Chapter 78: Lucky by force.

The system immediately chimed in with a smug tone: [Warning: Hostile Attitude Detected. Shop Access Suspended.]

Zyra froze. "Wait...what? You are holding the shop hostage?"

[Correct. Admit that you are lucky, or the shop remains locked.]

Zyra laughed at the virtual snake, thinking that Beauty was playing a pranking. But when she accessed the virtual shop, everything was gray!! "You can’t do this; I earned that shop fair and square!"

[Admit that I made you lucky.] Beauty insisted.

What followed was a silent standoff between the host and her system. A test of wills that neither was losing to lose. Zyra had no idea where this system had come from, but it had been given too much personality! What kind of machine threw temper tantrums?

"This is unprofessional, you know." She said finally.

Beauty turned around, giving her the back.

Zyra cracked. "Fine! I am lucky, okay? You have given me luck beyond reason!"

And just like that, color was restored to the shop and Beauty turned around. Zyra snorted. She was already plotting her own revenge.

[Ding! You have guests at the gates.]

"What!?" Zyra’s eyes widened. "Again?" She asked the question loudly.

Hunter jolted in his chair, looking over at her in alarm. "What? What happened again?"

"Did the Drake and his wives, invite over their in-laws? Or their kids!" She muttered. A male duck and three female ducks, without ducklings. She had thought it was weird for a second.

[Human movement.]

She straightened herself immediately. Humans? Friendly or hostile ones?

"Zyra what the hell is going on?" Hunter asked because she seemed to be lost in her thoughts.

"Right, Beauty says that there is movement outside the gate." She rushed to the security room with Hunter coming after her.

Hunter’s phone buzzed the exact millisecond his boots stepped onto the smooth, metallic floor of the elevator. He pulled it out, glanced at the glowing screen, and sighed. It was Achilles. He pressed the answer button and spoke before his cousin could even breathe. "Not now, cousin. I’m a bit occupied."

"Hunt, listen to me," Achilles’ voice crackled through the speaker, sounding thoroughly spooked. "I’m at the valley. But something is seriously wrong here. There’s a giant gate blocking the path. Someone has occupied our territory! And what the hell is ’Beast Valley’? The sign literally says Beast Valley. Our personal valley doesn’t have a name, Hunt!"

Hunter froze. His mind raced for a fraction of a second before pieces of the puzzle clicked perfectly into place.

"Achilles," Hunter said slowly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Is your team with you?"

"Well, yeah," Achilles muttered, sounding confused. "It’s me and the whole crew. You know, the guys who are supposed to build the new house and handle security around here? Did you forget?"

Hunter blinked.

He actually had completely forgotten. Between the arrival of the new house and Zyra’s training this had slipped entirely out of his brilliant mind. He had explicitly told Achilles to pack up construction materials, gather the best labor team, grab extra clothes, and bring anything else useful for setting up a new shelter.

Beside him in the control room, Zyra was leaning over a console, her fingers flying across the arrays as she adjusted the external optical formations.

"They are definitely human and their beasts," Zyra reported, squinting at a glowing monitor.

Hunter let out a breath that was half-laugh, half-groan. "Zyra, calm down, It’s Achilles and his men."

Zyra blinked once, her golden eyes wide with great surprise. "Your manager! Why is he here? Is he tracking you? Does he want to take you back?" She didn’t waste any time. Flipping a switch, she activated the external broad-range microphone attached to the wall, close to the gate. "Attention intruders, you may cease hiding. Come out with your hands up or I start firing. I have guns on the walls, so don’t think of escaping."

Out in the brush, several bulky men who had been crouching behind rocks and diving into bushes slowly peeked out. They stood up one by one, raising their hands in the universal sign of ’please don’t vaporize us with a formation.’

"It’s not an unfriendly visit; Achilles brought the construction team." Hunter pulled her hands away from the console before she could kill his men.

"Oh." She replied flatly. She instructed Beauty to open the gate. With a low, mechanical hum, it slid open.

Hunter and Zyra walked out together to meet them at the entrance. The sight that greeted the newcomers left them entirely paralyzed. The laborers and guards stood like statues, their jaws practically dragging on the dirt as they stared past the gates at the beautiful, houses, contoured gardens, and pristine architecture nestled inside the valley.

Achilles was standing at the front of the crowd. He slowly slid off the back of his eagle. He looked around, rubbing his eyes, because he was sure they were in the wrong place. "How the hell did this happen?!" When he saw his cousin Hunter, his breathing became easier. Achilles barked, turning to Hunt. "This looks absolutely nothing like my valley!"

Hunter walked up, a smirk playing on his lips. "It’s not your valley anymore, cousin. This valley now belongs to my wife. Call it a wedding gift."

Behind Achilles, a dozen hardened construction workers and hunters from the Thorn guild exchanged wildly confused glances. Whispers immediately broke out. "Wife?"

"The Great Magnus is married? Since when?!"

Hunter chose to ignore the curiosity of his men. "Alright, cut the chatter and start moving the supplies inside," he ordered, whistling to them the same way he did to Zyra when training.

The winged lizard creatures with heavy timber and stone were guided through the gates, their thick hooves thudding against the neatly paved paths.

Zyra stepped forward, spotting a familiar, burly figure leading the beast train. "You!" she called out smoothly. She remembered him...one of Ocean’s men, the others were there too.

Scotty stopped dead in his tracks. When he spoke, his voice sounded tight, like his throat was clogged with dry sand. "Y-yes, Ma’am?"

"Take the transport beasts down that eastern path, the Beast Pavilion is over there. They can rest and feed." Zyra instructed

[DING! 100 resonance points rewarded for voluntarily feeding hungry beasts.]

Scotty swallowed hard, his face turning a slight shade of red. He cleared his throat roughly. "Right away. And... Ma’am? I want to apologize. For the... you know... the whole forest incident with Ocean. We didn’t mean any disrespect to you." They didn’t know she was Hunter Magnus’s wife. Ocean had chosen the wrong woman to target.

Zyra looked at him for a quiet moment, then gave a single nod. "It is fine. Just see to the beasts."

Leaving Scotty to guide the beasts, Zyra walked over to rejoin Hunter and Achilles, who were already deep in conversation about how the houses came in place, all she heard were lies about an old woman waving a wand!

Even Achilles was looking at his cousin with disdain. He didn’t believe him at all.

As they talked, a group of four laborers shuffled past them, carrying three heavy, tightly sealed wooden boxes with one small hole on the top of each one. The wood was dark, reinforced with iron bands, and looked incredibly heavy.

"Hold it right there," Achilles called out to the workers, pointing at the boxes. "Drop those here and open them up."

The workers carefully lowered the crates to the ground and began prying open the lids with crowbars. Achilles turned back to face Hunter and Zyra, raising his hands defensively with a nervous grin.

"Now, look," Achilles said, his eyes darting between the two of them. "Don’t panic when you see this.