Se connecterThe final straw is often not the heaviest, but the one placed on the most fragile point.
Jack knew that a single post and market sentiment were not enough to bury Preston Vance completely. He needed a more devastating weapon, a bombshell that would make every vulture smell blood.
He once again assumed the role of "Alpha Wolf."
Through Ben Carter's channels, he anonymously "leaked" an encrypted file to Wall Street's most prestigious and feared short-selling firm—"Muddy Waters."
The file contained no complex analysis, only a video link.
The video was a screen recording of the backend database of Vance Capital's core project, "Project Pegasus." It clearly showed that, late at night, a large volume of user registration data was being batch-imported via a script from a fixed overseas IP address.
This was the most direct and irrefutable evidence of data fabrication!
This proof was more powerful than ten thousand words of analysis. For a top predator like "Muddy Waters," it was tantamount to a perfectly cooked steak, cut and plated. All they had to do was open their mouths.
2:00 PM.
"Muddy Waters" research department officially released a short report on Vance Capital.
The title was drenched in blood: 【Vance Capital: When Data is a Lie, Value is Zero.】
The core of the report was the video evidence provided by "Alpha Wolf."
BOOM!
The bombshell detonated over all of Wall Street!
If "Alpha Wolf's" post had merely lit the fuse, then this report from "Muddy Waters" was the direct detonation of a nuclear bomb!
In the first minute after the report was released, Vance Capital's stock price instantly flash-crashed!
-15%!
-30%! -40%!The stock's K-line chart was like a waterfall from a broken dam, plunging towards hell with an unstoppable momentum.
It triggered three circuit breakers within an hour!
All of Wall Street was in an uproar. The headlines of every financial media outlet were dominated by the news of "Vance Capital's Collapse." Countless investors wailed in despair, margin call phones rang off the hook, and panic spread like a plague.
The ID "Alpha Wolf" became a legend in a single battle!
Everyone on the TradeHub forum who had mocked him felt a burning sting on their faces.
And those who had left mocking comments on Hailey Sterling's social media post dug it up again, flooding the comments under the picture of the "loser brother-in-law" staring intently at a penny stock with expressions of awe and worship.
"My god, the clown was me all along!"
"Is this brother-in-law from the future? This is a god-level prediction!" "Hailey, I'm begging you, get your brother-in-law to teach a class! I'll kneel to listen!"Hailey Sterling was currently in her live-stream room.
But she wasn't flaunting her wealth; she was crying.
Crying so hard her makeup was ruined.
"Waaaah... babies, my life is ruined... I'm bankrupt..." she sobbed to the camera. "I saw Vance Capital dip yesterday and listened to the experts who called it a 'technical correction' and a 'great buying opportunity'... so I invested all my allowance, and... and I even used three times leverage..."
"And today... waaaah... it's all gone! I don't even have the money for next month's limited-edition handbag! It's all because of that damn 'Muddy Waters'! And that 'Alpha Wolf' guy! Don't let me find out who you are, or I'll..."
She cried and cursed the mysterious person who had caused her to lose everything, completely unaware that her most hated enemy and her most despised brother-in-law were one and the same person.
This farce added a touch of the absurd and comical to the bloody financial slaughter.
In Jack's room.
He quietly watched the spectacular red waterfall on his screen, the sound of system notifications flooding his ears.
【PING! Detected significant drop in target company's market value, generating massive market fear...】
【Predation Points +200!】 【Predation Points +500!】 【Predation Points +1000!】A tsunami of points flooded the system. In just one hour, his Predation Points had surpassed the ten-thousand mark.
【PING! Sufficient Predation Points detected, meeting conditions for first Bloodline Enhancement. Enhance now?】
"Yes," Jack thought.
The moment he confirmed, an indescribable searing heat erupted from the depths of his heart, instantly engulfing his entire body!
His bones made faint, teeth-grinding cracking sounds as they were torn apart and reassembled in a stronger form. Beneath his skin, his blood boiled and rushed like a scalding river.
It was painful, but it was also the exhilarating feeling of breaking free from shackles!
Jack couldn't help but close his eyes. When he opened them again, the whole world had changed.
His vision became incredibly sharp; he could even see the tiny cracks in the paint on the distant wall.
His hearing became extraordinarily acute; through two walls, he could clearly hear the sound of the butler pouring water in the living room downstairs, the impact of the stream against the glass, and even... the buzzing wings of a mosquito in the garden. His sense of smell was enhanced to a terrifying degree. The jumble of scents in the air was broken down into countless distinct, clear information streams: the smell of ink from books, the scent of dust mites from the carpet, the smell of sap from the freshly cut grass outside the window...For the first time, he truly felt the power sleeping in his bloodline, the power of a top predator—an Alpha.
Just then, his phone vibrated lightly.
It was an encrypted message from Ben Carter.
"He's bankrupt. All assets will be frozen and liquidated. We won."
Jack looked at the message, his eyes as calm as an ancient well.
The TV news feed timely switched to the front of the Vance Capital building. Countless reporters, like sharks smelling blood, had swarmed the area.
A disheveled man, his suit wrinkled, hair a mess, was escorted by security guards towards a podium.
It was Preston Vance.
The face that was once full of arrogance and confidence was now ashen with despair. He announced that he would be holding an emergency press conference in half an hour.
The stage was set for him.
The final judgment was at hand.
Jack picked up a disposable burner phone he had prepared earlier, composed a text message, and sent it to Vance's private number.
The message contained no threats, no extraneous symbols.
Only two cold, indisputable words:
"Kneel, or burn."
The deepest wall of the blood archive opened like a mouth trying to remember language.Behind it was not another chamber.It was a dinner.Jack felt the shape before he saw it and hated the Hand for its sense of theater. A table. Again. Always a table. The first humiliation, the first contract, the first review, the first lock. Power loved tables because tables made hunger look civilized.This one was set for twelve.At each place sat a god-file that had not yet received alternative review.Ra's chair burned empty now, stabilized but still present as precedent. The serpent's chair was a circle of wet scales with a gate carved through it. The stone goddess's chair held seawater and cracked marble. Fenrir's chair was too large and covered in fresh blood. Others flickered into view: a storm woman with iron feathers, a child-faced death with old coins for eyes, a horned king made of winter roots, a river mother carrying drowned names, a twin-faced judge who
The hospital room around Child 06 was ordinary enough to be obscene.Pale green walls. A plastic chair. A stuffed rabbit with one ear bent. A get-well balloon drooping in the corner. Machines humming with the exhausted patience of underfunded care. Outside the window, rain struck glass in thin lines that had nothing to do with gods, wolves, shareholders, or blood archives.The little girl in the bed smiled with the Tail in her eyes."Daddy Jack," she said again. "I found the Hand first."Jack did not move.Everyone else spoke at once."Do not answer to that," Katherine snapped."Hospital location masked," Aaliyah said. "Records altered. I am tracing.""Minor infected by Tail structure," Ben said, horrified. "No, sorry, compromised by predatory agency, not infected, wording matters.""Marcus two minutes from Child Twelve, cannot divert," Marcus said.Haley whispered, "She's like eight.""Nine," the girl said through the feed. "I
Children changed the room.Gods could posture. Ancestors could accuse. Dead grandmothers could weaponize inheritance. Billionaires could bleed on camera and pretend late confession counted as redemption. Even Jack, with all his practice at taking impossible problems personally, could think around old powers.Children made thinking feel like cowardice.Twelve files opened above the blood archive.No faces at first. Just labels.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 01: MEMORY REMOVED.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 02: ADOPTED LINE, KEY LATENT.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 03: HOSPITAL RECORD SEALED.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 04: FOSTER SYSTEM MISFILED.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 05: NO WOLF EXPRESSION.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 06: ACTIVE DREAMS.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 07: SIBLING PAIR.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 08: SCHOOL INCIDENT SUPPRESSED.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 09: BLOOD TEST ALTERED.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 10: SELF-LOCKING.MILLER CHILD BRANCH 11: PROTECTED BY UNKNOWN MOTHE
Haley had insulted many powerful people.It was part of her brand, then her defense mechanism, then, unexpectedly, her contribution to cosmic survival. She had mocked billionaires, gods, algorithms, her own mother, Jack's enemies, Jack's heroic face, and a solar deity currently asking her to design an alternative to worship before reality decided she should become his stabilizing content farm.This was different.Ra was not sneering now. The old sun hovered over New York, wounded by audit, stripped of some of his own lies, still proud enough to incinerate arrogance in other people from orbit. But he was asking.That made it dangerous.Asking could become consent if answered carelessly.Katherine's voice came through immediately. "Haley, do not offer yourself, your audience, or any ongoing obligation.""Wasn't planning to, but love the confidence."Ben added, "Do not use the words forever, tribute, channel, daily, exclusive, binding, radiant pa
The Hand chose Marcus because it understood efficiency.That alone made Jack want to tear the universe apart.Marcus was not the most powerful wolf. He was not the oldest, not the most mythically significant, not the cleanest legal target. He was the best pressure point.Sacrifice the shield, and every pack understands the rule: loyalty is payable. Remove the man who always stood between Jack and the bullet, and Jack would either accept the old logic or become the monster the old logic had always budgeted for.Marcus saw his name appear across the table.MARCUS THORNE.PACK DESIGNATION: BETA-SHIELD.FUNCTIONAL VALUE: HIGH.SUBSTITUTION EFFICIENCY: EXCELLENT.EMOTIONAL LEVERAGE: MAXIMUM.RECOMMENDATION: SACRIFICE TO STABILIZE WOLF REGISTRY.He looked offended."That recommendation has typos."Aaliyah's voice broke. "Marcus.""Not dead yet."Katherine's face went white, then colder than white. "No one touch tha
Katherine could have accepted the crown.That was why Jack was afraid.Not because he doubted her love. Doubt would have been easier. Doubt had edges he could fight. He was afraid because Margaret's offer was not foolish, not purely evil, not obviously false. Katherine Sterling was better at governance than he was. Better at procedure. Better at building systems that did not require someone to bleed beautifully in the center.The crown of gold receipts lowered toward her head.It carried every Sterling woman's paper inheritance: proof, control, caution, fear disguised as sophistication, love disguised as audit. It promised Katherine authority over the Review table, power to remove Jack from the key function, power to contain Caleb, power to slow the old gods, power to make the world safe by deciding what safety meant.It was the kind of temptation designed for someone competent.Jack hated it more than hunger."Katherine," he said.His locked
The victory over F-01 was hollow, leaving a bitter, metallic taste in the air that had nothing to do with spent gunpowder. It was the taste of a deeper, more complex fear. The timer on the central console was a relentless, blinking red eye, now showing just over 39 hours remaining. Each second th
The air in the mine shaft, already thick with the smell of damp earth and ozone from Elara’s equipment, suddenly grew heavy, oppressive. It was a pressure change that had nothing to do with geology and everything to do with instinct. The sound that ripped through the oppressive silence was
The victory was hollow, the celebration short-lived. The shadow of Kyle’s defeat was instantly eclipsed by a far larger, more monstrous one: the Fenris Council and their "incubator." The war was over, but a new, more terrifying campaign had just begun. There was no time to rest, no time to
The first rays of dawn painted the eastern sky in hues of bruised purple and soft grey, casting a gentle light on the scene of devastation. The rooftop of the Oni Group tower looked like a war zone, but the ticking bomb had been defused. Jack stood amidst the wreckage, the cold morning air doing







