Enforcer Manual
Chapter 692 - 691: Inner Demons_1

Chapter 692: Chapter 691: Inner Demons_1

The hearts of people in this world are cold, only strong liquor can give you a sense of warmth.

This was once an advertisement for the bar, but in the deep of the night today, Hog Foster gained a deeper understanding of this sentence.

The life of the bar was as desolate as ever; company people preferred to stay in their offices, and if they were thirsty, they’d just moisten their throats with coffee. They didn’t have time to get drunk in bars and then pile up an entire night’s worth of work for the next day.

The bar owner understood his customers well, knowing that those who came here to drink were either company executives who could freely squander their time, or those who had lost their jobs, were about to be expelled from The First Region, and had fallen into the trough of their lives. Therefore, he often left some chicken soup for the soul on the bar’s electronic sign outside, copied from the internet.

For the pure businessmen, these two types of customers had one thing in common.

They were generous with their money and willing to spend.

The former were high-ranking and indifferent to money, while the latter would often spend their years of savings in The First Region before leaving it.

The hostesses understood this as well.

No sooner had Hog Foster stepped into the bar than their eyes lit up and they surrounded him.

An old man looking dispirited and dejected fit everyone’s definition of a Big Fat Sheep, much easier to deal with than young people full of vitality. A few drinks down, and they would be out cold, or at least after pouring a few drinks into them, a good amount of gold could be squeezed out.

The moment he entered the bar, the pleasant scent of perfume enveloped Hog, the flamboyantly dressed ladies dazzled him, yet they also made him feel once again that he was being noticed.

They seemed to understand very well what their potential customers needed.

Soon, one of the hostesses recognized Hog Foster.

After all, the Foster Family counted as a prominent family within the United Government, and Hog used to be a regular in this place, but he used to come accompanied by others, followed by bodyguards, giving them no opportunity.

But now,

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

The whiskey on the back of his neck, along with the soft whispers of the girls, relaxed Hog’s taut nerves, and he laughed mockingly at himself. He, the de facto ruler of the Foster Family, had come to seek comfort from the hostesses—one would never have given these people a second glance in the past.

Strong liquors quickly filled the table, and people’s voices layered on top of each other. Under the noisy and warm atmosphere, his consciousness began to flicker, eventually turning into mechanically pouring drinks for himself. He watched the girls laughing so hard their ornaments jangled. Perhaps they genuinely wanted to cheer him up, or they were just inwardly cheering for the hefty commission they could make from these drinks.

But Hog no longer wanted to delve into those thoughts.

At least, the atmosphere in the bar became lively with his arrival, and everyone, at least on the surface, seemed to be immersed in a cheerful mood.

He seemed to understand the younger generation in his family who spent lavishly in bars.

Sometimes happiness seemed much simpler than he had imagined, no longer needing scheming, nor treading carefully to achieve the ultimate goal—he just needed to spread money like rain in this place to make many people wildly happy.

This was the first time Hog did so.

In the past, as a manager in the judicial system of the United Government, he always had to consider his image, but now, knowing he had no hope of being elected to the High-level Parliament, he just wanted to drink.

Under the cheers and encouragement of the people, he drank all the famous liquors piled up like small hills in front of him—never mind if he never woke up again.

In their mouths, he became a wise man.

No one called him a clown, even when the alcohol made him slur his speech, when he did not know what he was saying but still received the applause of others.

Until he fell asleep, Hog’s ears were still filled with people’s cheering.

Later, the whole world’s sound drifted away from him—the alcohol finally made him fall into a deep sleep.

Hog didn’t know how long he had been out cold; when he woke up, the inevitable headache from the hangover shrouded him, and the whole world quieted down. The noisy people who were just around his ears were gone, and the empty bottles on the table were knocked over haphazardly, with the scene only describable as a mess.

In the cleared spaces and on his pants, the palm of his hand, some electronic business cards lay with the pictures of those ladies on them, leaving their most beautiful and sexy sides. They had almost made it clear they hoped to see Hog again.

Hog then entered a peculiar state.

Headache and a feeling of exhaustion swept over his body, blurring his vision.

And at the seat next to him appeared an uninvited guest.

Dressed in formal attire, out of place with the bar’s atmosphere, the man sat with his arms crossed, not disturbing him, but patiently waiting for him to wake up.

Then, Hog saw a familiar face.

"Concerned Citizen".

Or more accurately, it was how he imagined the "Concerned Citizen" looked. They had never met, but Hog had conjured up the person’s appearance through countless rounds of thinking and analysis.

And from that moment on, the "Concerned Citizen" kept showing up in his life.

When he got drunk, when he was backstabbed by a friend, kicked out of the office like a loser, whenever he encountered misfortune, the "Concerned Citizen" seemed to appear beside him.

Hog suspected he was under the attack of an Ability User with interference capabilities, but some in his family thought he had gone mad.

"Ha, don’t think you can deceive me anymore, you are not really here!"

This was the first time he actively spoke to the "Concerned Citizen". Before, they had always passed each other by, but this time they were close enough to hear each other’s voice.

"Yes, I am not here."

The other party gave a positive reply, "But you need to know why you’re here."

"Because I want to uncover your true identity, and I want to make you pay for everything you’ve done!"

"But that’s not the direct reason."

The "concerned citizen" beside him shook his head, "If you really thought that way, you should never have appeared here. Right now, you should be doing everything in your power to secure for yourself the vacancy on the High-level Parliament. Only those who have lost their will to fight would numb themselves with alcohol."

Hog was stunned, and for a moment, he found himself at a loss for words.

He felt as though the "concerned citizen" had walked into his heart and seen through the reality he was desperately trying to deny. This only made him more certain of his own judgment.

Maybe the people in his family weren’t wrong, he was ill, seriously so, to the point where he could converse with the shadows in his heart. To put it in the words of a psychologist, this was a sign of schizophrenia.

"And what about you? What would you do then?"

Hog had never thought he would seek advice from an enemy, but he really didn’t want to miss this chance to converse with his "enemy."

"Figure out why things have become like this. Your friend has changed, but Mr. Hog, why has Jock become like this?"

"Because I misjudged him, he’s a treacherous scoundrel."

"No, that’s not right."

The "concerned citizen" shook his head, "You know that’s not the real reason. Think carefully, what have you missed?"

The atmosphere at the table once again sank into silence.

Reminded by the other party, Hog really smacked his forehead to clear the drunken haze and tried to think clearly about this issue.

If the "concerned citizen" was indeed a shadow in his mind, then his words must carry a particularly deep meaning.

Jock had indeed become different from before.

Not just in his attitude towards him, but even some details of his lifestyle had changed.

That’s right.

Jock seemed to have redecorated his office, clearing out many things he had once valued. Hog had noticed these details when he walked into the office, intending to use them to advance the conversation, but Jock hadn’t given him the chance to speak freely.

It was as if Jock had known the reason for his visit all along and had given him a direct refusal.

"...it was the club, we had a dispute over it."

Some memories he had overlooked were now resurfacing, prompted by the "concerned citizen."

Once, Jock and Richard had enthusiastically invited him to join a club, but when he heard that high-ranking members of the Innovator Faction were also in the club, he flatly refused their proposal and even tried hard to persuade them to leave the club.

In Hog Foster’s view, there could be no compromise in the factional struggle; he believed that Jock and Richard had taken a wrong path.

That conversation ended unpleasantly; he hadn’t been able to convince them, and they hadn’t managed to change his mind either.

On reflection, it seemed that the relationship between him and Jock started to crack from that moment on.

At the time, he could not imagine that their friendship of many years would break over something as trivial as club membership. He himself had not taken that friendly argument to heart at all.

It was only after the "concerned citizen" mentioned it that Hog suddenly realized the High-level Parliament seemed to be a product of the same nature.

Innovator Faction councilors and Conservative Faction councilors could sit in the same conference room, conduct meetings in a calm and collected manner, and even come to consensus on some major issues in an extremely short time.

This was too incredible to believe.

"In truth, the facts have always been before your eyes, Mr. Hog."

The "concerned citizen" spoke just in time, "It’s just that you have been blinded by some insignificant matters and overlooked the things that were happening right beside you."

"...What exactly are you trying to say?"

A foreboding feeling crept into Hog’s heart, sending chills down his spine and sharpening his senses.

"The identity of the High-level councilors, they all share a common characteristic. For you, this shouldn’t be hard to confirm."

...

Hog was completely sober now.

And at that moment, the figure of the "concerned citizen" vanished from his eyes like a demon of the heart.

The seat beside him was empty, as if no one had ever been there.

It was now closing time; the bar’s staff were cleaning up the aftermath.

Hog abruptly stood up from his chair, and even though his steps were still unsteady, his mind now had a clear direction. He approached the bartender, pulling out his wallet.

"This is your bill from yesterday, totaling 172,150 volts," said the bartender. "You mentioned yesterday that all expenses should be charged to your account, but the bill for the gentleman earlier has already been paid."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.