The plan worked too well.
By midnight, my mana reserves were skyrocketing.
I was sitting in the Core Room, watching the numbers tick up on my internal ledger. Lady Elara was a shark. She hadn't just sold the product; she had created a bidding war.
System Alert:
Contract Initiated: Lady Elara.
Mana Harvested via Proxy: +5,000.
Mana Harvested via Proxy: +8,000.
Every time one of those nobles drank my potion, a small portion of their mana signature was bound to me. It was a pyramid scheme where I was the Pharaoh.
"We’re rich, boys!" I shouted to the goblins.
Gub was dancing a jig. Asset A and Asset B were playing catch with a new, shiny helmet I’d bought from the System Store.
I paid the daily interest payment with a thought.
Minus 600,000 Mana.
Ouch. But I still had a surplus. I was safe.
"Boss," Gub said, stopping his dance. "Air feels... heavy."
I paused. I felt it too. The pressure in the room dropped. The air smelled of ozone and burnt sugar.
A new notification appeared. It wasn't blue. It was red.
System Alert:
Warning: Market Manipulation Detected.
The Ecclesiarchy has flagged your revenue stream as "Heretical."
Counter-Measure Deployed.
"Heretical?" I scoffed. "It’s called 'Unregulated Capitalism.' They’re just mad I undercut their monopoly."
Then the entrance tunnel exploded.
There was no warning. No footsteps. Just a blast of white, holy fire that vaporized the stone door I had installed yesterday.
Debris rained down. The goblins shrieked, covering their heads.
Through the smoke, four figures walked in.
They weren't adventurers. Adventurers wear mismatched armor and argue about loot. These guys were uniformed. Black plate armor with gold trim. Faceless helmets. They moved in perfect synchronization.
Identify:
Unit: Debt Collectors (Ecclesiarchy Black Ops).
Level: 40.
Mission: Foreclosure.
"Level 40?" I panicked. "System! Summon defenses!"
I tried to buy a monster. Insufficient Mana. I had spent it all on the Avatar projection and the potion ingredients. I had liquidity, but I didn't have cash on hand.
"Gub! Defensive Position Delta!" I roared.
The goblins, bless them, grabbed their sharp sticks. They were Level 2. They were brave. They were stupid.
"Leave! Leave the shiny stone!" Gub yelled, charging at the lead Debt Collector.
The Collector didn't even slow down. He didn't use a sword. He simply raised a gauntleted hand. A pulse of white light, sharp and clean as a scalpel, shot out.
It hit Gub in the chest.
There was no blood. The light simply erased him. One second, Gub was there, screaming his war cry. The next, there was just a scorch mark on the floor and a drifting pile of ash.
"No!" I shouted.
Asset A and Asset B charged.
Flash. Flash.
Two more piles of ash.
It took three seconds. My entire workforce, my Head of Operations, my marketing team... liquidated.
"Stop!" I bellowed, my voice shaking the entire cavern. "I surrender! Let’s negotiate!"
The lead Collector stopped. He looked at my crystal form. He didn't speak. He reached into his belt and pulled out a scroll. He unrolled it.
"Entity 404-Null," the Collector said. His voice sounded like grinding metal. "You are in violation of the Divine Trade Agreement. You are distributing unauthorized miracles. The penalty is total asset seizure."
He raised a heavy, gold-plated hammer.
"Wait!" I said. "I can pay a fine! I have assets! I have—"
"Foreclosure is non-negotiable," he said.
He stepped forward, raising the hammer to smash my crystal shell.
I was going to die. Again. And this time, I wouldn't just lose my job. I’d lose my soul. I felt a spike of fear, but beneath it, something else.
Rage.
They killed Gub. Gub was an idiot, but he was my idiot. He was an employee. And you do not touch a CEO’s employees unless you want a war.
The hammer came down.
CLANG.
It didn't hit me.
Sparks flew as steel met silver.
Standing between me and the Debt Collector, holding her longsword with both hands, was Seraphina.
She was panting, her armor covered in mud, her hair a mess. She had clearly sprinted here.
"Stand down, Collector," she snarled.
The Collector paused. "Paladin Seraphina. You are interfering with Church business. This entity is a debtor."
"This entity is under my jurisdiction for a pending audit," she lied, her voice hard as iron. "If you destroy the evidence, you are obstructing an Imperial investigation. That is a felony."
The Collector hesitated. The Church and the Empire had a fragile truce. Destroying a Dungeon Core was one thing; fighting a Paladin of the Crown was another.
"He is selling heresy," the Collector stated.
"He is selling flavored water," Seraphina shot back. "I checked the samples. It’s not dark magic. It’s just... efficient."
She pushed back against the heavy hammer, her boots sliding on the stone floor. "Get out of my crime scene."
The Collector stared at her for a long, tense moment. Then, he lowered the hammer.
"The Bishop will hear of this," the Collector said.
"Tell Vane he can file a complaint with my supervisor," Seraphina spat. "Oh wait. He is my supervisor. Tell him I quit."
The Collectors turned as one and marched out of the cave, leaving silence and ash in their wake.
Seraphina dropped her sword. She fell to her knees, gasping for air.
"You," she pointed a shaking finger at me. "You idiot. You started a drug war? In three days?"
I didn't answer. I was looking at the scorch mark on the floor where Gub used to be.
I felt cold. Colder than I had ever felt in the boardroom.
"They killed my staff," I said softly.
"They’re Church Executioners, Max. That’s what they do. They delete mistakes." Seraphina stood up, wiping soot from her face. "You need to stop. Shut this down. Vane knows you’re here now. Next time, he won't send a squad. He’ll send a crusade."
"No," I said.
My crystal body pulsed with a deep, crimson light. The blue glow was gone.
"I’m not shutting down," I told her. "I’m restructuring."
"Max, don't do this."
"They want a market war?" I asked, my voice dropping to a low, dangerous frequency. "Fine. They just violated the non-aggression principle."
I pulled up my interface. I looked at the 13,000 Mana I had harvested from the Gala.
"Seraphina," I said. "I’m going to need a new HR manager. Are you hiring?"
She looked at me, looked at the ash on the floor, and then looked at the exit where the Church soldiers had left. She looked tired of the rules.
"I can't work for a monster," she whispered.
"Good thing I’m not a monster," I said. "I’m the competition."
I opened the [Unit Creation] menu. I didn't select 'Goblin' this time. I scrolled down.
If Vane wanted to play hardball, I was going to introduce him to the concept of a Hostile Takeover.
"System," I thought. "Unlock the Undead tech tree. It's time to recycle the workforce."
ns216.73.216.10da2
and then Add to home screen.