Chapter 344: Chapter 344 - Toxic Reunion
I quickly clicked on the article.
A pinned ranking chart was the first thing that caught my eye.
Ten names filled this chart, representing Pyro’s forecast for the top ten fighters in the Martial Arts Ranking List.
Ignacio Richard and someone called Paul Randall shared Pyro’s first place.
A person named Harold Solomon held the second position.
Bryce Johansson from the Johansson family claimed third place.
The fourth position went to Alberto Sean from the Sean family.
Alberto Sean was Logan Sean’s son, another prodigy from Capital City.
As for Bryce Johansson, he was Vance Johansson’s uncle.
Nearly everyone dominating this chart came from elite families nationwide.
Except for Ignacio Richard and Paul Randall, everyone else had powerful family backing with endless resources.
Scrolling further, I discovered another ranking chart.
This one ranked Pyro’s younger generation.
Topping this list was none other than Logan Sean’s son, Alberto Sean!
Word had it he was Capital City Martial Arts’ top genius, reaching the Grandmasters Realm as a teenager! His current strength was beyond measurement!
Moving down the list, I quickly spotted Vance Johansson’s name.
He sat in fifth place and had held this spot for years.
I rubbed my chin, thinking to myself, "If I defeated Vance Johansson, I’d take fifth place."
This would make me the only young fighter to climb into the rankings from nowhere.
"Mason Raymond?"
While I was deep in thought, someone tapped my shoulder.
I spun around and saw a young man dressed in a suit.
The guy looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t place him right away.
"Come on, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me? I’m Hans Seth," the young man said.
The name triggered my memory.
"You’re my...college buddy?" I guessed.
Hans Seth smirked, "Wow, your memory really is terrible, isn’t it?"
I jumped up quickly, saying sorry, "My bad, I’m awful with names."
"No worries, running into each other like this is destiny. A few of us college friends who are trying to make it in Capital City are having dinner upstairs. You should join us," Hans Seth insisted, pulling me along.
I really didn’t want to go. My withdrawn personality in college meant I wasn’t close with my classmates.
Actually, many people used to pick on me because I kept to myself.
College wasn’t exactly a happy time for me.
"Come on, we ran into each other - it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t catch up," Hans kept pushing.
I couldn’t shake off his persistent invitation, so I had to give in.
I followed Hans upstairs to a small private dining room.
The moment we opened the door, Hans yelled excitedly, "Hey everyone, look who I found!"
Every pair of eyes in the room immediately focused on me.
I looked around at the people in the room, my eyebrows drawing together slightly.
The room wasn’t crowded. Counting Hans and me, there were only five people total.
But I knew the other three all too well.
Back then, they were the student council’s inner circle, but despite being student leaders, they never helped me out. Instead, they often gave me a hard time and bullied me.
My miserable college experience was mostly thanks to these few people.
"Well, well, Mason Raymond? What brings you here?" said Timothy Damon, who used to be the student council president.
Timothy Damon was tall and built, extremely smooth with words. He was popular at school and gave me the worst treatment.
"Come on, come on, sit down quick," Timothy Damon said, pulling me to a chair.
I stayed quiet and took the seat next to Timothy Damon.
"Who would’ve guessed, Mason, you’ve also come to Capital City to chase your dreams," Timothy Damon said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, Mason, what kind of work are you doing in Capital City?" Hans asked.
"What else would he be doing besides waiting tables?" someone next to him mocked.
"Ha! Don’t underestimate waiters. I heard they make decent money, seven to eight thousand a month!"
I ignored their taunts and shot back, "So what’s your line of work?"
Timothy Damon looked somewhat proud as he replied, "Well, I’m a senior executive at my company now. My monthly pay isn’t too shabby - around twenty thousand."
"Plus, I have an amazing relationship with our boss. We’re like brothers."
After saying this, Timothy Damon deliberately pulled out his Mercedes-Benz keys and set them on the table.
The others chimed in, "That’s right, Timothy’s the boss’s favorite now! All of us got our positions because of him!"
"Mason, we’re all management elites at the company now!" Hans sounded pretty pleased with himself too.
It became obvious to me that Hans had dragged me here to feed their pathetic egos.
"Ah, back in school, we had leadership qualities. That ability shaped our career paths," Timothy said smugly.
I glanced at him and sneered, "Leadership qualities? More like ass-kissing skills, right? You’ve licked plenty of dirty boots to get where you are now, haven’t you?"
"It’s really something how you take pride in sucking up to people."
Timothy’s face darkened, and he snapped back angrily, "Even boot-licking takes talent! I bet you’re jealous?"
"Jealous? Jealous of you guys crawling and brown-nosing every day? Jealous of being treated like mutts by others?" I sneered.
"Sorry, but your lifestyle doesn’t appeal to me at all."
Timothy exploded with rage, slamming the table and yelling, "Mason Raymond, what gives a crappy waiter like you the right to mouth off to me?"
"When did I ever claim to be a waiter?" I looked at them.
"Besides, even waiters earn honest money - how’s that worse than what you do?"
Timothy scoffed, "If you’re not a waiter, then what are you? A dishwasher? Or did you come here to scrub toilets?"
"Oh! Now I remember, back in college, Mason Raymond was quite the toilet scrubber, wasn’t he?"
"Haha, that’s his specialty! We can’t match his toilet-cleaning skills!"
The whole room erupted in loud laughter.
I looked at them and said coldly, "I’m your daddy."
The room went dead silent at those words.
Timothy’s eyes narrowed, "You didn’t get beaten up enough in college, did you?"
