Chapter 131: Quiet preparations
The afternoon passed without incident.
Rowena sent the first list of candidates before evening a single encrypted file with no message attached.
Liam opened it at his desk while the light outside turned gold through the windows. He scrolled through the profiles one by one, the soft glow of the screen the only real light in the study.
Former military. Former private security. Close-protection specialists who had worked details for politicians, wealthy families, and corporate executives who preferred to stay invisible.
Some names were redacted. Some ranks and units were listed plainly. A few files carried gaps that Liam didn’t bother investigating further. That was useful.
All of them were women and they were past thirty-eight.
Liam slowed on the ones with combat records. He noted ages, the way their service summaries were written, the quiet competence that came through even on paper.
Every single one of them qualified. Every single one of them could be claimed. And every claim would lock in another permanent 5x cashback channel.
That was the real list he was reading.He selected several names and sent them back with a short message.
Bring these first.Rowena’s reply came almost instantly. Understood.
No questions. She had already priced herself into being useful, and now she was proving it.
Liam set the phone down and leaned back in his chair. Outside, Jack was still going nearly six hours now. The sun had started slipping behind the tree line without slowing him down.
The bag swung in long, heavy arcs, and even from the room Liam could see the strain settling into the man’s shoulders.
The rhythm had changed since the morning. There were short pauses between combinations now, small moments where Jack seemed to reset before striking again.
Liam let the sound fade into the background and opened the System.
The translucent interface unfolded in front of him, cool and silent, indifferent to the hour or the man training outside.
[Evolution Progress: 42%]
The number had climbed again. Hiring Rowena. Bringing in a group of mature women under a clean cover. Watching Jack change.
One ability sat open and waiting, brighter than the locked functions around it.
[Multi Claim: Ready]
Liam studied it for a long moment. He could use it the moment the first group arrived. Claim several of them in a short window and lock the cashback multipliers permanently in place.
More registered MILFs meant every future expense on them clothes, housing, equipment, anything would return five times over.
The security story would hold long enough for the real work to finish. Jack would never need to know the difference.
He closed the interface without activating anything.
Not yet.
Patience still mattered. Burning Multi Claim the second it became available would be the kind of short-term thinking that left people exposed later. The women were coming.
The cover was solid. He could afford to wait until the timing felt right.He checked the time on his phone.
Few days.
That was how long Jack had given himself before coming back for another fight. The man hadn’t said it directly, but he didn’t need to.
It was written into every punch that landed on the bag, into the hours he refused to cut short, into the silence he kept instead of asking for a rematch. Jack wanted another shot. Which was already noticeable.
Liam almost smiled.Then he let the expression fade and returned his attention to the darkening windows.
Night settled over the villa slowly.
The security lights clicked on one after another, spilling pale light across the driveway and the gardens. Liam stood at the window, watching Jack work through another round under the floodlights.
The bag swung hard, throwing a long shadow across the grass with every strike. Jack stepped back, chest rising and falling, sweat catching the light along his collarbone and the dark ink on his shoulders.
He looked at the bag for a moment, still, then turned his gaze toward the house toward the window where Liam stood.
His expression was calm and focused
Liam understood that look. Jack wasn’t training just to prove he was stronger. He was training because he had found a reason to actually improve.
Alone again, Liam’s eyes drifted from the security monitors back to the System. The two windows sat side by side in his vision one showing empty roads and quiet gates, the other showing numbers no camera could ever capture.
[Evolution Progress: 42%]
[Multi Claim: Ready]
The villa was getting harder to touch. His network was widening. A group of experienced women over thirty-eight would be on the grounds within days every one of them a potential permanent multiplier.
Jack was changing in ways that made him more useful. And the System kept climbing in quiet increments, rewarding the direction he was moving.
Liam closed the interface.
There was still too much left to prepare for. Enemies he hadn’t met yet. Opportunities still waiting somewhere down the line. But for tonight there was nothing left to do except wait, and Liam had never minded waiting.
Outside, the last of Jack’s training echoed faintly across the grounds more spaced out now, more deliberate.
Thud.
Then silence.
Jack noticed him watching and started toward the house without hurrying.A few minutes later the side door opened and closed.
Heavy footsteps moved through the hallway, steady and unhurried. Jack didn’t stop by this time. He simply walked past, heading toward the room he had claimed as his own.
The quiet that followed was different from the old silence of the villa. It was the quiet of a house that now held two people who understood the same things and saw no need to fill the space with unnecessary words.
Liam looked out at the dark window a moment longer, the lights along the driveway burning steady against the black.
The women would arrive soon.And whenever Jack decided the time was right, the next fight would come on its own.There was no need to rush it.