Blood Nemesis-Chapter 109: Problems Root

August 18, months after the gate-break incident.

In a dark, empty forest, blood flowed like it had a mind of its own, taking the shape of a slithering serpent. The dim moonlight shone on the terrain below, lighting up the body of the terrifying blood serpent drilling into the ground.

Nearby, a similar-looking blood giant could be seen gazing at the ground where the serpent was digging.

’A little more.’ Oliver thought.

The forest was filled with mutant trees that would voraciously devour everything they could get their roots into. So, he didn’t have to dig deep.

’That’s enough.’

Once the pit was satisfactorily big and deep, he cancelled the control over the blood serpent connected to his body. Immediately, the blood was sucked back, filling his blood sac which now could hold about 40,000 litres of blood.

’Now, I should bury it.’

Oliver turned to glance back at the dead body lying nearby. It was not a human, though it looked humanoid. It was a fully fused demon wearing human skin.

"Demon brother, you shouldn’t have come into my city."

His gnarly voice, muffled by the blood armour he was wearing, spoke. However, there was no one nearby to hear him. The demon had already died a few hours ago and was in the early stages of decomposition.

"...And you shouldn’t have messed with my friend," Oliver smirked and threw the body of the demon into the pit he just dug.

The pit was only a meter deep. But he didn’t care about it. The body would decompose into nothing in a few days.

Once he completed the job, he calmly sneaked back to the city wall. The towering city wall of the Dragon City, protecting the entire area, might have been majestic and sturdy, but it was nothing in front of Oliver, who had a knack for sneaking in. The patrolling soldiers nor the heroes who were posted near it could stop when he wanted to leave or enter.

Soon, he entered the city through the waterways, swimming through the underwater tunnels that supplied water to the entire city.

Then he went to a place with less surveillance and cancelled the blood armour around his body, sucking it right back into him.

’If I can do this, there will also be other people. It’s a bummer that I would have to report the defence exploit to the authorities.’

Oliver thought and took out a burner phone.

He swiftly typed in the way he overcame the city’s defence and sent it to their official website. Although only people with superpowers who could remain underwater for an extended period of time could emulate what he did, he didn’t want the loophole to remain.

After all, you never know when the damned demons would attack the city again.

*Yawn*

Oliver rubbed his sleepy eyes and returned home after completing his mission. He had already eliminated the demon vanguard that was targeting Root and his family. Although they were embroiled in the unseen undercurrents of the changing world right now, this will buy him some time.

’Now, the bastard will know that even people supporting him can go missing or suddenly die.’

The demon that Oliver just buried was someone who had infiltrated a subsidiary of Trinity Tech and used their influence to target Dr Sathyamoorthi and his research.

Dr Sathyamoorthi was Root’s father, who worked for S.K. Research, the telecommunication technology research company. Currently, Dr Sathyamoorthi has left the company due to some kind of conflict that emerged between the current CEO, Siddhartha of S.K. Research.

However, Siddhartha somehow knew about the rapid progression of Sathyamoorthi’s research after he left the company, and was about to sue and target him to get his hands on it. Obviously, his motivation was money and power. And the one who was supporting him was the demon Oliver, buried in a pit.

Siddhartha was the bastard Oliver mentioned.

’Let’s see what they do next.’

Oliver was prepared for everything that was about to happen next. He smiled, looking at the street lights passing by him as he ran through the open road.

It was 4 am.

The cold morning breeze blasted against his face as he ran against it.

’It’s time to make my grand appearance.’ He thought, remembering what had happened to Root and his family.

Like Oliver, they were tied up in a demon’s ploy and fell into an inescapable pit of death and regret.

He couldn’t allow the tragedy to repeat again. So, Oliver decided to extend a helping hand.

—

At home.

"Son, do you have work today?" Oliver’s mother, Maya, asked when she saw him dressed in nice clothes.

Oliver was wearing a nice business suit that made him look like a professional. Although it couldn’t entirely cover up the unruly aura of him, it tamed it to an extent.

"Hm..." Oliver nodded. "Something like that." He replied while adjusting his collar.

"What does that even mean?" Maya gave him a sidelong glance.

His dubious reply didn’t put her heart at ease..

After her son came back from the military, he had been doing a lot of things. At times, making her wonder if he was sane. Hence, she was a little worried when he gave an avoidant answer.

Oliver recognised it and decided to clarify the situation, "It’s Sunday. I don’t have work today. But I do have a business meeting."

"Hm? Investing in something stupid like your father’s mushroom farm?"

"Mom! Don’t call it stupid. We are about to reap the benefits of it. Although the first batch was ruined because of a contaminated strain falling into our inoculation medium, this time it will be different. I am pretty sure it will create the fruiting body in a day or two. Then, we will become millionaires."

Although Oliver was already a millionaire, he didn’t speak about it to his parents. So, he was still living with the pretense that he was a nobody.

Not just nobody. But a bare minimum hero who wants to go to the Hero Academy. That’s where his life was currently.

"Okay, whatever you say." Maya brought breakfast, some eggs, mana beast meat, and bread in front of Oliver.

"Thanks, Mom."

"Yeah. Yeah. Eat it before you go."

"Okay."

—-

For the past few months, Oliver had kept himself busy. With the legal money the government gave him for the mana beast material, he invested iy in his father’s mushroom farm while also using the rest to invest in stock markets.

Despite the failure to hire an investment manager to take care of his money, he was able to grow his stock portfolio. Though he began with just ten million creds, he now had about fifteen million in his bank account. It was a considerable amount of money for anyone.

"I need to secure the QCM synchronisation technology," Oliver muttered and walked out of his house.

He had hired a nice car to drive him to Roots House today. He was going to meet them and talk about investing in their technology.

"Maybe, I should recruit Root into my guild."

Oliver had planned to invest through his guild, the one and only Nemesis Guild he created randomly.

’If I can hire both the son and the father, my life would be friggin ’easy.’

He walked out gleefully and got into the car. The black high-end sedan of his quickly moved towards his destination.

The images of the inner city flashed through his window. A while later, he even came across the area where the fish market once stood.

The gate that opened there was stabilized by the government. So, he could only see large military installations that barricaded the area. He couldn’t directly see the gate.

The car passed by the area and quickly reached the residential area on the other side of the inner city.

The suburban homes, much better than the one he was living in, lined both sides of the road. He curiously glanced at them.

’I could have bought one if I really wanted to. But it won’t feel like home.’

Although the houses were pretty and big, they looked too similar to one another, without any personality. Maybe the people who used to live here might have been used to it. But it didn’t match him or his family.

’Anyway, if I am going to buy one. It should be one of those mansions that the A or S rankers buy. There would be plenty of space attached to it, and it would generally be in a safer neighbourhood. I should wait a year or so.’

Today, he was going to invest in something that could make him an infinite amount of money. So, he should dream bigger.

After a few minutes, the car slowly came to a stop near one of the houses. The driver exited first and checked whether they were in the right place before opening the door.

"Thank you." Oliver nodded and lifted his head to gaze at the house before him.

The house was bigger than the rest of the houses nearby. It was painted in a combination of grey, blue, and white paints. Without wasting time, he walked up to the house and rang the bell.