Chapter 51: Twisting Right and Wrong

"What do you want? Don't tell me you actually dare to kill me?" Huai Feifu said with bloodshot eyes, staring at Lin Xinghai who was standing right in front of him.

Within the Star Shield Refuge, the laws were comprehensive and strict. If a life was taken, an exhaustive investigation would follow without fail, and even a mercenary like Lin Xinghai would not be exempt.

The reason Huai Feifu had dared to finish off Lin Xinghai earlier was because he had made thorough preparations in advance and even found someone to take the blame.

He certainly did not believe that Lin Xinghai had made any such preparations.

"I wouldn't dare to kill you, of course. However, since someone pointed a gun at me, that falls under self-defense. Leaving someone half-disabled shouldn't be much of a problem, don't you think?" Lin Xinghai asked with a smile.

"What on earth do you want?" Huai Feifu said, gritting his teeth.

"Look at my friends; they've all been scared out of their wits by you lot. You really ought to pay some compensation for emotional distress! Let's say 2,000 credits per person, just to keep things neighborly." Lin Xinghai gestured toward Liu Miaomiao and the others, whose faces were indeed pale with fright.

Of course, a large part of the reason their complexions were so pale was due to the bloody spectacle Lin Xinghai himself had created.

Lin Xinghai was unaware of this detail at the moment, but even if he had known, he would have firmly pinned the blame squarely on Huai Feifu.

"2,000 credits in compensation per person? Do you seriously think I could possibly whip up 10,000 credits?" Huai Feifu retorted.

"If you can't produce it, that's fine too. Just transfer all the credits currently in your ID card to me—whatever amount is there, I'll take it. I don't mind taking a little loss," Lin Xinghai said with an air of magnanimity.

Hearing this, Huai Feifu's face grew even uglier. Suddenly gritting his teeth, he declared viciously, "In your dreams! I'd rather let you beat me half to death than transfer a single credit to you."

The opponent's suddenly hardened attitude genuinely caught Lin Xinghai slightly off guard.

He rubbed his chin in thought, then beckoned Liu Miaomiao and the others over to explain the current situation.

"He's unwilling to pay your emotional distress compensation. As the parties involved, tell me what you think should be done!" Lin Xinghai said, spreading his hands.

By this time, the young women's terror had entirely transformed into burning rage.

Wang Yao, whose figure and temperament were both fiery, was the first to step forward. She looked Huai Feifu up and down before finally fixing her gaze squarely on his crotch, a cold smile curling her alluring red lips. "Refusing to compensate is fine, too. You just need to take a single crushing kick to the groin from this lady here."

"A major surgery to repair a shattered pelvis and crushed testicles won't cost any less than 20,000 to 30,000 credits. Furthermore, I've read research reports on this sort of thing before; even if it gets healed, there's a very high probability it will leave lasting psychological trauma and you'll never be able to get it up again."

Upon hearing this, Huai Feifu turned ashen, instinctively crossing his legs tightly together. Not a trace of his previous reckless, death-defying toughness remained.

Not to mention him, even the bystanders like Lin Xinghai felt a sudden chill run down their spine. He discreetly shifted his posture at an angle before saying, "I'll give you 10 seconds to make a decision."

"I'll pay, okay?!" Weighing his options, Huai Feifu made the wise choice and fished out the ID card from inside his jacket.

Lin Xinghai took the card and operated the wrist-mounted computer to read the information inside. "Password and iris verification."

Huai Feifu complied with a dark expression.

"Over 7,000 credits, not bad at all!" Lin Xinghai laughed as he looked at the information displayed on the virtual light screen, promptly transferring the credits directly into his own card.

"Doesn't cooperation make things much smoother? Here, take your card back. Now... the credits are still a tiny bit short, but that wrist-computer of yours looks pretty decent; it should just about cover the difference," Lin Xinghai said cheerfully.

"You—" Huai Feifu was about to burst into a string of furious curses when he noticed Wang Yao out of the corner of his eye, already warming up her long legs.

Ultimately, he swallowed his pride, unlinked the wrist-computer, and handed it over to Lin Xinghai.

His eyes glistened slightly... those were tears of sheer humiliation.

"See? That's more like it! Money is merely an external possession—you can't bring it with you when you're born, and you can't take it with you when you die, right?" Lin Xinghai coaxed him with a sunny smile while strapping the wrist-computer onto his own wrist.

He had secured the compensation, but the matter was far from over. After all, Huai Feifu had attempted an abduction and possessed an illegal firearm; these were serious criminal offenses, quite enough to land the man behind bars for several years.

Only then could he truly rest easy.

...

Before long, the security patrol arrived, fully armed and ready.

There was no helping it—who told the person reporting the crime to mention hearing gunshots?

Shortly afterward, everyone was escorted back to the security bureau for statement recordings and standard procedures.

However, Lin Xinghai quickly realized something was amiss, because the security officer in charge of taking his statement had already repeated the same question three times: How did you get that homemade pistol?

"I will repeat this one last time: that homemade pistol was brought out by Huai Feifu to attack me, and everything I did was an act of self-defense," Lin Xinghai said, looking straight at the security officer and enunciating every single word clearly.

"Apologies, but based on the intelligence we have gathered, it does not align with your statement." At that moment, a pot-bellied security official walked into the room.

As he spoke, he sized Lin Xinghai up with a scrutinizing gaze, radiating a formidable aura... provided one ignored his massive protruding belly.

By this point, how could Lin Xinghai fail to realize that there was something fishy going on here?

He dropped all pretense of politeness, immediately crossed his legs, met the official's beady little eyes, and spoke in a cold tone, "I'd love to hear it then. Exactly how does it not align?"

"According to the testimony provided by Huai Feifu, he is accusing you of armed robbery, and the bodyguards standing beside him can serve as witnesses."

"Secondly, we found your fingerprints on that homemade pistol. Furthermore, bank transfer records show that a sum of 7,321 credits was transferred from Huai Feifu's ID card to your ID card."

"Additionally, we will shortly have our technical department inspect the wrist-computer on your left wrist to determine whether it belongs to Huai Feifu."

"If it is confirmed to be Huai Feifu's wrist-computer, the total financial involvement for this robbery charge will exceed 10,000 credits. According to the laws established by the Star Shield Refuge, this carries a maximum sentence of over 5 years in prison."

"One could say that we have fully secured both human witnesses and physical evidence. This is a confession document; if you sign it now, we can strive for leniency in your sentencing." The corpulent security official smiled amiably as he produced the confession paper, extending it toward Lin Xinghai while admiring the look of astonishment on the youth's face.

Indeed, Lin Xinghai was genuinely surprised.

He had only been in this security bureau for a few minutes—not even 10 minutes yet!—and the other party had already produced both human witnesses and physical evidence.

The sheer brazenness of turning black into white astonished him, and Huai Feifu's connections impressed him just as much.

If he hadn't kept a backup plan up his sleeve, he might truly have taken a massive fall right here.