Devil Capital System

CHAPTER 18 — Rumors

CHAPTER 18 — Power Rangers

The Yard was still fairly crowded that night. The sounds of student conversations, clinking utensils, soft music, and occasional bursts of laughter blended together in the air.

Although students from South Block and North Tower occasionally showed up there, nothing particularly interesting had happened today, leaving most of the seats occupied by Commons residents who treated the place like their shared living room.

At one of the tables in the middle of the food court, Adam leaned back in his chair while staring at Caleb and Dylan sitting across from him.

“No matter what happens, we can’t just delete it.”

Caleb immediately frowned.“Why not?”

Adam let out a slow sigh and rubbed his face.“Because it’s not our responsibility. We only built the place. We’re not the ones who uploaded it, and we’re not the ones creating all that bullshit on there.”

Dylan, who had been busy stabbing fries with his fork the whole time, finally looked up. But before he could say anything, Caleb cut in first.

“I get what you mean... but it’s Gavin.” Caleb leaned forward. “We let that video stay up all this time. And obviously, nobody with a life is going to waste that much money just to make sure people can’t watch it anymore.”

Adam nodded, agreeing with him. But a moment later, he spoke again.

“If we start deleting things just because we know the person involved, then what happens after that?” Adam looked at him. “Do we start deleting everything else too? People trust that place because they believe we don’t interfere.”

“Didn’t we already talk about this when we built and developed it? The platform’s value depends on several things... and user trust is one of them.”

The three of them fell silent. Because even if nobody said it out loud, they all knew Adam was right.

Several seconds passed before Caleb leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

“If one of us were in Gavin’s position...” he said quietly. “If it were me, Dylan, or even you...” He looked at Adam. “Would you still want that video to stay up?”

This time, the silence lasted much longer.

Adam lowered his head for a few seconds before finally exhaling.

“No.”

Dylan slowly nodded. “Well then... I guess that settles it.”

But Adam suddenly looked up again.

“Wait.”

He paused briefly before continuing. “If we’re really going to delete it... shouldn’t we tell Gavin too?”

“No...” Caleb frowned. “More than deleting it, shouldn’t we have told him about this from the very beginning?”

The three of them fell silent again. Because they suddenly realized that deleting something and telling Gavin were two completely different things.

And just as Caleb opened his mouth, someone beat him to it.

“What exactly am I supposed to know?”

The three of them practically jumped and turned around at the same time.

Gavin was standing there carrying several paper bags in both hands.

Dylan blinked several times.

“Ga-Gavin... since when the hell were you standing there?!”

Gavin simply shrugged before walking over and placing all the bags onto the table.

“Just now.” He pulled out an empty chair beside them. “I ran here.”

Adam frowned while staring at the paper bags on the table.

“Gavin... what’s all this?”

Gavin only smiled faintly and shrugged again.

“Nothing much...”

“I just went shopping and figured I’d buy something for you guys too.”

For a moment, the three of them just stared at him without moving.

Then their eyes slowly drifted downward toward the large logos printed on the paper bags.

Their mouths immediately fell open.

“No fucking way...” Caleb muttered.

His eyes widened before slowly lifting toward Gavin. “You didn’t seriously buy—”

“Holy shit! There’s actually stuff inside!!”

Dylan suddenly shouted.

Apparently, he had already opened one of the bags and peeked inside.

Instantly, Adam and Caleb dragged the other bags toward themselves.

A few seconds later, the entire table descended into chaos.

They pulled items out one after another, flipping hoodies around, lifting shirts, checking labels, and staring at the logos with expressions of complete disbelief.

“Gavin...” Dylan swallowed hard.

“Is this stuff real?”

“Idiot!” Caleb immediately snapped while flipping over the jacket in his hands.

“Look at the logo!”

Then he slowly raised his head. “Gavin... this is seriously for us?”

“Yeah.” Gavin leaned back casually. “Try them on. I’m not sure if I got the sizes right.”

Without a second thought, all three of them immediately ignored the clothes. They figured those would probably fit anyway since their body sizes weren’t that different.

Their attention instantly shifted toward the shoe boxes.

Each of them grabbed one.

Opened it.

Then froze.

“...”

“...”

“...”

Slowly, they raised their heads at the same time.

These weren’t ordinary shoes. They were the newest models—high-end lines from a major brand.

Dylan stared at Gavin like he was looking at some alien lifeform.

“Gavin...” he said slowly. “Did you trade your soul to the devil or something?”

Gavin only smiled.

Caleb immediately stared at him with widened eyes.

“No... I don’t think that’s possible. But wait a second...”

He slowly raised one finger. “I just realized something.”

“Hm?” Dylan turned toward him.

Caleb narrowed his eyes at Gavin. “He’s been disappearing a lot lately.”

Caleb slowly leaned back away from the table while still clutching a pair of shoes against his chest.

“Oh, shit...”

“What?” Adam frowned.

Caleb pointed at Gavin with a trembling hand while holding the shoe in the other.

“Gavin... don’t tell me you’re laundering money for a cartel?”

“I—”

“Seriously?!” Dylan suddenly shouted, cutting him off. “Shit! Don’t tell me we’re involved now too?!”

He immediately hugged the shoes against his chest even tighter.

Adam grabbed his forehead.

“Are you two idiots?”

“Huh?!”

“If he joined a cartel, he’d definitely be different.”

“Different how?”

Adam stared at Gavin for a few seconds.

“I don’t know... wearing black suits, dragon tattoos on his back, talking in weird code or something.”

Caleb’s eyes widened. “Holy shit...”

“Gavin, take your shirt off!!”

“Yeah! Show us your tattoos!!”

“What tattoos?!” Gavin snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you guys?!”

“Wait!!” Adam suddenly shouted, raising both hands—which were also holding a pair of shoes.

“I don’t think the cartel thing makes sense either...” Adam said again. “There’s no way he’d join something like that.”

The other two immediately nodded in agreement.

“Finally...” Gavin muttered in relief.

But apparently things weren’t over yet.

Because a moment later, Dylan suddenly froze as if he had just realized something before slowly turning toward Gavin.

“You bastard...”

“What now?” Gavin asked with a confused look.

“You married a rich widow?!”

“Me? What?!” Gavin stared at him.

“You got married?!” Adam blurted out.

“Shit! Are you guys seriously—”

“A rich... widow?!” Caleb shouted.

Gavin was completely speechless from the sheer insanity of his friends' imaginations.

“Hey, that makes even less sense...” Adam finally said.

“Why not?”

“As far as I know...” Adam lowered his gaze for some reason. “For something like that... being handsome isn’t enough.”

Gavin immediately crossed both hands over the zipper area of his pants. “Hey, what the hell are you doing...”

“Shit...” Caleb muttered. “I actually think that makes perfect sense.”

“Yeah...” Dylan nodded. “I’ve seen it before.”

“Seen what?” Gavin asked.

But they completely ignored him.

“This bastard...” Dylan said while pointing at Gavin but looking back and forth between the other two.

“He definitely has some abnormal weapon.”

“Are you guys actually insane?!” Gavin shouted.

“What the hell are you even talking abo—”

“Look who finally decided to show up!”

“And it looks like the rumors are true after all.”

All four of them turned at the same time as someone suddenly cut Gavin off.

And then they saw several girls standing there in formation, looking like a Power Rangers squad preparing for battle.

At the very front... The Red Ranger was Nina.

Her sharp gaze immediately locked onto Gavin—the source of chaos at the center of the table.

“Gavin...” she said slowly.

“You seriously robbed some rich grandma?!”