As General Manager, Leo Zhang now commanded a small empire. The newly unified Strategic Division occupied the entire 45th floor, a sprawling open-plan space of quiet, focused energy that he had designed for maximum efficiency. His Leadership aura was a constant, passive pressure, ensuring his directives were followed with near-perfect obedience. He was a king in a glass castle, and from his corner office, he could see the entire city glittering below, a map of future conquests.
His days were a blur of high-level strategy sessions and resource allocation meetings. He had built his kingdom, and now he was governing it. But he quickly learned that even a king answers to someone.
The summons came not from an email, but from a quiet knock on his office door a month into his new role. It was Arthur Harrison. The old GM didn't enter but simply stood in the doorway.
"A walk, Mr. Zhang," was all he said.
They bypassed the elevators, taking Harrison's private, wood-paneled lift down to a sub-basement level. A black town car was waiting. They rode in silence through the city's canyons of steel and glass, pulling up to a discreet, unmarked door in a historic downtown building. Inside was a private, old-world club—all dark leather, aged whiskey, and the heavy silence of immense power.
Harrison led him to a back room where three other men sat in high-backed armchairs. Leo's System instantly identified them: two of the most powerful Vice Presidents at TitanCorp and a senior board member. These were men who moved markets with a single phone call.
"Gentlemen," Harrison said, his voice a low rumble. "This is Leo Zhang."
There were no handshakes, only quiet, appraising nods. This was not a meeting. It was an induction.
"The corporate hierarchy, the board meetings, the quarterly reports… they are the public face of the company," Harrison began, swirling a glass of amber liquid. "They are necessary theater. But the real decisions, the ones that shape the future of this company, are made by us. Here. We are the Shadow Board."
Leo's Business Instinct skill flared, analyzing the immense concentration of power in the room. This was the true center of the company, the hidden operating system running beneath the official user interface.
"We have been watching you for a long time, Mr. Zhang," one of the VPs, a man named Sterling, said. His voice was like a razor wrapped in velvet. "You don't just play the game. You understand its nature. The Veridian Dossier was not the work of a manager. It was the work of a predator. We approve."
A new quest notification shimmered into existence in Leo's vision, its text a stark, dangerous black.
[SSS-Rank Faction Quest Triggered: The Shadow Board] [Description: You have been invited to join a clandestine cabal of senior executives who control the true levers of power. Their patronage offers a direct path to the highest echelons of the company, but it comes at a cost.] [Objective 1: Pass their initiation test.] [Objective 2: Do their dirty work and secure their loyalty.] [Warning: Failure or betrayal will result in permanent career annihilation.]
"We believe you have the potential to join us," Harrison continued. "But potential must be proven. We have a problem that requires a… delicate touch. A problem that cannot be solved through official channels."
He laid out the scenario. A small, brilliant tech startup called Aetherion had developed a revolutionary AI-driven logistics platform, one that would make TitanCorp's entire supply chain obsolete in five years. They had refused all acquisition offers, their young, idealistic founder publicly decrying TitanCorp as a soulless monolith.
"We cannot buy them, and we cannot crush them in the open without appearing to be anti-competitive bullies," Sterling said. "Therefore, Aetherion must be made to fail on its own. We need you to find a way to break them from the inside. Sabotage their tech, poach their key talent, ruin their reputation. We want to be able to pick up their patents from the bankruptcy auction for pennies on the dollar."
It was Leo's initiation. A task of pure, amoral corporate sabotage.
As the weight of the request settled, the System chimed again, this time with a reward for accepting this dark path.
[Faction Quest Accepted. Issuing new gear for this operational paradigm.] [Item Set Acquired: The Infiltrator's Attire] ['The Ambassador' Tie: A silk tie with a woven micro-thread antenna. Allows for passive listening and data interception within a 10-meter radius.] ['The Analyst' Glasses: Frames embedded with a transparent retinal scanner. Can scan documents, recognize faces, and provide real-time data overlays.] ['The Signatory' Pen: A fully functional fountain pen containing a sophisticated, multi-use hacking tool for network intrusion and data extraction.]
Leo looked at the faces of the men in the room. He saw no morality, no ethics. He saw only the cold, hard calculus of absolute power. This was the price of a seat at the table. To become a king, he had to first become their monster.
"Consider it done," Leo said, his voice a perfect, calm note in the quiet, dark room.