The screen on Lin Hao's burner phone didn't just show a number. It showed a new reality.
$10,000,000,000.00 USD
Ten billion.
It was a number so large it lost its meaning. It wasn't money anymore; it was a cheat code for the mortal world. He could buy armies. He could buy governments. He could buy the "Guardian Families" out of their own homes if he wanted to.
He sat in the damp, cold warehouse, the leaky roof still dripping plink... plink... plink into the puddle of grime.
"Inefficient," he muttered.
He stood up. He had a delivery to make, and then he had a move to execute.
He didn't meet Director Zhou or Mr. Sterling's agents. He wasn't stupid. He took the bottle of pills, wrapped it in a nondescript brown paper bag, and left it inside a rented locker at the city's busiest 24-hour train station. He texted the locker code to the burner number, then crushed the phone and dropped it into a sewer grate.
By the time Sterling's agents retrieved the "miracle," Lin Hao was already miles away, back at his laptop, browsing a market that didn't exist for normal people.
He wasn't looking on public real estate sites. With ten billion dollars backing him, he had access to the "Dark Listings", the portfolio of distressed assets held by international banks, properties too expensive, too isolated, or too strange for the public market.
He filtered the search: [Location: City U Periphery] [Size: 100+ Acres] [Security: Maximum] [Status: Vacant/Immediate Possession]
Dozens of luxury penthouses and suburban estates popped up. He swiped past them. He didn't want neighbors. He didn't want a Homeowners Association. He wanted a fortress.
Then, he saw it.
[Listing #8940: "Skyview Manor"][Price: $120,000,000 USD (Distressed/Foreclosure)][Details: Built by a reclusive tech billionaire who went bankrupt. Located on the peak of 'Iron Cloud Mountain,' 20 miles north of City U. 200 acres of private forest. One access road. 15-foot perimeter walls. Independent power grid. Helicopter pad. Bomb shelter.]
It was an ugly, brutalist concrete-and-glass compound perched on a sheer cliff. It looked less like a home and more like a Bond villain's lair.
It was beautiful.
It was isolated. It was high up (better for Reiki, usually). And it was huge.
The price, 120 million, was a 1.2% dent in his new fortune. It was the equivalent of buying a stick of gum.
He didn't schedule a viewing. He didn't haggle.
He created a new shell corporation, "Azure Holdings," registered in a tax haven that didn't ask questions. He clicked [Buy Now]. He wired the full amount, plus a 100% "expedited processing fee" to the bank holding the deed.
[Transaction Approved. Deed Transferring...] [Digital Keys & Access Codes Sent.]
In less than ten minutes, he owned a mountain.
Lin Hao didn't waste time packing. He left the cheap mini-fridge. He left the generator. He left the "Lin Hao" clothes.
He took only his laptop, his formation flags (which he dug out of the concrete), and his remaining "product."
He got into his black sedan.
He drove out of the industrial park, past the BSA patrol car that was still parked down the street, watching the "static" of his old warehouse. They were guarding an empty shell.
He drove north.
The city lights faded. The roads became darker, winding up into the foothills. He passed the last suburban development, the last gas station.
He turned onto a private, unmarked asphalt road that wound its way up "Iron Cloud Mountain."
He drove for twenty minutes, climbing higher and higher. The air grew thinner, cleaner. The Reiki density, he noted with a smile, was naturally higher here.
Finally, he reached the gate.
It was a massive, twelve-foot steel slab set into a fifteen-foot concrete wall. It looked like the entrance to a military base.
He punched the code into the keypad from his car window.
KRRR-CHUNK.
The heavy steel gates groaned and slid open.
Lin Hao drove through.
He wound up the driveway, and the manor came into view. It was massive. A sprawling, multi-level structure of steel, glass, and dark stone, clinging to the edge of the cliff. It overlooked the entire city of City U, a sea of lights far, far below.
It was dark, silent, and abandoned.
He parked at the front entrance. He got out.
The wind whipped his hair. He stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down at the world he had risen from.
He was no longer a rat in a hole. He was a dragon on a peak.
He took a deep breath of the mountain air.
"System," he said, his voice echoing in the silence.
He looked at his 24,250 UP.
"Let's renovate."