Arthur Sterling floated in the absolute center of existence. The Prime Creator was dead.

With the fundamental laws of reality rewritten to his exact specifications, the Ebon Empire officially became the absolute center of the new multiverse.

But Arthur was not done. He was the CEO of existence. Every good CEO knew the value of a solid vacation package.

He tapped into his Administrator privileges and pulled on the threads of reality. He did not create a sprawling opulent continent of gold and crystal like the dead Celestial Gods.

He reached back into his own distant memories. He looked past the slums of the Mortal Domain and went all the way back to Earth.

"Swoosh!"

A massive, glowing portal opened in the throne room. Through it, the Queens saw a pristine, blue-and-green planet.

It looked incredibly similar to the Mortal Domain, but it was entirely devoid of beasts, Cultists, or arrogant nobles.

It had towering glass skyscrapers, bustling asphalt city streets, and quiet, secluded white-sand beaches.

It was a perfect, one-to-one replica of Earth.

The sun above was perfectly warm. The sky was a brilliant unblemished blue. The gentle rhythm of the ocean waves lapping against the shore was the only sound for miles.

He had recreated a private planet sized slice of a tropical paradise. It was completely isolated from the rest of the grinding and warring multiverse.

"What is that, Emperor?" Sylvia asked, her icy blue eyes wide as she stared at the strange, beautiful world.

"A vacation package," Arthur replied smoothly, walking up to his massive iron throne and taking a seat.

"I built us a private resort. No magic, no gods, no bullshit. Just a place to wear a nice suit, sit on a beach, and drink good whiskey. You ladies have earned some paid time off.

Morwenna laughed, her dark, sultry voice echoing through the hall. She walked up to the throne and draped her elegant frame over the armrest, her liquid gold eyes gleaming with profound amusement. "You reshape the entire infinite cosmos, and the first thing you build is a beach house?"

"Let’s take a time off, Morwenna," Arthur smirked, leaning back and resting his hand on her waist.

Time passed differently now. Hours, days, and weeks were just meaningless numbers on a spreadsheet to Arthur Sterling.

He sat comfortably, nursing a glass of hyper-refined celestial whiskey.

Sylvia stood to his right, reviewing the multiversal ledgers on a sleek holographic tablet.

The Ebon Empire was thriving. The infinite realms were perfectly peaceful. The supply chains of cosmic energy were flawless, completely devoid of the brutal, gluttonous waste the old Heavenly Sovereigns had allowed.

Everything was perfect.

But Arthur was bored out of his fucking mind.

He took a slow sip of his whiskey, his dark eyes staring out the massive panoramic viewport at the pristine, ordered galaxies floating outside.

"You are bored," Morwenna noted. She walked up from the shoreline and dripped seawater onto the sand. She straddled his lap without asking and settled comfortably against his chest.

Her heavy chest pressed against him. Her liquid gold eyes stared into his. They were filled with a deep and knowing amusement. "You have ruled all of creation for less than a year, and you are already itching to punch something."

"I am a builder, Morwenna," Arthur grumbled and rested his hands on her waist. "I acquire. I restructure. I liquidate. Sitting around on a beach is nice, but it’s a little tiring.

And considering we own the entire bank, everything is stagnant."

Sylvia walked over. She conjured a perfect sphere of absolute zero ice and dropped it into Arthur’s glass to keep his drink cold.

"The Ebon Empire is running flawlessly Emperor," she said as she took a seat on the edge of his chair. "The lower realms are producing record amounts of faith and ambient energy. There are no rebellions. There are no threats."

"Exactly," Arthur sighed. "It is too quiet."

He closed his eyes. His consciousness effortlessly expanded across the infinite dimensions he now controlled. He saw trillions of lives.

He saw empires rising and falling under the strict meritocratic laws he had established. He focused his divine senses on the Mortal Domain.

Down in the lower realms, Caden Cross was currently sitting on a massive throne of his own. Caden was the naive and hardworking kid Arthur had used as his first battery.

Caden was a Divine Emperor now. He ruled the mortal plane with a righteous and unwavering hand. He was surrounded by loyal generals.

He was staring at a stack of bureaucratic paperwork with a look of profound misery.

Arthur let out a sharp sudden laugh. "Look at him. The great protagonist is reduced to signing tax decrees. It is a damn tragedy."

Sylvia scoffed, adjusting her collar. "He is a competent regional manager. He keeps the lower realms pacified. That is all we require of him."

"He’s a wasted asset," Arthur corrected, a dark, mischievous spark igniting in his pitch-black eyes.

The ruthless CEO in Authur hadn’t died when he usurped the Creator. He had just evolved. He didn’t want peace. He wanted the thrill of the hostile takeover.

He wanted the gamble. He wanted to watch someone struggle, scrape, and bleed to climb the ladder, just so he could reap the dividends of their hard work.

Arthur opened his eyes. The pitch black depths of his gaze sparked with a mischievous and terrifyingly ambitious light.

"What are you plotting?" Lyra asked. She jogged up from the water and shook her wet hair out like a dog. "I know that smile. That is your ’I am about to ruin someone’s life for profit’ smile."

"A monopoly is efficient, but it is bad for innovation. If there is no competition, the product gets lazy. The multiverse needs a little chaos to keep the gears turning."

[Ding!]

[Administrator Override Initiated]

↳ Accessing Foundational Code

Arthur raised his hand. His fingers danced across an invisible keyboard only he could see. "I built my empire on a cheat code. The Prime Creator tossed the system into the void to see what would happen. It was a sloppy investment strategy, but the core concept? Brilliant."

Golden strings of pure condensed reality materialized around his fingertips. He was not just weaving magic. He was writing new localized laws of physics.

"I am going to set up a game," Arthur declared. His voice vibrated with absolute authority.

"I am creating dozens of temporary localized Systems. The System of the Sword God. The System of Infinite Wealth. The Villain Reversal System.

I am going to scatter them across the lower realms. I want to see who climbs the ladder."

Sylvia blinked and her eyes widened. "You are intentionally creating anomalies? You are breeding new protagonists?"

"And new villains," Arthur smirked and finished his bourbon. "We are going to seed the market. Watch them struggle, watch them fight, watch them try to break the ceilings I have built."

"You are going to completely ruin their peaceful lives," Morwenna noted, a faint, amused smile finally breaking her icy facade.

"I’m giving them an opportunity for growth," Arthur chuckled. He grabbed the brightest, most volatile blue orb of the bunch.

Morwenna let out a dark sultry laugh. She leaned her forehead against his. "And what is our role in this little cosmic play?"

"You are the board of directors," Arthur said as he looked at them. "You want to stretch your legs? Go down there in disguise.

Be the Hidden Masters in the rings. Be the Final Bosses at the end of their epic quests. Push them. Break them. See if any of them are worth recruiting."

Aurelia’s golden wings twitched with sudden excitement. Lyra’s violet eyes gleamed with pure predatory joy. Even Kaelith nodded. Her alien mind easily grasped the complex self sustaining ecosystem of conflict Arthur was designing.

With a flick of his wrist, Arthur unleashed the new code. Dozens of shooting stars streaked across the pristine blue sky of their beach dimension. They ripped through the dimensional barriers and rained down upon the infinite lower realms.

"Let the games begin," Arthur said and settled back into his chair.

He pulled up his Administrator interface. He projected a massive multi screen holographic display over the ocean. He was now the ultimate spectator.

He watched the status screens of his newly chosen players boot up across the cosmos. He watched a crippled beggar in a slave camp suddenly awaken a Gluttony System.

He watched a betrayed noble daughter receive a Vengeance Ledger.

He watched Caden Cross. The boy was bored out of his mind on his throne. Suddenly he received a mysterious glowing black ring that promised an Epic Tier Quest.

Arthur chuckled. "Keep grinding kid. Good for you."

He watched the feeds for hours. He was thoroughly entertained by the sheer predictable desperation of mortals handed a sliver of divine power. It was the best reality television in existence.

But then, a jarring high frequency alarm shattered the peace of the beach.

[Ding!]

[CRITICAL ALERT]

↳ Unauthorized conceptual anomaly detected in Sector 4, Mortal Domain.

Arthur’s smile vanished. The holographic screen in the center of the display violently glitched. The crisp blue text turned a sickening rotting grey.

"What is that?" Sylvia asked. Her voice dropped into a dangerous icy register as she stared at the corrupted feed.

Arthur’s pitch black eyes narrowed. He scanned the data stream. It was not one of his crafted systems. It was raw and unformatted. It was deeply hostile.

It was a remnant of the Primordial Chaos. A sliver of the Paradox miasma had somehow survived his universal reformatting.

And a newly minted low level protagonist had just stumbled right into it.

On the screen, a young swordsman holding one of Arthur’s Hero Systems picked up a jagged grey crystal. The moment his fingers brushed the stone, his system interface violently shattered. The boy screamed.

His flesh bubbled and mutated as the anti logic of the Paradox violently hijacked his soul. It turned him into a rabid reality warping abomination.

"Shit?" Arthur murmured and tilted his head to the side. "A bug in the code."

He stood up and effortlessly lifted Morwenna off his lap. The dark tailored corporate suit materialized over his skin. It replaced his casual beachwear in an instant.

The Ebonheart Sword snapped into existence and hovered over his shoulder.

"Lyra," Arthur commanded. His voice was cold and devoid of all humor. "Prep the Vanguard. Looks like we have some pest control to do."