Derek’s brother stood and started walking toward the door while flas still flickered around his hands.
The lackey lay on the floor breathing hard and thinking he might survive because Derek’s brother was leaving.
Then Derek’s brother stopped without turning fully around.
He fired a concentrated fla blast back into the room. The fire hit the man before he could move, and he scread as the flas consud him while the apartnt filled with smoke.
Derek’s brother left the building while the man burned behind him without calling his father yet because he wanted to face Jas first and find out why Derek had been looking for him. If Jas was connected to Dock 7’s destruction, then Derek’s brother wanted to hear it from Jas’s mouth before reporting anything to their father.
Jas left the TRB building through the sa private exit Team Zero had used when arriving. He was ntally exhausted from Floor 9, the stream numbers, the TRB business eting, and the fact that his na was now public across every Challenger network.
His body was fine because Tower injuries cleared automatically after leaving the floor, but his mind still carried the weight of everything that had happened.
He checked his phone while heading toward the public transport station and saw his na everywhere in articles with headlines like:
THE NECROMANCER OF TEAM ZERO
JAS GANNER: FLOOR 9 WORLD-FIRST MVP
GANNER NA RETURNS TO CHALLENGER SPOTLIGHT
TEAM ZERO’S NECROMANCER LINKED TO GANNER CORP
Jas stopped walking when he saw the Ganner Corp headline.
He opened the article and read it carefully.
The piece linked him to Ganner Corp’s weapons manufacturing, armor components, and Challenger equipnt supply lines. It talked about Jas as part of the Ganner family line and ntioned his father’s legacy in the industry before his death.
Jas felt cold while reading.
The company had been built from what his father lost. His uncle had used stolen property and blood money to build wealth after pushing Jas’s father out. Now, because Jas had cleared Floor 9 on a livestream watched by millions, the Ganner Corp na was rising again in public attention.
They were already benefiting from him.
Not only from his father’s legacy that they’d stolen.
Now from Jas’s own fa too.
He closed the article and put his phone away.
He didn’t rage or break anything. He just got quiet.
They took my father’s na first.
Now they wanted mine too.
Jas resud walking toward the station while keeping the revenge arc alive in his mind without becoming reckless about it.
Jas arrived ho an hour later. His mother was there when he walked through the door, and her face lit up with relief when she saw him.
She didn’t interrogate him or turn the mont into sothing heavy. She just looked happy that he’d co ho safely and told him to wash up and eat.
They sat together for dinner twenty minutes later. The scene was simple and warm in a way Jas needed after everything.
She talked normally while asking if he was eating properly and fussing over him the way mothers do. Jas let her because after Floor 9, the dark statue, the stream, and the TRB eting, the normal feeling helped ground him.
She was proud of him, but more than that, she was just happy he was alive.
Jas didn’t tell her about the Mythic Egg, the hidden statue, or Derek. He just ate with her and answered her questions about whether he was taking care of himself.
Before going to his room later, Jas pulled out his phone and sent her money for upkeep.
[TRANSFER SENT: €100,000]
[RECIPIENT: MOTHER]
His mother’s phone buzzed on the table. She picked it up and looked at the screen, then went pale when she saw the amount.
"Jas, what is this?"
"Money," Jas said. "Don’t worry about bills for a while."
She tried to argue. "This is too much. Where did you—"
"You’ve carried enough," Jas interrupted gently. "Let handle this part now."
She stared at him for a long mont before her eyes filled with tears. She didn’t cry loudly or make a scene. She just reached over and squeezed his hand tightly while saying nothing.
Jas squeezed back.
At night, Jas went to his room and closed the door behind him. He sat at his desk and opened his status window.
After the Floor 9 rewards, party EXP, personal kills, the corrupted ogre, the goblin shaman, and the MVP contribution, he had gained enough experience to level up.
He’d been Level 13 before Floor 9. Now he was Level 14.
The level-up gave him the standard rewards:
1 TO ALL STATS
5 FREE STAT POINTS
He distributed the five free points the sa way he always did:
2 INTELLIGENCE
1 STRENGTH
1 AGILITY
1 ENDURANCE
His updated stats appeared:
[NA: JAS GANNER]
[CLASS: NECROMANCER (LEGENDARY)]
[LEVEL: 14]
[EXP: 1,840/9,000]
[HP: 660/660]
[MANA: 1,140/1,140]
[PRIMARY STATS]
[STRENGTH: 34]
[AGILITY: 37]
[INTELLIGENCE: 57]
[ENDURANCE: 33]
[LUCK: 24]
[CONTRACT SLOTS: 2/4]
[MAX SUMMON UNDEAD SKELETONS: 5]
[UNSPENT STAT POINTS: 0]
[TOWER CREDITS: 91,615 TC]
His Tower Credits calculation was straightforward:
61,615 TC before Floor 9, plus 10,000 TC from the party reward, plus 20,000 TC from the MVP reward equaled 91,615 TC total.
Jas also checked his current contracted undead to confirm they were still listed:
[CURRENT CONTRACTED UNDEAD]
[REANIMATED DIRE WOLF — LEVEL 9]
[REANIMATED OGRE — LEVEL 10]
Both were accounted for and ready to summon whenever he needed them.
Jas brought out the Mythic Egg from his inventory.
It was still at 99.9% incubation progress. The shell felt warr now than before, and the purple veins glowed slowly like sothing inside was waiting for the final push.
Jas placed his hand on the egg and channeled mana into it.
There was no distinction between normal mana and necrotic mana for him. Mana was mana. The egg absorbed it without resistance.
This ti, the percentage moved.
[MYSTERIOUS EGG — MYTHIC GRADE]
[INCUBATION PROGRESS: 99.9%]
[MANA ABSORBED]
[INCUBATION PROGRESS: 100%]
[INCUBATION COMPLETE]
[HATCHING SEQUENCE INITIATED]
[TI REMAINING: 12 HOURS]
Jas froze while staring at the notification.
After all the waiting, the egg was finally ready.
It would hatch in twelve hours.
The egg didn’t crack yet. It only pulsed once with warmth, then went still as if sleeping before birth.
Jas stored it carefully and closed his inventory.
As Jas was about to sleep, his phone buzzed on the nightstand.
He picked it up and saw a notification from the TRB streaming platform. The first stream payout had arrived.
[TRB STREAM PLATFORM PAYNT RECEIVED]
[AMOUNT: €1,321,200]
[DESCRIPTION: TEAM ZERO FLOOR 9 STREAM SHARE — FIRST AUDIT PAYOUT]
Jas stared at the number for several seconds while processing it.
He thought about sending his mother money earlier. He thought about the Ganner Corp article and how his uncle’s company was getting richer because of his na being public.
Then he smiled faintly.
Not because of luxury or wealth.
Because now he had money, fa, power, and a clear direction forward.
He put the phone down and went to bed.
Derek’s brother sat in his car outside Derek’s apartnt building while calling his father.
"I found sothing," he said when his father answered.
"Report."
"Derek was involved with Roman and his n. Roman’s people also disappeared. Derek sent Roman to look into soone before Dock 7 was wiped out."
His father’s voice sharpened. "Who?"
Derek’s brother paused while looking at Jas’s face on his phone screen from the Floor 9 news coverage.
He recognized the na now.
Jas Ganner.
But he didn’t ntion it yet because he wanted to face Jas himself first. He wanted to know why Derek had gone after him and whether Jas knew sothing about Derek’s disappearance.
"Roman’s people are missing too," he said instead. "Derek may have been involved in sothing more serious than wasting money."
His father asked the direct question. "Is Derek dead?"
"I don’t know yet."
The line was quiet for a mont before his father spoke again. "Keep looking. Report everything you find. Don’t make assumptions."
"Understood."
Derek’s brother hung up and looked at Jas’s face on the screen again while thinking about Dock 7’s destruction weeks ago.
Before he told his father, he wanted to hear Jas say Derek’s na himself.
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