Free Web NovelChapter 101: [101] Market Research, The Iron Consortium
Cassia didn’t argue. She reached up, grabbed the collar of his ruined shirt, and pulled him forward. She crashed her lips against his in a fierce, demanding kiss. There was no hesitation. It was a clash of teeth and raw adrenaline.
Arthur’s good right hand grabbed her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. He kissed her back with the same ruthless intensity he applied to everything else in his life.
When they finally broke apart, Cassia let out a soft, breathless laugh. She stood up, smoothing down the front of her dark stealth armor. "Consider that my signing bonus."
Arthur chuckled, leaning back into the sofa. "Noted."
In his mind, the system fully completed its reboot sequence.
[Ding!] freēwebnovel.com
[System Reboot Complete.]
[Cosmic Ledger upgraded to ’Omniversal Holdings’.]
[Passive Omniversal Leech restored. Multiplier safely restored to 10x.]
[Welcome back, CEO.]
Arthur looked at the glowing blue text. He could feel the passive intake of ambient energy slowly filtering back into his core. It wasn’t the million-fold absolute power he had possessed before the audit, but it was a start. Ten times the normal rate of progression. It was enough to build a new foundation.
He stood up from the sofa, rolling his newly healed left shoulder. The bones cracked loudly, but the pain was gone.
He walked over to the massive window behind the mahogany desk. He looked out at the sprawling, chaotic expanse of the Frontier. It was an infinite wasteland of untapped resources, desperate factions, and leaderless cities.
"Alright," Arthur said, his pitch-black eyes gleaming with unadulterated ambition. "The debt is paid. The team is assembled. We have our capital."
He turned back to Cassia, flashing a cold, corporate smile. "It’s time to start expanding the franchise."
Arthur stood at the shattered window of the Mayor’s office. The cool, smog-filled breeze of the Margin blew past his face, carrying the sounds of construction and distant sirens. Down below, thousands of newly freed mortals and minor cultivators were working to clear the rubble from the scavenger invasion.
It was a good start. But a start didn’t pay the bills.
He needed to expand. He needed cash flow. Running a city required infrastructure, defense arrays, and a functioning economy. Right now, the Margin was just a massive sinkhole for his resources.
The heavy oak doors to the office swung open. Vane stomped into the room. The scarred frontiersman looked pissed off. He slammed a physical clipboard onto the mahogany desk.
"We have a problem," Vane grunted. "The lower wards are starving. The scavengers destroyed three of our primary food synthesizers. I need authorization to spend the Merit Points we looted from Gildas to buy emergency rations from the central network." ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
Arthur didn’t turn away from the window. He kept his hands tucked casually into his pockets. "Request denied."
Vane froze. "What? Arthur, people are going to die. We have billions of Merit Points sitting in the corporate account right now! It’s pocket change!"
"It’s capital," Arthur corrected, finally turning around. His pitch-black eyes were cold and utterly devoid of sympathy. "You want to throw capital into a black hole of charity. That doesn’t fix the problem, Vane. It just delays it until next week."
"So we just let them starve?!" Vane roared, his hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of his chipped broadsword.
"You don’t feed a starving man by giving him your last dollar," Arthur stated firmly. He walked over to the desk and tapped his finger against the wood. "You buy a farm, give him a shovel, and put him to work. We aren’t running a soup kitchen. We are running a business. I need an investment that generates returns."
"He’s right, hero," a smooth voice chimed in.
Cassia stepped out of the shadows near the bookshelf. She was wearing a sleek, dark business suit that made her look incredibly lethal. She walked over to the desk and slid a glowing digital dossier across the polished wood.
"I did some digging through the local network," Cassia said, tapping the holographic screen. "If we want to generate real revenue, we need to acquire a functioning business. And I found the perfect target."
Arthur looked down at the dossier.
[Ding!]
[Omniversal Holdings Ledger Activated. Scanning external data...]
"Sector 5," Cassia explained, swiping her finger to bring up a 3D map of a massive, neon-lit metropolis. "It borders the Margin. It’s an entertainment and trade hub."
Arthur’s eyes scanned the glowing blue text provided by his system.
[Sector 5: Controlled by ’The Iron Consortium’.]
[Estimated Net Worth: 150 Billion Merit Points.]
[Primary Industry: Gambling, Smuggling, Black Market Artifacts.]
"The Iron Consortium," Arthur mused, a predatory smile slowly stretching across his face. "A cartel."
"Exactly," Cassia nodded. "They run the entire sector. They launder stolen cosmic energy and fence illegal artifacts from the dead multiverses. Their security is tight, but they’re arrogant. They think nobody in the Deficit Zone has the firepower to touch them."
"They have a private army," Vane argued, leaning over the desk to look at the map. "They employ cyber-trolls, rogue cultivators, and blood-mages. We only have the local guard, and half of them are still recovering from the scavenger attack."
"We don’t need an army," Arthur said dismissively. "We just need to hit their primary cash flow. Cut off the head, and the body dies."
He tapped a specific building on the holographic map. It was a massive, sprawling complex located in the absolute center of Sector 5. It was shaped like a giant lotus flower, glowing with obnoxious purple and gold neon lights.
"The Neon Exchange," Cassia said, her silver eyes gleaming. "The biggest casino in the frontier. It’s the central hub for all their money laundering operations. The vault in that building holds the daily operational budget for the entire Consortium."
"If we take the casino, we cripple their cash flow," Arthur noted. "And we secure enough liquid capital to fund the Margin for the next fifty years."
Vane crossed his arms. He hated the idea of acting like common thugs, but he couldn’t deny the logic. "It’s heavily guarded. They have scanners that can detect high-tier cultivators from a mile away. If you walk in there radiating your boss-aura, they’ll lock the place down before you even reach the lobby."
"Then we don’t go in as cultivators," Arthur said. He picked up his ruined dark coat from the back of his chair and tossed it aside. "We go in as customers."
He tapped his system interface, accessing the Omniversal Holdings shop.
[Purchasing: High-Tier Glamour Suits x3.]
[Cost: 30,000 Merit Points.]
