Leon didn't sleep long.
At 5:30 AM, the city was still quiet—the kind of quiet where deals were made before anyone could interfere.
He left his apartment without his laptop.
Without his work phone.
This wasn't Horizon business.
The café was old, tucked between two shuttered bookstores.
Cash only.
No cameras inside.
Leon took the seat by the window.
Three minutes later, a woman sat across from him without asking.
Early thirties. Plain clothes. Sharp eyes.
"Leon Zhao," she said. "You move faster than expected."
"You asked for early," Leon replied.
She smiled faintly. "Fair."
"My name is Mei Lin," she said. "I connect people who don't want to be seen connecting."
Leon nodded. "An intermediary."
"A liability," she corrected. "Unless used carefully."
Leon liked her already.
"You asked about private influence channels," Mei Lin continued. "I assume Horizon isn't enough."
"Institutions are temporary," Leon said. "Leverage isn't."
Mei Lin studied him.
"You want capital without fingerprints," she said. "Information without obligation."
Leon didn't deny it.
"That kind of access costs," Mei Lin said.
Leon met her gaze.
"I'm listening."
She slid a slim folder across the table.
"Three names," she said. "Small companies. Clean books. Artificial growth."
Leon opened it.
Shell optimism.
Paper profits.
The kind of companies propped up by belief and silence.
"You want me to expose them?" Leon asked.
Mei Lin shook her head. "No. I want you to own one."
Leon looked up.
"That's the price," she said. "Buy in. Quietly. Become real."
Leon closed the folder.
"Which one?" he asked.
Mei Lin smiled.
"The one that survives."
Across the city, Luo Ming stared at his monitor.
He hadn't slept either.
Leon's report was too clean.
Too restrained.
Which meant one thing.
Leon had found something—and chosen not to use it.
That made him dangerous.
Luo Ming made a call.
"I want background," he said. "Financial. Social. Any outside movement."
A pause.
"Yes," Luo Ming added. "Starting today."
Leon met Mei Lin again that night.
Different place.
Different entrance.
She handed him a burner phone.
"One channel," she said. "One message per day. No history."
Leon accepted it.
"What about Horizon?" he asked.
Mei Lin shrugged. "They'll never know. Unless you let them."
Leon powered the phone off.
Good.
The system interface shimmered more intensely than before.
[External Influence Path Detected.]
[New Subsystem Available:]
Shadow Capital Network
[Warning:]
Unregulated growth increases exposure risk.
Leon felt the weight of it.
This wasn't controlled authority.
This was chaos leverage.
He liked it.
Later that night, Leon reviewed the three companies.
One stood out.
Not the strongest.
The hungriest.
He smiled.
"Found you," he murmured.
He sent a single message on the burner.
Leon:
I'll take the third.
The reply came instantly.
Mei Lin:
Then welcome to the dark side of clean money.
At Horizon, Luo Ming finally received a report.
Sparse.
Too sparse.
But one detail bothered him.
Subject made multiple early-morning movements off-network.
Luo Ming's jaw tightened.
"So," he murmured. "You're building something."
He closed the file.
Then opened another.
A contingency plan.
Because if Leon was stepping outside—
Then Luo Ming would drag the fight into the open.
The system chimed once more.
[Independent Leverage: Initiated]
[Next Trigger:]
First capital maneuver.
Leon looked out at the sleeping city.
Inside Horizon, he was a test.
Outside—
He was becoming a threat.