The middle-aged man was in tears; he was clearly aggrieved as he wrapped his dirty hand around the older man’s injured leg to inspect it. A horrified look registered on his face when he saw how much blood there was. “I’m so sorry to put you through this, Dad! This is all my fault! A worthless son such as myself would be better off dead!” he cried out in anguish. Then, he began to repeatedly smack his forehead against the tarmac and soon, there were abrasions on his skin. The man’s agonized cries and wails drew the attention of passers-by, who glanced at the taxi driver and the woeful father and son at the scene before leaping to their own conclusions. Within a matter of seconds, they burst into an uproar and admonished the hapless taxi driver. “How could you be so reckless when you drive a taxi for a living? You bumped into the old man, didn’t you? Look at the blood on his leg! Have you no conscience?” At this moment, someone snapped at Christopher and accused, “And don’t think you have nothing to do with this, young man! You probably asked the driver to speed up along the road, didn’t you? As far as I’m concerned, the both of you are the ones at fault here, so don’t even try to come up with an excuse for it!”“That’s right—the both of you are at fault, so you ought to offer compensation for the poor old man. Five hundred thousand ought to cover the medical expenses. You know, the both of you will end up in prison if the old man dies because of his injuries.” Christopher was rendered speechless by the sudden torrent of abuse and taunting remarks that were thrown his way. He wondered briefly whether he was being heckled by a syndicate, which meant these passers-by were accomplices of the two fraudsters on the ground. They must have known that the taxi driver couldn’t fork out five hundred thousand in compensation on his own, so they decided to drag Christopher into this as well. While the rest of the bystanders were somewhat skeptical, they could find no trace of fraud in this situation either The blood that trickled down the old man’s leg was as real as the abrasions on the middle-aged man’s forehead and seeing that the latter was crying his eyes out, it seemed rather convincing that they were victims of this accident. After a moment of observation, one of the bystanders heaved a sigh and pointed out in exhaustion, “You know what, gentlemen? With an accident as serious as this one, I highly doubt that the both of you would come out of the police station unscathed after this.” He turned to look at the taxi driver with a grim expression. “You can kiss your license goodbye if charges are pressed against you, so I suggest you refrain from acting rashly!” The taxi driver faltered when he heard this. It was true that he had knocked into someone earlier, and the blood on the old man’s seemingly-broken leg was proof of the accident. However, five hundred thousand was no small sum and certainly not one that a taxi driver could afford on his meager wages! It wasn’t as if he had deliberately knocked into the old man in the first place. The old man had darted into the cab’s way and injured himself. What was the taxi driver supposed to do about it? Christopher, on the other hand, was frowning as he stared at the old man. The act had been flawlessly pulled off, but he was a medical practitioner and as far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong with the old man’s leg. He wasn’t sure how the syndicate had managed to pull off such an elaborate hustle, but his voice took on a dark edge as he warned, “If you keep pestering us like this, I’m afraid I’ll have to call the police.” One of the bystanders from earlier hissed incredulously and snapped, “Look here, young man—you were the one who asked the driver to accelerate in the first place. How dare you try to threaten the old man and his son when you’ve landed them in such a sorry predicament? Are you so heartless as to turn a blind eye to your own wrongdoing? Do young people these days have no compassion for others?” “Just cough up the five hundred thousand and let this be over with!” “Exactly. You can’t be so cruel as to not compensate them with a bit of money. Don’t be such an a**hole!” As everyone in the vicinity began to accuse Christopher of being a cold-blooded b*stard, the other bystanders who were oblivious to the details of the accident jumped on the bandwagon as well. Before he knew it, he was facing extreme backlash from all the onlookers and there were some of them who were so riled up that they wanted to lunge at him. There was an icy look on Christopher’s face and without another word, he pulled out his phone to call the police. If he had run into a syndicate, then he ought to turn them to the authorities. When the members of the syndicate saw him pulling out his phone, they blanched. In the guise of justified admonishment, they marched forward to snatch his phone to prevent him from making the call. A young man dressed in a green shirt then secretly pulled out a dagger. He came up from behind Christopher and wrapped an arm around him. Then, he made it as if he would drive the weapon into Christopher’s back, hoping that a deadly threat would prevent him from making a phone call. Growing incredulous at how far the syndicate was willing to go to defraud him, Christopher finally snapped. He aimed his right leg toward the man with the knife and kicked out at him. Upon being kicked in the stomach, the man staggered backward and dropped the dagger to the ground. The dagger clattered to the road noisily and the sound of steel hitting the tarmac was clear and crisp, drawing the attention of the other bystanders. They gaped in shock at the weapon that lay on the ground, baffled by what was going on. Meanwhile, after having been kicked in the stomach and fallen to the ground, the man panicked when he saw that he had messed up. He scrambled to pick up the dagger once more and lunged toward Christopher with the intention to stab him. At the sight of this, Christopher pushed those closest to him away and swiftly landed yet another kick at the man before he took down the rest of the syndicate with his bare fists. Having done so, he shot a deadly glare at the old man and his partner. Beneath the dirt and the dust, their faces were pictures of horror. Christopher quickly deduced that they must be in charge of the syndicate, given their idle disposition throughout the entire fight. It was only after seeing the man in the green shirt taking the dagger that the onlookers understood the situation at hand. Those who brutally berated Christopher earlier had the decency to look ashamed as they avoided his gaze. “Well, aren’t you all such professional fraudsters? I ought to punch the daylights out of you and we’ll see how much more method acting you could pull off!” With that, Christopher grabbed the middle-aged man with the wound on his forehead and hurled his fist across his jaw. He didn’t pack much strength into the punch, but the man’s face reddened and swelled with the impact. The other man, on the other hand, was shaking in fear as he watched his plan crumble before his very eyes. He hadn’t thought that a syndicate as experienced as their own would finally meet their fate today and their daggers were as good as useless against this formidable young man. As the brawl came to an end, Christopher’s icy gaze swept over the men who had crumpled miserably to the ground. He then called Jefferey in satisfaction and informed him of what had happened, thereafter asking him to swing over with a few of his officers so that they could arrest the syndicate. On the other end of the phone, Jefferey let out a cold bark of laughter at the men who had so foolishly picked a fight with Christopher. After hearing the end of the narrative, Jefferey hung up the call. He wasted no time in bringing his men over to the scene and within ten minutes, Christopher could hear police sirens down the street. When the police pulled up at the scene, they asked Christopher a couple of questions. After having understood how the ruckus had happened, they heaved a sigh of relief and immediately arrested the fraudsters. While the members of the syndicate were taken into custody, he heard a ding in his head before a mechanical voice echoed in his mind as it announced, “Congratulations to the Host for being brave and fearless in helping the police to take down a syndicate! You have been rewarded 3,000 Thumbs-Up points!” Pleased to know that he had gotten rid of the syndicate and that he was rewarded as a result, Christopher’s spirits were instantly lifted. “Let’s go,” he said cheerily to the driver after sliding into the car. The driver was relieved that within the short span of time it took for the entire incident to blow, his passenger was able to eradicate those fraudsters. With a grin on his face, the driver quickly slithered behind the wheel as he answered, “Yes, sir. Right away!”Upon arriving at the destination, Christopher insisted on paying for the ride, but the driver merely smiled as he politely refused the money. Christopher decided to take the show of goodwill in stride and nodded at the driver before heading in the direction of the Thumbs-Up Hotel. Christopher had only just come to a stop in front of the hotel when he saw that the building was still being refurbished. To the side, Madilyn’s face brightened in a brilliant smile when she caught sight of his arrival and immediately hurried over to him.