Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System!

Standing directly before her now, he looked down with eyes that contained the weight of infinite authority. "Perhaps you've only heard of Nyxliths through rumors and whispers. Today, I'll demonstrate that I can acquire anything I desire without complications, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Maybe then you'll appreciate how considerate I've been."

[Ding! Infinity Equivalent Exchange Concept activated!]

[Ding! 50x Cashback Card activated!]

[Ding! You've bought Sophisticated Space for $6 trillion!]

The system's cheerful chimes rang in Parker's ears like victory bells.

"Levi, the paperwork," he called out calmly.

An envelope materialized in his hand—crisp, new, still carrying the scent of fresh ink and legal finality. He opened it and let the documents spill onto the floor before Seoryeon's kneeling form.

"Read," he commanded.

Still pinned by impossible forces, Seoryeon could only crawl forward to examine the papers.

Her eyes widened as she processed the legal language, the official seals, the transaction records that showed a completed sale. Her family's company—built over generations, her life's work, her empire—no longer belonged to her.

"I'll kill you," she snarled, though the words came out more like a whimper under the crushing pressure. "I'll destroy everything you—"

"Are you sure?" Parker's smile was sharp as winter wind. He gestured to another set of documents scattered nearby. "You might want to read those first."

Seoryeon's gaze fell on the purchase agreement, and her breath caught. Five trillion dollars. For a company worth at most two trillion on its best day. Even her family's board would have agreed to such an offer—would have been insane not to.

But the real shock came as she continued reading. The company structure remained intact. She was still listed as CEO, still maintained operational control. Only the ownership had changed—and she retained ten percent of the shares.

"I overestimated you," Parker said, the disappointment in his voice somehow more cutting than any threat. "I expected better from a shard of my sister's essence. Nevertheless, family is family, no matter how diluted." He straightened his jacket with casual indifference. "The company will operate normally. You'll continue as CEO. The only difference is that you now answer to me."

Parker wasn't the kind to linger on thinks. He didn't need to process or overthink everything and knew he had to change his plan when he saw she was a Shard or the Princess, in other words...

Family?

Seoryeon barely heard him, frantically pulling out her phone with trembling fingers. The stock prices made her vision blur—Sophisticated Space had skyrocketed from $500 to $1,200 per share in the time it had taken Parker to complete the transaction. The company was now worth more than ten trillion dollars.

She was still the boss. She just had a boss above her now.

Parker watched her process the information with the satisfaction of someone who had just demonstrated a fundamental truth about power dynamics. "Why do they always look so beautiful when crawling?" he mused to himself. "I should do this more often."

The transformation from arrogance to docile acceptance was intoxicating—watching someone realize that all their fury and threats amounted to nothing more than a tantrum that could be simply... overruled.

"From now on," he said, his voice carrying the finality of cosmic law, "you'll do as I say. Earth's fate may well depend on what Sophisticated Space accomplishes in the coming months."

As the pressure finally released her, allowing Seoryeon to breathe freely for the first time in minutes, she remained on her knees, staring at documents that had just redefined her entire existence.

Sometimes the most effective lessons were the ones that came with a very expensive price tag.

*

The pressure in the room dissipated like morning mist as Parker straightened his jacket and moved toward the exit. With a casual gesture, he reversed his earlier manipulation—the sealed doors unlocked with an audible click, the opaque windows cleared to reveal Manhattan's skyline once more, and reality gently deposited his three companions back into the main space from whatever pocket dimension he had temporarily stored them in.

Ava and Callista materialized looking thoroughly disoriented, their faces pale with the kind of shell-shocked expression reserved for people who had experienced something their minds couldn't quite process.

They had been aware of being moved somewhere else, of watching events unfold through what felt like thick glass, but the specifics remained frustratingly unclear.

"What the hell just happened?" Ava managed, her usual professional composure completely shattered. "One minute we were seeing a business meeting, the next minute I'm—we're—" She gestured helplessly at the space around them.

Callista simply stared at Parker with the wide-eyed expression of someone whose understanding of reality had just been fundamentally altered. "Did you just... how did you... what are you?"

"Cassidy," Parker said, his tone returning to the businesslike cadence of someone issuing routine instructions while completely ignoring the existential crises unfolding around him, "clear all your schedules for the next few days. Make time for everyone—Claire, Alina, the whole family. I want some quality time before..." He paused, glancing back at Seoryeon who was still processing her new reality while surrounded by scattered legal documents.

"Before things get complicated."

Cassidy nodded, understanding immediately. If Parker was talking about family time before Earth "flipped," it meant whatever cosmic threats were brewing were more serious than she'd initially realized. Her immortal senses were already picking up disturbances in the dimensional fabric—subtle tears that suggested larger problems approaching.

"Of course. Should I arrange something special? Maybe the estate in the Hamptons? Or we could use the private island?"

"Just time," Parker replied, his voice carrying an unexpected note of tenderness. "Real time. Before everything changes. Somewhere comfortable where the kids can be themselves without worrying about collateral damage to the local reality."

Behind them, Seoryeon rose unsteadily to her feet, her emerald dress wrinkled from her forced genuflection.

The documents scattered around her represented the death of one reality and the birth of another—she was no longer the empress of her own empire, but merely its most highly paid administrator.

Yet as she gathered the papers with trembling hands, her phone continued buzzing incessantly.

The notifications were relentless: stock prices climbing in real-time, board members calling with barely contained excitement about the most profitable sale in corporate history, financial analysts declaring Sophisticated Space the deal of the century, international news outlets demanding statements about the mysterious acquisition.

Her company's value had essentially tripled in the span of minutes, making her remaining ten percent stake worth more than most Fortune 500 companies.

She had lost everything and gained more than she'd ever imagined, all while being forced to her knees in front of witnesses. The humiliation burned almost as much as the bewildering mathematics of her new situation.

"Mr. Black," she called out as they reached the corridor, her voice steady despite everything that had just transpired. Despite her carefully maintained composure, there was something different in her tone now—a recognition of hierarchy that hadn't existed twenty minutes ago.

Parker paused but didn't turn around, his attention already shifting to whatever cosmic concerns occupied beings of his caliber. "Ms. Seoryeon?"

"When you said Earth depends on Sophisticated Space..." She hesitated, then forged ahead with the determination that had built her empire in the first place. "What exactly are we preparing for? What's coming that requires..." She gestured at the impossible architecture around them, the lingering traces of power that still made the air taste like ozone and possibility.

Parker's smile was visible in profile, sharp and knowing and somehow both reassuring and terrifying. "You'll find out soon enough. For now, just keep the company running smoothly. I'll be in touch with specific instructions." He paused, considering something. "And Seoryeon? The next time someone offers you a deal, consider that they might be doing you a favor rather than taking something from you. Well, lucky for you, you're mine now, so there won't be a next time."

As they walked through the impossible corridors toward the building's exit, the walls seeming to contract back to normal dimensions as Parker's presence moved away from them, Ava finally found her voice.

"Did... did you just buy a more than trillion-dollar company by threatening someone?" she asked, her legal mind struggling to process the implications. "Because I'm pretty sure that violates about seventeen different international laws, and I really don't want to be an accessory to—"

"I used five trillion, actually," Parker corrected absently, checking his phone as new messages poured in from financial markets around the world reacting to the sudden shift. "The market adjustment was immediate. And it was a perfectly legal transaction—all the paperwork is in order, all regulatory requirements met retroactively."

"Retroactively?" Callista made a small choking sound that might have been an attempt at laughter or possibly the beginning of a nervous breakdown. "How do you meet regulatory requirements retroactively?"

"Very carefully," Cassidy supplied with the weary tone of someone who had stopped questioning Parker's methods months ago. "The legal system tends to be more flexible when reality itself vouches for the legitimacy of your documentation." She chuckled at Callista's naivety.

Behind them all, Seoryeon followed like a beautifully dressed ghost, still clutching the legal documents that had redefined her existence. Her mind was racing, trying to calculate the implications not just financially, but cosmically. The Prince of Existence now owned her company.

Whatever was coming to Earth, she was apparently going to be on the front lines of it whether she wanted to be or not.

From corporate empress to highly compensated employee to unwilling participant in cosmic events—all in the span of one afternoon meeting.

Even for Manhattan business standards, it had been an unusually eventful day.