Central Belt, Neo Solace, Inner Ring.

[02:13pm]

Earl Joe’s mansion...

At the zenith of the mansion where Joe’s personal chambers sat as if it was in another world, piercing above the smog layer to where the air is artificially purified, Joe stood watching the city beneath him like a King.

He was not alone, he was being attended to by 3 young beautiful girls in scanty clothing, his new batch of slaves.

They dressed him up, brushed and permed his hair, making sure that he was looking sharp and at his best.

He was currently wearing a dark green suit.

After admiring the view of the city below, Joe finally looked at the young slaves and just as nefarious thoughts were about to enter his head, the door to his room opened.

Click!

Joe rolled his eyes as with Ping Scan, he could already tell who it was.

Dressed in flamboyant clothing that were adorned with expensive jewelry like usual despite being at home, Mrs. Joe walked straight towards her husband.

"Leave!" She said in an authoritative voice.

"Yes ma!" The 3 girls immediately scurried away, leaving them alone as she walked in front of her husband where she started arranging his tie.

Towering above her, Joe briefly looked down at her, then he smirked slightly and looked past her at the city below again.

Noting this, Mrs. Joe pursed her lips slightly, then she said. "You’ve not visited my chambers in over 2 weeks now, what is going on?"

Joe didn’t react nor did he answer.

She continued. "You finally secured the contract with Duke Olmer after working towards it for years. That is cause for celebration, don’t you think? I thought you were finally going to visit me to make up for lost time, but you didn’t".

She pierced him with a scathing stare. "Are we not husband and wife anymore? Don’t you even care about my satisfaction? I’ve been sexually starved for weeks while you play around with the slaves!" She dragged the tie tighter.

Joe finally looked at her briefly, then he looked out again.

That incensed her even more. "WHY DON’T YOU ANSWER???" She raised her voice, trying to shove him in frustration but with her mundane strength, she couldn’t even make him move a step.

"Why do you keep ignoring me?"

"Why can’t you just see me?! I’m your WIFE!" She sounded hurt.

Finally, Joe answered.

"Wife?" He looked at her with a sinister gleam in his eyes and scoffed, his lips curling up in disdain. "You really dare look me in the face and open that your filthy mouth to call yourself my wife?"

He laughed. "Have you forgotten who I am?"

"Have you forgotten how I became who I am today?"

"I’m not surprised, you’ve always had a shallow brain".

"Sexually starved?" He looked her up and down in disdain, making her heart skip a beat, then he finally spilled it. "You think I don’t know of your sexual entanglements with Dante?"

She finally let go of him, stepping back with horror in her eyes. "Y-you...," she paused, terrified. "You knew???" She stammered.

Joe looked at her and smirked. "Fool".

He looked away. "That’s why I married you, because you’re a fool. A fool who let me run her father’s business empire down, integrating it into my own empire and yet they know nothing about it".

"They think it happened naturally".

Her eyes widened in shock. "What?!"

"You’re a fool born from a family of fools," Joe smirked again. "You should know I never loved you from the very beginning, me marrying you was just a business move to rise further in Omnicore society".

"And well, I did just that". He adjusted his tie.

"As for you and Dante," she looked at him impassively. "I don’t care so long your foolish entanglement doesn’t interfere with my money-making machine".

"Dante is extremely competent and that’s why he’s my personal assistant. If with your entanglement, you can make him even more efficient to make me more money, good".

"But," his eyes deepened, his face turning dangerous. "If for any reason your entanglement makes Dante’s productivity drop".

He looked her in the eyes. "I’ll kill you".

She shuddered.

She didn’t have to ask again to know. From the look in his eyes, she could tell that he was dead serious.

Before she knew it, tears started flowing down her eyes.

"Leave". Joe said calmly.

She hesitated.

"NOW!"

BZZZ! 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

His orange ADE flared in a threatening manner, and immediately she scurried out of the room.

Joe adjusted his tie one last time and looked at himself in the mirror, then he finally turned around to face his planned schedule for the day.

Most of the things in his schedule today didn’t really excite him, the only one that excited him and the one he looked forward to was his reunion with her finally after weeks of being apart.

Thinking of the reunion with the only woman that made him feel truly loved and wanted, his dopamine levels surged.

With his convoy, Earl Joe left that afternoon, visiting multiple of his legal business enterprises in the city to check up on them.

He also had 3 different business meetings with prominent businessmen and merchants that worked in the Megacity.

By the time he did all these things, hours already passed and it was already evening. Finally, he visited the 2nd to last task in his 25th September schedule- he visited Big Joe plaza.

Visiting the underground enterprise that was hidden from the public, Dante welcomed him and Joe finally got a weekly report on the activities of the business.

Business was booming like usual.

He also learned of the high-profile figure that came to purchase 3 slaves, Madam Ophelia.

’Oh, that woman... she’s into these kind of slaves too?’ He grinned. ’I thought she only bought men’.

’I wonder what her story is...’

Joe spent over an hour supervising activities within the massive underground base, and finally it was night in Neo Tokara.

The world was saturated in an endless bioluminescent fog.

On paper and officially stated in his clean schedule, Earl Joe decided to spend the night in his personal chambers in Big Joe plaza.

But the real truth is that once night came and after spending an hour supervising activities in the underground base, a substitute replaced him and secretly, he left with just a few guards from his guard force.

He left with just 4 E Rank Ascended.

...

At the same time that the Earl moved, a certain team also moved.

Operation Killing Joe was on.