2026-02-06 14:56:24The wail of sirens cut through the night, flashing red and blue lights painting the Song Villa’s living room in chaotic bursts.
"They're here!" Adams shouted, clapping her hands with vindictive glee. "Finally! Officer! In here! The criminal is in here!" Three uniformed officers marched in, led by Chief Yang, a stern man with a thick mustache known for his intolerance of white-collar crime. "Who is Chase Lu?" Chief Yang barked, his hand resting on his holster. "Him!" President Han pointed a shaking finger at Chase. "That’s the fraudster! He used a cloned card device to steal three hundred million dollars from the banking system! Arrest him immediately!" Chief Yang glared at Chase. "Stand up. Hands behind your back." Chase stood up slowly. He didn't resist. He didn't run. He simply held out his wrists. "Chase!" Bella sobbed, burying her face in her hands. She couldn't watch. Her husband, being led away in cuffs. It was the end. Chief Yang pulled out a pair of cold steel handcuffs. Click. One cuff locked around Chase’s left wrist. "You have the right to remain silent," Chief Yang began to recite. President Han smirked, crossing his arms. "Don't bother with rights, Chief. Just throw him in the hole. My lawyers will handle the rest." Uncle Bob let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god. The cancer is cut out." Just as Chief Yang reached for Chase’s right wrist... Riiiiiing. A phone rang. Not Chase’s phone. Not President Han’s phone. It was Chief Yang’s personal cell phone. Chief Yang frowned. "One moment." He checked the caller ID. His eyes widened. It was a restricted number with a country code he didn't recognize. Switzerland? He ignored it. He reached for Chase’s wrist again. Riiiiiing. It rang again instantly. "Answer it, Chief," Chase said softly. "It might be important." "Shut up," Chief Yang snapped. But the persistence of the call made him uneasy. He unclipped the phone and put it to his ear. "Chief Yang speaking. This is an active crime scene, make it quick." The room went quiet, everyone watching the Chief’s face. For ten seconds, Chief Yang said nothing. His face, however, went through a spectrum of colors. First red. Then pale white. Then a sickly green. "Yes... Yes, sir... I understand... The Global Banking Alliance?... A VVIP Level 10?... Sanctions on the entire city's police budget?... No, sir! I didn't know! I swear!" Chief Yang’s hand started shaking so hard he nearly dropped the phone. He looked at Chase not as a criminal, but as if Chase were a ticking nuclear bomb. "Yes... Immediately. Yes. Understood." Chief Yang hung up. He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Chief?" President Han frowned. "What’s wrong? Cuff him!" Chief Yang suddenly spun around. Slap! He backhanded President Han across the face. "Shut your mouth!" Chief Yang roared. The room froze. President Han stumbled back, clutching his cheek. "Chief? What are you doing?" Chief Yang fumbled with his keys, sweat pouring down his forehead. He unlocked the handcuff from Chase’s left wrist with trembling fingers. "Mr. Lu," Chief Yang bowed, his voice cracking. "I... I apologize! It was a misunderstanding! A grave error! Please... please don't report this to the Alliance!" "The Alliance?" Chase rubbed his wrist. [System Notification: Audit Complete. Assets Unfrozen. Apology Issued.] Chase smiled. "It’s fine, Chief. You were just doing your job. But these people..." He pointed at President Han and the lawyer. "...they filed a false police report, didn't they? Isn't that a crime?" Chief Yang’s eyes lit up. He needed a scapegoat to appease the terrifying voice on the phone. "Arrest them!" Chief Yang shouted at his officers, pointing at President Han. "False reporting! Slander! Wasting police time! Cuff him!" "What? No!" President Han screamed as the officers grabbed him. "You can't do this! I am the victim! That card is fake!" "The Global Banking Alliance just confirmed the card is authentic!" Chief Yang yelled back. "You slandered a VVIP client! Get him out of here!" President Han was dragged out, kicking and screaming, exactly like his son. The door slammed shut. Silence returned to the Song Villa. Grandma Song’s mouth was open. Uncle Bob looked like he had swallowed a fly. Adams had stopped crying mid-sob. They looked at Chase. The card was real. The money was real. "Chase..." Adams whispered, her eyes suddenly filled with greed. "My... my dear son-in-law. You... you really have ten billion dollars?" Chase looked at the family. He saw the shift. The fear was gone. The scorn was gone. Now, it was pure, unadulterated avarice. He laughed. "Ten billion?" Chase shook his head. "No." "What?" Grandma Song leaned forward. "But the police said..." "The card is real," Chase lied smoothly, spinning the tale he had prepared. "It was left to me by a distant relative. A great-uncle I never met. But... it was a one-time inheritance." "One time?" Uncle Bob asked. "The limit was three hundred million," Chase shrugged. "I spent it all. I bought the hotel. I paid for Mom's surgery. I hired the medical team. The balance is now zero. Actually... I think I overdrew by fifty bucks." The air left the room. "Zero?" Adams shrieked. "You spent three hundred million dollars in ONE HOUR? And you didn't give a penny to the family?" "It was my money," Chase said. "I spent it on what mattered." "You... you prodigal animal!" Grandma Song slammed her cane. "Three hundred million! You could have expanded the Song Corporation! You could have made us royalty! And you bought a hotel? A depreciating asset?" "You are useless!" Aunt Sarah yelled. "I thought you were a dragon, but you’re just a lucky beggar who won the lottery and burned the ticket!" The relief in the room was palpable. He wasn't a criminal, so they were safe. But he wasn't rich anymore (so they thought), so they didn't have to respect him. He was back to being Chase Lu. But now, he was "The Idiot Who Wasted a Fortune." "Get out of my sight," Grandma Song waved her hand dismissively. "You make me sick. Wasting such an opportunity. Go home. And take your wife with you." Chase smiled. He took the Black Card off the table—nobody tried to stop him now; they thought it was empty plastic—and put it in his pocket. "Come on, Bella," Chase said. Bella followed him, her head spinning. She didn't know whether to be relieved he wasn't going to jail, or furious that he had hidden everything. But as she looked at his back, she realized one thing: He had faced the police, the family, and the Han clan, and he hadn't blinked. Empty pockets or not, her husband had changed.
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Latest Chapter
The Solution
Chase leaned against the glass partition. The sterile air of the medical bay felt heavy and stagnant. The ruined synthetic operative lay on the stainless steel table in a pool of black sludge. The King of the North processed the terrifying scale of the Capital Syndicate operation. They faced an enemy that manufactured biological bombs and fueled them with liquid magic."We cancel the offensive sweeps," Chase ordered. He turned his attention to the security commander. "If Chairman Vane can print these husks in a laboratory we cannot wage a war of attrition in the streets. We will bleed out before we find the source of his assembly line."Victoria nodded in agreement. She holstered her encrypted tablet. "I will recall the strike teams. I will pull the heavy infantry back to the Elm Street tower and fortify the lower levels. We establish a static defense grid. We hide behind our reinforced concrete and force them to breach our chokepoints.""We do not hide," Bella corrected the veteran s
They Don't Have Too
Two Titanium soldiers wearing heavy hazmat gear unlatched the iron chains. The charred corpse slumped forward and hit the concrete floor of the armory with a heavy wet thud.Chase Lu watched the dead operative fall. The lingering smell of cooked flesh and ozone hung thick in the stagnant air. The golden Inferno Dragon fire in his chest simmered down to a manageable hum but the deep instinctual disgust remained anchored in his bones."Bag it," Victoria ordered the soldiers. "Move the body to the primary medical bay. Clear the corridors before you transport the remains."The soldiers wrapped the ruined husk in a thick rubber body bag and hauled it onto a steel gurney. They pushed the cart out of the armory and left a trail of black fluid on the polished concrete.Bella Song stepped away from the pooling sludge. She kept her hands clasped in front of her stomach. She needed to understand the mechanical reality of the enemy before she could formulate a strategy to destroy them."We need t
Manufactured
The heavy steel doors of the subterranean armory beneath Elm Street slammed shut. Iron Tyrant secured the locking mechanisms and stepped backward. He crossed his arms over his armored vest and watched the center of the room.A single surviving Capital operative sat strapped to a bolted steel chair. Thick iron chains secured his wrists and ankles. His sleek gray combat suit hung in tatters across his chest. He did not bleed red blood. A thick viscous black fluid dripped from three distinct bullet wounds in his shoulder and pooled on the polished concrete floor.Victoria paced in front of the captive. The commander of the Titanium security forces held a heavy combat knife in her right hand."We caught him outside the clinic," Victoria reported to the sovereign. "Iron Tyrant hit him with a concussive shockwave grenade before he could overload his internal pathways. The blast scrambled his synthetic core just long enough for us to chain him."Chase Lu stood near the weapon racks. His gold
What Was That?
Elder Kang fastened the heavy silver clasp of the necklace. A thick disk of polished green jade rested against the collarbone of the executive. The ancient stone carried a dense neutralizing property carved from the deep bedrock of the mountain sect.Bella Song closed her eyes and let the cold weight settle against her skin. The persistent spiritual hum of her maternal core vanished instantly. The jade amulet formed an impenetrable localized barrier that masked the unique biological frequency of the unborn child."Your energy signature is completely shielded," Kang confirmed. The medical master stepped back and evaluated the artifact. "The resonance compass held by the Capital Syndicate will register a dead signal. You are invisible to their tracking technology."Chase Lu stood by the reinforced glass doors of the medical bay. He kept his arms crossed tightly over his chest. He hated the entire operation but he understood the cold strategic necessity."The digital leak is confirmed,"
Getting Closer
Victoria paced the concrete floor of the holding cell beneath Elm Street. Her boots struck the ground with a sharp rhythmic thud that echoed off the damp walls. A young man wearing a torn gray jacket sat handcuffed to a heavy steel table in the center of the room. He nursed a bleeding lip and refused to look up from the floor.Two Titanium soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder blocking the only exit. They held their rifles at a relaxed angle but their eyes tracked every flinch the captive made.Victoria stopped pacing and dropped a thick stack of printed surveillance photographs onto the metal table. She spread the images out like a deck of playing cards."My perimeter scouts pulled you off the corner of Grayson Avenue three hours ago," Victoria stated in a low even tone. "You stood in the freezing rain outside our secondary logistics hub for four consecutive hours. You did not take a single photograph of our armored transport vehicles and you ignored every supply truck that rolled thro
Bleed
Chase stood over the steel drafting table in the secondary armory. He traced the highlighted supply routes winding through the financial district with his index finger. Iron Tyrant stood across the table marking choke points with a red marker. They needed to secure the perimeter before the Capital Syndicate deployed their ghost operatives into the city streets.The heavy metal door of the armory slammed open. Elder Kang stood in the doorway breathing heavily. The old medical master abandoned his usual calm demeanor entirely."You need to come to the meditation chamber right now," Kang demanded. "She pushed the threshold too far."Chase did not ask questions. He dropped the tactical map and sprinted down the marble corridor. His boots hammered against the polished stone. The golden Inferno Dragon fire ignited in his chest and flooded his veins with raw adrenaline.He reached the heavy wooden doors and shoved them open. The sight inside the room stopped the breath in his lungs.Bella la
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