The armored car glided through the streets as Eric watched everything through the window, alert.
His senses were sharp—probably from the three or four cups of coffee he had downed before facing the loan sharks.
Elena, beside him, was the opposite.
Exhausted.
Pale.
Still trembling.
Her fingers nervously played with the fabric of her pants, as if trying to shake off the fear that refused to leave.
It was obvious her mind was still trapped in that moment—
The shouting.
The guns.
Black Falcon emerging from the shadows.
Eric tried not to think about it.
But his body knew.
It remembered the danger.
The risk.
His hands trembled slightly.
He took a deep breath and turned toward her.
"Elena, our partnership is now official. Now that everything is settled, I need you to start working as soon as possible."
Elena blinked, surprised.
For a moment, she had almost forgotten—
She was now his partner.
Or rather—
That he owned 51% of her shop.
What she didn't know was that Eric's real interest wasn't the shop.
It was her.
Her skills.
Her contacts.
The reputation her father had built in the underground world of gold and antiques.
"What do you need?" she asked, trying to sound professional.
"A buyer for more gold coins," Eric said directly. "I'll leave part of the profit as working capital for the shop. Or rather… for our pawn shop."
Elena noticed something unusual in his tone—
A faint hint of panic beneath his usual composure.
"H-how many coins are we talking about? Twenty? Thirty?"
She calculated quickly.
Eric had used more than two hundred thousand euros in gold to pay her debt…
But he probably had a few dozen left.
Fifty, maybe.
That was manageable.
Eric laughed.
Now came the test—
The moment to see if trusting her had been the right decision.
"A thousand."
Elena flinched.
"H-how many?"
"A thousand," he repeated casually, as if he had said ten.
"That's impossible… it would take months… are you serious?"
The car slowed—
They had arrived at her building.
Elena didn't know if she was shaking from the earlier confrontation, the lingering adrenaline…
Or his absurd demand.
Eric parked calmly.
"You have one week."
"What?!" she turned toward him, stunned. "You can't give me a deadline like that! Do you have any idea what's involved? Documentation, reliable buyers, logistics—"
Eric rolled down the window and looked at her with a calm that felt almost unfair.
He sat in a black armored car.
With personal security.
Looking like a man completely in control.
The image alone radiated power—
Even if he didn't feel that way inside.
"I spent the last few days without sleep solving your problem. Do you really think I'm asking too much?"
Elena opened her mouth—
And closed it.
She had no answer.
She stepped out of the car, still dazed.
The window rolled back up.
The car drove away.
Eric asked to be dropped off two blocks before his apartment.
The last thing he needed was his nosy landlord seeing an armored car dropping him off and starting to ask questions.
He was almost certain she entered his apartment when he wasn't home.
He climbed the stairs, still shaking.
The adrenaline from the confrontation hadn't faded.
It all felt unreal.
Like a dream.
When he finally closed the door behind him—
Everything collapsed at once.
The weight of the past three days crashed down on him.
His muscles ached.
His eyes burned.
His mind pulsed.
He had spent hours collecting coins, converting them through the Midas System, packaging gold, hiding gold, selling gold, buying silence, hiring private security, saving Elena, confronting criminals—
It felt like living three lives at once.
And now…
He had a wardrobe filled with gold.
More than he could count.
More than he could safely store.
More than he could protect.
The inevitable question surfaced:
How am I going to protect all of this?
What if someone breaks in while I'm gone?
What if the landlord finds something?
What if it gets stolen?
Eric sat on the bed.
His head dropped forward.
His eyes were about to close—
When a blue glow flooded his vision.
The Midas System activated.
A transparent screen appeared in front of him.
Golden letters began to form slowly—
Like liquid gold:
"Congratulations. Your Dimensional Vault has been unlocked."
"You may now exchange gold coins for square centimeters of storage space."
Eric froze.
His mouth slightly open.
His heart caught between fear and excitement.
A dimensional vault?
Was it what he thought it was?
A space only he could access?
Invisible?
Secure?
Impossible to trace?
Finally—
He smiled.
Of all the gifts the System had given him…
This might be the most important one.