Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 530 "Vulture"

On a hill in the northern suburbs of Saint Simion Township, there is a broken wall covered with wild vines.

Legend has it that there is a very special brick on the wall. As long as you pull it out of the wall at midnight, then light a spermaceti candle in the gap and put a small bag of nutmeg next to the candle, it won't be long before a strange hand appears "behind the wall", takes the nutmeg and hands out a "contract".

The text on the contract is probably not in any language known to human society, but the amazing thing is that when you hold the parchment in your hand, you can naturally understand the meaning of the text on the paper, even if you are illiterate.

The contents of the contract can be said to be varied.

Some of them are simple and not dangerous, but a little weird, like fishing for a specific species of fish in a canal or taking a shit in a specific place in town.

But some are extremely dangerous, and even make people wonder if they are jokes. For example, I once heard that someone had seen a contract in which the commission written on it was to "assassinate the King of France."

Even more absurd is that these contracts do not seem to follow the principle of "risk equals reward".

For tasks like fishing and pooping, sometimes the reward is a whole bag of gold coins, but sometimes the reward is just "a handkerchief covered with snot."

Similarly, missions that require killing or risking being killed offer rewards ranging from "a jeweled bracelet" to "a basket of eggs."

It’s as if there is a group of people... or maybe not people, who post tasks based on their logic and needs in that “world behind the wall” all day long, and set some rewards that they think are reasonable or simply for fun.

Or maybe, in the eyes of those people, the risks and values ​​of everything in this world are different from what we know...

Perhaps on a certain day, fishing can be dangerous and deadly.

On the same day, if you wanted to assassinate the king, you could do it by waving a dagger through the streets of Paris.

Of course, these are not things I can figure out. I just think about them when I’m bored. Thinking too much will only give me a headache.

Let’s go back to that “contract”…

When you get the contract at that wall, you have to decide on the spot whether to accept it.

If you choose to accept, you don't need to sign or put your fingerprints on it, you can just take the contract away; when you have completed the commission, the contract will disappear on its own, and then when you are in a safe environment, the "reward" will suddenly appear beside you in some form.

Of course, all contracts have a "time limit", usually ranging from a few days to a few months. It is said that there are also contracts that last for several years or even decades, but I have never seen the latter with my own eyes.

There is a reward for completing the contract, and there is also a "price" for failing to complete it. And that price... let's put it this way, each one is unacceptable, and the lightest one will make you lose something like a finger.

But if you do not accept the contract, then after you hand the contract back, the hand will no longer pay attention to you that night, nor the next day... In fact, you have to come back after seven days to see the new contract.

In addition, the same person can only accept one contract at the same time; when there are multiple people near the wall, the hand will not appear.

Someone had tried it before. He had some accomplices lie in ambush around the broken wall, and then he would go forward alone to summon "the hand".

According to his plan, when the hand appeared, he would grab it firmly, and then call on his accomplices to rush forward and try to catch the other party out from behind the "wall", but he failed in the end because the other party seemed to know that there were other people nearby, so it never appeared.

So, later on, the man tried to grab the hand by himself...

Later, people learned from his accomplices that he had disappeared.

It is actually impossible to tell whether this story is true or not. It is possible that the people who told the story killed the missing guy for some purpose, and then made up this lie and spread it everywhere, in order to put the blame on something that cannot be traced.

But anyway, since then, I haven't heard of anyone trying to offend those things "behind the wall".

By the way, after saying so much, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Dan Munteanu, and I’m an expert in “helping others complete contracts.”

But the brothers in the underworld like to call me "Vulture" because they think I'm... you know... that kind of person.

The kind of person who stays in a safe position, waits until others are about to collapse, and then goes up to reap the benefits and eats up everything from the other party.

But I must defend myself from this, these are all misunderstandings of me by the world.

Although I have done some similar things, I swear to God that I was doing my best to help those guys before they took the initiative to face their inevitable death.

In fact, most of the clients who came to me survived in the end, and many of them became repeat customers... If it was true as the rumors said, that every client I dealt with died in the end and was taken advantage of by me, then I would have quit long ago, right?

Many people have asked me, if I am so good at completing contracts, why don’t I just take them myself?
Let me put it this way…Initially, I took on contracts on my own, and I made a lot of money from it, so much at one point that I thought, “I can retire from this job if I just do one more job.”

Then that day, “the contract” came.

The content of the commission was as absurd as ever. It asked me to go to a basement in the city early the next morning to catch flies. As long as I could catch one before sunset, I would be considered a success, regardless of whether it was dead or alive.

The reward for this contract was incredibly generous, but the price was that I would lose most of the wealth I had accumulated so far.

Considering that the matter was not difficult and the cost would not endanger my life and health, I hesitated but finally accepted it.

As for the ending of this matter...I think everyone can guess it.

So later on, I no longer took the initiative to accept contracts. Instead, I switched to providing consultation, help, or handling the affairs of those who accepted the contracts, and charging relatively reasonable fees for it.

Some people become desperate when they see that they cannot complete the contract, or want to refuse to pay after receiving the payment. Can you blame me for taking advantage of them?
Anyway, I think I am doing a pretty good job because some people want to imitate me, but they couldn’t do it for long or even lost their lives.

Obviously, doing this job requires not only a certain degree of force, but also intelligence.

Besides, I don’t refuse every commission. I will accept every commission.

But I think the guest who came today is capable of doing this job. The content of the contract he received is to kill two clowns from the Gaoying Circus.

The contract was for ten days, the reward was a whole box of gold and silver treasures, and the price line read "captured by Mr. Florescu and given to vampires as a snack."

Coincidentally, I have seen the name "Mr. Florescu" on a contract. I have forgotten the content of the contract. I only remember that the reward was "Mr. Florescu can take you to the 'Scare Box' for a day"... Because the description was too ambiguous, I did not accept it at the time, but it still left some impression.

Now it seems that perhaps Mr. Florescu is a broker walking between "behind the wall" and our world?
Who cares? If I fail, it won’t be me who gets arrested, but my client.

The old man said his name was Dumitru, and he didn't tell me his last name or anything like that, but of course I didn't care.

After chatting with him for only a short while, I could tell that he was a novice who had never accepted a contract or had only encountered those kinds of shitty missions. On the one hand, his face was full of greed for gold and silver treasures, and on the other hand, he was a little afraid of this kind of mission that required "killing".

His fear was not because he was worried about his guilty conscience, but because he was afraid that the target would be difficult to kill and the mission would fail.

Yes, otherwise he wouldn’t come to me for help.

As we continued talking, I could strongly feel that this was a guy who would most likely cause trouble when it came to payment. Sure enough, after I said I wanted 30%, he bargained with me in all kinds of ways, and his words showed that he was extremely resistant to the idea of ​​splitting the money, but his butt was firmly seated in the chair with no intention of leaving at all.

Finally, I gave in to 20% and he agreed reluctantly. Before leaving, he looked back at me with a strange look.

Alas, this is undoubtedly another guy who will stab me in the back after the contract is completed... Then he can't blame me for doing what a "vulture" should do.

But now, at least before he really attacks me, I still have to do my job well, so I'll start by investigating this "High Hard Circus"...

(End of this chapter)