Chapter 60: Stan Visor
"Now we are talking..."
Terrence clenched his fist tightly behind his back as he turned around and strode calmly back to the couch.
His eyes were filled with an unreadable nature—something the CEO couldn’t comprehend or gauge to what extent he actually held knowledge.
There was always the possibility that the teenager was merely bluffing, but Terrence had hit several critical key notes about what basically happened. It left the CEO wondering how on earth he was able to acquire that sensitive information in the first place.
"Do you even know who I am?" the CEO asked, his voice low.
Terrence nodded, raising his brows slightly. "Yep. You are the chairman of the Lovely Potion Merchant Group and the president of this company, the same Lovely Potion—its mother company. Mister Stan Visor, nice to meet you. I am Terrence... just Terrence."
A quiet snort escaped from Stan Visor’s lips as he strode to the side of the guest couch, sitting directly across from Terrence, who sat as comfortably as he could possibly be.
Stan clearly didn’t like what he was seeing, but he could only force himself to contain his disapproval, having no clear upper hand in this high-stakes conversation.
"You really do hate the Lee Family, don’t you?" Stan observed coldly.
"Not just the Lee Family," Terrence corrected smoothly. "All of its associates, too."
A sharp click of the tongue escaped Stan’s mouth, a bit annoyed by how utterly sarcastic Terrence was being.
"You are severely testing my patience, kid."
Terrence just casually shrugged as he shifted the position of his legs, crossing one lazily over the top of the other.
"I am proposing a deal in exchange for the news. Although, it involves new information that you don’t currently know."
Stan’s eyes narrowed with deep doubt over what he had just heard. No sensible businessman would blindly buy that. Unsolicited information coming from someone like him usually meant an ominous trap or a planned release of dangerous information.
"It is quite a surprise that you even know anything about that matter."
"So you confirm it then?" Terrence smiled with an uncertain, dangerous intent. "You confirm that you actually have the treasure and that you know its exact location, right?"
Stan’s eyes slowly widened as the sudden realization hit his mind like a physical blow.
’Shit... So he wasn’t even completely certain about that information!’ Stan’s blood ran cold before boiling with violent intent. ’I will kill this kid.’
Stan inhaled as slowly as he could and exhaled with forced, controlled composure. Terrence was becoming more of a massive annoyance that he wanted to murder at any given moment.
However, despite the fact that he could easily execute him right here, he still didn’t know who was backing the teenager from the shadows.
Terrence was even enjoying the moment, visibly smirking as he read Stan’s facial expressions as if he had been a master mind-gamer all along.
But Stan didn’t know that for sure. All he knew from previous reports was that Terrence was supposed to be immature, and the intelligence gathered on him was blurry since it was just basic, general information about his past.
However, with the way he was talking to him right now with such unwavering, terrifying confidence, Stan felt backed into a dead end. All he could do was hope that tricking Terrence into spilling his information first would actually work.
"Tell me," Stan leaned forward, "who is your backer?"
Terrence stared back at him with an expression that looked like he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. He blinked rapidly, looking genuinely confused by the question.
"Do you honestly think I will just lay that out for you? You have to follow my conditions first. Trying to make me shift my stance won’t work on me."
Stan gave a subtle nod.
’So, he is doing this purely out of deep hatred against the Lee Family,’ Stan analyzed carefully. ’Anything I say to sway his morals probably won’t work on him at all.’
Stan entered a brief mental trance that felt agonisingly long to him, though only a split second passed in reality.
’If I want to sway him, I need his personal weakness to use against him. And right now, the only thing I know he desperately wants to happen is the complete downfall of the Lee Family and their associates.’
Stan continued to analyze the situation in his head, digging through every piece of leverage he could possibly forge to sway Terrence in a short amount of time.
Surely, making Terrence believe he held the absolute advantage would naturally cause him to lower his guard, and Stan desperately wanted to exploit that exact weakness.
"How about this..." Stan began, his voice dropping into a smooth, calculated pitch. "You will tell me everything you know about the lost test subject and the location of the treasure. And in return, I will tell you the absolute truth about your mother’s death."
Terrence snapped inside his mind the exact instant he heard the sudden mention of his mother.
It was like a dark trigger that should have never been clicked, but with how confident Stan looked while saying it, Terrence couldn’t let his overflowing emotion slip onto his face.
Suppressing his sudden rage, easing his tense shoulders second by second, Terrence asked in a low tone, "Why does that matter? Do you think I don’t already know what happened during the monster breach at the outer sector a decade ago?"
’Right on the target!’ Stan thought, a dark wave of satisfaction surging through his chest.
"Well, if you aren’t interested in the truth, then maybe I won’t exchange any information with you after all," Stan smirked arrogantly. "To be completely honest, I am surprised by how much you have grown to be so cunning—just like your father was. But I think you and I both severely overestimated your actual capabilities today."
Terrence didn’t speak a word. He felt as if he were suddenly covered by an invisible, suffocating sheet, forcing him to halt his actions and thoughts.
There was a subtle kind of psychological manipulation laced deep within Stan’s words that he couldn’t quite explain—it felt like he was talking to a dangerous man who calculated every single word with extreme care.
"What do you even think you know about me..." Terrence muttered through a tight jaw.
’I don’t actually know anything real about you...’ Stan thought maliciously behind his calm facade. ’I just happen to know your dead parents far better than you ever did.’
Stan shook his head with an air of absolute authority.
"You have to spill your secrets first, and then I will think about whether or not I should tell you the real reason behind how your mother actually died."