Hell's Handbook

Chapter 125: The Boss’s Secret

The man glanced at Su Jin with a cheeky look in his eyes. “An enemy?”

“Nope.”

“Ah, then it must be a lover.”

“We’re business partners, there’s no need for you to be such a busybody,” muttered Su Jin as he rubbed his temples. This middle aged man looked like the serious, no-nonsense type. He didn’t expect him to be interested in such gossip.

The man laughed even more merrily when he saw Su Jin look like he was suffering from a headache. He put his cigar out and nodded. “I’ll try my best to investigate, but I can’t guarantee if I’d find anything. There are so many universes after all. There aren’t a lot of owners in each universe, but when you put everyone together, the number is astounding. It’s very hard for me to help you with just one name.”

Su Jin quickly took his phone out and showed the man a photo of Ye Yun. “Does having a photo make it easier?”

“Why didn’t you say you had a photo earlier?” The man rolled his eyes at Su Jin, then laughed again when he saw the photo. “Judging from the angle, you must have taken this photo secretly! I just knew it! If it’s not an enemy, it’s got to be a lover! Then again, that infatuated look on your face makes it obvious that it’s the latter.”

Su Jin tried his best not to jump up and slap the man across the face. “Let’s talk about the price. How much do you think is a suitable price for this information?”

“Hmm…it’s a bit difficult to name you a price right now, since I don’t know how much effort it will take for me to find out more about her. We can settle that a little later.” The man got up to leave, then suddenly stopped and turned back to look at Su Jin. “Besides exchanging items for information, we could exchange information for information. There’s a small team that’s garnered some attention recently, so if you can get information on them, you could use that in exchange for information on this young lady.”

“Oh? Which team is this?” asked Su Jin.

“It’s a team called Team Boning Knife,” said the man. Su Jin blinked in surprise and the man carried on, “They’ve completed a Level A Challenge perfectly, so everyone’s talking about them now. So it’d be great if you could get me some information. I want some basic information about each of the team members.”

“I…how did you know that this Team Boning Knife completed a Level A Challenge?” Su Jin did not expect anybody else to know about this.

“That’s because the noticeboard in Hell’s Bar has a golden notice on it. As long as you’re not blind or deaf, you’d see it,” said the man as if it was a normal thing around here. Su Jin quickly turned to look at the noticeboard and saw that a golden notice was indeed still plastered on it.

“How long will this thing be up there?” Su Jin’s head hurt just thinking about it. Getting a golden notice was something to be proud of, but now that he was a target of a dangerous syndicate, getting any form of additional attention was bad news.

The man paused to think, then said, “It’ll be there until they complete their next Challenge. I’ve got information on almost every high ranking team here, but I’ve never heard of this team before.”

Su Jin smiled awkwardly and was so relieved that he had only left his team’s emblem on the notice he put up the last time and had not left the team’s name. Otherwise, this man would have known who he was by now.

He then remembered that his team was now a Level C team, so he asked the man, “Can I ask you something? If a team moves from Level D to Level C, do they get more perks?”

“Level C? It’s been a long time since I bothered about such low ranking teams. I don’t think they get a lot more perks. They’ll have one more team member vacancy and…do you see that portal door over there? They’ll be able to go in there now,” said the man nonchalantly.

Su Jin looked at the door that the man was pointing at. It was the same door he had seen the last time but was denied access. After the man had left, he walked towards the door.

The faint colorful glow he saw the last time had disappeared, which seemed to be a sign that Su Jin was allowed entry. He walked in and was immediately surprised by what he saw on the other side. The two sides of the door looked identical.

It was the same bar on both sides, as if the portal door was a mirror. If not for the fact that Su Jin hadn’t drunk a single drop of alcohol all day, he would have thought he was just drunk and seeing things.

Su Jin took a look around and saw that the bar counter was still manned by that slightly balding barkeeper. He turned back to look at the side he had come from and saw that it was the same guy on that side too.

“Twins?” Su Jin was puzzled as he went to take a seat at the bar. The boss eyed him and laughed. “Are you very surprised?”

“I guess I am…are you two twins?” He wasn’t surprised that the boss could see through his thoughts, since this man was the boss of a place like Hell’s Bar. Even if someone told him this man was actually the lord of Hades himself, Su Jin wouldn’t even bat an eye.

“Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The man on the other side is also me.” The boss smiled and placed a drink in front of Su Jin. “Congratulations on your team’s promotion to the next level, this drink’s on me.”

“Thank you.” Su Jin was still puzzled by the situation and asked, “So…what’s going on? If you’re not twins, then is this some sort of cloning technique?”

“You could put it that way! I’ve got to talk to so many customers at the same time here. Did you think I’ve got so much time to stand here and talk to you all day?”

“Oh, oh, I’m sorry. I shan’t disturb you anymore,” said Su Jin with an awkward smile.

But the boss burst out laughing again. “You don’t have to be sorry. I really do have the time, actually.”

Su Jin felt like he was being trolled. The middle aged man earlier had already been annoying enough, and now he was faced with another.

“You could try guessing what’s going on. If you guess it right, I’ll give you a bottle from my prized collection,” said the boss.

“And how am I supposed to be able to guess?” Su Jin rolled his eyes at the boss.

The boss smiled and said, “Just give it a shot! You’re the team leader and brains of Team Boning Knife, the team that managed to complete a Level A Challenge with a perfect score!”

Su Jin raised an eyebrow. This boss really seemed to know everything. He broke into a smile and said, “Well, I’ll just give it a shot then.”

Su Jin thought through everything the boss had said earlier and slowly tapped his nose. Was this man a human, or just AI, or some sort of god like existence? It was impossible for one person to handle so many owners, since there was barely even enough time in a day to talk to everyone, plus he did not see the boss talk to any other owners at the same time either.

“Time!” It suddenly hit him. He didn’t have enough time in the real world because he was constrained by those laws, but time worked differently here. After experiencing the difference in time in the Handbook’s universe, the answer suddenly seemed very obvious.

“The bar counter is a space that’s similar to a Handbook Challenge, isn’t it?” Su Jin smiled as he went on, “You’re in a space where you can stretch time as long as you like. Perhaps only one second has passed in the world outside, but it’s an entire day inside here, so you have all the time in the world to slowly handle each owner’s needs and you can even go in and out of different bars.”

.

The boss was stunned for a while before giving Su Jin a pleased smile as he clapped for the young man. “You’re really good at this! You’re truly an owner who completed a Level A Challenge perfectly after all. I’ve posed the same question to a lot of people, and many of them are the analytical type as well, but very few have been able to give me the right answer. You’re really not bad.”

Su Jin just smiled at the compliment. He had been able to arrive at this answer only because of the conversation they had earlier. If the boss had asked him without saying anything prior to that, he wouldn’t have arrived at this answer.

“Boss, I’m now really looking forward to that prized bottle you talked about just now.” Su Jin downed his complimentary drink with one mouthful. This was the same drink that the boss gave him the last time, and it could increase the upper limit of his Spirit Power. After he finished the drink, his upper limit now stood at 400 points.

The boss was a man of his word, but he still looked reluctant as he retrieved a bottle filled with a blue liquid from under the counter and put it in front of Su Jin. Su Jin picked up the bottle and shook it slightly. Colorful sparkles floated about inside the liquid, so there had to be something extraordinary about this drink.

“What drink is this?” asked Su Jin curiously.

“This is called the Blood of Demons and Gods, and it’s good stuff that really comes from demons and gods. Each cup you take will be able to toughen up your body. I see that your physical body is already very strong, so if you want to bring it up to the next level, you’ll have to rely on such items to do so. This is very suitable for you,” explained the boss.

Su Jin fell silent for a while. The Blood of Demons and Gods? He hoped it didn’t have anything to do with those pesky Elder Gods. Then again, it was good to hear that there was something that could toughen his body up even after he had already taken the High Level Body Strengthening Elixir.

His body was really strong now, but it always seemed hungry. It wasn’t really hungry in that sense, but his cells always needed more nourishment and his body couldn’t provide that much. If he could satisfy the hunger in his cells, he would definitely become even stronger.

He excitedly poured himself a glass and drank it down. A powerful sense of satisfaction overcame him and he realized that his cells weren’t hungry anymore.

“Just one glass at a time will do. Drink it again only when you feel hungry, that will greatly increase its efficacy,” said the boss in a gentle voice.

“Thanks!” Su Jin thanked him with a big grin. This was an unexpected reward.

During this time, Lv Jincheng had already reported everything that happened as well as his observations of Su Jin to Yang Tianzheng. Yang Tianzheng fell into deep thought, then said, “Looks like it’s time to talk to Situ Jin about this. I want to know what he thinks.”

Meanwhile, on a secluded island thousands of kilometers away from China, a tiny little machine flew in and landed in the hands of a man with red eyes.

The man pressed the tiny machine and it instantly transformed itself into many tiny figurines as it reenacted the entire fight between Su Jin and the other owners.

After watching the whole thing, the man frowned and said, “I’m surprised that China has a new owner with psychokinesis. He’s not as powerful as Xu Ran, but he’s on his way there. Should I kill him before he becomes powerful?”

After a while, he suddenly said, “Contact Andre and Guillaume. I need them to help get something done.”