothing we can do to make it so that only I can buy the shares I made available?" Leo asked.

"You can cancel the bidding, but at this point, it's too late. You will probably be dragged to courts and sued into oblivion. Though you do have another way to get those one percent shares."

"What way?" Leo frowned, wondering if his little manager had some great idea.

"Bring your ears closer." The Goblin climbed the other table and gestured for Leo to come closer.

Without thinking much, Leo brought his ears closer.

The Goblin looked left and right, to ensure that no one was listening.

He brought his lips closer and whispered, "Arrange a shareholders meeting in the future. Only the two of you will be there."

"At that meeting, beat him up. Break his legs, torture him if you have to." He suggested. "Just force him to hand over the measly amount of shares that he has bought."

Leo pulled his head back and looked at his manager weirdly. He was saying that it was bad to be taken to court for cancelling the bidding. But he was literally suggesting he take the criminal route of breaking his shareholder's legs?

"I can't do that. It's fine. I can just make the best of this situation. Even though the situation didn't go as planned, it did somehow succeed in a sense, right?"

Leo stood up from the toilet seat and patted his clothes. "No matter the reason, the company is overvalued. And the so-called shareholder only holds minority shares. He can't stop my decisions."

"Even if he has a problem, he can only go along with it. The rest of the plan still stays the same... I will take a loan on this hyped up value, and gain double the reward after blowing it away. In one fell swoop, I will become the wealthiest person on earth."

Leo opened the door, and stepped out. Meanwhile, the little manager turned off his computer.

His figure started disappearing as he looked back at Leo. The corner of his lips crept up a little, but Leo wasn't there to see it.

His figure soon disappeared, leaving only a light cackle behind.

....

Leo returned to the meeting room, where the other Managers were waiting for him. He hadn't even stepped into the room and he could already hear the cheers and shocked gasps from the other side of the door.

The moment he entered the room, everyone rushed to him to congratulate him. Leo also played along, even though he was still wondering just who was this buyer that managed to outbid the Hero Tower?

The current bid per share had reached thirty million credits. It meant he had effectively gained 1.5 billion credits for giving away only fifty out of his five thousand shares.

Unfortunately, this was the money that belonged to his company. It could only be used for investment purposes, and didn't count as his personal wealth.

With so much money before him, he couldn't even take one credit for his personal use. He could only use the credits in official capacity, for expenses that could be justified.

"It's about time we go back. Thank you for all the help."

With the bidding coming to a close, Leo bid everyone farewell and left. His mood wasn't as good as before, but it wasn't too bad either.

He just didn't say anything on the way back to the ship where Timmy was waiting for him. Leo watched Timmy's ship, which was still releasing smoke.

"Let's get going." Leo entered the ship, followed by Kaelus who was secretly grinning in the back.

....

Back in a luxurious villa, Reven was still rubbing his aching back. Even though he had healed his body with magic, the trauma of having a ship fall on him still made him uncomfortable.

"I wonder why His Highness asked me to invest in this company, at any cost. But fortunately I didn't fail him," Reven mumbled, sighting.

"Fortunately, we robbed quite a few planets on our way to earth, so we had some funds that couldn't be linked to the Necropolis."

....

Timmy brought Leo back to his villa, but once again, the landing was a little rough.

Reven, who had been watching through the window flinched, watching the ship crash once again.

"Don't fly this ship anymore. I don't think you'll be able to return alive at this rate. Stay here with me. I'll send some more investment to Glitzy. If they don't waste it again, they should be able to buy a few decent ships for you."

Leo dragged Timmy out of the ship, preventing him from going back to patch the reactor.

He dragged him inside the villa, leaving a crashed ship outside to act like a decoration.

Timmy tried to resist, but he couldn't even pull Leo back. He was like a wooden stick that was dragged inside the villa.

With that, the short trip came to an end. Kaelus and Timmy started living in Leo's villa for the time being. However, both of them rarely saw Leo's face when he didn't leave his room.

They were even told to not enter the room without his permission, so they could only wonder what Leo was doing for the last few days.

None of them knew that Leo wasn't even in the villa anymore. He had left a long time ago, jumping out the window.

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