Ultimate Tycoon: Building the Richest Empire with System and Heroines

Moonlight gently filtered through the half-drawn curtains, casting soft lines across the wooden floor. The room was silent, save for the occasional creak of old wood and the rhythmic breathing of two figures lying close together on the bed.

Arthur slept on his side, one arm resting loosely over Elise's waist.

But his fingers twitched.

His breathing grew shallow.

And deep in the quiet night, the past came flooding back.

He was dreaming.

The sky was blood-red.

Ash floated down like snow, and the wind carried a stench of scorched earth and death. The ruins around them were unrecognizable now—charred stone, broken towers, and shattered flags half-buried in blackened mud.

Arthur stood among it all, panting, blood running down his temple. His sword was chipped. His armor cracked. He looked down at his hands—shaking.

"Elise!" he yelled, voice hoarse.

"I'm here!"

She came running from behind a broken archway, her left shoulder bleeding, the strap of her armor half-torn. "It's still alive!"

"How?! We hit it with everything we had!"

"I don't know!"

A low, inhuman growl echoed across the battlefield. Then came the sound of something slithering, mixed with the thunderous steps of something impossibly massive.

And then it appeared.

That thing—the one they never learned the name of.

Not demon. Not beast. Not dragon.

It was something else. Something ancient and wrong.

A grotesque creature wrapped in layers of smoke and shadow, its form shifting every time they looked directly at it. Its limbs were unnatural, its eyes dozens, blinking in uneven patterns, and at its center—a swirling black core, pulsing like a diseased heart.

Arthur gritted his teeth.

"This… This was the day it happened."

He remembered now.

This fight. This moment. This was the beginning.

The beginning of the curse.

Elise raised her hands, forming three quick sigils in the air. Blue light shot toward the beast, slamming into its torso with a thunderous impact. For a moment, the monster staggered.

Arthur didn't hesitate.

He charged forward with a roar, blade in both hands. "NOW!"

The beast retaliated instantly. A long, bladed tail whipped across the battlefield—Arthur ducked under it, rolled, and leapt straight for its chest. His sword glowed with white flame as he brought it down onto the black core—

CRACK!

The blade sank in.

But the core didn't shatter.

It pulsed.

And then—

Boom.

A black explosion rippled outward. Elise screamed his name.

Arthur felt it.

The darkness crawling up his arm.

Sinking into his veins.

A foreign presence entering him.

It wasn't just magic. It was alive.

Arthur jolted awake in bed.

"Aghhh—!"

He sat up, gasping, clutching his right arm. His breath came in ragged bursts as a burning sensation spread across his skin.

The black veins were back.

No, deeper.

Worse.

"Arthur—!" Elise shot up beside him, her voice laced with panic. She moved closer, grabbing his wrist. "It's happening again!"

Arthur grunted, trying not to scream as the pain surged down his shoulder and across his chest. The black curse marks twisted like vines, pulsing beneath his skin.

"It's… spreading," he hissed, eyes wide with pain. "I can feel it crawling through me…"

Elise reached for a damp cloth and pressed it to his forehead. "Breathe. Just breathe. I've got you."

His trembling slowed a little.

The pain didn't stop—but it dulled enough to speak.

"I dreamed about it again," Arthur said through gritted teeth. "That day... when we fought that monster."

Elise froze.

He continued, "The battlefield was burning. You and I… we tried to destroy it. But I remember now… that moment when I struck its core… that was when the curse entered me."

Elise's hand tightened on his. "You didn't choose this."

"I dragged you into it," he whispered, voice raw. "This thing inside me... it's not just hurting me anymore."

His eyes met hers—filled with guilt.

"I think the curse is spreading rapidly… I'm sorry you also have to feel this pain because of me."

Elise didn't reply.

She simply pulled him close, wrapping her arms around him.

And for the rest of the night, neither of them slept.

Ethan arrived at the Elowen Crest villa just as the sun was beginning to set, bathing the elegant neighborhood in a golden hue. The familiar structure of his luxurious home stood tall at the hill's curve—silent, too silent.

He frowned."Something's not right."

He stepped out of his car and took a few steps forward… then froze.

The main gate had been blown open. The ornamental iron bent and twisted like it had been punched by a monster.

"What the hell…"

He sprinted forward. The villa's grand glass doors were shattered. The manicured garden had been torn apart. And inside—the hall was in chaos.

Blood.

Broken vases.

A smashed chandelier.

He ran in—his heart in his throat.

And then he saw them.

"Aunt Mei!! Lily!!"

Aunt Mei lay slumped on the floor near the sofa, her sleeve soaked in blood. Lily was huddled beside her, her school uniform torn, blood trailing from her forehead. She was trembling, her eyes wide in terror, sobbing uncontrollably.

"E-Ethan…!" Lily's voice cracked.

But Ethan wasn't listening.

His eyes slowly turned toward the two men standing across the hall—Axel Crowne, casually spinning a bloodied dagger in one hand, and Lucien, a smirking man in a dark red coat, arms folded. ContentsourcedfromMV4LEMPYR–MyVirtualLibraryEmpire.

"Well, well…" Axel drawled with a twisted grin. "The man of the hour finally arrives."

Lucien chuckled. "Too bad, Ethan. If you had come a little later, we'd have had our real fun with your women."

Ethan's entire body stilled.

His pupils shrank.

The silence in the room became unbearable.

"You touched… them?" His voice was cold. Empty.

Axel grinned wider. "We just… played a bit. Just look around! Lovely place, by the way. And so many beauties under one roof. Kinda unfair for one guy to hoard them all, don't you think?"

Crack.

The marble beneath Ethan's feet shattered from the pressure of his aura.

"You're not walking out of here alive."

Axel rolled his eyes. "Big words—"

BOOM!!

Ethan moved.

No, he vanished.

In the next second, Axel was slammed into the nearest wall, his ribs caving under the force of Ethan's punch. The wall exploded in a burst of debris.

Lucien barely reacted in time, raising a barrier of dark energy—but Ethan blasted straight through it, a brutal knee colliding with his gut.

Lucien coughed blood. "What the—?!"

"Shut up."

Ethan's voice wasn't loud—but it shook the air.

He stepped forward like a shadow of death. The power radiating from him was unrecognizable. This wasn't system-enhanced fighting anymore.

It was rage.

And something darker.

Axel groaned, trying to rise—only for Ethan to grab him by the neck and slam him face-first into the floor, dragging him like a ragdoll through broken glass and wood.

"I gave you chances," Ethan muttered. "I let the little clowns bark around me."

He threw Axel toward the stairs. Axel's body bounced off the steps with a sickening crack.

"But you laid hands on them."

Lucien roared and charged in, his fists cloaked in black flame. "You bastard—!"

Ethan's eyes snapped toward him.

[Perfect Combat Mode: Bond Wick's Battle – Level 5 Activated.]

His movements turned inhumanly smooth. He side-stepped, grabbed Lucien's arm, twisted, and drove his elbow straight into his jaw. Bones cracked. Blood sprayed.

Lucien staggered back—only for Ethan to grab a broken chair leg and hurl it like a spear.

Thud.

Lucien screamed as it pierced through his shoulder, pinning him to the wall.

"You're nothing."

Axel crawled from the rubble, blood streaming down his face. "You freak…!"

"Still talking?" Ethan walked toward him, raising his hand.

A surge of blue lightning coiled around his palm.

"You touched Aunt Mei. You made Lily cry."

"Die."

The lightning shot forward, a focused beam of plasma-like energy. Axel barely dodged, but the impact behind him destroyed the entire staircase in a flash of thunder and flame.

The villa trembled.

Ethan stood in the wreckage, breathing steadily, eyes blazing with fury.

Lucien collapsed to his knees, barely conscious.

Axel coughed blood, dragging himself toward the exit.

But Ethan walked slowly behind him, like death given form.

"Please…" Axel spat, panic rising in his voice. "W-We didn't—We were just—!"

Ethan kicked him in the side, sending him skidding across the marble again.

"No one touches my people."

He raised his fist one last time, power swirling around him—until…

"Ethan!" Lily's voice cut through the rage.

He stopped.

Turned.

She was hugging Aunt Mei, crying, her eyes locked on him. "Please… don't kill anyone. Just come back…"

For a moment, everything was silent.

Then Ethan lowered his hand.

The glow faded.

He walked back toward them.

Lucien and Axel lay half-dead, twitching in pools of their own blood, unable to move or speak.

Ethan knelt in front of Lily and Aunt Mei.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, voice trembling. "I should've been here sooner…"

Lily reached for him.

And for the first time in a long time—

He felt scared.

Scared not of enemies.

But of what he was becoming.