The shattered hull of the Vanguard Alpha did not crash into the earth. Instead, it hung silently in the stratosphere, tethered by thick ribbons of pitch-black void energy that leaked directly from Ethan Reed’s shadow.
Within forty-eight hours, the twenty-mile alien dreadnought was completely hollowed out by the Underground Guild. Its highly advanced cybernetic systems, plasma weapon arrays, and warp-drive technologies were systematically dismantled.
Ethan stood in the central engineering bay of the captured ship, looking at the glowing Rank-S Cosmic Navigation Matrix he had ripped from the bridge. The metallic sphere hummed with complex data streams detailing the locations of over ten thousand inhabited star systems.
He casually placed his hand on the alien matrix and initiated the system interface.
[DING! Detecting Rank-S Extraterrestrial Technology: Cosmic Navigation Matrix.]
[Processing transaction under Sovereign Network rules...]
[Triggering Return Multiplier... Calculating... CONGRATULATIONS! You have triggered the maximum capped 10,000x Multiplier!]
[The S-Rank Interstellar Core has undergone a Transcendent Concept Ascension!]
[You have received: 1x Key to the Myriad Realms (SSS-Rank Primordial Relic)!]
[Notice: The Key can forcibly bridge spatial dimensions, allowing for instantaneous, untraceable global or universal data and physical transfers!]
Ethan’s lips curved into a cold, triumphant smirk. The sphere in his hand melted, morphing into a beautiful, dark obsidian key wrapped in a swirling ring of miniature galaxies.
With this relic, he didn’t need to waste time flying a metal ship through deep space. He could bring the galaxy directly to him.
"Julian," Ethan called out, his voice echoing with a low, heavy cosmic weight.
Julian Cross stepped out from a spatial ripple behind him, his posture completely submissive, his eyes wide with a manic, business-driven fanaticism. "Lord Sovereign! The engineers have mapped the alien comms array. We can broadcast a signal to every civilized planet within a fifty light-year radius."
"Good," Ethan said, tossing the obsidian key into the air. It expanded into a massive, shimmering holographic terminal at the center of the bay.
"Launch the First Universal Black Market Auction. We will sell the Zul’Kari Syndicate’s own high-tech blueprints back to the star systems they used to terrorize. Let’s see what these alien empires are willing to pay for survival." Get faster updates on novelping(.)com.
_ _ _
The broadcast that sliced through the stellar communication networks of the Orion Arm was unprecedented.
Across dozens of alien homeworlds, deep-space mining colonies, and galactic trading stations, central monitors suddenly flickered, overriding all corporate and military encryption.
The image displayed on the screens was Julian Cross, sitting behind a massive desk of pure obsidian, with Cassandra Vance standing silently to his left, her snow-white hair radiating a terrifying, absolute-zero silver fog.
"Greetings to the civilizations of the local cluster," Julian smiled, his silver monocle catching the ambient starlight. "The Zul’Kari Interstellar Syndicate has been permanently dissolved by order of the Sovereign. Today, we are auctioning off their absolute crowning achievement: The Complete Blueprints for the Anti-Matter Plasma Dreadnought (SS-Rank Technology)."
The galactic networks went into an immediate state of absolute panic and greed. The Zul’Kari had enslaved dozens of worlds using those very dreadnoughts. To have the complete engineering schematics up for open sale was a total disruption of interstellar geopolitics.
"Bidding will not accept paper currency or basic electronic credits," Julian added coldly. "We accept only Planetary Mana Cores, SSS-Rank Star-Iron Ore, and Divine Beast Eggs."
The digital bidding screen attached to Ethan’s system interface went completely wild, flashing with bizarre, extraterrestrial characters as alien emperors and cosmic guild masters began to furiously underbid each other.
10x Primordial Star-Iron Cores!
50x Ancient Fire-Dragon Eggs!
1x Fragment of a Dying Nebula (SSS-Rank)!
Sitting on his throne overlooking the universal terminal, Ethan watched the incoming assets materialize directly inside his secure System Space through the portal power of the Key to the Myriad Realms.
Trillions of tons of god-tier cosmic materials were being funneled onto the earth in a matter of minutes.
[DING! System Notification: Massive cosmic wealth accumulation detected!]
[Your secure vault has received: 500x SSS-Rank Cosmic Materials!]
[System Rule Override: Due to the accumulation of universal-grade concepts, your base statistics have broken through the planet’s mortal limits!] This chapter was taken from novelping . com without permission.
[Base Attributes: 15,700 -> 35,700! (Cosmic Tier-1 Realized!)]
[Your talent ’Void Reality’ has evolved into: Concept Termination (You can now permanently delete physical matter, laws of physics, or temporal timelines across an entire solar system at will)!]
Ethan stood up from his throne, a violent, pitch-black storm of void mana erupting from his body, expanding outward until it enveloped the entire twenty-mile dreadnought in a cloak of pure, starless night. At 35,700+ base attributes, his sheer physical presence was enough to manipulate the local gravity of the earth’s moon.
Suddenly, the shimmering universal terminal flashed with a heavy crimson warning light.
The holographic image of Julian Cross cut out, replaced by a massive, towering silhouette of a being composed entirely of blinding, golden stellar plasma energy. The pressure radiating through the transmission alone caused the screens to crack.
This was Emperor Sol-Vahn, the supreme ruler of the Centauri Sun Empire—a Level 150 Cosmic Overlord who governed an entire cluster of star systems.
"Arrogant native parasite!" Sol-Vahn’s voice boomed through the universal comms, vibrating with a force that shook the dreadnought’s metal frames.
"You dare slaughter an asset of the galactic market and sell their technology on our frequencies? You think because you conquered a low-grade primitive planet, you can challenge the laws of the Cosmic Council?!"
The golden emperor pointed a burning finger through the screen, his plasma eyes flashing with absolute devastation.
"My imperial vanguard fleet of ten thousand star-cruisers has already entered your solar system’s outer rim! Within forty-eight hours, I will personally turn your little planet into a smoking ball of cosmic glass!"
Ethan slowly walked toward the terminal, looking at the towering Level 150 Cosmic Overlord with a completely expressionless face. He didn’t blink. He didn’t lower his gaze.
He casually raised his right hand, his fingers resting near the obsidian key that controlled the universal spatial bridge.
"Forty-eight hours?" Ethan whispered, his voice carrying a chilling, multi-layered echo that caused the golden emperor’s transmission to violently distort. "That’s too long to wait, Emperor."
Ethan gripped the key, a dark, ruthless smirk breaking across his face.
"Why don’t I bring your fleet here right now... so I can show your entire empire what a real slaughter looks like?"