Liquidation: From Big Boss to Bloody Demon Sauce Chapter 1: Chapter 1: I Was King

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From the heavens of wealth and power that I had claimed, the view of the city was breathtaking. Its veins—the networks of glistening roads and transit lines—were pulsating with the lifeblood of millions, a massive engine of market logistics churning purely to feed my bottom line. I stared out from the floor-to-ceiling windows of my penthouse, feeling the subtle, rhythmic hum of the glass against my fingertips. As the last rays of the setting sun basked the cityscape in an ethereal, dying glow, I couldn't help but feel a profound sense of conquering satisfaction. Here I stood, Visthal: the self-made magnate, the man considered extraordinary in every venture, the undisputed ruler of a global business empire. Stepping into the cold ruthlessness of the boardroom had been a precursor to a familiar game of power, a dance of deception, and a show of shot-calling strength. Today had marked a strategic meeting with a formidable competitor—Frederick. His company was a failing asset, hemorrhaging capital, and he thought that a merger with my empire would be his saving grace. As the meeting came to a close, I saw the despair taking root in his eyes. Dejection. Defeat. I took a deep breath, savoring the intoxicating cocktail of triumph and absolute control. I had crushed his last flicker of hope, not with anger, but with precision-sharp strategy and the cold, unfeeling math of the market. I had liquidated his life's work. In the world of business, I was king. I was feared, and I was respected. Yet, beneath that triumph, something else had been lingering—a strange, thrumming pressure deep within my chest, like a dormant star threatening to ignite. I had ignored it, assuming it was just the adrenaline of the buyout. The phone on my desk buzzed to life, shattering the stillness of the evening. "Visthal," my top security officer's voice echoed somberly through the speaker, devoid of its usual clinical detachment. "I think you should see this." Hans forwarded a secured, manual radio transmission warning of uncanny developments from our European allies. Rumors of strange, grotesque creatures, glowing geometric symbols burning themselves into the earth, and people lost to thin air. It sounded like the plot of a cheap sci-fi movie, hardly believable for a man who traded in hard assets and tangible currencies. I dismissed it, attributing the news to stress-induced paranoia or an elaborate corporate hoax designed to crash the markets. Over the next few days, however, the variables changed. People started disappearing in mass. Global technology grids started failing, their power drained by massive, glowing fissures opening in major cities. An undercurrent of primal fear began winding its way into the very heart of the city. It had been easy to dismiss a few reports from my phone, and the couple of blurry videos I had seen on the news, but it was getting harder to deny the shifting reality. I hadn't made it this far by concerning myself with concocted fantasy, but reports from all over the world were echoing the exact same impossibility. The earth’s kinetic and atmospheric resistances were failing. Something was breaking in. Pressing my finger to the surface of my smart desk, I called Hans. Since he was the one who had sent me the first video, I was sure he would have continued to monitor the crisis. While I might not have found it interesting at the time, Hans was in charge of my safety, and he treated every variable as a lethal threat. "Yes, sir?" "Please come to my office with everything that you have so far on these creatures that are appearing," I ordered, letting a heavy sigh escape me. "Anna let me know that five meetings—one of them concerning a highly lucrative hostile takeover—have been canceled. I think it is time I looked into this mess before it completely tanks our quarterly projections." "Yes, sir. I will be right up." I let go of the icon and the call ended as I sat back in my chair, looking around my immaculate office. Everything here