The moment the absolute refusal left Dominic Haugland’s mouth, Dylan shot upright, his stance instantly aggressive. Sensing the sudden escalation, Leo and Clara moved in perfect, frantic unison. Leo clamped his hand down on Dylan’s left forearm while Clara snatched the hem of his jacket, pulling him back. They were completely terrified that Dylan would run his mouth and completely torch their remaining one percent survival rate."Dylan, shut up! Don't tank this!" Clara hissed in a frantic, pale whisper.Clara took a deliberate step closer to Dominic’s desk. Forcing her voice to steady despite a visible tremor, she looked straigh

"One and a half million dollars," Dylan repeated, his voice casual yet echoing cleanly through the quiet showroom. "My question is simple. For that price, do I get a vehicle durable enough to plow through solid concrete? Because I have a building to level tonight." The senior salesman didn't just laugh—two nearby security guards and a desk clerk openly burst out chuckling along with him. They shook their heads, pegging Dylan as some trust-fund brat who had watched too many action movies or had simply lost his mind under the influence. "Level a building? What the hell are you talking about, kid?" the senior salesman asked, wiping a tear from his eye. "One and a half million dollars just to trash a bulletproof SUV by ramming it into a wall? That is ridiculous! We sell premium security vehicles for personal protection here, not props for teenage stunt drivers. Look, just go home. We don’t have time f

 After tearing away from the wrecked Brown estate, Dylan pulled the massive tactical truck onto a dark, deserted side street a few miles away. He cut the engine, letting the heavy rain pelt against the reinforced ballistic windshield. The white-hot fury that had driven him there was finally starting to recede, leaving behind a cold, hollow exhaustion.He pulled out his phone and speed-dialed Arthur Sterling again."Arthur," Dylan said the second the call connected. "Send a few of your trusted guys to Alex Brown's place right now. Deal with the Knight XV; I left it sitting there with the keys inside. And make sure the finance department processes t

 The next morning, warm sunlight filtered through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of the luxury penthouse at the Skyline Residences. The space was completely beyond anything Leo and Clara had ever imagined. The expansive living room had been seamlessly transformed into a high-tech mobile lab. Workstations were neatly lined up, fully loaded with the latest digital oscilloscopes, automatic smokeless soldering stations, and a row of high-res monitors hooked directly into a blazing-fast local server.But what blew them away the most was the sheer level of medical care Leo was receiving. At the break of dawn, a sharply dressed private nurse and a physical therapist arrived to check his vitals. Leo was placed in a custom electric power chair with advanced orthopedic support, which perfectly cradled his torso so he could sit upright at the terminal without a single flash of pain. Hi