Jason Yue reclined against the plush velvet seat of the private limousine, his eyes half-lidded as the city of Aurora sped past in a blur of electric lights and luxury. He was no longer the same man who had wandered into the Enclave three weeks ago with nothing but a tattered wallet and fire in his soul. Now, he was the infamous 'Ghost Tycoon'—a rising legend whispered about in the underground investment world. He had brought down legacy corporations, revived crumbling empires, and amassed a reputation for impossibly accurate timing.
But tonight's endeavor wasn't just business—it was war.
Cassian Industries, one of the Seven Pillars of Aurora's elite industrial syndicate, was hosting an exclusive event: a sealed-bid auction for Project Helix. The project was an experimental biotechnology initiative rumored to involve multiversal genetic synchronization. That was enough to send dozens of legacy investors into a frenzy. Jason, however, had an entirely different reason to be there.
It wasn't the science.
It was the names on the guest list.
Inside the obsidian-walled Cassian Tower, the Grand Convergence Hall shimmered with a refractive glow from kinetic chandeliers suspended mid-air by magnetic repulsion. Waiters dressed in AI-enhanced tuxedos moved with eerie grace, serving molecular cocktails to the gathered elite. Every figure in the room wore anonymity masks—sleek, mirror-like visors obscuring identities, part of the Cassian tradition for neutral negotiations.
Jason entered without fanfare.
But even behind the anonymity mask, people felt his presence. His aura, sharpened by the System, exuded intangible dominance—like an invisible predator that even apex financiers instinctively feared.
"Target located. Sector Alpha-5," AlphaCore whispered in his mind.
He pivoted slowly and made his way to a velvet-curtained alcove, where three investors were locked in a quiet but intense debate. Each of them controlled shares in OrionCorp, the company Jason was systematically dismantling through shadow acquisitions.
The timing was perfect.
He didn't approach them directly—no, that would alert them to his identity. Instead, he initiated Phantom Protocol.
With a thought, the System generated a secondary illusion—an artificial investor profile built from deep-faked histories and phantom financials. Using it, Jason submitted a counter-bid on Project Helix, precisely calibrated to undercut OrionCorp's influence but not win. The aim wasn't to acquire—yet.
The aim was disruption.
He wanted chaos.
"Warning," AlphaCore buzzed, "Third-party AI detected scanning the room."
Jason blinked twice to initiate countermeasures. A violet flash rippled across his HUD as the system deployed a cloaking firewall. Someone was trying to unmask him.
"Identify source," Jason ordered under his breath.
"Source: Cassian Internal—Level 3 clearance."
His brow furrowed. That wasn't standard protocol. Cassian Industries promised neutrality, but someone was breaking the rules.
He needed backup.
Three floors above, Xie Lan—now operating as Jason's clandestine field agent—was embedded as a bartender under the codename "Crystal." She was already monitoring the digital flows from Cassian's network, and her modified OmegaComms implant linked her directly to Jason.
"Jason," her voice echoed in his earpiece. "Cassian isn't clean. I've identified seven embedded AIs monitoring cognitive signatures. Someone's looking for you, specifically."
"Can you block them?"
"Temporarily. But if you're planning something big, you better do it fast. They've also upgraded their bid algorithms to detect phantom protocols."
Jason cursed under his breath. "They're evolving faster than I expected."
"Wait—Jason. New player just entered the bidding system. Codename: Phantom Zero."
Jason froze.
That wasn't his alias.
Phantom Zero… was an echo from his past.
A name only one other person could have used: Nolan Virell—the man who betrayed Jason during their startup days and sold their invention to a corrupt conglomerate. The betrayal that had ruined Jason's first life.
And now, he was here.
Jason refocused. "AlphaCore, bring up Phantom Zero's profile."
A translucent projection shimmered in front of his eyes—hidden from others, visible only through the mask.
Phantom Zero had already placed a preliminary bid—an absurdly high valuation that instantly knocked out 80% of participants. Not only that, but he had activated a Protocol Lockout: a legal maneuver that could delay other bidders' responses for up to fifteen minutes.
Dirty. Brilliant.
But Jason didn't panic.
He smiled.
"You want to play dirty?" he whispered. "Fine. Let's burn the whole board."
Activating System Skill: Financial Mirage, Jason initiated a triple-layered echo bid across multiple shell companies. Each company had been fabricated in advance—months of preparation condensed into seconds thanks to the System. Using predictive economic modeling, he made them appear legitimate—down to fabricated employee social media and AI-generated tax records.
Even Phantom Zero's AI flinched.
More bids poured in from Jason's "ghost firms," each slightly higher, slightly riskier, playing the game of tension. The room buzzed with energy as even real investors started reacting to the faked entries.
"Now," Jason whispered, "AlphaCore, initiate Speculative Collapse Protocol."
The system executed the command.
Instantly, five of Jason's shell companies 'collapsed'—liquidity pulled, assets frozen, false scandal headlines projected onto financial boards. Other investors panicked, assuming there was a massive flaw in Project Helix or insider leaks about legal instability.
Phantom Zero hesitated.
That hesitation was all Jason needed.
He fired the real bid through Emerald Warden Holdings, his primary stealth firm. It was modest, underwhelming, and precisely what Cassian's internal algorithm would now deem 'safe.'
"Bid accepted," flashed the notification.
Project Helix was his.
Backstage, a hidden chamber behind mirrored walls opened silently. Jason stepped in.
There, without a mask, stood Nolan Virell.
Older. Meaner. But unmistakably the same man.
"You're Phantom Zero," Jason said, removing his own mask.
Nolan blinked. "Jason… Yue? You—? No way you could—"
"Come back?" Jason finished for him. "Oh, I did more than that."
Nolan sneered. "You think you've won just because you got Project Helix? I have capital reserves that dwarf—"
"You mean those offshore funds in Panama?" Jason interrupted, smiling coldly. "Frozen. As of thirty-five minutes ago. Tax fraud investigation, I believe."
Nolan paled.
"How—"
"You forgot who wrote the original code for Parallax Finance AI. I never uninstalled the backdoor."
"You… bastard…"
Jason leaned in. "And you're going to transfer your 7% in OrionCorp to Emerald Warden. Quietly. Or I'll leak your little bribery scheme with Cassian's biotech committee to the press."
Nolan looked as if he might explode. But he didn't.
He slumped.
Defeated.
"Fine."
Jason straightened. "Pleasure doing business."
As he left the chamber, Cassiel's voice suddenly echoed in his ear.
"You made a new enemy tonight," she said. "Again."
Jason chuckled. "That makes... what, eleven?"
"I'm counting sixteen."
"Well, the System says I'm behind schedule, then."
He stepped back into the auction hall just as the final bids closed. The lights shifted, the music dimmed, and Project Helix was officially announced under a new principal stakeholder.
"Emerald Warden Holdings."
Jason allowed himself a rare moment of satisfaction.
Behind his mask, the world thought a nameless entity had won.
But in truth, it was Jason Yue—reborn, rebuilt, and now holding the keys to the most advanced bio-tech in the multiverse.
And this was just the beginning.