Chapter 17: he saw my face

The lift open, and the doors drew back to reveal a room that smelled like expensive cigars and chairs. The floor was covered in a carpet that soaked up the noise of Dante’s steps.

A fat man in a tailored suit was standing behind a large mahogany desk. His name was Miller, the regional administrator for the mid-level sectors. He was sweating so much that his white collar was soaked, and he was frantically dumping paper documents into a small shredder machine in the corner.

When the doors opened, Miller jumped, dropping a stack of folders onto the carpet. His face turned white when he saw Dante’s black hoodie and the cat ears on Yenna.

"Who allowed you up here?" Miller shouted, his voice high and shaky. He reached for a red telephone on his desk. "The guards down stairs are supposed to block—"

Dante walked forward without saying a word. He didn’t run. He just moved across the carpet with his digits in his pockets, his posture completely relaxed. He stopped right in front of the desk, reached out his left hand, and laid the dark document folder flat on the wood.

The moment the black folder touched the desk, the runic text on the cover pulsed once.

The red telephone in Miller’s hand instantly went dead. The computer monitor on the desk flickered, and the shredder machine in the corner stopped its movement with a small spark.

[System Notification: Property Seizure activated.]

[Ownership of Sector 21 Administration Terminal has been transferred to User: Zero.]

[All local files are locked.]

Miller stared at his computer screen. His login name had been wiped out, replaced by the words General Inspector Zero. He dropped the dead telephone, his hands trembling so hard he had to lean against the desk to keep from falling over.

"General Inspector?" Miller whispered, his eyes moving from the screen to Dante’s hidden face. "Marcus didn’t tell me an auditor was coming down from the top. Look, whatever the lower guards did, I didn’t know about it! We can settle this. I have three million credits in a private account—"

Dante didn’t look at the man. He just reached across the desk, grabbed Miller by his silk tie, and pulled him forward until his face was two inches away from the hood.

"I don’t care about your credits, Miller," Dante said. His voice was completely quiet, sounding like a cold breeze in an empty room. "Where is the master keycard for the twenty-fifth level storage room?"

Miller swallowed hard, his skin turning gray with stress. He could feel a strange, heavy pressure coming off Dante ( body that made it hard for his lungs to take in air. He pointed a fat, shaking finger toward a small painting of a ship hanging on the wall behind him.

"Behind the frame," Miller choked out. "There is a digital wall safe. Only my thumbprint can open it. If anyone else touches the scanner, the whole room sets off an alarm to the fifty-first floor."

Dante let go of the tie, letting the fat man slump back into his leather chair.

Dante ( walked around the desk, pulled the painting off the wall, and tossed it onto the carpet. A small silver box with a glowing blue glass panel was embedded in the grey mineral wall. He didn’t ask Miller for his thumb. He didn’t try to crack the code either. He simply placed his own middle finger—the one wearing the Sovereign’s Decree ring—directly onto the blue glass scanner.

The blue light turned red for a fraction of a second, trying to trigger the alarm. But the SSS-Rank Property Seizure skill overrode the system logic instantly. The security lines inside the wall rewired themselves, matching Dante ( soul signature.

The door of the safe popped open with a dull sound. Inside the small compartment sat a bright gold keycard with three data strips on the back, alongside a thick ledger book containing the private transport schedules for the Radiant Dawn guild.

Dante took the gold card and shoved it into his hoodie pocket. Then he picked up the ledger book, flipping through the pages with his left thumb. His eyes narrowed as he saw rows of text detailing how much mineral ore Marcus was stealing from the lower floor civilian workers every single week to fund his private cultivation.

Yenna walked up next to the desk, her black tail twitching as she watched Miller cower in his seat.

’The main guild server on the fiftieth floor is trying to ping this room,’ Yenna transmitted through the mental link, her amber eyes steady. ’Marcus knows someone has locked the administrator out of the terminal. He is already text-messaging the elite guard on Floor 22.’

Dante closed the ledger book with a loud snap.

"Let him message them," Dante said aloud, turning his body toward the lift doors. "He can send every single guard he has. By the time I reach the twenty-fifth floor, I’m going to have the keys to his entire empire."

He looked at Yenna then gave a slight nod toward the fat administrator who was currently trying to crawl under his own desk.

"He saw my face, Yenna" Dante said, his voice uncaring. "Leave the room clean."

Yenna ears pinned back, a cold look entering her eyes as her claws extended from her digits. She stepped toward the desk silently, completely hidden by her silence zone.

Dante walked back into the lift, his step leaving no tracks on the grey carpet, ready for the next level.