Mercenary System: I can increase innate potential !-Chapter 201: The butler
"Ah... It’s good to be back."
Maxime immediately got back into the rhythm of the service, following orders with astonishing fluidity. The atmosphere in the bar was lively, the music playing softly in the background as laughter and conversation mingled in the hubbub.
Customers continued to flock in, but he kept up the pace.
LeMoine, who was discreetly keeping an eye on Maxime, was impressed.
He had originally been worried about Maxime after he had disappeared without saying a word for several days.
If Maxime was ill or something, he wouldn’t have hesitated to send him home. In his opinion, health is always paramount at work.
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But since everything was going much better than he could have hoped, he went back to his office.
Time passed quickly, and when the clock struck one in the morning, the customers all started to leave because it was closing time.
Maxime took one last order, a glass of water for a customer who was in great need of one.
After that, he wiped down the counter and then, once he had finished, he could finally take a breath.
The boss approached him, arms crossed.
"Not bad. You kept up the pace well."
Maxime shrugged with a smile.
"I had a good teacher."
LeMoine chuckled slightly, because he was the one who had taught him everything about the job.
But he quickly took on a more serious tone.
"Listen, Maxime... I’m not going to lecture you, but take care of yourself. You give the impression that everything is fine, but don’t take me for a naive old man. This burn is clearly more than a third degree burn."
"You’re still in high school, it’s not your turn to fight for humanity."
Maxime was surprised.
Maxime had obviously assumed that the boss was a former soldier who had already participated in dimensional battlefields or else he had a lot of experience in Eternity.
And that was also the charm of Eternity, the neighbor you smiled at every morning could be a monster with the strength to participate in sky-level dimensional battlefields.
Because as long as he didn’t show his strength, almost no one could guess.
At the same time, Maxime sensed a hint of sincerity and concern in the boss’s voice.
"I’ll see to it, boss. I promise."
LeMoine nodded before patting him on the shoulder.
"Go on, get out of here. You’ve worked hard."
Maxime nodded and then went to his locker.
As expected, his T-shirt and white sweater were still there. He changed into them and left his black shirt behind.
He had several copies of this shirt, and it was the boss who took care of the machines and ironing the shirts.
It was rather convenient.
After that, he said goodbye to the boss and left the bar into the cool of the night.
But he wasn’t cold this time; it seemed that he had been able to recover during the previous day at the fortress.
He took a deep breath, enjoying the calm after the hustle and bustle of service.
But he had barely taken a few steps when he felt a chill run down his spine. An unpleasant feeling, as if invisible eyes had fixed on him.
Then he saw them.
A few meters away, a dozen men in black were waiting for him. They were wearing black suits, but their rigid posture and cold gaze betrayed military discipline.
He also saw three luxury black cars parked in the street.
What bothered him was that he had never seen these cars when leaving work, even though he had been working here for over a year.
One of the men in black, standing slightly in front, addressed him in a neutral voice.
"Maxime Valdreuve?"
Maxime narrowed his eyes, instinctively putting himself on his guard.
He well remembered that a month before, he had offended a noble family in the city, and that this family had retaliated by dismissing his mother and arranging for his brother to be harassed at school.
"That depends. Who are you?"
The man did not reply immediately. A heavy silence fell before he said, almost dismissively:
"You don’t deserve to know."
Maxime smiled ironically.
"Really? And you, do you think you deserve an answer?"
The atmosphere became tenser and many passers-by nearby quickly moved away when they saw what was happening.
Even people who were well drunk could see that something dangerous was going on around here.
"This young man is in danger, let’s go and help him, shall we?" asked a young woman accompanied by several friends.
One of their friends nearby immediately put his hand over her mouth.
"Are you kidding? After saving up for so long, we can barely beat apprentice knights at the starting line," he whispered in panic.
"These guys are all much older than us and it’s obvious they know how to fight really well."
"I’m sorry for the young man, but we can’t help him!"
The group of friends looked at each other for a few seconds with complicated expressions, but in the end no one dared to get up and help Maxime.
And it wasn’t just them, all the passers-by in the street pretended not to have seen anything and quickened their pace to get away.
In a world where a large part of the population knows how to fight, many people also knew how to estimate their strength and that of others within a wide range.
No matter what was going on around them, two of the men in black advanced towards Maxime, clearly determined to force him to follow them.
But he didn’t give them time to act.
In an instant, his body moved with lightning speed.
The two men were thrown to the ground before they could even react.
One of them tried to get up, but Maxime knocked him out with a straight punch to the head.
Of course, he held back a lot of his strength, otherwise the man would have lost his life.
But it was still enough to knock him completely unconscious.
"Is this a joke? He defeated Marco and Benji so easily?"
"I had seen his videos against the Piranhas during the invasion, but he wasn’t as strong when he wasn’t activating his mysterious skill or talent."
"He can already neutralize us so easily in high school..."
"In the space of a month, this high school student has become terrifying."
The other men in black stood still. They were afraid.
They all knew that this young man was already monstrously powerful a month ago, but not yet powerful enough for them to take him seriously.
Normally, a young man with about 2 points of physicality, who was struggling to get up to 3 points, could not get their family to do anything.
Their patriarch had a surface physique of 3.5 points, not counting class bonuses, skills and talent!
And that was in the real world; in Eternity, he had a physique of over 8 points.
A real monster in human form.
In the city, no one was his opponent except the mayor.
Under the circumstances, only the man who seemed to be the leader of the men in black stepped forward.
"I guess I’ll have to do it myself, you bunch of idiots."
The other men in black said nothing, but their fear of Maxime diminished significantly.
Because this man was one of the most powerful men in their family!
As he spoke, Maxime immediately sensed an overwhelming threat emanating from this man.
This guy looked like a simple butler with his impeccable suit and slicked-back hair.
But his aura... It was terrifying.
To his knowledge, only Kavasta had a more overwhelming presence than him.
"Surrender, Maxime. A mere high school student is no match for our Olifer family."
This butler clearly didn’t care about revealing their identity, and it also showed that they didn’t fear the repercussions at all.
Maxime frowned.
"The Olifer family..."
A month earlier, their eldest son had tried to kill everyone who wanted to enter the shelter closest to the Valdreuve family home during the Pyrans invasion.
When Maxime arrived on the scene, he saw that his many neighbors, as well as his mother and brother, were being blocked at the entrance to the shelter by the eldest son of the Olifer family.
His mother was even hit by the eldest son.
Maxime was also shot at several times by him, before killing him with a punch and then falling unconscious himself.
Fortunately, no bullet had lodged in his body and his vital organs had not been affected, otherwise he would have been dead for good.
Revenge also came quickly.
From then on, his mother was out of work because of that family, while his brother could no longer go to school.
"The Olifer family, it’s time to settle the score..."
At the same time, he produced a one-handed sword that he had ’borrowed’ from a Dravak prisoner.
Naturally, he couldn’t walk around with a lightsaber in the world of Eternity, so this high-quality sword, which didn’t attract attention, was definitely a very good choice.
Unfortunately, as far as armor was concerned, he hadn’t found anything that was both his size and not too flashy.
So he had to fight in civilian clothes, but that didn’t bother him.
The butler also noticed this.
"Aren’t you afraid? All it takes is one blow from a sword and you’ll die here."
On hearing the words, Maxime did not react much.
"If I were afraid of something so insignificant, I would have been dead long ago."
The butler smiled.
"All right, you’ll just have delayed your death then."
No sooner had Maxime heard the last words than the butler’s silhouette disappeared.
"This is not good, this guy is really on another level to other men!"
An intense feeling of danger resonated in Maxime’s mind.
Without hesitation, Maxime activated Frozen Time.
The world around him stood still.
As the world around him turned gray, he could see the emotionless expression on the face of the butler who was literally right in front of him.
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His sword was already almost piercing his throat.
"That guy was really going to kill me!"