Chapter 242: Division

The thick blue glare coming out of the six broken security vaults didn’t just illuminate the room; it cast long, liquid bands of neon sapphire light that turned the stone dust on the ceiling beams into a glowing purple smoke. The massive piles of unrefined currency crystals lay scattered across the granite floor blocks like raw gravel, their collective density vibrating with a low, heavy hum that made the iron frames of the handcarts outside the door rattle continuously.

Jun-ho stood perfectly straight near the central desk, his large rubber boots planted firm in the melting frost. He had unbuckled the stone-gray panels of The Ashen Monarch Core Plate, letting the thick rock slabs rest against the mahogany counter with a quiet, heavy thud. His plain gray shirt was dark with condensation, the thin cotton fabric clinging flat to his shoulders and highlighting the dense, powerful lines of his chest muscles, which had expanded significantly after crossing the Level 40 line.

Right at the lower corner of his eye, the solid black status text box opened across his vision, perfectly silent.

[ Level: 41]

[ Mana: 2200/10000]

[Active Trait: Ashen Domain (Phase 4 – 70-meter radius)]

[ Inventory: The Monarch’s Ledger (Bound)]

"The database log is fully stabilized, Jun-ho," Eun-bi’s voice called out from the side of the main terminal. She had her canvas bag slung tight across her waist, her gray flannel shirt left undone at the throat because of the suffocating heat coming off his mana pool. Her dark hair was wet and messy, loose strands sticking to her chin as she adjusted her clipboard.

"The 100x multiplier from the ledger has successfully rewritten the internal drop metrics. We have over eight hundred high-tier primal cores sitting inside these six steel casings. If you don’t distribute the resource blocks across the status screens now, the regional terminal will freeze the allocation from behind."

Lilith slid onto the cedar locker right next to his side, her long bare legs exposed high along the silk line of her black tunic as she shifted her hips with a slow, deliberate swing. Her full crimson lips were inches from his jawline, her wild orchid perfume cutting right through the sour grease smell of the boiler pipe. Her long, ink-black hair fell across his shoulder line in heavy waves, the tight crimson leather of her outfit straining against her rounded fullness as her lips parted into a breathless murmur.

She leaned her entire weight flat against his ribs, her wide crimson eyes glowing with a lazy, dangerous fire under her long ink-black hair, her long fingers, tipped with sharp crimson nails, catching the wet hem of his gray shirt, pulling his torso an inch closer to her shoulder with a teasing, hot friction that made his skin prickle against the frost.

"Your internal density is shifting again, big guy," Lilith whispered, her voice a deep, velvety purr that trembled with a sudden, fierce devotion. "My spirit belongs to your ribs now, Jun-ho. Let the water girl count her columns—I want to watch you clear the next vault from the inside of my skin. Every single drop of my demon energy is locked to your line."

She was falling for him completely, her primitive demon instincts locked onto his presence with a fierce, submissive passion that made her knees tremble against his boots.

"Move your chest back, demon," Eun-bi’s sharp, furious voice barked from the opposite canvas cot, her fingers tightening around her silver trauma scissors with an intense, biting jealousy. She walked two long steps across the narrow aisle, jamming her heavy rubber boot directly between Lilith’s leather trousers and the side of Jun-ho’s jeans. Her bare thigh pressed hard against his shins for stability as the boat hit a larger swell, her eyes locking straight onto his face.

She had the stolen copper scroll spread flat across her knees, her fingers working fast under her headlamp beam as she checked the code lines. "The database log is still running the core synchronization, Jun-ho. If you let this rogue broker crowd the narrow track with her hair and her incense, the system will trace the mana displacement before we can even clear the drainage outlet. The registry belongs to the collective detail, not her private bedroom."

Rea slid off the secondary workbench with a slow, fluid stride that made the high-slashed silk of her black tunic rustle loudly against her long bare legs. Her golden-blue eyes spun slowly in a lazy, dangerous circle under the gray sky, her full crimson lips tightening into a thin, jealous line as she wedged her own voluptuous hourglass shape tight against Jun-ho’s opposite sleeve, her wild orchid perfume cutting sharp through Lilith’s sulfur incense.

"The little nurse is right about the timer, big guy," Rea murmured, her bare arm rubbing against his shirt fabric with a heavy, possessive friction that competitive edge turning her tone sharp. "The demon girl is a bit too forward with her placement. She thinks because she signed the soul bind she owns the whole ledger line. I have the master key for the lower drainage grid already logged on my console. We don’t need her sulfur codes to clear the path."

Jun-ho didn’t pull back an inch from any of them. He reached out his bare right hand, his fingers closing around Rea’s narrow waist under the loose silk fabric of her tunic, while his left shoulder remained pinned against the hot, firm line of Lilith’s leather top. The dual friction made the suppressed lake behind his ribs pulse in a deep, slow rhythm that filled the entire dark hold with a silent, heavy weight.

"The registry is clear," Jun-ho said flatly.

He didn’t look back at the options screen. He focused his mind entirely on the ledger casing under his canvas flap, letting his ten-thousand-point mana reserve flood straight into the interface to divide the newly acquired city currency.

[The Monarch’s Ledger System Active.]

[Target Group: Private Raid Detail Framework.]

[Resource Cost: 2,000 Mana points from the unrefined crystals.]

[Applying 100x Multiplier to Resource Allocation...]

A sudden, freezing wave of white mana shot out of the six steel vaults, splitting the stone casing into clean gray splinters as the energy divided itself across their status screens, locking their secondary traits into a permanent, unranked evolution line.

"The transaction is registered, Jun-ho," Eun-bi said, her voice dropping into that flat public-sector drawl as she verified the text blocks, a small, stubborn flush creeping up her neck as she adjusted her canvas bag. "The Sun God auxiliary loop is officially dark. The auditors in the central district won’t even see the missing digits on their terminal screens before the morning shift turns the power off."

Tae-woo and the four elite vanguards burst through the broken concrete threshold, their massive Tier 4 frames moving in a single, synchronized motion as they began loading the heavy, glowing boxes onto the wooden handcarts, their iron knuckles clean and steady as they prepared to head back toward the drainage canal.

Jun-ho stood up, his fingers closing around the rough black hemp wrap of The Ash Remnant as they prepared to clear the sector completely, leaving the shattered vault of the central district behind them in the dark.