[The Abyssal Academy - Security Control Room]
The first five hundred Paladins had been successfully extracted, stripped of their gear, and evicted into the freezing mud outside the academy. But the crusade was far from over.
On the massive wall of surveillance monitors, four thousand, five hundred Paladins were still hopelessly lost in the labyrinth of the first three floors.
"Principal Thorne," Seraphina tapped her silver pen against her clipboard. "The physical extraction teams are bottlenecking. We are repossessing blessed steel faster than the vaults can store it. However, the remaining Paladins are proceeding too cautiously. They are refusing to use the Toll Booths."
Victor looked at the screens. The Paladins had wised up. They were huddling in safe zones, terrified of the dynamic surge pricing and the gacha traps, refusing to move.
"If they aren't moving, they aren't spending," Victor noted, a frown slightly creasing his stoic expression. "A stagnant user base is a dead user base. If we cannot extract their capital physically, we will extract it digitally."
Victor turned to the glowing Tycoon's Ledger on his desk.
"Ignis," Victor said, looking at the demon princess bound by his shadow. "The Demon Realm holds a deep, historical hatred for the Holy Kingdom, correct?"
"Of course," Ignis scoffed, crossing her arms. "The Paladins have slaughtered our kind for centuries. Seeing Commander Kael crying in the sand was the greatest thing I've ever witnessed."
"I thought so," Victor's predatory smile returned. "Dawn. Activate the scrying orbs. All of them."
Throughout the dungeon, thousands of floating, invisible crystal orbs hummed to life, zooming in on the miserable, terrified faces of the trapped Holy Crusaders.
"Establish a secure, omni-directional broadcast frequency to the Demon Realm, the Necromancer Guilds, and the Underworld Syndicates," Victor commanded, typing rapidly onto the glowing pages of the Ledger. "Launch the Pantheon+ Streaming Service."
A massive holographic projection filled the control room, displaying a sleek, digital interface that was instantly broadcasted across the continent's dark magic networks.
"What are you doing?" Elara gasped, stepping forward in horror.
"I am monetizing their humiliation," Victor said, pointing at the screen. "Basic subscription to watch the Paladins suffer in the labyrinth: Fifty Gold a month. Premium VIP access, which allows the viewer to vote on which trap activates next: Five Hundred Gold per vote."
The response was instantaneous.
The Ledger began to chime wildly as the subscriber count exploded. Ding. Ding. Ding.
"Sir," Seraphina's violet eyes widened in rare shock. "The Demon King himself just purchased a lifetime VIP subscription. He has already spent ten thousand Gold to trigger the 'Slime Pit' trap on a squad of Holy Clerics."
On monitor four, the ceiling opened up, dropping a massive payload of highly acidic, gelatinous slime directly onto a pristine squad of praying clerics. Their screams of panic were immediately followed by a massive influx of laughing emojis and "Donation Tips" from the Demon Realm viewers scrolling across the screen.
Ignis burst out laughing, pointing at the monitor. "My father is tipping you! He's tipping the Principal of the Abyssal Academy to torture Paladins!"
"Live entertainment is an incredibly lucrative market," Victor adjusted his pocket watch, watching the revenue counter tick into the millions of Gold without a single student having to lift a sword. "Welcome to the era of reality television, Elara. Your Kingdom is the star of the show."