Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

As Tristan sat in that chair, his aura expanded around him like a shroud of pure terror. It alone could've been enough to make people with a weak will to fall and cry.

Mr. and Ms. Hayes weren't the strongest people. Although they would tell anyone that they had to fight for what they got, in reality, their fights were small and simple. Most of what they earned came to them from the privilege of having generational wealth or pure luck of making the right connections at the right time.

Both of Tristan's parents could do nothing but fall to their knees and stay frozen in their places there.

Tristan let his aura of terror dim a little—enough that his audience could listen.

"Norah Hayes started her career as a singer and model. But she was never truly successful until she married Harry Hayes. It's an open secret in the industry that all your successes as a singer are built on money provided by your husband and his family."

Tristan smirked venomously when he saw how his mother flinched.

"That's right. You are a shitty singer, and your looks… average for model standards. Is that why you retired to raise a family as soon as you could? So you could raise stars out of your children where you yourself failed? You were lucky both me and Daniel are actually into it."

He let out a mirthless laugh and turned to his father.

"And the Hayes family. It got its wealth not by entirely legal means, didn't it? Horse betting business you own IS legal, but what about the business of my dear grandfather? Not the nice one, the one I've only met a few times in my life for Christmas."

Tristan's father shook his head.

"You can't—"

"Yes, I can. Excuses like these won't fly with the inspectors when they find how much money your business launders for the less savory businesses of the Hayes family. Since you chose to give me none of that money when I needed it the most, it could as well burn."

Tristan was bluffing here—but only slightly. He didn't have solid proof about the money laundering thing, but from the information and clues he found earlier, he was 99% sure.

However, in the way he spoke, his bluff was nothing but 200% self-assurance. Nobody would even think to wonder if he was lying—no, even if Tristan said the sky was green, they wouldn't consider looking up before believing his words.

The desperation in his father's eyes proved Tristan right.

"Just that little push can destroy you all. Daniel will be caught in the backlash, too… Fuck him." Tristan sneered. "The more I think about it, the more I think I should do it. Convince me otherwise."

"But… But Tristan, we are your parents!" Norah protested weakly.

Tristan looked at her like at the most pathetic and dumb creature of them all.

"Are you really talking out of your mouth and not your ass, mother? You think that would convince me, when you were barely convinced of this just earlier? Despite obviously recognizing my face?"

"Tristan, you have done well for yourself, haven't you? We always knew you would thrive, no matter what! Please, find in yourself to forgive—"

Tristan interrupted Harry's words by pulling out a knife and precisely throwing it at the man. It stuck in the floor with a thud, close enough to leave a long gash on Harry's leg on the way there.

"This is even worse," Tristan hissed.

His father gasped, grabbing his bleeding leg. The gash on it was long, but shallow, but it was hard to tell from the way Tristan's father wailed.

"Ah! No, I'm sorry! Both of us, both of us, are sorry!" He crawled a step closer to Tristan's feet and looked up pleadingly. "We are so, so sorry—I don't know how to tell you how sorry we are!"

These two people were slowly but surely being crushed under the weight of Tristan's aura. He wondered idly if he was able to give them permanent psychological damage with it and some choice words.

All of that was giving him a twisted, vicious satisfaction. Something he didn't realize how much he was craving until he got it.

"You can't tell? You are sure you can't come up with a way?" Tristan asked, twirling the tip of his polished shoe a little.

"We shouldn't have abandoned you. We are very, very sorry for not supporting you in the past, but we can support you now! Everything you want, please!" Norah pleaded. Tears were falling down her cheeks and smearing her mascara into two ugly black streaks. "Come back, we can be a family—you don't have to give us those threats!"

"Better, but do fewer pleas. You don't deserve anything from me," Tristan said with a smirk.

"What do you want? Anything—what can we do?" Tristan's father asked.

He wasn't crying as openly as Norah, but there were tears falling down his face as well.

Tristan made a show of thinking about the answer.

"Kiss my boot. Both of you."

Harry's shoulders went rigid for a moment, but Norah barely hesitated before reaching out for Tristan's booth and putting her lips on it. Her lipstick left a dark stain.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she muttered, leaving more kisses.

It was satisfying and somewhat amusing for the first few seconds, but then rapidly became irritating and even pitiful.

Tristan pushed her face away and glared at his father.

"Tristan, believe it, I'm sorry too," Harry said.

Although Harry had slightly more pride than Norah, it meant nothing in the face of the pressure Tristan exuded. He went forward to kiss Tristan's boot as well—only once, but Tristan was satisfied with that.

"Now clean it," he ordered to his father instead.

"R-right!" Harry hurriedly scrubbed at it with his sleeve. In a short while, the lipstick stains were gone.

Tristan shoved him aside as well.

He stared at his parents—still covered in leftover burns, with tear-covered faces and eyes full of fear and desperation. Remorse was there as well—but in trace amounts.

It was a shameful amount of remorse. It was a remorse aimed less at what Tristan went through, but more at what the consequences were now for themselves.

"You both are terrible people. No wonder your children are so awful as well," Tristan said. "If I was a person who cared for the wellbeing of the world, I would've let you burn together with your mansion."

Tristan stood up and rolled his shoulders.

In his head, he had just made a decision, and he felt strangely at ease with it.

'Perhaps now, a burden will fall from my chest at last.'Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Harry and Norah swallowed in fear, shifting closer to each other in search of safety from Tristan's gaze. Blood was dripping on the polished wooden floors from Harry's leg. Norah opened her mouth to speak, but closed it immediately after.

"I'm not such a great person, though, so instead I will only destroy you. If you avoid going to prison, you will be out on the streets after this. These money laundering schemes, your every dirty secret—they will find the person most hungry for them. I will make sure of it."

Tristan's parents gasped in disbelief.

"But Tristan! We-we have apologized! All the humiliation—don't you believe how sorry we are?!" Norah cried out, wringing her arms. "Please! Don't be so cruel to us!"

"Think! Think about your grandparents—you still care about them, right? They don't live with us, but they will be implicated in this too, if you do it!" Harry shouted desperately.

Tristan walked around them toward the exit, stopping only to pick up his knife. His voice was entirely nonchalant as he spoke.

"Oh, I had enough of your meaningless pleas and of your 'sorries'. It doesn't matter how much you say—all your words are just hot air."

He closed the door behind him with a bang and walked downstairs.

Tristan's heart was at ease.

In a week or two, Harry and Norah Hayes were going to go bankrupt. Tristan was going to hack, coerce and trade for their secrets—ones he didn't have yet—and do exactly as he promised.

He was also going to keep watching over Norah's parents from a distance. They were barely in contact with the main family by now. It would be easy to keep them separate from the overall shitshow.

'This will leave only Daniel for me to deal with,' Tristan thought. 'But not right now. He deserves more than just being crushed—he needs to stew first. Daniel will find out what happened to his parents, become a part of it—and when he thinks he is finally escaping his problems, I will bring him down for good.'

Tristan waited for so long, he could wait a little more. Besides, he was very curious how Daniel would react—and would he act any better than Tristan's parents when he finds that they are in trouble.