Chapter 83: Corporate Dividends

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Corporate Dividends

The elevator ride from the Abyssal Gate’s surface-level containment facility to the upper floors of the TIG headquarters was seamless. The smooth, orchestral elevator music was a jarring contrast to the scent of ozone and demon ash clinging to their clothes.

Donald leaned against the mirrored glass, casually scrolling through his digital tablet.

[Guild Vault: 1,500,000 Credits (Passive Income Deposited)]

[Current Balance: 2,000,000 System Credits]

The automated golems were already paying dividends.

The elevator pinged, stopping at the fourth floor. The polished steel doors slid open to reveal the Guild’s newly renovated residential wing. The air here was warm, heavily saturated with the calming ambient mana bleeding off the Celestial Core Reactor downstairs.

"I’ll take the wolf cores up to Garrick," Evelyn said, hefting a heavy canvas sack over her shoulder. Her black hair was tied back in a messy ponytail, and despite having just brawled with a Level 70 boss, she looked like she had just finished a light jog. "Go check on the kid, Sylvie."

"Thank you, Evie," Sylvia smiled softly.

Sylvia stepped out of the elevator. She paused, looking down at the B-Rank tungsten daggers in her hands. With a simple thought, she tapped into her newly awakened [Shadow Sovereign] skill. The darkness clinging to her combat boots suddenly rippled like water. She dropped the daggers. Instead of clattering against the floor, they sank perfectly into her shadow, disappearing without a trace.

Sylvia’s violet eyes widened in sheer delight. She had a bottomless, weightless armory attached to her feet.

"Don’t lose your keys in there," Donald noted with a smirk as the elevator doors began to close.

Sylvia laughed, a bright, genuine sound, before turning and jogging down the carpeted hallway toward Leo’s room.

The elevator continued up to the executive floors. Donald and Evelyn stepped out into the War Room.

Aris Thorne was standing over the holographic tactical table, simultaneously managing three different floating screens. She looked up, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"You’re back early," Aris noted, swiping a screen away. "I expected you to be grinding for at least another hour."

"The Abyssal commanders sent a hit squad," Donald said, walking over to the table. He pulled the massive, glowing purple core of the Level 70 Centurion out of his jacket pocket and set it on the glass. "They didn’t last long."

Aris stared at the pulsing A-Rank core, shaking her head. "I am never going to get used to how casually you two dismantle extinction-level threats."

"It’s all about leverage," Donald said smoothly. "What’s the status of the city?"

"Completely locked down," Aris reported, pulling up a 3D map of Genesis City. The entire perimeter of the metropolis was encased in a faint, blue holographic dome. "The Absolute Aegis Wards are functioning flawlessly. For the first time in ten years, the Capital cannot magically surveil us. No portals can be opened, no teleportation circles work, and no unauthorized aircraft can cross the barrier."

"And the local Guilds?" Evelyn asked, dropping the sack of wolf cores onto a nearby workbench.

"Panicking," Aris smirked. "With Julian Vane gone and the Crimson Lotus liquidated, the smaller corrupt Guilds have realized they are trapped in a cage with an S-Rank predator. Three different Guild Masters called this morning offering total surrender and requesting to be absorbed into TIG as subsidiary branches."

Donald looked at the map, his golden [Valuation Eye] tracing the resource nodes scattered across the city. Genesis City had six minor dungeons—C-Rank and B-Rank gates that produced the bulk of the city’s construction materials and low-level monster cores.

"We don’t want their Guild Masters. We just want their real estate," Donald decided. "Draft the buyout contracts, Aris. Liquidate their leadership, but offer their low-level Awakeners standardized employment contracts with full benefits. If we’re going to fight a dimensional war, we need a standing army to guard the surface while we hold the Abyssal Gate."

"A corporate monopoly on the entire city’s Awakened population," Aris typed furiously. "I’ll have the contracts ready by tonight."

The heavy steel doors to the War Room slid open. Garrick marched in, wiping grease off his thick forearms with a rag. The old Artificer stopped dead when he saw the Level 70 Centurion core sitting on the table.

"By the Forge," Garrick whispered, tossing the rag aside. He practically sprinted to the table, pulling a jeweler’s loupe over his right eye. "The mana density in this thing... it’s pure void energy. A Level 70 boss drop?"

"Fresh from the deep floors," Donald confirmed. "And Evelyn brought you two dozen Level 50 Hellhound cores."

Garrick looked at the canvas sack, then back to the massive purple core. His mind was already racing, calculating metallurgical equations.

"What do you need built, Boss?" Garrick asked, his voice entirely devoid of his usual gruffness. He was an artist who had just been handed the finest clay in the world.

"Sylvia hit Level 50 today," Donald said. "She awakened a skill called Shadow Sovereign. She can store infinite mass in her shadow and gets a massive speed multiplier in darkness. But she’s a glass cannon. If an S-Rank physical attack connects with her, she dies."

Donald tapped his master ring against the console, bringing up the Guild’s base-building menu.

He navigated to the [Infrastructure] tab.

[Hyper-Density Training Matrix - Status: Active]

"Garrick, I want you to take that Level 70 Void Core and hardwire it directly into the Training Matrix," Donald ordered. "I want the simulation room to perfectly replicate the gravitational pressure and magical suppression of the deep floors. Make it pitch black. Sylvia needs a place to safely master her new speed and storage limits without getting her head chopped off in the field."

"I can do that," Garrick nodded, carefully picking up the glowing Centurion core. "I’ll use the Hellhound cores to power the localized gravity dampeners. I’ll have the matrix upgraded and calibrated by midnight."

"Perfect," Donald said.

Garrick hurried out of the room, cradling the boss core like a newborn baby. Evelyn followed him out, heading toward the kitchen to raid the industrial-sized fridge after her workout.

Donald was left alone with Aris.

He leaned against the tactical table, watching the blue holographic dome of the Aegis Wards slowly spin over the digital model of Genesis City. The board was completely his. He had the money, the infrastructure, and the ultimate Vanguard team.

But Donald knew the System well enough to know that a stagnant economy was a dying economy.

"Aris," Donald said quietly.

"Yes, Donald?"

"Julian Vane escaped the Spire with his life," Donald mused, tapping his platinum pen against the glass. "He knows Evelyn is an S-Rank. He knows I can hijack magic. He knows the Aegis Wards are up. If you were a humiliated Capital Emissary working for a Demon King, and you knew you couldn’t break a city’s shield through brute force..."

Aris stopped typing. She looked at the holographic dome, her eyes narrowing as her corporate instincts kicked in.

"I wouldn’t attack the shield," Aris realized, her voice dropping perfectly in sync with his logic. "I’d attack the supply lines outside the shield. Genesis City doesn’t produce its own food. We rely on the agricultural sectors in the neutral zones."

"Exactly," Donald said, his dark eyes hardening behind his gold mask. "Vane is going to try to starve the city out. He’s going to use the Capital’s influence to cut off our external trade routes, hoping the civilian population riots and forces us to drop the barrier."

Donald pulled up his System interface one last time, looking at his remaining 2,000,000 Credits.

"Draft the buyout contracts for the local Guilds," Donald commanded, his tone shifting into absolute, predatory focus. "Because once we secure the city’s internal economy, the Investment Guild is going into the transportation business. We aren’t going to wait for them to cut our supply lines. We’re going to buy the roads."