Chapter 4: let’s Make Dollars

"I told you, I don’t have it yet!" Anna cried out, backing away as she rubbed her bruised cheek. "We agreed on the end of the month! Please, just give me a few more weeks!"

"The end of the month was yesterday, you broke bitch!" the ugly man sneered, raising his heavy fist to strike her across the face a second time.

Before his hand could make contact, Morales stepped in. His fingers clamped around the man’s wrist like a vise.

THUD.

The loan shark gasped, his face twisting in sudden agony as he tried to pull his arm back. It felt as if he had swung his fist straight into a solid block of granite.

"Argh! What the fuck... what is your arm made of, kid?!" the man groaned, his eyes watering from the pressure.

Morales hadn’t even realized what was happening inside his own body yet. He didn’t know his skin had become like iron, nor did he realize his reflexes and fight predictions were already hardwired into his muscles.

"Let go of me, you little bastard!" the leader barked, turning toward the doorway. "Hey! Get in here and break this prick’s legs!"

Three hefty, muscle-bound thugs pushed through the broken front door, filling the cramped living room.

Not fully aware of his new combat abilities, Morales instinctively backed up. He grabbed a heavy ceramic lamp off a side table and hurled it directly at the lead goon’s chest, shattering it on impact.

"Morales, run!" Anna screamed from behind him, her voice shrill with terror. "Get away from them!"

The loan shark leader snarled, stepping past Morales and grabbing Anna violently by her hair, yanking her head back. He pulled out a dark blade and pressed it near her cheek.

"Listen to me, you young piece of shit!" the leader bellowed, glaring at Morales. "If you don’t give me my fucking money right now, I’ll kill you right in front of her! Then I’m going to fuck this bitch on your corpse until I get tired and throw her in the river!"

Something snapped deep within Morales chest. ’No one makes joke of what’s mine like that.’

A sharp, primal surge of heat erupted in his brain. In less than a second, time seemed to slow down. He could see the exact trajectory of every man in the room, predicting their next moves down to the precise millisecond.

Whoosh!

Before anyone could blink, Morales closed the distance. He grabbed the wrist of the goon on the left, snapping it backward with a sickening CRACK, then drove a short, brutal elbow straight into the second goon’s windpipe.

As the third thug lunged forward with a punch, Morales ducked beneath his guard, drove a knee into his solar plexus, and slammed his head straight into the hardwood floor.

In less than sixty seconds, all three heavy thugs were lying unconscious on the floor, groaning in pools of their own spit.

The leader froze, his jaw hanging open, his grip slipping from Anna’s hair as pure terror washed over his ugly face. "What... what the fuck are you?!"

In a desperate panic, the leader whipped his blade forward, hurling it straight toward Morales chest.

Morales didn’t even flinch. He casually raised his bare hand into the air and swatted the flying knife away like a harmless fly, sending it embedding deep into the wooden wall.

"Is that all?" Morales asked, his voice chillingly calm.

Before the leader could even throw a punch, Morales stepped in and grabbed him by the throat.

He lifted the grown man off his feet like a mere puppet, slammed him against the wall, and delivered three devastating blows to his gut.

The leader coughed up blood, his eyes rolling back as Morales dragged him toward the front entrance and hurled him out into the dirt driveway alongside his three battered goons.

Morales stepped onto the porch, looking down at the groaning men. He turned back toward Anna, who was standing in the living room, completely shell-shocked.

"How much do you owe this scum?" Morales asked smoothly.

Anna trembled, stepping toward him, her hands shaking. "Morales... no. Don’t worry about it... please, you shouldn’t get involved in this. Where are we even—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Morales stepped up, grabbed a handful of her soft ass, and pulled her flesh against his broad chest.

He pressed his hand against her heavy breasts, tilting her head back, and captured her lips in a deep, possessive kiss that made her knees buckle.

"Answer me, Anna," Morales whispered against her lips, his blue eyes locking onto hers. "You’re my family now. You’re my woman. How much?"

Anna panted heavily, her cheeks flushing beet red as her body melted against his touch. "It’s... it’s three thousand dollars... but Morales, where would you ever get three thousand—"

Without a word, Morales called upon the System in his mind.

[Withdrawing $3,000 from Liquid Funds...]

A heavy, thick stack of hundred-dollar bills materialized in his hand. He stepped out onto the porch, looked down at the bleeding leader scrambling on the ground, and tossed the stack of cash directly onto his bloodied face.

"There’s your three thousand dollars," Morales growled, his voice carrying an absolute, murderous aura. "Take your money and get the fuck off my property. If I ever see your ugly face on this street again, you won’t leave alive."

The leader grabbed the cash frantically, nodding in absolute terror as he scrambled to his feet and dragged his unconscious men away into the night.

Morales closed the heavy wooden door, turned around, and immediately pulled Anna back into his arms, savoring her soft lips once again until she was gasping for air.

"Mmm... Morales..." Anna whimpered, resting her forehead against his chest, completely dazed by everything that had just happened. "I... I need to go wash myself up..."

"Go ahead," Morales smiled softly, patting her hip.

As Anna hurried down the hallway toward the bathroom, Morales walked back into his bedroom and sat on the edge of his bed.

"System," Morales said internally. "Explain that last reward to me. What’s this about Aurelius Academy?"

"Ding! Explanation requested," the System chimed smoothly inside his head.

[I have successfully breached the encrypted database of Aurelius Academy and created a 100% legitimate, unassailable administrative record. You are officially enrolled as a private scholarship student.

The baseline requirement for record generation was a minimum net worth of $500,000, which you achieved upon completing your first mission. Note: Your liquid net worth is now $497,000 after settling your guardian’s debt.]

Morales raised an eyebrow. "A elite academy for billionaires... sounds like a golden playground."

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Another sharp, heavy knock resounded against the front door downstairs.

Morales eyes narrowed. "I thought I told those bastards never to come back!" he muttered, rising from his bed with a cold expression.

He walked downstairs, yanked the front door open, and was ready to tear whoever was standing there apart.

Instead of cheap loan sharks, standing on his porch were two tall men impeccably dressed in dark, tailored suits, holding leather briefcases.

The two suit-clad men adjusted their ties, looking at the dilapidated porch and the crumbling neighborhood with clear, unspoken disgust.

This dump? one of the men thought to himself, his expression tight. An accepted student lives in a disgraced slum like this? Even the basic scholarship students live in proper housing... what a joke.

Though they kept their thoughts hidden behind professional masks, the taller representative stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"Morales Brown?" the man asked formally. "We are official administrative representatives from Aurelius Academy. Tomorrow is the official resumption date for the new academic term.

As a student admitted under a prestigious private scholarship, you are granted specific academy privileges."

The second man opened a sleek garment bag, revealing a pristine, gold-embroidered luxury uniform, and handed it toward Morales.

"We will be arriving at 6:00 AM sharp tomorrow morning to transport you directly to the academy campus," the representative stated coldly. "Please be prepared."

Morales looked at the luxury uniform, took it from their hands with a simple nod, and didn’t say a single word.

SLAM.

He shut the heavy wooden door straight in their faces. Outside on the porch, the taller representative blinked in disbelief at the closed door, shaking his head.

"What a rude poor bastard..." he muttered under his breath, even if they were workers of the academy they hated stepping their feet in the poor areas.

Inside the hallway, Morales stood in silence. Thanks to his upgraded physical attributes, his enhanced sense of hearing picked up the man’s quiet insult with crystal clarity.

A slow, dark smirk spread across Morales face. He didn’t bother opening the door to strike them down.

There was no point wasting time on middle-men. Tomorrow, he would enter Aurelius Academy, keep a low profile, and build a hidden financial empire.

He turned around, hearing the sound of running water stop in the bathroom down the hall, his eyes gleaming as he thought about his stunning aunt waiting for him. "Let’s make dollars."