“You? What can a scrawny little kid like you do? With all due respect Matriarch what is this? Why d you have to bring this children of yours to our meeting today, it is obvious to me that you have no intention of doing business, and honestly that makes me very angry.” The man with the snake tattoo said as his three lackeys seemed to puff themselves in an attempt to look intimidating.r

“You are trying to extort the Matriarch because she is in a position where she needs your help. Do you think she is going to take that lying down? In all honesty what did you expect for her to roll over and hand everything else to you?” Tehilla asked, as she blankly looked at the Pirates.r

“Nobody asked you anything truly, why don’t you keep silent, your betters are talking.” One of the pirates standing said, drawing out a chuckle from Cole as his turned to his grandmother.r

“They really have no idea what they’re dealing with it, or rather who they are dealing with, do they?” the Matriarch shook her head with an amused smile still on her face.r

“No, I don’t think they do. But you can’t fault them for that, they spend a lot of days in space, plus they had to multiple jump gates to get here instead of traveling for weeks or months in cryo sleep. Their brains might be a little mushy at the moment so please do not hold it against them, I’d really like to avoid getting blood on this table, I own part of this restaurant.” Cole sighed, guess diplomacy was the only available option now.r

“The terms you have offered can not be accepted, and as per the nature and the sheer disrespect you showed in offering it, I refuse to have it renegotiated. Besides this is an opportunity for me to go off world for a while, Earth is about to get really hot for the next couple of months, I would very much need to lay low while that happens…. Going to Assassinate some sort of mad tyrant would be just what I need for a vacation.r

And due to that, it makes you and your pirate group inconsequential and redundant. In the grand scheme of things you mean nothing. But you have had a deal in place with Matriarch for some time, as such it would be totally unfair of me to not honor that. So rather a million dollars like you asked for, we will give you a million credits. I’m sure you will find more use for the crypto than hard cash that you would still have to convert. That’s enough money to buy you a new destroyer, or turn your current one into a space killing machine or something of that manner.r

Eliminate the target, and all that would be yours. And you will still have a relationship with the black market bank in the future. Or else I’m afraid this is where we all would have to part way and that would be quite unfortunate for yo-“r

Cole paused immediately a waitress walked into the room, it was not just the warning signs of red boots, with blinking cybernetic enhancements, or her cherry red lipstick, or the fact that his senses were warning him, it was the smile that she threw in the Matriarch’s direction…. Cole didn’t think, he just reacted.r

[Gravity]r

Even if the argument stat was now in the iron rank and his gravity skill was almost 5 times more powerful than before, it was not enough to kill people, not unless he used it in a focused burst. But throwing a dumb broad with the intent to Assassinate his grandmother outside of their booth…. Well that was way too easy.r

*Crash!*r

Cole got up from his chair and tackled both his grandmother and Tehilla to the ground, and just in time too as the location where they had been sitting was blasted to pieces as a high caliber sniper bullet missed them, then split on impact into multiple shrapnel.r

Cole grunted in pain as he felt some of those shrapnel dig into his back, but he didn’t care as saving his Grandmother and Tehilla was the only thing that was important to him. He got back up just in time to see the Pirates pointing their guns at him, he shook his head, finding the entire affair quite tedious.r

“Seriously?”r

“Yes indeed Cole ‘World Breaker’ Night! You might think our deal not good enough, but what happened when you are held hostage. Heck asking for 20% would be too small, we would take everything. Besides it’s not that we can’t kill the king, it’s just that it would be really ungrateful of us to kill our own captain now would it?”r

And that was when Cole realized they had all been played right from the beginning. These guys had already sold out, they were just here to tie up loose ends. He turned to his grandmother and noticed that the old lady was just as confused as he was, Tehilla as usual was not one to show emotions about anything.r

“Now no freaky magic stuff boy…. It would be a shame to blow your head off. But all three of you are high value targets, apart from what we are going to take from you, somebody has paid a lot of money to have you guys eliminated, which means after a few days or weeks of torture, after taking everything you own, we will random you guys…. Or at least whatever is left of your corpses.r

“You know… you really talk too much.” Cole moved, he didn’t have access to all his abilities, and to those that he felt that he could use, he really couldn’t use for long, and they would not be as strong out here that they would be in the game. But still, in regards to normal humans….Cole was unstoppable.r

His body slid forwards, going over the table as he kicked the gun in the hands of Snake tattoo, then used his other leg to kick him in the face. [Gravity] was utilized to thrown all four of them backwards as they smashed into the walls behind them. Cole pulled out the revolvers he had been given, then quickly ducked as another bullet went over his head, giving his targets time to scramble back up to their feet.r

[Shadow Dance]r

Cole vanished, showing up behind them, as the revolvers in his hands went off four times each for four skulls of very stupid pirates. He kicked the table up, flipping it to it’s side, which was saying something as that table was well over there inches thick. And carved out of wood. It was extremely sturdy and it completely protected his grandmother and Tehilla. He quickly drew down the blinds to their booth, recognizing that the sniper had set up shop in the hotel opposite the restaurant’s building.r

“Are you guys hurt?” Cole asked as he looked over his grandmother and Tehilla for any injury whatsoever.r

“We’re fine, but honestly I am very angry about this. Plus it seems they are jamming the signal for the building, I can’t call for backup.” The Matriarch said as Cole narrowed his eyes.r

“Then that means they knew you were going to be here. Who else knew you were coming?” Cole asked as another shot blasted off a chunk of the table they were hiding behind.r

“Just us! Your AI and your grandfa-” Cole turned around so quickly his head almost fell off his neck.r .𝒐𝙧𝒈

“No! don’t say that, he wouldn’t! is this a test? A set up!” Cole yelled out loud, only for him to get slapped across the face.r

“Why the hell would I want to frame my own husband! Are you blind, they’re trying to kill me too, all three of us! I do not know what’s going on Cole, but the pirates could just have easily set up shop. Remember somebody paid them a lot of money to kill us, so while this hit is a little too organized I don’t think your grandfather is responsible…. At least not yet. Now let’s find a way to survive this first, then we will deal with the person behind this.”r

Cole gritted his teeth, it just seemed as if the more time he spent playing Titan Rising Online, shit keeps going wrong around him and people have lost their minds. Another shot went off, this time the chips from the table flew wide and slashed into Tehilla’s cheek, causing a small cut to Mar her face.r

Cole snarled out in anger and pulled the blinds to the side before pointing his Revolver in the direction he had had tracked the shots were coming from.r

[Sapphire Sniping]r

The Revolver broke into pieces, but the bullet traveled the distance none the less, and much to the shock of Cole, blasted apart and entire floor of the building opposite their current one. Shards of sapphires shot out of it, creating a crown of stalagmites that surrounded the building.r

Cole felt his breath hitch in his throat as the world seemed to tilt to the side and the edges of his vision began to go black. He stumbled backwards into the waiting arms of his grandmother who brought him right back down to the ground as he shook his head, desperately trying to reorient himself. r

[Master I was able to alert the security detail placed on you by Sierra Corp, they are on their way to your location now, ETA 7 minutes and counting. Hang on Sir.]r