Dual World Apocalypse: My Harem Gives Me 10x Rewards

Chapter 99: Step 99 to Greatness: Multi-million Dollars Worth Of Preparation

The next morning...

"This should be it," Adrian mumbled.

His search for loan sharks had brought him to a narrow alley in a sketchy part of town. After checking the address again, he quickly pocketed his phone and read the sign.

It simply said: The pawn shop.

And that was it... at a glance. If his father hadn’t mentioned taking the loan from them, he wouldn’t have even thought that the place doubled as the loan sharks’ hideout.

Well, the boarded window does raise an alarm, but that’s it.

As he stepped closer, he noticed two tough guys standing in front. However, they didn’t stop him from entering the shop, just leering at him.

As Adrian reached the counter, he saw another burly guy with a large scar on both of his cheeks. It seemed that guy was the one working the counter.

"What’s your business here?" the man asked in his rough voice.

"Um... I heard we can loan money from here?" Adrian said, smiling like his naive father.

The guy looked Adrian up and down and, once satisfied, he knocked on the wall behind him thrice. To Adrian’s surprise, the wall was actually a sliding door.

Behind the door was an entirely different world. He could smell the smoke of cigarettes just by standing there. It was a miracle that the people inside were still breathing.

In the middle of it all was a guy sitting with an unbuttoned shirt. A hint of annoyance crossed his face when he saw the door open, and he sighed.

"Can’t I catch a break on weekends?" The man frowned, gesturing for Adrian to step inside. "Alright, kid. What do you want?

"I need money. As much as you can loan me."

The gangster’s eyes widened in surprise before he broke into loud laughter.

"Who the hell would lend money to a kid like you? You think this is a charity?"

"Please, man, don’t make things difficult for me. My girlfriend is turning 18 in a week. I want to get her a lot of things, but my father has his funds tied up right now. I can only borrow the money, or else she would break up with me."

Hearing his reasons for borrowing the money, the gangster’s frown deepened. If there was someone he hated more than cops and defaulters, it would be simps.

He had been one himself once, and that landed him in jail. As a result, he had to become the person he was today, and seeing Adrian only made him remember those unpleasant things.

Still, he was a professional and couldn’t let his emotions come into play. Besides, the guy seemed well off. Even if he failed to pay, they could use him to distribute substance in that demographic.

"Fine, but you still need to put up something for collateral," he told Adrian. "What will it be? It has to be of enough value to cover the loan and the interest. If you don’t have something like that, you can walk yourself out then."

"Can I put myself as collateral?"

The gangster’s laughter stopped abruptly. He stared at Adrian for a long moment, clearly taken aback by the boldness. What kind of fool puts themselves as collateral to get their girlfriend a gift or two?

"Oi kid. Stop joking around, alright?" the man frowned. "No need for collateral. But I will only give you a hundred thousand at most."

"It’s fine."

"Get the boy a card and bring a contract too," the gangster said, putting out his cigarette. "Remember to pay it back in two weeks. I don’t offer any extensions."

Before the goon could leave to bring a card, Adrian handed the guy his own card instead. Well, technically, it was the card his ancestors had given him.

"Put the money on this card instead," he said.

The lackey looked at the boss, who just waved it off.

"Just do it."

The lackey processed the transfer quickly. Adrian watched the notification appear in his system a moment later.

[You have received $100,000 in your heavenly card.]

[Ancestor’s 10x blessing applied. You have gained $1,000,000 in your heavenly card.]

Hehe, jackpot!

Adrian smiled inwardly, pocketing the card. The gangster didn’t notice anything unusual and simply waved him off.

"Send someone to my home to collect the money when it’s due," Adrian said. "I’ll have it ready."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Adrian said, getting up from the chair. "Do you know any other people who could lend me more money? And maybe some weapons too?"

"You’re either the boldest kid I’ve ever met or the dumbest," he sighed, massaging his temples. "Fine. There’s a guy named Viktor two blocks down. He deals in bigger loans. And for weapons, ask for Marco at the old warehouse on 5th. Tell them Ramon sent you."

"Alright, thanks!"

He left the pawn shop without another word. As soon as he was gone, one of the goons turned to the gangster.

"Boss, aren’t you worried that the young guy will take all the money and run?"

"Do you think I care?" Ramon scoffed, leaning back in his chair and lighting a cigarette. "I gave him a pitiful amount. The others, however, might not be so careful. In that event, even if the boy runs away, it would deal a larger blow to those guys than it would to me. Either way, I win."

This way, not only would the boy deal a blow to the competitors, but they would also take care of the boy when he failed to make payment. Ramon could then just report it to the authorities and be done with it.

It was also the reason he readily gave the money to the boy on his card. That way, even the cops couldn’t really trace it to him since he only ever gave loans on his own cards.

"One stone to kill three birds, boss is amazing." The goon nodded, impressed by the boss’s thinking.

For a moment, he was worried the guy had lost his edge, letting a kid fool him into giving so much money.

Meanwhile, outside, Adrian scoffed.

"This really isn’t my world. No way in hell would anyone loan an underage guy this much money, collateral or not," he mumbled to himself. "Let’s hope they keep lending me money and maybe some cold weapons. I wouldn’t mind if they gave me a gun or two either."

***

A few hours later, Adrian was a multi-millionaire. Unlike Ramon, the Viktor guy really didn’t care all that much about limits. As soon as Adrian offered up his organs, the man readily gave him half a million dollars, which then turned into five million more.

One would think that the banks would flag the transactions and stop them. But it seemed the heavenly card either bypassed those conditions or the world didn’t really give a damn about those things.

Adrian hoped it was the latter, because it would make things a lot easier for him in the future.

"The only problem I faced was with procuring weapons," Adrian sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "The guy just wouldn’t sell me any guns, saying he didn’t want any more high-schoolers ’ blood on his weapons... whatever that meant."

Adrian just shook his head. He did not have the time to waste on such things. He had machetes and even a sword. Coupled with his axe, it was more than enough to fend off whatever came along with the apocalypse.

"Now, on to the more important things. Medicines."

He could hunt animals and bring them back to this world for food. But medicines were one thing he had to get in this world itself. The same went for grains and fuel.

Although he had a farm back in the settlement, Root did not have any seeds to grow wheat or rice. It was better to buy all that stuff in the same world and possibly get some seeds to grow on the Savage Earth later.

"Viktor said he knew a medicine wholesaler; let’s get to her first."

***

Adrian entered the well-lit warehouse. People were moving crates from one place to another. Some were packaging while others were probably adding everything to the inventory.

No one even bothered with him being there. Probably because a guard was escorting him to the office.

The guard opened the door for him, and Adrian entered the place, only to be shocked.

"Nurse Lee!?" he exclaimed in shock.

It was the nurse from back in school, but she looked gloomy as if all energy had been drained from her body.

"...what are you doing here?" she asked with her eyes half-closed.

"Um... I came to get some medicine—"

"Was a pharmacy not enough for you? Besides, how are you even walking? You were supposed to be on bed rest, unable to walk..."

"Let’s just say I have a good constitution... hehe," Adrian replied, rubbing the back of his head. "I suppose Viktor told you about me?"

"Yeah," Nurse Lee frowned, extending her hand. "The list."