"Welcome to Jinghai, Sovereign. I hear you're broke."
The rain pattered softly against the black silk of Old Chen's umbrella. Underneath it, I stood perfectly dry, watching the so-called apex predator of the mercenary world process my words.
For three full seconds, Long Chen just stared at me. Then, a harsh, barking laugh ripped from his throat. It was the laugh of a man who thought he was dealing with an idiot.
"Hack the Dragon Temple's ledger?" Long Chen sneered, the scar on his cheek twitching as he forcefully pushed against the crushing pressure of my Emperor's Domain. "My accounts are protected by triple-layer military-grade encryption in the Cayman Islands. A spoiled local rich kid couldn't even breach the firewall, let alone drain fifty billion."
He reached into his tactical cargo pants with a trembling hand, pulling out a heavy, heavily modified satellite phone.
"I'm going to check my balance, Chu Feng," Long Chen threatened, his eyes locking onto mine with pure, unadulterated murder. "And when I see my money is perfectly safe, I'm going to tear your head off and mount it on the hood of my humvee."
I didn't blink. I just gestured for him to go ahead.
Long Chen punched in his twelve-digit biometric passcode. The screen lit up, reflecting against the wet tarmac. He opened his encrypted banking app.
The loading icon spun for exactly two seconds.
Then, the screen refreshed.
[Account Name: Dragon Temple Master Trust] [Status: Active] [Current Balance: $0.00] [Recent Transaction: $50,000,000,000.00 transferred to Global Canine Rescue Federation (Geneva).]
The heavy satellite phone slipped from Long Chen's massive hand. It hit the wet concrete with a sharp crack, the screen splintering.
"No..." Long Chen whispered. His voice didn't sound like a roaring sovereign anymore. It sounded like a suffocating man. He fell to his knees beside his paralyzed mercenaries, frantically grabbing the cracked phone. He refreshed the app. He refreshed it again.
Zero.
Fifteen years of bleeding in the desert. Fifteen years of assassinations, warlord contracts, and building an underground empire, completely wiped out in the time it took him to walk down a flight of stairs.
"My money... my empire..." Long Chen's breathing turned erratic. His chest heaved, his eyes bloodshot as he looked up at me. "You... you actually did it. You stole everything!"
[Ding!] [Major Plot Alteration!] [The Dragon Sovereign's financial empire has been instantly annihilated!] [Target's 'Dao Heart' is severely fracturing!] [Destiny Points -5000! Host gains 5000 Villain Points!]
"Stole? I donated it to charity, Long Chen," I corrected smoothly, adjusting my cuffs. "You should be thanking me. You just became the biggest philanthropist in Europe."
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
The total loss of his wealth triggered something primal in the protagonist. The Emperor's Domain was strong, but the sheer, desperate rage of a ruined Dragon Sovereign forced him to his feet.
A terrifying, blood-red aura exploded from his body. This was his true cheat code: the 'Dragon King's Combat Arts,' a lethal martial art forged on the bloodiest battlefields on earth.
He lunged at me. He was fast—much faster than Lin Tian had ever been. His fist, glowing with dense internal Qi, aimed directly for the center of my chest. It was a strike meant to shatter my sternum and burst my heart in a single blow.
"Die, you rich trash!"
Old Chen stepped forward, ready to intercept, but I raised a hand, stopping my bodyguard.
I didn't retreat. I didn't even drop my relaxed posture.
As the Dragon Sovereign's lethal fist closed the distance, I activated my Master-Level Martial Arts. To my enhanced senses, his desperate, rage-fueled strike was full of openings.
I simply shifted my weight slightly to the left, letting his fist graze the empty air past my lapel. Before he could pull his arm back, I reached out and clamped my hand around his thick wrist.
My grip was like an industrial steel vice.
Long Chen's eyes widened in shock. His forward momentum was instantly, violently halted. "What?!"
"You spent fifteen years fighting untrained thugs in the desert," I said coldly, leaning in so only he could hear me over the rain. "I spent my money on better things."
I twisted my hips, channeling my Qi into my right arm, and smoothly redirected his own kinetic energy. I slammed my palm directly into his elbow joint.
SNAP.
The sound of the mercenary king's arm breaking backward echoed loudly across the tarmac.
"AGGGHHHH!" Long Chen roared, his knees buckling from the sudden, excruciating agony.
I didn't let him fall. Keeping my grip on his broken arm, I stepped into his guard and delivered a casual, open-handed slap directly across his face.
SMACK!
It wasn't a martial arts technique. It was a pure, unadulterated face-slap.
The sheer force of the blow lifted a two-hundred-pound mercenary king entirely off his feet. He spun through the air, spitting blood and teeth, before crashing heavily onto the wet concrete ten feet away.
He didn't get up immediately. He lay there, gasping for air, clutching his shattered arm, staring at the gray sky in absolute, mind-breaking disbelief.
The Dragon Sovereign, the man who had returned to Jinghai City to rule from the shadows, had been financially ruined, physically broken, and publicly slapped like a disobedient child within five minutes of stepping off his private jet.
[Ding!] [Host has physically and utterly humiliated the Second Protagonist!] [The 'Invincible Returnee' plot armor has been permanently shattered!] [Destiny Points -3000! Host gains 3000 Villain Points!] [Congratulations! Host has accumulated enough points to upgrade the System to Version 2.0!]
I pulled a silk handkerchief from my breast pocket, wiped the faint trace of his blood off my knuckles, and tossed the fabric onto his chest.
"You're trespassing on a private runway, Long Chen," I said, looking down at him with absolute indifference. "Take your unconscious lap dogs and get out of my city before I decide to call airport security."
Long Chen coughed violently, dragging himself up into a sitting position. The arrogant swagger was entirely gone, replaced by a venomous, cornered desperation.
"You think... you think you've won, Chu Feng?" he wheezed, his bloodshot eyes burning with hatred. "Money and a few martial arts tricks don't make you a king. I didn't come back to Jinghai just to flash my wealth. I came back for her."
I paused, raising an eyebrow. Ah, yes. The classic web novel backup plan. When the protagonist loses his money, he falls back on his local, overpowered fiancée.
"The Mu Family," Long Chen spat, a bloody, defiant grin spreading across his face. "Mu Xue'er. The Queen of Jinghai's Underground and the commander of the Scarlet Guard. We were betrothed on the battlefield three years ago. When she finds out what you did to me... she will mobilize the Guard and burn the Chu Consortium to the ground."
I stared at him for a moment.
Mu Xue'er. The icy, ruthless military heiress. She was notoriously difficult to deal with, commanding a private army that even the local government was afraid to provoke. In the original plot, she was the ultimate sword the Dragon Sovereign used to execute his enemies.
A slow, dark smile crept onto my face.
"Mu Xue'er?" I repeated softly. I turned my back to him, stepping under Old Chen's umbrella as we walked toward the waiting Maybach. "Good to know. I'll be sure to send her flowers when I take her out to dinner tomorrow night."
"DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK HER NAME!" Long Chen screamed, thrashing against the wet concrete as the Maybach's engine roared to life.
I didn't look back. The tinted window rolled up, sealing the screaming, broken protagonist outside in the rain.
System, I thought, settling into the plush leather seat as the car pulled away. Initiate the Version 2.0 upgrade. It's time to go hunting for a Queen.