[Action: Massive Capital Outflow Detected.] [Warning: Omni-Corp High-Command has initiated 'The Liquidation Protocol'.]
The sky over the Central District turned a bruised, electric purple.
Omni-Corp didn't send soldiers this time. They sent the "Board."
Five massive, orbital drop-pods slammed into the plaza outside the Exchange, shattering the street. From the steam and rubble emerged the true masters of the world: The five remaining Executive Directors of Omni-Corp. They weren't human anymore. They were "Transcendent Assets"—beings who had spent billions of fragments to upload their consciousness into Tier-S God-Slayer shells.
"Yuto Kurosawa!" the lead Director, a towering mechanical angel with wings made of burning ledger-sheets, boomed. "You have committed the ultimate sin. You have introduced 'True Value' into a 'Speculative Market'. You are an inflationary cancer!"
"I'm just a guy who keeps his receipts," Yuto said, stepping out onto the stairs of the Exchange.
The five Directors charged. One moved with the speed of a high-frequency trade; another radiated the crushing weight of a national debt; the third swung a sword that deleted the "User Data" of anything it touched.
"Vanguard! Protect the 'Customers'!" Yuto roared.
Kurenai met the "Debt" Director head-on, her Oni strength clashing against his conceptual weight. "You're heavy, metal-man! But I've been carrying the Alpha's groceries for three years! You're light as a feather!"
Ayase engaged the "High-Frequency" Director. Her katana didn't move fast; it moved correctly. She parried a thousand strikes per second by simply occupying the space where the blade had to be, utilizing the "Offline Buffer" Yuto provided.
Isabella took on the "Data-Deleter," her water-blades refracting his beams. "You can't delete what isn't on the cloud! We're running on local storage now!"
Yuto faced the Lead Director—the Angel of Compound Interest.
The Director raised a hand, and a trillion red needles of "Debt-Code" rained down on Yuto. Each needle was designed to force a "purchase"—to make Yuto spend his fragments on "Defense" until he hit zero.
"Spend, you little brat!" the Director shrieked. "Value is meant to be circulated! If you don't spend, you die!"
Yuto didn't raise a shield. He didn't spend a single fragment.
He reached into his Vault and pulled out the [Mythic Chest]—the item he had carried since the very beginning, the one he refused to open even when he was starving.
"I've been holding onto this for a special occasion," Yuto rasped, his skin cracking as the 55% pressure reached its limit. "It's time for an 'Unboxing Video'."
Yuto didn't open the lid. He used the [Admin Key] to physically weld the unopened Mythic Chest to his right fist, turning the most valuable, unrendered item in existence into a blunt-force weapon.
"I'm not spending the contents," Yuto growled. "I'm hitting you with the 'Potential Value'."
He lunged. The Lead Director tried to calculate the damage, but his processors crashed. You can't calculate the value of a Mythic Chest that hasn't been opened—it represents every possible item at once. It was a punch of infinite probability.
BOOM.
The Lead Director was blasted through three skyscrapers, his mechanical wings shattering into useless, unspent data.
Yuto stood in the crater, his breath hitching. The 55% pressure was turning into 60%. He looked at the remaining Directors, his eyes glowing with a terrifying, golden greed.
"Who's next?" Yuto asked. "I've still got a lot of 'Potential' left."