*Ding* 

The system rang and threw the screen full of notifications in front of Davies's face.

[Successfully face-slapped a fated one and caused him to lose 200 fate points]

[Successfully caused a loss in reputation of a fated one and caused him to lose 400 fate points]

[Successfully interrupted the opportunity of a fated one and caused him to lose 10000 fate points]

"Hmmm," Davies murmured to himself as his eyes ran across the screen of notifications that told him how many fate points he had made Lee Jung lose.

He nodded to himself after seeing that he had made Lee Jung lose more points than last time but he almost choked on his saliva when he saw the last notification.

*Cough* *Cough* he immediately had a coughing fit when he saw the number of zeros that Lee Jung had just lost.

"Are you alright?" Daniella immediately took her eyes off the road and turned back to look at Davies who was coughing hoarsely due to his shock.

"It's just me *Cough*… coughing, keep your *Cough*… eyes on the road," Davies immediately retorted in-between coughs as he didn't want his coughing fit to be the reason for him to experience a car crash today.

Daniella quickly reverted her attention back to the road upon Davies's orders but inwardly she was already wondering where she could get coughing medicine for her master even though he didn't need it, but she didn't know that.

To be honest, this kind of number was not even among the lowest number that Davies usually had to deal with daily, but there was a whole other level of difference between the values of the numbers that Davies usually saw and fate points.

One had to know that making Fiona have a bad impression of Lee Jung thus increasing the difficulty of Lee Jung establishing a relationship with her only caused Lee Jung to lose a thousand points.

Fiona was a genuine heroine in this plot… though she hadn't shown much of it yet, but that was beside the point. The heroines were supposed to be the weak spot for any fated protagonist and were usually the best way to leech points off of them but stealing a mere rare-grade power stone had somehow ripped a huge amount of fate points from Lee Jung.

"What really is this thing?" he muttered to himself as he once again took out the moonstone from his inventory and examined it again, with his eyes and mana, but he still couldn't figure out what this thing was.

He also wasn't able to do anything to the mana that was inside of the stone, so he quickly gave up.

'It was probably because this thing was invaluable to Lee Jung that, different 'coincidences' kept getting in the way when I simply tried to buy it from the 'Diamonds In The Rough',' he thought to himself.

[Well duh, you haven't exactly had to go up against half of such 'coincidences' before this, have you?] Miya immediately replied as if such a situation was obvious, and to be fair, it was very obvious.

'It's also probably because it was very important to Lee Jung that I was even attracted to it in the first place,' Davies continued thinking to himself as if he hadn't heard Miya's words.

[Uh… I don't know about that part] Miya spoke hesitantly at hearing this because she didn't know anything about this.

'No, think about it… since ancient times, it has been proven that whenever something catches the eyes of a villain and he wishes to take possession of it, the desired thing either already belongs to the protagonist or it is something the protagonist also desires,' Davies continued his inner monologue.

[... Er… I don't know, but OK] At this point Miya was just being swept along by Davies's inner monologuing.

'... but unlike ancient times, I was the one that ended up with the treasure, stepping on the protagonist's dry bones in victory and holding my prize in my hand,' he gripped the moonstone even harder, completely carried away by his monologuing.

[Pffffft… kid wake the fuck up, hahaha]

[What dry bones, you've barely even managed to make him lose a few points but you're already dreaming of stepping on dry bones]

[Hahahahah] Miya's laughter and sneering words woke Davies up from his inner monologuing with an embarrassed blush appearing on his ears, his ears turning red.

'Hey! I have the right to dream as much as I want,' Davies retorted.

[Hahaha, whatever, dreamer boy, just make sure to have your dreams come true than to make your nightmares come alive] Miya said with a slight laugh at the beginning but with a more solemn tone at the end of her sentence.

'I told you, I'm fine,' Davies sighed in response. He knew she was talking about his recurring nightmares, mostly about his past, but lately, he had been having nightmares about some more sinister things, and she knew about it.

Even though she couldn't see the nightmares, she could always tell that something was wrong with him just by watching his emotional state, which was an extremely easy job for her, especially as he almost always displayed no emotions.

'I'm more worried about the repercussion of me taking something this important from Lee Jung,' Davies quickly diverted the conversation from himself as it wasn't in his taste to talk about his problems with another person, even if said person was someone who had been inside of his mind for over sixteen years and knew almost everything to know about him.

If Miya ever asked him about something like that his response would always be "You already know everything about me that there is to know, so what is the point in talking about something that we both already know about."

It was a very flawed excuse and an even more flawed thinking method, but Davies already had way too many flaws for him to care about one more being added to the pile.

Miya immediately realized that Davies was diverting the situation from himself… like he always did, and since she already knew that there was no way she would get him to talk about it, she also didn't bother to try and dwell on the matter.

[Well… what do you think?] She threw the question back to him.

'I'm guessing that another opportunity will probably be prepared for him…'

'A really big one, so that it can cover his losses… I'm drooling just thinking about how I'm going to snatch it from him,' Davies laid bare his thoughts and a greedy, wicked smile made its appearance on his face, making him look the part of a crazy, devious villain rather than a rich young master with a handsome face and no brains or brawn.

[Whoa, whoa, hold your horses]

[I won't tell you to not try to steal his opportunities, after all, that is the goal, but I will warn you to be extra careful] Miya quickly poured cold water on his rising excitement.

'I'm always careful, but why the sudden warning?' Davies asked, intrigued at the sudden warning.

[I'm sure you've already noticed that 'coincidences' were actively happening to get in your way the last time…] Miya began.

'Yeah, and?' Davies asked, not getting her point.

[Don't you get it… if there were active 'coincidences' doing their best to stop you from having your way the last time, then there would be even more such 'coincidences' in your way this time] She continued.

'Yeah, and?' Davies asked, still not understanding her reasons for him to be extra careful.

[...] Miya was stupefied at his nonchalance.

'I expect that much and even more as I am currently going against fate, so I think I'm already being careful enough,' Davies began his explanation.

'To be frank, I already expect my next meeting with Lee Jung to be a storm of crazy shit, and that happens to be tomorrow as I am sure that he will find his way into that banquet that I will be attending tomorrow,'

'It's even more likely that his opportunity is somewhere at the banquet and the only thing at the banquet apart from food and drinks are the rich and powerful people of this city… unless Lee Jung is going to be robbing at the banquet, but I doubt it,' he told her the scenario he had thought to be the most plausible one among the many ones that had come to mind.

'His opportunity is probably going to come in the form of one of the rich and powerful people of the city, though I personally think it would be someone that is a combination of both and is also a female,'

[You mean his next opportunity is in the form of another heroine?] Miya interjected, but her mind was also beginning to wrap itself around the situation and the more she thought about it, the more she thought him to be correct. 

'Yeah, one that is probably rich and powerful enough that even I can't just harmlessly try to take go after of, though that doesn't really matter much to me… also, she's likely going to come bearing gifts,'

[Of course she's going to be there bearing gifts, it's a birthday banquet for someone, so she obviously has to come bearing gifts] Miya stated the obvious… or what she thought to be obvious.

'... I meant, gifts for Lee Jung,' Davies sighed.

[Oh…]

'You don't think him just getting access to a rich and powerful heroine is all that fate would prepare for him after losing an opportunity that cost him ten thousand fate points,'

'Do you?' Davies asked with his eyes now firmly on the milky white rare-grade power stone in his hand and if Miya had eyes, it would have widened in realization of what was to come.