Chapter 1: Millionaire Milf

The Sweat on Lucas forehead nearly dripped on his cheap shirt before he wiped it.

He somehow managed to do that while also balancing a flimsy cardboard trey of lattes hot enough to burn his skin as he navigated the glass building.

Vertex Management’s building.

The luxury lifestyle agency for the elite had graciously hired him six months ago, and his full list of accomplishments since then were memorizing absurd dietary restrictions of insufferable executives.

His current bank balance had hit single digits and his landlady needed just one more missed payment before sending him and his meager belongings to the streets.

He reached the main executive boardroom and stopped, catching his breath then adjusting his fading collar.

He wiped more sweat aswell, which wasn’t caused by heat – it couldn’t have been. The temperature in this section of the building was permanently set to "freeze".

Apparently the expensive suites worn by the higher ups demanded it.

Lucas took a final deep breath before pushing the glass door open with his shoulder.

The room was quiet enough to make his entrance sound like glass breaking in a museum. The only other sound aside his footsteps being the tapping of a gold pen against mahogany and steady breathing that only belonged to people who had their lives in order.

The executives – seven of them, sat in plush leather chairs and stared at a financial projection at the front of the room with intense concentration.

Lucas head remained down, eyes lowered and hoping he could drop of the coffees without interrupting the tense atmosphere.

"You’re late, four minutes late actually."

Lucas froze.

The voice was Richard’s, sitting at the long table with his arms crossed over his chest.

Richard was the typical asshole you’d usually come across around here, a mid level manager who wore fake designer watches and treated the junior staff like they were his personal slaves.

However what made Richard even more annoying was the fact he wasn’t even a qualified asshole, he simply happened to be the nephew of the company founder and that genetic connection served as the only reason he had this job while being not much older than Lucas.

"I apologize," Lucas said while keeping his voice carefully neutral. "The barista had to remake the macchiato with oat milk as requested."

Richard leaned back and scoffed.

"I don’t give two shits about the logistical struggles of a minimum-wage coffee shop worker. What i do care about is punctuality and standard corporate efficiency. And if you cannot manage a simple beverage run without failing, why should Vertex keep you on the payroll?"

Lucas felt his jaw tighten but he swallowed his pride and forced a polite nod.

Arguing with Richard was the best way to guarantee his unemployment before the hour ends.

He stepped forward to distribute the cups instead.

He reached the head of the table and his breath hitched in his throat.

Victoria Sterling sat in the dominant chair.

She was thirty-nine years old and the untouchable founder of Vertex Management.

She was rich. No, that’s an understatement – she was rich as fuck, and she dressed like it.

She wore a tailored navy business suite that Lucas estimated two years worth of his salary would fail to buy. Her dark hair fell in perfect waves over her shoulders and she had an aura of suffocating authority that made the other executives look like nervous kids.

Lucas stared for a second or two.

She was beautiful and terrifying, and the combination made Lucas heart beat faster.

Victoria didn’t look at him.

She continued staring out the floor-to-ceiling window at the city skyline with a profound look of boredom on her flawless face. She viewed Lucas the same way she viewed the potted plant in the corner of the room.

More like a background object serving a function than a person.

"Are you deaf?" Richard snapped.

Lucas blinked, his attention turning back to the manager.

Richard was aggressively gesturing for his specific drink. Lucas quickly grabbed the oat milk macchiato and leaned across the table to place it down.

Richard, being the impatient prick he always was, snatched the cup before Lucas had fully let it go.

This caused the flimsy plastic lid to pop off and send scalding hot foam and dark liquid splashing across the polished mahogany table and splattering directly onto Richard’s silk tie.

Fuck.

"You dumb peasant," Richard hissed while jumping up from his chair and furiously dabbing at his ruined tie with a napkin. "Do you have any idea how much this silk costs? It is worth more than your miserable life."

"You grabbed it before I could set it down," Lucas said before his brain could filter his words.

Richard slammed his hand on the table and the remaining cups rattled.

"Excuse me?" Richard’s face turned an ugly shade of red. "You dump boiling garbage on me and then you have the audacity to talk back? You are a glorified errand boy. Get on your knees and clean this up right now."

Lucas froze, hands shaking at his sides.

"I said get on your knees and wipe the floor," Richard demanded again as he pointed a trembling finger to the puddle of coffee near his expensive leather shoes.

Lucas felt a burning sense of humiliation crawl up his neck and settle in his cheeks. He looked around the room hoping for someone to intervene.

The other executives merely averted their eyes or pretended to study their digital tablets.

He finally looked at Victoria.

The founder of Vertex had finally turned her head to observe the commotion, her dark eyes locking onto Lucas.

She didn’t seem angry.

She looked at him instead with a casual apathy that sliced right through his remaining dignity.

Victoria watched his public degradation with mild curiosity to see if the peasant would actually drop to his knees and scrub the carpet.

A strange mixture of shame and intense desire formed in Lucas’s gut.

He despised the fact he was so helpless.

He despised even more that a woman like Victoria could look at him and see nothing but an insignificant bug waiting to be crushed. He wanted to wipe that arrogant boredom off her face.

He wanted to prove that he was more than a disposable joke.

A sharp spike of pain suddenly pierced his skull.

Lucas stumbled back and grabbed the edge of the table to steady himself. The pain vanished as quickly as it arrived and left behind a faint ringing sound in his ears.

[Host desperation threshold surpassed.]

A glowing blue interface materialized in the air right between Lucas and Richard. Lucas blinked rapidly but the hovering text remained firmly anchored in his vision.

[Dormant ambitions recognized. Initializing the MILF Acquisition System.]

Lucas stared at the floating blue box. He wondered if the stress of poverty had finally triggered a psychotic break.

"Are you having a seizure or are you just stupid?" Richard sneered while throwing a crumpled napkin at Lucas’s chest. "Clean it up. Then pack your desk. You are fired."

The blue interface flickered and expanded into a larger window.

[System Initialization Complete. Binding to Host: Lucas Vintage.]

[Primary Objective: Ascend the social and financial hierarchy through the strategic conquest of high-value mature targets.]

Lucas felt his breath catch as a secondary window popped up and framed Victoria Sterling’s face with a glowing targeting reticle.

[Target Scanned.]

Name: Victoria Sterling

Age: 39

Net Worth: $520 Million

Status: Unimpressed.

Hidden Vulnerability: Currently experiencing severe cervical tension and chronic insomnia due to secret offshore audit fears.

Lucas stared at the hovering text detailing the private medical and financial secrets of the most powerful woman in the building. He had no idea how a hallucination could be this detailed.

[Emergency Quest Generated!]

Objective: Prevent your termination and alter the target’s perception.

Task: Establish dominance over Richard Sterling using his recent embezzlement of company funds.

Reward: 100 Acquisition Points and Employment Retention.

Failure Penalty: Immediate termination and permanent financial ruin.

Time Limit: 30 Seconds.

The timer in the corner of his vision immediately ticked down to twenty-nine.

A secondary blue window cascaded down and overlaid Richard’s smug face with glowing text.

Rows of financial data materialized in midair to detail six months of fake invoices, phantom client dinners, and thousands of dollars funneled directly into a private shell company.

The System even highlighted the specific dates and the forged signature Richard used to bypass the accounting department.

Lucas stared at the hovering evidence and realized this bizarre interface had just handed him a loaded weapon.

Lucas looked at Richard who was currently wearing a smug grin of victory.

Then he looked at Victoria who was already turning her attention back to her financial projections.

The woman was ready to let him vanish from her life forever without a second thought.

The timer ticked down to twenty two.

Lucas realized he had nothing left to lose.

So he stood up straight and ignored the spilled coffee on the floor.

"I am not cleaning that up," Lucas said.

His voice echoed in the silent room.

Richard paused mid rant and stared at him with wide eyes. "What did you just say to me?"

The timer hit fifteen seconds.

Lucas turned his gaze directly to Victoria. He needed to get her attention and he needed to do it now.

"I think Richard should clean it himself," Lucas said while keeping his eyes locked on the billionaire founder. "Considering he has been expensing his personal luxury dinners to the company’s corporate outreach account for the last three months."

The gold pen in Victoria’s hand stopped tapping.

The timer hit five seconds.

Victoria slowly turned her head and met Lucas’s gaze.

For the first time since he had entered the room she looked at him as if he was a living human being.

Her dark eyes narrowed.

"What did you just say?"