2025-07-31 21:21:23---
“Isn’t that the delivery guy?” The voice cut through the polished hum of the Oakridge Country Club’s grand ballroom like a rusty knife. Heads turned. Champagne paused mid-sip. A hundred wealthy eyes settled on Ethan Cross as he walked in—head high, shoulders squared, exuding the calm pressure of a man who didn’t need to prove anything anymore. Not to them. Not anymore. But he still remembered when they used to laugh. Three years ago, Ethan had crashed a car outside this very building trying to deliver gourmet sushi to one of these elites—unpaid overtime, a sprained wrist, and a kicked door in return. Tonight, he wasn’t carrying orders. He was buying the club. --- Mason Whitaker, president of the Oakridge Executive Board and third-generation billionaire, stood near the stage with a drink in hand. His smirk twitched when he saw Ethan approaching. “You’ve got nerve showing up here,” Mason said. “You weren’t invited.” Ethan gave a calm smile. “Correction. I wasn’t invited last year. Tonight, I own the lease on this building.” A beat of silence. Mason laughed, but it sounded thin. “That’s a joke, right?” “I don’t joke about my property portfolio,” Ethan said, pulling a signed contract from his inner pocket. “Bought it this morning. Direct from the previous owners—had to triple the offer to make it quick.” A few guests coughed awkwardly. Others lowered their gazes. “Impossible,” Mason muttered. “My father—” “Your father needed liquidity,” Ethan cut in. “And I needed a reminder that even the untouchables bleed when you hit them in the right artery.” --- He stepped toward the podium. The emcee hesitated. Ethan leaned in. “I’d like to say a few words as the new sponsor of this evening’s charity.” Within seconds, the microphone crackled to life. Ethan faced the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen. I’m humbled to stand here tonight… not as a guest, but as proof that no throne is safe from the man you once mocked.” A few people chuckled nervously. “I used to be your waiter. Your delivery guy. Your pity case. Now I own the floors you stand on, the roads you drive on, and by Monday—your lawyer’s firm.” Mason flinched. Ethan’s eyes locked onto his. “Here’s to the forgotten. The underestimated. The ones who never stayed down.” He raised his glass. “To the losers… who bought the world.” --- Back at his penthouse, Ethan stared out over the glittering skyline, glass of scotch untouched in his hand. Victory tasted sweet—but it was never enough. Power was like fire; if you didn’t feed it, it consumed you. And someone out there was fanning the flames. He pulled open the drawer in his study and took out the black card. Still smooth, still warm to the touch, still pulsing with secrets. His phone buzzed again. > FROM: FOX “Midnight. Parking garage Level 6, Solace Tower. Come alone. You’re not the only one with questions.” --- Midnight, Solace Tower. The garage echoed with silence, lights flickering above as if even electricity feared what lurked there. Ethan’s shoes clicked against concrete as he stepped into the center of Level 6. A shadow emerged from the far corner. It wasn’t The Fox. It was a woman. Black combat boots. Leather jacket. Hair tied back tight. Eyes sharper than knives. “You’re earlier than expected,” she said. “You’re not who I expected,” Ethan replied coolly. She stepped forward and held out a sealed envelope. “Call me Wren. I work for someone who’s been watching you. Closely.” He took the envelope. “What’s in it?” “A file. Your father’s real life. Not the one you think you knew.” Ethan’s pulse quickened. “He was one of the original Nine,” she continued. “Founders of the Ouroboros Network. The same people who are trying to kill you now.” --- Ethan opened the envelope right there under the buzzing light. Inside were photos—his father, young and fierce, standing among a group of suited men and women. Each face marked with symbols. A council of power brokers who pulled strings governments didn’t know existed. One image showed his father’s body. Charred. Twisted. “Car accident,” Ethan whispered. “No,” Wren said. “Sabotage. He tried to leave the game. Tried to take the secrets with him.” Ethan’s hands clenched around the photos. Wren continued, “You were supposed to inherit nothing. They erased his legacy. Burned the records. But the system... it found you anyway. It always finds the heir.” He looked up slowly. “Then why me?” “Because unlike your father, you were broken first. And they fear people who rise after falling.” --- “Why tell me all this?” Ethan asked. “Because a war is coming,” Wren said. “And your name’s already written on the first bullet.” A car screeched above. Lights blazed. Wren shoved Ethan to the ground as a sniper round shattered the concrete beside them. “Go!” she hissed. Ethan bolted behind a pillar. Three black-clad figures descended from the stairwell above—guns drawn, moving like professionals. Whoever they were, they hadn’t come to talk. They came to erase. Ethan reached for the only thing he had: a switchblade in his boot. He was done being hunted. --- The fight was brutal. One attacker lunged. Ethan sidestepped, slashing across the man’s thigh. The second raised a gun, but Wren knocked it aside and sent him tumbling over the stair rail. The last one turned to flee—but Ethan grabbed his collar, yanked him back, and drove his fist into the man’s jaw with every ounce of rage he’d been storing since the day Clarissa threw him away. The man crumpled. Blood dripped from Ethan’s lip. His hands shook. But he was alive. Barely. Wren pulled him toward the car. “We need to move. They won’t be the last.” As they sped into the night, Ethan looked back at the garage. Someone had tried to wipe him out. That meant he was getting too close to something. And he wasn’t stopping now. --- The next morning, Ethan stood in the mirror, staring at the bruises on his ribs, the gash above his eye. But he didn’t see weakness. He saw proof. Proof that he was dangerous enough to warrant a hit. He was done being the pawn. Now he wanted the throne. --- His phone buzzed. > FROM: UNKNOWN “You’ve survived your first move. But the board is far from finished.” Below the message was a new address. A building long thought abandoned. A place called: The Vault. Ethan’s eyes narrowed. Game on.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 180 : The Loser Who Bought the World
The war was over, but the echoes of it still haunted the sky.Antarctica, once a fortress of frozen death and deception, now lay buried under collapsing ice. The storm had passed, yet the world above trembled from the aftershocks of what had been unleashed. The Council was gone. Cain was gone. The Cipher—a godless machine born of greed and blood—was ash.And Ethan Cross was still standing.He stood at the edge of the world, his breath ghosting in the cold air. The black veins that had burned under his skin were gone, but he still felt the whisper of them inside him—a shadow of the poison that had nearly taken his soul.Wren came up behind him, her footsteps crunching over the frost. She didn’t speak. She didn’t have to. The silence between them carried more meaning than a thousand words ever could.Ethan turned slightly, meeting her eyes. “It’s done,” he said quietly.Wren looked out toward the ruins of the Vault. “The Cipher’s gone. The Council’s dead. But the world…” Her voice caugh
Chapter 179 : The Last Throne
The sea was black glass under the night sky, endless and silent. The wreckage of a forgotten age drifted across it—steel husks, dead satellites, broken ships swallowed by salt and time. Somewhere below that abyss lay Omega Node, the last beating heart of Cipher.Ethan stood at the bow of the stealth craft, eyes fixed on the horizon. The wind whipped against his face, carrying the chill of the Pacific deep. Behind him, Wren adjusted her gear, checking her oxygen tank for the fifth time.“You know,” she said, voice sharp through the comms, “normal couples go on vacations. Maybe to Paris, or Venice. Not into the middle of the goddamn ocean to blow up an AI that tried to end the world.”Ethan turned slightly, his lips curving into a faint smile. “You think we’re normal?”She huffed. “Good point.”Camille’s voice crackled through the comm from the control console. “You’re two kilometers from the drop zone. Once you breach the Node, I can’t maintain signal. You’ll be on your own.”Ethan’s j
Chapter 178 : The Man Who Refused to Die
Rain fell over the ruins of Buenos Aires, soft but endless, turning the ashes of the world into rivers of gray. The vault explosion had been felt across continents. Networks died in silence. Satellites blinked out like dying stars. The Cipher—gone.Or so everyone thought.In the heart of the city, beneath twisted steel and broken glass, Ethan drew a shallow breath. His chest burned, his body shaking violently. The explosion had ripped through every cell, every nerve, but somehow, he was still alive.Barely.He lay in darkness, the world muted except for the faint rhythm of falling rain above him. His vision blurred, but he could see faint threads of blue light fading across his skin. The Cipher was dying inside him. The power that once made him untouchable now drained him like poison.He wanted to rest. To let go. But something inside him refused.Wren.Her name cut through the haze like sunlight through storm clouds. He saw her face—tear-streaked, furious, alive. She needed him.And
Chapter 177 : The Price of Peace
Snow fell like ash over the ruins of the Antarctic base. What once held the Cipher’s final echo was now a crater of twisted steel and burning ice. Ethan stood at its edge, watching the flames die into blue smoke. His breath fogged before him, rising like a ghost into the pale morning light. The Cipher was gone.But peace… peace was not what he felt.He could still hear its whisper, buried in the cracks of his mind. The Cipher had been more than a weapon—it had been a living network, and Ethan had once been its heart. Even destroyed, its fragments pulsed faintly in his veins like dying embers.Behind him, Wren approached quietly. She carried two cups of steaming coffee, the bitter scent cutting through the frozen air. She handed one to him without a word. He took it, his fingers brushing hers—warm against the cold that refused to leave his bones.“You didn’t sleep,” she said softly.Ethan gave a faint, humorless smile. “Neither did you.”She shrugged. “Someone has to make sure the worl
Chapter 176 : The Loser’s Crown
The snow hadn’t melted. Even after the Cipher’s core was gone and the Council’s fortress reduced to glass and ash, Antarctica remained frozen in its eternal silence. Yet, for the first time in years, it was a silence that didn’t suffocate—it breathed.Ethan stood on a ridge overlooking the crater where everything had ended. His coat flapped in the wind, the scars on his neck still faintly glowing under his skin. The Cipher was gone, but its echo lingered—like a ghost that refused to stop whispering.Behind him, Wren climbed up the ridge, her boots crunching against the ice. She stopped beside him, breath forming white clouds.“You shouldn’t be out here,” she said, half-scolding, half-concerned.“I’ve been out here before,” Ethan murmured. “When this was still their stronghold. When I thought power could fix everything.”She crossed her arms, eyes narrowing. “And now?”He turned to her, his gaze soft. “Now I know it’s not power that fixes the world. It’s the ones who dare to start over
Chapter 175 : The End of the Beginning
The snowstorm had died hours ago, but the silence it left behind was louder than thunder. Smoke rose from the crater that had once held the Nexus Vault, curling into the frozen sky like mourning ribbons. The air was thick with the metallic taste of burnt circuitry and frost.Camille stood at the edge of the ruins, her breath fogging in the cold. Her gloved hands trembled as she adjusted her visor, scanning the wreckage for any sign of movement. Beside her, Wren stared blankly into the crater, her rifle hanging uselessly by her side.“He’s gone,” Camille whispered, her voice breaking. “It’s over.”Wren didn’t move. Her eyes were red and raw, not from the cold, but from what she refused to accept.“No,” she said finally, her tone flat. “Not until I see him.”Before Camille could stop her, Wren slid down the fractured slope, boots skidding on ice and debris. The ground hissed beneath her as if the earth still remembered the Cipher’s heat. She reached the center, where everything had turn
You may also like
Son-in-Law: A Commoner's Path to Revenge
Naughty Snail122.3K viewsSon-in-law: The Billionaire's Reign
Deliaha Shine107.6K viewsThe Gilded Man With A Thousand Lives
Kaiser Ken90.0K viewsThe Ex-Billionaire Husband
Sunny Zylven78.1K viewsI AM Kaelor Thane: The God Of War
Samuel Kelvin222 viewsTHE HEALER'S LAST LEGACY
Angka sara156 viewsThe Rejected Trillionaire Surgeon
WUMMIE240 viewsAfter Divorce, My Ex-wife Cried In Regret
Black Jewel2.0K views