The Genius Evolution Store

Chapter 106: Rumors

After William left, Auric called Ellia.

"What’s up?"

"I’m wondering if you know a man called Abel."

Ellia paused for a moment. "Is he causing you trouble?"

Auric’s expression turned serious. "Can I ask a few things about him?"

"Do you want the long answer or the short answer?" Ellia had to confirm that first. Auric probably wanted to confirm something, so she needed to make sure what he wanted.

Auric thought for a moment before saying, "Short answer, please."

"He is a manipulative, evil jerk. The reason he got to that position is that he caused the first and second seats to fight each other. Once they were done, he was there to take all the glory."

"And he wants you as well?"

"Now I see what’s going on." Ellia paused. "I heard you had a conflict with the Phoenix and Dragon Society. It must be him. Let me take care of it."

"Not yet. I want to deal with Simon first."

"Has he done something again? Should I pay the Lightning Emperor another visit?" Ellia’s voice turned cold.

"No need for now. I want to deal with the situation first."

"All right then. When are you going to reach the next stage?"

"Next stage?"

"I can’t exactly say you’re going to evolve your avatar, can I?"

"Oh. It’ll probably take two to three months."

"I see. In that case, in a few months, I’m going to ruin him. In other words, you only have that much time to deal with Simon."

"Ruin him?"

"He’s a fourth-year student. He has met the requirement to graduate, but he remains here. In that case, he should remain forever. I will make him drop out. To do that, I will need to speed up my progress and evolve my avatar as quickly as possible."

All this time, Ellia had been working on her combat techniques and skills. So, even though she had just evolved her avatar not too long ago, her skills were already so high that they could be compared to those of third-year students or even surpass them.

In other words, the only thing she needed was another evolution. With the artifacts and the beast essence they got from the ruins, she believed she could get at least 40% element.

She needed to somehow come up with another 50% before asking Auric to help her push the number to 100%.

Still, she had some confidence that she could defeat Abel even without the evolution. After all, Abel was a manipulative person. He managed to gain that position not because of his strength but because he manipulated the others.

Ellia asked, "Do you need any assistance?"

"Not for now."

"All right then. Call me when you need it. Though we can still annoy that guy even more."

"You surely are not going to tell me that we should date, are you?" Auric chuckled.

"I’m telling you, that’s the plan. He’ll probably piss off and can’t endure it any longer."

Auric rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I need to handle the current matter first."

"Sure."

Eric had been standing next to him the whole time. He couldn’t help but overhear their conversation.

Eric pointed at Auric before shaking his head. "You... you even get that senior? It sounds like she is giving you a signal."

Auric could only sigh. "Anyway, we need to deal with Simon first. The plan this time is good, but he’s going to make an even crazier move next time. You need to be prepared for it."

"I know. For now, I’m just going to play around with the rumor and see where it goes."

"To think you would be so manipulative, Eric. I’m disappointed in you." Auric shook his head.

"Keep saying that and I’m going to spread rumors about you and that senior dating. It will probably cause even more uproar if they know she’s the one asking you out."

"At that time, you won’t be dealing with me. You might as well deal with my lawyer." Auric sighed. "Anyway, I’m leaving."

Eric looked at Auric for a while before contemplating. It looked like the situation had gotten worse than he had imagined.

Because of his victory, things had escalated further. No, it was more accurate to say that Abel finally found the opportunity to cause this conflict.

He wouldn’t expect that William would be there to rat him out.

If Auric got rid of Abel, William could take this opportunity to become the club president.

Even though Abel was manipulative, William was similar in that regard to a certain extent.

"Still, if I’m not wrong, that guy should have quite a powerful family. I guess all this time, Auric has been playing around with fire..." Eric narrowed his eyes. He just didn’t like the fact that he ended up getting involved in the matter.

That was why he planned to end things with Simon and be done with the entire conflict, unless the other party continued to chase him.

"I should just focus on my training."

Auric, on the other hand, had mixed feelings today. On the one hand, he was annoyed with all these problems. On the other hand, he was quite happy because he saw the notifications on his phone.

The books in the Sun Store had been purchased. There was no review yet, but other customers might be checking his books.

’Six books had been sold.’ Auric was quite happy. He managed to get over a hundred thousand credits just from these books.

If the store became famous worldwide, he couldn’t imagine how much money he would get.

Lindwurm said, "It looks like our business is going to take off soon."

’Who knows?’ Auric paused for a moment. ’By the way, Lindwurm. You say you can upgrade the store. What will be upgraded?’

"Depends on what you want. You will be able to customize it yourself. However, there is something that I can tell you: all facilities will be upgraded to the point that they can handle the energy from juvenile-form avatars."

’So, the current ventilation system can’t handle them?’

"Yep. You have seen Ellia’s power. That explosive power will increase further during evolution. If I use the current ventilation system, there will be energy lingering around. The energy from the materials is the same. If we don’t change the materials, they may stick to the walls or end up destroying the material quality. Do you want to upgrade it now?"

"How much will it cost?" Auric’s eyebrows twitched.

"I’m not sure yet. At least ten times the original number, but I expect it to be twenty if we’re looking at the current store."

’A million credits a day? Are you insane? You greedy, chubby dragon.’

"First, I’m not greedy..." Lindwurm tried to correct him but ended up admitting it. "...okay, I may be a little greedy. However, isn’t this good? You can treat people. To help people with juvenile-form avatars evolve, the service price range is around seventy thousand to three hundred thousand credits. A few people are all it would take to pay the rent."

’As if it’s that easy to get those customers. Most customers will probably have baby-form avatars. The rent might have to rely on the profits from the Sun Store.’

Lindwurm looked away.

’Anyway, I’m not really rushing to upgrade the store. I just want to know what I’m dealing with.’ Auric thought for a moment. ’Anyway, enough about the store. We still have to deal with Simon. Right now, we need an opportunity to lure him out. If I stay on campus, he won’t have that chance.’

"You shouldn’t have killed those three assassins previously. You should have recorded them admitting everything and found some proof. You would then leak it to the internet, which would lead to the Lightning Emperor’s attention. Once public opinion goes against him, the Lightning Emperor might choose to cut off his tail."

’Don’t remind me of my mistake. I know and I’m trying to fix it.’ Auric sighed. ’For now, we should find their base. If not, we will have to find another way. Right now, the rumors are putting Simon on edge. I’m assuming Eric will be using himself as bait. This will corner Simon. When that happens, we might get another chance.’

Auric was still inexperienced in handling all these matters, but he planned to learn everything from the start.

Lindwurm didn’t say anything further. He had seen Auric fixing all his mistakes, so he had to wait before saying anything else.

After knowing what truly happened, Eric took one step further in his plan. The narrative gradually shifted from something having happened to Auric to focusing on the secret investigation of his assassination attempt.

The investigation wasn’t exactly a secret, but it wasn’t made publicly known. Once the narrative changed, it was easy for people to speculate about what had happened.

So, they speculated about what Auric had done to get assassinated. No one knew what happened, but once the rumors spread throughout the entire academy, Auric pointed his finger at Eric.

He only said that it happened the day after he placed the bet on Eric. Auric didn’t directly accuse anyone.

The culprit could be anyone, including the booth owner.

However, there was a person with a bad reputation. This person was arrogant and wasn’t convinced about the match. It was normal for Simon to be so angry since he lost despite having all those advantages.

With his personality and connections, people thought it was actually possible for him to be the culprit.

Yes, people started to assume Simon was the culprit. This matter had become big because it involved the top three people in their grade. More importantly, Auric had the support of the mayor and the Evolution Association.

If it were handled carelessly, the situation might worsen. No one could touch Auric because of Maya on campus. Meanwhile, Eric had gotten two teachers to protect him, so he managed to maintain his freedom.

That was why people focused on Simon, the potential suspect.

Auric and Eric didn’t mention anything about the Phoenix and Dragon Society yet. They knew it wasn’t the time to touch them yet.

If they dragged the Phoenix and Dragon Society, this group, which consisted of elites, would use their power and influence to change the narrative.

There was another reason they didn’t involve the club yet. Simon’s reputation was already at rock bottom, but it could actually go down further.

Three days after the rumor began, the Phoenix and Dragon Society announced the expulsion of Simon Kestus from the club.

People were shocked. It was normal for the club to protect their own members. But what if Simon actually did it? The rumors became stronger because more and more people believed Simon actually did it.

It looked like William also had a hand in Simon’s expulsion as if he were trying to assist Auric.

Nevertheless, Abel looked like he wanted to corner Simon as well. This way, Simon would do the unthinkable to get his revenge.

And once the Lightning Emperor was dragged into this matter, Auric would be in a lot of trouble.

Little did he know, Auric and Ellia had done something to get the attention of the Lightning Emperor in the past.

That was why the Lightning Emperor knew Auric was never really the aggressor.

So, the moment he tried to get the Lightning Emperor involved, his plan was screwed.

...

The matter finally reached the Lightning Emperor’s attention. His assistant had just given him the report about Simon in the academy.

Looking at the report, the Lightning Emperor couldn’t help but ask, "Is this really what’s going on?"

"I can’t say for sure, but it’s true that the mayor has launched an investigation into the assassination attempt on Auric Elfe. Director Popo from the X-Guard is his current protector.

"I’ve tried to get information about Eric Dabood, but he doesn’t have much information to begin with. There’s nothing special about his life.

"Still, I’ve found out that Eric Dabood has taken two teachers and these two teachers seem to be protecting his parents as well.

"And..." The butler hesitated.

"And what?"

"I asked Young Master Simon for clarification, but..." The butler could feel the anger in the Lightning Emperor’s eyes. The Lightning Emperor wanted the explanation, so the butler continued, "He was rather defensive. No one had yet made a move against him, possibly because of the lack of evidence..."

The Lightning Emperor crushed the paper in his hand, his eyes turning bloodshot. "Call him right now."