Chapter 94: Trillions

Marti reached the valley at a full sprint and nearly slammed into the people gathered along the rim before he managed to stop himself. His boots tore through the dirt as he skidded sideways, and the moment he regained his balance he grabbed the nearest man by the front of his shirt and hauled him half off the ground.

"What happened here? Where’s the guy who was fighting the boss?"

The man slapped at Marti’s wrist with an irritated look rather than a frightened one. "Get the hell off me."

Marti tightened his grip instead, his eyes already scanning the valley for any sign of Jaxir. "Where did he go?"

"He’s gone already," someone else called from nearby, sounding amused enough that Marti’s head snapped toward the voice.

Marti stared at the speaker for a second before the words actually settled in. "What do you mean he’s gone?"

"The fight ended." The player shrugged and pointed toward the valley below. "Boss is dead."

Marti finally released the man he’d been holding, but only because his fingers had gone slack on their own. The battle had started barely 15 minutes ago, and he’d spent most of that time sprinting here after getting word that Jaxir had dragged the Village Head out of town.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Marti’s voice rose enough that several conversations around him stopped. "You’re telling me he soloed a regional boss in 15 minutes? Don’t bullshit me."

That earned him more attention than he wanted, and Marti noticed the Golden Fleece insignia on one man’s shoulder only after the player had already started staring at him. Recognition passed across the man’s face a moment later, followed by a grin that Marti disliked immediately.

"Wait a second. You’re Marti Torres, aren’t you?"

Another Golden Fleece member turned at the name and looked him over before laughing. "That’s him? Not often the guild head boots people."

Marti’s jaw tightened. "Shut up."

The first player looked even more entertained by that. "Did you get your your gear taken, too? What the hell are you wearing?"

A few people around them laughed, and Marti felt his hand twitch toward his Inventory before he stopped himself. News had apparently spread farther through Golden Fleece than he’d hoped, and every person who recognized him seemed eager to attach themselves to the humiliation ritual.

One of the players folded his arms. "You know people higher up are blaming your screwup for part of this mess, right?"

Marti stepped toward him before he could think better of it. "Keep talking."

The player’s grin flattened into something harder. "Or what?"

For half a second, Marti seriously considered answering.

He had something in his Inventory that would have changed the mood of the crowd very quickly, and most of the people surrounding him had no idea what he was capable of if he stopped caring about the consequences. The thought lasted long enough for his anger to spike, then died the moment his father’s voice surfaced in his head.

His father had never yelled at him before. That was what made the last conversation so much worse.

Marti backed away while more Golden Fleece players started closing in around the argument, ignoring the insults that followed him as he pushed through the crowd. Once enough of them started moving in his direction that the situation threatened to turn into an actual fight, he turned and left before pride convinced him to do something even more stupid.

He hated running from them, but he hated the alternative more.

His father hadn’t cared much about the equipment Marti lost or even about the embarrassment of dying to Jaxir. What had sent him over the edge was hearing exactly who Marti had targeted and how far he’d gone after recognizing the Chance name.

Marti had grown up around money, enough that he’d never thought twice about whether his family counted as wealthy. His father’s company pulled in tens of millions in quarterly revenue, employed hundreds of people, and had enough influence that Marti had spent most of his life assuming there weren’t many people above them.

Then his father explained the difference between being rich and being Chance rich.

The Chance Corporation wasn’t just another large company with an obnoxiously famous name attached to it. It was a multi-trillion-dollar conglomerate spread across so many industries, subsidiaries and affiliated companies that most people could go an entire day touching Chance-owned technology or infrastructure without ever realizing it.

Jaxir’s uncle wasn’t publicly listed as one of the few dozen trillionaires in the world mostly because the Corporation kept so many companies and holdings legally separate instead of stacking everything beneath one personal balance sheet. Compared to that, Marti’s father’s company wasn’t small, but it was small enough to be crushed without the Chance Corporation needing to notice the effort.

Marti had known all of that in the abstract. He just hadn’t understood it until his father explained how many of their suppliers, contracts and financing relationships could be traced back to Chance interests if someone cared enough to look.

But what was more fearful was the fact Marti hadn’t even executed on his intentions. He had only thought about slandering the Chance Corporation, did a few Kinext searches maybe... so how had they even found out?

Not only had they found out, they even went as far as threatening his father’s livelihood.

A notification flashed at the edge of Marti’s vision before he could sink any deeper into the thought. His stomach tightened the moment he recognized the private account contacting him, and he accepted before whoever was on the other side could take his hesitation as another failure.

Sinha Mathe appeared in front of him.

The lawyer looked exactly the way Marti remembered from the information he’d been given, dressed in a pressed black suit with glasses resting low against a large nose and hair gelled into place despite somehow still looking slightly wrong. His expression carried none of the anger Marti expected, which only made the silence before he spoke feel worse.

"You missed him."

Marti grit his teeth. "The boss was already dead by the time I got here."

Sinha’s expression barely changed. "I didn’t ask about the boss."

Marti swallowed the first response that came to mind and forced his voice back under control. "Jaxir killed it before I arrived. Everyone here is saying the fight lasted around 15 minutes."

That earned the first real reaction, a slight narrowing of Sinha’s eyes. "Alone?"

"From what they’re saying, yes."

Sinha leaned back and stayed quiet for several seconds, leaving Marti to wonder whether the silence meant disbelief or whether he was already calculating what the new information changed. When he finally spoke, his tone stayed flat.

"Our direct interests in that province are limited compared to several others, and our established personnel there aren’t positioned for this kind of response. That is why local assets were brought in instead of waiting for the Corporation to move people across half the map."

Marti understood the point without needing it explained.

They couldn’t simply throw hundreds of their own players at Jaxir, which was the only reason someone like Marti mattered in the first place. Even if they had had a presence in the Gravity Province, the Chance Corporation couldn’t make their assets in the game well known for the same reason they were trying to suppress Jaxir now.

"I’m sorry." Marti hesitated before forcing himself to continue. "I should’ve gotten here sooner."

"You should have done several things differently."

Marti’s fingers curled at his sides, but he kept his mouth shut.

Sinha adjusted his glasses before continuing. "Your father’s company currently benefits from a number of relationships that I imagine he would prefer remain stable. Financing, suppliers, distribution agreements and several contracts..."

Marti’s expression hardened. "You don’t need to drag him into this."

"I didn’t." Sinha looked at him without blinking. "You did."

Marti had nothing to answer that with.

The worst part was that his father had said almost the same thing.

Sinha allowed the silence to sit for another moment before shifting the conversation forward. "Jaxir has now killed two Village Heads."

Marti’s gaze sharpened.

"He only has one left."

The implication landed immediately, and Marti’s frustration twisted. If Jaxir really intended to finish whatever quest or objective had him killing the Village Heads, then there was only one destination left.

Sinha watched the understanding form before speaking again. "Stop chasing him after he moves. Go to the last village first, prepare whatever you need, and make sure you are waiting when he arrives."

Marti clenched his jaw hard enough that it hurt. "Understood."

"You had one chance to underestimate him." Sinha’s projection began to flicker as the connection neared its end. "Don’t make the mistake of assuming you’ll get another."

Marti didn’t answer.

Sinha’s final words came through just before the projection vanished.

"Failure won’t be tolerated."