The heavy glass doors of the penthouse slid shut behind them, locking with a soft click. Zen let out a long, heavy breath as he stepped onto the expensive carpet.

"Home sweet home," Nyx purred right next to him. "Did you enjoy our little date?"

"If you call fighting hundreds of mutated spider-hybrids a date, then sure," Zen replied, rolling his tight shoulders. "My adrenaline is still rushing. I am going to feel that last jump tomorrow morning."

"The rush of near-death makes the blood sing, doesn’t it?" Nyx smiled. She walked over to the massive glass window looking over the neon-lit city of the Omni Domain. "You pushed yourself hard today. Your body is growing stronger."

"I still need a break," Zen said, pointing toward the hallway. "I am going to retreat to the cultivation pool for a few minutes. I need to cycle my mana."

"Take all the time you need," Nyx nodded softly. "I have to handle some Spymaster business anyway. A minor security breach in Sector Four. I will go prepare the water for us after I finish."

Zen walked straight into his private bedroom suite. The massive room was incredibly warm, featuring a large, steaming cultivation pool built right into the centre of the floor. He didn’t bother closing the heavy doors all the way.

"System," Zen commanded softly, sitting down on a mat near the edge of the pool. "Pull up my encrypted Ghost Scrapper terminal. I haven’t checked my balance since I left the Ares Domain."

[Terminal online. Establishing secure connection to the shadow grid.]

A pale blue holographic screen popped up right in front of Zen’s face.

"Show me the finances," Zen said.

[Displaying current financial status.]

Zen stared at the floating numbers and frowned slightly.

"Uhm, wait a minute," Zen said, sounding confused. "Where did this extra four hundred and fifty thousand come from?"

[Analysis: Nyx transferred those funds directly from your Ares Academy public student account.]

"What?" Zen asked. "When did she do that?"

[When she wiped your public Vanguard records to hide you from Valeria. She located your personal savings and routed them through several encrypted channels before depositing them here.]

"So she just moved my everyday money into my highly illegal, encrypted Ghost Scrapper account?" Zen asked, shaking his head. She really had total control over the digital world. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

[Correct. She merged the 450,000 credits with your existing Ghost Scrapper balance of 550,000 credits.]

"Okay, that is good to know," Zen said. "What about the stream revenue? I need to know how much I made during that boss fight back in Ares."

[Processing previous stream revenue from the Ares Domain.]

"Break it down for me," Zen requested.

[The Spymaster’s private donation was exactly 1,000,000 credits. Ad revenue from the peak viewer count generated 400,000 credits. The completed system bounties provided an additional 500,000 credits.]

"So the total for that single stream was 1.9 million credits?" Zen asked, a wide smile spreading across his face.

[That calculation is correct.]

"That is a massive payout," Zen laughed softly. "And what about tonight’s stream? The one I had to cut short because she dropped through the ceiling?"

[Tonight’s brief broadcast generated exactly 422,000 credits before the manual disconnection.]

"Do the math for me, System," Zen said. "Put it all together. What is the grand total?"

[Calculating final balance...]

[450,000 Base Funds + 550,000 Ghost Account Balance + 1,900,000 Previous Stream + 422,000 Current Stream.]

[Total Available Balance: 3,322,000 Mana Credits.]

"Three point three million," Zen whispered, staring at the golden number floating on the screen. "I am officially rich."

[Terminal disconnected.]

Zen closed the holographic screen. Money was great, but he needed raw power right now. If he was going to survive living with Nyx and preventing the Void Singularuty again, he had to keep leveling up.

He reached into his dimensional pouch and dumped his loot onto the floor.

Dozens of small, glowing red cores spilled out. These were the Low, Mid and High E-Rank heart stones he had harvested from the army of spider-hybrids and the hounds.

Next to them sat the large, violently yellow High D-Rank Hybrid Heart Stone from the server room boss.

"I will start with the small ones," Zen said to himself as he closed his eyes and activated his Primordial Void Breathing technique. He grabbed a handful of the small red stones.

As he breathed in, the pure energy drained smoothly from the stones, flowing right into his chest. The red crystals quickly turned to useless grey ash in his hands. He grabbed another handful, repeating the process. The small bursts of mana felt cool and refreshing, slowly filling up his damaged core.

Once the pile of small stones was entirely gone, Zen picked up the massive D-Rank boss core.

This one was as different as he had expected, very heavy and dense with corrupted energy.

Zen gripped it tightly in both hands and took a deep, powerful breath.

A sharp, intense pain flared instantly in his chest as the thick energy forced its way into his mana pathways.

Zen gritted his teeth, refusing to stop the breathing technique. The dense mana burned like hot coal for a few agonising seconds, pushing his core to its absolute limit.

Then, the yellow stone vanished into dust.

The pain immediately faded, replaced by a sudden, explosive rush of pure power. A loud pop echoed inside his soul, and a strong gust of wind blew out from his body, rippling the surface of the hot spring water.

[System Alert: Energy absorption complete.]

[Congratulations, Host. You have successfully advanced to Low D-Rank.]

Zen opened his eyes, breathing heavily but smiling. He clenched his fists, feeling the thick, stable mana flowing properly through his muscles. He was much stronger now.

The door to the room slid open silently, and Nyx stepped into the room.

She had shed her imposing S-Rank battle armour and casual clothes, replacing them with a sheer black silk robe that clung to her body like second skin. The fabric was almost translucent, draping sensually over her full breasts and the smooth curve of her hips.

The robe shifted with every subtle movement, the thin material doing nothing to hide the hardened peaks of her nipples or the tantalising outline of her body beneath.

"My network issues are completely resolved," Nyx said softly. She took a slow step into the warm, humid room. "Sector Four is quiet again."

"That is good," Zen said. He stood up from the edge of the pool, his heart suddenly beating very fast again.

"What were you doing?" Nyx asked, her purple eyes slowly scanning the piles of grey ash on the floor.

"Just running some quick mental calculations," Zen said smoothly. "I was just checking my core progress after that heavy fight."

"And how is your progress?" Nyx asked. Her voice was incredibly soft now.

"It is fine," Zen said. "I am feeling much stronger."

"I can tell," Nyx purred. She took another slow step toward him, stopping right at the edge of the sunken hot spring.

She reached up with one hand and slowly untied the silk sash around her waist. The knot slipped loose, and the black robe fell open like a curtain being drawn.

The fabric slid down her body, pooling silently at her feet and leaving her completely bare before him.

Zen’s breath caught in his throat.

Her body was breathtaking. Her pale, flawless skin seemed to glow, from the faint, neon-purple lines, pulsing softly beneath the surface.

The circuitry lines flowed down her neck and traced over her full, heavy breasts, which rose and fell with each breath, crowned with stiff, rosy nipples.

Zen’s gaze followed the pulsing purple light over the curve of her waist and the smooth, inviting swell of her hips, all the way down to the bare, glistening slit between her thighs.

Nyx smiled, glanced at the steaming pool, then locked eyes with him. "I hope you are ready for our bath together?" she purred.