[The Omniverse - The Abyssal Showcase Arena]
The Abyssal Showcase Arena was a sterile, brightly lit testing facility constructed entirely from white obsidian and reinforced starlight-glass.
Victor Thorne stood in the elevated VIP viewing box, his midnight-blue suit immaculate. Standing beside him was Demon Emperor Malakai, one of the wealthiest Warlords in the Higher Dimensional Corporate Sector.
Down in the arena, the Vanguard of Light—the elite team of Omniversal Heroes from Chapter 86—stood with their weapons drawn, breathing heavily. They had been hired as "independent contractors" for this live demonstration.
"I don't understand, Founder Thorne," Emperor Malakai rumbled, his four crimson eyes narrowing at the arena floor. "You charged me fifty billion Omni-Credits for a data subscription. But the monster you deployed to fight the Vanguard is just... a standard, Level 1 Skeleton."
In the center of the pristine arena stood a single, frail skeleton wielding a rusted iron sword. However, bolted to the base of its skull was a glowing, neon-blue Abyssal OS processing chip.
"Brute force is a waste of operational capital, Emperor," Victor said smoothly, taking a slow sip of his black coffee. "Observe the return on your investment."
The Lead Hero of the Vanguard sneered at the frail monster. "A skeleton? Pathetic! Nova Strike!"
The Hero lunged, swinging his blazing broadsword at the skeleton's neck.
The skeleton did not block. It did not use magic. Exactly 0.1 seconds before the sword connected, the skeleton simply took half a step to the left. The blazing sword missed by a millimeter. Before the Hero could recover from the over-swing, the skeleton casually tapped the pommel of its rusted sword against the exact nerve cluster behind the Hero's knee.
The Lead Hero collapsed, his leg entirely paralyzed.
"What?!" the Vanguard's Mage gasped, raising her staff. "Inferno Burst!"
Before the first spark of fire could leave her staff, the skeleton was already moving. It threw a single, loose pebble from the arena floor, perfectly striking the Mage's wrist exactly as her spell reached critical mass. The spell backfired, throwing the Mage across the room.
Within thirty seconds, the entire elite Vanguard of Light was groaning on the floor. The Level 1 Skeleton hadn't taken a single point of damage.
Emperor Malakai slammed his massive hands against the viewing glass, utterly awestruck. "How is that possible?! It has no mana!"
"It doesn't need mana. It has Predictive Analytics," Victor adjusted his cuffs, his Tycoon's Aura projecting absolute corporate superiority. "Thanks to the telemetry data we harvested from their Stamina Meters, my servers know exactly how these heroes fight. The algorithm knows the Paladin over-commits his weight on heavy strikes. It knows the Mage has a zero-point-four-second cast delay. The skeleton isn't reacting to them; it is mathematically predicting their movements and executing the path of least resistance."
Victor tapped his gold-nibbed pen against the Tycoon's Ledger.
"Stop spending trillions of credits raising massive dragons that just get slain by plot armor," Victor pitched flawlessly. "Buy my Abyssal OS chips, install them in your cheapest, lowest-tier monsters, and let the data do the fighting."
Malakai threw his checkbook at Victor. "I'll take a million units."