Chapter 7: The Viral Stream

Employees from Aurelius were organizing the garment bags inside the truck.

It was a bustling scene that had pedestrian traffic grinding to an absolute halt. People were pulling out their phones, whispering and pointing at the sheer volume of luxury goods being loaded for a single individual.

"Wait a moment," Jude called out, stepping closer to the hydraulic lift.

He pointed to a velvet-lined lockbox resting on one of the transport trolleys. "Let me see that."

"Of course, Mr. Lawson," Caldwell said, rushing forward to unlock the small case with a specialized key.

He popped the lid open, revealing the single accessory Jude had requested to cap off his order.

It was a platinum Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, encrusted with subtle diamonds along the bezel.

The onlookers gasped, a collective murmur of shock rippling through the crowd.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of horology knew that specific timepiece retailed for over $250,000 on the secondary market!

Jude lifted the metal from the cushion. He didn’t ask for Caldwell to size it; he simply slipped it onto his wrist and clamped the clasp shut. It fit perfectly.

He wasn’t usually one to care about flashy accessories. But after dealing with Trent, the snobby stylist Julian, and now this obnoxious streamer, he realized something fundamental about the ultra-wealthy.

With this Audemars Piguet on his wrist, nobody would ever mistake him for a lost intern or a chauffeur ever again.

It was the ultimate deterrent against the world’s endless supply of arrogant fools.

"Perfect," Jude said, nodding in satisfaction. "It’s a beautiful piece."

Standing a few feet away, Lexi felt like her soul was leaving her body.

She stared at the watch. She stared at the hundreds of thousands of dollars in bespoke clothing. Then, she remembered how she had literally thrown herself into this man’s arms just twenty minutes ago, hoping to embarrass him.

He hadn’t just rejected her; he had bought her a two-dollar plastic water bottle and treated her like a confused child.

The regret hit Lexi so hard she almost felt ill. She was looking at a man who could likely buy her streaming platform, and she had spent the entire afternoon mocking him for wearing a polyester suit.

*If I hadn’t acted like such a manipulative brat,* Lexi screamed, her fingernails biting into her palms, *I could have actually gotten his number!*

The flashy man standing next to her had gone silent. He worked in finance, and he could do the math.

A man who casually drops over half a million dollars on *clothes*, and another quarter of a million on a watch to match, doesn’t just have a few million in the bank.

That kind of liquid, careless spending was exclusively reserved for titans.

He realized with sudden clarity that if he had pushed his insults just a fraction further, Jude could likely have his entire investment firm liquidated by Friday...

He lowered his head, turned around, and sprinted away into the crowd, desperate to disappear before Jude decided to remember his face.

Jude ignored them both. He offered Caldwell a nod. "Take it all to the Obsidian. My driver is waiting."

"Right away, sir!" Caldwell bowed.

Lexi remained frozen as Jude walked past her and slid into the backseat of the waiting Maybach town car. The door clicked shut, and the vehicle glided into the afternoon traffic.

Lexi stood on the pavement, her mouth opening and closing like a stranded fish.

She finally looked down at her phone screen, which was overheating from the sheer volume of chat messages flooding the server.

Her live-stream had exploded.

*BRO BOUGHT A TRUCK FULL OF CLOTHES!!*

*Half a million?! Who is that guy?!*

*He really gave her a $2 water and then went to pick up a $250k watch I am CRYING.*

*Lexi fumbled the biggest bag in human history.*

The viewer count in her room had skyrocketed from 3,000 to over 50,000 in less than 5 minutes!

People were screen-recording the broadcast, clipping the exact moment Jude caught her, dropped her on the bench, and handed her the water bottle.

They combined it with the footage of the transport truck and the platinum watch.

Within two hours, the footage would cross platforms, algorithmically pushed to millions of feeds!

*#WaterBottleBillionaire*

*#ZenithDistrictFlex*

*#LexiFumblesTheBag*

The internet was obsessed. Users were trying to identify the handsome man in the cheap suit who commanded such absurd wealth.

Men praised his stoic, alpha demeanor in the face of a manipulative streamer, while women flooded comment sections swooning over the way he carried her before coldly walking away.

Jude, who rarely used social media even before his life flipped upside down, was oblivious to his skyrocketing internet fame.

He arrived back at the Obsidian Grand Hotel in peace.

By the time he stepped out of his private elevator and into the Presidential Suite, the hotel’s elite housekeeping staff had already unloaded the transport truck.

Jude walked into the master bedroom and opened the walk-in closet.

It was fully stocked. Rows of perfectly tailored bespoke suits, cashmere sweaters, silk dress shirts, and imported leather shoes lined the illuminated racks.

It looked like a high-end boutique had been teleported directly into his room.

Jude took off his cheap, wrinkled polyester jacket and dropped it into the trash can.

He changed into a set of incredibly soft, charcoal-grey designer loungewear.

The system’s attribute points had broadened his shoulders and tightened his core, making the designer clothes look like they had been sculpted directly onto him.

He walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window, pouring himself a glass of sparkling water from the minibar.

Jude took a sip, his mind already calculating his next move.

Now, it was time to put his plan into motion.

He had told Chloe he was going to purchase a controlling stake in Zenith Motors, and he hadn’t been bluffing.

He wanted to see the look on General Manager Sterling’s face when Jude walked through the dealership doors not as an employee, but as the owner. He was just about to open his laptop to research corporate acquisition firms when his phone suddenly vibrated on the countertop...

Jude picked it up, expecting a message from the hotel concierge or perhaps an alert from his banking app.

Instead, an unknown, out-of-state number was flashing on the screen.

Jude narrowed his eyes, answering the call and raising the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Is this Jude Lawson?" a professional woman’s voice asked on the other end of the line.

"It is. Who is calling?"

"My name is Victoria," the woman replied. "I am a Senior Partner at Vance & Sterling Mergers and Acquisitions. I understand you have recently come into a substantial amount of capital, Mr. Lawson, and I believe we have a lucrative conversation ahead of us."