Chapter 6 006
Six days remaining on the main mission clock.
Jared woke at five in the morning as usual, but he did not go straight to his status panel. He stood at the window first, watching the city shift from dark purple to pale gold as sunrise crept across the skyline. He had developed a habit of giving himself ten quiet minutes before the system pulled him back into the current of everything he was building. Ten minutes where he was just a man standing in a room he had earned, looking at a city he intended to reshape.
Then he opened his panel.
\[Name: Jared Knox\]
\[Level: 2 (94/100)\]
\[Skills: Medical Expertise (Intermediate), Charisma Boost (Beginner), Property Management (Intermediate), Market Intelligence (Passive)\]
\[Balance: $3,100,000\]
\[Emblem Coins: 62\]
\[Active Mission: Publicly Humiliate Damien Rothwell — 6 days remaining\]
\[System Alert: Significant activity detected in Rothwell Properties. Meridian Project — emergency board meeting scheduled for 10 AM today. Attendance list includes three major institutional lenders.\]
Jared read the alert twice. His pulse quickened slightly but his expression stayed flat.
An emergency board meeting with lenders present meant one thing. The Meridian Project was not just bleeding anymore. It was hemorrhaging. Damien was being called to account by the people who had financed him, and he had six days to either stabilize the situation or watch it collapse publicly.
The timing was not a coincidence. The system had been passively accelerating pressure on Damien's weakest point without Jared having to lift a visible finger. That was the architecture of a slow burn done correctly.
He dressed, ate, and was at his desk by seven.
By eight thirty he had identified the three institutional lenders attending the Meridian board meeting. Pacific Meridian Trust. Coastal Alliance Bank. And a private equity group called Vantage Partners, which Jared recognized immediately from his research. Vantage Partners had a reputation for pulling financing from underperforming projects without sentiment. They had done it twice in the past four years, both times triggering public collapses that made the news cycle for weeks.
If Vantage was in that room today, Damien was in real trouble.
The system chimed.
\[RING! Side Mission Issued\]
\[Mission: Obtain the Meridian Project financial summary before noon\]
\[Objective: Acquire a copy of the internal financial report being presented at today's board meeting\]
\[Reward: plus $300,000, plus 15 Emblem Coins, Business Intelligence Skill (Beginner), Reputation plus 100\]
\[Time Limit: 4 hours\]
Jared stared at the mission for a moment. The system was not asking him to steal anything or break any laws. It was pointing him toward a door and trusting him to figure out how to open it legitimately.
He thought carefully. The report would be prepared by Damien's internal finance team or an external accounting firm. Either way, someone in that chain was unhappy. Damien's business history made that almost certain. A man who had bankrupted partners and bribed officials did not build a loyal team. He built a resentful one.
Jared picked up his phone and called Raymond Chu.
"Raymond. The Meridian Project. Does Harrington Capital have any existing relationship with the accounting firm handling Rothwell Properties?"
A short pause. "We used the same firm for two years before switching. Caldwell and Associates. Why?"
"Who was your main contact there?"
"A senior analyst named Grace Park. Sharp woman. Left Caldwell about four months ago after a disagreement with management. I heard she went independent." Another pause, more careful this time. "Jared. What are you doing?"
"Building leverage," Jared said. "Nothing illegal. I just need a conversation with someone who understands numbers and has no particular loyalty to Damien Rothwell."
Raymond was quiet for three seconds. "I will send you her number. Victor would tell me not to ask further questions at this point."
"Victor would be right," Jared said.
He called Grace Park twelve minutes later. She picked up on the second ring. Her voice was measured and professional but carried the particular edge of someone who had been wronged by the corporate world and had not entirely finished processing it.
He introduced himself simply. Told her he was an independent investor looking at opportunities connected to the Meridian Project situation. He did not ask her directly for anything confidential. He simply asked if she would be willing to consult on a valuation question for a fair hourly rate and share any perspective she felt was appropriate given her background.
There was a long pause on the line.
"Mr. Knox," Grace said finally. "I signed a standard NDA when I left Caldwell. There are things I cannot share directly."
"I understand completely," Jared said.
Another pause. "But public filings tell most of the story if you know how to read them. And I am available for a coffee at eleven if you want to talk about reading public filings."
Jared smiled. "I will see you at eleven."
\[System Notification: New Contact Established — Grace Park, Independent Financial Analyst. Relationship Status: Professional. Potential asset in current mission chain.\]
The coffee meeting lasted ninety minutes. Grace Park was exactly what Raymond had described. Sharp, precise, and quietly furious at a system that had rewarded men like Damien Rothwell for years while grinding down everyone around them.
She never handed him a document. She never said anything that technically crossed a legal line. But by the time they finished talking, Jared understood the full shape of the Meridian Project's failure. The cost overruns were worse than the market suspected. Damien had restructured the internal reporting to hide the true figures from his lenders for nearly eight months.
That was not just a bad investment.
That was potential fraud.
\[Side Mission Complete!\]
\[Rewards: plus $300,000, plus 15 Emblem Coins, Business Intelligence Skill (Beginner) Unlocked, Reputation plus 100\]
\[System Notification: Business Intelligence (Beginner) integrated. Host can now identify financial irregularities with enhanced accuracy. Skill will develop through active use.\]
Jared sat alone after Grace left, turning everything over in his mind.
He did not want to destroy Damien through a criminal investigation. That was too slow, too impersonal, and it handed the narrative to lawyers and journalists instead of keeping it exactly where Jared wanted it.
He wanted Damien to fall in a room full of people who mattered. Publicly. Humiliatingly. The same way Jared had fallen in that ballroom a year ago.
Six days was enough time.
He opened a new contact on his phone and typed a short message to Victor Harrington.
"I need to ask a favor. Nothing unreasonable. I think you will find it interesting."
Victor's reply came four minutes later.
"Come for dinner tonight. Seven o'clock. Eleanor insists on cooking."
Jared set the phone down and looked out at the city again.
The slow burn had a shape now. A beginning, a middle, and an ending Damien Rothwell would not see coming until it was far too late to do anything about it.
Five days remaining.