Corporate Villainy: Trampling Protagonists as a Business Dad

"Sister! Sister, are you okay?!" Emily's voice cracked with worry, her hands shaking as she reached for Olivia.

Only after Emily shook her did Olivia snap out of her daze. She didn't say anything to Emily, just stared at her with hollow eyes before sliding down against the door, curling up with her hands hugging her knees.

Seeing her sister like this, Emily's eyes welled up with tears. The memories came flooding back—memories of hiding in the closet daring not to breath, how her sister would sacrifice herself just to save her from their father's wrath. She remembered every bruise, every night Olivia had taken the worst of it so Emily could hide.

Tears started streaming down Emily's face. She knelt beside Olivia and hugged her tightly. Olivia didn't speak, her head lowered, nobody knowing what she was thinking. But seeing her sister crying beside her, she instinctively removed her hands from her knees and embraced Emily while stroking her head gently.

They both knew what they had gone through. They would never allow it to happen again.

On the ground sat Gao Chen, staring at the door with disbelief. First surprised at seeing his daughters after years, then shocked when that bitch had pushed him hard enough to fall down. Now he was enraged at the audacity of that whore to dare do this to her father.

"Good, very good," he muttered as he got up from the floor, patting his butt that still ached from the sudden fall. "You won't let me—your father—enter your house. You won't lend money to your poor father who raised you. And now you would even harm your father for disciplining you."

The two men who had watched Gao Chen fall started walking back with impatient looks on their faces. Seeing them approach, Gao Chen's panic flared. His eyes darted to the door, and he quickly started banging on it, trying to force it open.

"Olivia! Emily! Open the door now! Open it and give me the money, and I'll forgive your unruly behavior just now!"

The door remained closed. Sounds came from behind it—muffled sobs and whispered words he couldn't make out. Gao Chen's face darkened, his eyes flashing with the ferocity and ruthlessness of a man on his last steps.

"Since you won't treat me as a father, don't blame me for forgetting that you're my daughters."

By this time, the two men were standing beside him. The thin man was the first to speak. "Gao Chen, it seems like you can't get any money from your daughters. You should know what happens to the ones who can't pay back Big Brother's money." He took out a folding knife from his pocket while the burly man clenched his fists, making cracking sounds from his knuckles.

"Wait, I have an offer for you," Gao Chen said hurriedly, stopping them from taking any action.

"What do you think of my daughters?" he asked, rubbing his palms which were already sweaty.

The two men looked at each other, seeing excitement and lust in each other's eyes. They had seen the beautiful and mature older daughter who was quite the beauty. But when they glimpsed the younger daughter stepping out, they had already started having other thoughts. She was the kind of youthful teenager they loved breaking the most. Hearing Gao Chen ask this question, they had an idea of what he was planning, but they didn't rush to answer.

"What do you mean?" the burly man asked back.

"Do you think my daughters are beautiful?"

"Well, yeah, they are quite the beauties. So what?" the burly man said, though his voice carried obvious interest.

Gao Chen took a deep breath. The casino debts, the loan sharks, the threats—all of it pressed down on him like a weight. These weren't his daughters anymore anyway. They were ungrateful bitches who had abandoned their father, who lived in nice apartments while he suffered. They probably earned their money whoring around anyway.

"How much money can I get if I sell them to you?" he asked, the hesitation lasting only a moment.

The burly man couldn't hold back his excitement. "$400,000 at least with that level of beauty," he blurted out, ignoring the angry stare his partner was giving him for revealing their hand.

Gao Chen's eyes lit up. With that much, he could pay back his debt and still have $100,000 left for gambling and alcohol. The guilt that had flickered for a second disappeared entirely.

"Deal." His voice was steady now, resolved. "You can take them. When will I get my money?"

"We'll give it to you once we catch them." The thin man grinned, showing yellowed teeth.

They went to the door and banged on it with renewed violence.

Inside, the sisters startled at the increased aggression. Emily looked through the peephole and saw the two men without her father.

"What do you want? We have nothing to do with that man anymore," Emily said, though something felt terribly wrong.

"Your father has sold you to us, so you'll be coming with us now," the burly man said, trying to look through the peephole to get a glimpse of their bodies. "Open the door and I'll be gentle with you."

Hearing this, Olivia stood up, her voice deadly cold. "Get lost." She won't let anyone harm her sister

The two men exchanged excited glances. They liked it when their prey resisted. They can make them obedient before selling them at a high price to some twisted corporate noble or for organs.

"I warned you. Now you can only blame yourself and your father." The burly man immediately started kicking at the door with enhanced strength.

Olivia and Emily's faces became visibly pale with terror as they hurriedly tried to block the door with their bodies, but against a cultivator's strength, how long would a normal door last.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Just as Jin read the notification from his system, loud banging noises started coming from the second floor of the apartment building. He stood stunned for a few seconds, then his brain caught up and he started grinning with excitement.

Perfect! I can earn the trust of a beauty like that, and there seems to be another woman named Emily whose affection is waiting for me. System really knows what I want.

Although he had Sophie, he was the protagonist of this world with an overpowered system. He would need several beauties to serve him, naturally. The system wouldn't give him these missions if he wasn't meant to collect them all.

Not wasting any time, he started rushing upstairs. As he reached the second floor, he saw three men standing outside a door. Two of them had just kicked the door open with a splintering crash.

"Hey! What are you doing? Get away from the door, or don't blame me for being rude!" Jin said as he rolled his shoulders dramatically. He was already at the low refined level of cultivation thanks to his system rewards.

This sudden shout got the two men's attention, giving Olivia and Emily time to rush into the bedroom.

"Tsk, boy, mind your own business if you don't want trouble," the thin man snarled.

Jin smirked and said the line he'd always wanted to say: "I am the trouble." He burst out with spiritual energy, feeling incredibly cool and heroic.

The faces of all three men darkened. They hadn't expected to encounter a refined stage cultivator in a random apartment, but the thin man was also low refined level.

"I'll deal with this bastard," the thin man said as he took out his folding knife, spiritual energy flaring around him. "The door is already open. You get the women out, and Gao Chen, if you want the money, then help him."

Gao Chen nodded eagerly and followed the burly man inside. Seeing the apartment full of nice things, he gritted his teeth. They have so much money and they still refuse to share some with their father. They must have earned it through whoring anyway. He felt no guilt from his actions anymore.

The outer door had been steel and sturdy, but the bedroom door was just wood. The burly man, being high basic level, started kicking at it while Gao Chen added what little force he could as a non-cultivator.

Outside, Jin exchanged moves with the thin man, both at similar cultivation levels. Jin managed to get the advantage with his protagonist level status, feeling smugly superior.

Protagonists are always like that. Not to mention the thin man at low refined level, even if he was high refined level, he would still be knocked to the ground somehow.

The sound of screeching tires echoed from the street below, followed immediately by car doors slamming. Heavy footsteps thundered up the stairwell at inhuman speed—the kind only cultivators could manage.

As Jin was about to deal what he thought would be a critical blow, he heard the unmistakable sound of several people rushing up the stairs. His eyes widened as he recognized the methodical, professional cadence of trained fighters.

Suddenly four men burst into view, moving in perfect formation. Four bodyguards surrounded a figures in the center. Jin scanned their faces and his eyes looked onto the figure at the center. Vincent. Vincent Cornelius.

The distraction cost him. The thin man's punch came at his face, but Jin managed to twist at the last second, taking the blow on his shoulder instead. The impact still sent shooting pain through his arm, and both fighters staggered back, exhausted from their extended battle.

Vincent's cold eyes swept the scene—the broken door, the sounds of struggle from within. His face darkened with something that looked almost like panic, though his voice remained ice-cold.

"Raghu, with me inside. The other three—subdue these bastards." His gaze lingered on Jin for a fraction of a second. "Don't cripple them, just knock them out." He can't go too far yet as Jin's LP was not much lower than his.

Raghu grinned. "Understood."

Three bodyguards moved to handle the exhausted fighters. The thin man, drained from his battle with Jin, was quickly overwhelmed and knocked unconscious with professional efficiency.

Jin, however, wasn't going down easily. Even exhausted, his protagonist status gave him enough strength to resist. He ducked under the first bodyguard's strike and landed a desperate punch that caught the man in the ribs, making him grunt in pain.

"Stubborn bastard," the injured bodyguard growled.

It took all three of them working together to finally overwhelm Jin. One grabbed him from behind, while the other two delivered a precise strikes from different directions to his temple. Jin's vision blurred as consciousness faded, his last coherent thought being a curse at his own carelessness.

Vincent and Raghu rushed inside, following the sounds of desperate struggle from the bedroom. Through the broken inner door, Vincent could see a burly man with claw marks across his face and red eyes with tears probably due to pepper spray reaching for Emily's throat while Gao Chen raised his hand toward Olivia.

"Deal with the muscle," Vincent commanded Raghu, his voice deadly quiet.

Vincent himself moved toward Gao Chen with the fluid grace of a predator. He'd brought his fastest available men, leaving the rest to follow with Helena's protection. Every second had counted.

Vincent, being at refined stage himself, didn't need protection from such small fry. There was a sharp scent of fear and desperation in the air, but Vincent didn't have time to observe more as he saw Gao Chen raising his hand to slap Olivia.

Olivia's teary green eyes burned with defiance, unwillingness, and helplessness. She wanted to lash out, to fight—but her body remembered. It remembered the times she had fought before… and how powerless it had been.

"Be obedient! At least you can be useful to your father this way!" Gao Chen's face was red with drunken rage and frustration.

Olivia instinctively closed her tear-filled eyes, streams flowing down her face. She felt pathetic. She felt the same feelings she thought were already past her years ago. In the end I still couldn't resist.

But the slap never came.

The sounds of another man groaning came from the side.

She slowly opened her eyes, and her pupils trembled.

Vincent.

He stood there like a blow to her miserable past. The man who had given her everything she had now, but from whom she had still demanded more. The man her heart had never stopped chasing—even when her mind screamed to forget him.

He stood between her and the monster.

His hand gripped Gao Chen's wrist—tight enough to make the drunkard wince, the threat unspoken but crystal clear.

Her tears kept falling, but it wasn't sadness anymore.

It was relief.

"Wha—" Gao Chen stammered.

SLAP.

P.S.- Sorry for the slow update today.