Chapter 144: To Invest In The Fashion Industry!

A cold, razor-sharp smirk spread across my face as I stood by the floor-to-ceiling glass on the 60th floor, looking out over the world.

With Quin Records completely under my thumb, Ruby established as an undeniable global icon, and $1.8 billion liquid in my treasury, I now held a satellite-level radar to seek out the most gifted, suppressed women across the entire planet—people sitting on world-changing potential just waiting for the right backer with infinite capital to break their chains.

"Sarah, Chloe," I murmured, staring at the global radar pulsing in my vision. "Get the war room ready on the 59th floor."

Chloe turned toward me, her eyes lighting up with sharp curiosity. "Already looking for our next move?"

"We’re not just waiting for opportunities to come to us anymore," I replied quietly, feeling the sheer power of the system matrix at my fingertips. "We’re going to scan the entire globe, find the most brilliant, overlooked talent in the world, and build an empire no industry gatekeeper can ever touch."

My phone buzzed in my hand just as I was stepping off the glass elevator into the 59th-floor war room. The caller ID showed Ruby’s name.

I slid my thumb across the screen and put the phone to my ear. "Hey, babe."

"Ethan!" Ruby’s voice came through the speaker, breathless, confused, and filled with frantic energy. "You are not going to believe this. Quin Records’ legal department just emailed my manager a massive contract offer. They’re saying the company was bought out overnight, the entire old roster was fired, and they want me as their sole flagship star on insane terms. Is Fastine pulling some kind of twisted trick on us?! Is this a trap?!"

I let out a low, smooth laugh, leaning back against the edge of the conference table. "It’s not a trap, Ruby. It’s not a trick, and Fastine isn’t calling the shots anymore."

"Wait... what do you mean?" she asked, her voice dropping into total confusion.

I looked over at Chloe and gave her a slight nod. "Chloe, go ahead and send over the modified contract copy to her phone right now."

"Sending it now," Chloe murmured with a smirk, tapping her screen.

A second later, I heard Ruby gasp over the line as her phone chimed with the official document. "Wait... Hidden Gem Investments? Board Majority Holder: Ethan... YOU BOUGHT QUIN RECORDS?!"

"Every single share that mattered," I said, a dark smirk playing on my lips. "I took 55% of the voting control, stripped Fastine of her CEO position, fired ColdZon and the toxic board members, and turned the entire multi-million-dollar infrastructure into a machine built entirely for you."

"What?!" she shrieked, the sheer shock practically vibrating through the speaker. "You... you literally bought the entire record label just to tear down my enemies and give me the throne?!"

"I told you I don’t leave winning to chance," I replied smoothly. "Now, since it’s officially ours, we’re rebranding the label. What do you want to name it?"

There was a brief silence on her end, followed by her getting entirely too excited.

"Oh! Oh! I know!" Ruby yelled happily. "How about... THE SUPER MEGA COSMIC UNIVERSE RECORDS!"

I froze, pulling the phone away from my ear for a second to stare at it in absolute disbelief.

"...What?" I asked flatly.

"Super Mega Cosmic Universe Records!" she repeated, super hyped and sounding immensely proud of herself. "It sounds huge! It sounds like a galaxy!"

"Ruby, babe," I said, rubbing the bridge of my nose while Chloe had to physically cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. "I love you, but absolutely not. Anything but that. We are running a sleek, lethal global empire, not an anime arcade."

"Hey!" Ruby pouted playfully over the line, though I could hear the big grin in her voice.

"Fine! Let me think about it! You know I’m terrible at naming things under pressure! I’ll come up with something actually cool when I get to the new headquarters!"

Leaving the war room, I pulled up the system matrix again, stepping out onto the wide private balcony of our 60th-floor headquarters.

If my ultimate goal was to build an absolute, untouchable global empire, locking down the entertainment industry was only step one. I needed control over every major sector: tech, high finance, luxury, media, and design.

I swiped my hand across the golden holographic matrix, filtering the Global Talent Scanner parameters:

[SEARCH FILTER SELECTED: FASHION & LUXURY DESIGN]

[RUNNING GLOBAL SCAN FOR OVERLOOKED TALENT...]

The system matrix pulsed silently, scanning millions of profiles across Europe, Asia, and the Americas before zeroing in on a single, glowing target on the opposite side of the world.

A high-definition profile card flared to life in front of my eyes, displaying her details:

[TARGET DETECTED: FASHION & HIGH LUXURY]

Current Rating: 1.0

True Potential: 9.9 / 10 (Trendsetting Genius)

Current Industry: None

Suppression Level: CRITICAL (Extreme Economic Suppression)

[SPECIAL CASHBACK MULTIPLIER CONDITION DETECTED]

Status: Complete Disconnect from True Calling.

[Calculated Multiplier: 100x CASHBACK ON GLOW-UP & BRAND ELEVATION]

I stared at the screen, a quiet, amazed whistle escaping my lips.

A 9.9 latent potential sitting at a 1.0 current rating? The gap was astronomical. The system was offering a massive 100x cashback multiplier on her glow-up alone, which made me wonder just how utterly suppressed and crushed by circumstance this girl had to be.

She wasn’t even in the fashion world. She wasn’t an unpaid intern, a struggling retail assistant, or a boutique tailor. She was working grueling hours in a dusty industrial fabric mill, her world-class design instincts completely buried under poverty, debt, and gatekeepers who didn’t even know she existed.

A cold, lethal smile spread across my face as I read through her file.

Finding someone with a 9.9 genius who didn’t even realize her own power... taking her out of the dirt, giving her infinite capital, and dropping her straight onto the runways of Paris and Milan to crush the established elite.

"Sarah," I called out smoothly, stepping back inside where my new PA was organizing corporate filings.

"Yes, Mr. Ethan?" she answered instantly.

"Book a private jet," I commanded, staring at the target’s location on the global matrix. "We’re going to pick up our next Hidden Gem."