Free Web NovelChapter 118: [118] Human Resources, The Corporate Asset
The heavy steel door of the third cargo car was wide open.
Arthur Sterling stood in the doorway, the harsh and toxic wind of the wasteland whipping his ruined suit jacket around his broad shoulders. He stared into the pitch-black interior of the train.
He did not see mountains of glowing silver Merit Energy. He did not see the vast, liquid wealth he had just risked his life and his entire empire to steal.
There was no light. There was only a suffocating, putrid stench that hit him like a physical blow. It smelled like unwashed bodies, human waste, and sheer, concentrated despair.
Arthur’s dark eyes adjusted to the gloom.
It was full of people.
Hundreds of them. They were packed into the dark, stifling space like cattle being shipped to a slaughterhouse. They were starved, their cheekbones jutting out harshly against their filthy skin. They were dressed in nothing but tattered, grease-stained rags.
Thick, glowing chains made of suppression magic bound their wrists and ankles. The heavy magical restraints pinned them directly to the metal walls and the cold floor of the train.
They were aliens with extra limbs, humans with hollow eyes, and minor cultivators whose internal meridians had been violently sealed. They huddled together in the darkness, shivering. They blinked blindly at the sudden bright sunlight pouring into the cargo car.
They shrank back against the far wall. They raised their chained hands over their faces, entirely expecting to be beaten by the guards.
"Fvck," Cassia whispered. Her voice broke the heavy silence.
The rogue bounty hunter stood beside Arthur. She did not draw her stun pistols. Her hands hovered uselessly in the air. She just covered her mouth, her silver eyes reflecting pure, unadulterated shock. She had seen the worst the universe had to offer, but this level of organized, industrial cruelty made her stomach turn.
Silas Vance was not just running a casino. He was running a massive cosmic trafficking ring. He was using slave labor to mine the raw Merit Energy in the outer rims.
"Arthur," Vane said.
His rough voice was entirely hollow. It did not sound like the booming, confident hero of the Frontier. It sounded like a man whose worldview had just violently shattered.
"Arthur. Get down here."
Vane stepped over the threshold and into the cargo car.
The scarred frontiersman looked at the terrified faces of the chained mortals. He looked at the glowing suppression cuffs biting into their raw, bleeding wrists.
Vane’s massive hands began to shake. A deep, righteous fury ignited in his eyes. The embers of his anger rapidly flared into a roaring inferno. His hand dropped to the hilt of his chipped broadsword.
The hero of the Frontier looked ready to turn around, march all the way back to Sector 5 on foot, and burn the entire Iron Consortium to the ground with his bare hands.
"Vance is dead," Vane growled. His voice was a low, vibrating snarl that shook the metal walls of the train. "I’m going to cut his fvcking head off."
Vane raised his heavy broadsword. He did not swing at the mortals. He swung at the floor.
"CLANG!"
The heavy steel blade smashed into the glowing suppression chains pinning a young alien girl to the floor. The sheer kinetic force of his protagonist energy shattered the magical lock. The chain broke into a dozen harmless pieces of fading light.
"CLANG!"
He swung again, shattering the cuffs of a frail human man.
"Nobody moves!" Vane yelled, his voice thick with rage. "You are safe now! We are getting you out of here!"
Cassia looked over at Arthur, waiting for his reaction.
Arthur didn’t say a word. He didn’t look angry. He didn’t look pitiful. He did not share Vane’s righteous outrage, and he did not share Cassia’s shock.
He just stood there with his hands tucked into his pockets, staring at the chained mortals with cold, calculating eyes.
His corporate mind was running a thousand calculations a second. He had planned a heist to secure liquid capital. He needed raw Merit Energy to pay off his massive cosmic debt and rebuild his empire’s defenses.
Instead, he had just acquired overhead.
These people were not money. They were liabilities. They needed food. They needed water. They needed shelter and medical attention. Taking them back to the Margin was going to drain the very resources he was desperately trying to secure.
The hostile takeover had just gotten a lot more complicated.
But Arthur Sterling was the ultimate CEO. He did not see useless baggage. He saw untapped potential. He saw raw, unrefined assets.
He pulled up his system interface.
[Ding!]
[Scanning cargo hold interior...]
[Multiple biological entities detected. Status: Unregistered Mortals.] ƒrēewebnovel.com
[Estimated Count: 400 assets.]
Arthur’s jaw tightened. He closed the system prompt. He stepped fully into the cargo car. His heavy boots clicked loudly against the metal floor.
"Stop breaking the inventory, Vane," Arthur commanded.
Vane froze mid-swing. He whipped his head around, glaring at Arthur with absolute disgust.
"Inventory?" Vane spat. "These are people, Sterling! They are slaves! We have to free them!"
"We have a labor shortage in the Margin," Arthur said smoothly. His baritone voice carried perfectly over the whimpers of the terrified prisoners. "I just bought a city that is currently buried under tons of rubble. I need a workforce to clear the streets. I need bodies to rebuild the infrastructure."
Arthur looked down at the frail man Vane had just freed. The man scrambled backward, pressing himself against the wall in terror.
"Get them on their feet," Arthur ordered. He didn’t raise his voice, but the absolute authority in his tone made the air grow heavy. "They work for me now."
Cassia let out a sharp breath. She stared at Arthur, her silver eyes wide. "Boss. You can’t be serious. You want to put them back to work?"
"I want to maximize my returns," Arthur replied coldly.
He raised his right hand. He didn’t draw a sword. He didn’t use a spell. He just tapped into his Administrator privileges.
"System," Arthur commanded in his mind. "Register all unregistered biological entities within this sector. Transfer ownership to Omniversal Holdings."
[Ding!]
[Processing Request...]
[Verifying target status. Targets are currently classified as unregistered assets under the Iron Consortium ledger.]
[Hostile takeover protocol engaged. Overwriting previous ownership data.]
A wave of soft, blue light pulsed outward from Arthur’s body. It washed over the four hundred starving mortals in the blink of an eye.
The moment the light touched them, the heavy, glowing suppression chains binding their wrists and ankles violently short-circuited.
"POP! POP! POP!"
The magical cuffs shattered simultaneously. The heavy metal collars fell away, clattering loudly against the floor of the train.
[Asset Acquisition: 400 Unskilled Laborers.]
[Registration Complete. Entities are now officially classified as corporate staff under Omniversal Holdings.]
[Passive productivity increased.]
The mortals gasped, rubbing their raw wrists. They looked around in absolute disbelief. The crushing weight of the Consortium’s magic was entirely gone.
Vane stared at Arthur. His massive broadsword hung limply at his side. The scarred hero’s jaw was practically on the floor.
He looked at the broken chains. He looked at the four hundred freed slaves. Then he looked at the cold, emotionless man in the ruined tailored suit.
Vane’s mind struggled to reconcile the math.
Arthur hadn’t freed them out of the goodness of his heart. He hadn’t broken the chains because he believed in justice or liberty. He broke the chains because he considered them his personal corporate property. He wanted them to work for him.
He realized the CEO didn’t care about their freedom. He cared about their output.
But they were safe. They were out of the mines. They were no longer being starved and beaten by Silas Vance’s thugs. Arthur’s ruthless, sociopathic greed had just accomplished exactly what Vane’s righteous heroism had wanted to do.
"Fvcking corporate logic," Vane muttered under his breath.
He shook his head, sheathing his heavy broadsword. A slow, entirely bewildered smile spread across his scarred face.
"Alright, listen up!" Vane yelled, turning to the confused and terrified mortals. "Everyone up! We are getting off this rust bucket! Move!"
Arthur turned his back on the cargo car. He walked past Cassia and stepped out into the harsh sunlight of the wasteland. He pulled up his system interface again, entirely ignoring the chaotic scramble of people behind him.
He had four hundred new employees. Now he had to figure out how to pay them.
