The Billionaire's Hidden System

The First Fortune

Ethan moved aside as the security officer swung at him. His body reacted before his mind understood what was happening. He stepped backward, caught the man's wrist, and twisted it just enough to break his balance. The officer stumbled against a table, knocking over a chair.

Ethan stared at his hands.

[Basic Combat Training is active.]

[Current physical ability remains limited.]

[Recommendation: Avoid prolonged confrontation.]

The officer recovered quickly. He was bigger, heavier, and clearly more experienced than Ethan. Instead of attacking again, he reached inside his coat.

Ethan noticed and stepped away.

“You should have just given me the watch,” the man said.

“Who sent you?”

The officer ignored the question.

He pulled out a small device and pressed it.

The café lights went out.

Customers screamed as darkness filled the room.

Ethan heard footsteps rushing toward him.

He remembered the warning and moved toward the emergency exit. He kept moving until his hand found the door.

He pushed it open and ran into the alley behind the café.

Rain soaked him.

Behind him, the security officer emerged.

“Stop running!”

Ethan continued forward.

The alley opened onto a crowded street. Ethan blended into the crowd before turning into another street.

He stopped beside a closed pharmacy and looked back.

Nobody followed him.

[Emergency Trial progress updated.]

[Threat successfully escaped.]

[Reward: 50 System Points.]

He had not defeated the officer, but he had survived. Ethan smiled.

The blue screen changed.

[Current System Points: 50.]

[Would the host like to upgrade an attribute?]

Ethan selected Intelligence.

[Upgrade cost: 50 points.]

[Confirm?]

“Yes.”

A warmth spread through his head.

The world seemed sharper.

He could remember the officer's face, the exact words he had spoken, and the position of the café tables without effort.

More importantly, Ethan began connecting details that seemed unrelated.

Richard wanted the watch.

Someone had accessed Adrian Cole's archived files.

The unknown person had warned him.

The security officer had known about the watch.

Someone was afraid Ethan would discover whatever his father had hidden.

Ethan pulled the watch from his pocket.

He examined it beneath the weak light from a nearby sign.

The casing looked ordinary, but the red light he had seen earlier was gone.

He turned it over.

A symbol had appeared beneath the scratched metal.

It was a circle containing three intersecting lines.

Ethan had seen that symbol before.

It appeared on a photograph of his father that had been kept in a family album.

He searched through his pictures.

After several minutes, he found the photograph.

His father stood beside three unfamiliar men outside a large building.

The same symbol was engraved above the entrance.

Ethan zoomed in.

One of the men beside Adrian was Richard.

Ethan's stomach tightened.

His uncle had lied about knowing nothing concerning his father's disappearance.

But there was something else.

The third man had been partially hidden behind Adrian.

Ethan enhanced the image.

He froze.

He recognized him.

The man was Victor Hale, a businessman who had died in a plane crash eleven years earlier.

At least, that was what the news had reported.

The system suddenly appeared.

[Hidden information detected.]

[Mission progress: 25%.]

[Additional clue discovered.]

[New objective: Locate the building shown in the photograph.]

[Reward: 150 System Points.]

Ethan looked at the address written on the bottom of the photograph.

It was an old industrial district on the edge of the city.

He searched the location.

The building had been demolished eight years earlier.

Or so the public records claimed.

Ethan frowned.

If the building no longer existed, why had someone recently accessed his father's files?

His phone vibrated.

Daniel was calling again.

Ethan answered immediately.

“Daniel, I need you to do something.”

“What happened? Are you all right?”

“I am fine. I need information about an old building.”

“Send me the address.”

Ethan gave him the details.

There was silence.

“Ethan, where did you get this?”

“My father had a photograph taken there.”

Daniel's voice became serious.

“I know that location.”

“You do?”

“My father used to work with the city archives. He once told me that the building was not actually demolished.”

Ethan's eyes narrowed.

“Then why does the public record say it was?”

“Because someone paid to have the property removed from the official database.”

“Can you find out who?”

“I can try, but Ethan, if someone went through that much trouble to hide the place, you should stay away.”

“I cannot.”

“Why?”

“Because whatever happened to my father may have started there.”

Daniel sighed.

“Give me two hours.”

Ethan slipped the phone into his pocket.

He had expected his first day without Cole International to be miserable.

Instead, he had discovered a secret, awakened an impossible system, and found evidence that his father's disappearance had been concealed.

Yet he still had one immediate problem.

He had nowhere to sleep.

His bank accounts remained frozen, and his cards no longer worked. He checked his remaining cash and realized it would barely cover transportation and food.

The system appeared again.

[New challenge available.]

[Challenge: Earn your first $10,000 using only your current abilities.]

[Time limit: 72 hours.]

[Reward: System Store access.]

Ethan stared at the challenge.

Ten thousand dollars in three days seemed impossible.

Then Financial Insight activated.

His eyes moved toward the street.

A delivery truck had stopped outside an electronics store. Several boxes were being unloaded.

One box fell.

The store manager opened it and immediately started arguing with the delivery driver.

Ethan watched carefully.

The label showed a model number.

His enhanced memory recognized it from a technology article he had read months earlier.

That particular device was about to become extremely valuable because its manufacturer had discontinued production.

Ethan smiled.

Maybe the system had not given him wealth.

Maybe it had given him something far more dangerous.

A way to create it.

He walked toward the store, ready to make his first move.