2026-02-06 14:55:01The interior of the Rolls Royce Phantom was silent, insulated from the noise of the city. The starlight headliner twinkled softly above them.
Bella sat on the edge of the leather seat, her hands trembling in her lap. She looked at the man beside her. He was still wearing the same cheap clothes, but the aura radiating from him was suffocatingly powerful. "Chase," she whispered, her voice tight. "Tell me the truth. Did you... did you do something illegal? Did you rob the company? Or did you sell a kidney?" Chase turned to look at her. His eyes, usually clouded with submissiveness, were now clear and sharp like polished obsidian. "Bella, do you trust me?" "I want to," Bella said, tears welling up. "But three hundred million dollars? A black card? How can I believe this is real? If the police catch you..." "It's an inheritance," Chase lied smoothly. In these stories, the truth about a 'System' can never be told. "A biological family I never knew found me. They left me... some pocket money." "Pocket money?" Bella’s eyes widened. "Three hundred million is pocket money?" "To them? Yes." Chase checked the time on the car’s console. 6:45 PM. The sun had fully set. His expression darkened. "Driver, faster. Get to the City Hospital." "Yes, Mr. Lu," the driver replied. The massive V12 engine roared, and the car surged forward, weaving through traffic like a black shark. ... City Hospital, Ward 302. Dr. Yan checked his watch. 6:50 PM. "Time’s up," he grunted. He stood by the bedside of Chase’s mother, Mary. She was unconscious, her breathing shallow, the machine beeping rhythmically. "Doctor, are we really doing this?" a young nurse asked nervously. "Maybe we should wait for her son? He begged for just a few hours." "Begging doesn't pay for electricity," Dr. Yan sneered. He adjusted his glasses. "Besides, Mrs. Wang from the jewelry empire just called. Her poodle swallowed a diamond ring and needs an observation room. She’s willing to pay double the rate for this private ward." "A... a dog?" The nurse was horrified. "You’re evicting a dying woman for a dog?" "Money is money," Dr. Yan snapped. "Mrs. Wang is a VIP. This woman is a pauper. It’s natural selection. Unplug it." "I... I can't," the nurse backed away. "Useless," Dr. Yan spat. He reached for the power cord of the ventilator. "I’ll do it myself. Then call security to drag this body to the morgue. I need the room sanitized before the dog arrives." His hand gripped the plug. BANG! The heavy double doors of the ward didn't just open; they exploded inward. A solid oak door was kicked off its hinges, flying across the room and smashing into the wall inches from Dr. Yan’s head. Plaster and dust rained down. Dr. Yan shrieked, jumping back and dropping the plug. "What the hell! Is it an earthquake?" A figure stepped through the dust. Chase Lu walked in, his face shadowed, his eyes burning with a murderous coldness. Behind him stood two massive bodyguards in black suits—part of the Rolls Royce detail. "Touch that plug," Chase said, his voice sounding like it came from the depths of hell, "and I will bury you in this room." Dr. Yan clutched his chest, hyperventilating. When he saw it was Chase, his fear turned instantly to rage. "You lunatic!" Dr. Yan roared, pointing a shaking finger. "You broke the hospital door! Do you know how much that costs? That’s another five thousand added to your debt!" Chase ignored him. He walked straight to his mother’s bedside. seeing the ventilator still humming, his shoulders relaxed slightly. He gently brushed a strand of grey hair from her forehead. "Mom, I'm here," he whispered. "I’m sorry I’m late." "Hey! I’m talking to you, trash!" Dr. Yan marched over, his face purple. "Did you bring the money? Fifty thousand! If you didn't bring it, get out! Mrs. Wang is on her way up!" Chase turned slowly. "Mrs. Wang?" "A VIP!" Dr. Yan yelled. "Someone who actually pays! Her dog is worth ten times your mother’s life! Now move, or I’ll call the police!" Chase looked at the doctor. He looked at the nurse, who was trembling in the corner. [Ding! Hostility Detected.] [System Triggered: The Value of Life.] [Option 1: Apologize to Dr. Yan and move your mother to the hallway. Reward: $500 + Title "Filial Piety of a Coward".] [Option 2: Pay the debt normally ($50,000). Reward: Dr. Yan’s sneer (Charisma -5).] [Option 3: Use the 'Supreme Medical Team' reward. Summon the Global Experts and crush Dr. Yan’s career. Reward: Ownership of City Hospital + 100 System Points.] Chase didn't hesitate. "Option 3." [Ding! Supreme Medical Team deployed. ETA: 30 seconds.] "Dr. Yan," Chase said softly. "You think a dog is worth more than my mother?" "Yes!" Dr. Yan laughed cruelly. "In this world, money is life! You are poor, so your life is cheap! That’s the rule! If you aren't happy, go jump off the building and reincarnate as a rich man!" "Money is life..." Chase nodded. "Good rule." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He didn't dial a number. The System had already connected him. He simply spoke into the device. "Come up." "Ha!" Dr. Yan mocked. "Calling for backup? Who? Your fellow garbage collectors?" Suddenly, a chaotic noise erupted from the hallway. It sounded like a stampede. "Out of the way! Move!" "Hurry! Mr. Lu is waiting!" The ruined doorway was suddenly filled with people. But they weren't garbage collectors. The first man to rush in was an elderly man with white hair, sweating profusely. Dr. Yan’s eyes nearly popped out of his sockets. It was Dean Zhang, the head of City Hospital. Behind him was Professor Smith from the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Tanaka from Tokyo Imperial, and a dozen other specialists whose faces were regularly on the cover of The Lancet medical journal. "Dean Zhang?" Dr. Yan stammered. "Professor Smith? What... what are you doing here? Is there an inspection?" Dean Zhang didn't even look at Dr. Yan. He ran straight to Chase and bowed so low his back cracked. "Mr. Lu! I am so sorry! We were too slow! The traffic was terrible!" Professor Smith, the world-renowned neurologist, rushed to the bedside. "Is this the patient? Vital signs are weak but stable. Prepare the ECMO machine! Get the Life-Sustaining Serum! Hurry!" The small ward was instantly transformed into a world-class command center. Nurses and specialists swarmed around Chase’s mother, setting up equipment Dr. Yan had only seen in sci-fi movies. Dr. Yan stood frozen, his brain unable to process the scene. "Dean... what is happening? Who is this guy? He’s just a deadbeat who owes us money!" Dean Zhang finally turned around. His face was twisted with fury. PA! Dean Zhang slapped Dr. Yan across the face. "Deadbeat?" Dean Zhang screamed. "This is Mr. Chase Lu! The new owner of the City Hospital Board! He just acquired 51% of the shares five minutes ago!" "Ow... Owner?" Dr. Yan held his cheek, his knees knocking together. "But... he rides a scooter..." "He owns the hospital!" Dean Zhang roared. "And you? You tried to unplug his mother’s life support for a dog?" Chase stepped forward. The room went quiet. The specialists continued working silently in the background. Chase looked down at Dr. Yan. "You like rules, right Dr. Yan? Money is life?" "Mr. Lu... Mr. Lu, please..." Dr. Yan fell to his knees. He realized now. The aura. The black suits. The Dean’s fear. He had offended a dragon. "I was blind! I was just following protocol! Please, give me a chance!" "A chance?" Chase smiled. It was a terrifying smile. "Dean Zhang," Chase said. "Yes, Boss!" Dean Zhang snapped to attention. "Revoke his medical license," Chase said calmly. "Blacklist him from every hospital in the country. If I see him working in a pharmacy, I will shut down the pharmacy. If I see him selling band-aids on the street, I will buy the street and evict him." Dr. Yan collapsed onto the floor, weeping. "No! I studied for twenty years! You can't do this!" "And," Chase continued, looking at the door. "Who is Mrs. Wang?" As if on cue, a shrill voice echoed from the hall. "Why is the door broken? Where is Dr. Yan? My precious Poodle is anxious!" A chubby woman dripping in gold waddled in, holding a white poodle. She stopped when she saw the crowd. "What is this?" she demanded. "I paid for this room!" Chase looked at the bodyguards. "Throw the dog out," Chase said. "And the woman too." "You dare?" Mrs. Wang screeched. "My husband is—" The bodyguards didn't wait for her husband’s name. One grabbed the woman, the other grabbed the dog. "Get your hands off me!" Yap! Yap! They were hauled out just as Justin Han had been. Chase turned back to the bed. Professor Smith stepped back, wiping sweat from his brow. "Mr. Lu," Smith said in heavily accented Mandarin. "We have stabilized her. The serum is working. She will wake up in twenty-four minutes." Chase let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He looked at Dr. Yan, who was being dragged away by security, kicking and screaming. "Chase..." A soft hand touched his arm. It was Bella. She was staring at him, her eyes wide, reflecting the chaos and the power he now commanded. "You bought the hospital too?" she asked, her voice trembling. Chase took her hand. "I told you. It’s a very generous inheritance." [Ding! Mission Complete.] [Reward: City Hospital Ownership Confirmed.] [System Update: Emotional Bond with Wife increased (+10).] [Next Target Detected: The Family Reunion.] Chase’s phone buzzed. It was a text message. Not from the system, but from Bella’s phone. It was a message from the Family Group Chat. Grandma Song: "Bella! Bring that ungrateful husband of yours back to the Villa immediately! If he doesn't explain where he stole that money, we are calling the police! Urgent Family Meeting in one hour!" Chase read the message over her shoulder and smirked. "They want an explanation?" Chase adjusted his collar. "Let's go give them one."
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Failed Enchantment
The doors of the top floor office on Elm Street clicked shut, sealing out the hum of North City and leaving Megan Wu alone in the room with Chase Lu.Rain drummed against the floor to ceiling glass behind the wide desk of dark slate, where Chase sat in a simple black woolen sweater, his sleeves pushed up to expose forearms still wrapped in clean white linen. He did not rise to greet her, nor did he offer the customary tea ceremony expected when receiving an imperial envoy from the Capital. He merely set aside a shipping manifest, rested his interlocked fingers on the stone surface, and watched her walk across the polished floorboards with eyes as still as deep well water.Megan smoothed the emerald silk of her skirt, took a seat in the low leather armchair across from the desk, and crossed her ankles with practiced grace.She did not reach for the silver data drive in her pocket, nor did she open with a formal recitation of imperial statutes. Instead, as she offered a subtle, practice
Standard Protocol
The twin engines of the executive Gulfstream spun down with a fading whine, spraying twin plumes of mist across the rain slicked tarmac of the North City municipal airstrip.Inside the pressurized cabin, Megan Wu smoothed the emerald silk of her overcoat, adjusting the jade pins securing her hair while two male attendants in matching violet tunics retrieved her leather luggage. She had studied the protocol manuals of seventeen provincial courts, expecting the usual assembly of local magistrates, decorative honor guards in ceremonial armor, and a covered pavilion lined with red carpet to protect a royal delegation from the northern weather.The hydraulic stairs extended with a dull thump against the asphalt, and the cabin door swung open into the driving sleet.No pavilion stood on the runway, and no regional dignitaries waited with welcoming speeches.At the bottom of the stairs, standing in the gray downpour without an umbrella, stood Victoria Qin. She wore a black tactical jacket se
The Banquet Test
Crystal stemware clinked against fine bone china along the length of the fifty foot mahogany table, where sixty senior members of the Wu Clan sat beneath carved gold leaf ceilings to celebrate the spring alchemical dividend.Near the head of the table, Elder Corvin Wu sloshed another generous pour of plum wine into his silver goblet, his round cheeks flushed dark from heavy drinking. He leaned back in his high chair, resting his forearm on the embroidered silk cloth, and fixed a mocking glare across the table at Megan Wu."To think our great heiress spent fifteen years mastering five classical instruments and three branches of pharmaceutical law just to be packed into a wooden crate," Corvin announced loudly, his words cutting cleanly through the murmur of polite conversation. "The Ancestral Board wants to tame a wild dog in the northern snow, and our grand lineage sends its prized songbird to warm his bed."Several lesser elders at the lower end of the table chuckled into their linen
The Boardroom Panic
The three dimensional holographic map hovering over the black marble conference table in the Lu Capital Group tower flickered, shifting from divided territorial markers into a solid, unbroken wall of blue and crimson light.Preston Lu stood at the head of the glass walled boardroom on the eighty eighth floor, his tailored charcoal suit unbuttoned, his silver hair combed back with severe precision. His liver spotted hands rested flat on the polished stone surface as his cold eyes tracked the red line of Miller Canal, where southern trade manifests and northern transport convoys were already moving in coordinated grid patterns across the provincial divide.Beside the display, Envoy Kenneth stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his silver rimmed glasses catching the harsh glare of the digital projection."The southern border is sealed, Patriarch," Kenneth reported, his usual easy smile entirely absent from his face. "Elder Dahk accepted the synthetic geothermal reactor on Oak Str
Friction of Peace
The sharp crack of an iron scabbard striking a wooden dispatch table echoed across the Miller Canal depot, cutting through the hum of idling trucks.Captain Miller stood with his hand clamped to his sidearm, glaring across the supply crates at Senior Disciple Zhao, whose crimson robes were caked with chalky river dust. Behind Miller, twelve Titanium riflemen kept their weapons unslung, while eight southern swordsmen rested their palms on the pommels of their curved blades."We do not hand over our encrypted patrol schedules to men who spent last Tuesday aiming mortars at our trucks," Miller said, his jaw tight with lingering anger. "The treaty grants your families transit along the southern bank, but this checkpoint remains under Titanium military jurisdiction."Zhao sneered, stepping closer until the heat radiating from his palms warmed the cool morning air between them. "Your mercenary squads hide behind thermal optics and sandbags because you lack the stomach for close combat. If w
Price For Fire
The secure terminal inside the Elm Street logistics depot chimed with three urgent pulses, displaying an incoming priority transmission from the River Valley demarcation line.Chase Lu placed his tea cup onto the steel desk, leaning over the console as Victoria keyed the visual link. The holographic projector flickered to life, showing Elder Dahk standing inside the half built timber hall of the new southern settlement, his face drawn with fatigue while several senior clan elders argued loudly in the background."Chase Lu," Dahk began, his voice carrying none of the quiet ceremony from their meeting at the bridge. "We honored our agreement, we guided our people down from the high peaks, and our young men have laid their weapons in the armory. Yet my council is on the verge of rebellion, and the peace we swore across that brazier is eroding by the hour."Chase frowned, resting his hands flat on the desk. "Our supply trucks arrived at your depots this morning, and the grain manifests we
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