From Fat to Untouchable: The System's Billion-Dollar Payback

Tech Ability Unlocked

Chapter 3

~ Tech Ability Unlocked ~

"Whom do you think you are talking to, you absolute piece of trash?" Steven snarled, his face twisted into a scowl as he tried to regain his composure in front of the staring customers.

"I said, step away from the counter." Asher repeated, his voice dripping with rage, that made the branch manager take an involuntary step backward.

Steven pointed a finger at Asher's chest, his voice trembling with a mix of rage and fury. "Security! Get this homeless looking boy out of my bank right now or I will have you arrested for criminal trespassing and assault!"

Before any guards could even move from their position, a tall man in a tailored suit stepped out from the VIP elevator with a stern expression on his face.

Finley Mont, the senior regional auditor for the banking district, stopped in his steps as he surveyed the scene unfolding at Counter 2 with a keen eye.

"What is the meaning of this commotion in the public lobby, Mr. Steven?" Finley asked, his voice tugged with a quite commanding aura, as he adjusted his glasses with one hand.

Steven spun around on his heel, instantly forcing a nervous smile on his face while trying to block the glass counter from the auditor's sight. "Nothing to worry about, Mr. Mont, just an erratic non-customer harassing our staff, we are handling the situation right now."

"He is lying to you, sir!" Sarah spoke up immediately, from behind the glass partition, her voice trembling with fear, knowing this was her chance to freedom.

"Mr. Steven forced me to fill the corporate ledger entries with false numbers and threatened to frame me for grand embezzlement if I dared to refuse!"

Finley Mont's eyes dimmed with curiosity, he averted his steps forward across the lobby floor, extending a firm hand to take the stack of detailed documents through the small teller drop slot.

Asher stepped aside just enough to give the regional auditor a space, his calm gaze fixed on the branch manager who was already fidgeting on his toes.

Finley looked at the pages of the document for three long seconds, his face briskly hardening into a fury as he recognized the administrative sign-offs stamped along the bottom of the financial sheets.

"Mr. Steven, your personal administrative login is clearly stamped on every single one of these wire transfers," Finley stated, raising his commanding voice so the entire public lobby could hear every word clearly.

“Sir, I….. I… I'm sorry, there was a mistake in the stamp, I didn't assign those payments….,” Mr. Steven stammered, rubbing his two hands together.

“ A mistake?” Finely asked, upheaving a brow that showed how disappointed he was.

“Mr. Steven,” he called out in a stern voice, “You are officially suspended from the bank, with a full audit investigation pending. The security will escort you out of this building immediately,” he uttered, slamming the document close in his palm.

Two tall security guards, with intimidating board chests, stepped out, walked towards Steven, grabbing his arms with a grip before he could say anything, and dragged him toward the doors while he cursed loudly.

Sarah collapsed into her chair behind the counter, burying her face in her hands as tears of joy and immense relief streamed down her exhausted cheeks.

Asher turned away from the teller window, walking over to the nearest ATM machine at the end of the lobby to handle his urgent business that had brought him to the bank.

He slid his debit card into the machine, pressing in his four-digit pin code on the key pad, and watched the main menu load up with blue light.

A robotic voice blurted out inside his mind as the System interface flashed a brilliant gold window across his vision.

[Emergency Priority Task Completed: Protected Vulnerable Target.]

[Bonus Payout Unlocked: $10,000 USD Credited to Primary Account.]

Asher blinked constantly, his eyes widened in shock, as they caught the figures at the ATM screen, his total account balance refreshed before his eyes.

Available Balance: $11,000.00

The money was completely real, earned through his decisive, physical action and backed by the mysterious system that echoed inside of his head, the Unyielding Task-Master System.

He couldn't believe it earlier, he had thought he was hearing things, and needed to visit a doctor. Perhaps the beating he got at his head from Caleum and his maniac friend may have damaged his brain functions, he thought to himself.

But his curiosity brought him to the bank to confirm the voice, and the outrageous money that was receiving an alert for.

A system that pays you money for every task.

‘Where did it come from?’ he pounded in his thoughts.

He did not hesitate navigating smoothly through the system menu to select a direct external wire transfer, pulling out a cheap burner smartphone from his jacket pocket to complete the transaction anonymously.

Immediately, an advanced technical protocol uploaded directly into his mind by the System to navigate the anonymous transaction.

Asher bypassed the commercial tracking system of the bank and transferred $10,000 straight to the hospital trust account set up for his sister's care.

The small screen flashed a clean green confirmation message stating that Lila's overdue surgical deposit was now paid in full, securing her spot in the upcoming medical treatment block for tomorrow morning.

Asher exhaled a long breath, the worry that made him sleepless for weeks finally vanishing as he placed the burner phone and pulled his dark hood back over his forehead.

He walked out of the bank into the warm sunlight, his stride feeling lighter, faster, and infinitely more dangerous than it had twenty-four hours ago when he was shivering on the rink ice almost dead.

“What is this system? Where did it come from?” He questioned his thoughts, as he drove across the city streets to the hospital, parking in the corner of the visitor lot and slipping quietly through the side service doors to find Lila's room on the third floor.

Pushing the door open just an inch, he watched his younger sister sleeping peacefully in her clean hospital bed. A relief shoved over his face seeing how peaceful she looked, and her breathing normal, without her face twisting into a discontorted pain from every minute she inhaled.

A middle-aged nurse walking down the hallway stopped beside Asher, offering a warm, gentle smile as she clipped her pen into her blue uniform pocket.

"Are you a member of young Miss Reed's family?" the nurse asked softly, keeping her voice low so as not to disturb the resting patients in the ward. "You just missed the billing office update by ten minutes, someone cleared her entire surgical balance in full, so she gets her procedure first thing tomorrow morning."

"I know," Asher replied, as he stared at his sister's pale, resting face through the glass panel.

"Just make sure she gets well and gets the best care available.”

He simply turned away before the friendly nurse could ask him any further personal questions, walking briskly down the corridor, heading for the parking lot.

His phone buzzed in his hand, displaying a gold notification from the System that made him freeze in his strides.

[ Tech Ability Unlocked: Assess To Digital Asset Control & Smart-Network Manipulation.]

[Next Mandatory Task: "The Trojan Expansion." Acquire controlling shares in Thorne Global holdings.]

Asher stood at a spot, his body felt strange, as he sensed a strong power flowing through his veins and nerves, while his mind compared the possibilities of his new technical abilities.

He pulled out the burner phone he had used earlier, the interface looked strange to him, watching lines of banking code d******d into his screen like a waterfall.

The System did not just give him physical strength; it gave him the exact digital tools needed to destroy any billion-dollar empire piece by piece without ever throwing a single punch or creating a wince.

He leaned against the seat of his car, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel as he began mapping out the exact share structure of Thorne Global.

Caelum Thorne believed that his family's vast wealth was an unassailable fortress that gave him the right to crush anyone beneath his boots.

He believed that money could buy total silence, hide his wicked acts behind the ice rink, and purchase the loyalty of everyone on campus, including Chloe.

A cold smile knitted across the corners of his mouth as he realized that Thorne Global's greatest strength was actually its biggest weakness.

The firm was heavily over-leveraged, relying on massive short-term bank loans and credit guarantees to keep its massive real estate projects afloat across the city. Making them look powerful and mighty, but meanwhile they were low and classless, with a net worth built on debts and loans.

If someone were to purchase those debt notes from the lending institutions, they would be holding the entire company's neck in a tight grip.

Asher opened a series of hidden accounts, transferring his growing system funds through untraceable international routing to prepare for the acquisition.

He knew he had to remain completely invisible while setting the trap, letting Caelum and his arrogant father feel entirely secure in their phantom power until the exact right moment arrived for him.

“If this system is a curse or a blessing, I'm glad it came at the right time,” Asher muttered to himself, kick starting the engine of his car to life.

Voom! Voom!

He hit the asphalt road heading to his place.

His body was still adapting to the physical realignment caused by the System, his muscles humming with a constant powerful energy that kept fatigue at bay.

He did not need sleep, he needed results, focus, and determination to finish up every task assigned by the Unyielding Task-Master System.

As he drove through the night, he passed by the skyscraper that had the massive glowing name of Thorne Global across its top floor.

Asher looked up at the glass skyscraper from his rusted car window, his dark eyes reflecting the bright lights of the city.

"Build your empire as high as you want, Caelum," Asher said to himself, his voice quiet, filled with seriousness, "The ground beneath your feet belongs to me now."

He pulled into the driveway of his apartment building, parking in the space behind the overflowing trash bins that had filled the area with a bad smell.

He walked into the building, chugging his feet towards the stairs to his room on the top floor, unlocking the deadbolt and stepping into his room that was covered in darkness, with the dusty smell of mold lingering in the air.

He sat down at his table by the corner of his room, pulling out both of his mobile devices and setting them flat on the bare table surface.

The system screen lit up immediately, casting a vivid golden glow across his broad chest and focused face.

[Digital Asset Control Active.]

[Target: Thorne Global Debt Issuances.]

[Current Acquisition Progress: 0%. Initiating Smart-Routing Protocols...]

[One]

[Two]

[Three]

Asher placed his hands on the screens, watching the encrypted data feeds connect directly to the regional financial network as his trap began to take its very first form.

He knew that by sunrise, the foundation of Caelum's life would begin to change in ways he could never possibly comprehend.

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, letting the System's neural feedback refine his technical control until every line of code felt as natural as his own heartbeat.

When he opened his eyes again, the golden glow in his pupils flashed bright in the darkness of his room.

He was no longer a broken hockey player that was despised and ridiculed on the ice rink, or a tired warehouse worker struggling to survive from one paycheck to the next.

He was the architect that would tear down everything Caelum Thorne held dear to himself, piece by piece, until nothing was left but dust to pick from.

His burner phone vibrated once on the table, indicating that the first document had been successfully secured in total secrecy.

Asher picked up the phone, looking at the initial confirmation receipt with an unbothered expression on his face.

"One step closer," he muttered into the silent room, his fingers already running through his screen, setting up the next automated sequence.