The ceiling of the Forbidden Tunnel groaned, a sound like a dying giant. Dust, thick and suffocating, rained down on Arthur. Most men would have run. Most men would have prayed. But Arthur's fear had been burned away by the electric blue light of the 'Eye of the Architect'.
[92 Seconds remaining...]
The timer in his vision was a pulsing red heartbeat. Arthur didn't move towards the exit. He moved towards the floor. To his normal eyes, it was just cracked stone and filth. To the Eye, it was a map of weaknesses.
[Detected: Stress Point Sigma-7. One strike will fracture the seal.]
Arthur grabbed a rusted iron pipe from the debris. His muscles, weakened by months of starvation, screamed in protest.
[Warning: Host Physical Strength at 0.3%. High risk of muscle tear.]
"Shut up," Arthur hissed. He wasn't talking to the system; he was talking to his own weakness. He swung the pipe with every ounce of rage he had for Xavier Sterling, for Clara, and for a world that had spat on him.
CRACK.
The floor didn't just break; it disintegrated. The Eye had shown him exactly where the molecular bond of the concrete was failing. Beneath the floor was a hollow chamber—the Lost Vault.
[65 Seconds remaining...]
Arthur dropped into the darkness. His feet hit cold, solid metal. As he wiped the grime away, the Eye flared.
[Item Identified: Pre-War Gold Bullion. Quantity: 400kg. Market Value: $26.4 Million.]
Beside the gold lay a small, obsidian box with a keyhole that looked like a screaming mouth. The Abyssal Key. But he had no time to admire it. The tunnel above began to collapse. Boulders the size of cars were beginning to shear off the ceiling.
"System, how do I get this out?" Arthur roared. "I can't carry 400 kilos in 40 seconds!"
[System Logic: The Architect does not carry. The Architect 'Redesigns'.]
[Skill Unlocked: Spatial Compression (Level 1). Cost: Permanent reduction in 'Empathy' stat.]
[Do you accept?]
Arthur looked at the red thread on his chest—the link to Xavier. To kill a monster, he had to become something else. "Accept. Take it all. Take my empathy, take my mercy. Just give me the power to crush them."
[Transaction Complete. Empathy: -20 Points.]
A cold, void-like vacuum erupted from Arthur's hand. The gold didn't disappear; it folded into the Black Tablet, stored in a pocket of space-time that only he could access.
[12 Seconds remaining...]
The tunnel gave way. A massive slab of granite fell directly toward his head. Any other human would be a smear on the floor. But Arthur saw the [Path of Least Resistance]. He stepped three inches to the left and leaned at a 45-degree angle. The slab missed his nose by a hair's breadth, wedging itself against the floor and creating a tiny, triangular pocket of safety.
BOOM.
The tunnel collapsed completely. Silence followed. Darkness.
Outside, in the slums, people heard the rumble and shrugged. Just another tunnel cave-in. Just another dead beggar.
But under the rubble, in the pitch black, two electric blue eyes snapped open.
[Evolution Phase 1: Complete.]
[Current Balance: $26,400,000 (Inaccessible until laundered)]
Three hours later, a man emerged from a drainage pipe two miles away from the collapse. He was covered in grey soot, but he walked with the stride of a king. He didn't go back to his shack. He walked straight to the District 4 Stock Exchange Building—a place where men in $10,000 suits gambled with the lives of the poor.
Arthur stood in the lobby, a ghost among the elite. The security guard moved to intercept him. "Hey, trash! Out! This isn't a homeless shelter."
Arthur didn't even look at him. He looked at the massive digital board showing the live stock prices. To everyone else, it was a chaotic mess of numbers. To Arthur, it was a [Pattern].
[Sterling Conglomerate Stock (STRL): $142.50 | Trend: Artificial Inflation | Reality: 12% Internal Leakage in Sector 9.]
Arthur turned to the guard. "In exactly four minutes, the man you work for, Xavier Sterling, is going to lose three hundred million dollars. If I were you, I'd sell your company pension now."
The guard laughed. "You're crazy, kid. Get out before I break your ribs."
Arthur walked to a public terminal. He didn't have money in a bank, but the Tablet was connected to the world's digital veins. He inserted the Abyssal Key into the terminal's USB port.
[Breaching Bank of Oakhaven...]
[Laundering $100,000 through 4,000 shell accounts...]
[Investment Target: STRL 'Put' Options (Short Sell).]
"Let the music begin," Arthur whispered.
At that exact moment, on the top floor of the Sterling Tower, Xavier Sterling was sipping champagne with Clara. "To the future," he toasted. "A world without the clutter of the weak."
Clara smiled, but her eyes flickered to the news. Suddenly, the screen turned red.
Breaking News: Massive structural failure reported in Sterling's flagship 'Aegis Project'. Panic selling begins.
Xavier's glass shattered on the floor. "What? That's impossible! That project was perfect!"
Down in the lobby, Arthur watched the screen as Sterling's stock plummeted from $142 to $80 in seconds. His $100,000 had just turned into $4.2 Million.
The security guard was staring at the screen, his face pale. He looked at Arthur, his jaw dropping. "How... how did you know?"
Arthur walked toward the exit. He stopped next to a trash can and pulled out the $1,000 bill Julian had tucked into his pocket earlier—the one he had retrieved from the mud. He handed it to the guard.
"Keep it. I don't use small change."
Arthur stepped out into the rain. It was still raining, but for the first time, he wasn't getting wet. The Eye was subtly shifting the wind around him, creating an invisible umbrella of pressure.
[New Objective: Acquire a 'Base of Operations'.]
[Recommended: The Blackwood Manor (Foreclosed). Secret: Contains a 'Ley Line' node.]
Arthur looked up at the Sterling Tower, piercing the clouds. "I'm coming for the throne, Xavier. And I'm not just going to take your money. I'm going to take the air out of your lungs."
Suddenly, the red thread on his chest throbbed. A message appeared:
[Xavier Sterling has sensed a 'Disturbance' in the Fate-Link. He is hiring 'The Seekers'.]
Arthur's smile widened. "Good. I was getting bored."