Wilbur was lost in thought when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and was met with a strong smell of alcohol. Mitch, looking very drunk, said, "Brother, you treated us to this meal, and now you see we've all had too much to drink. We can't get back on our own. Can you arrange a car to take us all home? Sorry for the trouble." Wilbur looked around and saw that the entire exploration team was indeed slumped over drunk. It seemed they had exhausted their savings over the years for their expeditions and had not had such a lavish meal in a long time. No one wanted to miss this opportunity. Everyone wanted to enjoy it fully, and most of the food on the table had been eaten. This scene reminded Wilbur of when he used to lead the Abyss Mercenaries. When people were hungry, nothing else mattered. They instinctively craved to be full. Wilbur felt a familiar sensation and smiled slightly. He snapped his fingers and said, "Okay, no problem. Leave it to me." Wilbur then called a
Wilbur let out a long sigh and said, "Alright, now you're home too. All eight of you are back in your homes, so I can relax. Get some rest. I'll head back now. Let's keep in touch." As he turned to leave, he heard Mitch call out, "Wait a minute!" Wilbur stopped and turned to see Mitch wobbling as he got up from the sofa. Suddenly, with a loud thud, Mitch dropped to his knees in front of Wilbur. "Mitch, you're drunk." Wilbur reached out to help him, but Mitch grabbed his hands firmly, speaking earnestly, "Wait, Wilbur. I'm not drunk. I really have something I need to ask you." "Ask me? What do you need? You're drunk now. Maybe we should talk when you sober up?" "No, I can't wait." Mitch shook his head vigorously, his tone sincere and desperate, "I really need money right now, Wilbur. You know we've been on twenty-three expeditions without any success. If this keeps up, I'm afraid I'll ruin my friends' lives. I'd rather become a failure myself than drag them down with me. I
Wilbur said, "Mitch, first of all, you need to understand that the best exploration teams have only managed to go ten kilometers into the forest. Even if I lend you a million to upgrade your equipment, we might still struggle to go through the forest. We might not even reach ten kilometers. If we can't find the treasure, wouldn't that million be wasted? Wouldn't you feel even more guilty toward me?" Hearing this, Mitch looked up sharply at Wilbur. He was initially taken aback for a moment before he said excitedly, "No, I guarantee we can find the treasure. We're just one opportunity away." "Mitch, the primeval forest is full of unknown dangers. I don't know where your confidence comes from, but even basic threats like bloodsucking bugs are hard to deal with." Mitch looked seriously at Wilbur and said, "To be honest, after twenty-three expeditions, we've found the weakness of those bloodsucking insects. We can carve out a path that avoids them. Ten kilometers is not an issue for u
Wilbur turned around, leaning down to say, "I'll give you one more chance then, Captain Mitch. I hope you won't try to trick me this time, or I'm never lending you the money." "Of course." Mitch's chest heaved up and down. "Actually, out of the seven of them, I only knew why Vernon, Veda, Bill, and Kean persisted. As for Green, Eli, and Aite, I have no idea why they held on. I really don't." "That's fine. Now, you just need to tell me why Vernon, Veda, Bill, and Green persisted, and I'll send you a million dollars right after. But our agreement doesn't change in the slightest. Once we find the gold, we're splitting it equally." "Alright!" Mitch nodded fervently and told Wilbur the reason why Vernon, Veda, Bill, and Kean persisted in adventuring. It turned out that Vernon used to be a librarian and had five years of his bonus withheld from him by his superior. Vernon had worked hard and never made any mistakes on his job at the library, and the bonus was supposed to go into
A few minutes later, Mitch's phone received a notification for the transfer to his bank account. "Thank you." Tears welled up in Mitch's eyes, and he seemed overwhelmed with emotion. Wilbur said, "No worries. Get some rest. I've now invested in Mitch's exploration team. We'll get in touch after you get some rest. We'll talk about the next step of our plan after that." After getting back to the hotel, Wilbur began thinking about the eight explorers. Mitch's wish had come true, and Vernon's was next. For that to happen, the head of the library Vernon had worked at would need to release Vernon's bonus, then apologize and rehire Vernon. That was hardly a challenge. As for Veda, the trauma of having the woman he loved marry another man was quite tough. However, it was considered pretty common in daily life. All was fair in love, and everyone was entitled to make their own decisions. Wilbur felt like Veda's problems might be related to the resentment nestled within him. As long as
Vernon finished his boxing match. His face was swollen from getting beaten up, but he still shook Wilbur's hand and thanked him. Wilbur met up with Bill in the afternoon. The two of them talked for a while, and Bill's girlfriend was brought up. Bill smiled. "Heather likes the wealthy life. That's just how she is, and it's hardly going to change." Wilbur said, "I really don't know what you see in her." Bill chuckled. "Her looks, and her personality. That's what I like." "You know that Heather only cares about money. Even if you did give her a big sum of money, she might leave you again eventually." "I don't care. I just want to be with her for a year, and I'll be satisfied. Of course, it'd be great if she stayed longer." Throughout the conversation, Wilbur continuously reminded Bill of the kind of person Heather was, but Bill seemed to have made his mind up. Despite not knowing what on earth Bill saw in her, Wilbur still arranged for someone to reach out to Heather in sec
Eli and Aite looked at each other, and their expressions darkened. "That's hardly possible, Mister Penn. We've done the math, and that chest of gold is really worth around two hundred million. The difference can't be that big." Aite nodded. "We want forty million, and not a penny less. Otherwise, we won't give up our share." Wilbur frowned at the two men with growing suspicion. After all, the chest was buried deep in the Vicente Primeval Forest, where no one had reached to this day. No one was supposed to know how much that treasure cost at all. Not only did these two men know that the treasure was a chest full of gold, but they even knew how much it was worth. How was that possible? Wilbur was the CEO of Cape International and worth billions of dollars, so forty million dollars was hardly anything to him. Even so, he had his boundaries. Wilbur would have been fine helping them out if it was just a few million dollars. However, the two brothers had asked for forty million out
Eli said, "You're not wrong, Mister Penn. Green isn't our friend." However, Aite spoke up as well, "You've got it wrong, Mister Penn. Green is our friend. We're all on the same exploration team, after all. Green is just a regular friend to us. Regular friends don't have the right to listen in on what we're about to discuss. We're going to tell you why we asked for forty million dollars." "Is that so?" Wilbur smiled as he looked at Aite. Aite was the younger of the two brothers, but he seemed to be the more intelligent one. He was hesitating to speak then, which piqued Wilbur's interest. What could possibly be the reason behind the brothers' request for forty million dollars? Aite nodded. "We can't just tell anyone about a secret like that, though. So, we'd need to determine if you can afford to hear about it." "Do you mind showing us your bank account balance?" "Of course not." Wilbur knew that these brothers did not trust him too much and sent them a screenshot of the fi