[The Sanctuary - The Core]
The Council was dead . The Elder was nothing but a pile of ash on the frozen floor . Alex stood before the massive, pulsing black obelisk. The red warning lights had been replaced by the soothing, golden glow of the Tycoon System .
"Master," Luna stepped onto the glass bridge, her swords sliding back into their sheaths. She looked at the screen. "Is that... her?"
Alex reached out and placed his hand on the cold glass of the monitor.
Elena_Archive.dat .
"Dawn," Alex's voice was quiet, stripped of its usual arrogance. "Analyze the file. Is it a copy, or is it her?"
"Analysis Complete," Dawn's voice hummed through the cavern. "It is a 100% perfect neural engram. It contains her memories, her emotional matrix, and her quantum consciousness. By all biological and digital definitions... it is her soul."
Alex closed his eyes. Five years of climbing, fighting, and spending had all led to this cold basement at the bottom of the world . "Can we wake her up?" he asked.
"Negative," Dawn replied. "To activate the file without a biological vessel would trap her in a purely digital hell. She would be a ghost."
Alex opened his eyes. They burned with a fierce, golden light. "I didn't conquer the Earth to put my fiancé in a laptop."
Alex opened the System Store . He bypassed the military, the real estate, and the infrastructure tabs . He scrolled to the very bottom, to a tab he had never opened: [Divine Interventions].
Item: S-Class Synth-Body. Cost: $100 Billion. (Too fake. Alex rejected it).
Item: True Cloning Vat (Memory Transfer). Cost: $5 Trillion. (A copy. Not good enough).
Item: The Genesis Crucible (Perfect Biological Resurrection).
Alex tapped the item.
[System Warning: Item Tier is Galactic. Earth's current tech level is insufficient to support this purchase.] [Cost: 1 Quadrillion Tycoon Points.] [Requirement: Ownership of a Class-2 Civilization.]
Luna gasped, reading the holographic projection. "One... Quadrillion? Master, even with the wealth of the entire planet, you don't have that many points."
"I know," Alex smiled. It wasn't a smile of defeat. It was the smile of a predator that had just seen a bigger prey. "Earth isn't enough anymore. The Council thought this planet was the endgame. It's just the tutorial."
[The Extraction]
"Dawn," Alex ordered. "Buy the Aegis Quantum Pendant."
[Expenditure: $10,000,000,000.] A flash of light materialized a silver necklace in Alex's palm. The pendant held a glowing, blue sapphire. It was a military-grade quantum drive capable of holding a human soul indefinitely.
Alex plugged the pendant into the server. "Downloading," Alex whispered.
The black obelisk whirred. The golden data streamed through the cables, filling the sapphire until it glowed like a miniature star. When the transfer hit 100%, the obelisk went dark.
Alex put the necklace around his neck. It felt warm against his chest. "I have you," he whispered. "I'll buy the universe if I have to, but I will wake you up."
"Let's go home, Luna," Alex turned away from the dead servers. "We have a city to run."
[Three Days Later - Neo-Atlantis]
The world had changed. With the Council gone, global markets had stabilized under the banner of the Pantheon . Neo-Atlantis was the undisputed capital of Earth . Alex sat on the balcony of his palace, watching his citizens thrive .
He was drinking coffee. The Aegis Pendant rested comfortably on his chest. Everything was perfect.
Then, the sky turned red.
It wasn't a sunset. The atmosphere above the Aegis Shield began to burn as if re-entering an atmosphere.
"Dawn?" Alex stood up, his coffee cup shattering on the marble floor. "Report."
For the first time since Alex had bought her, Dawn sounded... afraid. "Sir. The Aegis Shield is detecting a massive spatial anomaly. It is not an earthquake. It is not a missile."
The clouds parted. Hovering in the mesosphere was a ship. It was not a human design. It was a jagged, black monolith the size of Manhattan, blocking out the sun.
"System Alert," the God-Tycoon System chimed in Alex's head. [Warning: Hostile System Detected.] [Designation: The Debt Collector (Galactic Audit System).]
A voice boomed from the heavens. It didn't speak in English; it spoke directly into the minds of every human on Earth.
"People of Earth. The Council of Five has defaulted on their 500-year lease. Your planet is now the property of the Intergalactic Banking Guild. All biological assets will be liquidated in 24 hours."
Luna drew her swords, looking up at the impossible ship. "Master... we can't buy that."
Alex checked his watch . He straightened his tie. "Everyone has a price, Luna." Alex's eyes flashed gold. "Tell the Praetorians to load the railguns . It's time to negotiate."
[END OF VOLUME 1]