Tales of An Nam

chapter 8: debt collector

Thần returned to the turf. Gym Leaders of Pokemen gathered at the south-side turf, waiting for their master. Men armed themselves with weapons and firearms, which seemed impossible to obtain in broad daylight. A moment later, the master arrived with men walking into the room. High-end gears - they wore and seemed like high-ranking members of the Pokemen's organization.

Gym leaders nod in acknowledgment, but an air of tension protruded in the room.

"You two must be the new guy-" The Master skimmed the appearance of the boys from Lương Thế Vinh and expressed his approval. "I usually don't trust mercenaries, but now a job is needed."

Thần and Lâm took turns to greet the Master, and they shook hands. Gym Leaders took seats at a round table; the Master took a seat at the head of the table.

"Care to explain the new incident?" Thuan opened the meeting. "Others are looking at us like punks from the streets."

"We have been out of the game for long-" Minh cleared his throat. "But taking money from plebs ain't gaining old fame."

Others look at the Master skeptically, knowing that the new policy left the organization under suspicious circumstances.

"We know why you are doing this-" Tan Phong uttered. "But as a family, I cannot unsee this."

The Master leaned forward, exhaled as he fed up with the latest incident. The Master had invested the organization fund in a project called PooCoins; however, as the news had been told, the project posed a scam. Investors demanded refunded the NFTs, but no response from their end. The Master actually reached out to their leaders twice; albeit processing the refund, nothing occurred — perhaps, a dead tomb to the investors.

The round table grasped their breath to the news since members had put their hard effort in the Master's trust. In other words, everyone at the table knew the virtual coin posed a classic influencer greed story where a streamer presented an unreal project; deemed millions of cash and delivered nothing in the end. As the famous streamer promised the world a lucrative blockchain game which obtained investors real life money, the man did nothing. While their leaders fled the country in a matter of weeks, people still believed in the hype train and did nothing in return.

"I'm aware of the situation-" The Master stroked his nose. "But I mean, it's Logan Nguyen we are talking about right?"

The Master used to be excited about the project since Logan Nguyen put his name in the marketing. The streamer also claimed backing the project from start to end, so no chance a celebrity could mess up his credit. Logan Nguyen, a real-life streamer, made quite a lot of content from social media platforms; so, the weight of his name was tremendous. Even other named celebrities were excited to become a part of the hype train; waited for their investment to blossom.

"But, this is not gold!" Tan Thanh expressed disbelief from the story of the Master since everyone knows money ain't grown from trees. "Are you trying to pretend because this is a blockchain coin and it will make gold?"

The Master remained silent when the round table looked at him; fed up with the news.

"How are we gonna tell others that you fuck up?" Minh criticized the Master, rubbing his face. "I know something is wrong with the new policy."

"Relax, I got this in control-" The Master refuted, shying away from the round table. "Just need a little more time."

"News on the air already-" Thuan scratched his head and leaned backward. "The upper-men will make a move on us."

Lâm whispered to his partner, saying that Logan Nguyen was a low-key criminal. Moreover, the virtual community knew Logan posed an obnoxious behavior in one live stream video with dead people. Because of that, no one could say good deeds with the man. At the moment, the PooCoin project failed to fulfill, leaving a mess behind the scenes with millions of cash vanishing in thin air.