The System transformation began at midnight.
I was alone in the warehouse office, reviewing the day's transactions, when the interface flickered and expanded beyond anything I had seen before. Notifications cascaded across my vision, each one carrying weight of fundamental change.
[GOLD RANK ACHIEVED]
[Merchant Chen Wei: Transcendent Status]
[New Access: MULTI USER INTERFACE]
[New Access: BRANCH LOCATION MANAGEMENT]
[New Access: FRANCHISE PROTOCOLS]
[New Access: NARRATIVE WEAPONIZATION]
I leaned back from the desk, feeling the familiar sensation of leveling up that I had known in games, in career advancement, in moments when preparation met opportunity. But this was different. This was not personal achievement. This was organizational evolution.
The System was offering me the tools to scale. To replicate. To transform from individual operator into institutional power.
I examined each new feature carefully.
MULTI USER INTERFACE allowed delegation of System functions to trusted subordinates. Xiao Hong could access inventory management. Wang Mei could monitor financial flows. Doctor Chen could track medical supply chains. Each with appropriate limitations, each with audit trails, each with the capacity to extend my reach without requiring my personal attention.
BRANCH LOCATION MANAGEMENT enabled establishment of satellite operations. The warehouse in Azure Cloud City could become headquarters for network of trading posts, each one connected through System infrastructure, each one sharing inventory, information, reputation.
FRANCHISE PROTOCOLS were most ambitious. The ability to grant others limited access to System functions, to create Merchant of Fates branded operations run by partners who paid percentage of revenue for technological advantage. The cultivation world had never seen chain business. Never encountered standardized service, consistent quality, recognizable brand.
And NARRATIVE WEAPONIZATION.
This feature was different from the others. Less commercial, more dangerous. The description was vague, suggestive, promising capabilities that touched the fundamental nature of reality in this world.
[Ability: Influence probability of narrative events]
[Ability: Modify perception of story significance]
[Ability: Redirect protagonist status between eligible candidates]
I stared at these options, understanding their implications. The System was offering me power over the story itself. Not just knowledge of future events, but capacity to change their likelihood, their meaning, their assignment.
With this, I could ensure Lin Feng's success. Or undermine it, if he became unreliable. I could elevate secondary characters to protagonist status. I could destroy enemies not through combat, but through narrative irrelevance.
The power was absolute. The temptation was immediate.
And the cost was unspecified.
I did not activate NARRATIVE WEAPONIZATION. Not yet. Some capabilities required understanding before use, and this one smelled of consequences that might extend beyond commercial calculation.
Instead, I focused on infrastructure. On building the organization that would survive regardless of which individual stories flourished or failed.
---
The expansion began with Xiao Hong.
I found her in the inventory cellar, conducting the midnight audit that had become her ritual. She moved between shelves with the confidence of someone who had transformed from frightened maid into competent executive, her brush recording quantities with precision that matched any System interface.
"Xiao Hong," I said, "I have something to show you."
I activated the MULTI USER INTERFACE, extending System access toward her. The notification appeared in her vision, I knew, because she froze, her brush hovering above the ledger, her eyes tracking information I could not see.
"What is this?" she whispered.
"My System. My advantage. I am offering you limited access. Inventory management, supply chain tracking, financial recording. The tools to operate this facility without my constant supervision."
She turned to face me, and I saw fear in her expression. Not of the System, but of what it represented.
"You are leaving," she said. It was not question.
"I am expanding. The warehouse will remain headquarters, but I must establish presence in other cities. Other regions. The Doctor has identified three locations where medical infrastructure is inadequate, where our combined services would dominate market."
"And me?"
"You will manage here. The Azure Cloud City operation. With System support, with staff training, with authority to make decisions in my name." I held up hand to forestall her objection. "You have demonstrated competence. You have earned trust. More importantly, you have developed capabilities that I cannot replicate personally. Your memory, your attention to detail, your understanding of local networks."
"I am not merchant," she said. "I am not... like you. I do not see opportunities. I do not calculate risks."
"You see details. You prevent errors. You maintain relationships." I smiled. "Every organization needs both vision and execution. I provide direction. You provide implementation. Together, we scale."
She was silent for long moment, processing. Then she nodded, slowly.
"Show me," she said. "Teach me. I will not disappoint you."
I spent the next three days in intensive training, transferring knowledge that the System made accessible through interface rather than explanation. She learned to read probability fluctuations in supply chains. To identify which transactions carried hidden costs. To recognize customers who would become long term assets versus those who would consume resources without return.
By the end, she could operate the warehouse independently. Not with my creativity, my strategic vision, my capacity for narrative manipulation. But with reliability, consistency, attention to detail that exceeded my own.
The first branch location was selected through analysis of traffic patterns, resource flows, and narrative significance.
Red Stone City. Three hundred miles east. Major intersection of trade routes between northern and southern cultivation regions. Home to the Crimson Sky Sect, third ranked power in the region, currently suffering from leadership crisis that created opportunity for external service providers.
The Doctor traveled with me. Their medical expertise would establish initial credibility, create relationships with local power structures, provide cover for commercial infrastructure development.
We arrived with minimal entourage. Two guards from Madame Luo's security network. One cart of high value inventory, selected specifically for regional demand. And the System, now capable of supporting remote operation through communication crystals that I had developed based on principles from my former world.
The establishment of branch followed template I had designed.
First, medical clinic. Public, accessible, demonstrating value through service rather than sales. The Doctor treated patients without charge for three days, building reputation, gathering intelligence, identifying power brokers who controlled local economy.
Second, auction announcement. Exclusive, mysterious, promising access to goods and information unavailable through conventional channels. Invitations to select individuals, chosen for their influence, their ambition, their vulnerabilities.
Third, the auction itself. Smaller than Azure Cloud City original, but carefully staged to maximize impact. Items selected for regional significance. Techniques compatible with Crimson Sky cultivation methods. Information about sect politics that only someone with external perspective could possess.
The branch was profitable within first week. Not dramatically, not enough to justify expansion costs immediately. But sufficient to prove concept, to demonstrate that the Merchant of Fates model was replicable, that narrative knowledge translated across regional boundaries.
I left the Doctor in charge, with System access limited to medical functions, and returned to Azure Cloud City to find that Xiao Hong had exceeded every expectation.
"The Liu family has approached us," she reported, her voice carrying new confidence. "Elder Brother Liu, whom you defeated, has been disowned by his main branch. He offers information about his former allies in exchange for protection and employment."
"Accept," I said immediately. "Limited role, supervised access, probationary status. His knowledge of sect politics has value. His resentment toward former associates makes him reliable against them."
"And if he seeks revenge against you?"
"Then we sell him the opportunity, at price he cannot afford." I reviewed the financial reports she had prepared, impressed by their clarity. "What else?"
"The Wang Consortium has requested formal partnership. Not with Wang Chen specifically, but with our organization. They want preferential access to all branch locations, all auctions, all information networks."
"Negotiate. Twenty five percent revenue share from their referred clients, in exchange for exclusive trading house status within our network. They become our bank, our logistics provider, our legitimate face."
She noted the terms, her brush moving with satisfaction. "And Lin Feng?"
I paused. The protagonist had been quiet during my absence, training in sect techniques, building his cultivation base, preparing for the tournament that would establish his reputation. The Doctor's treatments had stabilized his spiritual energy, accelerated his advancement, created dependency that was commercial rather than personal.
"He remains primary client," I said. "But we diversify. No single customer should represent more than fifteen percent of revenue. Spread risk. Cultivate alternatives."
"Even if those alternatives become competitors to him?"
"Especially then. Competition creates value. For us, if not for them."
---
The second branch opened in Silver Moon Valley within the month.
Then the third, in Iron Fortress.
Then the fourth, in the floating city of Cloud Reach, where cultivation techniques focused on air and wind, where our medical and commercial services addressed needs that ground bound healers could not meet.
Each branch followed template. Medical first, auction second, network integration third. Each branch manager selected from local talent, trained through System interface, bound by contract and shared interest rather than personal loyalty.
The Merchant of Fates became recognizable across the continent. Not sect, not kingdom, not criminal organization. Something new. A commercial network that transcended political boundaries, that served all sides of any conflict, that maintained neutrality through transparency of interest.
We sold to heroes and villains. To cultivators and mortals. To humans and the occasional demonic entity that could pay our prices.
And through it all, I watched the NARRATIVE WEAPONIZATION feature, waiting for moment when its use would be necessary, when the power to shape story itself would justify whatever cost it extracted.
That moment arrived with the tournament.
---
The Azure Cloud Sect's outer disciple tournament was scheduled for sixty days after Lin Feng's arrival. The event where, in original story, he would defeat overwhelming odds, demonstrate protagonist potential, attract attention of higher powers.
But the timeline had shifted. The Doctor's intervention, my own manipulations, the acceleration forced by inheritance theft, all had compressed schedule. The tournament was now. Tomorrow.
And Lin Feng was not ready.
Not physically. The Doctor's treatments had advanced his cultivation to Foundation Establishment level six, impressive for his timeline, but insufficient against opponents who had trained for decades.
Not emotionally. The revelation of his commercial relationships, the understanding that his allies were investors rather than friends, had created distance, suspicion, isolation that undermined the confidence that protagonists required.
Not narratively. The story expected underdog victory. Expected desperate struggle against superior forces. Expected the moment when hidden power emerged, when the crowd gasped, when destiny manifested.
I could not provide that. Not directly. Not through commerce or medicine.
But the System offered alternative.
I activated NARRATIVE WEAPONIZATION for first time.
The interface expanded, showing me probabilities. Lin Feng's chance of victory in current state: twelve percent. His chance of survival: sixty three percent. His chance of achieving protagonist breakthrough moment: four percent.
I could modify these. Increase likelihood of specific outcomes. Decrease others. The cost was measured not in spirit stones, but in something the System called NARRATIVE CAPITAL. The accumulated weight of changed fates, disrupted stories, stolen destinies.
I had plenty. Every transaction, every altered trajectory, every customer who achieved what should have been impossible, had contributed to this reserve.
I invested heavily.
Lin Feng's victory probability increased to forty seven percent. His survival to eighty nine percent. His protagonist breakthrough moment to sixty one percent.
The cost was immediate and physical. I felt it as pressure behind my eyes, as weight in my chest, as certainty that something fundamental had been extracted from me, from my story, from my place in the world.
But the tournament proceeded as required.
Lin Feng fought. He struggled. He was beaten, bloodied, brought to edge of defeat by opponents who should have overwhelmed him.
And then, in moment that spectators would remember for decades, he broke through.
Not to higher cultivation level. To something else. Understanding of his own story, his own role, his own power to shape narrative rather than simply endure it.
He won.
Not because he was strongest. Not because he was most skilled. Because he had become, finally, protagonist.
And I, watching from private box with Xiao Hong and the Doctor, understood that I had purchased this moment. That my NARRATIVE CAPITAL had been converted into his legend.
The investment would yield returns. Of course it would. That was the calculation.
But sitting in darkness as crowd cheered his name, I felt something unfamiliar. Something that did not fit merchant psychology.
I felt pride. Not in my profit. In his achievement.
The feeling was dangerous. It suggested attachment. Suggested that I had crossed line from supplier to stakeholder, from observer to participant.
The System notification confirmed my fear.
[NARRATIVE INTEGRATION DEEPENED]
[Status: MERCHANT OF FATES transitioning to SUPPORTING CHARACTER]
[Warning: Prolonged protagonist proximity may result in DESTINY ENTANGLEMENT]
I was becoming part of the story.
Not just its merchant. Not just its infrastructure.
Its character.
And characters, unlike merchants, could die.
---
If you like the novel give power stones and golden ticket.