Dungeon King: The Hidden Ruler-Chapter 96: [Crash and Cover 2] Quiet Markets, Loud Lies

Adrian felt drained. Not physically, but mentally—the kind of exhaustion that built up second by second, each layer heavier than the last. Dungeon runs, cartel decisions, reputation takedowns. He hadn’t even had time to sit with it all. As he left CloudSpire Lounge, the cool evening air brushed against his face, grounding him as he walked the pavement toward his apartment.

A voice popped in cheerfully behind him.

"Hey, neighbor!"

He felt a hand tap his shoulder.

Elara.

She wore her usual office look—a navy blazer over a light blouse, skirt just above the knee, and a worn leather shoulder bag slung casually. Adrian, in contrast, had on a black turtleneck under a canvas jacket, his jeans faintly creased from hours of sitting.

He turned, managing a small smile. "Oh hey, Elara. You’re out early today. You usually work late."

She chuckled. "You say that like I’m a workaholic."

"That, or you’re enslaved," Adrian replied, his tone dry but teasing.

It was true—he usually heard her door open later in the evening, often after he was already halfway through a dinner or settling down.

"Now you’re making me sound like a corporate slave," Elara laughed, nudging him gently with her shoulder.

They paused at a nearby beverage automat, its LED glow cutting through the soft dusk.

Adrian gestured to it. "Then I’ll treat you for your brief window of freedom. Coffee or juice?"

"Juice, please. I don’t want to stay up late tonight. Sleep early is a luxury sometimes."

"Juice that won’t knock you out. Got it."

He tapped the screen, waited for the familiar hiss and click, then pulled out two cans—black coffee and lime juice. He handed her the latter.

She blinked. "Thanks, but... lime? Really?"

"The sourness will keep you awake," he said with a quiet chuckle.

Elara sipped, then gave him a small frown, her tongue clearly assaulted. "Mission accomplished."

They walked side by side, sipping quietly, until Elara broke the silence.

"So, how’s business? Last time we talked, you mentioned something about setting up logistics or arranging deals?"

Adrian nodded, a light smile playing at the corner of his lips. "Pretty good. We started strong. Got a dependable supplier and just won the market."

Catria was the supplier. Crushing NekoNekoNyan was winning the market.

But of course, Elara had no idea.

"You? Anything interesting in the game industry lately?"

Elara exhaled. "Nothing major. Just that whole Helix Media thing."

Adrian tilted his head slightly. "What Helix Media thing?"

She blinked. "You haven’t seen the news? Just dropped a few minutes ago."

"How would I know what happened a few minutes ago?" he said, already pulling out his phone.

He scanned the headline.

HELIX MEDIA TERMINATES PARTNERSHIP WITH NEKONEKONYAN FOLLOWING LEAKED RAID FOOTAGE

His eyes lingered on the screen.

"Wow. They actually cut ties."

"Yep," Elara said with a half-smile. "Forums are going feral right now."

They crossed the street as the signal flicked to green, stepping under the soft glow of the corner lamp. Their apartment building stood just ahead—modest, quiet, and tucked between two larger towers.

Adrian’s smile thinned. That was earlier than he predicted. He thought Helix would at least demand clarification, or play neutral until public sentiment forced their hand.

He slipped the phone back in his pocket. "Wow, this news is nasty. You think this got things to do with your department?"

As they reached the building entrance, Adrian pulled the glass door open and motioned for her to enter first. Elara stepped inside with a grateful nod.

The building’s warmth hit them immediately, a contrast to the cooling dusk outside. The faint scent of old carpet and vending machine coffee lingered in the air, a strangely comforting signature of the place.

Elara glanced at him, expression thoughtful. "Could be. Just got called from my department before I caught up with you."

The lobby was dimly lit, humming with the low buzz of fluorescent strips overhead. A few parcel lockers blinked idle in the corner. Their footsteps echoed softly on the tile.

"That’s fast," Adrian said. "But it’s unusual if Titan Corp acts that quick. Something happen inside Titan too?"

"Could be," she repeated, sipping her juice. "We maintain the market system as a free economy. But I’m suspicious of one thing—if you’re thinking what I’m thinking."

Adrian played it cool. "What? New patch for the market?"

Elara laughed. "No way. We won’t touch the market scheme. That’d kill the whole idea of a player-driven system—and give us days of micromanagement hell." She groaned at the thought.

Adrian smiled, nudging gently. "And then?"

"Insider trading," she said, like dropping a weight.

Elara sipped her lime juice again, grimacing slightly. "Insider trading. But keep that between us, okay? Seriously—don’t mention it. It’s one of those things where if you say it out loud, people pretend you imagined it."

Adrian raised a brow, feigning mild interest. "Inside a game economy?"

She nodded. "Yeah. When players—or worse, staff—leak patch info or coordinate price spikes through alt guilds. The market team catches some of it, but QA gets looped in when it gets ugly."

Inside the elevator, Adrian pressed the button for their floor. The panel chirped softly, and the doors slid shut.

Adrian tilted his head slightly. "You mean like using insider info to buy out dungeon materials before buffs hit?"

Elara hesitated before adding, "Thing is... I think upper management already suspects it’s happening."

Adrian glanced at her. "You mean the insider trading?"

The elevator ascended slowly. Just the two of them inside. A quiet box of brushed steel and soft lights—perfect for conversations that didn’t belong in public view.

She nodded, quietly. "Yeah. And maybe not just suspects. Some of us think they know. Maybe not names, but patterns. Big moves that no one touches. Reports that vanish after submission. You get this feeling sometimes—like someone higher up decided it’s better not to rock the boat."

She looked ahead as they walked, her voice low.

"Worst case? They’re benefiting from it."

Adrian kept his tone casual. "And you ever get pulled into that kind of cleanup?"

She laughed, tired but real. "Not officially. But QA sees weird stuff before anyone else does."

He waited half a beat longer.

Then asked, smooth, quiet:

"You ever had to review flagged guilds or player behavior?"

Elara looked at him for a moment, then asked, "You mean overall or only on this economy stuff?"

Adrian kept his smile neutral. "This economy, of course."

Elara gave a slow shrug. "Then yes. Not often, but when things start breaking patterns, we’re the first line to get the ping. Doesn’t always mean we get answers, though. Sometimes we’re just told to write a report and forget about it."

Adrian smiled slightly, eyes still on her. "Is it hard to notice something bad then?"

Elara let out a long sigh. "Oh, you didn’t know? A game where literally thousands of market entries go live every hour? Sometimes clever pricing, sometimes just dumb panic listings? Oh, it’s incredibly hard. Most of the time we can’t even tell if it’s genius manipulation or someone randomly undercutting by accident."

Adrian then asked casually, "So it is normal for Titan Corp employees to do insider trading like this?"

Elara took another sip before answering. "It’s off the record but, yeah, there are some groups who do that. Titan Corp’s player market is exchangeable as a crypto token after all. There was this one guild two months ago. They spiked all the phoenix cores right before a hotfix. QA flagged it. But the report never made it past review. And then... I got told to reassign it to be archived."

Adrian leaned back slightly, voice dry. "They bleed their players and enjoy sucking the blood out of it."

Elara blinked, slightly caught off guard by the sharpness in his tone. "Hey, not all," she chuckled, then added with a smirk, "There are some good puritan employees too—people who just work for excellence and take their honest pay."

Adrian let out an apologetic chuckle. "Sorry. Getting an outsider’s emotion mixed in a bit."

The elevator chimed. As the doors slid open, Elara stepped out and turned to wink at him. "And your neighbor is one of them, you know."

Adrian smiled, his tone warm. "You’re one tragic example of that, Elara."

She laughed as she walked to her door. "Well, see you around then, neighbor!" And with that, she disappeared into her apartment.

Adrian’s smile faded the moment her door clicked shut.

He stood there for a few seconds in the hallway, the light from the elevator panel dimming behind him. That conversation—light on the surface—had peeled back more than he expected. Titan Corp didn’t just suspect insider trading. Parts of it were feeding from it.

Elara wasn’t naïve, but she was still one of the honest ones. Loyal to a fault. And tragically unaware of how deep the system’s rot went.

He turned the key to his own door and stepped inside, locking it behind him with a quiet click. The air was still. No blinking terminals, no buzz of combat music. Just silence.

If management was knowingly burying reports and QA was the first line of detection, then every future market move he made could trigger the wrong eyes. The Phantom myth had bought him time. But not immunity.

Somewhere in the org chart above Elara, someone might already be watching. And if that someone connected enough dots, it wouldn’t just be Helix Media gunning for him—it would be Titan Corp itself.

Still, that was a risk he had already accepted. To keep the cartel alive, some enemies had to be made. Some lies had to become legends.

And Raven...

Raven wasn’t built to play fair. He played to win.

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m