The Outer District Hunter Bazaar was a chaotic maze of neon signs, heavy smoke, and street vendors selling low-grade dungeon scraps.
Active hunters traded cracked armor, rusty blades, and F-rank beast cores for pocket change.
Ethan walked through the muddy aisles, his hood pulled low. With 17,050 Credits in his account, he wasn’t a beggar anymore, but in the grand scheme of things, he was still penniless.
A true D-rank iron sword cost at least 50,000 Credits. He needed to maximize his system.
But he couldn’t just keep gifting things to his sister—the system rules explicitly stated the gifts had to be sincere, and repeating the exact same routine would eventually yield diminishing returns or trigger suspicion if Lily suddenly became an overnight powerhouse without leaving the house.
He needed external targets. Honest people he could "invest" in. As he neared the edge of the market, a commotion caught his attention.
"Get lost, you crippled freak! Your dantian is shattered, your mana veins are blocked, and you’re trying to sell literal garbage to my shop?" A burly shopkeeper shoved a young girl out into the muddy street.
She collapsed into the dirt, a few rusted iron daggers scattering around her.
Ethan stopped.
The girl looked about nineteen, wearing a faded, tattered battle cloak. Despite the dirt on her face, her eyes were sharp, filled with a fierce, unyielding pride that refused to break.
Ethan’s mind flashed back to the academy rumors. Cassandra Vance. She was Tyler Vance’s cousin. A year ago, she was the undisputed number-one genius of the city, having awakened an S-rank combat talent: Frost Empress.
But during a high-level rift expedition, she was ambushed by a hidden beast. Her mana core was shattered, reducing her to a cripple. The Vance family, ruthless and merit-based, discarded her instantly, stripping her of her name and throwing her into the slums to rot while Tyler took her place as the family star.
Cassandra quietly bit her lip, refusing to let out a cry of pain. She began gathering her rusted daggers from the mud.
Ethan walked over and knelt down, picking up one of the rusty daggers.[Rusted Iron Dagger (Trash Grade): Attack +2. Durability 5/10. Worthless.]
"Need some help?" Ethan asked gently, offering the dagger back to her.
Cassandra looked up, her gaze icy and defensive. "I don’t need pity from an F-rank delivery boy. I know who you are, Ethan Reed. The academy’s laughingstock."
"Then we have something in common," Ethan replied with a faint smile, standing up. "We’ve both been thrown away by the people at the top."
He looked at the daggers. An idea sparked in his mind. Investing in a fallen S-rank genius who hated the Vance family just as much as he did? The returns could be astronomical.
"How much for the whole set of five daggers?" Ethan asked. Cassandra frowned, suspicious.
"They’re garbage. The metal is corroded. Even a blacksmith would only give 50 Credits for the scrap iron."
"I’ll give you 5,000 Credits for them," Ethan said flatly. Cassandra gasped, staring at him as if he had lost his mind.
"5,000? Are you insane? That’s enough for two months of food in the slums! Why would you do that?"
"Consider it an investment," Ethan said. He tapped his phone, transferring 5,000 Credits directly to her public hunter ID before she could protest.
Ding!
Cassandra looked at her phone, her hands trembling. 5,000 Credits. It was a lifeline. She looked up at Ethan, her icy demeanor melting into profound confusion and genuine, deep gratitude.
"Why... why help me?"
"Because the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Ethan said quietly. He picked up the five rusted daggers. But he wasn’t done.
The system triggered when he gave or invested. He had just invested money into her, but now he was going to turn it around.
Ethan looked at Cassandra’s pale face, remembering her shattered mana core. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the snow-white Heavenly Elixir Pastries (S-Rank) he had multiplied earlier.
"Eat this," Ethan said, pressing the glowing pastry into her hand. "Don’t ask questions. Just eat it."
Cassandra stared at the silver-glowing pastry. The pure, overwhelming density of spiritual energy radiating from it made her shattered mana core throb violently. Her instincts screamed that this was an item beyond comprehension.
The moment she held it, the blue system screen exploded in Ethan’s vision.
[DING! You have sincerely invested ’5,000 Credits’ and ’1x Heavenly Elixir Pastry (S-Rank)’ into the Fallen Genius: Cassandra Vance.]
[Target’s gratitude level: Extremely High. Activating Cosmic Karma Matrix...]
[Triggering Return Multiplier... Calculating... CONGRATULATIONS! You have triggered the legendary 10,000x Capped Multiplier!]
[You have received the 10,000x Return Rewards:] 50,000,000 Credits (Fifty Million Credits deposited securely!) 1x Divine Frost Awakening Pill (SSS-Rank Mythic Consumable!) 1x Shadow Sovereign’s Twin Blades (SS-Rank Growth-Type Divine Weapon!)]
Ethan’s breath hitched completely. His mind went entirely numb for a fraction of a second.
Fifty million credits! An SSS-Rank Mythic Pill! An SS-Rank Growth Weapon!
"Ethan... what is this?" Cassandra’s voice shook as she stared at the pastry.
"Eat it, Cassandra. If you want your revenge on the Vance family, eat it right now," Ethan commanded, his voice sharp but low.
Cassandra closed her eyes and jammed the pastry into her mouth.
BOOM!
An invisible shockwave of absolute frost erupted from her body, blowing the mud away in a perfect circle.
The street vendors nearby turned around in shock, but Ethan quickly stood in front of her, masking the light with his body.
Inside Cassandra’s body, the S-rank pastry was violently reconstructing her shattered dantian, stitching her broken mana veins back together with pure celestial energy.
Her dull eyes reignited with a terrifying, piercing silver light. Her broken core wasn’t just fixed—it was reinforced to be twice as strong as before.
"My... my mana..." Cassandra whispered, tears finally leaking from her eyes. "It’s back. My S-rank talent... it’s fully restored!"
She looked at Ethan, no longer seeing an F-rank trash. She saw a god walking among mortals. A benefactor who had casually handed her a miracle that not even the global superpower guilds could procure.
Without hesitation, Cassandra dropped to one knee in the mud, bowing her head deeply to him.
"Ethan Reed. You gave me my life back," she said, her voice fiercely loyal. "From this day forth, my blade belongs to you. Whoever you want dead, I will slaughter. Whichever guild you want crushed, I will tear down."
Ethan looked down at her, a cold, triumphant smirk playing on his lips. He checked his system space, seeing the SS-Rank Shadow Twin Blades waiting for him.
"Get up, Cassandra," Ethan said, his eyes reflecting the neon lights. "We have a lot of work to do. The academy trial is next week, and I think it’s time we give your cousin Tyler a surprise he will never forget."