Season 2 chapter 3
The 100 Billion Phone Call
Three Days Later, Location: The Cramped Apartment.
The room was a mess. Malesh was eating instant noodles that cost 5 credits. Kniya was trying to patch a hole in his sock with duct tape.
Ring. Ring.
Malesh picked up the dusty receiver.
"Speaker," Kniya mumbled, biting off a piece of tape.
Malesh hit the button.
"Yo guys!" Mantouse's voice crackled through the line. He sounded surprisingly upbeat, almost giddy. "You know what happened?"
"Yeah," Kniya shouted toward the phone. "We know that you got fucked up and your ass got bigger this time."
There was a long silence on the other end.
"What the fuck?" Mantouse sputtered. "Why do you always make my thing like that? Okay? Why are you always like that in the serious situation? I am trying to tell you that I have achieved biological immortality, and you are talking about my ass?"
"It was a metaphor for your ego," Kniya grinned. "Did you get the goods?"
"I did," Mantouse said, his voice dropping to a smug purr. "Your data was true. My team breached the KDC lab few hours ago. We secured all 20 bottles. 5 for me, 15 for the vault. The Limitless is mine."
"Congratulations," Malesh said, slurping a noodle. "Now, the compensation."
"It is 1428, bro," Mantouse said. "So I can't teleport the amount to your account so, I am transferring the Bank Drafts to your secret offshore account as we speak. 100 Billion Credits. It is done."
"Pleasure doing business," Malesh said.
"Don't spend it all on... whatever it is you two buy. Shit..?" Mantouse laughed. "I'll be in touch."
Click.
The line went dead.
Malesh slowly hung up the phone. He looked at the half-eaten cup of cheap rice in his hand.
He looked around the room. There was mold in the corner. The window didn't close properly. Kniya was wearing a sock held together by tape.
"Kniya," Malesh said, his voice flat.
"Yeah?"
"We literally got two islands which are full of resources which we are not using right now," Malesh listed, staring at the wall. "We have a huge amount of money in our savings accounts from the 'Ghost Fund.' And now... we have a huge amount of extra billions of credits waiting for us to expend in an offshore account."
Malesh stood up and kicked a pile of dirty laundry.
"What are we doing just right now? Just living in poverty. We are eating sodium and sleeping on mattresses that smell like wet dogs. And we are still in college studying Agricultural Philosophy. What the heck is it? This is logically inconsistent."
Kniya looked at his taped sock. He looked at the peeling wallpaper.
"You know," Kniya said slowly, tossing the duct tape into the trash. "I think so... we should do something about it. Being an 'underground' billionaire is boring. Maybe it's time to surface. Yeaaahhhh !!"
The Royal Panic
Location: The Velvet Room (Deep within the Old Royal Estate).
Time: Midnight, the same day.
The room was suffocating. Heavy drapes covered the windows, and the only light came from a massive iron chandelier. Around the long ebony table sat the remnants of the Royal Family—dukes, aunts, cousins—all wearing expressions of pure terror.
At the head of the table sat Grandfather (The Patriarch). He looked older than 100, his skin like used socks, but his eyes were furious.
Kniya walked in, wearing his slightly-cleaner student clothes. He looked around the room, grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, and sat down in an empty chair.
"Sup !!," Kniya said, taking a bite. "Why the midnight summons? I have an exam in Soil Mechanics tomorrow."
"Silence!" his Aunt Novie hissed. "This is a Code Black emergency, you insolent child."
"Code Black?" Kniya chewed loudly. "Did we run out of tea?"
"Our KDC Facility has been breached," Grandfather's voice cut through the room like a whip.
The room went deadly silent. Kniya paused mid-chew. He didn't flinch, but he made sure to look appropriately confused.
"The what facility?" Kniya asked. "Is that one of the summer homes?"
"Do not play the fool, Kniya!" Grandfather slammed his fist on the table. "The laboratory! The one where you received your... treatment. Someone broke in. The guards were neutralized without a single casualty. The vault was opened with the correct codes. And the Inventory is gone."
"Gone?" Kniya raised an eyebrow. "Like, stolen? Who steals sludge?"
"It is the future of our bloodline!" Novie screamed. "20 bottles of the Limitless! Stolen! Do you know what happens if that gets out? If the government finds it?"
"We lose our leverage," Grandfather growled. "We lose our chance to reclaim the throne."
He looked around the table, his eyes landing on Kniya.
"The breach was clean," Grandfather said softly. "Too clean. The intruders knew the ventilation codes. They knew the shift changes. They had a map."
"Sounds like an inside job," Kniya said, inspecting his apple. "Maybe my (internal monologue: fucking) Cousin Marcus? He owes a lot of money to the horse races and betting games !"
"I did not!" Marcus shouted from the other end of the table.
"Enough!" Grandfather stood up. "We are initiating a family wide investigation. Every member of this family will be interrogated. Every bank account will be audited. If I find a single credit that cannot be explained, that person will have to face… some consequences."
Kniya felt a cold chill. He had 50 Billion Credits sitting in an offshore account (his half). If they checked his student debit card, they'd find 12 credits. But if they dug deeper...
"Kniya," Grandfather pointed a skeletal finger at him. "You were one of the few who visited that lab physically. You and that... Bulwadi boy."
"Malesh?" Kniya scoffed. "Grandpa, Malesh is currently failing his philosophy class. He eats noodles that cost 5 credits. If he stole a billion-dollar potion, do you think he'd still be wearing shoes with holes in them?"
"And you?" Grandfather narrowed his eyes. "You have been very... distant lately. Living in that slum. Pretending to be a pauper."
"I'm not pretending," Kniya sighed, tossing the apple core onto the expensive table. "I'm broke. You guys give me an allowance, sure, but have you seen the price of textbooks? Look, check my accounts. Audit my room. You'll find dirty laundry and a lot of regret. I didn't steal your magic juice."
Grandfather stared at him. He was looking for a flinch, a bead of sweat, a sign of guilt.
Kniya just looked bored.
"Fine," Grandfather sat back down, deflated. "But the investigation continues. If you hear anything... if you see anything suspicious..."
"I'll call you," Kniya stood up. "Can I go now? Seriously, soil mechanics is brutal."
"Go," Grandfather waved him away. "Get out of my sight."
Kniya walked out of the room with a lazy slouch. He kept his face blank.
As soon as the heavy doors closed behind him, he let out a long, slow breath.
That was close, he thought. They are auditing accounts.
He needed to find Malesh. They needed to move the money. Or better yet... they needed to spend it.
The Rat Hole (Room 5B)
Location: Streets of Seistain, Lower District Border.
The morning air smelled like sulfur and bad decisions. Malesh and Kniya were walking down the street, eating cheap meat skewers that looked suspiciously like rat.
"Don't look now," Malesh said, chewing on a piece of gristle. "But the guy reading the newspaper at the bus stop has been sniffing our asses since we left the campus."
"The guy holding the newspaper upside down?" Kniya asked, not even lowering his voice. "Yeah, I saw that dumb bitch. He's wearing a thick wool trench coat. It is literally twenty-five degrees outside. My family breeds the dumbest spies in the Republic, I swear to god."
"It is highly inefficient to sweat that much," Malesh noted, tossing his skewer into a gutter. "He is going to die of dehydration before he finds any evidence. What a waste of biomass."
Kniya laughed. "The audit is happening, bro. They tossed my room at the Estate this morning. My grandmother sent me a telegram screaming about finding comic books under my mattress. If those inbred assholes come to our dorm and find the bank drafts for 100 Billion Credits..."
"Then we are officially fucked," Malesh said calmly. "We cannot keep the drafts in our current apartment. It's too obvious."
"So, where do we put it?" Kniya asked. "Your dad's place in the West District?"
Malesh stopped walking. He looked at Kniya with pure disgust.
"Are you fucking high?" Malesh spat. "I would rather burn the money than step foot in anything my father owns. Fuck the West District. Fuck the Bulwadi name. We need a place that doesn't exist."
Malesh grinned. It was a dark, nostalgic smile.
"We use The Rat Hole."
Kniya blinked. "Room 5B? The Lower District tenement? Bro, do you still pay for that shit? You haven't lived there since we were twenty-two."
"I kept the lease," Malesh shrugged. "It costs 30,000 credits a month. The landlord is a criminal who doesn't ask for names, just cash. It is the only place in this entire city that isn't connected to a Royal or a CEO. It is a ghost room."
"You sentimental bastard," Kniya punched him on the shoulder. "Alright. Let's lose the sweaty trench-coat guy and go to the slums."
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