Chapter 347 - 224: What the Fuck!!
The moment the [Chattering Court Jester’s Skull] left his inventory, the rubies in its eye sockets began to flash wildly in the dim office space.
Its upper and lower jawbones clattered like a typewriter, displaying several lines of bold text in Li Wei’s vision.
[Heh heh heh! Look at this den reeking of money! The elders of the Goblin Stone Masons always love to hide their filthy secrets at the very top of their towers!]
Then it stopped moving, and the red light in its eyes suddenly turned gold.
The [Chattering Court Jester’s Skull] has activated [Scan].
[Ah! I smell the foul stench of phantom Gold Coins and fermenting lies!]
As it spoke, it floated off in a certain direction.
Li Wei followed it around a huge desk and into a separate room.
Following the [Jester’s Skull]’s guidance, Li Wei came to a stop before a huge abstract oil painting inside the room, squinting as he looked around.
There was no glimmer of infrared scanners. It looked like this was the chairman’s office, not the kind of private place where one would install surveillance cameras and leave incriminating evidence against oneself.
Feeling reassured, Li Wei boldly lifted the huge abstract oil painting and discovered that there was indeed something hidden behind it.
A small safe was resting quietly inside.
Li Wei sized it up. The door of the small safe was about a finger thick, so it wasn’t a particularly high-end commercial model.
Li Wei looked at his hands, took a deep breath, and gripped the safe’s steel handle and the crack along its edge.
He lowered his stance, muscles tensing, as he attempted to use brute physical force to destroy the hinges.
"GROAN—"
Under Li Wei’s power, which was three to four times beyond the human limit, the seam of the safe door warped slightly. However, it seemed his current strength was still not enough to get to the contents inside.
’Just a little more,’ he thought.
’But it’s a good thing I haven’t allocated my points yet.’
With a thought, he called up his system panel. He had just saved up 1.1 free attribute points.
Without the slightest hesitation, Li Wei poured all 1.1 attribute points into [Strength].
Adding so many points at once, Li Wei felt as if his very bones emitted a heart-pounding crack. His body suddenly swelled slightly, nearly tearing his clothes, before immediately returning to its original size.
[Strength 6.0] -> [Strength 7.1]
This was no longer a simple linear increase. For Li Wei’s current stats, every 0.1 point increase boosted his strength by 5% over the previous value.
Originally, his peak strength was 1,687 kilograms, 3.3 times the human limit.
But now, having boosted his Strength from 6.0 to 7.1 in one go, he estimated his peak strength had reached 2,658 kilograms, which was more than five times the limit of human strength.
In other words, in a burst of power, he could now flip a 2-ton car completely upside down!
Li Wei steadied his breathing, reached out again, and gripped the edge of the safe once more.
"Open!"
The muscles in Li Wei’s arms suddenly bulged as he unleashed his power.
Along with a low growl from his throat, the edge of the safe, which had only been slightly warped before, now emitted the cringe-worthy sound of tearing metal.
The finger-thick steel door began to deform irreversibly. The normally indestructible steel was now like malleable clay in Li Wei’s hands, forcibly being pulled outward.
The immense kinetic energy was converted into thermal energy in an instant, causing the violently deforming metal hinges and the door’s edge to heat up rapidly.
However, to Li Wei’s now-transformed "Silver Body," this level of heat was not even worth mentioning.
His hands, pressed against the high-temperature metal, didn’t even feel a trace of scorching pain. All he felt from the rough, searing steel surface was an insignificant warmth.
’Don’t make me laugh. I’m a Knight who’s bathed in Dragon Blood. I have fire resistance.’
"KRAK—BANG!"
Although Li Wei’s current strength wasn’t enough to let him tear the finger-thick steel apart like origami, his immense power was sufficient to snap and pull apart the connections of the lock and hinges.
The heavy safe door swung open, and the spoils within were laid bare before Li Wei’s eyes.
Several neatly strapped stacks of hundred-dollar USD bills, a few passports from different countries, a Glock pistol giving off a cold glint, and, at the very bottom, several thick, slightly worn ledgers.
Li Wei ignored the loosely bundled old USD bills and the Glock pistol on top, directly pulling out the ledgers from the bottom.
By the light pollution from distant Manhattan, he began to flip through them rapidly.
Boosted by his 4.0 Spirit, he scanned through the ledgers, taking in ten lines at a glance.
The more he read, the more astonished he became. The company, Onyx United Building, had been established for over ten years and had shady dealings with various powerful parties.
It was precisely by relying on local protection that they were able to amass a fortune. Evidence of Commissioner Smith’s activities filled nearly every page of the ledgers.
Flipping back a few pages, Li Wei found the section on the Manhattan Art Center project.
Sure enough, just as Beatrice Mellon had said, Charles Mellon had taken significant kickbacks on this project. He had betrayed his own family, cheating the Mellon Family out of at least a nine-figure sum in USD. This was why the Manhattan Art Center, which he led the construction of, failed to meet its original design specifications.
Li Wei’s mind raced as he read.
If he were to separate and leak the accounts related to the Manhattan Art Center right now, it would indeed land Charles Mellon in deep trouble.
But Charles Mellon wasn’t a complete idiot. A moment’s thought would logically lead him to suspect Elizabeth and Li Wei.
After all, at least publicly, they were the ones in the most direct conflict with Charlie and had the motive to choke off his cash flow.
Although Li Wei was confident he had left no traces, it wouldn’t be the optimal solution for them if Charles Mellon decided to go berserk.
The best method was to let Onyx United Building land itself in major trouble, which would in turn implicate the Manhattan Art Center. This would make Charles Mellon direct all his fury at the company, which seemed to be the optimal solution.
His eyes scanned rapidly across the dense lines of transactions, searching for the key to turning the situation.
Soon, he locked onto the perfect "scapegoat."
A few pages in the middle of the ledgers recorded a well-established building material supplier from Italy. Two years ago, this company had been trapped by Onyx’s fraudulent dual contracts and a series of breach-of-contract penalties, losing everything. In the end, not only did they not receive a single cent for their goods, but they were also saddled with associated debts and forced to withdraw dismally from the United States of America’s market.
"I’ll be using your name, then," Li Wei said, closing the ledgers with satisfaction. "The truth doesn’t matter. As long as Onyx gets into trouble, others will follow."
He rolled the thick ledgers into a cylinder and stuffed them inside his trench coat.
All he had to do was send the documents to the FBI and major news outlets in the name of this European company that had been driven to desperation, then add fuel to the fire by igniting the safety concerns at the Manhattan Art Center. The rest would be enough to give Charles Mellon a massive headache.
Meanwhile, Li Wei and Elizabeth could remain perfectly hidden in the shadows, and could even logically receive financial support from Richard Mellon in the process.
And, following the principle that a thief never leaves empty-handed, Li Wei also stuffed the hundred thousand or so USD and the pistol into a bag and took it all with him.
Judging by the look of the USD, they were definitely non-sequential, untraceable bills. The same went for the pistol; its serial number had been filed off. Li Wei could spend the money and fire the gun without any worries.
’Chairman of Onyx United Building, you’ve done a fine job,’ Li Wei thought with a sigh. ’This kind of work should really be left to professional criminals.’
’One word: professional.’
"This does remind me, though," Li Wei muttered, his gaze falling on the safe door, which now bore his handprints. "I have to wipe the fingerprints, too."
His Silver Body meant he didn’t have to worry about leaving behind skin cells or hair. As long as he wiped the fingerprints, the scene would be a perfect crime.
Carrying a bag full of money and an untraceable handgun, and with the ledgers tucked inside his coat, Li Wei went back the way he came, walking straight down the outer wall of the building.
When he reached the side door, Li Wei once again encountered the very fat Black security guard, who was dozing off in a room.
With [Vision Obscuration] active, Li Wei walked over to the dozing security guard, pulled out 500 USD in old bills, folded them into a wad, and stuffed it into his jacket pocket.
"This is your tip," Li Wei said silently. "Consider it severance pay from Onyx for getting fired."
He could imagine that after this incident, the night guard would definitely be fired for no good reason.
But he had received 500 USD from God as compensation, which was equivalent to almost a week’s take-home pay for him.
After finishing his business, he swaggered out of Onyx United Building and walked for about ten more minutes before returning to his car.
「Two hours later, at 9:30 in the morning.」
"Morning."
"Good morning, Mr. Blake. Here is your coffee."
"Mm. Are there any meetings scheduled for this morning, or is anyone looking for me?"
"None this morning, Mr. Blake. But you have lunch with a designer from Spain at noon."
Blake, the president of Onyx United Building, pushed open the door to his luxurious 17th-floor office as usual, holding a cup of coffee his secretary had personally brewed.
He had slept well in his Long Island villa last night, and with advance payments for several municipal projects coming in today, he was in a great mood.
However, the moment he pushed open the office door with a smile, he froze.
The huge abstract oil painting that hung opposite his desk was now dangling crookedly to one side, revealing the safe embedded in the wall.
The once-stuffed safe now held only a few lonely passports.
His hand went slack, and the coffee cup smashed onto the carpet. The brown liquid splashed onto his ankle, making him howl, "YEOOW!"
"Mr. Blake! What’s wrong?"
Hearing his cry of pain, the secretary outside immediately came rushing over on her high heels, about to push the door open.
"It’s nothing! Don’t come in!"
Blake roared hoarsely, like a wild boar whose tail had just been stepped on.
Ignoring the red welt swelling on his ankle from the scalding coffee, he scrambled toward the safe.
Startled by his sudden outburst of fury, the secretary outside shuddered and quickly pulled the door shut. She asked anxiously through the door, "Mr. Blake, are you all right? Do you need me to call security or the police?"
"No! I’ll handle it myself! No one comes in!" Blake roared at the door, gritting his teeth against the sharp pain in his ankle and the terror in his heart.
Hearing the secretary’s footsteps recede, Blake quickly looked inside the safe.
However, when he happened to see the safe door lying under his desk and what looked like several handprints gouged into it, he couldn’t help but cry out again in shock:
"Fuck! Wardafa!!!!"