Arthur Sterling died exactly as he lived. He was overworked, utterly ruthless, and entirely alone!
Back on Earth, he was a high-level corporate liquidator. His entire existence was dedicated to gutting failing companies and stripping them of their assets. He enriched the billionaire parasites at the very top of the food chain. He was the shark they called when blood was in the water.
But when his own heart finally gave out in a sterile glass-walled penthouse at forty-five years of age, his final thought wasn't about his massive bank account.
It was a bitter and icy realization. He was just a disposable pawn in a rigged game! He had spent his entire life making other men rich, only to die a dog's death.
"Never again." He promised the empty room as his vision faded to black. "Next time, I own the board."
"Splash!"
Arthur gasped heavily. His lungs burned as icy and foul-smelling water filled his mouth. He thrashed around while his hands dug into thick freezing mud. He coughed up the filthy water as his entire body screamed in agony.
He opened his eyes and blinked through a torrential downpour. He wasn't in a penthouse anymore. He was lying in a trash-filled alleyway surrounded by decaying wooden shacks. The smell of rot and human waste hung heavy in the air.
He tried to stand but his limbs trembled. He looked down at his hands. They were bone-thin and covered in grime and bruises. This definitely wasn't his body!
"BOOM!"
A massive boom of thunder shook the sky, and with it, a flood of foreign memories forcefully injected themselves into his brain. He gripped his head and gritted his teeth against the searing pain.
He was in The Mortal Domain, a magical lower realm. This body belonged to a nameless twenty-year-old outcast who had literally starved to death in the muddy slums after failing his magical awakening.
As the memories settled, Arthur looked up at the sky. Through the dark clouds, he could barely make out a faint shimmering grid of light enclosing the entire world. A dimensional barrier. The truth of this universe clicked into his cold calculating mind instantly.
The Gods of the Apex Realm above didn't protect this world. They farmed it! They dropped bio-engineered beasts down here just to force the mortals to fight and cultivate energy. Then they would harvest them when the crop was ripe.
"A literal livestock world." Arthur muttered as his voice sounded raspy and weak. He wiped the mud from his hollow cheeks and a chilling predatory smile stretched across his face. "They treat this planet exactly like my old bosses treated companies. Inflate the stock, strip the assets and burn the rest."
He slowly pushed himself to his feet while ignoring the agonizing hunger gnawing at his stomach. He wasn't going to climb this universe's ladder. He wasn't going to play the plucky underdog hero either.
He was going to execute a multiversal hostile takeover!
Just as he stabilized himself against a rotting wooden wall, a heavy hand shoved his shoulder.
"Look what the rain washed up." A gruff voice sneered.
Arthur turned his head. A burly thug with a scarred face and a rusted iron knife tucked into his belt was glaring at him. The man's eyes flicked down to Arthur's feet. "Take the boots off, trash. They're worth a copper or two. Do it fast or I'll gut you like a pig."
Arthur didn't flinch or feel fear. He just looked at the man the same way he used to look at a bankrupt CEO begging for a severance package. Pathetic!
"Are you deaf?" The thug barked. He drew the rusted knife and lunged forward to grab Arthur by the collar.
As the thug swung, the crisp sound of a system chimed in his mind.
[Ding! System Awakened!]
[Congratulations on Activating the 10,000x The Infinite ROI System]
Arthur's eyes widened slightly as a glowing blue interface materialized in his vision. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. He processed the text instantly. His ultra-capitalist parasitic mindset had attracted the ultimate tool.
The system granted him Binders. He could attach a Binder to a target. Anything that target gained like experience points, skills or cultivation energy, Arthur would receive passively multiplied by ten thousand!
He didn't need to work. He just needed employees.
Time snapped back to normal. The thug's hand closed around Arthur's collar.
"I said take off the fvcking boots!" The thug roared.
Arthur didn't say a word. He didn't have magical power but he had forty-five years of ruthless survival instinct and a complete lack of moral hesitation. He shifted his weight and allowed the thug to pull him forward. Using the man's own momentum, Arthur drove his bony knee straight into the thug's groin.
"Urgh!" The man doubled over with his eyes bugging out.
Arthur didn't stop. He grabbed the thug's extended arm, twisted his hips and snapped his elbow over his own shoulder with brutal mechanical efficiency.
"CRACK!"
"Aaaargh! My arm!" The thug shrieked and dropped the knife into the mud.
Arthur kicked the back of the man's knee and sent him crashing face-first into the filthy puddle. He calmly stepped on the back of the thug's neck to pin him down and reached into the man's pockets. He pulled out a small leather pouch jingling with coins.
"Thanks for the capital." Arthur whispered coldly. He pocketed the coins and kicked the man in the ribs for good measure before walking away, leaving the thug groaning in the mud.
[Ding!]
[Novice Gift Pack available. Open now?]
"Open it." Arthur commanded in his mind.
[System Ability]
↳ Void-Step Mantra
A surge of knowledge flowed into his mind detailing a high-tier fundamental footwork technique. It was complex and required immense physical conditioning to use properly. Right now, his starved body couldn't even perform the first step without tearing a muscle. He needed a battery and he needed one fast.
He walked out of the alleyway and into a bustling rain-slicked courtyard. Mortals in ragged clothes hurried past with their heads down. But Arthur's eyes locked onto a figure in the center of the muddy square.
It was a teenager around sixteen years old wielding a heavy wooden training sword. The boy was drenched in sweat and rain and his muscles trembled from exhaustion. However, his eyes burned with fierce naive determination. He was swinging the sword over and over again while correcting his posture with every strike.
Arthur analyzed him. Hard-working. Driven. He probably had a tragic backstory and a burning desire to prove himself. The absolute perfect Chosen One archetype!
To Arthur, he was the perfect free employee.
[Target Identified]
↳ Name: Caden Cross
[Initiate Binder?]
"Bind him." Arthur smiled.
An invisible ethereal thread shot from Arthur's chest and attached itself to the boy's back. Caden didn't notice a thing. He just gritted his teeth and raised the wooden sword again.
Arthur leaned against a nearby wall and crossed his arms. "Work hard, kid. The company relies on you."
Caden swung. Ninety-eight. Ninety-nine.
"Haaaa!" Caden let out a battle cry as he brought the wooden sword down for the final perfect strike.
As the motion completed, the crisp sound of the system chimed in his mind.
[Ding!]
[System Remark]
↳ Employee target Caden Cross completed 1,000 swings.
↳ 10,000x ROI Multiplier activated!
↳ You have gained 10,000,000 swings of sword insight!
"Fvck." Arthur gasped.
The world went white. It wasn't just knowledge, it was raw cataclysmic cosmic energy! The sheer volume of insight generated by ten million perfect sword strikes couldn't be contained in a frail starving mortal vessel.
His body exploded with heat.
"CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!"
The sound of his own bones breaking and instantly reforming happened in rapid succession. Arthur fell to his knees and locked his jaw tight to hold back a scream. The pain was completely absurd. His starved atrophied muscles violently tore themselves apart and rebuilt at a cellular level.
The cosmic energy surged through his veins like liquid fire and forcibly rewrote his DNA. His shoulders broadened and tore the seams of his ragged shirt. His spine lengthened and added inches to his height. The hollows of his cheeks filled out and his jawline sharpened into a predatory chiseled edge.
The mud around him hissed and evaporated from the sheer body heat he was radiating.
For ten agonizing seconds, Arthur endured the equivalent of decades of brutal non-stop physical and martial conditioning. He didn't just learn how to swing a sword, his body was violently sculpted by the system into an apex predator capable of executing those ten million strikes flawlessly!
When the white light finally faded, Arthur slowly stood up.
He looked down at his hands. They were no longer the frail bruised hands of a starving beggar. They were large, powerful and calloused in exactly the right places. He clenched his fist and felt a terrifying explosive power coiled within his dense muscles. The sheer physical presence he now commanded was intoxicating.
He took a deep breath and his chest expanded with absolute vitality. The rain seemed to deflect off his skin before it could even touch him, repelled by the ambient energy radiating from his core.
He looked across the courtyard. Caden Cross had collapsed in the mud and was panting heavily, proud of his meager thousand swings.
Arthur rolled his broad shoulders as a dark genuine smirk spread across his face.
"I'm going to like this universe."