Corporate Villainy: Trampling Protagonists as a Business Dad

The Cornelius Holdings tower rose thirty-seven stories into Autumnvale's perpetually overcast sky, its glass and steel facade reflecting the muted morning light like a predator's eye. Unlike the gleaming monoliths of Annapurna Guild in Sector 1 or the fortress-like structures of Meridian Enterprises in Sector 2, Vincent's corporate headquarters projected calculated efficiency—impressive enough to command respect, modest enough to avoid unwanted attention from the higher-tier corporations that truly ruled this Corporate Nexus City.

The building's exterior was deceptively simple: clean lines of reinforced steel frame with Qi-infused glass panels that shimmered faintly with protective ward patterns. The lobby's marble floors bore subtle geometric inlays that channeled spiritual energy through the building's foundation, a testament to Cornelius Holdings' dominance. Everything about the structure spoke of precision, planning, and the kind of controlled power that moved goods and people across the city's eleven sectors without fanfare.

Vincent's predecessor had built this empire through ruthless efficiency rather than wasteful displays of power. The original Vincent Cornelius had been selfish and arrogant, yes, but his selfishness was calculated—every expenditure viewed through the lens of personal benefit, which meant company resources were protected rather than squandered. His arrogance had driven him to prove superiority through results rather than appearances, investing in Qi stabilization technology, logistics infrastructure, and cultivation advancement instead of vanity projects. It was this foundation of practical power that had elevated Cornelius Holdings from a small transit company to a mid-tier corporation capable of competing in Autumnvale's ruthless corporate ecosystem.

As Vincent's Phantom glided to a stop before the main entrance, employees throughout the lobby began to take notice. The morning shift was in full swing—junior analysts clutching coffee cups, mid-level managers reviewing tablet displays, security personnel maintaining their posts. The moment Vincent stepped through the revolving doors, a ripple of awareness spread through the space.

Heads turned. Conversations quieted. One by one, every employee within sight offered a respectful bow—not the deep genuflection reserved for the Corporate Lords of Sectors 1 and 2, but the measured acknowledgment due to a Chairman who commanded both fear and loyalty. Their eyes held a mixture of professional respect, genuine awe, and the kind of careful wariness that came from knowing Vincent Cornelius was not a man to cross.

A young logistics coordinator nearly dropped her files, her face flushing as she hastily bowed. An older security guard's nod carried the weight of years of service, his expression carefully neutral but his posture betraying the tension that always accompanied Vincent's presence. Even the cleaning staff paused in their duties, offering quiet bows before quickly returning to their tasks.

Vincent acknowledged none of them directly, but his presence commanded the space as surely as if he'd spoken. His footsteps echoed with quiet authority across the marble floor as he moved toward the executive elevators, Raghu following a respectful distance behind.

The elevator carried them past floors of bustling activity—the third floor's transit coordination center where screens displayed real-time cargo movements across all eleven sectors, the fifteenth floor's Qi stabilization laboratories where technicians worked to maintain the company's edge in spiritual logistics, the twenty-third floor's corporate intelligence division where analysts tracked competitor movements and market fluctuations.

When the doors opened on the thirty-fourth floor, Vincent stepped into a different world entirely. The corporate detention level was a stark contrast to the building's public face—reinforced walls, soundproofed interrogation rooms, and security measures that would make Sector 4 mercenaries nod with approval.

Olivia was waiting for him in the corridor, her usual professional composure intact but her sharp eyes conducting a thorough scan of his appearance. Her gaze lingered on the faint relaxation in his shoulders, the almost imperceptible softening around his eyes, the way his suit seemed to hang differently on his frame. When her eyes met his, there was a flash of something that might have been hurt, quickly masked behind professional courtesy.

"Chairman," she said, her voice carrying its usual efficiency with just the slightest edge of formality. "The subjects are secured in interrogation rooms one through nine. Preliminary identification confirms five from Meridian Enterprises, four from Annapurna Guild."

Vincent's expression grew colder, if such a thing were possible. The bait had worked perfectly. Over the past two weeks, he had orchestrated one of the most sophisticated corporate espionage traps, and now he was about to reap the rewards.

Strange, Vincent thought, how naturally this kind of manipulation comes to me now. The original Vincent would have handled this with more brute force and intimidation. But I... I see the chess board differently. He wondered sometimes if the memories and instincts of his predecessor were bleeding into his own thinking, making him more calculating than he'd ever been in his previous life.

*****

Two weeks earlier, Vincent had called Olivia into his office with specific instructions. "I need you to start a rumor," he had said, his fingers steepled as he gazed out at the city's sprawling sectors. "Something that will make our competitors desperate enough to take risks."

Olivia had raised an eyebrow—a rare display of skepticism from his usually composed assistant. "What kind of rumor, Chairman? And through which channels?"

"Something that threatens their very foundation," Vincent had replied. "But first, I need to understand their intelligence networks better. What do you know about how information flows between the corporations?"

Her response had been immediate and detailed, confirming what Vincent had suspected—Olivia wasn't just an assistant to him, she was a strategic asset who understood the corporate landscape as well as he did. "Meridian uses a mix of direct employees and contractors, with their intelligence division favoring aggressive acquisition methods. Annapurna prefers embedded assets and long-term surveillance. Both have vulnerabilities in their mid-tier communication chains."

"Excellent. Then here's what we're going to do..."

The rumor he crafted was deceptively simple yet irresistibly threatening: Cornelius Holdings had developed a breakthrough in "compressed Qi synchronization."

This breakthrough—if it existed—would revolutionize the entire corporate landscape. In the Corporate Nexus world, Qi-enhanced objects required specialized spiritual patterns.

Why this technology would be revolutionary:

Mind cultivators normally needed to perform complex patterns in multiple phases in a single flow without stopping

Each phase required perfect timing and spiritual synchronization

The process was expensive, time-consuming, and required skilled mind cultivation specialists

A single-pass compression would eliminate most of these limitations

The implications were staggering:

Mass production capabilities without teams of specialized cultivators

Reduced operational costs by eliminating multiple infusion phases

Scalable advantage in logistics that could dominate all eleven sectors

The potential to completely destabilize the current corporate power structure

Vincent had Olivia leak this information through carefully selected channels. The beauty of the operation was that both corporations would receive the same intelligence independently, through different sources, without ever suspecting manipulation.

To make the bait irresistible, Vincent had prepared physical evidence. In a deliberately under-secured facility on the outskirts of Sector 3, he placed a convincing but non-functional prototype—complete with scrambled Qi patterns that looked like interrupted development and technical specifications with just enough detail to seem authentic. Research notes scattered around the fake prototype suggested the breakthrough was nearly complete, with only minor calibration needed.

The psychological trap was perfect. Both corporations would believe they had exclusive early warning about a game-changing technology, and both would see the same window of vulnerability—a chance to steal the innovation before their rival could act.

Vincent had then created the perfect opportunity by reducing guard rotations at the facility for exactly forty-eight hours, timed to coincide with the upcoming board meetings at both rival corporations. The message was clear: strike now, or lose the advantage forever.

Vincent's carefully orchestrated rumor had drawn both corporations into his trap like moths to flame.

Am I becoming too much like the original Vincent? he wondered as he observed the captured operatives. He would have used fear and brutality. I'm using psychology and manipulation. But the end result is the same—I'm turning people into tools for my ambition.

The thought troubled him briefly. In his previous life, he'd never been this calculating, this willing to orchestrate elaborate deceptions. But then again, his previous life hadn't involved corporate cultivation warfare where a single strategic misstep could mean the destruction of everything he'd built.

"Their cultivation levels?"

"Mostly basic stage, sir. Two refined level operatives—one from each corporation. They were leading the infiltration teams."

Olivia's tablet chimed softly, and her expression sharpened as she read the incoming message. "Chairman, I'm receiving reports from our intelligence assets in both corporations. There's unusual activity in their emergency communication channels. Someone is asking pointed questions about tonight's mission parameters."

Vincent's eyes narrowed. "What kind of questions?"

"Requests for operational timelines, personnel assignments, and..." she paused, her fingers flying across the tablet screen, "contingency protocols for asset retrieval. It appears both corporations are trying to determine if their operations have been compromised."

"Excellent. That means our timeline is accelerating." Vincent's mind raced through the implications. "What's your assessment of how long we have before they coordinate a response?"

"Based on their communication patterns, I estimate forty-eight to seventy-two hours before they're forced to acknowledge the situation officially. However..." Olivia hesitated, then continued with characteristic precision, "I believe you should consider that your recent behavioral changes haven't gone unnoticed within our own organization."

Vincent studied her face carefully. "Explain."

"Department heads have been asking about your strategic methodology. Some have expressed... curiosity about your shift from direct confrontation to psychological warfare. They're wondering if you've been consulting with external advisors."

The insight made Vincent pause. He'd been so focused on outmaneuvering his external enemies that he'd forgotten to consider how his transformation appeared to those closest to him.

Vincent nodded, processing both the tactical information and Olivia's subtle warning.

**

The cultivation system in their world operated on clear hierarchies:

Basic stage cultivators had enhanced physical capabilities but limited spiritual development

Refined stage operatives could manipulate spiritual energy with more precision.

The gap between stages was significant—like the difference between a trained athlete and someone who could bend reality with their mind

For corporate espionage, this meant:

Basic stage operatives were used for simple breaking and entering

Refined stage operatives handled complex infiltration and pattern theft

The fact that both corporations had sent refined stage leadership suggested they considered this mission critical

What made Vincent's trap so effective was that he hadn't just caught spies—he had engineered a situation where both rival corporations had revealed their capabilities, demonstrated their mutual distrust, and provided him with intelligence about their internal politics.

"Show me."

The first interrogation room contained a nervous young man in his early twenties. Vincent studied him through the one-way glass, noting the telltale signs of basic stage body cultivation—enhanced physical conditioning, but limited spiritual development. The kind of operative used for simple breaking and entering, not complex espionage.

Vincent entered the room with predatory grace, his presence immediately filling the space. The young man's eyes widened, he seem to have recognized him and Vincent could practically taste his fear in the air.

"What's your name?" Vincent asked, his voice deceptively calm.

"T-Thomas Wilson, sir. I work for Meridian's logistics division, I swear I was just—"

"You were just breaking into my facility to steal proprietary Qi infusion patterns," Vincent interrupted, his tone carrying the weight of absolute certainty. "The question is what your corporate masters promised you for success."

Thomas's face went pale. "I don't know what you mean, sir. I was just—"

Vincent's spiritual pressure descended like a physical weight, pressing against the young man's consciousness. This was one of the advantages of refined stage cultivation—the ability to project one's spiritual presence in ways that bypassed physical defenses entirely. The Qi that enhanced his own body and mind allowed him to manipulate spiritual energy with surgical precision, turning his cultivation into a weapon of interrogation.

Thomas gasped, his basic stage foundation crumbling under the assault like a house of cards in a hurricane.

"Your meridian pathways are trembling," Vincent observed clinically. "Your spiritual foundation is being compressed. This is what happens when someone of your level attempts to lie to someone of mine. Shall we try again?"

The pressure increased, and Thomas's hands began to shake. "Please, sir, I—the job was supposed to be simple. Just grab whatever was in the engine core storage and get out. Meridian's intelligence division said it was just a routine acquisition."

"Routine acquisition of what, specifically?" Vincent's spiritual pressure intensified, causing Thomas's vision to blur as his Qi circulation faltered.

Thomas's resistance crumbled entirely under the spiritual assault. "The compressed Qi sync patterns. The new single-pass infusion method. They said if Cornelius Holdings really had developed it, we needed to know before the next board meeting."

Vincent's smile was razor-sharp. The bait had worked perfectly. "And what did your handlers plan to do with this information?"