2026-04-22 05:49:49"You’re alive?" The words fell out of Zhao’s mouth like lead. His hand jerked. The crystal glass of 1945 Romanée-Conti slipped from his fingers, hitting the marble floor with a sharp, crystalline explosion.
Red wine splattered across his white designer shoes, the color of fresh arterial spray. I didn't blink. I just kept walking.
Lin Xiao scrambled backward, her heels clicking frantically against the floor. She ducked behind Zhao, using him as a human shield.
Her eyes were wide, darting from the mud on my collar to the cold, dead look in my eyes. I saw the disgust there. I also saw a flickering, strange fear.
"Han Sen?" She whispered. "What are you... why do you look like that?"
"I look like the man you left in the rain," I said. My voice was a flat line.
Zhao snapped out of his shock, his face contorting into a mask of pure, ugly arrogance. "I don't care how you got past the lobby, you cockroach.
You think a black card makes you a king? It just makes you a target." He reached into his jacket and pressed a panic button.
"Red Lotus!" Zhao screamed. "Get in here! Kill him!"
The side doors of the penthouse burst open. Three men stepped out. They weren't like the suit-and-tie thugs from the hotel.
These were "Red Lotus" elites—professional martial artists with scars on their knuckles and eyes that didn't hold a hint of mercy. They moved with a predatory grace, fanning out to encircle me.
"Break his bones," Zhao hissed, pointing a trembling finger at me. "I want him to watch while I finish my drink."
The lead bodyguard, a giant with a shaved head and a neck thicker than my thigh, stepped forward. He cracked his neck, the sound echoing in the high-ceilinged room.
"Any last words, kid?" The giant growled. I didn't answer him. I narrowed my eyes.
Eye of Valuation: Activate.
The world shifted. The penthouse turned into a grayscale blueprint, and red data points began to swarm over the lead guard.
[Target: Lead Guard.]
[Physical Value: $200,000.]
[Weakness Detected: Hidden Injury—Stress Fracture, 5th Rib (Right Side).]
[Command: Liquidate Injury. Multiplier: 10x.]
[Cost: $50,000. Proceed?]
Confirm.
The guard took one more step, his fist pulling back for a punch that would have crushed my skull. He never threw it.
A sickening crack—louder than the wine glass ripped through the air. It sounded like a thick branch snapping under the weight of a falling tree.
The giant stopped mid-stride. His face went from aggressive to a pale, ghostly mask of agony. He clutched his right side, his eyes rolling back in his head.
A wet, rattling wheeze escaped his lips as his lung was punctured by ten times the force of his old injury.
He collapsed. He folded like a house of cards, hitting the rug with a dull thud. He was out before he touched the ground.
The other two guards froze. They looked at their leader, then at me. I hadn't moved a finger.
"What did you do?" Zhao screamed, his voice hitting a high, feminine pitch. "He didn't even touch you! Get up! You useless dog, get up!"
"He’s not getting up," I said.
I ignored the remaining guards. I didn't care about Zhao anymore either. I turned my gaze to Lin Xiao. She was still trembling behind him, her hands clutching his silk shirt.
Eye of Valuation: Target—Lin Xiao.
The numbers swirled around her head.
[Target: Lin Xiao.]
[Base Value: $500,000.]
[Current Value: $12.50.]
[Reason: Subject has traded 'Future Luck' and 'Destiny' for temporary material favor. Assets are currently in a state of rapid decay.]
"Twelve dollars," I muttered. "That’s all you’re worth now."
"What are you talking about?" Lin Xiao snapped, her fear turning into a desperate, defensive anger.
"You’re crazy, Han Sen. You’re talking nonsense. Look at me! I’m wearing more money on my wrist than you’ve ever seen!"
"It’s borrowed," I said. "And the lender is calling in the debt."
"I have everything!" She yelled. "I have Zhao! I have a villa! I have a life you could never give me!"
"You have a memory of a life," I corrected. I reached into my inner pocket. I didn't pull out the black card this time.
I pulled out a single, folded sheet of legal bond paper. The seal at the top was embossed in gold—the mark of the Sovereign Equity Group.
I stepped toward the mahogany desk, ignoring the two guards who backed away as if I were a plague carrier.
I tossed the document onto the polished surface. It slid across the wood, stopping right in front of Zhao.
"What is this?" Zhao spat, though his hands were shaking as he reached for it. "Read it," I said.
Zhao snatched the paper. His eyes darted across the lines. "Foreclosure? Private Villa... Emerald Bay? No. No, this is my house! My father gave me that house!"
Lin Xiao’s face drained of color. "Emerald Bay? Zhao, that’s where we’re going tonight. You said it was ours."
"It was," I said. "Until twenty minutes ago. I bought the mortgage from your father’s holding company. Then I liquidated the equity. The locks are already being changed."
Zhao ripped the paper in half, his face turning a dark, bruised purple. "You think this matters? I’ll just buy another one! I have billions!"
"Check your notifications, Zhao," I said, my voice cold as the grave. "Your father didn't just sell me the house. He sold me you."
Lin Xiao looked at the torn paper on the floor, then back at me. She looked at the blood on my clothes again, but this time, the disgust was gone. There was only a hollow, soul-crushing realization.
"Han," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Han, listen... I didn't mean those things. I was just—"
"Save it," I said. I looked at the mahogany desk, then back at the door.
"You wanted to show Lin Xiao a night she'd never forget, right?" I looked at Zhao. "Better hurry. The movers are throwing your clothes into the street as we speak."
I turned my back on them, walking toward the elevator. "Conall!" Zhao roared behind me. "Conall, do something!"
Conall didn't move. He stood by the elevator doors, his eyes fixed on the ceiling.
I stepped into the elevator. As the doors began to slide shut, I looked at Lin Xiao. She was reaching out, her mouth open to say something, but Zhao was already screaming into a dead phone.
The last thing I saw before the doors sealed was the foreclosure notice lying in the puddle of spilled 1945 wine.
The drop in my stomach wasn't from the elevator’s descent. It was the system.
[Quest Update: Young Master Zhao's Social Standing - 40% Liquidated.]
[New Asset Acquired: Emerald Bay Villa.]
[Warning: The Zhao Family 'Iron Fist Sect' has been notified of the breach.]
I watched the floor numbers count down. 99... 98... 97.
I wasn't done. I was just getting started.
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Chapter 20: The Trash Returns
Zhao Ming looked up from the dirt. His nose was bleeding fast, the drops of blood hitting the loose gravel between his fingers. He wiped his mouth with his torn sleeve, squinting through the dim light of the tenement courtyard. He expected to see a rival CEO. He expected to see an old billionaire or a foreign investor who had bought out his family's company.Instead, he saw me, he saw my old jacket. He saw the former errand boy he had stepped on at the hotel last week."You?" Zhao Ming gasped. His voice was high and thin. He shook his head back and forth, his face twisting up. "No, no, this is wrong. You're the delivery kid. You're the trash from the lobby.""I am Han Sen," I said. "You're a front," Zhao Ming screamed, his fingers digging deeper into the mud at my feet. He looked around the yard at Song Lin and the other nine men, his eyes wide and bloodshot. "He's a front! Who is backing you? Is it the Lin family? Is it the Murongs? Tell me who paid you to do this! A piece of garba
Chapter 19: The Fall of Bio-Gen
Elder Ma gasped for air, he was a mortal old man once again. He sprawled on the concrete, his trembling hands scraping against the rough gravel of the tenement roof. His gray silk robes were completely wet from a dirty puddle of rain water. He wiped a fresh line of blood from his cracked lips and looked up at my leather boots."Zhao Tian," Ma wheezed. His voice was thin, shaky, and completely broken. "Zhao Tian sent me here. He told me to kill you today, he told me to bring your head back to the main tower before sundown.""I know," I said. "He's desperate," Ma muttered, his head dropping back down against the wet floorboards of the roof. "The family assets are frozen and he has no options left. He is losing everything."I didn't answer him, I pulled my old smartphone out of my jacket pocket. The digital clock on the system interface showed the forty-eight-hour deadline was hitting right now. The time on the screen read exactly four o'clock in the afternoon. The afternoon market bel
Chapter 18: The Elder’s Pride
The concrete on the roof was cracked. I stood near the edge, my fingers gripping the rusted iron railing. The metal left orange flakes of rust on my skin, that I didn't care about. I held my phone in my left hand, watching the trading screen. The Bio-Gen stock index was a straight line downward. It was at twelve dollars now. It had started the morning at ninety-two. "The short is hitting them hard," I muttered.Suddenly, a loud crack split the air behind me. The gravel on the roof scattered. I turned around slowly, keeping my phone in my hand. A man stood near the brick access shed. He wore traditional gray robes made of heavy silk and the hem of his robe was dusty, but his leather boots looked brand new. His hair was completely white, tied back with a leather cord. He looked about sixty, but his chest was broad. This was Elder Ma of the Iron Fist Sect."Han Sen?" Elder Ma asked. He took a slow step forward, his boots crunching on the loose gravel. "The rat who thinks he can buy th
Chapter 17: Shorting the Beast
The digital numbers kept moving in the corner of my vision. Forty-eight hours, the clock was running down. I had exactly forty-eight hours to destroy Bio-Gen Corporation, or the system would take my life as the final payment.We were back in the small warehouse room we rented. The table was made of wood, covered in dust and grease. Old Lu rubbed his face with his bare hand, his fingers leaving streaks on his dry skin. He checked the screen of his tablet."The opening bell just rang," Lu said. He tapped the red button on the plastic frame. "The market is open. Bio-Gen is trading at ninety-two dollars a share.""Dump the positions," I said. "Are you sure?" Lu asked. His thumb stayed right above the glass. "Once we execute, there is no stopping. Two billion dollars is our whole capital.""Dump it," I said. "Yes," Lu said. He pressed his thumb down hard.The Auditor Group's short positions hit the market servers instantly. A massive block of twelve million shares was offered for sale. On
Chapter 16: The Auditor Group is Born
The next morning came too fast. I sat in a booth at a cheap diner three blocks away from the hospital. The plastic seat was cracked, the tape fixing it scratching against my trousers and the table was sticky from old syrup.Old Lu sat across from me. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his collar was wrinkled. He didn't look at his coffee. Instead, he slid a thick stack of white registration papers across the table. The top page had an official corporate stamp on it, still wet with blue ink."It's done," Lu said. He took a small sip of his black coffee and grimaced. "The registry office opened at seven, I paid the rush fee."I looked down at the documents. "The name?""The Auditor Group," Lu said. He tapped the paper with a blunt finger. "Registered as a global investment conglomerate. We have the legal right to short assets, buy debt, and execute hostile takeovers now. We are an official entity.""Good," I said. "It's not good yet," Lu said. He pulled his tablet out and placed i
Chapter 15: The Bio-Gen Discovery
Two security guards grabbed Director Sun by his arms. He kicked his feet, but his slippery black shoes couldn't get a grip on the floor. They dragged him straight down the corridor toward the service elevator."You can't do this!" Sun yelled. "I've worked here for twelve years!"Nobody answered him. The hospital staff stood by the nursing station, keeping their heads down. The new security team I bought didn't say a word either. They just threw him into the elevator and slammed the metal gate shut.I walked back into the luxury suite. Old Lu was already shifting Yue's pillows. We moved her bed back into the corner, right next to the monitoring equipment, her breathing was steady. The digital screen showed her heart rate was sixty-two beats per minute."Is she safe now?" Lu asked, dropping his hands. "For now," I said. "Lock the door."Lu walked over and turned the heavy brass deadbolt, it clicked into place. Then he sat down at the small wooden table in the corner, pulling his scratch
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