Stanley puffed up with pride. “Yeah, and he didn’t even stop to take a look at who I was; I’m Snow Fox, a clan master. From now on, I’ll protect you whenever you’re in-game. No one will dare to pick on you anymore!”
Sophia excused herself and went to the washroom to calm herself down. She felt really exhausted after playing along with Stanley’s act.
There was a washroom right next to Stanley’s room, and Sophia stayed in there for a long while. By the time she emerged, she saw that the door to Stanley’s study was open.
She was rather curious about Stanley’s study; from what she had heard from him, his study had over a dozen mechanical and capacitor keyboards. Each of these keyboards had their own story of origin, and they were like mystical items in the esports world; the most valuable keyboards in the world were with him.
He had taken Stanley’s keyboards—keyboards that were as precious as his own life to him—and was plucking the keycaps off one by one with the soup spoon Stanley had used earlier. Nathan had even poured some water from the fish bowl onto the keyboards. The shelves with a myriad of priceless figurines had also been wrecked by Nathan. Action figures were scattered across the floor; if they weren’t missing an arm, then they were missing a leg.
“Nate, what are you doing?!” Sophia jumped in fright and rushed over, but it was already too late; Nathan had more or less wrecked the figurines and keyboards beyond repair.
Nathan continued to pour water over the mechanical keyboards. He lifted his head and revealed a dark look on his face. “I’m playing!” he sneered.
What? This was going overboard, wasn’t it? These were all part of Stanley’s beloved and precious collection. Without a doubt, he was going to charge at Nathan and slaughter the boy as soon as he found out!
Before the Fletchers noticed anything amiss, Sophia hastily shut the door and shoved all the broken figurines and keyboards into a cupboard. Once she had cleaned the crime scene as best as she could, she grabbed Nathan from the ground and ran. “Come on, run! We won’t be able to leave once Stanley finds out!” Sophia ran for it with Nathan’s hand in hers. She got Hale to bid Stanley goodbye on behalf of them before they were back out in the military compound. The moment they were in the car, Sophia ordered Hale to floor it at maximum speed, for she was deeply afraid of being captured and skinned alive by Stanley.
It had only been a short while since they left when Stanley called Sophia. “Sophia! I’m giving you half an hour to bring Nate over so that he can turn himself in, or else I’m going to your house with a knife in my hand!”
Sophia felt her head spin. She braced herself and said, “It’s just a bunch of mini figures of people and keyboards. I’ll just spend time with you to make up for it!”
Stanley was close to tears. He was completely in hysterics as he screamed, “How are you going to pay it back?! Those are all limited edition figurines! I hunted down master artisans to make those keyboards! They can’t be bought no matter how much money you have! Tell me, how are you going to pay it all back?!”
Sophia maintained her brazenness and replied, “He’s still a kid. Why are you holding this over a kid’s head?!”
Stanley was apoplectic as he screeched into the phone with all that he had, “A kid? He’s not a young kid anymore! He’s already in university. His grades are even higher than mine, do you know that? He’s wrecked all my babies on my shelves, and he even killed the goldfish I’ve raised for the past eight years! Pay it back! Pay it all back!”
Sophia glanced at Nathan, who was completely unrepentant as he sat next to her. With no other choice, she pretended that her cell reception was awful. “Huh? What did you say, Sundae Cone? I can’t hear you, so I’m going to hang up now! Bye!”
Sophia switched off her phone immediately after hanging up. With that done, she promptly disciplined Nathan. “My dear boy, you can’t do this in the future, got it? You do know that you aren’t supposed to touch others’ belongings without their permission when you go to their homes, don’t you?”
In a rare show of docility, Nathan nodded and said, “I won’t do it anymore.” Still, Sophia could tell that there was no sincerity in that promise at all.
Nathan’s destructive spree had struck several nerves in Stanley. Sophia didn’t dare to switch her cell phone on for a couple of days, fearing that Stanley would lose control and come knocking on her door to stab them. They were fortunate that he had a broken leg, so he probably wouldn’t come looking for them for the time being.
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