2026-06-24 08:51:17Chapter 7
Eleanor stared at Arthur, her perfectly manicured fingers tightening around the expensive silk tie. The sheer absurdity of seeing her ex-husband a man who had eaten canned beans for dinner two nights ago standing inside the city’s most exclusive boutique short-circuited her brain.
"Arthur?" Eleanor’s voice was a mix of disbelief and rising anger. "Are you stalking me? How did you even know I was here?"
Arthur didn't immediately answer. He casually slid his hands into the pockets of his faded jeans and looked around the immaculate showroom.
The salesman, sensing Eleanor’s distress, immediately puffed out his chest. "Ms. Sterling, do you know this... person? Is he harassing you?"
"He's my ex-husband," Eleanor sneered, recovering her haughty composure. She looked Arthur up and down with profound disgust. "And no, he shouldn't be here. He probably followed me to beg for more money. Julian told me about the little stunt you pulled last night at the club, Arthur. Hiring actors to pretend you bought the place? Tricking Elias into kicking Julian out? Julian’s father is already preparing the lawsuit. You’re going to prison."
Arthur actually chuckled. The sound was deep, rich, and utterly devoid of the anxiety Eleanor was so used to hearing from him.
"Actors?" Arthur mused. "Is that the fairy tale Julian told you to soothe his bruised ego after I put him in the gutter? Cute."
"Get out, Arthur. Before I call the police and have a restraining order filed," Eleanor hissed, stepping forward. "You don't belong here. Look at yourself. A single button on these suits costs more than your entire bank account."
The salesman, emboldened by Eleanor, reached into his tailored vest and pulled out his phone. "I'm calling mall security. We don't tolerate vagrants harassing our VIP clients."
Arthur didn't blink. He didn't raise his voice. He just looked at the floating blue interface that only he could see.
System, Arthur thought. What is the valuation of this specific boutique?
[Target Asset: Armani Valmont (Franchise Rights & Real Estate)]
[Market Value: $30,000,000]
[Hostile Buyout Price (Instant Transfer): $45,000,000]
[Proceed? Y/N]
Y.
[Transaction Complete. Funds deducted. 4,500 SP generated. You are now the sole owner of this franchise location.]
Arthur smiled. He looked at the salesman, who was holding the phone to his ear, waiting for security to pick up.
"Before you make that call," Arthur said calmly, "you might want to answer the one you're about to receive."
The salesman frowned, opening his mouth to utter a sharp retort, but he was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the boutique's main landline behind the cash wrap.
Annoyed, the salesman lowered his mobile phone and walked over to the desk, picking up the receiver. "Armani Valmont, how may I"
The salesman stopped speaking. The color rapidly drained from his face, leaving him looking like a freshly powdered corpse. He swallowed hard, his eyes darting frantically toward Arthur. "Yes, sir. Yes, regional director. I... I understand. Immediate effect? But sir—yes, sir."
The salesman slowly hung up the phone. His hand was visibly shaking.
Eleanor crossed her arms, tapping her designer heel impatiently. "Well? Is security on their way to throw him out?"
The salesman didn't look at Eleanor. He practically crawled out from behind the counter, keeping his head bowed low as he approached Arthur.
"Mr... Mr. Vance," the salesman stammered, his voice cracking. "I... I was completely unaware. The regional director just informed me of the sudden change in ownership. Please, I have a family. I apologize for my abhorrent behavior."
Eleanor froze. Her tapping foot stopped. "Change in ownership? What are you talking about? Throw him out!"
"I can't, Ms. Sterling," the salesman whimpered, looking like he was about to cry. "Mr. Vance just purchased the building and the franchise rights. He is my boss."
Eleanor’s jaw dropped. The silk tie slipped from her fingers, fluttering silently to the polished hardwood floor. She stared at Arthur, her mind violently rejecting the reality unfolding in front of her.
"You... you bought Armani?" Eleanor gasped, stepping backward. "Arthur, how? How are you doing this? Where is this money coming from?!"
Arthur stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Before the System, Eleanor’s presence used to make his heart race with adoration. Now, looking at her wide, panicked eyes, he felt nothing but a cold, clinical satisfaction.
"I told you last night, Eleanor," Arthur said softly, his voice echoing in the quiet boutique. "I'm the swan now. And you are just the mud."
He turned to the trembling salesman. "You're fired. Clean out your locker and be gone in two minutes."
"Please, Mr. Vance!"
"One minute and fifty seconds," Arthur corrected, his tone turning into cracked ice.
The salesman didn't argue. He turned and sprinted toward the back room.
Arthur looked back at Eleanor, who was staring at him like he was a ghost. He pointed to the door. "As for you. Put the tie down. You can't afford to shop at my store anymore. You're permanently banned from the premises."
"Arthur, you can't do this to me!" Eleanor cried out, her face flushing with humiliation as the two other wealthy patrons in the store began whispering and pointing at her.
"Watch me," Arthur replied. "Goodbye, Eleanor."
Defeated, humiliated, and utterly confused, Eleanor turned and fled the boutique, the bell chiming mockingly as the door swung shut behind her.
Arthur took a deep breath, turning his attention to the racks of ultra-premium clothing. It was time to dress for the war ahead.
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Chapter 57The frozen moment in time shattered.The roaring wind returned with a vengeance. The dying Harvester monolith crashed into the Mediterranean Sea ten miles offshore, sending a massive, three-hundred-foot tidal wave racing toward the island of San Marcos.Arthur didn't even look at the incoming tsunami. He tossed the fading, useless shaft of the Spear of Genesis aside. The magnetic casing dissolved into violet dust before it hit the marble balcony."Vera! Hyperion!" Arthur shouted.Before the tidal wave could strike the newly rebuilt capital, Hyperion shot down from the stratosphere. The plasma-wrapped Vanguard positioned himself directly between the city and the ocean. He didn't build a wall; he simply unleashed a localized burst of thermal radiation.The three-hundred-foot wall of seawater slammed into the thermal barrier and instantly flash-boiled into steam. A dense, blinding fog blanketed the coastline, but the city was saved.Arthur turned back into the ruined boardroom
The Void Market
Chapter 56[10,000,000 SP Deducted. Debt Registered.][Deploying 'The Spear of Genesis'.]The air in the boardroom didn't just warp; it fractured.A rift in physical space tore open directly above the shattered smart-glass table. It looked like a jagged wound in reality, bleeding a deep, terrifying violet light. From the rift, the weapon descended.It wasn't a gun. It didn't have a trigger or a stock. It was a six-foot-long javelin composed entirely of condensed, swirling anti-matter encased in a shifting magnetic field. It hummed with a low, bone-rattling frequency that made the hair on everyone’s arms stand on end.Arthur stepped forward and reached out."Master, do not touch it!" Vera warned, taking a rare step backward, her instincts screaming that the weapon was anathema to biological life.Arthur ignored her. He wrapped his bare hand around the magnetic shaft of the Spear.The moment his skin made contact, a violent surge of violet energy raced up his arm, intertwining with the
The Sky Breakers
Chapter 55High above the Harvester monolith, Hyperion answered his Sovereign’s call.The plasma-wrapped Vanguard had been hovering in the stratosphere, waiting for the exact coordinate lock. He folded his silver-armored arms across his chest and plummeted directly toward the pitch-black surface of the alien ship.As he fell, Hyperion channeled the raw thermal energy of the upper atmosphere, turning himself into a localized, artificial sun. The heat radiating off his body spiked to ten thousand degrees.He slammed into the top of the Harvester vessel.The impact should have melted the alien hull instantly. Instead, a shockwave of blinding white steam erupted across the sky. The alien monolith wasn’t just armored; its hull was maintained at absolute zero. Hyperion’s nuclear heat collided with the ship's freezing perimeter, creating a massive, shrieking explosion of conflicting thermodynamics.Hyperion roared, driving his silver gauntlets into the black metal, trying to physically rip t
The Price of Defiance
Chapter 54The abyssal vault groaned, the ancient metallic walls protesting against the shifting tectonic pressure caused by the massive ships entering Earth's atmosphere.Arthur didn't spare another glance at Host 409. The broken man had surrendered to the cosmic food chain thousands of years ago. Arthur didn't know how to surrender. It wasn't programmed into his biology anymore."Vera," Arthur said, his voice slicing through the stale, ozone-heavy air. "Grab my shoulder. We are leaving."The white-haired assassin instantly sheathed her blade and clamped her gloved hand onto Arthur’s charcoal suit jacket.Arthur’s mind locked onto the golden interface burning in his vision. He needed to cross seven miles of crushing ocean water in zero seconds.System. Level 5 Access. I need instantaneous spatial relocation. Target: Presidential Palace, San Marcos.[Accessing Level 5: The Architect Protocol...][Purchase: 'Quantum Tether' (Spatial Folding). Cost: 50,000 SP.][Description: Folds physi
The Harvesters
Chapter 53The sheer impossibility of the ancient man's words hung in the stale air of the deep-sea vault."Explain," Arthur commanded. He didn't raise his voice. He simply let the Aura of the Sovereign bear down on the broken man.Host 409 let out a rattling laugh, completely unaffected by Arthur’s oppressive willpower. "Your aura doesn't work on me, boy. I bought that same skill twenty thousand years ago, on a planet whose name has already turned to dust."Vera’s grip on her blade tightened. Her crimson eyes darted around the cavernous room, scanning the shadows for a trap."The Infinite Wealth System," Host 409 wheezed, pushing himself up into a sitting position, clutching his shattered chest interface. "You thought you were chosen, didn't you? You thought it was a magical gift given to a desperate man who needed revenge."Arthur’s jaw tightened. "It gave me capital. I built the empire.""It's a filtration tool!" the ancient man spat, his dead gray eyes flaring with sudden, agonizi
The Abyssal Anomaly
Chapter 52The crushing pressure of the Mariana Trench was enough to compress a standard nuclear submarine into the size of a soup can. It was a lightless, frozen void where human ambition went to die.Arthur Vance wasn’t human anymore.He stood on the bridge of the Abyssal Leviathan, a deep-sea exploration vessel he had purchased from the Level 5 System Store for an effortless half-million SP. The ship was constructed from self-repairing dark matter and propelled by a frictionless gravity drive. It descended through the pitch-black water at terrifying speeds.Ares stood like a monolith at the back of the bridge, his red optics cutting through the dim cabin lighting. Nemesis hovered near the navigation console, her shadow-wrapped form completely unbothered by the crushing depths outside the viewport. Vera stood directly beside Arthur, her hand resting on her combat blade out of pure habit."Depth: thirty-five thousand feet," the ship’s automated AI reported in a smooth, synthetic voic
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