Champagne corks popped like gunshots above the Nasdaq trading floor. Leo adjusted his Armani noose—sorry, tie—as Wall Street's elite swarmed the Cipriani ballroom, their Rolexes glinting under chandeliers dripping liquid bitcoin holograms. A waiter offered him caviar dusted with gold nanoflakes. Leo sniffed it.
"Wolfberry infusion, sir," the waiter smirked. "Guaranteed to neutralize predatory instincts."
Genetic Alert: Hemlock Derivatives Detected
The bracelet burned as Leo crushed the hors d'oeuvre. "Tell your boss I prefer my poison shaken, not stirred."
Across the room, Victor hacked into the IPO ledger from a service closet, his wheelchair now jury-rigged with stolen SEC servers. "They're funneling dark pool money through your short positions. Also, three crows on the mezzanine packing tungsten rounds. Merry fucking Christmas."
Leo ducked as a champagne flute sailed past his head. The liquid froze mid-air, crystallizing into mercury shards that embedded in the DJ booth.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" The CEO's voice boomed through subwoofers. "Let's toast our newest unicorn – Blackwater Blockchain Solutions!"
The crowd raised glasses glowing with bioluminescent wine. Leo's golden irises contracted. Every drink pulsed with the same synthetic wolf pheromones from Irene's lab.
Metabolic Acceleration: 93% Wolfification
He lunged for the CEO, claws shredding a Goldman Sachs VP's tuxedo. "What's the exit strategy? Carbonize me at 52-week highs?"
The CEO pressed a panic button. Fire doors slammed shut.
"Exit strategy?" He grinned, gums bleeding silver. "You're the exit."
The chandeliers exploded.
Phase One: Poison Protocol
Leo's vision kaleidoscoped. The hemlock wasn't in the caviar – it was aerosolized through the AC vents. His claws tore at his throat, shredding skin that regenerated cybernetic tissue. Across the room, bankers convulsed, their eyes bleeding blockchain hashes.
Wallet Notification: +666 BTC (Mass Casualty Conversion)
"Not... my... fucking... transaction..." Leo snarled through carbonizing vocal cords.
Victor's voice crackled: "Antidote's in the poisoner's chest cavity! Mongolian liver-shot technique, now!"
A hedge fund manager charged with a broken champagne bottle, his pupils blown on combat nanites. Leo sidestepped, driving an elbow into the man's solar plexus. Ribs snapped – but no telltale antidote glow.
"Warmer..." Victor coached. "Think hostile takeover!"
Phase Two: Helicopter Ambush
The glass ceiling shattered. A Sikorsky S-76 descended on the crowd, its rotors spreading phosphorescent fire. Crows repelled down steel cables, nano-worm grenades cooking off in their bandoliers.
Memory Degradation: Mother's Birthdate (17% Remaining)
Leo leapt onto the Wall Street bull statue, its bronze hide sizzling under his clawed grip. A crow landed beside him, methane-powered glaive humming.
"Yield the Lock, Batch Seven." The crow's mask retracted to reveal Irene's face.
His claws froze mid-strike.
The glaive plunged into his liver.
"Miss me?" Not-Irene purred through synthetic vocal cords.
Leo's knee shattered her jawbone. "Knockoff."
Phase Three: Antidote Extraction
The burning ballroom reeked of seared Wagyu and molten crypto wallets. Leo pinned a twitching CFO against the bull's horns. "Where's the antidote carrier?"
The man gurgled, fingers dissolving into silver worms. "The... the Lock is..."
Leo tore out his heart.
Genome Analysis: Antidote Sequence Confirmed
The pulsating organ glowed with CRISPR-coded enzymes. He devoured it whole, veins lighting up like fiber-optic cables. The bracelet superheated, casting holograms of a glacial fortress over burning corpses.
Molecular Blueprint Acquired: Ymir's Citadel
Not-Irene lunged with a roar. Leo whipped off his Brioni tie – 24-karat gold threads singing through smoke – and garroted her mid-leap. Two crows followed, their necks snapping like IPO valuations on recession news.
Wallet Notification: Delisting Procedures Initiated
Victor's wheelchair plowed through flaming debris. "The citadel's not in Alaska – it's a fucking Dyson sphere in the blockchain! They're mining your DNA to stabilize–"
A silver worm burst from his throat.
Leo caught him mid-collapse. "Stay with me, you paranoid bastard!"
"Too late..." Victor hacked up motherboard fragments. "Phase IV... it's not evolution..."
The wheelchair's screen displayed Irene's final message:
GENESIS BLOCK = YMIR'S CRYONIC VAULT
As SWAT teams breached, Leo dragged Victor onto the bull statue. The crows' helicopter banked for another strafe – until a stock ticker screen exploded, crushing the aircraft in a fireball of falling Nasdaq digits.
Amid the carnage, the bracelet's hologram flickered. The glacial fortress' molecular structure began disintegrating.
Energy Reserves: 6.66% (Genetic Bankruptcy Imminent)
Leo howled at the moonless sky. Somewhere beyond the smoke, wolves answered with distorted mechanical echoes.
Polished English Version
Cipriani's marble floors ran red with hedge fund blood. Leo adjusted his tie, the silk now soaked in venomous sweat. IPO attendees clinked glasses of neurotoxin-laced Dom Pérignon, their laughter syncopated with the bracelet's ominous hum.
Victor's voice buzzed: "Three o'clock, Armani suit. His pacemaker's broadcasting Crow frequencies."
The billionaire charged, teeth sharpened into silver spikes. Leo sidestepped, dislocating his jaw with a Mongolian palm strike.
"Antidote's in the VIP lounge!" Victor coughed. "Follow the–"
Chandeliers exploded. Mercury rained. Leo leapt onto the Wall Street bull, its oxidized patina burning his palms.
"Come down, puppy!" A crow masked as Irene aimed a railgun.
He vaulted, tie whipping through smoke. The garrote sliced through her carotid. Two crows followed, necks snapping like overleveraged portfolios.
The CEO emerged from an elevator shaft, chest glowing. "You're just a faulty prototype!"
Leo's claws found the man's ribcage. The antidote heart tasted like frozen Chernobyl soil.
Ymir's Citadel Blueprint Unlocked
Victor collapsed against the bull, silver worms erupting from his eye sockets. "The citadel... it's code... not place..."
The helicopter's flames cast shadows of wolves made of blockchain nodes. Leo roared as the hologram dissolved.
"Stay with me, damn it!"
"Phase IV… reverse… evolution…"
Victor flatlined. Nasdaq tickers imploded, crushing the last crow.
In the silence, the bracelet pulsed weakly. The glacial hologram faded into static.
Somewhere below Wall Street, machinery growled.