Arthur Williams: Rise of the Untouchable

CHAPTER 3 - THE FIRST TASTE OF POWER

Arthur Williams stared at the numbers on his phone for nearly ten minutes without blinking.

Three hundred and twelve dollars.

The amount itself was not life-changing. It would not buy freedom, erase debt, or cure his mother’s illness. Even so, the sight of that balance felt unreal to him.

For the first time in years, Arthur had touched money that did not come from exhausting labor, humiliation, or begging managers for extra shifts.

His fingers tightened slowly around the phone.

“This can’t be real,” he whispered.

Morning sunlight filtered weakly through the cracked apartment blinds while traffic roared outside the building. The tiny room still smelled faintly of damp walls and instant noodles. The peeling paint, broken fan, and stack of unpaid bills remained exactly where they had always been.

Nothing around him had changed.

Yet somehow, everything felt different.

Arthur opened the trading app again.

The numbers remained the same.

Helios Tech had exploded upward exactly as predicted.

There was no mistake, no glitch, and no obvious scam.

His pulse quickened.

Then his phone vibrated.

Unknown Sender.

A new notification appeared across the black interface.

NEXT PREDICTION AVAILABLE.

Arthur hesitated before opening it. His thumb hovered above the screen for several seconds before he finally tapped the notification.

A different stock appeared immediately.

VANTEX BIOMEDICAL - EXPECTED SURGE: 470%

Arthur frowned deeply. “What is this?”

He searched the company online.

Vantex Biomedical was a tiny pharmaceutical corporation sitting dangerously close to bankruptcy. There was no major press coverage, no industry excitement, and no recent breakthrough announcements connected to the company, another impossible prediction.

Arthur leaned back slowly against the chair.

Most people would walk away immediately, most people would assume the entire thing was a fraud, but Arthur no longer had the luxury of thinking like a normal person.

Normal thinking had kept him poor.

Normal thinking had nearly gotten his mother killed. His eyes shifted toward the pile of overdue hospital bills sitting on the table like silent threats. Then he transferred every dollar into Vantex Biomedical.

The moment the purchase was completed, anxiety twisted violently through his stomach.

Three hundred dollars was survival money now. It meant food, transportation, and medication.

If this failed, he would return to zero instantly.

Arthur exhaled shakily before standing from the chair.

He needed to get back to the hospital.

The city moved differently during the morning rush hour.

Luxury vehicles glided smoothly through intersections while exhausted workers crowded the sidewalks beneath towering skyscrapers covered in digital advertisements for wealth-management firms and luxury apartments. Business executives stepped out of black sedans carrying coffees that cost more than Arthur usually spent on lunch.

Today, however, Arthur noticed something strange.

For years, he had walked through these streets feeling invisible, as though the city itself had already decided he did not matter.

Now every expensive building looked slightly less untouchable.

It felt as though a tiny crack had finally appeared in the enormous wall separating him from the world of wealth and power.

The feeling unsettled him because ambition was dangerous for poor people.

Ambition created hope, and hope could destroy a person faster than failure ever could.

Arthur arrived at the hospital thirty minutes later.

The same receptionist from yesterday looked up from behind the desk, and recognition flashed across her face immediately.

“Mr. Williams.”

Arthur approached quietly. “I’d like to make a payment.”

The receptionist blinked in surprise.

“Oh.”

Yesterday, her tone had carried irritation and exhaustion. Today, however, she suddenly sounded polite.

Arthur noticed the difference immediately. He pulled out his phone and transferred part of the money, not all of it. He could not risk that, but he transferred enough to delay the suspension of his mother’s treatment.

The receptionist checked the system before smiling professionally.

“Thank you, sir. This will help stabilize the account temporarily.”

Sir.

Arthur nearly laughed at the absurdity of it.

Yesterday, he had been treated like a burden.

Today, one payment transformed him into “sir.”

The same clothes hung from his body. The same exhausted eyes stared back at the world. Even his worn sneakers remained unchanged.

Only the money was different.

A nurse approached from nearby. “Your mother is awake now if you’d like to see her.”

Her voice sounded warmer than before.

Arthur stared at her for half a second longer than necessary.

The nurse shifted awkwardly beneath his gaze. “Is… something wrong?”

“No,” Arthur answered quietly.

But something was wrong.

Something deeply wrong.

People’s kindness had appeared the moment payment entered the system.

Arthur walked slowly toward his mother’s room.

Eleanor Williams looked fragile beneath the blankets, but her breathing sounded steadier now. The moment she saw him enter, relief softened her tired features.

“You came back.”

Arthur forced a smile. “Of course I came back.”

She studied him carefully. “Did you sleep at all?”

“Not really.”

“You work too hard.”

Arthur pulled a chair closer and sat quietly beside her bed.

For several seconds, neither of them spoke. The steady beeping of medical equipment filled the silence between them while rain clouds gathered beyond the hospital windows.

Then Eleanor noticed the tension hidden in his face.

“What happened?” Arthur looked away immediately.

How could he possibly explain any of this? The betrayal, the humiliation, the mysterious messages, the impossible money.

Instead, he chose the easier lie. “Just work problems.”

Sadness crossed her expression. “That restaurant never appreciated you.”

Arthur swallowed hard.

No.

They had appreciated him exactly the amount poverty allowed.

His mother reached weakly for his hand.

“Arthur… promise me something.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t let bitterness change you.” The words struck him harder than expected.

Arthur forced a faint smile. “You sound like you’re giving a final speech.”

“I’m serious.”

He squeezed her hand gently. “You’re going to be okay.”

But even as he said the words, fear remained buried deep inside him. Because hope without money meant nothing, his phone vibrated again.

Arthur checked it discreetly beneath the bed rail.

VANTEX BIOMEDICAL SURGES AFTER EMERGENCY FDA APPROVAL

Arthur’s heartbeat nearly stopped.

He opened the trading app instantly.

The stock was exploding. Three hundred dollars upward became fourteen hundred within minutes.

Arthur stared at the screen in disbelief. Then the numbers continued climbing.

Two thousand.

Three thousand.

Arthur nearly dropped the phone. “What’s wrong?” his mother asked softly.

“Nothing,” he replied too quickly, but his breathing had already changed.

This was no coincidence anymore. Someone truly knew the market before it moved, and somehow…

They were feeding that information directly to him. A dangerous excitement slowly crept into Arthur’s chest. It was not happiness. It felt closer to power. Raw Addictive.

For the first time in his life, Arthur felt capable of fighting back against the world that had spent years crushing him beneath its weight. The realization terrified him and thrilled him.

Hours later, Arthur left the hospital with his thoughts spinning violently inside his head.

He stopped at a convenience store to buy coffee. The cashier barely glanced at him while scanning the items.

Then Arthur used the platinum digital banking card connected to his trading account.

Everything changed instantly. “Would you like a receipt, sir?”

Arthur looked up slowly.

The cashier was smiling now. It was not a friendly smile. It was cautious, respectful.

Arthur took the coffee silently and walked back outside.

Cold wind swept through the street while the city lights flickered against the darkening sky.

His chest felt heavier with every passing hour because he was beginning to understand society clearly for the first time in his life. Money was not simply currency. Money was identity. It was permission. It was a human value.

Without it, people looked through you as though you did not exist. With it, doors opened automatically.

Arthur suddenly remembered Carlisle’s words Suffering without power is meaningless.

At the time, Arthur had hated hearing it. Now, he feared the man might have been right.

That evening, Arthur returned home and checked social media absentmindedly. Then he froze.

Vanessa had uploaded new photos.

Luxury restaurant.

Champagne glasses.

Designer dress.

Daniel stood beside her with one arm wrapped confidently around her waist.

The caption read:

Finally upgrading my life 

Arthur stared at the image silently while hundreds of comments flooded beneath the post.

“You deserve better.”

“Power couple.”

“He was holding you back.”

Arthur’s jaw tightened slowly.

Then another post appeared.

Marcus.

Laughing beside Daniel at some rooftop bar.

The caption underneath the image read: Winners only.

Arthur felt something cold slide through his chest. It no longer resembled heartbreak. This feeling was sharper, more dangerous.

For years, he had believed hard work would eventually earn respect. Now he understood the truth. People respected outcomes, not effort. Nobody cared how much pain Arthur endured while trying to survive.

The moment he became financially weak, everyone abandoned him without hesitation.

His phone buzzed again.

Another market prediction.

Arthur invested and won again. Then another prediction arrived, and another.

By midnight, his account balance crossed ten thousand dollars.

Arthur sat motionless in the darkness of his apartment.

Ten thousand dollars. It was more money than he had ever possessed at one time in his entire life.

His breathing became uneven.

The room suddenly felt too small and suffocating around him. Outside the cracked window, the city lights glowed like distant stars.

For years, those lights had represented a world that rejected him completely.

Now, he had finally found a weapon strong enough to fight back.

Arthur opened Vanessa’s photo again. He studied Daniel’s smug smile.

Marcus’s betrayal.

Carlisle’s contempt.

The security guards were throwing him into the rain like human trash. A thought slowly formed inside his mind.

At first, it frightened him. Then it comforted him. Revenge, not emotional revenge, not screaming violence. Something colder.

Arthur wanted them to feel powerless, the same way they had made him feel powerless.

His phone vibrated once more.

Arthur expected another stock prediction.

Instead, the black interface displayed something entirely different.

No charts, no percentages, just a company profile.

IMPERIAL CROWN HOSPITALITY GROUP

Arthur’s eyes narrowed immediately.

The parent corporation that owned the restaurant chain, the same company that had destroyed him, then another message appeared beneath it.

Arthur’s pulse slowed dangerously.

Three words appeared one after another across the screen.

DESTROY THEM.

Arthur stared at the message while heavy silence consumed the apartment. Rain began falling outside again, soft at first, then harder.

The city lights blurred against the wet glass of his window while thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance.

Arthur looked back at the company profile glowing on his phone screen.

For the first time in his life…

Opportunity and vengeance had become the same thing.