Ernest’s contemplative moment was interrupted by a cheerful ringtone that many children liked. The ringtone emanated from his old phone in his sling bag.

Without opening his old phone, he could guess who was calling him. When he received his old phone yesterday at the hospital, which strangely was already fully charged, he received a bombardment of messages and call notifications.

As he took his old phone, his guess was correct. The incoming call was from the people ready to collect his debt, just as he suspected. The messages threatened Ernest to repay his debt immediately.

“Sorry, I don’t have money right now!”

Just as he was about to turn off his old phone, he felt the presence of several people right behind him. When he turned around, three men were already standing right behind him, staring at him with intimidating looks.

One of them, in the middle, was holding a smartphone to his ear as if making a call. Occasionally, the man’s eyes glanced at a tablet held by the person next to him.

“This is the guy, right?”

“Yeah, no doubt about it. Although his face has changed a bit from two years ago, according to the photo given by our boss, he is the one.”

“Heh. My hands are starting to itch, big brother.”

Hearing their conversation, Ernest immediately knew that the three men in front of him were the ones who had been calling him all the time.

Seeing the wrinkles on their faces, Ernest guessed that the three men were about 40 years old. But it wasn’t their old faces that didn’t match their roles as debt collectors that Ernest noticed. Ernest looked at their faces with surprise for another reason.

“Wow, uncles, why do your faces look exactly the same? You look like doppelganger demons who like to change their forms according to their targets, you know?!”

This was the first time Ernest had seen triplets. His curious and playful nature was automatically aroused, ignoring his status as a debtor.

Ernest’s hand tried to touch the face of one of them, the one who had called him, but the man ruthlessly swatted Ernest’s hand away.

“Don’t mess with us. Know your place!”

“Right. Know your place.”

“Hahaha. Did you hear what Big Brother said, huh!”

While the man in the middle threatened Ernest, the other two also threatened Ernest simultaneously. The one holding the tablet spoke first, followed by the most active one.

“Um. Who are you guys?”

Ernest asked with an innocent look.

“Heh, we are...”

Thwack!

Just as one of them, the most active one, wanted to introduce themselves proudly, the man in the middle immediately cut off the man’s speech.

“Ugh! Can’t you stop hitting me, big brother?!”

Although they didn’t tell Ernest their names, Ernest could still find out who they were.

‘Will it work?’

[Name: Branca.]

[Name: Bronco.]

[Name: Brinci.]

‘It still works.’

He was worried that notifications, like when he wanted to check his status window, would appear because he hadn’t Awakened yet. But he was wrong. As Ernest desired, their names appeared above each of their heads.

It turned out to be the same; if Ernest wanted to know someone’s name, it would be revealed to Ernest just like when he was still in the Netherworld.

“As planned, take him with us!”

Branca, the one who seemed to be the eldest among them, ordered Brinci, the one holding the tablet, and Bronco, the most stupid, to move. They seemed to want to focus on settling their matters without much talk.

Without small talk, Bronco and Brinci flanked Ernest’s right and left arms to prevent him from running away. Although Ernest knew their names, he didn’t know their identities initially. Still, after seeing a wolf tattoo on their necks, he knew who they were.

Seeing the wolf tattoo on their necks, it turned out that the triplets were from the Cerberus organization.

The Cerberus organization was one of the two largest underground organizations in Orlando.

Two years ago, when Ernest had just arrived in Orlando, he didn’t know about the existence of the Cerberus organization.

At that time, Ernest was walking in an alleyway, leaning his head against the wall. He happened to overhear some homeless people whispering that one could owe a lot of money between the two largest underground organizations in Orlando.

Of course, the homeless weren’t inviting each other to borrow money, but they were warning each other not to get involved with the underground organizations.

Ignoring their warning, Ernest searched for them. He happened to find people with wolf tattoos on various parts of their bodies.

Because Ernest didn’t care about the risks, he borrowed a lot of money from them without thinking about the consequences.

And here they were to collect his debt.

Unbeknownst to Ernest, Brinci and Bronco were watching Ernest’s focused eyes, staring at the tattoos on their necks. Suddenly, they smiled proudly, especially Bronco, the youngest and the most stupid.

“Heh, do you admire our tattoos?”

“What else can you do because our tattoos are awesome.”

“Right. Our tattoos are very awesome, aren’t they?”

Feeling increasingly annoyed by Brinci and Bronco’s antics, Branca scolded both of them.

“Can you guys be quiet? Just focus on dragging him!”

Branca still had his back turned to them while scolding them, still focusing on the tablet that Branca took from Brinci.

Seeing their interactions, Ernest wanted to laugh even more. What kind of comedy were they playing all of a sudden?

Although he already knew who they were and what motive they had, Ernest still wanted to check the truth. So, he asked, pretending to be innocent.

“Why do you want to take me away?”

“Of course, so that you can’t run away.”

The one who still wanted to answer Ernest was Bronco, the youngest of the triplets.

“By the way, how did you know I was here?”

“Hehe, initially, we weren’t sure if you were the real person who borrowed money from us when we saw you relaxing.”

“Is that so? Then?”

“But after the eldest brother checked the debtor data in our organization and called your number, we became sure that you were one of them. Did you forget that the dumb phone you’re using is our gift?”

Thwack!

Suddenly, a hard punch flew towards Bronco’s head once again.

Because Bronco continued to answer Ernest’s questions frankly without shame, Branca immediately hit Bronco’s head. Ernest noticed that Bronco was indeed the most foolish among the three brothers.

Despite the three of them making a fuss, Ernest nodded and agreed to Bronco’s earlier question. Yes, the phone he was using was a gift from their organization two years ago because he had discarded his old phone as a form of severing ties with this world.

‘Was the decision not to throw away this phone as trash yesterday wrong?’

Ernest had considered throwing away the old dumb phone given by the Cerberus organization yesterday, thinking that he could be free from the Cerberus organization and wouldn’t have to repay his debt. However, he chose to keep it.

He thought that sooner or later, he would inevitably face them. So he thought it wasn’t necessary to escape.

Finally, Ernest resigned as the triplets dragged him into their car, which was already parked not too far away.

Ernest sat in the back, flanked by Brinci and Bronco. Meanwhile, Branca sat in the front, driving the car.

Ernest’s reason for passively following them was that he didn’t want to start a fight in the middle of the city. So, it would be safer to follow wherever they took him and then disable them.