Chapter 83: The Chaos In The Business World

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: The Chaos In The Business World

BEEP! BEEP!

Derrick jerked awake at the blaring sound.

He scrambled blindly across the mattress.

His foot caught in the tangled bedsheets.

Thud!

Derrick tumbled sideways off the edge of the bed, crashing hard onto the carpeted floor.

"Ugh..." he groaned, rubbing his throbbing forehead.

He blinked sleepily, taking a moment to process his surroundings.

Right. He was back in his own room.

"Are you listening to me, brat?!"

The harsh voice of Instructor Keira was still echoing loudly from the dropped phone on the floor.

Derrick reached out and picked up the device, bringing it close to his ear.

"Teacher, do you know what time it is," Derrick mumbled, his voice thick with leftover fatigue. "I’m not coming in tonight. Don’t worry, I trained at home today, I did not miss anything."

"So--"

"What did you just say?" Keira’s voice dropped a level, dripping with immediate danger.

"I said I’m taking a day off," Derrick repeated, his tone deadpan. "I’ll come back tomorrow."

"A day off? Since when do you take unexcused—"

"Look," Derrick interrupted, staring at the roof with a deadpan. "I’ve had more than enough fighting for one lifetime. My brain is fried."

Without waiting for her to respond, Derrick tapped the screen and abruptly ended the call.

Click.

He tossed the phone back onto the mattress and let out a long sigh.

"Finally, some peace and quiet," he muttered. Wait... I shouldn’t have cut her call.

Derrick sweat dropped but he shrugged a second later and crawled back onto the bed and pulled the covers over his head, expecting to drift right back to sleep.

Clearly his sense of danger was fried.

Ten minutes passed.

Derrick tossed and turned.

Twenty minutes passed.

His eyes remained wide open staring at the dark ceiling.

"Unbelievable," he hissed, throwing the blankets off. "Now I’m completely wide awake."

His stomach let out a loud, rumbling growl.

"I am definitely hungry now."

Derrick pushed himself up, rubbed the remaining sleep from his eyes, and stepped out of his room to hunt for something to eat.

...

Miles away, inside her private office at the main academy gym, the atmosphere was freezing.

Instructor Keira slowly lowered her hand holding the phone or what was left of it. She had crushed the unbreakable screen in several shards which even some Physical Strengthening Realm fighters even found difficult to do.

Crunch!

She did not stop there and continued to grind the shards to dust.

"That bastard. How dare he cut me off like that."

Her gaze was fixed on the floor where the pieces of the phone were lying, completely devoid of warmth.

A cold, piercing look settled deep into her eyes.

She sat rigidly behind her heavy wooden desk.

Before her lay an open manila folder containing the printed profiles and photographs of three unfamiliar men.

Keira raised her head slowly.

Her sharp gaze drifted across the room to where Maki stood at attention.

The subordinate stood completely straight, hands locked firmly behind her back.

"Maki," Keira’s voice was dangerously quiet. "Is this intelligence verified?"

"Yes, Instructor," Maki replied without hesitation. "Our underground informants and multiple intel channels have all confirmed their movements."

Keira stared back down at the three faces in the folder.

"He says he does not want to train today." Keira chuckled darkly, tapping a finger against the desk.

Each tap stabbed a hole in the table.

"Does he think he can survive by slacking off."

Maki’s expression tightened slightly, her eyes showed a flicker of worry.

"What should we do?"

Keira clenched her jaw, staring at the window overlooking the quiet night academy grounds.

"Nothing." Keira ordered, grabbing her jacket off the back of the chair. "For now, just keep an eye on things."

Saying that she walked out of the room.

...

While Derrick was busy looking for a late-night snack, a massive storm was brewing far beyond his immediate knowledge.

The entire commercial alchemy world had been thrown into complete chaos.

A brand-new, fiercely competitive enterprise named the Myriad Pill Palace had suddenly emerged out of nowhere.

Every major, powerful corporation and aristocratic house was desperately looking for the owner of the companay.

It turned out to be an utterly impossible task.

Thanks to Derrick’s elite computer skills, the digital footprint of the company was locked down tighter than a fortress.

Not a single hacker or corporate intelligence network could breach his systems.

They needed to know who was pulling the strings.

Unlike standard alchemists whose enhancement drugs were riddled with erratic side effects, this mysterious expert had achieved the impossible.

Their pills possessed zero significant side effects.

Even more terrifying, they boasted a staggering 60% purity rate.

The global elite were losing their minds over the discovery.

Whoever this master alchemist was, they were guaranteed to completely reshape the industry.

They feared that he would release other more significant higher ranking pills in the market which would force them to release their own.

So, something had to be done.

Corporate giants fell into two camps: those who wanted to forge a lucrative partnership, and those who wanted absolute control.

Yet, after dumping mountains of capital and countless man-hours into the investigation, they hit a brick wall.

Every digital trail vanished into thin air.

Unless the owner revealed themselves willingly, finding them through cyberspace was a pipe dream.

Naturally, that setback didn’t stop anyone from trying. They started offering deals in the public sphere, Underground forums, high-end financial news networks, and even Derrick’s official business email were bombarded with messages.

Massive sums of money were thrown around like pocket change.

They promised him future wealth, power, and limitless resources just to reveal himself and have a meeting with them.

Everyone wanted a piece of the Myriad Pill Palace.

The desperation of the corporate elite quickly spilled over into the darker corners of the net.

High-paying bounties began flooding the infamous underground forum known as the Sinister Web.

Anonymous syndicates posted high-stakes quests demanding the true identity of the Myriad Pill Palace’s owner.

No one rushed to post a bounty, since it was not the time yet to do that.

The reward attached to the listing was a staggering one hundred million System Credits.

Somewhere, far away from the bustling Emerald city, deep inside a pitch-black, windowless room, an eerie silence hung heavy in the air.

A woman sat completely naked, her massive features hidden in the shadows of the room.

Her face and features were completely hidden from view.

Her skin possessed a pale, porcelain translucence, catching the faint, eerie blue glow of the monitor like moonlight on fresh snow.

Every curve of her frame was etched with a statue like perfection.

From the slender slope of her bare shoulders to the sharp, elegant line of her collarbones.

Yet, despite the undeniable allure of her naked form, she gave of a sharp aura of a predator, making her look less like a living woman and more like a untouchable immortal goddess who had just stepped out of a painting.

As her glowing eyes scrolled over the new bounty blinking on her tactical terminal, the corners of her lips curved upward.

A low, amused chuckle echoed softly in the empty room.

"Interesting," she whispered into the dark.