It was well past midnight when Li Chu sat alone in her office at the top of the white-marble clad Phoenix Media Tower. Her laptop screen displayed article after article—each one bearing the same name that had been taking over the headlines for the past week.
"Capital Sovereign Lin Chen Triumphs Again.""Mysterious Investor Destroys Eastern Sky Acquisition.""Black Knight Turned King—Who Really Is Lin Chen?"
Li leaned back in her chair, the amber city lights reflecting off her glasses. She was no stranger to capital games or overnight black swans. But what truly gnawed at her tonight wasn't Lin Chen's growing public presence—it was the impossible pace of his rise.
This wasn't natural.
Six months ago, he was a nobody—a name buried under the weight of obscurity and low-credit reports. She remembered clearly: Lin Chen had failed his third entrepreneurial attempt and was barely surviving in the financial alleyways of third-tier investment platforms.
And now?
Now, he was outmaneuvering Liang Jinhai.
[System Alert – New Side Mission Activated]
Mission: "Lower Leigh Chu's Suspicion"Objective: Reduce her emotional defense index below 30%Current Value: 76%Bonus Goal: Trigger +5 Emotional Affinity PointsReward: System Memory Fragment (Linked to Personal Past)
Back in his private workspace, Lin Chen stared at the mission log, one brow slightly raised.
"…She's starting to doubt me, huh."
The system didn't reply, but a quick glance at the Emotional Scan Map confirmed it: Li Chu had placed him under silent surveillance. Not directly—she was far too subtle for that—but her media company had begun running "deep dives" on his past, his former companies, and even trying to contact his old classmates.
He couldn't blame her.
After all, from her perspective, his sudden growth wasn't just suspicious—it was inhuman.
And maybe… she wasn't entirely wrong.
Li's Investigation
In the dim-lit privacy of her personal study, Leigh pulled open a dossier marked in crimson: " (LIN CHEN) – Profile Reopened".
Inside were timelines, financial logs, chat screenshots, and even classroom recordings from university days.
At first glance, it was all normal. But that's what bothered her the most.
Too normal.
No real black marks, no debts too severe, no scandals—but also, no strokes of genius, no sudden shifts in personality, no clear signs of the man who had just outplayed the investment world's most ruthless titan.
That kind of transformation didn't just happen.
Unless…
She bit her lip, hesitant.
Unless he had help. Something outside the system.
Something like… Erebus?
Her thoughts turned darker.
She'd spent the last three years tracking whispers of that secret organization. Lin Chen showing signs of abilities—data manipulation, strategic insight, even emotional prediction—could mean either he was a part of Erebus… or worse, a test subject, like her.