Ch. 1006..1010: The Secretly Rich Man Chapter 1006-1010

Chapter 1006

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1006 “What’s wrong with you, Kaleb?”

“…H-how…?” muttered Kaleb as he looked at both of his hands, evidently still stupefied.

“Explain yourself, Kaleb. What do you mean, ‘how’?”

“I-I used my inner strength earlier when I was grabbing on to that youth’s wrist… However, my inner strength just ceased halfway through! How is that even possible?”

Kaleb remained silent for a while, utterly perplexed as he pondered on the odd feeling he had experienced earlier.

“Are you sure you aren’t just looking too much into it?” asked Zolton as he looked at the white-haired man. Since his father was the one who had invited the mysterious Kaleb over, Zolton respected him quite a lot.

“No… I’m positive that something’s wrong with that young man!” replied Kaleb as he turned to look coldly at the direction in which Gerald had left seconds earlier.

Gerald himself had already made it to a riverbank not too far off. Once he was sure that he was alone, he held on tight to the iron plaque before applying his inner strength on it, causing the plaque to shatter!

As the pieces of iron fell to the ground, an ancient-looking short blade revealed itself as well.

“As expected, there truly was something mysterious inside!” said Gerald to himself as he picked it up.

Observing it, the short blade was extremely sharp and a black glow seemed to emanate from it. What more, several strange, vein-like lines could also be seen engraved all over it. Holding the magic artifact alone made Gerald feel that the blade was spiritual in nature, and in a way, he felt slightly oddly moved by it. It was as though the blade was influencing him.

Turning to look around him, Gerald noticed a large stone around three hundred feet away from where he was standing. With a simple flick of his wrist, he swiftly threw the blade toward that rock!

Making a peculiar whistling sound as it whizzed through the air, debris flew all over the place the moment the short blade collided with the rock! As bits of broken-off stone flew all over the place, the black short blade itself immediately whizzed back into Gerald’s hands.

Checking the condition of the blade, Gerald found that there wasn’t even a single scratch on it.

Delighted, Gerald then said, “I’ve truly obtained a great treasure this time!”

Just as he was about to leave, however, Gerald’s ears twitched as he heard rustling sounds coming from all around him.

It wasn’t long before eight figures revealed themselves as they stepped out of the nearby bushes in unison. Encircling Gerald, all of them bore equally cold gazes as a bald man stepped out from the group of people and growled, “Hey, b*stard! Hand over the iron plaque if you don’t want to die! Where is it?”

“As I’ve already repeated several times, I’m not selling it. Why are you still trying to force me to hand it over? After all, being polite and amiable should be prioritized when doing anything, no?” advised Gerald.

“Cut the cr*p already! Master Snyder’s already confirmed that the item is extraordinary! Can’t you see that just by owning such a great treasure, you’ll be seen as someone guilty, even if you truly are

innocent! The foreigner even attempted to pay for the plaque earlier, yet you refused! Humph! Tough luck now!” sneered the bald man.

“You’d better not try anything funny. I don’t want to kill any more people during this period of time!” replied Gerald who knew he was now being placed in a difficult position.

Though it had only been a few days since Gerald returned to living a normal life, his temperament had been healing at an accelerated rate. After all, he had finally been given the chance to live the plain and worry-free life that he always yearned for. While he was well aware that all this was only temporary, he cherished the fact that he could still experience such bliss in the first place.

Sadly, the only response from the eight people were bursts of laughter.

“H-has he gone mad? To think that he actually claimed that he didn’t want to kill people!”

“Man, at my age, I’ve seen several people wetting their pants once they knew they were going to die… This guy’s on a whole new level! I guess the shock must have been too overwhelming for him to even be able to say such an insane thing!”

“Well, all eight of us may have accomplished several missions together, but I guess there’s always something new to experience!”

As the eight people continued laughing till their sides hurt, Gerald took in a deep breath before pleading, “I wasn’t kidding. Please, I’m being dead serious here. If you leave me be, then all of you will live. Isn’t that ideal?”

“Hahaha! Alright… That’s enough nonsense for one day. Just kill him and retrieve the iron plaque so that we’ll be able to complete our task!” said the bald man as he gestured for his comrades to attack, his expression turning hideous within a split second.

Hearing the order, the seven other men’s eyes grew murderous as well as they immediately began walking toward Gerald. From their eyes alone, Gerald could tell that these people were experienced killers.

 

Chapter 1007

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1007 “This is your own fault for courting death! Prepare to be killed!” roared the bald man as one of his men immediately revealed a short blade and aimed it at Gerald’s chest!

Lunging toward Gerald, it took the assailant a second to realize that though his short blade had struck, spot on, to where he was aiming for, for some ungodly reason, the blade had failed to penetrate Gerald’s chest!

“What?”

It was the only response the stupefied man could say as Gerald angrily replied, “Don’t say I didn’t warn any of you!”

After saying that, Gerald immediately retaliated by slapping the man hard on his cheek! Though it had only been a single slap, the man was sent flying into the air!

The last thing the man could register was his head deforming as blood gushed out his eyes. Upon landing in a puddle of mud a few dozen feet away, the man was already as good as gone.

“…He knows martial arts!” declared the bald man, shocked by the turn of events. However, he instantly recomposed himself as he gestured his large hand before saying, “Don’t hold back! Get rid of him, everyone!”

Obeying his order, the remaining six men rushed toward Gerald at the same time. As was expected, however, there was no way in hell that any of them could even come close to dealing with Gerald.

Before any of them could even inflict any wounds on him, Gerald had already efficiently landed fatal blows on all six of them. In just a few seconds, all six people were already lying dead on the ground, their agonized expressions suggesting that they had died in terrible pain.

“…H-huh?” muttered the bald man to himself as cold sweat began running down his forehead. He realized now that he was the only one left, and though he was terrified, his legs felt like stone. However, the worst had yet to come.

The moment Gerald—whose eyes had turned as red as a demon’s by now—began walking toward him, the bald man became fully petrified in fear.

Now standing before the bald man, Gerald said, “Everything could’ve ended nicely if everyone had just been amiable to each other, no? Why did you have to force me to do all this…?”

“Y-yes, you’re right… I swear on my life that I’ll always be amiable from now on! What happened earlier was just a big misunderstanding!”

“I even begged you to just leave, remember? Yet what did you do? You ordered your subordinates to make a move on me! Isn’t that taking it a bit too far?” replied Gerald as he flicked some grass off the trembling man’s shoulder.

“I-I sincerely apologize! I won’t do anything like this anymore! I won’t-”

Though the bald man had assumed that Gerald would let him off if he pleaded enough, he soon found out that he was dead wrong. Before his sentence could even end, an agonizing scream filled the area as all four of his limbs simultaneously detached from his body.

Once the screaming finally ended, Gerald turned to look at a tree before roaring, “Stop hiding already! Show yourself!”

Immediately after, the slow rustling of grass could be heard as a white-haired old man revealed himself.

It was none other than Kaleb whose face was now completely drained of color.

“To think that you’ve already managed to reach your current state at such a young age… I, Kaleb Merrett, admit that I failed to recognize your great talent earlier. However, do note that I’m not on the same side with those people from earlier, mister.”

Kaleb was now speaking to Gerald so respectfully since he had seen everything that had taken place from the moment Gerald had broken the iron plaque with his bare hands.

While it was true that he had initially stalked Gerald in order to retrieve the iron plaque for Zolton—while simultaneously investigating the reason for Gerald’s great strength—he was left dumbstruck with amazement from the second he saw Gerald destroy that boulder with a single toss of the short blade.

From that point on, he no longer wondered how Gerald had ceased the flow of his inner strength so easily. As it turned out, Gerald’s had trained far more than he could have ever imagined.

That was also the moment when he had started hiding behind the tree, though it had less to do with continuing to stalk Gerald and more so out of fear after witnessing Gerald’s true strength.

His fear and respect for Gerald had only grown upon finding out that the youth had already noticed his presence long ago.

“Are you here for the iron plaque as well?” asked Gerald, coldly.

“I dare not lie to you, so I admit that that truly had been my intention at the start, mister. However, I no longer wish to do so after witnessing your strength.”

 

Chapter 1008

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1008 After saying that, the man who looked to be around ninety actually bowed before Gerald! Though after he witnessed all that, it was really no mystery why he did so.

Gerald himself could estimate that Kaleb’s current strength was similar to his own half a year ago. He could also tell that Kaleb had already achieved his inner strength.

While he was clearly still weaker than Gerald, with Kaleb’s current capabilities, the old man could very well be considered to be one of the champions.

With that, the bloodlust in Gerald’s eyes gradually returned to normal. His imposing demeanor slowly decreased as well, allowing Kaleb to finally heave a long sigh of relief.

“I can tell that you’ve spent many years training in order to achieve your inner strength. It mustn’t have been easy, so I won’t kill you. Just go warn the others not to ever try me again!” said Gerald as his temperament fully returned to normal.

“Thank you for sparing my life, and yes, I’ll definitely obey your orders, mister! However, there is one thing that I still don’t quite understand,” replied Kaleb with a spark of both excitement and anticipation in his eyes.

“Go on.”

“You see, after devoting my entire life to martial arts, I was finally able to become one of the champions about seven years ago. Even so, I still hope to one day be able to have my name written on the Weston Honor Roll in order to make a name for my family’s Ancient Martial Arts. However, as

expected, it’s extremely difficult to get into the honor roll. I’m curious to know what your ranking in the honor roll is!”

“The Weston Honor Roll? I’ve never heard about such a thing…” replied Gerald rather placidly.

“Well, as long as one is a champion, he or she will naturally have their name added to the Weston Honor Roll. It’s a sort of ranking list that’s controlled by the four major secret societies in Weston. Still, even though it’s evident that you’ve trained a great deal, I find it odd that you aren’t aware of the honor roll! Could it be that you don’t belong to any of the four major societies?” asked Kaleb, astonished.

“There are four major secret societies?”

“Indeed, there are! The families who rule the secret societies are the Yallatons, the Naplocks, the Moldells, and the Fergusons! And here I thought that you were an expert from one of the four major secret societies!”

“I’ve only heard about the Moldells!” replied Gerald as he raised a brow slightly.

From what Gerald knew, secret societies truly were extremely mysterious, just as their title suggested. They rarely contacted ordinary people due to a general agreement that their bloodlines were different from the regular folk. As a result, they absolutely looked down on the common folk.

Though they hardly ever appeared before others, secret societies existed all over the world and consisted of members from all walks of life. They also tended to have histories spanning over a thousand years.

Gerald’s introduction to the Moldell family had allowed him to understand how much power and strength secret societies could hold.

“I see… Regardless, all the people on the honor roll are extremely powerful, and those from the four major secret societies occupy around eighty percent of the members on that list. I personally come from the Merrett family, and though I’d like to continue making a name for my family’s Ancient Martial Arts, I’m quite ashamed to admit that it isn’t as easy as I thought it’d be. Sadly, there aren’t any other existing champions within the Merrett family—to compete for a position within the honor roll—either since my ancestors up till my generation have all passed away,” replied Kaleb with a wry smile.

“I see. Regarding the four major societies, how strong is the most powerful person?” asked Gerald.

“I’m not too sure about that… However, according to rumors, there are great masters in the four major societies who are in charge of their respective families. As I said though, what I’ve heard is simply a rumor since even those from the four major secret societies can’t discern the authenticity of that claim at all!”

“Now that you know more about the Weston Honor Roll, I wonder if your name is already on it… Judging from your strength, you should easily be within the top fifty people on the honor roll!” said Kaleb respectfully as he carefully retrieved an old scroll that had been hidden under his sleeve.

Rolling it open for Gerald to see, it seemed that only the top two hundred people would have their names recorded on it.

“I haven’t even heard about the Weston Honor Roll before you told me about it… There’s no chance that my name would be in there…”

As Gerald turned to skim through the scroll, he pointed where the first place was before asking, “…Hold it, why is the first place blank? It almost seems like someone had the name removed deliberately.”

“Ah, well, let’s just say that the person in first place is very mysterious. Based on what my father told me, the person who was given first place had been near-invincible, even from a young age. Once he

was older, he even dealt with several experts from the four major secret societies on his own! In the end, however, none of them could even come close to defeating him!”

“While many have tried to investigate his background, their attempts always failed since nobody could locate where the person even was! As my father said back then, as long as that person remained alive, nobody could be deemed more powerful than he was. Apparently everyone thought so as well, so it’s become a tradition for the first place to always remain blank,” explained Kaleb who was clearly very interested in things regarding the honor roll.

“I appreciate the explanation,” replied Gerald with a nod.

“Speaking of which, since you spared my life and it’s almost noon, I wonder if I could have the liberty to treat you to a grand feast,” suggested Kaleb who was evidently trying to befriend Gerald.

Since Kaleb knew quite a lot, Gerald felt that he would be able to gather more information on certain things if he allowed the old man to treat him to lunch. As a result, he simply nodded before saying, “Sure. I’ll just call my friend first to update her on the situation. Give me a moment.”

 

Chapter 1009

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1009 Gerald then gave Misty a call to cancel their lunch plan. After all, getting more information from Kaleb was definitely his priority.

“Well? Is he coming along?” asked Lydia nervously the moment Misty hung up the call.

“He’s probably unwilling to join us since you scared him so much…” replied Misty with a slightly disappointed tone.

“That’s great to hear! Anyway, now that that’s out of the way, Jamie said that we’ll be having our lunch at Logan Grand Hotel! That way, we’ll simultaneously be able to have a look around the best hotel in the Logan Province!” cheered Lydia excitedly as Misty returned a bitter nod.

Upon arriving, however, they were immediately stopped by a waiter who was standing by the entrance.

“Apologies, but someone has booked the entire Logan Grand Hotel today. We’re afraid that you’ll have to choose another restaurant to have lunch in. Again, our sincerest apologies,” said the butler.

Hearing that, Lydia—who had earlier been quite eager to dine there—immediately became disappointed. Due to her earlier excitement, she had even prepared to snap photographs of the hotel’s interior through her cell phone! To think that they would end up getting prohibited from entering!

“For someone to book the entire hotel… How many people are attending? Being such a spacious hotel, there will definitely be seats to spare, right?” asked Lydia.

In response, however, the waiter simply shook his head.

Seeing that, she sighed before stomping her foot in anger as she said, “How annoying!”

“Let’s just go elsewhere… Lunch is lunch no matter where we eat it,” advised Misty.

Agreeing, the group then began leaving the place. However, Lydia herself kept turning back to look at the hotel, unwilling to just accept that someone had booked the entire place.

Soon after, several luxury cars could be seen stopping at the hotel’s entrance.

Widening her eyes in shock, Lydia immediately recognized all the rich and prestigious people from the Logan Province as they stepped out of the cars. Making sure that there were no creases on their suits, the group of prestigious people seemed to be waiting for someone.

“H-hey! Look there! Isn’t that Mr. Zander Lovewell? The president of the Lovewell family?” whispered Lydia in astonishment.

Following the direction of Lydia’s gaze, Misty soon nodded before replying, “Indeed he is. So it was Chairman Lovewell who had booked the entire hotel! That explains everything! Still, Chairman Lovewell never hosted such grand feasts before at the end of the previous treasure exchange events… This means that there’s a possibility that an extremely important guest is coming over!”

“An extremely important guest, you say?” said Lydia as she and the other members of their group curiously waited along to see who the distinguished guest could be.

They didn’t have to wait long for the door of a car—that was parked in the middle—to be opened. Out stepped an old man before respectfully inviting what seemed to be a youth out of the car.

Chairman Lovewell himself took a step forward and respectfully shook hands with the youth.

Lydia, however, now looked extremely stupefied as she said, “…I-isn’t that… Gerald?”

Misty found herself covering her mouth in shock as she replied, “Y-yes he is! He told me he was busy so he couldn’t have lunch with us! To think that it was because he was coming over to Logan Grand Hotel!”

“Who cares about that? Look! Why are Chairman Lovewell and the others treating him so respectfully? Isn’t he just a loser?” asked Lydia, feeling as flabbergasted as she was humiliated.

After all, she disliked him a lot. To think that he actually had such powerful connections! For a moment, she even wondered if all this was simply a hallucination. Sadly, the thought only lasted for a short moment as reality dragged her back down to earth.

Now that she knew he was so influential, Lydia bit her lower lip as she regretted treating him like that earlier.

Sure, his attire was certainly still lowly by her standards, but looking at him now, he looked quite handsome, especially when he was standing together with all those rich businessmen.

Gerald himself had now entered the grand hotel with both Zander and Kaleb, completely oblivious to the fact that Misty and her group of friends had been staring at him in astonishment just seconds earlier.

He had thought that he was only going to have a simple feast with Kaleb. To think that Zander had been invited as well.

“Are you truly sure that this person holds great strength…? No matter how much I look at him, he seems to only be a normal youth!” whispered Zander to Kaleb after pulling him to the back for a brief moment.

“And why would I ever lie to you, Zander? Please be careful not to look down upon Mr. Crawford. His strength is beyond our wildest imagination. Do you understand?” replied Kaleb.

“Well, if he’s truly as strong as you claim, then perhaps the Lovewells will finally be able to resolve our current crisis peacefully. Should that happen, then know that our family will honor you with the highest respect possible for the rest of our lives!”

“Humph! If you’re willing to go through so much trouble just to give me respect, then you’d be better off begging for Mr. Crawford’s help. Should he be willing to stand on our side, then all our problems will cease!”

With that said, both of them re-joined Gerald before entering further into the hotel.

Contrary to a simple lunch, a party had been hosted and after a simple exchange of pleasantries, everyone drank three rounds of wine.

 

Chapter 1010

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1010 Eventually, Kaleb tapped on his wine glass, indicating Zander to speak to Gerald.

However, Zander was fairly reluctant to do it. After all, no matter how much he looked at Gerald, the youth still looked like a regular person. Knowing that he had to beg an ordinary person for help definitely caused a fair amount of distress to Zander.

As he pondered on how to proceed, a loud sound was heard as a middle-aged man—who had been sitting beside Zander—slammed his wine glass on the table.

The man then said, “I truly don’t understand what’s the motive behind today’s feast, Chairman Lovewell. Who exactly are you trying to entertain?”

It was clear that the middle-aged man’s question was indirectly referring to Gerald who had been sitting at the seat of honor this entire time.

While the person had already been annoyed by that fact, his annoyance ended up doubling since he knew that Zander had also been trying to please Gerald.

“Humph! The party today is being held since we’ve successfully invited Mr. Crawford over!” replied Kaleb with a faint smile.

“Forgive my insightfulness, but even after living for so long, I’ve never heard of a ‘Mr. Crawford’ before! Humph! Do understand that all of us who are present today have agreed to lend a helping hand to the Lovewells in their battle! We already have you, Master Merrett, the expert among experts! As if that

wasn’t enough, I, Theo Zabinski, am also part of this! Because of that, I really cannot fathom why the Lovewells invited this youth here in the first place!” sneered Theo.

“I implore you not to be so presumptuous, Theo!” scowled Kaleb who was now slightly nervous, knowing that Gerald had heard all that.

While Zander said nothing, it was evident that he slightly agreed with Theo’s statement as well.

After hearing all that, Gerald himself was now looking at Kaleb. As was expected, there really was no such thing as a free lunch.

Noticing this, Kaleb simply lowered his head in an apologetic manner before saying, “…So, the situation is like this, Mister… See, I met up with Zander a few years ago, and back then, I promised him that I’d lend the Lovewells a hand if they were ever in danger. In fact, the only reason I’m here now is because I wish to fulfill that promise! Sadly I have to admit that the enemies are far too strong for me. I’m afraid that with our current power, we won’t even stand a fighting chance! To put bluntly, would you be willing to aid us?”

After hearing Kaleb’s direct request, Gerald simply replied with a rather cold tone, “I apologize, but I do not wish to meddle in your dispute.”

Hearing that, Zander found himself frowning as he lowered his wine glass.

Theo, on the other hand, said, “While you say that you don’t wish to meddle, the truth is that you’re just not daring enough to help us, right? Come on, show us what tricks and skills you have up your sleeve! Better yet, fight me right now so that Chairman Lovewell will get to see what actual skills you have as well!”

“Not interested in a fight either,” replied Gerald rather bluntly.

By then, Zander had already crossed his legs. To think that he had even considered the fact that Gerald could actually be some powerful expert earlier!

“You know, I think that it’s meaningless for me to continue having my meal here, Master Merette. I’ll be taking my leave now. Thank you for treating me out for lunch,” said Gerald as he briefly scanned through the room before smiling at Kaleb.

“Hold on for a moment, mister!” replied Kaleb as he immediately held on to Gerald who had just gotten off his seat.

“I apologize for not telling you about all this beforehand… In order to properly express my apology, I’ve ordered someone to prepare something that you need. Since you mentioned earlier that you had come all the way here just to look for the holy fox…”

Before continuing on with his sentence, Kaleb clapped his hands, cueing a subordinate to enter the room with a map in hand.

“This here, is the map of the paths in Everdare Forest. Since ancient times, people have rarely ever been able to make it through this primeval forest. However, the ancestors of the Merrett family once trained in that forest. To ease their training, they made a map of the area. Though it may not help tremendously, I believe that it may still come in handy in your search for the holy fox. Do accept it, mister…”

“…Kaleb, isn’t that the map your family used to look for-”

Though the now wide-eyed Zander had attempted to ask something, Kaleb simply raised a hand, interrupting him. It was evident that Kaleb didn’t want Zander to continue asking his question.

With that, Kaleb then turned to look at Gerald again before repeating, “Please accept it, mister!”

Since he was being offered the map, Gerald simply walked over to take it. After all, he wasn’t about to turn down an item that was going to save him half the trouble once he actually traversed through the forest.

Before he was even able to get his hands on it, however, Theo immediately shouted, “Give that to me!”

He then stretched his hand out—from his seat—and snatched the map from the subordinate before turning to look at Gerald and saying, “So, you want this map, don’t you, Mr. Crawford? It’s mine now! If you want it, come snatch it back from me!”

Watching as Theo sneered, Gerald simply waved a hand at him before returning to his seat.

“…What do you mean by that?” asked Theo coldly.

Giving no reply, Gerald simply used his fork to casually lift a vegetable leaf off his plate. Holding onto the leaf, Gerald looked at it for a while before flicking his wrist extremely quickly.

As a result, the vegetable leaf flew directly toward the sturdy-looking wooden door of the private room…

And sent the entire door crumbling down as soon as the leaf hit it!