Chapter 16: A Mission?

The next morning...

Jude stretched, feeling incredibly rested, and picked up the tablet on his nightstand to order room service.

As the hotel staff wheeled the silver carts into his suite, a familiar chime echoed in his mind.

[Ding!]

[Due to the Host successfully completing a Hidden Objective yesterday, you have been awarded three Bonus Daily Sign-Ins!]

Jude grinned. The system just kept giving. "Sign in."

[Bonus Sign-In 1 Successful! Reward: $30,000,000 USD.]

[Bonus Sign-In 2 Successful! Reward: $40,000,000 USD.]

[Bonus Sign-In 3 Successful! Reward: $25,000,000 USD.]

His phone on the coffee table vibrated three times in rapid succession. Jude picked it up and opened his Apex National Bank app.

*Total Deposits Received: $95,000,000.00.*

Jude let out a laugh as he bit into his truffle omelet.

The breakfast he was eating cost nearly three thousand dollars... a sum that would have taken him a year to save just a few days ago.

Now? It was a microscopic fraction of a penny compared to the ninety-five million dollars that had just materialized in his account over a cup of coffee.

Just as he finished eating, Victoria called.

"Good morning, Mr. Lawson," Victoria said."The Obsidian Grand’s private conference atrium is packed. I spent the entire night calling in favors. We have CEOs from top-tier foreign trade logistics, offshore tech startups, and international supply chains. They are all incredibly eager to pitch for your fifty-million-dollar fund."

"Understood," Jude said casually, pouring himself a second cup of coffee. "I’ll be down shortly."

"Sir, they are getting a bit restless..."

"Let them wait, Victoria," Jude said smoothly. "I hold the capital. They aren’t going anywhere."

He took his time, showering, dressing in a bespoke midnight-blue suit, and snapping his Audemars Piguet onto his wrist.

When Jude finally stepped out of the private elevator and approached the Grand Atrium, the noise was deafening.

Dozens of elite executives were pacing the room, adjusting their ties and rehearsing their pitches.

But the moment Jude walked through the double doors, flanked by Victoria, the room fell dead silent.

The silence only lasted for a second before the crowd swarmed him.

"Mr. Lawson! It is a profound honor. My shipping conglomerate desperately needs liquid capital to open new ports in Europe!"

"Mr. Lawson! I represent an offshore tech manufacturing firm. If you invest your fifty million with us, we can guarantee a twenty percent return on investment by Q3!"

"Please, sir, our international supply chain is heavily discounted right now! We are the perfect asset!"

Jude stood in the center of the chaos.

The desperation in the room was palpable...

They were practically begging him to take their equity.

Before Jude could even respond to the first pitch, the doors of the atrium were shoved open.

"That’s enough!" a harsh voice echoed across the room.

The crowd parted as a tal man in his late twenties stormed into the room, followed by a small army of private security and financial analysts.

Victoria leaned close to Jude. "That is Damian Cross. He’s the heir to Cross Capital, a hundred-billion-dollar venture capital empire. They have a monopoly on foreign trade investments in this city."

Damian glared at the executives in the room, his face twisted in disgust. "What is wrong with you people? You’re on your knees for a guy nobody had even heard of two days ago!"

Damian then turned his glare onto Jude.

"I don’t know who you are, Lawson, or where you got a fifty-million-dollar offshore fund," Damian sneered. "But you do not waltz into my city and poach my clients. Cross Capital controls the foreign trade sector. If you think you can disrupt my family’s market share, I will ensure your fund is bled dry by the end of the month."

Jude looked at Damian.

Suddenly, a system notification flashed in Jude’s mind.

[Mission Triggered: Establish Absolute Financial Dominance.]

[Objective: The Host has been challenged by a rival financial entity. Assert dominance by investing over $200,000,000 USD in foreign projects today.]

[Reward: +1 Money Sign-In, +1 Platinum System Reward Box.]

Jude’s smile slowly crept onto his face.

A mission?

He had just been handed ninety-five million dollars this morning.

He had the fifty million offshore fund. And he had tens of millions sitting in his main checking account.

Spending two hundred million was going to be incredibly entertaining...

"I don’t have a market share to protect, Damian," Jude said. "I just woke up this morning feeling a bit bored, and decided I wanted to drop a few hundred million dollars to pass the time."

The entire room gasped.

Did he just say a *few hundred million*? To pass the time?!

The executives looked at Jude with wide eyes.

They thought he was only here to invest a fifty-million-dollar fund. If he had hundreds of millions to throw around casually, his true net worth had to be utterly astronomical.

Damian’s face flushed a deep red. He refused to be intimidated.

"You have a big mouth," Damian laughed, a mocking sound. "A few hundred million? Please. Cross Capital has already injected five hundred million dollars into the foreign market this year alone! Do you hear me? Five hundred million! You are nothing compared to a hundred-billion-dollar empire!"

"He’s right," one CEO whispered to another. "Cross Capital just dropped four billion RMB on overseas infrastructure. They are untouchable."

"If we side with this Lawson guy and he loses, Cross Capital will blacklist us forever," another executive muttered nervously.

Jude didn’t flinch at the staggering number. In fact, he looked disappointed.

"Five hundred million dollars?" Jude echoed, tilting his head slightly as he looked at the heir. "Over the course of an entire year?"

Damian’s sneer faltered slightly. "Yes! More capital than you will ever see in your lifetime!"

"Damian, you might want to hire better accountants," Jude said, a smile touching his lips. "Five hundred million spread across three hundred and sixty-five days is barely forty million a month. When you spread that across dozens of international subsidiaries, it’s basically pennies."

Damian’s face darkened.

"You dare look down on Cross Capital?" Damian hissed through gritted teeth. "I’d love to see how much actual cash a nobody like you can produce without financing!"

"I’m glad you asked," Jude replied. He turned his attention to the crowd of executives. "As of right now, I am officially raising my initial investment capital. I will be investing two hundred million dollars into your foreign trade assets before lunch."

The Grand Atrium went silent for a fraction of a second before erupting.

Two hundred million dollars? In a single morning?!