"Follow . We can discuss the specifics sowhere more private," the senior disciple said, looking around.
It seed that he was afraid of soone else finding about him accepting a bribe, which was understandable. Determining that there was no derits to following him, I complied.
We entered what seed to be a public bathroom, split between male and female. We went in the male side, obviously.
There was no one else there at the mont, making it the perfect place to execute this deal.
"So? How much are you going to pay ?" he asked, folding his arms. "My help doesn't co cheap, you know. You're lucky I'm even offering you it."
"Naturally, I understand," I replied, going along with his words to make this deal flow smoother. "I appreciate what you're doing for , senior brother. Because of this I will pay you 100 gold for your trouble."
I internally cringed at every word that was coming out of my mouth, but it was a necessary sacrifice to help this deal go through the way I wanted it to. Sotis, bowing down was the best strategy. Showering people like this with praise also worked, since they lacked self-confidence and needed soone else to confirm their superiority complex.
But then, the senior disciple scoffed. "Only 100? I'm about to spend several hours showing you around this place, wasting ti I could've otherwise spent diligently cultivating. Do you know how much ti is worth? It's priceless."
Unfortunately, I did not quite get the effect I wanted, it seems. Still, that was fine. I was expecting the first ti to fail that's why I purposely only offered 100.
"Sorry what about 250?" I asked anxiously. "That's half of all I have"
Of course, this was a blatant lie. I had nearly 400,000 gold in my inventory, but he didn't need to know that this was all part of my plan. Start low, then steadily increase the price as he asks for it, while putting on an act of increasing nervousness. That was the way to go in order to pay him the minimum possible while still ensuring the deal still sealed successfully.
"Seriously? You're that poor?" the senior disciple snorted irritatedly. "Tch, if you're this poor, why are you trying to bribe soone?"
"P-Please," I stuttered, practically begging him. "500. That's the highest I can go, I have no more. I'm from a poor family, and my parents have both passed away already, rendering an orphan I got these 500 coins by working tirelessly at a farm, day after day. After months of suffering, I finally managed to wait until this sect began recruiting again. Help out, senior brother I want to be first at sothing, for once in my life even if I have to cheat to do it."
"T-Tch" he gritted his teeth, looking at like I was so sort of insect. "A-Alright, fine, fine. I don't want to hear your sad past. 500 coins? Bet. Hand them over."
Deep down, I grinned. What an expertly-woven, beautiful piece of utter bullshit I just ca up with on the spot. Truly, a magnificent work of art, able to deceive even the cleverest of people.
I ekly took out a pouch filled with 500 gold out of my pocket and handed it to the senior disciple obediently. Naturally, I had prepared this before reaching out to him. Thankfully, the final price and what I had in mind were identical in other words, I had controlled this conversation and exchange perfectly.
He weighed the pouch a little and peeked inside, muttering, "Well this should be enough to buy five tickets for the Tower of Hearth"
"Tower of Hearth? What's that?" I asked, curious.
"Nothing you need to be worrying about, newbie," he chuckled, stuffing the pouch of coins into his ring, sohow.
I was confused at how the pouch suddenly shrinked and flew into the gem of the ring, but seeing as how this guy wasn't planning on any of my questions, I decided to refrain from asking.
"Alright," he said once he was finished. "I don't think anyone overheard our conversation, which is good but you know what to do, yeah?"
"Don't tell anyone this ever happened? Don't worry, I got it. On the surface, it will just be you kindly helping out a new disciple."
He smirked. "Exactly. Glad to see you understand without having to say anything."
He then took out a silver token of so sort from the inside of his green cloak and showed it to . On the token was a word written in Chinese:
'Outer.'
"You can call Long Yaqing. I am an outer disciple of the sect, second year. Now, follow ."
Stuffing the token back into his pocket
How easily people give in to bribery it's truly sickening. Still, I wasn't complaining. This worked in my favor, though I was slightly disappointed in the ethics of the disciples here. Still, it was just one person. I didn't have a big enough sample to determine whether or not the remainder of the population was like him as well hopefully not.
Bribery was a double-edged sword I could use it on soone to have them kill a person, but another can just as easily bribe the sa person to kill instead.
Long Yaqing probably saw as so sort of weakling, soone easy to pick on, especially because of the Deceiver set I obtained from the Vault of Deception. That's why he hinted at bribery when I spoke to him. Of course, my intentions just happened to match his, resulting in a smooth deal being ford.
Unfortunately for him, however without even realizing it himself, he had just beco another one of my pawns.
"You can go out first, Senior Brother Long," I said with a smile on my face. "I need to actually use the restroom real quick."
He sighed. "Yeah, yeah just don't make wait too long, you hear ?"
I nodded in return as he left.
Of course, I didn't actually need to piss. There were two reasons why I asked him to go out first:
One, to avoid rousing suspicion from passerby, seeing two guys exiting out of the bathroom at the exact sa ti;
And two to check whether or not the recording I discretely made during our conversation really worked.
Heading into a stall, I opened up my System and went to my Inventory. There, I spotted the item I was looking for:
[Na: Recording #001]
[Type: Audio File]
[Duration: 4:53]
[Description: A recording made with the 'Blackmailer' skill.]
Indeed the Blackmailer skill. This had been one of the skills I purchased with so of the 12 AP I received from reaching Level 35 just yesterday. It was of the Knight skill tree, which surprised a bit. I rember, at the ti, I was surprised to find this out, since I didn't know Knights, chivalrous and honorable, would stoop so low as to use blackmail, but hey you learned sothing new everyday.
Smirking, I tapped on the item. A new pop-up appeared, giving further details and options to customize.
[Date recorded: 10/31/2051]
[Ti recorded: 1:14 PM]
-
[ - Options - ]
[Rena]
[Delete]
[Effects]
I tapped on effects. A new nu opened.
[Voice Changer]
[Cut/Trim]
[Censorship]
I clicked on the voice changer option, and was t with a prompt.
[Scanning file]
After a few seconds, the text changed:
[Two voices detected. Select one you wish to apply the voice changer effect on.]
[1. Igarashi Kaze (You)]
[2. Long Yaqing]
Without any hesitation, I clicked on my own na.
[Applying effects]
[Effect complete.]
I then exited back to the options nu and clicked on rena.
[Please type in the new na of the file here:]
[ _________ ]
A holographic keyboard appeared below the main window of my System, and I quickly typed on it:
[Blackmail Evidence: Long Yaqing.]
I then pressed save to apply the changes, then listened to the recording. After confirming it had recorded the whole conversation and my voice was successfully altered, I exited out of my System and left the stall.
*****
After I ca out of the bathroom, Long Yaqing was a short distance away. Although he didn't see , I noticed him, but I purposely went the other direction and looped around for a while before coming back and greeting him at last.
"You sure took a long ass ti," he snorted after seeing , with quite the dissatisfied expression on his face.
I laughed awkwardly. "Ahaha yeah, I think I ate too much just now, at the welco ceremony"
"Heh. Happens to the best of us," he chuckled lightly, completely clueless that in a few days, his journey at this sect would be coming to an end at least, that's what I assud the punishnt for accepting bribes were.
"Alright, you ready now?" he asked after sweeping over my body with his eyes, up and down.
I nodded. "Take the lead, Senior Brother Long."
The reason I decided to record that conversation in the bathroom to use as blackmail against him was simply as an experint nothing more. I could threaten him with it if I ever need him again in the future, but for now, I didn't see a point in actually using it. It's not like these recordings expired, so I could keep it for as long as I wanted to.
That said if an opportunity arises for example, if there was a reward for reporting other disciples of breaking the rules I would sell him out without a second thought.
Sorry, Long Yaqing. Just bla it on your bad luck for running into .
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