[Current Stack: 1 Mythic Chest, 6 Fragments, 2,700 Tokens, 75,000 Vita-Fragments, 1 Hydro-Core, 1 Tear, 3 Dev-Strings, 1 Admin Key, 1 Guild Cipher, 1 S-Tier Suit, 1 VIP Ledger, 1 Platinum Keycard.][Multiplier: 1.50%][Vault Pressure: 30%. WARNING: Host life-signs rapidly destabilizing.]
The Platinum Elevator didn't operate on cables. It rode upward on a beam of pure, concentrated server code. Soft, maddeningly peaceful elevator jazz played from invisible speakers as the Vanguard ascended toward the Penthouse.
Yuto leaned heavily against the gilded wall of the elevator. His breathing was shallow and ragged. Blood was slowly dripping from his nose, and the agonizing heat from his right arm was so intense that the air inside the elevator was shimmering like a desert highway.
Isabella hovered anxiously next to him, her hands hovering inches from his shoulders, afraid that touching him would trigger another system prompt and reset his multiplier.
"You look like a corpse, Kurosawa," Isabella whispered, her fierce red eyes filled with genuine panic. "If you don't spend at least a healing potion when we get to the top, your organs are going to liquefy. You have seventy-five thousand Vita-Fragments! Just spend ten! Please!"
"No," Yuto coughed, wiping the blood onto his sleeve. "I'm... saving up for a rainy day."
"Master, it is literally pouring inside your internal organs right now!" Shion cried out from the corner. The succubus was currently chewing on a single, non-vaulted copper coin she had scraped off the lobby floor, savoring the microscopic drop of mana it provided. "The entity at the top of this elevator isn't a Floor Boss. He's the Architect."
Ayase narrowed her eyes, her hand resting naturally on the hilt of her offline, unrendered katana. "The architect of the Tower's economy? The First Creditor?"
"Yes," Shion shuddered, swallowing the copper coin. "Director-General Mammon. He wrote the original Terms of Service. He doesn't fight with stats or magic. He fights with conceptual debt. If he touches you, he doesn't do HP damage. He deletes your net worth. And since Master's entire life-force is tied to his net worth..."
"If he touches Alpha, Alpha gets uninstalled," Kurenai finished, her Oni fangs bared in a feral grimace. She cracked her knuckles. "Then I'll just have to rip the Director's arms off before he can cast a spell."
"You can't," Shion whimpered. "He has absolute Admin privileges. The Ouroboros Guild just leased power from him. He is the power."
Yuto slowly pushed himself off the elevator wall. He didn't look like a teenager anymore. The sheer, suffocating gravity of the 30% Vault Pressure had fundamentally altered his presence. He looked like an apex predator cornered in a cage made of its own wealth.
Ding.
The elevator jazz stopped.
The glowing platinum doors slid open smoothly, revealing a blindingly bright white light.
"Vanguard," Yuto ordered, his voice echoing with the terrifying, tectonic rumble of 75,000 unspent Code Fragments. "We are officially making a withdrawal."