Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 367. Let’s screw them over

Five hundred thousand.

It became deadly silent inside the room while I let the number melt on my tongue.

When it finally sank in, I broke into laughter.

Ethan leaned back and let me digest the news, Henry seethed so much that he emitted murderous intent, and my grandmother stood up and went to the desk beside her throne.

She pulled out a drawer and took something out before walking to us and throwing it on the stack of papers on the coffee table.

It was a little square box.

I still laughed at the absurdity of this deal when I leaned forward and took a look in the box.

A passport, another ID, a healthcare card, etc. Everything in the name of ’Jeremy Howard,’ but with my picture on it.

Just that my red eyes were normal brownish ones, and the tattoo on my throat was gone, while the arms were covered by clothing. The pictures looked recently taken, which was impossible, so someone with some skills worked on ’Jeremy’.

"If you get rid of the tattoos, you can use this identity instead of going through with this ridiculousness, a distant cousin of Kennith Howard." My grandmother provided a solution but didn’t forget her real agenda.

"What the fuck is your problem with tattoos?" I asked her, waving the ID in my hand for her to see.

"They are unsightly and attract prejudice." She hissed.

"Prejudice like yours?" I raised my eyebrows at her before I took another thing out of the box, a small package.

Upon opening it, I saw two contact lenses, which would probably give me back my brown eyes.

"Only without tattoos will you get to be Jeremy!" She leaned down and snatched the contact lenses out of my hand together with the ID and the box.

"You could even call yourself... Jerry." She grimaced with disgust.

"Heh... I think Jerry will stay a dream." I chuckled.

There was no reason to change my identity.

"Ungrateful brat." She went back to the desk and locked the box back inside the drawer, looking at me like she feared I would steal it if she didn’t do so.

Again, she was the only one displaying prejudice, especially if I didn’t have the need to steal anything after having touched it already.

Ethan pushed his glasses up.

"Their first offer was one million corpses; half a million was the deepest I could bargain."

"Mhm." I nudged Henry’s shoulder in an attempt to get him to calm down.

He stopped clenching his jaw, but he still looked absolutely furious.

"So let me get this straight. They want corpses mainly intact and a number high enough that it would take time for me to get them." I started, and Ethan nodded.

"They want me to run through the city each night to gather that impossible number on the streets patrolled by the military, and that while I am still a charged criminal?"

The murderous intent on Henry intensified again after hearing what I said.

"Yes. They presented a nearly impossible feat to lure you out for them to catch you." Ethan agreed.

I tapped Henry’s thigh a few times to get him to look at me.

"Well, there is a way to come up with these numbers." I grinned and saw his face relax slightly after a moment of hesitating.

My dog smirked at the idea, and when I looked at Ethan, he displayed a similar sly smile.

Ah, the smart attorney didn’t just provide the deal without thinking of a solution himself, and apparently, we came up with the same way.

"Can you use your power to produce a number this high?" Ethan asked me.

"I can try, and we can test how many things I am able to conjure up while we are at it." I surely could conjure up a few million dead rats, or even living ones if I used the giant’s power, but that isn’t an option.

My own powers could, however, be enough as well.

Ethan leaned forward.

"We will rent a warehouse, gather dead rats, and then you can multiply them with your power. We will categorize them, and when we reach the right number, I will call my contact that sent me the deal. I will tell them to gather everyone important inside the warehouse, then we will force them to uphold their part of the deal without you being present, everything secretly captured on camera, naturally."

I laughed.

"We’ll do that. Henry and I will go hunting ourselves." There’s no way I’ll let someone else hunt for my freedom; additionally, I wanted to take a look at the state of the city.

Henry hummed in agreement.

"We’ll do the hunting." It seemed he still had some anger he wanted to get out of his system by killing a few things.

Ethan glanced at my grandma, who was seated on her throne again, feeding Kitty.

She nodded barely noticeably, and seeing that, Ethan looked back at me.

"You can do the hunting. Please gather as many corpses as you can. Kill them all in the same way, but look out for their different appearances. Catch more of the dark rats because these are the more common ones."

"Yeah, we don’t want half a million rat corpses that will all look the exact same." I nodded before thinking of the most important matter.

"What do they want to do with the corpses?"

"The deal doesn’t state it. I reckon they might use them as food for other animals or even humans, although they will probably keep a few for tests and science."

"The rats are edible?" I asked, and Ethan nodded.

"Hmmm." I thought for a moment before looking at Henry and meeting his eyes.

He looked so damn hot sitting there with crossed arms like an immovable, angry rock that one could lean on or could use to smash some pests.

I lost my train of thought for a moment before again remembering what I wanted to say.

"We can’t let them have the conjured-up corpses because of the time-paradox-thingy." I didn’t know exactly how much Ethan knew about my power or if he still thought I was using a spatial bag or something.

What he apparently knew was that I could multiply things.

But, firstly, I didn’t want to strain my power by leaving the nearly half a million rats outside for too long, and secondly, we couldn’t risk them being destroyed because of creating a time paradox.

Henry understood.

"I will be present when we show them the warehouse. After they confirm that we did our part of the deal, I’ll give you a sign; you’ll put them back, and I’ll use my power to make them think I destroyed most of the corpses."

"Perfect. Hahaha!" I laughed happily.

"Can we go through with that, Ethan?"

"They won’t be happy, but a signed and documented deal is a signed and documented deal." He pushed his glasses up, breaking out in a chuckle himself.

"It’s their fault for not stating clearly that we have to hand over every single corpse after letting them verify the number."

He added, and I was again happy that he was on our side and not at the government’s.

"Fine!" I jumped up from my seat, feeling giddy and wanting to immediately start with the hunting.

But Henry pulled me back to the couch and put his arm around my neck.

"We will start tomorrow. Do you have contact lenses for me as well?"

There was some rustling from my grandmother’s side before something speedily flew at Henry.

We both raised our hands instinctively, and I caught it, with Henry catching my fist.

My grandmother scoffed.

"You both are becoming more irksome. Kennith won’t get his lenses as long as he doesn’t look like Jeremy." She said grumpily, clearly unhappy for not striking Henry in his face, and this time it was clear that she was just making trouble because at the latest after our talk, she knew fully well that I could conjure them up if I wanted to.

"Yes, yes, keep your Jeremy in that damn drawer."

"The plan stands." Ethan gathered the stack of papers, taking out a third of the sheets that had colorful marks on them.

"Please sign." He motioned towards them and pulled a pen out of his breast pocket in the most attorney-like way I have ever seen.

I unscrewed the cap and started to put down the first of multiple signatures on the deal that would give me back a life that had seemed to be forever lost.

"Let’s screw them over!"