Evren stood beside the king-sized bed, adjusting the sleeves of his new white silk shirt.
Amber watched him from the bed, her eyes filled with a mixture of awe and gentle warmth. Seeing Evren all dressed up, he no longer looked like the exhausted, rain-soaked delivery boy from last night. He looked powerful, calm, and commanding.
"I need to step out for an hour," Evren said, turning to her with a warm smile. "I’m going to grab our personal belongings."
"Our belongings?"
Evren nodded.
"Evren, my family took everything I owned when they discarded me. I don’t have anything left except..." She trailed off, her eyes darkening with old pain. "...except my mother’s silver ring and my old S-Rank Captain Medal. But those are locked in the Sterling Guild annex storage."
"Then I’ll bring them back," Evren said reassuringly. "Rest up. I’ll be back soon."
He left the penthouse, taking the private elevator down to the lobby.
Instead of taking a crowded public bus like he used to, Evren requested a private luxury sedan from the Apex Tower VIP car service. A black town car pulled up to the entrance, and the uniformed driver opened the door for him with a respectful bow.
Ten minutes later, the sedan pulled up to a run-down, crumbling neighborhood in the city’s lower district.
Evren stepped out, looking up at his old apartment building.
It was a dark, moldy four-story structure with broken stairs and peeling paint.
Yesterday, he had worried about how he would carry a paralyzed woman up four flights of dark stairs. Now, he was standing here in a tailored silk shirt with millions of dollars in his bank account.
Evren walked up the creaking stairs to his old room on the fourth floor. He unlocked the door, stepping into the tiny, freezing space. He didn’t care about the dusty furniture or the worn-out blankets.
He walked over to the wooden closet, reached into a loose floorboard in the back, and pulled out a small wooden box.
Inside was his late mother’s silver pendant and his family’s official identity documents.
Evren raised his right hand. The sleek silver ring on his index finger caught the dim light.
’Spatial Storage Ring,’ Evren thought, focusing his mind on the ring.
A faint blue rune flared on the silver band. In an instant, a mental link connected Evren’s consciousness to a massive, empty one-hundred-cubic-meter dimensional vault.
Evren touched the wooden box, and with a simple thought, the box vanished from his hands, appearing safely inside the dimensional space.
"It really works," Evren murmured with a satisfied smile on his face.
He left the slum building and instructed his driver to head toward the Sterling Guild Annex in the commercial district.
The Sterling Guild Annex was a mid-sized corporate building where former guild members’ archived files and personal items were held. Because Amber had been disowned, her personal medal and photo box were slated for auction or destruction.
Evren walked into the annex lobby and approached the front reception counter.
"I’m here to retrieve the archived personal belongings of former Captain Amber," Evren said calmly.
The clerk behind the desk adjusted his glasses, looking at Evren’s tailored clothes with suspicion. "Amber Sterling? Her file is marked as disowned by the Sterling Guild. Archived personal items of disowned members can only be released to high-level guild officials or VIP clearance holders. You don’t have the authority..."
Evren didn’t argue. He pulled out his phone and tapped it against the desk console.
BEEP!
A bright golden light flashed across the screen:
NOTICE: VIP BLACK CARD ACCOUNT DETECTED. PRIORITY AUTHORIZATION GRANTED.
The clerk’s eyes bulged in shock. He stumbled out of his chair, bowing repeatedly. "M-My apologies, sir! I didn’t recognize your status! I’ll fetch Captain Amber’s case from the vault immediately!"
Five minutes later, the clerk returned with a sealed metallic case containing Amber’s S-Rank Captain Medal, her late mother’s silver ring, and a small box of childhood photographs.
Evren accepted the case, touched it briefly, and stored the entire box into his Spatial Storage Ring before walking back out to his waiting sedan.
Sitting in the comfortable leather seat of the car, Evren pulled out his phone and opened the priority SMS notification he had received from Apex National Bank when his VIP Black Card activated last night.
He tapped the direct contact number for his assigned personal wealth manager, Mikay.
"Good morning, Mr. Evren!" Mikay’s enthusiastic voice came through the speaker. "How may Apex National Bank assist you today?"
"I want to buy a company," Evren said calmly, looking out at the city skyscrapers. "DashExpress."
DashExpress was the food delivery app company where Evren had worked grueling fourteen-hour shifts.
Yesterday, when Prescott called in a favour as a twelve percent shareholder, Regional Manager Barton hadn’t hesitated for a single second.
Without checking the delivery logs or asking Evren a single question, Barton had executed Evren’s immediate termination in the system and logged a fake five-hundred-dollar penalty fee against his account just to suck up to Prescott.
Mikay tapped his terminal quickly on the other end. "DashExpress is currently facing severe cash flow issues, Mr. Evren. They are actively seeking emergency corporate funding. A controlling fifty-one percent majority stake costs exactly five million dollars."
"Buy it," Evren ordered cleanly. "Transfer five million dollars from my account right now."
"Processing instantly, sir!" Mikay replied.
A second later, a plain bank notification chimed on Evren’s phone:
Bank Alert: $5,000,000.00 transferred to DashExpress Corporate Escrow.
Account Balance: $24,950,042.50.
"The wire transfer is complete, Chairman Evren!" Mikay reported with excitement. "You are now the majority owner of DashExpress. Young Master Prescott’s twelve percent stake has been completely marginalized to non-voting minority noise. Shall I notify their management?"
"Yes," Evren replied coldly. "Also contact Regional Manager Barton. Tell him the new majority Chairman has arrived at Apex Tower and demands his presence in the private conference room immediately."
"Right away, sir!"
Ten minutes later, Evren arrived back at Apex Tower.
Outside the executive conference room, a bank courier in a suit bowed politely and handed Evren a leather folder containing the newly stamped stock ownership documents. Evren took the folder and walked into the conference suite.
Twenty minutes later, a silver taxi screeched to a halt outside Apex Tower.
Regional Manager Barton scrambled out of the cab, clutching a leather briefcase. Barton was a balding, middle-aged man in a tight, cheap suit, sweating profusely in the morning heat.
DashExpress had been on the verge of bankruptcy for weeks. When the corporate board notified him ten minutes ago that a mystery billionaire had just injected five million dollars cash to buy fifty-one percent of the company, Barton nearly dropped his phone in joy.
He knew that if he could impress this new Chairman, he might secure a massive promotion.
Barton hurried through the glass entrance of Apex Tower, wiping sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. He took the high-speed elevator up to the private executive conference floor, adjusting his tie nervously in the mirror.
He approached the double glass doors of the executive conference suite. Through the frosted glass, he could see a tall figure sitting relaxed at the head of a massive mahogany conference table.
Barton took a deep breath, plastered a broad, bootlicking smile across his face, and pushed open the glass doors.
"Chairman! Welcome to Veridia!" Barton squealed loudly, bowing deeply at a ninety-degree angle before even looking up. "I am Regional Manager Barton! On behalf of all DashExpress staff, I want to extend our deepest gratitude for your investment! I have prepared full operational reports for your review..."
Barton straightened up, holding out his briefcase and froze dead in his tracks.
The bootlicking smile on his face vanished, replaced by complete terror. His jaw dropped so wide his mouth hung open, and his eyes bulged out of his sockets.
Sitting at the head of the long mahogany conference table, wearing a bespoke tailored Italian suit, white silk shirt, and sipping a cup of hot espresso, was Evren.
Sitting at the head of the long mahogany conference table, wearing a bespoke tailored Italian suit, crisp white silk shirt, and sipping a cup of hot espresso, was Evren.
"E-Evren?!" Barton stammered. The bootlicking smile instantly turned into an angry sneer. "What the hell are you doing sitting in here?! Did you steal a suit just to sneak into Apex Tower and play dress-up?! Get your broke ass out of here before I call security and have you thrown in jail!"
Evren slowly set his porcelain coffee cup down onto the saucer.
He picked up the leather folder from Apex National Bank and tossed the official stamped legal documents across the polished table. The papers slid smoothly over the wood, stopping right in front of Barton’s shoes.
"Read it, Barton.".
Barton sneered, eyeing him before bending down to pick up the documents. "Read what? Some fake papers you printed out to pretend..."
Barton stopped mid-sentence. His eyes frantically scanned the top page, locking onto the official bank seal and the bold black lettering at the bottom:
Controlling Stockholder (51% Majority): Evren.
Executive Title: Chairman of the Board.
Barton’s face turned paper-white. All the color drained from his face, and his hands began to shake. The legal documents slipped from his numb fingers and scattered across the floor.
"Y-You... you bought fifty-one percent of DashExpress?!" Barton gasped. "How... how does a delivery boy have five million dollars cash?!"
"For two years, you squeezed every drop of sweat out of me," Evren said, leaning back in his chair. "You stole my holiday delivery tips, assigned me fourteen-hour storm shifts, and mocked my mother’s medical debt.
"And yesterday, when Prescott called you, you executed my termination in the system and logged a five-hundred-dollar fine against my account without checking what happened. You didn’t care about the truth. You just wanted to lick a rich heir’s boots."
"Chairman Evren... no, Evren! Please!" Barton collapsed onto his knees, sweating so much his collar was soaked. He grabbed the edge of the mahogany table, tears of panic welling in his eyes. "I was just following Young Master Prescott’s orders! I have a family! I have a mortgage on my house! Please... give me one more chance!"
Evren looked down at the kneeling, sobbing manager.
"As the new Chairman of DashExpress," Evren said, "as of three seconds ago... you’re fired."