This time, he didn't want any further misunderstandings. Just to be safe, he told Picollo as clearly as possible that the products needed to be free.

Not a single credit could be charged for them. He also received a message from Picollo right away.

"Something seems to have gone wrong. Everyone has agreed to take the units for free, except for a few people. The most prominent among them appears to be a lady named Fiona from the Lionel Family."

Picollo had pulled every trick in the book to manipulate the buyers, from having them bid against one another to offering more valuable items. But Fiona didn't care about the subscription cost.

For her, it wasn't worth the hassle to negotiate. She wanted the items right away. There was another reason she didn't want to take the second deal.

She had much sharper instincts after dealing with people who were always trying to scheme against her. She had to face schemes even from her own family and fight to make a standing of her own.

Picollo's little trick didn't escape her eyes. Although she couldn't be absolutely sure that this was what Leo had planned, she still didn't want to go through with the popular choice.

After all, there was only one person who was beyond her understanding. It was Leo, the man who seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

He was an unknown. Even after extensive research, they couldn't find anything extraordinary about that orphan.

They had even used the Lionel Family's influence to dig through Leo's background, yet everything came out as ordinary.

In fact, it was so ordinary that it felt fake. A man who couldn't even afford food and was applying for slime-cleaning jobs had become the savior of Hero Tower, solving the biggest problem on earth?

In just a few more months, he had brought Alpha Corp to such great heights that they were creating inventions that even she was intrigued by.

That was still somewhat understandable, but what truly made Leo appear formidable was that she didn't know how he had started sabotaging her.

Other than Leo's investment in those companies, she couldn't find any evidence of him being involved.

All evidence pointed only toward a series of unfortunate coincidences with supply chains, human errors, fraud by higher-ups, and so on. None of that had anything to do with Leo.

Even more strange was that most of the companies she had pulled her money from received a deal from Alpha Corp to become a supplier at a discount right after, when their value was at its lowest.

In her mind, it looked like it was all part of an elaborate scheme, which made her consider Leo a formidable enemy.

"I don't know what you're planning, but this time I won't go with your plan. If it's a war with the Lionel Family that you want, then I will give you this war."

There was a cruel smile on Fiona's lips as she accepted the subscription deal without the slightest hesitation.

"Is she stupid?" Leo exclaimed as he read the message from Picollo. "Which psychopath rejects free things and wants to pay for them instead?"

"Just reject her offer," Leo instructed Picollo. "Make any excuse that you must! But you must not take any credit from anyone! That's final!"

Here he was trying to lose as much money as possible, and there were idiots like Fiona lining up to pay him? Just what was with this luck? Where was it when he needed it most?

Leo placed the glass slab aside and relaxed in the chair, resting his legs on the armrest.

"Have you gone completely nuts, Fiona?" Leo mumbled, still finding it absurd that she was refusing to take free things.

"Can you still pay us if we just refuse to accept credits for the items? Watch how we reject any payment and give you the items for free. Come and become a part of my loss-making scheme by taking free things!"

He slowly closed his eyes.

"What did the boss say?" Meanwhile, on Earth, Yelina asked Picollo, who was looking at his screen.

"The boss told us to reject her offer to buy our units," Picollo raised his head and mumbled.

"Reject her offer? You mean just refuse to sell? How will we explain it?" Yelina was at a loss for words.

Although this wasn't part of the plan, there was really no loss in taking the credits for the subscription. Moreover, it was true that this option was granted in their terms, so they didn't even have a good reason to reject her.

"It looks like the boss still hasn't forgotten it."

"Forgotten what?"

"I don't know how true it is, but I did hear a few things. The boss had apparently approached a few banks for a loan, but everyone refused to give him one. There were rumors that the Lionel Family was manipulating things from the shadows."

"What?! How could they do such things?"

"That's right. If I'm not wrong, the boss doesn't want to help the Lionels, no matter how profitable it is."

"Even I don't want to give her anything now. But how will we explain it? It's still the Lionel Family, after all."

"Don't worry. I have an idea." Picollo smiled and returned to the stage. "We will just use the same trick that she used to mess with the boss... Bureaucracy."

He stood on the stage and activated the mic before saying, "I forgot to mention one thing. Subscription paperwork is very complicated since it's a long term deal with significant risks for us."

"Our lawyers need to go through extensive paperwork to check your financial stability to ensure that we aren't going to suffer losses in the future."

"That's why we will be giving priority to those who selected the second option. As for those who selected the first option, we will be sending our lawyers to you."

"We would also need to check your financial situation to be sure that you are able to pay for our products on a monthly basis. So, we hope you will cooperate in the process of verifying your validity for this 'loan' verification."

As Picollo talked, his eyes didn't look at Fiona even once.

There were no signs that he was specially targeting her, but almost everyone in the finance industry understood that the Lionel Family was being punished.

At this point, it didn't look like the company was just rejecting their offer; they were just delaying it and dragging it out.

The looks of complaint that were meant for Picollo shifted to the Lionel Family, especially from those who were trying to aim for the subscription deal.

They were being punished because of the Lionel Family.

"Do you also need to check the credentials and repayment capacity of the Lionel Family?" Fiona asked, the corners of her lips twitching. "Are you saying that you're worried about us defaulting?"

"I'm sorry. We have to go through the established procedure. We can't be biased toward any applicant over the others," Picollo answered.

"We hope you will be understanding. We are always looking to work with the Lionel Family, once you're ready with the paperwork we need."

"Thank you for your attention..."

After he finished speaking, he got off the stage. The event finally came to an end, and final drinks were served to the guests.

While most of the guests were celebrating the fact that they had taken the second option, meaning they could get the units earlier than others once their bidding was successful; the ones who had followed Fiona looked on with ugly expressions.

They tried to approach the staff to change their selection to the second option as well.

This was especially the case since they weren't sure how many units were available. It was a first-come, first-served deal.

If they waited for approval on the subscription deal, the company might run out of stock for a product that was clearly going to be popular.

The staff was eager to help them transition to the second deal and left them to make a bid.

Most of them didn't even wait, worried about missing out.

Alpha Corp had already received a bid from everyone, most of which were in the form of personal shares of companies that couldn't even be bought on the open market.

"Leo Vanderlen... I will never forget this." Fiona stood up, rejecting the drink.

She turned around and started walking away. Meanwhile, her brother chased after her.

"Sister, how about we also take the second opti-"

He was in the middle of his sentence when Fiona glared at him. The young man immediately went silent.

"I've played by the rules for far too long. But if they want to take advantage of the rules, then I hope they don't blame me when I also break them."

She stepped out of the venue, followed by the guards who were waiting for her outside.

The Lionel Family's entourage returned to the ship. The ship didn't stay behind any longer; it left in silence.

On the way back, Fiona returned to her room where she was supposed to be alone. There, she called someone.

"It's me. It's time for you to get to work."

"The target?" a voice came from the other side.

"Alpha Labs and Alpha Clothings!" Fiona responded, her voice as cold as a block of ice.

"Bring everything they have, including all their items and research materials! Kill everyone who stands in your way! I want to see those places burn!"

"Hoh? To think that someone managed to make you so angry. Fine. I will be done..." The voice chuckled before the anonymous call ended.

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