The cockpit of the Gulfstream G700 was filled with the frantic chirping of the Missile Approach Warning System. On the radar screen, four glowing red dots—the Sun-Guard F-35s—were maneuvering into a "box" formation, trapping Ethan's jet in a kill zone.
"Thirty seconds to weapon release," the lead pilot's voice, cold and devoid of emotion, crackled over the radio. "Mr. Clarke, you were warned. The First City is not a business. It is the law."
In the back of the jet, General Vance gripped her armrests, her knuckles white. "You've done it now, Clarke. You've poked the dragon. These men aren't mercenaries. They are raised from birth in the First City's academies. They don't know what 'money' is. They only know 'Duty.'"
Ethan didn't even look up from his glass of cognac. He was watching the countdown on his holographic screen.
[Time Remaining: 02:14]
[Current Task: Buy the Pilots.]
[Budget: $20,000,000,000.00]
"Luna," Ethan said calmly. "Don't just send the money to their bank accounts. Their accounts are monitored by the First City. Use the 'Technological Singularity' link. Route the payment through thirty-two offshore shells and deposit it into the 'Genesis Trust' accounts I just created for their families."
"Done, Boss," Luna said, her fingers blurring across the keyboard. "But how do we tell them?"
Ethan closed his eyes. With his new S-Rank skill, he felt the jet's wireless network as if it were an extension of his own nervous system. He reached out, his mind leaping from the jet's antenna to the encrypted data-link of the F-35s.
To the pilots of the Sun-Guard, the world suddenly changed.
Captain Kael, the lead pilot, was staring at his HUD, his finger hovering over the "Fire" button on his stick. Suddenly, his tactical display flickered. The targeting reticle vanished, replaced by a massive, high-definition image of a bank statement.
[ACCOUNT: GENESIS-01]
[BENEFICIARY: ELARA KAEL (DAUGHTER)]
[BALANCE: $5,000,000,000.00]
[STATUS: FULLY WITHDRAWABLE]
A text box appeared below the balance:
"Is duty worth more than your daughter being the richest person on Earth? You have 10 seconds to decide. If you fire, the account is deleted."
Kael's heart skipped a beat. His breathing became ragged. He looked to his left, seeing his wingman's jet wobble slightly.
"Sun-Two, report!" Kael barked into his helmet mic.
"Captain..." the wingman's voice was shaking. "My HUD... I just saw... five billion. My parents' medical debts, the school for my brother... it's all gone. There's enough left to buy a continent."
"Sun-Three? Sun-Four?" Kael asked.
"Same here, Captain," came the whispered replies. "God... five billion? I didn't even know that much money existed."
In the First City, they were taught that they were "Elite." They were told they were the chosen protectors of the world. But they lived in barracks. They ate specialized rations. They were essentially high-end slaves with wings.
Ethan's voice suddenly bypassed their encrypted comms, echoing directly inside their helmets.
"Gentlemen," Ethan said, his voice smooth and terrifyingly confident. "The First City treats you like expensive tools. I treat you like business partners. Five billion dollars each. That's enough to buy your own private islands, your own fleets, and safety for your families for a hundred generations. Or, you can pull the trigger, stay a slave, and die in some forgotten war for a Council that doesn't even know your names."
Silence filled the airwaves.
General Vance stared at the radar. "Why haven't they fired? They should have fired ten seconds ago!"
On the radar, the four red dots suddenly banked. The F-35s didn't peel away. Instead, they performed a synchronized barrel roll—the international pilot's signal for "Mission Aborted."
They moved into an escort formation, two on each wing of Ethan's jet.
Captain Kael's voice came back over the radio. This time, the "Duty" was gone. It was replaced by a deep, shivering respect.
"Mr. Clarke... this is Sun-Lead. Our sensors detected... 'technical malfunctions' in our weapon systems. We are unable to engage. Since our base is offline due to the satellite blackout, we have no choice but to provide you with a safe escort to Switzerland."
Ethan smirked. "Wise choice, Captain. Luna, send them the coordinates for a private airfield in Zurich. And tell the ground crew to have four luxury villas ready for our new friends."
[Ding! Task Completed!]
[Reward: S-Rank Skill 'Technological Singularity' Upgraded.]
[Reward: 100 Attribute Points added to Willpower.]
[Progress: $75 Billion / $100 Billion toward 'The First City'.]
Zurich, Switzerland — 2:00 AM.
The private airfield was swarming with black Mercedes-Benz vans. As Ethan stepped off the plane, followed by a stunned General Vance and a vigilant Raven, the four F-35s roared overhead in a low-altitude salute before landing at the far end of the strip.
Waiting on the tarmac was a man in a pinstriped suit, holding a silver briefcase. He looked like a typical Swiss banker, but Ethan's Eyes of Truth saw the golden sun pin hidden under his lapel.
"Mr. Clarke," the banker said, bowing slightly. "I am Hans Meyer, the Custodian of the Alpine Vault. The Council of the First City is... impressed. No one has ever bought a Sun-Guard squadron before. Usually, it's cheaper to just die."
"I don't do 'cheap'," Ethan said, walking past him toward a waiting limousine. "Take me to the Vault. I have twenty-five billion left to spend on my daily budget, and I hear you have some 'Eternal Gold' that's been sitting there for three centuries."
"The Eternal Gold is not for sale, Mr. Clarke," Meyer said, his voice tightening. "It is the collateral for the world's central banks. If that gold moves, the global dollar dies."
"Good," Ethan said, sliding into the back of the limo. "I've always wanted to see what happens when the dollar dies. Maybe I'll replace it with 'Ethan-Coins'. Drive."
The Alpine Vault — Deep inside the Eiger Mountain.
They traveled three miles into the heart of the mountain via a private high-speed train. The air grew colder, smelling of ozone and ancient dust. Finally, they reached a door made of four-foot-thick reinforced tungsten.
The door opened to reveal a cavern the size of four football stadiums. Stacked from floor to ceiling were bars of gold, each stamped with the seal of the First City. It was more gold than the official reserves of the US, China, and Russia combined.
In the center of the cavern, standing on a raised dais, was a woman. She was dressed in an elegant white gown, her dark hair pinned back with a diamond tiara. She looked like royalty.
When she turned around, Ethan froze.
"Sarah?" he whispered.
It wasn't Sarah Miller, his gold-digging ex-girlfriend. But the resemblance was uncanny—she looked like a more refined, more powerful, and infinitely more dangerous version of her.
"Not quite, Ethan," the woman said, her voice like velvet. "I am Elena Miller. Sarah's older sister. The one the family actually kept. The one who was raised by the First City to manage the world's wealth."
She looked at Ethan with a mixture of amusement and curiosity. "My little sister told me you were a 'delivery boy' who cried when she dumped you. She failed to mention you were the lost heir to the Clarke Trillion-Dollar Trust."
"She didn't know," Ethan said, his voice turning cold. "And she doesn't matter. I'm here for the gold, Elena. All of it."
Elena laughed, a light, melodic sound. "You want to buy the Eternal Gold? To do that, you don't just need money. You need to prove you can manage the chaos its removal will cause. The First City exists to keep the world in balance. You? You are a chaos factor."
[Ding! Final Task of the Day: The Great Acquisition.]
[Task: Buy 100% of the Eternal Gold Reserve. This will trigger the 'World-Eater Protocol' completion.]
[Price: $25,000,000,000.00 (The remaining daily budget).]
[Warning: Upon purchase, the First City will initiate 'Project Ragnarok' to eliminate you.]
"Chaos is just another word for 'rebranding'," Ethan said. He turned to Luna. "Luna, transfer the remaining twenty-five billion. Buy the gold. Buy the mountain. Buy the air these people are breathing."
"Boss... if I do this, every stock market on the planet will hit zero in five minutes," Luna said, her hand trembling over the tablet.
"Do it," Ethan commanded. "I'll buy the stock markets tomorrow."
Luna pressed the button.
[Ding! Transaction Successful!]
[Assets Acquired: 50,000 Tons of Eternal Gold, The Eiger Fortress, The First City's Financial Core.]
[World-Eater Protocol: 100% COMPLETE.]
Suddenly, the lights in the vault turned blood-red. A siren began to wail, a deep, mechanical sound that shook the very mountain.
Elena's smile vanished. She looked at her terminal, her eyes wide with horror. "You... you actually did it. You madman. You just bankrupted humanity."
She pressed a button on the dais. "Project Ragnarok is authorized. If we can't control the world's wealth, no one will."
The floor of the vault began to slide open, revealing a hidden silo. A massive, black-painted missile sat there, its nose cone pointed toward the ceiling.
"That's a 'Black-Hole' warhead," General Vance screamed from the back. "It doesn't explode! It collapses the local space-time! It will erase this entire mountain and everything within a hundred miles!"
Ethan looked at the missile. He looked at the system screen.
[Ding! Level 3 System Evolution Initialized...]
[New Feature Unlocked: 'Reality Purchase'.]
[You can now buy 'Time' and 'Space'.]
"System," Ethan said, his voice echoing in the collapsing vault. "How much to buy the next sixty seconds of time and freeze that missile in mid-air?"
[Price: $1 Trillion.]
Ethan's eyes glowed with a terrifying light. "I don't have a trillion. My budget resets in... three... two... one..."
[Ding! It is now 12:00 AM.]
[New Daily Budget: $10,000,000,000,000.00 (Ten Trillion Dollars).]
Ethan smirked. "Buy the minute. And buy the First City's Council. I want them delivered to me in chains by lunchtime."