Arthur stumbled through the heavy starlight doors. His boots skidded against the floor.
He collapsed against the cold metal wall.
His chest heaved as he gasped for air. His right arm and left leg throbbed with the dull weary ache of accelerated entropy.
But a dark triumphant smile stretched across his face.
He had survived.
"You look like shit," Cassia's voice called out from the center of the room.
Arthur looked up. The fatigue in his bones momentarily vanished. It was replaced by the sheer awe of absolute corporate victory.
They were standing in the core of the Regional Reserve. The room was the size of a stadium, and it was filled to the brim with pure concentrated Merit Energy.
Unlike the divine crystals of the Apex Dimension, Merit Energy existed as a fluid glowing silver mist. It gathered in massive swirling pools and solidified into towering ingots of pure cosmic capital.
It was enough wealth to buy a hundred universes.
