Jungle Corp – CEO on Death Island

Chapter 9: The Arrival of an Uninvited Guest

The midday sun felt like it was burning his skin, but that was nothing compared to the heat in Arthur's head.

The CEO stood in front of a giant flat stone in the village square. Below his eyes were rather thick dark circles—the result of staying up all night thanks to Xara's snoring concert that successfully made the hut vibrate.

In front of him, Xylok and several representatives from the Acquisition Department were sitting cross-legged, listening to Arthur's scolding with tense faces.

"Xylok, I've told you time and time again! Don't just throw away the slightly rotten wild yams!" Arthur tapped the stone with a twig in the style of a super annoying manager. "Cut off the rotten parts, and give the good leftovers to our captured boars for feed. This is called zero waste management! Do you guys understand raw material efficiency or not?!"

Xylok hurriedly nodded in a panic until his bird skull crown tilted. "U-understood, Mr. Boss! Cut the rotten, give to the boars!"

Arthur let out a long sigh, massaging the bridge of his nose. Teaching business concepts to stone-age people turned out to be far more exhausting than back-to-back meetings with Wall Street investors.

However, before Arthur could continue his afternoon briefing, a loud commotion was heard from the direction of the village gate.

"Step aside! Make way for the Acquisition Department!"

Grok's deep voice boomed proudly. Arthur turned his head and saw the Cannibal Commander walking in with his chest puffed out. Behind Grok, four muscular warriors were carrying a makeshift wooden stretcher on their shoulders.

But what immediately put the whole village in an uproar wasn't a fat deer or a giant boar. On top of that stretcher, there was a human.

To be exact, a young woman with smooth pale skin who was struggling and screaming hysterically.

"Let me go, you crazy people! Do you know who I am?! My father will hunt you down to the ends of the earth! My lawyers will make you rot in prison!" the woman screamed.

Arthur narrowed his eyes. The woman's appearance truly contrasted with the backdrop of this deep jungle. She was wearing an ivory white haute couture gown—which was now covered in mud and torn at the bottom. Her designer heels were nowhere to be found, leaving bare, blistered feet.

Grok immediately ran up to Arthur, his face beaming exactly like a sales staff who had just closed a billion-dollar target.

"Mr. Boss!" Grok exclaimed proudly, pointing at the woman on the stretcher. "Look at our catch today! White meat from across the ocean! Her skin is so smooth, there's no muscle on her at all. Her meat must be incredibly tender!"

Hearing the words 'meat' and 'tender', the woman became even more hysterical. Tears flooded her beautiful face, which was dirtied by dust. "Help! Somebody help me! I'll pay any amount! Ten million dollars?! Twenty million dollars?!"

The cannibal warriors around her looked at each other while gulping. They didn't understand what 'dollars' were; all they knew was that this woman looked very delicious for the dinner menu.

"Mr. Boss, what seasoning should we cook her with?" asked Grok enthusiastically, his hand already gripping his beloved rusty machete. "Should we use the ginger marinade technique again? Or do you want her boiled with spicy seasoning?"

Arthur's brain immediately worked fast. On one hand, he needed to maintain his reputation as the absolute God of the Kitchen. If he looked weak or sympathized without reason, his authority in front of this barbarian tribe could crumble.

But on the other hand... Arthur's instincts told him there was something familiar about the face of the woman sobbing uncontrollably.

Arthur stepped forward, approaching the stretcher. The crowd of the tribe immediately parted, making way for Mr. Boss. Arthur stopped right next to the woman, staring at her with a very cold, assessing gaze.

The woman looked up. When her eyes met Arthur's, her crying suddenly stopped for a moment. She was shocked to see a handsome man, with a neat though slightly long haircut, wearing the remains of an expensive shirt and suit trousers amidst a horde of prehistoric humans.

"Y-you... you're a modern person?" sobbed the woman, her eyes radiating a glimmer of hope. "Help me! I'm Clarissa! Clarissa Vance! My private yacht hit a reef during a storm and I was stranded on the beach!"

Thump.

Arthur's heart beat faster. His pupils dilated slightly.

Clarissa Vance. The only daughter and main heiress of the Vance Empire, one of the largest shipping and technology conglomerates in New York. Arthur had seen her briefly at a charity gala dinner last year. The Vance family's wealth could even rival Arthur's Sterling Group.

Arthur's capitalist brain immediately exploded with all sorts of profit calculations.

This woman isn't just a lost victim, Arthur thought, his eyes flashing cunningly. She is my VVIP ticket back to New York! If I save her, the Vance family will owe me their lives. I can use her father's connections and fleet of ships to destroy Victor and Chloe down to their very roots!

"Mr. Boss?" Grok called out in confusion, seeing Arthur fall silent for quite a while. The Commander raised his machete. "Let me slit her throat now so her blood doesn't go to waste."

As Grok's machete began to descend towards Clarissa's neck, the heiress squeezed her eyes shut while letting out a long scream.

"STOP! DON'T ANYONE DARE TOUCH HER!"

Arthur's baritone voice exploded and echoed throughout the entire square, much louder and full of more anger than when he criticized the boiling cauldron the other day.

Grok's movement stopped in mid-air. All the tribe members jumped in shock. They immediately stood frozen, staring at Arthur with expressions of confusion and fear.

Arthur glared at Grok with the aura of a CEO ready to fire the entire board of directors. He pointed at Clarissa, who was still trembling on the stretcher.

"Are you trying to ruin my grand plan? Meat like this is a long-term asset! If you eat her now, that's called mass stupidity! Starting from this second, this woman is my personal property!"

Grok and the warriors immediately went completely silent. Clarissa slowly opened her eyes, staring at Arthur's broad back with mixed feelings of relief for not being slaughtered, and horror at hearing the words "personal property".

However, before Arthur could breathe a sigh of relief, a deep and threatening voice was heard from behind him.

"Oh? Personal property, you say?"

Arthur gulped. Cold sweat instantly flowed down his neck.

From behind the parted crowd, Xara—his barbarian wife with steel-hard muscles—walked forward slowly. Her hands tightly gripped her spear, her eyes narrowing as she stared at Clarissa with a blazing fire of jealousy ready to burn down the entire village.