All Chapters of ALL HAIL THE GOLDMASTER: Chapter 151
- Chapter 160
205 chapters
Chapter 151. What Shadows Don’t Say
Noel's POVThe base just didn't feel the same after the mission.It never did, especially after intense brawls, but this time it wasn’t because of damage, loss, or wear and tear. It was eerily quiet, as if the walls themselves were listening. Soldiers trooped along at a slower pace. Muttered conversations ceased as soon as someone walked into a room. Everyone was thinking, and no one wanted to be the first to open their mouth.I went to the locker room and sat down without removing any equipment.The smells of metal, oil, sweat, and disinfectant lingered. It was a familiar scent. One that should have been grounding. Instead, it made everything feel all too real.I closed my eyes and here it came once again.That shadow.I hadn’t counted on that. Now I understood that. During the struggle. While everything was mayhem. While orders were being barked out. While opposing abilities were erupting into vicious bursts. I’d felt it extend the wrong way. A.pull that was nonsensical. A presence
Chapter 152. The Girl Who Didn’t Speak.
Seth's POV.The first time I saw her was in front of a broken staircase, one hand on the railing as if she was weighing whether the rest of the structure was sound.She did not appear to be hurt. That was the first thing that registered. Everyone else showed their injuries. Limping legs. Bandaged arms. Weak gaze that kept darting to corners that no longer existed. She simply stood, stable and calm in a manner that did not belong in a situation like this.It had formerly been an outpost for Ceres’ relay. Reinforced walls. Heightened lines of sight. Good places to create choke points. It could have withstood. It didn't. The burn marks can tell far more about it than any survivor. Breaches in the walls of the west. Internal damage done. Fire was applied in places where a precision strike would have been better. Failure upon which layers of poor decisions are heaped.She was watching me as soon as I entered.I felt it. That subtle push against the eyes that means a person is paying attent
Chapter 153. Orders from the Top.
Ceres's POVThe summons comes an hour before the break of the dawn sun, and the runner who brings it does not look at my eyes and doesn’t tarry for any kind of questioning. “Summons and complaint,” the runner says, thrusting the letter, it is the High Council Chamber. I know what it is about already.I get dressed without thinking, slip on my jacket over a shirt that reeks of smoke, and slide out of my quarters with my jaw closed hard. Two of my personnel are dead. One died where the west wall collapsed. Another bled out waiting on evacuation that never arrived. Their names are still lodged in my throat.The hallway leading up to the higher levels is quiet in a way that is definitely orchestrated. No chatter from the patrol. No movement. Just the smooth walls and the lights that give the sense that calm has not been purchased with bodies.The doors of the chamber open readily.They are already seated.Five of them today, sometimes seven, sometimes three. Depending on their expectat
Chapter 154. Blind Coordinates.
Seth's POVThe mission packet arrives, there was no knock or a request for a briefing. Just the silent upload pushed to my terminal while I'm still blowing dust out of my gloves. That alone is enough to raise a flag. Anything important usually comes with someone hovering nearby, pretending not to watch your face while you read.This doesn’t.I pull the file up and let it sit there for a moment before opening it. Habit. The first thing that I notice when I finally open it is how clean it looks.It's a Solo reconnaissance mission. Contested sector. Medium risk classification. Limited engagement directive. Standard surveillance window. Standard extraction.So basically... Standard lies.I scroll slowly, line by line, letting my eyes catch on the details that don't line up, coordinates that overlap in impossible ways, timestamps that contradict each other by minutes that matter, and intel summaries referencing assets that no longer exist. I pull up a separate map and overlay the route.T
Chapter 155. The Girl Who Watches
I glimpse him before he sees me.“That’s usually how it goes.”Seth moves through the prep bay like a man who knows he is being noticed but chooses not to acknowledge it. He does not walk cautiously, he doesn’t hesitate. His hands do not hurry ahead of him. He scans his equipment once and then again, and then he stops before it becomes active People who expect a means of survival speed. People who expect judgment delay.I press against the far wall, where light spills in jagged patches, making faces difficult to discern. No one calls me out for showing up here. It doesn’t happen often. People who prefer not to talk may become furniture if you don’t move after a while. He doesn't look like a man about to vanish.That is the first indication something is amiss. This kind of assignment is never free from tension. This is evident in the jawline, in the shoulder, and in overcorrection of minute points because they know they won't get another chance. Seth does none of this.He knows.I w
Chapter 156. Delayed Feed.
Virek's POVThe problem with delayed data is not that it lies.It’s that it arrives stripped of urgency.By the time the feed reaches us, whatever choice created it has already settled into the world. You don’t stop actions through delay. You only interpret them. That makes people careless. It makes them believe they are observing instead of reacting.I don’t make that mistake.Seth’s feed comes in fragments. Not because the equipment failed. Because the sector eats signal and spits it back out unevenly. Noise. Gaps. Compression artifacts that smear motion just enough to soften intent.Even so, the pattern is clear.He is not moving like a man trying to survive.I sit at the center console, fingers steepled, eyes moving between feeds, maps, and telemetry logs. Around me, analysts murmur quietly, careful not to interrupt unless invited. They know better. I reward restraint.“Bring up movement overlay,” I say.A tech complies instantly. Seth’s path appears across the sector map, traced
Chapter 157. No Extraction.
Seth's POV The extraction window opened like a held breath that never released, a clean square of time carved into the noise, and Seth stood inside it without moving, counting in his head, not fast, not slow, just enough to feel the seconds stack, just enough to let the system show its hand. The wind in the sector cut low across the broken stone, carrying dust and something sour from the ruins ahead, and his comm sat warm against his collarbone, alive, patient, waiting to be told it had done its job. He did not ask for status, he did not ping again, he did not shift his stance, because delays had a rhythm and this did not match it. Delays fidgeted. Delays apologized. Delays left fingerprints. This silence was smooth, intentional, practiced.“Copy extraction,” he said anyway, voice level, recorded for whoever was listening late, “window open, visual clear.”Nothing answered... Just absence, the kind that feels arranged.He let another count pass, slower now, eyes moving across the ter
Chapter 158. Seth's Return.
Seth's POV Leaving the sector felt nothing like escape, it felt like reversing a decision the world had already accepted, and Seth moved with that awareness pressed tight against his spine, every step measured, every pause intentional, because if the system had taught him anything, it was that exits were more dangerous than entrances. He did not retrace his path, not exactly, he curved around it, letting the terrain break him up into fragments, letting any watcher struggle to decide which direction he had truly chosen. The air shifted as he crossed back into regions that pretended to be neutral, less hostile, more orderly, and he almost laughed at how fake it felt, the illusion of safety draped over ground that had already chosen sides.He stopped once, far enough from the contested line to matter, and stripped himself down to function. Gear came off first, piece by piece, not tossed, not rushed, just removed and set aside like shedding a skin that had outlived its purpose. The pack
Chapter 159. Time to spill
Seth's POV The room sealed itself with a sound that felt older than the base, a heavy mechanical sigh followed by a sequence of locks and Seth waited through all of it without speaking, letting the silence settle and prove itself. The lights were dim by default, just neglected, and the walls carried the faint hum of insulation thick enough to smother curiosity. Cassandra moved first, fingers flying across an ancient console, killing feeds that had not been officially alive in years, Alex stood near the door like gravity had assigned him there, while Noel hovered close to Seth, quiet in a way that meant he was trying very hard not to interrupt.When the last indicator went dark, Cassandra leaned back and exhaled. “No signal in or out,” she said, tone clipped but satisfied, “if anyone’s listening, they’ll have to be psychic.”“Good,” Seth replied, and only then did he let himself sit.He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands loosely clasped, eyes moving over each of them once, sl
Chapter 160. Permission.
POV: SethThe room stayed sealed the way Seth liked it, quiet without being empty, the kind of quiet that let thoughts move without bumping into surveillance. The lights hummed low overhead, casting a dull wash over the old table and the faces around it, and Seth stood instead of sitting, not because he needed to dominate the space, but because standing helped him think in straight lines. He rested his hands on the back of a chair, fingers relaxed, eyes steady, and waited until everyone had settled into that particular silence that came right before something irreversible.“This isn’t a speech,” he said calmly, almost conversational, “so don’t expect one.”Noel blinked, then nodded, shifting in his seat. Cassandra leaned back with her arms crossed, already braced. Alex stayed where he was near the wall, posture neutral, listening the way he always did when he knew something heavy was coming.“Exposure,” Seth continued, “doesn’t come from words. People think it does because words feel