Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System!-Chapter 534: Blink Future

The mansion had settled into a strange kind of stillness—controlled chaos wrapped in ancient bloodlines and fresh power. Ice jutted from the marble like it had erupted mid-scream. Shadows clung to walls like drunken gods licking velvet. And someone’s personal weather system had finally stopped sulking in the corner after turning three antique couches into aerial casualties.

It looked like the aftermath of a polite apocalypse.

Parker sat in the middle of it all, legs crossed, eyes heavy-lidded, posture relaxed like a man watching reruns of a show he’d already rewritten. Maya was latched to his arm like a koala on divine adrenaline, her fingers still looped through his sleeve as if she were daring anyone to ask what came next.

They’d been talking about something else before this.

Before the room turned into a daycare center for freshly awakened demi-deities trying not to vaporize each other with every breath.

And somewhere in the static of his mind, a voice curled in—not loud, not urgent, just that familiar tone soaked in suspicion and sarcasm.

[Are you sure about this, Master?]Levi. Quiet. Cutting. Wrapped in concern like it was a tactical cloak.

[You could still go after her. She ran off to... wherever. Some broken realm. Another plane. You could stop her before she does something stupid. You know... emotional teenage-stupid. The kind that targets dear ol’ daddy who lied and disappointed her?]

Parker’s gaze drifted toward the corner, where Grandfather Wilder had just frozen a potted plant into a crystalline weapon of modern horticulture.

"I feel you, Levi." His reply was slow, measured, like heat building beneath glacier glass. "But Nyxavere doesn’t want to be found. She’s not lost—she’s hiding. And if an Omniscient being decides to disappear..."

He let the thought hang.

"None of us are finding her if she doesn’t want to be found. Not even me."

Maya adjusted against him, unconsciously. Her grip tightened like she felt the edges of that thought and didn’t like the shape.

"I know she’s angry. Hurt. But she’d never do anything to harm me—or any of us. That thing whispering from the veil... she wants me chasing shadows. It wants me leaving Earth. Walking straight into its hands."

His voice, even in thought, was steel beneath silk.

"She has the ring. If she’s threatened—if something fractures her soul—I’ll know. I’ll be there. Instantly. And also..."

[And your mother is always watching.] Levi’s voice dropped into something warmer, almost fond.

Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. The Whole Mother sees Nyxavere as her legacy. Her eye hasn’t left her since she was born. Even if I don’t get to her in time, Mother will. She won’t let anything touch her."

[Oh, please, that’s the most understatement of eons. She’ll smite any threat before the threat finishes its opening line.]

"Exactly."

"And Nyxavere... she needs to grow. She’s been coddled, sheltered, adored. Even gods need to break before they become divine."

What he didn’t admit, even to Levi, was the whisper under that resolve—the fear not of her being harmed...

...but of her becoming the harm.

If she broke wrong... if she chose to fall...

What happens when Nyxavere becomes the end?

He exhaled. Focused. Not now. Earth first.

For now—this little slice of planetary life. His daughter was somewhere in the cracks between stars, probably watching like a disappointed TV critic with popcorn made of stardust judging the furniture.

He turned his head slightly, and Maya was already moving. She knew.

Oblivious fools, she’d called them earlier. Now it was time to talk sense into gods who thought themselves kings.

"Alright," Maya said, stepping forward with the grace of a queen and the heat of an oncoming meteor.

"Listen up."

The noise drained instantly. Even the ice stopped cracking.

"You got your powers faster than the rest of the planet. You feel strong. You feel special. That’s cute." Her voice didn’t rise. It didn’t need to. The weight did all the work.

"But just because you got powers now—faster than other people who haven’t awakened yet—doesn’t mean you should let this shit crawl up into your hard skulls and start building a throne," Maya said, voice flat, steady, cutting through the room like a cosmic scalpel. "You think you’ve got powerful abilities? Sure. But when the real awakening hits—when the storm touches the rest of humanity—there’ll be people who manifest things that make your powers look like birthday candles in a hurricane."

Her words didn’t echo. They pressed. Hung heavy. The air tightened around their throats like unseen judgment.

And one by one, understanding began to dawn. Like someone peeled the false gold from their skin.

Robert nodded first—shoulders straightening, his pride folding under truth. Then Bella followed, a grim flicker across her eyes. Zhang Ruoyun, quiet as always, gave the smallest nod, but it felt like entire philosophies shifting. His gaze was distant—measured—not on Maya, but on futures unraveling beyond the edge of time.

Robert stepped forward, his voice controlled, posture military—but there was an edge to it now. An awareness. "She’s absolutely right," he said, tone hard like a verdict. "You’re not the apex predators you think you are. Not even close."

Maya didn’t release Parker’s arm. Didn’t blink. She continued, softer now, but with a deeper undercurrent of threat. "If those people—those monsters-in-the-making—decide to unite? If they turn their eyes toward the Four Families, toward the bloodlines that ruled Earth like a board game for generations..."

She let the silence breathe. Let it grow teeth.

"There wouldn’t be a fucking thing you could do. Not a wall high enough. Not a weapon old enough. Not a prayer desperate enough."

She let the silence breathe.

"There’s nothing more terrifying," she whispered, "than a group with terrifying powers, tired of kneeling."

Then she stood straighter. Let her eyes pass over every name in the room.

"I’m not saying you were all tyrants," she added, almost gently. "I’m not saying people are going to rise because they hate you—some of you, they probably loved. But power has memory. You’ve pulled strings. Crushed rebellions before they were born and then it carried on to the next generations, you rule and order them around and they did, generation to generation. Turned fates of government state houses and all their governing offices into assets. And when those broken people gain powers of their own..."

She tilted her head.

"What do you think their first step will be?"

A beat.

Then—

Annabelle stepped in. Her voice didn’t wait for permission. "Let me make it easy for you," she said. "The first thing they’ll do is hunt."

Her smile was knife-clean, dangerous. The room didn’t breathe.

"They’ll hunt down the same bastards who ruled and choked them. They’ll come for your mansions, your vaults, your legacies. Your kids. Your fucking necks. Revenge? Maybe. Wealth? Sure. But mainly? They want to end you. Before you ever get the chance to rise again. Before you infect and rule this new awakened era like you did the last with an iron fist."

Isabella bristled. "It wasn’t exactly an iron f—"

Annabelle turned on her like a winter storm with teeth.

"Do you think they care?" she asked, voice suddenly quiet—lethal. "I don’t give a fuck what kind of leash you used. Leather, silk, iron, blood—it doesn’t matter. They’re going to remember who held it."

Before anyone could speak—

"Can we get to the fucking point already?" Ere groaned, voice slicing in from the windowsill like a demon queen sick of mortal drama. Her tail flicked once, irritated. "Meat’s waiting for me at home. You’re wasting my precious time with this morally gray TED Talk."

The tension cracked—laughter bubbled, nervous and unbalanced. It didn’t soothe. It trembled.

Annabelle rolled her eyes. But didn’t smile.