Something felt very wrong about the atmosphere in the auction house.

In fact, the moment Li Chen stepped into the venue, he had already sensed it. This glamorous gathering that outwardly brought together many elites from the Upper City had long been permeated with invisible gunpowder smoke.

Whether it was the fact that the Commercial District—supposedly a place with even better security than the Upper Hive—was now packed with bodyguards.

Or the large number of individuals of unknown origin appearing throughout the venue, who were clearly not ordinary Upper Hive white-collar workers, but instead subtly divided into multiple small factions, exchanging glances utterly unlike the so-called ‘refined’ yet extravagantly dressed Upper Hive citizens.

‘Corporate mercenaries, brokers, agents, intelligence dealers… what a filthy mess.’

What kind of event could have drawn in this flock of vultures?

Thinking back to the ‘Daily Intelligence’ he had read that morning regarding the patent dispute between Solares and Montmorency, as well as the ‘Lady Laura’ mentioned by the man who had just argued with the Midnight Aurora mercenary group, the answer was already obvious.

‘Tch, I need to get out of this den of trouble as soon as possible.’

Of course, that was assuming he managed to secure his objective for this trip—Eternal Gold.

‘Sometimes, true courage isn’t charging straight ahead, but knowing when to stop.’

His gaze was sharp as he searched for subtle signs of danger around him, carefully avoiding one seemingly normal yet secretly treacherous trap after another.

At this very moment, Li Chen keenly realized that the auction hall, which appeared safe on the surface, had already become a jungle where hunters slaughtered and captured one another.

Even so, despite the storm clouds gathering, many ordinary Upper Hive white-collar workers remained oblivious, still intoxicated by the Commercial District’s atmosphere—so different from the dull and monotonous scenery of the Upper Hive—and even had leisure to spare.

“Hey, hubby, look. This is popular pre-civilization art. Um… I think it’s called ‘realist oil painting’. Isn’t it special? Even though it can’t compare to AI-generated images in terms of refinement, artists back then created everything entirely by hand.”

A woman dressed in a crisp formal suit smiled as she held the hand of the somewhat indifferent man beside her, pointing at the painting displayed inside the glass case.

“Well, dear, should I buy this painting for you? I think it suits your temperament very well.”

As she spoke, she extended her hand. The diamond ring on her finger gleamed faintly as that hand quickly climbed onto the man’s delicate face, brazenly kneading his tender cheeks.

“Mm…” A trace of disgust flashed through the man’s eyes, but he quickly forced a smile.

“S-sure. If you give me this gift, I’ll be very happy, but…”

He glanced at the price. “Isn’t it a bit expensive? Look at the starting bid… five million credits?”

“Expensive?”

The woman curled her lips smugly.

“Is anything more expensive than your smile?”

She continued her assertive groping, whispering into his ear, “Hubby, weren’t you just bragging about Lady Laura and her newly acquired male pet? Hehe, I’m not worse than that ugly woman, am I?”

A hint of bashfulness appeared on the man’s face as he lowered his head slightly.

Li Chen passed by the seemingly affectionate yet secretly scheming couple with an expressionless face.

In the Upper Hive, although elite women of ‘distinguished status’ could barely maintain the old monogamous marriage system—so different from the filthy, chaotic one-man-many-women relationships of the Lower City—in reality, every man would still play little games, maintaining relationships with multiple women that were anything but purely platonic.

However, none of that had anything to do with Li Chen.

He quickly cast aside the grudges and entanglements of these Upper Hive citizens and continued focusing solely on his own objective.

‘Zone C18… according to what Tang Li said, the Eternal Gold currently being used as collateral is stored there.’

Yes, Li Chen had no intention of ‘bidding’ for that Eternal Gold through legal means.

Not to save money.

But because—

‘Tch, some troublesome characters have arrived. Looks like I underestimated the scale of the upcoming fight.’

Casually glancing at several figures dressed in plain clothes, chatting leisurely under the dazzling lights like ordinary Upper Hive tourists, Li Chen’s internal alertness shot through the roof.

‘Eighth-tier.’

His gaze darkened.

In the martial world, the eighth tier was a threshold.

Tiers one through three were the grassroots level. Their combat power compared to ordinary people could be compensated for with cybernetics, equipment, or combat drugs and genetically they were still on the same level.

Tiers four through six already crushed ordinary people, but still couldn’t exceed physical limits and could be suppressed with conventional technological weapons.

But once one reached the seventh tier, a martial artist’s genetic level underwent a fundamental transformation. Compared to ordinary humans, they were closer to another species.

Many martial artists at this stage would even awaken special abilities, such as psionics, making conventional weapons ineffective against them.

If they wished, they could easily obtain Upper Hive citizenship, such as by joining a consortium’s security department in a mid-to-high-ranking position.

But the eighth tier…

That was the peak of the martial world.

Under normal circumstances, these were the absolute top-tier martial artists. Their internal cultivation had reached a state of transcendence. Combat robots, tanks, drones—restricted weapons that still posed significant threats to seventh-tier martial artists—could no longer affect them in the slightest.

At this level, aside from the Uppermost Hive consortia, they were already among the highest-status individuals in the entire Hive City.

Bai Wei’s master, the director of the Public Security Bureau, was an eighth-tier martial artist.

‘Even beings of this level are being deployed? And there’s no trace of her information on SkyNet at all… could she be a black glove secretly cultivated within a consortium?’

Compared to the openly renowned top martial artists, each major consortium naturally hid a large number of insiders beneath the surface.

Some were ‘selected’ at a young age by consortium medical institutions and cultivated from childhood, others were collateral members of consortium families and a few were recruited externally from promising employees within subsidiary companies.

Compared to the high-tier martial artists who enjoyed fame and authority in public, these people enjoyed almost no reputation at all, instead lurking in secret bases, bunkers, or forbidden laboratories, answering only to the board of directors.

But once they took action, it meant the entire Hive City would be turned upside down.

‘No visible cybernetic modifications on the surface, but actually using nano-bionic mechanical arms? And an AI-assisted brain…’

Observing in secret, Li Chen’s eyes flickered as he quickly discerned their origins from their movements.

‘It’s the Montmorency family’s personal guard—Chimera.’

Li Chen recognized them as characters introduced in the final game update before his transmigration, appearing in the newly unlocked endgame map ‘Uppermost Hive.’

‘According to the character card back then, this personal guard was an ace unit created by the Montmorency family using Singularity Technology excavated from Relic Site No. 17, code 0–71, Mirror Flower, Water Moon.’

It was also a crucial pillar supporting the Montmorency family’s foothold in the Uppermost Hive.

‘They actually deployed something like this. Hey, hey, won’t this trigger a corporate war?’

In truth, even without detailed intelligence, Li Chen could already infer the answer from the movements of various factions.

The only question was—who would Singularity Technology ultimately fall to this time?

‘Hah.’

For once, Li Chen felt his heart racing.

Not from fear, but from… boiling blood.

‘No!’ Li Chen forcibly suppressed his emotions.

‘I… I already promised Xiao Wei that I wouldn’t get involved in this kind of mess anymore.’

Besides, with his mere second-tier quasi-martial artist strength, even adding the Supreme Freedom Art he had just acquired, the Red Lotus Saber Art gifted by Sister Liu Yu and certain secret techniques known only to him, it was absolutely impossible for him to face opponents of this level.

Unless he…

Li Chen shook his head and glanced at his arm, untouched by any cybernetic modification, pure and untainted.

‘Heh, forget it. Maybe the foolish me from before would have taken such a risk, but now, I only need to take what belongs to me.’

As for the future of the Hive City?

‘Anyway, the real hidden danger has already been eliminated by me. Although the Uppermost Hive consortia oppose one another, they still share consensus on the principles that must be upheld. After all, turning the entire Hive City into a battlefield wouldn’t benefit them either.’

Chaos is the ladder of ascension.

If the major consortia of the Hive City could maintain a delicate balance and preserve the order that already benefited them, then the rulers of the Uppermost Hive could remain unchanged for thousands of years.

But once that balance was broken…

‘Come to think of it, although the chain of logic behind this round of conflicts between the consortia is very clear, no matter how you look at it, it feels like there’s an undercurrent fanning the flames behind the scenes.’

Li Chen rubbed his chin, thinking of his suspicions.

‘And this style… Why does it feel so similar to the tricks I used back when I was still doing my old job? …Forget it.’

There was no time to think further.

Raising his head, Li Chen looked toward the heavily guarded storage room ahead.

Bzzzz.

A power completely mismatched with his bodily rank surged from him.

Qi sensation manifestation.

In just a single year, Li Chen had already mastered that cultivation method—one that even its creator had never fully derived—to a state of consummate perfection.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the underground world of the Hive City.

In a dark corner beyond SkyNet’s detection.

“Supreme Commander, the latest intelligence on the major consortia has been compiled.”

A female officer in military uniform, wearing a skirt on her lower half, entered the pitch-black command center.

Within this sealed world, isolated from all network information, where all data was sensed through psionic fields, a slender figure stood silently, holding a yellowed photograph.

“Finally.”

The girl clad in a pitch-black cloak, golden stars adorning her shoulders, raised her head. Her porcelain-doll-like youthful face gleamed with maturity and composure far beyond her age.

“Master.”

The girl known as the Supreme Commander gently tucked the photograph into her chest.

“Please give Mengya a little more time. Once I complete this plan, our Utopia—the dream you once held in your heart—will be realized by my hands! Then, then Mengya will finally be able to stand openly before you, Master.”

Looking at the photo of a gentle, handsome man smiling faintly as he held a girl’s hand in front of a dilapidated apartment building, the Supreme Commander of Utopia, the number-one bounty target of City Hall, the psionic queen of the underground world, Xiao Mengya, revealed a trace of madness on her face.

“After all, stirring chaos and sowing discord… those tricks were all taught to me by you.”

Setting the photo aside, Xiao Mengya finally accepted the report handed to her by her subordinate.

‘As long as I gently tug at the conflict surrounding Singularity Technology…’

Vaguely, Xiao Mengya could already see the image of towering structures collapsing.

‘So beautiful. Don’t you think so, Master?’