All Chapters of Zero to Trillionaire: The Scholar’s God-Tier System: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
30 chapters
The CEO’s Crisis
The glass doors of the Grand Hotel slid shut behind me, cutting off the distant, muffled shouting of Marcus Montgomery and the chaotic sirens of the approaching ambulances. The night air on the terrace was sharp and clean, a welcome contrast to the suffocating, chemical-laden tension of the East Wing. I stood at the top of the marble steps for a moment, looking down at the city of Northwood spread out before me like a vast, glittering circuit board. I checked my phone. The digital deed for the Northwood Education Group was securely encrypted in my private wallet, and the university administration portal already listed the former Dean as an ex-employee. The University Phase was over. But as I took a step toward the valet line, a heavy black town car pulled up directly to the curb, its tinted windows catching the reflection of the overhead chandeliers. The rear door swung open, and a man in a crisp, gray tailored suit stepped out. He didn't look like a hotel staff
A Bullet for the Boss
The red numbers of the System timer bled heavily into the very edges of my vision, flashing with an aggressive, rhythmic pulse that seemed to synchronize with the pounding of my own heart. The ambient lighting of the Sky Lounge remained low and intimate, completely at odds with the violent countdown ticking away in front of my face. The jazz music hummed on uninterrupted, a smooth, melodic saxophone solo providing a bizarre, surreal soundtrack to the imminent execution of one of the city's most powerful corporate figures.Isabella was still looking out the panoramic glass window, her elegant jawline tight with the crushing weight of her crumbling tech empire. She had absolutely no idea that a man dressed in a white service jacket was currently reindexing his physical weight just ten feet behind her, stepping with practiced quiet around a massive marble pillar, and sliding his right hand beneath the pristine linen towel draped over his silver tray."Mr. Vance?" Isabella turned her shar
You're Fired
The secondary guard’s hand was less than an inch from my left shoulder, his heavy steel handcuffs open and ready to clamp down. He was moving with the aggressive confidence of a man backed by a three-man firing line.I didn't give him the chance to make contact. With a subtle pivot of my hips driven by the God-Level Fighting Skill, I stepped completely inside his guard. My left hand shot upward, striking his forearm and deflecting his reach, while my right hand—still holding the suppressed pistol I had stripped from the actual assassin, brought the heavy steel barrel up to rest flush against the bottom of David’s jaw.The room froze again. The guard who had tried to grab me staggered back, his balance broken, staring down the barrel of my weapon as it pinned his boss's head upward."Move a single finger," I said, my voice cutting through the ringing silence of the Sky Lounge, "and your chief of security won't have a head left to think with.""Vance!" David growled, his jaw tightly cle
The Laughing Stock
The executive boardroom on the top floor of Horizon Technologies’ corporate headquarters smelled of expensive leather, stale espresso, and impending doom. A massive, solid oak conference table dominated the center of the room, surrounded by twelve high-backed chairs. Eleven of those chairs were occupied by the company’s board of directors. Men and women in their fifties and sixties whose expressions ranged from severe exhaustion to outright hostility.Isabella sat at the head of the table, her hands flat against the polished wood. I stood just behind her and to her left, my arms crossed, watching the room with a look of mild, detached amusement. The "Noble Grace" kept my posture immaculate, making me look like an anchor of calm in a room that was rapidly spinning out of control."Let me make sure I understand this correctly, Isabella," Director Caldwell said, his voice dripping with condescension as he leaned forward, tossing a pen onto a stack of financial reports. "We are less than
System Workshop
The heavy steel doors of Horizon Technologies secondary testing lab clicked shut, isolating me in a pristine expanse of white tile, chrome benches, and high-end analytical machinery. The air inside was sterile, freezing, and smelled faintly of ozone and liquid nitrogen. Isabella had pulled every corporate string available to grant me total, unmonitored clearance for the night. Her entire R&D team had been dismissed early, leaving a multi-million-dollar facility completely at my disposal. It was a massive playground of glass and steel, and for the next few hours, I was its absolute master.I stood dead center in the silent room, letting my eyes adjust to the ambient hum of the vacuum ovens and mass spectrometers. I didn't rush to grab the glassware or touch the digital control panels just yet. Instead, I stood perfectly still, closed my eyes, breathed in the chilled air, and focused my thoughts inward, commanding the system interface to appear.'System,' I thought. 'Open the Shop.'
The Trap Backfires
The heavy rubber seals of the secondary airlock hissed with a soft, mechanical sigh as Frank, the Montgomerys' private fixer, slipped into the outer laboratory bay. He moved with a practiced, predatory silence, his heavy-soled boots making zero noise against the polished white tile. He was a professional, a shadow in the corporate underworld, and his eyes darted across the dark, high-end rows of equipment before locking onto my silhouette. I remained positioned at the main workbench, my back completely turned to him, appearing to be deeply engrossed in monitoring the slow, rhythmic rotation of a glass distillation column.Through the clear, reflective surface of the stainless steel mass spectrometer casing in front of me, I watched his every move with clinical detachment. Frank reached into his grey, nondescript maintenance jacket and pulled out a small, heavy duty pressurized canister labeled with a hazard warning. His gloved fingers wrapped around the brass valve, his knuckles whi
The Boardroom Showdown
The morning sun cut through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the Horizon Technologies executive boardroom, casting long, sharp shadows across the polished oak conference table. The atmosphere inside was suffocating, thick with the smell of burnt coffee, high-stakes desperation, and the lingering, quiet terror of the distant fire sirens still echoing from the lower garage.Eleven directors sat rigid in their high-backed leather seats, their faces pale and drawn. At the far end of the table, looking like a man who had already conquered a nation, sat Marcus Montgomery. His tailored suit was immaculate, his fingers casually steepled as he looked down at a thick stack of legal documents resting in front of him. Sitting next to him was Bryan, his son, whose bruised jaw from the university gala was poorly hidden by layers of medical tape. Bryan’s eyes were bloodshot, staring intently at the doors, waiting for news that would never come.Isabella sat at the head of the table, her han
The Demonstration
Ethan's POV The boardroom remained caught in a breathless, paralyzed freeze. Marcus Montgomery’s fingers remained rigidly dug into the edge of the mahogany table, his eyes locked onto the glowing projection screen that documented the absolute annihilation of his financial leverage. Beside him, Bryan looked completely ruined, his chest heaving shallowly as his eyes darted from his father to the black thermal-insulated transport case resting on the polished wood."This is completely unprecedented!" Director Caldwell stammered, his voice losing every shred of its previous venom, replaced instead by a desperate, fluctuating panic. He looked across the table at Isabella, then quickly shifted his gaze back to me. "Even if you bought out the debt notes, Mr. Vance, that doesn't change the operational reality of this corporation! We are still sitting on an unresolvable technical failure. A shift in creditors doesn't give us a working product for the consumer market. If our primary lithium-b
The First Billion
The voices of the international investors continued to crackle through the boardroom's high-fidelity speakers, their demands growing louder, sharper, and more frantic by the second. The polished corporate atmosphere of the room had shattered completely, replaced by a raw, unadulterated financial frenzy. Directors who had been preparing to sign away their corporate lives and surrender to a hostile takeover mere minutes ago were now staring at me with a breathless, wide-eyed reverence usually reserved for deities.Across the room, Marcus Montgomery didn't say a word. The absolute destruction of his leverage had drained every drop of color from his face. He stood up slowly, his movements stiff, his face a mask of pure, unmitigated defeat. He grabbed his briefcase with a white-knuckled grip so intense the leather groaned under the pressure. Beside him, Bryan scrambled to his feet, his arrogant posture completely deflated as his bloodshot eyes darted around the room in absolute terror.
The Emerald Hill
The black sedan climbed the winding asphalt of Emerald Hill, leaving the noisy, smoke-choked lower districts of the city behind. This was the ultimate bastion of old money, a place where privacy was protected by heavily armed private security details. When the car pulled up to the titanium-and-glass structure at the absolute crest of the hill, the iron gates scanned the vehicle's digital pass and slid open with a heavy click. I stepped out of the back seat, the thermal-insulated transport case secure in my right hand. As I walked up the marble steps, a horizontal band of blue light swept over my retinas from a concealed sensor in the doorframe. [Ding! Biometric Registration Confirmed.] [Welcome Home, Master Vance.] The heavy doors swung inward with a silent smoothness, revealing twenty-foot ceilings and a massive panoramic glass wall overlooking the city skyline. I followed the pulsing blue indicators only visible to my eyes, guiding me toward a hidden elevator behind the kitc