All Chapters of Zero to Trillionaire: The Scholar’s God-Tier System: Chapter 11
- Chapter 20
30 chapters
The Faculty Gala
The Grand Hall of Northwood was glowing. It looked like something out of a movie. Huge spotlights cutting through the night sky, a red carpet that seemed to go on forever, and rows of security guards in black suits standing like statues. This was the one night a year where the real owners of the city came out to play. I pulled the Bugatti into the long line of luxury cars. Ahead of me were Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis, but even in this crowd, my car was the center of attention. It looked like a black shadow moving through the lights. People on the sidelines were pointing and whispering, trying to peek through the tinted glass to see which billionaire was inside. I saw them then. Standing near the entrance were Bryan Montgomery and Chloe. Bryan was wearing a white tuxedo that probably cost more than my old apartment. He was standing next to a middle-aged man with a thin mustache and a stethoscope visible in his breast pocket—the "famous doctor" he’d brought to show off.
The Chairman’s Collapse
The Grand Hall was a mess of screaming women and men shouting into their phones. Alexander Valerius, the man who practically owned the city, was sprawled out on the expensive rug. His face was a sickly, bruised shade of purple, and his chest wasn't moving. Dr. Wagner was kneeling next to him, his expensive medical bag open. He was sweating so hard it was dripping onto the Chairman's silk shirt. He looked less like a famous doctor and more like a guy who had just realized he’d lied on his resume. "It’s a heart attack!" Wagner yelled, his voice cracking. "I need a defibrillator! Move back! Give him air!" Bryan was standing right behind the doctor, trying to look helpful but mostly just getting in the way. "Do something, Doctor! Save him! Everyone, stay back! Dr. Wagner has this under control!" Chloe was standing a few feet away, her hand over her mouth. She looked more worried about the Chairman’s wine spilling on her shoes than the fact that he was dying. I pushed through the
The God-Tier Needle
"He's going to stab him! Someone get him!" Bryan’s voice was a shrill scream that echoed off the high marble walls. He scrambled up from the floor, his white tuxedo jacket stained with the black foam the Chairman had coughed up, looking like a total mess. The crowd went into a frenzy. Socialites were shouting for security, and the Dean looked like he was about to have a stroke. Two more guards started moving in from the side, their hands going to their belts. "Vance, I am warning you!" the Dean roared, his face bright red. "You are just a student! A chemistry student! You have no medical license, no right to be near him! If you touch him with that pen, I will personally make sure you spend the rest of your life in a hole!" I didn't even blink. The "Noble Grace" combined with the "Acupuncture Mastery" made everything feel slow. To everyone else, the room was a loud, chaotic nightmare. To me, it was quiet. I could see the Chairman’s life force—what the System called 'Qi'—flickering l
The Miracle
The silence in the Grand Hall was so thick you could hear the sweat dripping off Dr. Wagner’s chin. Alexander Valerius sat on the rug, his chest heaving as he took in long, ragged gasps of air. The sickly purple color was gone, replaced by a healthy, sharp glow. He looked like a man who had just climbed back out of a grave, and he was already looking for someone to blame. He stared down at the puddle of black, foul-smelling liquid he’d just coughed up onto the Dean’s expensive shoes. Then, he looked up at me. "Chairman!" Bryan was the first to find his voice, though it sounded like a squeak. He scrambled forward, nearly tripping over his own feet as he tried to look concerned. "Chairman Valerius, thank God! We thought you were gone! This... this lunatic, this student Ethan Vance, he attacked you! He stabbed you with a pen! We’ve already called the police. Dr. Wagner was doing everything a world-class professional could do before this trash interfered!" Dr. Wagner nodded so hard I t
Chloe’s Regret
The Chairman was barely out the door before the room started buzzing. It wasn't the polite, quiet chatter from before. It was the sound of a hundred rich people trying to figure out how a scholarship kid they’d been laughing at five minutes ago was now holding the most powerful card in the city. I stood there, fixing my cuffs. I didn't feel like a hero. I just felt tired. The "Noble Grace" skill made me feel solid, like I belonged in this suit, but my head was already moving to the next problem. "Ethan..." I knew that voice. I didn't even have to turn around. It was the voice that used to tell me she loved me, right before she told me I wasn't good enough for her world. I waited. I didn't give her the satisfaction of looking back right away. I took my time, watching a waiter clear some glass off the floor. When I finally turned, Chloe was standing right there. She looked different. Not her face—that was the same pretty mask she always wore—but her eyes. The cold, "you're a l
The Card is Real
Bryan’s fingers were inches away from the matte-black metal when the air in the room suddenly felt heavier. He was smearing his greasy thumbprints toward the card, a sick, triumphant grin stretching across his face. He was already rehearsing the words he’d use to call the police. He was already imagining me being dragged out of the Grand Hall in zip-ties while Chloe watched. "Let go of the card, Vance," Bryan muttered, his voice trembling with excitement. "Let’s see what this plastic toy is actually made of." "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mr. Montgomery." The voice wasn't loud, but it had the kind of authority that made the hair on the back of everyone’s neck stand up. The crowd parted like a curtain being pulled back. A man in a perfectly tailored charcoal tuxedo stepped into the center of the circle. This was Mr. Henderson, the General Manager of the Northwood Grand. He was a man who usually didn't speak to anyone below the rank of a billionaire, and he certainly didn't ru
The Stolen Research
The East Wing of the Grand Hotel was even more suffocating than the main hall. While the Gala was about social standing and champagne, this room was about legacy and power. Large, high-definition screens lined the walls, each one flashing images of laboratory equipment, molecular structures, and wastewater treatment plants.I walked through the back of the room, my footsteps silenced by the thick, plush carpeting. I could see the University Board members sitting in the front rows, their faces illuminated by the blue light of the presentation slides. Among them was Bryan’s father, Marcus Montgomery, looking smug as he whispered to a corporate executive.The "Noble Grace" kept my movements fluid, but inside, my pulse was hammering. Every slide that flickered by was a piece of my soul. I saw the Terminalia catappa biosorbent data—the hours I spent grinding husks into powder, the nights I spent calibrated the UV-Vis spectrophotometer until my eyes blurred. All of it was being presented as
The Public Exposure
The Northwood Science Prize ceremony was moving at a clip that felt practiced, expensive, and utterly fraudulent. The Dean stood at the podium, his voice echoing through the East Wing with a cadence that suggested he truly believed the lies he was telling. Behind him, the massive LED screen displayed a high-definition rendering of a wastewater treatment plant—my plant. The blueprints were unmistakable, right down to the specific placement of the secondary filtration tanks."And so," the Dean announced, his chest puffed out with a sense of unearned pride, "we are not merely celebrating a student’s achievement. We are celebrating a milestone for this university. Through the visionary work of Bryan Montgomery, Northwood will lead the charge in environmental sustainability."A smattering of applause broke out, led by the front row where the Montgomery family sat. Bryan was already halfway out of his chair, adjusting his cuffs, wearing a smirk that looked like it had been carved into his f
The Calculation
The silence in the East Wing was no longer the silence of respect; it was the silence of a structural collapse. Every person in the room—from the billionaire investors to the panicked lab assistants was staring at the giant LED screen behind me. The "Noble Grace" kept my pulse steady as I stepped toward the digital podium, my fingers moving across the control interface with a precision that the Dean hadn't shown all night."Vance, stop this madness!" Marcus Montgomery’s voice cracked as he stepped into the aisle. He looked at the security guards, his face twisted in a mask of desperation. "He’s a student! He doesn't have the clearance to access the university’s server! Shut it down! Turn off the power!"Mr. Henderson, the hotel manager, stepped forward from the shadows of the stage wing. "The power to this hotel is managed by my staff, Mr. Montgomery. And as long as a guest holding a Black Dragon Card is requesting a technical review, the power stays on."I didn't wait for Marcus to r
The Acquisition
Marcus Montgomery’s chest heaved as he stood in the center aisle, his face a dark, terrifying shade of purple. The expensive fabric of his tailored suit jacket strained against his shoulders as he clenched his fists, looking at the empty seats where the city’s power players had sat only moments before. These were the men who had been his friends, his golf partners, and his primary business associates until I opened my mouth and ripped the foundation out from under his family name. "You think this is over?" Marcus hissed, his voice cutting through the hollow, ringing silence of the East Wing auditorium. He stepped closer to the stage, his polished shoes clicking sharply against the floor. "You think because you ruined a single ceremony, you’ve won some kind of permanent victory? I have a legal team on retainer that will spend the next twenty years stripping you of every single cent you ever make. That black card in your pocket won't protect you from a racketeering charge when I’m done