Chapter 145: The Pervert’s Business Rules

"I don’t know what to say..." Max said, deliberately sounding hesitant as he added, "Since you’re married, you’re almost invisible to that person..."

"I still don’t understand what it matters if I’m married or not," she said, looking both confused and slightly annoyed. "I’m trying to do business here, not start a romantic relationship..."

Max gave an awkward, slightly ugly smile before answering, "I know that, and I wanna do business with you too, but he..."

Max decided to reveal his fake mentor’s gender. Considering the way he had been portraying them, it wasn’t exactly difficult to guess anyway.

"He only does business with, umm... I don’t really know how to say this..." he said, sounding almost apologetic as he struggled to find the right words.

Then he finally gave up on trying to make it sound better. "He only does business with women he can fuck..." That made Grace go silent as she stared at Max for a moment. Max quickly added, "And since you’re married, obviously he can’t have sex with you..."

What he wanted to say was that she wouldn’t have it with him. But that wasn’t the point.

He wanted to plant the idea in her mind that, if she weren’t married, having sex with his so-called mentor would be an easy way to get the potions.

And, more importantly, he wanted to see just how desperate she was for these potions.

Grace didn’t say anything for several minutes.

Seeing that he had successfully made the mood awkward, Max decided to break the silence.

"So, if I get my hands on some extra potions, I’ll give you a call, Grace. But for now, I can’t really do anything..." he said.

He then handed her a card he had printed that very morning, his number printed on it.

"This is my cell. Do call me if you need some other potions. I can’t be sure I’ll be able to provide them every time, but there’s a chance you might get lucky..."

Since she had already paid him, Max got to his feet.

He was a little disappointed, though. From the way Grace was staring at the card while frowning, he could tell she was already thinking about what to do next.

"It was nice meeting you. Let’s meet some other time..."

Max turned to leave.

But after taking a couple of steps, he suddenly stopped.

"ummm."

He turned back toward her with a wide smile.

"I do have a way to get those potions out of him—and you won’t even have to, you know, have sex with him."

His smile widened.

"Wanna hear it?"

Grace, who had looked disappointed just moments ago, immediately became intrigued again.

She nodded, prompting Max to sit back down.

He leaned forward over the table toward her and said, "He’s a through-and-through pervert, so if you can just lie to him and say you’re not married, then flirt with him over the phone or something, you can probably get a few hundred more potions out of him before you actually need to have sex with him..."

Grace still looked uncomfortable at the suggestion.

"But you said he’s paranoid. Won’t he do a background check on me and found out I am married?" she asked.

"He will. But I’ll be doing it for him, so don’t worry..." Max said with a wide smile. "Just message me, and I’ll send you his contact information later."

Grace didn’t answer immediately.

She continued staring at him, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"You’ll be doing the background check for him?"

"Yep."

"And you’ll be the one giving me his contact information?"

"Yep."

"And you’re asking me to lie to him about being married, flirt with him, and essentially trick him into giving me more potions?"

Max nodded. "Exactly."

Grace’s expression became even more suspicious.

"Then why are you helping me?"

Max blinked. "Huh?"

"You keep saying this man is paranoid and difficult to deal with. Yet you’re willingly helping me deceive him." Her gaze sharpened. "If he finds out, won’t you be the one taking the risk?"

Max shrugged.

"But why would you help me scam someone who, from the way you describe him, seems to be someone you work for?"

"Who said it’s a scam?" Max asked innocently. "You’re gonna pay for those potions, right?"

Grace gave him a skeptical look but nodded.

"Then there’s no scam."

"That’s not exactly what I meant."

"I know."

That answer made Grace pause.

Max’s smile widened as he gestured toward the crystal still in her hands.

"And as for what I gain from it..." he said casually, "I’d really like to get my hands on that."

That made Grace smile widely as she nodded.

"Well, if you can get him to make me another hundred potions within the next two weeks—just healing potions, with at least enough ability to heal a bullet or sword wound—that’ll be fine," she said. "And you can have this as payment for your effort..."

Max had already realized how difficult it was to get his hands on potions in this place. Getting one or two wasn’t particularly hard, but getting them in bulk was a completely different matter.

The army bought them up almost as soon as they appeared on the market. In most cases, they didn’t even let large batches reach the market in the first place.

So, for a hundred potions, giving him a little mana crystal as extra payment wasn’t anything crazy. Even the army was willing to give him a recipe in exchange for that many potions.

With that in mind, Max nodded.

"Then do message me, and I’ll explain the details later about how to deal with the man who made these potions..."

"Well, are you in a hurry?" Grace asked with a smile. "Can’t you do it now?"

Max looked amused as he nodded.

"I can do it now..." he said. "But listen carefully, because the important part is making him think he’s getting something without actually giving him anything you don’t want to give."