Rochelle was relatively powerful within the legal division of Trismus. However, that’s just raw power. In terms of rank, she was quite low. She barely had any power towards the company if at all.

Thus, to protect herself, she always kept a copy of the bad deeds of Trismus with her.

Concrete evidence that, if released, would cause the entire company’s stocks to plummet straight down. Proof of bribing officials, embezzling, even erasing threats—such things were in excess.

So much that, if she ever felt threatened, she was confident she could use it all as leverage to survive.

And all those were stored in the small pendant-shaped protective artifact she had—now in the hands of Axel, oblivious of the fact.

"What’s wrong?" He grinned, staring at Rochelle who had gone quiet for a while. "If you’re not calling them off, then I’ll..."

"W-Wait...!"

Just as the grip on his finger tightened, the woman moved.

"Everyone, retreat!" She shouted to the radio on her shoulder. "Leave this planet for now, and stop over at a place that has this place outside of everyone’s weapon range!"

If Axel crushed the pendant, then not only would she lose her lifeline, she would also end up failing her task. She would lose her leverage and would most likely end up "erased" by the company, like the millions of others who had failed the company’s trust before her.

Thus, right now, her priority was to recover the pendant, at least.

With it, she could survive. With it, she could avoid erasure.

Although her men were confused, about a minute later, all the ships had disappeared from Axevaria Kingdom’s skies. Not a trace of them were left above—though tons were scattered across the ground, of course.

"There, I made them back off." Rochelle, recovering her breath, growled. "Now, return my pendant!"

"No rush, miss."

Axel’s smile, however, only widened at that moment.

Although he wasn’t sure why, the woman was desperate to get her hands on the pendant. But from his appraisal, it was just a simple pendant, nothing worth mentioning.

He was thinking it was some sort of emotional memento or something... but he figured someone like Rochelle wouldn’t put her own life before a simple trinket.

’Something smells... Fishy.’

Curious, Axel returned the item to his inventory. However, the same as before, the description was clear.

<Farsight High Quality Protective Necklace Lv. 6>

<An automatic protective device able to hold against 3 god-level attacks.>

<Market Value: 300 Billion Colts>

There was nothing eye-catching from it.

Still, his instincts were telling him there was more to it. As such, he bought an extra item from the shop and applied it to the pendant immediately.

An auxiliary item that cost him 50 million a piece—Disguise Breaker Scroll.

An item that could remove disguised "stats" of an item, even strong ones that the Harem System couldn’t break through.

After applying it to the pendant, the description quickly changed.

<Farsight Stealth Storage Protective Necklace Lv. 9>

<An automatic protective device able to hold against 5 god-level attacks. Can also store information up to 500 Petabytes worth.>

<Market Value: 50 Quadrillion Colts>

<System-Analyzed Information Summary: Trismus Weapon Solutions’ Dark Side>

Axel’s eyes glowed with excitement reading this. At the same time, a plan played out in his mind. He quickly bought another Farsight High Quality Protective Necklace Lv. 6 and palmed it smoothly, not letting Rochelle notice anything at all.

The entire analysis and buying of items were done in under 0.01 seconds, after all. To Rochelle’s eyes, the pendant had never left Axel’s hand for even a moment.

"Alright!"

But of course, even though he was now holding a fake, he didn’t just hand it back so easily. Doing that would not only raise her suspicion, but even make her look down on him down the line.

"From this moment on, you, Rochelle, are a POW. If you want to return to wherever you came from, you need to pay for your bail."

"You fucker...!"

One of the bulky men behind Rochelle acted up, running forward as if wanting to punch Axel square in the face.

However, after taking just one step, something flashed.

A powerful gust of wind, along with the man’s head exploding. His body crumpling, falling to the ground powerlessly.

BANG!

The sound only arrived five seconds later, telling the others what had happened.

Though none of them could believe what they had just seen.

From the sound, they could tell it came from an old-school gunpowder-based weapon. But such a weapon shouldn’t have had enough power to pierce through their defenses, even if they were standing there naked. Much less when they were armed to the teeth.

But no, reality was that he died just like that.

One hit and he was gone. The man who had been ready to throw a punch a moment ago was now just a heap on the ground, headless and still.

"The one I am claiming as POW is only your leader, Rochelle. The rest... I don’t really care, so be careful of your actions." Axel warned, crossing his arms.

At that moment, the wind changed.

Earlier, they were thinking that as long as the one who had made half their fleet disappear in a moment didn’t move, they were safe. That the man before them, or anyone else beside that mysterious figure, were nothing but trash they could kill easily.

But now, they felt cold.

Someone was aiming for them beyond their perception, with enough precision to kill them accurately while moving.

Someone whose presence they couldn’t feel, couldn’t locate, couldn’t even guess the direction of. It was the kind of cold that had nothing to do with temperature—the kind that settled deep in the gut and refused to leave.

One wrong move, and it might be their heads exploding next.

"I-I surrender! I don’t want to die!"

"Fuck this...! Why should I...?!"

"Kelaid... He... Head..."

The reactions were varied.

Some quickly knelt down, begging for forgiveness and for Axel to spare their lives. A few turned around, jumping away, planning to run, while a select few remained frozen in place, as if their minds had come to a halt entirely.

BOOM!

But to those who tried to escape, Mana Arrows of various elements quickly chased them down and caused their bodies to explode into a million pieces.

They couldn’t even leave an intact corpse behind.

Worse, Axel hadn’t lifted a finger the entire time.

Meaning it wasn’t his order, but a pre-ordained attack with specific prerequisites—something set in motion long before any of them had thought to run.

"...I get it." Rochelle bit her lip until it bled as she spoke. "How much should I pay to leave this place alive?"

"Hmm? Not much, really." Axel grinned, extending a hand forward and holding the fake pendant out to her. "I guess equivalent to ten times the value of this protective artifact?"

"You...!"

Rochelle knew Axel was trying to extort from her. However, the disguised pendant cost only 300 Billion Colts. Even at ten times that amount, it wouldn’t really touch the real value of the item.

She took a deep breath, pushing her anger and her own stupidity behind her, and nodded. She changed her mindset, thinking that instead of paying for her freedom, she’s buying something that’s worth 50 Quadrillion for a measly 3 Trillion.

It was a steal!

"Alright, 3 Trillion Colts. Here, take it."

She said it flatly, presenting a black card to Axel.

It looked literally like a credit card, so Axel didn’t have a hard time understanding its use. He waved a finger, pulling the card over, and let the system scan it.

After getting 3 billion worth and transferring it to his account, he walked over and handed both the card and the pendant back. His smile settling into something more natural, more relaxed—the kind that made it worse, somehow.

"Transaction complete. Here you go." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Rochelle snatched it away, almost hugging the pendant. She then walked a few steps back, and growled at him without turning around.

"You win this time, but this won’t be our last." She warned. "The next time we meet... you’re dead."

Then, she snapped her fingers, seemingly activating something.

Her figure got covered in a bright light as she disappeared from where she stood, leaving only her dumbfounded subordinates behind.

Axel smiled, shaking his head as if finding her actions funny—before staring at the remnants and spoke.

"As for you guys... How much can you cough up?"