The Black Swan Behind

322 Become a Mediator

“I’m sorry if my friends doubted you a little. Believe me – they are just worried too much. I need to say that we rarely interact with women. Hence, we don’t understand your feelings,” Kenny said. Then he let out a long sigh. “To me, even though you are women, you are still the Black who had helped us take down the Creeper. You even defeated our group. It’s a shame if we still have the guts to doubt your strength,”

Kenny’s words made Emma and Rachel feel better. That was what a woman wanted when they feel a man had a fault. She wanted him to realize and admit his mistake.

Finally, Emma nodded once. “I hope you can explain your mindset correctly to all members of your group, Kenny, so that they don’t just judge women randomly,”

“All right, Emma. I understand. Forgive my short thinking,” Marcel said after getting a glance from Kenny who seemed to say ‘I already said it, but you jerks didn’t listen.’

“We’re sorry too. We shouldn’t have doubted you,” Renu said, followed by nods from his friends.

Emma and Rachel nodded in understanding. They also didn’t want to be too rigid with prolonged anger just because of a mistake that was actually quite reasonable.

“Very well. I accept your explanation this time. So, what kind of help do you want to ask us?” She asked.

“Before that, we’ll explain the matter first, Emma,” Marcel said.

Emma nodded. “Sure, I’m all ears,”

.....

“You must already know that RJC is one of the groups of The Deadly Square under the confines of the Black Hole. All groups of The Deadly Square are required to pay a huge monthly fee to Black Hole. When the Underground Cave was still standing, we were able to pay for it. However, ever since the downfall of our group, Black Hole keeps asking us to pay the fee even though our business was destroyed.

Now, we only have Redvalley Street to maintain. Our business on Redvalley Street has a profit that we can only use for the operational costs of our headquarters. We cannot pay for the Black Hole at all. However, Black Hole made a policy that said that if a group could not pay the fee, they would take over all of the group’s assets and businesses,” Marcel explained.

Emma and Rachel frowned. That was very bad news. They knew that after Underground Cave closed, RJC focused on Redvalley only. In fact, Marcel had to work as a model to support his grandmother and himself. In truth, protecting and managing Redvalley Street was not a business, but a voluntary.

“So, If you don’t pay the fee, then this whole place and Redvalley Street will be taken over by the Black Hole?” Emma asked.

Marcel nodded. “I still don’t mind if they take this base building and everything in it, Emma. But I can’t see Redvalley being taken over by a group as vicious as Black Hole. They are just as heartless as Apollo. They never care about how the people on the street could collect money. The important thing is they can get as much money as possible,”

“Wait a minute. Hasn’t the collapse of your group been going on long enough? How did you pay the fee all this time?” Emma asked.

Marcel was silent for a few seconds. Then, he swallowed and cleared his throat to control his voice. “We were forced to sell Bluevalley Street. Even so, the proceeds could only cover the fees for a few months. That’s the reason we are still able to survive now,”

As someone who knew quite a bit of Marcel’s childhood story, Emma understood that Bluevalley Street meant a great deal to him; not in a positive way, but in a negative way. Emma knew that Marcel didn’t want the street to operate at all. Therefore, he deliberately made it a dead street. But if he sold it, it meant that the street with a lot of bad memories would be back in operation. That must hurt him so much.

“I’m sorry that you had to do that, Marcel. I know you don’t want to see that street back in operation. However, what you’ve done is for the best to help the people of Redvalley right now.” Emma said slowly.

Marcel smiled faintly even though his eyes couldn’t do what his lips were doing. “Thank you, Emma.”

Then Marcel took a deep breath and continued the main topic, “The money from the sale of Bluevalley Street cannot last long. Therefore, we have a plan which is actually very risky. We plan to attack the Black Hole and destroy them.”

“And you asked our help to do that?” Emma asked.

Marcel nodded. “Black Hole is a powerful group. They have a team of commanders consisting of five powerful people, and the No.1 is like a monster. Those six men were the ones who defeated the four groups that ended up being dragged into The Deadly Square, including RJC. We’ve been beaten by them before, even when our group was intact and victorious. Now, RJC isn’t as big as it used to be. Attacking the Black Hole with our own strength is simply a suicide mission.”

“With the help of the Black Swan, we at least have some hope of succeeding in taking down the Black Hole. Yes, they are indeed powerful. But I believe that we might at least be able to match them if we merge,” Kenny added.

Emma nodded while thinking. “Actually, I was imagining back when we joined forces to fight Jita Kyoei. At that time, I felt that the strength of the two groups of us joining together was balanced against the strength of Jita Kyoei. Now, my question is; is Black Hole as powerful as Jita Kyeoi?”

“Unfortunately, I can say that Black Hole is stronger than Jita Kyoei. And the fact that Dragger, Hell Gate, and Creeper have been taken over by them, makes Black Hole a much stronger group than Jita Kyoei.” Kenny answered.

“It’s no good,” Emma said with a cluck.

“I don’t mean to say that you are incapable of carrying out this mission. However, I just want to emphasize once again to you that this mission is extremely dangerous. As a fellow leader, I know you will think of your member.” Marcel looked at Emma seriously.

Emma nodded in understanding. “I am thinking about that, Marcel. But it seems that regardless of my thoughts and decisions now, in the end, we will face the Black Hole as well because The Black Swan’s main mission is to destroy the source of this chaos. We will destroy the head of the snake. After all, we’ve managed to defeat the Dragger. I’m sure Black Hole is also after us right now,”

“So that means you’re joining us?” Marcel asked.

Emma nodded. “I intend to do that. But I will still talk about this to the girls first. Black Swan is not like other groups where all members must obey all the decisions of the leader. The girls who participated in this mission are the ones who wanted to. So, I can’t promise all my members can come,”

Marcel shook his head. “It’s not a problem, Emma. We appreciate even the slightest bit of help from the Black Swan,”

“By the way, if Black Hole is that strong, why don’t you guys get Jita Kyoei to join in? There’s Calvin Lee too. They’re tough guys,” Emma asked.

“We did plan to ask for their help. But I don’t know whether they will give a positive response or not. Because, you know… we are not get along,” Marcel explained.

“If you guys often get into arguments, I have no problem mediating between RJC and Jita Kyoei.” Emma shrugged.