Chapter 8 008
The morning after the gala, Los Angeles woke up to headlines.
Jared read them from his penthouse terrace with a coffee in hand, the city sprawling gold and endless beneath a clear sky. Three major business publications had picked up the Meridian Project story overnight. Two television stations were running segments by seven in the morning. The narrative was clean and damaging. Rothwell Properties had misrepresented financial data to institutional lenders. Vantage Partners had suspended all involvement pending a full audit. Two other lenders had issued cautious statements within hours.
Damien Rothwell had not made a public comment.
Jared set his phone face down and finished his coffee.
He felt no particular satisfaction reading the headlines. The mission was complete. The account was settled. Spending more time watching Damien burn was the old Jared's instinct and the old Jared was a person he had permanently retired. There was a new main mission on the board and six months was not as long as it sounded when the target was the top one hundred wealthiest individuals in California.
He opened his status panel.
\[Name: Jared Knox\]
\[Level: 4 (12/200)\]
\[Title: Rising Dragon\]
\[Skills: Medical Expertise (Intermediate), Charisma Boost (Advanced), Property Management (Intermediate), Market Intelligence (Passive), Business Intelligence (Beginner)\]
\[Balance: $8,200,000\]
\[Emblem Coins: 97\]
\[Shop: Full Access Unlocked\]
\[Active Mission: Enter California Top 100 Wealthiest — 179 days remaining\]
He had not yet explored the shop properly. This felt like the right morning for it.
He opened the shop interface and spent twenty minutes reading through the available categories. Skills could be purchased directly at various levels. Physical attribute enhancements were available but expensive. Business tools, intelligence packages, social influence boosters, legal protection features, and something listed simply as Destiny Anchors which the system described as permanent reality alterations that could not be reversed.
He did not touch the Destiny Anchors. Not yet. He did not fully understand them and he had learned early that the system rewarded careful thinking over impulsive spending.
He bought one item.
\[Purchase: Negotiation Mastery (Intermediate) — Cost: 40 Emblem Coins\]
\[Negotiation Mastery (Intermediate) installed. Host can now identify leverage points, concession patterns, and psychological pressure indicators in real time during high stakes discussions.\]
The knowledge settled into his mind smoothly, layering over everything he already understood about reading people. He felt the difference immediately. The world looked slightly different when you could see the architecture of every conversation before it fully began.
His phone rang. Raymond Chu.
"The Culver City property," Raymond said without preamble. "The seller has moved the timeline up. Liquidity issue on their end. They want to close within five days or they are pulling the listing and going to auction."
"How much flexibility on price?" Jared asked.
His Negotiation Mastery skill activated quietly in the background, processing everything Raymond's tone and phrasing was communicating beneath the words. The seller was genuinely distressed. Raymond was calm which meant Victor had already decided this deal was worth protecting. The leverage sat entirely with Jared.
"They might move ten percent on the asking price if pushed," Raymond said.
"Tell them I want twelve percent and I will close in three days instead of five," Jared said. "Full cash. No conditions. They get certainty and speed. We get fair value."
A pause. "That is a strong position."
"It is an accurate one," Jared replied.
Raymond called back forty minutes later. The seller had accepted eleven percent off with a three day close. Jared agreed immediately. Leaving one percent on the table to make the other side feel they had won something was basic deal architecture. The Negotiation Mastery skill had already paid for itself.
\[System Notification: Commercial Property Acquisition in progress. Property Management skill actively supporting transaction. Estimated completion — 72 hours.\]
By noon Jared had signed the preliminary documents electronically and transferred the initial deposit. The Culver City property would be his and sixty percent under Harrington Capital's umbrella by end of the week.
He was pulling on a jacket to head out for a late lunch when the system chimed again.
\[RING! Side Mission Issued\]
\[Mission: Attend the Pacific Business Forum — 2 PM, Century City Conference Center\]
\[Objective: Introduce yourself to at least three new high value contacts organically\]
\[Reward: plus $150,000, plus 10 Emblem Coins, Reputation plus 200, Potential new mission chain\]
\[Time Limit: 5 hours\]
Jared checked the time. He had ninety minutes. Enough to eat something light and arrive without rushing.
The Pacific Business Forum was a quarterly gathering of mid to senior level business figures across Los Angeles and the wider California market. Not the ultra elite charity gala circuit. Something more practical and less performative. Entrepreneurs, investors, developers, and operators who were actually building things rather than simply attending events to be seen at them.
Jared moved through the room with a ease that still surprised him when he noticed it. Six weeks ago he had been invisible in rooms like this. Now the Advanced Charisma Boost worked like a quiet current beneath everything, drawing people into conversation naturally without announcing itself.
He met three people within the first hour.
Sandra Yee, a logistics entrepreneur who had built a regional delivery network and was looking to expand into commercial real estate as a secondary investment stream. Marcus Bell, a former professional athlete turned venture capitalist with a sharp eye for undervalued assets and a network that stretched across the entertainment and sports industries. And a quiet, precise woman named Dr. Anita Sorel who ran a boutique wealth management firm serving high net worth clients across the West Coast and who had a reputation for turning around distressed financial situations with surgical efficiency.
All three were interesting. Anita Sorel was exceptional.
Jared spent forty minutes in conversation with her near the window overlooking Century City. She asked questions the way skilled people did, not to fill silence but to actually understand. She had read about the Meridian Project story that morning and asked two questions about it that told Jared she understood exactly what had happened and exactly who had engineered it.
She did not say his name in connection to it. She simply looked at him with the measured appreciation of someone recognizing a specific kind of intelligence.
"You are building something," she said. Not a question.
"I am," Jared replied.
"You will need proper wealth architecture within the next twelve months or the growth will become unmanageable," she said. "Most people at your stage wait too long to address that. By the time they look for help they have already made three expensive structural mistakes."
Jared looked at her carefully. The Negotiation Mastery skill was reading her clearly. No sales pressure. No performance. Pure professional honesty delivered without decoration.
"Are you offering to help?" he asked.
"I am telling you a fact," she said. "Whether it becomes an offer depends on whether you call me." She handed him a card. Simple. Name and number only.
\[System Notification: New Contact Established — Dr. Anita Sorel, Wealth Management. Relationship Status: Professional Interest. High strategic value flagged.\]
\[Side Mission Complete!\]
\[Rewards: plus $150,000, plus 10 Emblem Coins, Reputation plus 200\]
\[New Mission Chain Unlocked: Financial Architecture — complete three wealth structuring actions within 60 days\]
Jared slipped the card into his jacket pocket and looked out at the city.
Eight million in the bank. Two properties either owned or closing. Victor Harrington in his corner. A wealth manager who understood exactly what he was doing without needing it explained.
He pulled up the main mission clock.
\[California Top 100 Wealthiest — 176 days remaining\]
One hundred and seventy six days to climb from eight million into a tier that started at roughly half a billion.
Most people would have called that impossible.
Jared Knox opened his shop, checked his Emblem Coin balance, and started planning.