The Sovereign’s Retribution: Daily Login to Godhood

Chapter 04: The Architect of Ruin

The Royal Penthouse of the Grand Valerius was less of a hotel room and more of a glass-walled fortress suspended above the clouds. Silas Vane stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down at the grid of Veridian City. Below, the headlights of cars looked like blood cells pumping through the veins of a dying giant.

Sarah Miller stood in the center of the marble foyer, her hands still trembling as she clutched her nurse's bag. "Silas... the Nightshades. Do you have any idea who they are? My brother mentioned them. They aren't just rich; they’re the 'Old Blood.' People who cross them don't just go to jail—they vanish."

Silas didn't turn around. "Fear is a reaction to the unknown, Sarah. Once you see the world for what it truly is—a series of systems and weaknesses—fear becomes irrelevant."

He sat down at a sleek, obsidian-topped desk. With a thought, he summoned the system interface.

[Current Status: Recovering (92%)] [Wealth: $100,030,000 (Vane Offshore Account)] [Daily Login: 14 Hours Remaining]

"I need a laptop," Silas said. "The highest-end workstation money can buy. And I need a secure line to the Veridian Stock Exchange."

Sarah nodded, her medical training kicking in as she saw Silas’s focus. She was out of her depth in this world of billions and curses, but Silas was the only person who had ever stood up for her. She was a nurse without a hospital, but she was his nurse now. "I’ll use the hotel’s concierge. They’d fetch a live tiger if Lady Nightshade ordered it."

While Sarah made the arrangements, Silas activated his [Eye of Discernment]. He didn't look at the room; he looked at the digital tablet on the desk displaying the evening’s financial news.

[Target: Sterling Vanguard Stock (SVX)] [Value: $142.50 per share] [Analysis: Artificially inflated. Julian Thorne is using a 'Ghost-Buy' algorithm to mask the fact that their latest infrastructure project is structurally unsound.] [Weakness: A single server node in the 'Blackwood Data Center' controls the algorithm. A sudden $50 million sell-off will trigger a 'Panic-Loop'.]

A cold smirk played on Silas’s lips. Julian Thorne had framed him for embezzlement to hide his own financial rot. It was only poetic that Silas would use that rot to bury him.

Two hours later, Sarah returned with a military-grade laptop—the Z-Phenom Pro. She also brought a change of clothes: a bespoke suit of deep charcoal wool that Sloane Nightshade had sent up "as a token of gratitude."

Silas dressed. The suit fit him like armor. As he caught his reflection, the [Sovereign’s Presence] flared. He looked like a god of industry returned from the grave.

"Sarah," Silas said, typing rapidly as he opened an encrypted brokerage app. "How much did your brother owe the loan sharks?"

"Eighty thousand," she whispered, looking at her feet. "It... it keeps growing because of the interest."

Silas didn't look up. Click.

"Check your phone."

Sarah pulled out her cracked smartphone. A notification from her bank app flashed. Deposit: $500,000.00. Message: Your brother is retired. Buy him a life.

Sarah’s knees gave out. She slumped into a velvet chair, tears welling in her eyes. She looked at Silas, not as a patient, but as something terrifyingly powerful. "Why?"

"Because you didn't leave me when I was a corpse in Room 402," Silas said, his eyes never leaving the screen. "And because I need you focused. From this moment on, you are the Chief Operating Officer of Vane Holdings. Your first job is to hire a security team. I want ex-special forces. No Thorne connections. Check their 'Value' with me before you sign them."

"I... I will," she stammered, her voice gaining a newfound steel. She wasn't just a victim anymore. Silas had given her the one thing no one else ever had: a weapon.

Suddenly, Silas’s screen turned red.

[Warning: External Intrusion Detected.] [The 'Eye of Discernment' detects a 'Trace-Worm' originating from the Thorne Estate.]

"So, you're looking for me, Julian?" Silas murmured. Instead of closing the laptop, he opened a video link. He didn't show his face—only the black card resting on the desk.

In a high-rise office three miles away, Julian Thorne stared at his monitor. A hooded figure had just bypassed his firewall and left a single message in the command prompt:

> I AM THE ARCHITECT. I HAVE FOUND THE CRACK IN YOUR FOUNDATION.

"Find him," Julian roared at his IT team, his handsome face contorting with rage. "I don't care if he’s a ghost or a god. Trace that IP and send 'The Cleaner'."

Back in the penthouse, Silas closed the laptop.

[System Notice: The Hunt has begun.] [Quest Triggered: 'First Blood'.] [Objective: Neutralize 'The Cleaner' sent by Julian Thorne.] [Reward: 500 System Points & 1x 'Mind-Read' Skill Scroll.]

Silas looked at Sarah, who was watching him with wide, dependent eyes. He could feel the supernatural energy in the room shifting. Someone was coming. Someone who didn't use guns.

"Sarah," Silas said, standing up and loosening his tie. "Stay in the bedroom. Don't come out until the floor is wet."

"Wet? With what?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"Rain," Silas lied, though he knew the hotel’s sprinkler system was about to be triggered by the heat of the battle to come.

He walked to the center of the room, his hands glowing with a faint, predatory blue light. The urban wealth was his playground, but the supernatural war had just knocked on his door.