THE HIDDEN HEIR'S VENGEANCE

CHAPTER 24 : The Legacy Module

The clock on the penthouse wall showed three fifteen in the morning. The silence inside the luxury apartment felt heavy, broken only by Viviane’s soft breathing as she slept deeply on the living room sofa.

She had been too exhausted to even walk to the bedroom after the night of relentless social tension at The Gilded Gala. Matthew Thomas sat in a leather armchair facing the massive glass window that framed the New York skyline.

His expensive suit jacket lay discarded on the floor. His shirt was unbuttoned, revealing his chest rising and falling slowly. In his hand, a glass of aged scotch trembled slightly, following the faint shake in his fingers.

“A long night,” Matthew murmured to his own reflection in the glass.

He was not speaking to anyone. Yet something was listening. Something that lived inside his cerebral cortex, fused with the neurons and synapses of his brain.

Suddenly, a sharp pain far more intense than anything before slammed into the base of his skull. The glass slipped from his hand and fell onto the thick carpet without shattering, amber liquid spilling across the fibers.

Matthew clutched his head, stifling a groan so he would not wake Viviane. “Damn it… what’s now?”

His vision turned white, not from blindness, but from a visual interface exploding with the intensity of pure data-light.

[SYSTEM UPDATE COMPLETE]

[Initializing ARC Level 3 …]

[Neural Synchronization: 100%]

[Automatic Physical Recovery Activated: Redirecting vital energy reserves for cellular repair.]

The pain slowly faded, replaced by a cold sensation flowing down his spine, as if his blood were being replaced with liquid nitrogen. Matthew’s breathing steadied. The tremor in his hands disappeared.

He opened his eyes. His dark brown irises now carried a faint blue ring, slowly rotating, a physical marker of full integration.

“Status report,” Matthew commanded. His voice sounded different. Deeper, colder, authoritative.

A synthetic voice responded, yet it sounded eerily like his own inner voice, echoing directly inside his head.

“Welcome back, Architect. Level 3 unlocked. Human cognitive limitations have been removed. Access to the Ancestral Database is now available.”

Matthew frowned. “Ancestral? What are you talking about? You’re just a market prediction algorithm I stumbled upon by accident.”

“Correction. I am not a discovery. I am a legacy. And you did not find me, Matthew Vance Thomas. You were activated by me.”

A blue hologram appeared in the center of the room, hovering above the coffee table. It was not stock charts or logistics maps as usual, but a rotating double-helix DNA structure interwoven with streams of golden binary code.

“Explain,” Matthew demanded as he stood and stepped closer to the hologram.

“The Absolute Resource Control System, ARC, is not public software. It is a Family Office Protocol designed by the Vance Dynasty, the Archons.”

Matthew fell silent, listening intently as the system continued.

“Your genetic code matches the system’s encryption key at 99.9%. You are not a lucky outsider, Matthew. You are the lost heir.”

Matthew said nothing, struggling to process the revelation. The words hit harder than any physical blow. He staggered back a step, bumping into the chair behind him.

“Heir? Vance?” Matthew let out a bitter laugh, the sound foreign to his own ears. “You’re telling me I share blood with Julian Vance? The man who destroyed my life ten years ago? The man who cast me into poverty?”

“Logical Analysis. Julian Vance did not kill you because he could not. The Ancient Laws of the Consortium forbid the spilling of Pure Blood without sanction from the High Council. Exile was his only option to keep you away from ARC. However, fate has its own algorithms.”

Matthew stared at his hands. Hands he had always believed belonged to an ordinary accountant, yet they held the key to a dominion older than this country. Rage boiled inside him, mixed with a terrifying sense of awe.

“So… all that suffering. The humiliation at Lane Corp. The poverty. It was all because Julian was afraid I would claim what was mine?”

“Affirmative. He feared you would become what you are now. The Master Architect of Wealth.”

Matthew clenched his fists. “If I’m the heir… that means I have access to their assets.”

“Partial access. Level 3 unlocks the Legacy Module. This is a vault of assets left by your father before his death, assets hidden from Julian Vance’s surveillance.”

“Show me,” Matthew ordered.

The DNA hologram faded, replaced by a rotating globe. Red points ignited across the map: Zurich, the Cayman Islands, Singapore, Dubai, and a remote point in Antarctica.

[LEGACY MODULE: SHADOW BANKING TREASURY Y]

[Status: Dormant for 25 Years.]

[Total Frozen Liquidity: $1.2 Trillion USD (Estimated).]

[Current Access: 5% (Level 3 Cap).]

Matthew’s eyes widened. “One point two trillion dollars? That’s… that’s larger than the GDP of most countries.”

“It is dark money. Unregistered, untaxed, and untraceable. Julian Vance controls the surface economy. Your father controlled the undercurrents. Now the key is in your hands.”

An overwhelming temptation surged through Matthew. With that kind of money, he would no longer need to play stock market tricks against people like Holt or Sterling. He could buy them, burn their companies to the ground, and rebuild over the ashes in a single afternoon.

Then ARC issued a red warning.

[WARNING: USE OF THE LEGACY MODULE CARRIES A COST.]

[Each withdrawal from the Shadow Bank will emit a Ripple Signal across the global Archon network. They will know your location. A Cold War will become a Hot War.]

[Personal Cost: Degradation of Human Empathy (Detachment Effect). The more Archon power you use, the further you drift from your humanity.]

Matthew turned toward Viviane, still asleep on the sofa. His wife’s face looked peaceful, innocent, and fragile. If he chose this path, the path of becoming an Archon, would he still be able to love Viviane the same way? Or would she become just another asset on his balance sheet?

“ARC,” Matthew asked quietly. “Is there another way to defeat Julian without becoming a monster like him?”

“Probability Calculation. Zero. To slay a dragon, you must become a greater dragon. Or you may remain human and allow Viviane Lane to be destroyed by the enemies who are coming.”

It was not a choice. It was an ultimatum. Matthew hesitated, then walked back to the window. He looked at his reflection in the glass.

His eyes were harder now, older. He took a deep breath, silently saying goodbye to the remnants of Matthew, the naive accountant.

“Open the first access,” Matthew said coldly. “I don’t care about my humanity. I care about winning.”

“Command accepted. Opening access to The Obsidian Vault, Zurich.”

A long list appeared in his visual interface. Not cash, but debts and influence.

U.S. Senator, New York, financial kompromat

Director of the European Central Bank, gambling debt

Head of an Asian Triad Syndicate, tied investments

Global Oil Company CEO, environmental scandal

Matthew smiled. A truly terrifying smile. “This isn’t just money,” he murmured. “It’s a leash. My father didn’t leave savings behind. He left strings to control the world’s puppets.”

Suddenly, Viviane’s hoarse voice came from the sofa. “Matthew?”

The holograms and data vanished instantly, concealed by ARC. Matthew turned at once. The cold, calculating expression on his face softened in a heartbeat, a mask he now wore perfectly.

“I’m here, Vie,” Matthew said gently as he walked over and knelt beside the sofa.

Viviane rubbed her eyes and looked up at him. “You haven’t slept? What time is it?”

“Past three. You should go to bed,” Matthew said, stroking her hair.

“I had a strange dream,” Viviane murmured, resting her head in his hand. “I dreamed you were standing on top of the tallest building in the world, but you were alone. And below you… everything was burning.”

Matthew fell silent for a moment. His heartbeat remained steady, with no emotional spike thanks to the newly activated Detachment Effect.

“It was just a dream, sweetheart,” Matthew replied. “As long as I’m here, nothing will burn. Unless I’m the one who lights the fire.”

Viviane smiled sleepily, missing the double meaning. “You’ve gotten really good with words lately. Can you carry me?”

Matthew lifted Viviane effortlessly. His physical strength had partially recovered thanks to ARC. As he carried her to the master bedroom, Matthew issued his final mental command to ARC for the night.

“ARC, starting tomorrow, we stop defending. Activate Total Aggression Protocol. I want a full list of James Sterling’s assets and his connections to Julian Vance. We begin clearing the chessboard.”

“Affirmative, Architect. Welcome to the new era.”

Matthew laid Viviane down, tucked her in, and kissed her forehead for a long moment, a farewell kiss to their normal life. From this second on, Matthew Thomas was no longer just a CEO or a husband. He was an awakened Archon, and the world was his liquidation asset.

In the darkness of the room, Matthew’s eyes glowed faintly blue again, scanning endless streams of data, plotting the destruction of his enemies with ruthless mathematical precision.