The First Gear

"Be careful, and don't talk with their boss much, he is one sneaky bastard!" this is what said the familiar sound from the other end of the phone, "and if he starts messing with you or tries to change something in the contract you better leave it at there, they might be small but I've head that the boss is somewhat dangerous, think before you act!".

"Are you sure that I'll be alright, man? this building is huge for some low-life gang!" a man with a black suit stepped out of his car and went to the car trunk, if any of the passengers took a look at him they will quickly think he is some salaryman.

Nothing looks odd just a regular man doing his regular job, however, what was odd, was the suitcase that he was trying to get out of his car trunk, it looks really heavy, and also the place that he was next to.

Using both hands to pull the suitcase out and twisting his neck to his left shoulder trying to hold his phone still so he could continue his call, the man took a look at the building that was in front of him, it was big and the walls were dirty but the windows were fancy, which makes it very odd.

For a moment he thought that he was in the wrong place, he thought that he got to the wrong location "Hey boss, are you sure you gave me the correct address, this place is haunted for sure!" he said with a heavy look on his face.

You could say that this place is haunted, it looks like an abandoned hotel, and it doesn't fit this street at all, All it has is the word "HOTEL" above the building entrance. The street has nice, clean, and beautiful buildings, and not far away there was a middle school, so the street was crowded, a lot of people are passing by, doing their stuff, and there was also a lot of traffic, this area was alive.

From the way he addressed the person on the phone, you immediately know that he was talking to his boss, and he was talking informally for some reason.

"Hahaha... yes, you could say it's haunted, those are some low-lives trying to live the thug life, you will be alright!" it doesn't seem like he mind the way our man was addressing him, on the contrary, he laughs at the stupid comment he left "Anyways, take care brother, I got work to do, and I don't want our boss to start shouting at me!".

"Aight boss, good luck dealing with the big boss!" after he said that, he hung up his phone, putting it in his suit pocket he took a quick look at the entrance of the building and let out a sigh.

He starts walking toward the building slowly, pulling his suitcase with him, no he was fighting it to be specific it seems that it was heavy, after a couple of steps he got to the entrance, and he was about to push the door to open it.

His hand didn't reach out to the double door to, suddenly the door opened, what was next to him after it fully opens was a huge man, a really huge man, our man wasn't small nor huge, he was average, but the man that was in front of him was double his size!

"You've heard me, didn't you?" the man shrunk a bit after realizing the bear that was ahead of him.

"Of course I did!" the huge man said smirking like he set his fangs on his victim's neck, but it didn't last long "now pull up your gun, and give me your phone, and hurry up, our boss is waiting upstairs".

"How in the hell... or just take it, I don't want any trouble", He was about to ask him how did he know that he had a gun hidden behind his back, just to quickly realized that only an idiot who wants to die will come to a thug hideout unarmed.

Reaching the hidden gun that was covered by the suit vest on his back around his belt, he puts both his phone and gun on the table that was close to the entrance on his left side.

"Do you have anything hidden beside the gun? we don't want trouble if you know what I mean." the huge guy said looking at the gun that our man put on the table.

"I'm not an idiot, I don't have anything else on me!" he said while closing his eyes.

He was correct, if he had something else on him it would lead to some very big problems, while he is putting himself at the mercy of his enemy since he is entering their dungeon, but if they were to find anything funny on him his life would be on the line, what could our guy do it just trust them and pray that what inside the dungeon are humans, not goblines.

"I do trust you my dude!" the bear said holding a laugh "I'm sorry for lying I don't, now let me take a look and see myself!" then he went laughing, from the way he was laughing so hard you could say that the building will collapse at any moment.

Trying to find what the man finds funny our guy just pulls his hand up and lets out another sigh, he was doing soo he can get checked and move on with his life since he was getting annoyed by the acts of the huge monster that was in front of him.

He checked lightly and quickly so he finished fast, he didn't find anything sketchy on the man's body, he only found cigarettes and a lighter, while it wasn't something harmful, he still took them away, after checking him once again he made a gesture to him, that meant that he was ok, and start walking with a rather fast pace.

Our guy was surprised, while on the outside the building looks like it's a century old, on the inside it was nice, he was walking in a narrow but long hallway but it looks decent nonetheless, the ground was furnished with a red carpet, on his left and right are clean white walls, holding some pictures of some random people, he could recognize some of them, most of them were historian characters.

He was puzzled by the way it looks, he thought to himself how a low-life gang has this kind of elegance?

He followed the huge man that was in front of him quietly while looking left and right, it maybe looks nice inside, but it was still the enemy dungeon so he was carefully trying to remember the building layout, the building wasn't complicated so he was able to memorize everything he passed.

They went up to the last floor, which was the fourth in the building, on the other side of the hallway there was a double door it was the same door that was at the entrance, when they arrived the man in front of him stopped exactly an inch away from the door.

"Stay here and wait for my call!" the huge guy said with a serious face when he was about to enter, which was weird since all the way here he was humming some tunes.

He quickly grabbed the doorknob and went inside, our guy was looking at the man's back at that moment waiting for the call to enter, but when the door opened he heard someone saying "Oh, Luke you are here, so did our guest ..." with a cheerful yet heavy voice.

He couldn't hear the rest because the man named Luke closed the door after entering, but it was obvious what the man in the room was about to say, he was talking about him.

He waited a bit, like a moment or soo, then the huge door opened again, it was Luke who opened it "you may enter!" Luke went with the same face as before.

After getting the call, the man got himself a deep breath, fixed his necktie, and start dragging his suitcase inside the room, he was about to enter the room he spotted some other men were coming from the other end of the hallways, he didn't think too much about it so he entered the room and taking a glance at it, the man went dumbfounded for a moment.

"!!".

It was like he enter another building, while the whole building was in a western-like style, this room was more like a Japanese style. The floor was made with tatami? and the wall was covered in paper, that paper was like the Japanese shoji, there were also some paintings hanging up on the walls, it was some Japanese kanji handwriting.

It wasn't the best imitation of the Japanese style, however, it was impressive nonetheless.

"Did you like it?" a calm voice went from the person that was next to him.

The man was so drowned that he didn't realize that there was a man sitting in front of him " yeah I think I'm digging it!" the man said with a low voice, he didn't know what he just said, he didn't even look at the one who asks him.

After he starts waking up, he looked at the person that was facing him, and he immediately snapped back to reality "I'm so sorry, I talked without thinking!" he bowed down and said in an embarrassed tone.

"If you liked it, I also got a guestroom with an Arabic style if you wanna take a look!" the man in front said smilingly "...will leave it for later, but first, welcome, I'm Shin you could say that I'm the boss... and uh also yes I'm Japanese!".

The man names Shin was the boss of this gang, he was in his thirties, he was Japanese with blond hair which you don't see every day, he was tall and quite muscular, wearing a dark blue suit.

After declaring his name Luke closed the door and took a bodyguard stance, looking at him the man turned back to face Shin.

"Thanks, sir. My name is Edward, on behalf of Fang company I've brought what you were looking for!" pointing at the suitcase beside him Edward said with a serious look as he switched his gear to business mode.

Looking at his bodyguard's eyes, Shin nodded once, it was a sign that Luke took it as a confirmation, Luke went and seize the suitcase, he was about to check out to see if Edward is delivering what they had agreed on.

Edward was okay with this, he stepped a couple of steps forward letting Luke do his job.

"So I honestly don't have much info about this product, I just wanted to seize some of it because of its popularity, can you tell me more about it?" Shin said while having a smile.

Edward knew that he was lying, only an airhead would try to purchase something like this without knowing what it is, but he decided to just go with it since he doesn't want to stand still all the time.

Edward was stressed out, but he didn't want to reveal to the person next to him his facial expressions so they don't get the high ground and try to take advantage of him, so his plan was just to talk so he can hide behind his words.

"Yes, of course, although it is still a prototype it's just a drug, but unlike other products like this, this was made with a special material that makes it take a long time for the body to start getting used to it, with this it makes the person addicted to it quickly, I could go into more details about how it works, but I think this is enough for now so we can continue, shall I continue?".

"Thanks for the explanation, but I have a question if I may ask!" nodding at Edward's clarification he let out a satisfied smile then he continued "Aren't you a trading company right? how did you make this product?".

He was absolutely right, selling drugs is something but making them is something else completely, making drugs needs a big infrastructure, also making them is not a trivial task, you need a lot of money and resources, labs, and skilled people to make them all that without going to it risks, what could a trading company check from the list is the money, but the other things are not easy to build and provided, so it was a completely valid question.

"I get where you are coming from sir, but to not beat around the bushes, unfortunately, I can't answer your question. All I can say is we have our ways and our connections." without wasting time and energy Edward just let out an honest and straight answer.

"At least you are forward about it, to tell you the truth, I saw people that were taking this prototype, while you guys did a good job to keep it under control, this product was the new hot stuff in the city, some people went crazy about it, it was really a nice scene seeing people fighting for it if you know what I mean." winking his left eye Shin said with a smile.

"Yes, we are not proud about this, It somehow got leaked without us knowing, and since you guys know that this product was from us we had to take your offer... but let me ask you also a question..." admitting a mistake on his company's part Edward was about to go further on this topic.

Before he could ask his question Shin interrupt saying " How did we get the information? like you said, we have our ways and our connection, am I correct?"

Treating him like Edward did, Shin just cut off his question, he was smiling as he said that, it was like he was reading his mind, and that act put Edward off for a moment.

Edward closed his eyes "You are correct sir, but we drifted from our original topic, putting that aside, I now want to talk about the amount of money that we had agreed on, I want to confirm that you can provide it!"

"Of course, we will talk about that, but first I want to go back to what you said before... if I've heard correctly this is a prototype right?" looking at his bodyguard who has just finished checking the suitcase, he confirms the legitimacy of the product.

"Yes this is a prototype, but let me say something further, while this is a prototype the final product is not much different from this, and as you have said, it's effective" Edward starts having bad feelings about this, so he tried to clear things up as much as he can.

"So you know what I was about to say, you are sharp, but that doesn't change the fact that It's just a prototype for now, I confirmed how good it is, but that still doesn't make it a final product", Shin starts to go deeper and shows his true colors.

Edward got the idea of why he asked him to explain what it did, now since he said with his own mouth that this it was still a prototype Shin took this as an advantage so he can lead the conversation, basically, Edward got himself into Shin's trap, now he won't let off the idea of a prototype version.

Trying to slow down the pace Edward took a deep breath trying to hide the stress that start building up quickly, he went "can I get a confirmation of the amount that you need to pay?", he tried to go back to the main topic.

"We can confirm that we can pay that amount, but just let me add this, we are going to be the living testing subject like the other people on the streets right now, what will happen if any unexpected results showed up? for example a sudden death without overdosing, I'm only talking from what I have seen down there you know!", putting his hand on his chin he thought of the possibility of an error in the production that will make it a killing weapon, not a drug.

Thinking about it more Shin start laughing lightly, then he added while having a wide smirk "I'll be straight since I think you know what I'm about to say. After considering the amount that we were going to pay, I found that it will harm us more than will benefit us, considering the risks that we are taking on our side, so we are asking kindly to drop the price by 20%".

With that, Edward's doubts have been confirmed, leading him to the worst outcome, what he could do now is two things.

The first thing he could do is to abandon the deal, which in the worst case scenario, if he got on the bad side with the gang, they won't stay still, after seeing what is inside the building, and how Shin thinks, he starts rejecting the idea that this is some low-life gang, he starts thinking that this could be a threat, they could easily bring the whole situation about the fact that Fang has relationships with gangs and dealing with drugs to the public, and this goes without saying it will a game over, so he need prevent this from happening.

Next, he could accept the 20% off, but that means that the reputation of the company will decline, if the other gangs know that an unknown unnamed gang got a cut off from Fang without any good reason, it will only harm the company in future deals with other companies, and gangs.

He lost his sense of time thinking about what to do, he got to the conclusion that the best way is to withdraw for now as his boss told him, and try later after getting more advice from the high-ups.

Watching Edward lose himself thinking, all that Shin could do is smile about the fact he got the high ground, but Shin still has one more trick in his sleeves, that he was keeping it if his plans didn't work out.

"Alright, so what I got from this conversation is you are not satisfied with the pricing and want to lower it down, sadly I'm not in a position that can decide that freely, what I can do for now is report it back to the high-ups and then plan of a way that could satisfy both ends", this was the last plan Edward could think of, pushing the responsibility to the high-ups so he can withdraw for the moment.

While saying that, he reached for his suitcase and tried to grab it, Luke went back to his place beside the door standing like an idol, after seizing it, Edward looked one last time at Shin's face showing him that he is packing up and leaving.

"That's a shame really, to think that it didn't work out as expected, you're taking your leave, right?" Shin had a disappointed look on his face, he hoped for the best, but he was out of luck this time, his opponent was sharp.

"Yes, if you excuse me. As I said, I'll report it back and we will continue our conversation, This isn't the last time we will meet sir!" Edward was trying to be respectful as much as he can so he bowed down a bit before looking back at Shin.

"You may leave now, that was a rather nice talk, I think I like you, It was fun!", Shins smiled from the bottom of his heart then he added "Okay boys things didn't work out!".

"!!".

With these words, suddenly the double door that was behind Edward opened with a huge force, Edward at that moment knew what was going on, Shin's last plan, securing the product by force.

-- I hate you boss, Well at least I came prepared.

And this is how it started, the first gear of fate has started spinning.