Faust

Chapter 152 Faust

Atrium, 18:30.

As dusk fades and night falls.

As the tides covering the "sky" slowly receded with the fading glow, the man-made dome also ended its day's maintenance process. This tireless mechanical ocean did not cease its activity—the countless miniature autonomous machines that made it up simply reduced their output, and under the gentle surging rhythm, it was like the long, drawn-out breath of a sleeping behemoth.

When the self-regulating dome overhead enters standby mode, the silvery reflection of the sky no longer proclaims its presence. In its place, there is a magnificent outline suspended at the tip of the dome, reflecting a brilliance no less than a radiant glow under the veil of light, like a platinum star constantly beating like a heart.

A daytime has come to an end, but for the sleepless Upper Town, the night is also the beginning of a new chapter full of opportunities.

—The golden dinner is about to begin.

Alkin withdrew his gaze from the dome and stood absentmindedly for a while in front of an iron gate, until a waiter in a well-tailored black suit approached and asked him, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Feel sorry----"

The young man, also dressed in a suit and tie and looking to be under thirty, smiled and waved his hand somewhat awkwardly, as if he wasn't used to being received. "I'll be alone for a while—"

As he spoke, he stiffly pulled a metal cigarette case from his pocket—and then declined the waiter's offer—before walking around the fence to the outside of the manor, where he silently squatted down in a dimly lit corner, away from the light.

"Click."

A flame leaped up in the darkness, followed by a cloud of gray smoke drifting away with a soft sigh—Alkin's pupils were unfocused as he absentmindedly fiddled with the exquisite lighter in his hand.

The lighter he used was a custom-made product, with a thin silver casing and exquisite embossed details, making it look expensive. Indeed, as a model that had moved beyond its entry-level status, it was considered a luxury item even in Uptown. The brand used various marketing techniques to add a lot of value to this beautiful little item, allowing it to sell for an indescribable price.

The heavy toy I'm currently holding in my hand is worth at least six figures, and the watch on my right wrist is probably worth one or two more.

But Altin couldn't remember the exact price of either the lighter or the watch—handmade mechanical watches were very valuable and often considered a symbol of status, but in the occasion he was about to attend, they didn't even qualify as "tickets."

He repeatedly smoothed his perfectly tailored suit, ensuring the snake scales covering the back of his neck lay obediently on his skin. Lost in thought about trivial matters at this hour, the preoccupied young man sighed again. With only half a cigarette left, he tossed it on the ground and stomped it out before silently turning back towards the entrance of the manor.

[Central courtyard, fourth ring road, the outer edge of the central business district.]

Although it's far from Kash Financial Street, the Fourth Ring Road holds a special place in the eyes of a small group of entrepreneurs and speculators.

Those five giant corporations, high above all others, ruthlessly display their profit-seeking attitude in industrial and commercial zones, but in private they also need a place to communicate with each other, to organize things like the distribution of "profits" or to build intangible "friendships".

This private "courtyard" built in the suburbs of the Fourth Ring Road is hidden beneath the hustle and bustle—a "casual dining" venue open only to a "small group of people".

Spanning over 700 hectares, with 90% of the area filled with beautifully decorated gardens, this is something that even money and wealth alone cannot achieve in the Upper Town: it symbolizes the owner's ostentatious wealth and power even under lockdown.

This courtyard is officially called "Carmes Club" —

Those who have been here usually have another name circulating among their inner circle:

【Golden Manor】.

As its name suggests, this is a place built on opportunity and gold. At the grand banquet held every month, executives, CEOs, and shareholders from many listed companies and large corporations around the world try their best to attend—all for one purpose: to find a way to get acquainted with executives from giant enterprises.

Sometimes, it's not just executives—even "board members" might attend banquets here. Alkin had heard his seniors in his circle talk about those mysterious board members, who were at the very top of this hive city. If you could get to know one of them, or even just become familiar with them, you could practically walk sideways throughout the entire Upper City.

A single casual remark from a "director" could bankrupt a massive conglomerate instantly, or propel it to new heights—Alkin had no doubt that they possessed such terrifying power. After all, even if all the other companies in Upper City, except for the giant corporations, were combined, they still couldn't match the size of any of those "five."

Compared to that, my own company seems even smaller.

He sighed.

——Alkin—

Snake-like characteristics, twenty-six years old, is considered very young in this industry, but he is already a senior entrepreneur. Taking advantage of the tail end of the era, this quick-witted young man caught the bus.

Through his own efforts and abilities, as well as a certain innate keen sense of cycles and money, he successfully completed the initial accumulation of capital by taking advantage of the booming environment and established his own industry. In the end, he barely managed to become a member of a well-known enterprise in the city during a series of strong opportunities. However, as the leader, Alkin did not have the resources to advance further, nor did he have the ability and sense of the financial field in terms of social connections. As a result, the size of the enterprise has always remained in an awkward position.

—But he's already a true winner in life.

Even for such a successful person as Altyn, receiving an invitation to this "banquet" today is an incredibly lucky, low-probability event—he's hit the jackpot.

For certain underlying reasons, the foundation would never directly take over the government, so it has almost no presence in the Muggle world. In the seemingly anarchic state of Uptown, the giant corporations are the foundation supporting the operation of society. In this way, the powerful directors are the "emperors" who are never seen in normal times, and at the same time, they monopolize the economic and political ruling aspects.

—If you can make an impression on any core member of a giant corporation at this banquet today, then Alkin's "identity" and all the value he embodies will be magnified infinitely in the Upper City.

Without a doubt, this is an opportunity.

He walked past the iron fence carved with eagle heads, through the north gate of the courtyard, past fountains, flowerbeds, and a grassy path—as the banquet was about to begin, Alkin saw no idle waiters along the way, and he walked alone in the night.

Isolated from the constant hustle and bustle of the upper town, the interior of the manor is exceptionally quiet, filled with a wonderful fragrance, like some kind of aged fermentation, or spices being dried and evaporated.

Having finally shaken off that lingering sense of restlessness, like waking from a long drowning, Alkin took a deep breath, trying to remember those few seconds of calm.

The extravagance of the flat-screen TV reflects the restlessness of the nouveau riche. The aesthetics and pleasures of the giant corporations have long since moved beyond that stage, and this manor is their embodiment of "different yet commonalities," which also seems to be a deliberate act of discord and alienation from the atmosphere of the upper city.

In this hazy state of consciousness, Alkin finally approached the main building of the Golden Manor. At the edge of his vision, at the end of the grassy path, stood an elegant courtyard decorated in the style of a Gothic church. Bright white light shone faintly from the colorful stained glass windows.

Even from a distance, I could see many people waiting at the door, chatting with each other.

Alkin swallowed hard, checked his clothes one last time, and was about to compose himself and step forward when he suddenly heard a crisp, light sound of a spark plug being struck beside him.

"Snap!"

He turned his head, and at some point—or perhaps from the very beginning—the silhouette silently dissolved into the edge of his view: a petite figure, with an unlit cigarette dangling from its mouth, squatting on the white marble fringe around the flowerbed fountain.

-child?

Of course, there wouldn't be any children here. It would be normal for it to be a senior executive of a small company. Alkin tilted his head, not deliberately approaching. Just as he was about to take a few more steps toward the manor, he heard several more "snap" sounds.

—It's obvious that this guy's lighter is broken.

After hesitating for a moment, for reasons unknown, the restless young man inexplicably changed direction and quietly walked towards the fountain.

The distance had shrunk to within a few steps. Altin stopped in his tracks. The person in front of him seemed unusually slow, or perhaps he was lost in thought. He didn't seem to notice his approach. He was still staring blankly at the fountain, and then instinctively rubbed the spark plug in his hand again and again. Unfortunately, the broken part didn't give any response.

Without any ulterior motive, and simply out of a desire to do someone a favor, a wisp of ignited flame was passed over. At that moment, the other person suddenly turned their head, and those seemingly glowing blue eyes, along with their almost unreal beauty, made Arjin's heart skip a beat.

"Thanks."

In the next instant, that cold gaze was silently withdrawn, and with a gentle twitch of its wide ears, an affability strong enough to soften marble subdued everything. The fox smiled and lit a cigarette with the other's help.

"fine----"

Altyn was a little reserved. "It was nothing," he said.

"That's strange, there are very few traditionalists here—tsk, we couldn't even borrow a light to help us for half a day." The mysterious guest sighed softly, and the young man could only awkwardly laugh a few times.

Because of his sudden rise to wealth, Alkin hadn't yet acquired the vices of some nouveau riche. At least in terms of his lifestyle, he was still able to consciously control his distorted desires under the influence of his inflated money mentality.

For example, he doesn't use "Ray," which is a very rare phenomenon in Uptown. As Ai joked, traditionalists have almost disappeared here.

Ai brushed the dust off her pants and turned to look at the seemingly dull young man. "What's your surname?"

Without much hesitation, Alkin casually sent his electronic business card. Logically, at this point, it would be polite for both parties to exchange business cards, but the other party didn't seem to have any such idea. He just glanced at Alkin and then changed the subject with a half-smile.

"Why aren't you going in?" He pointed to the magnificent courtyard gate not far away. "The banquet is about to start. Be careful, or you might miss your meal."

—Are there really people who come here specifically to eat?

Alkin naturally took it as a joke, and he chuckled as he lit a cigarette. One or two adults of vastly different sizes sat by the fountain, puffing away together.

You seem to be in a bad mood.

She casually flicked the cigarette ash into the pool and said softly, as if chatting with someone—the young man in front of her, dressed in high-end clothes, did not gain any courage in this occasion, but instead seemed confused and fearful.

"After all, next I'll have to figure out how to lick the shoes of those big shots, and while I'm at it, I'll have to beg them to give me a second glance." He explained in a similarly sarcastic tone, "And here, I can waste a little more time—"

—In fact, the young and promising Altin did not like his current life. He considered himself a leisurely person with very low desires. The daily hustle and bustle, the monotonous days as if he were sinking into a quagmire, made him distressed and painful.

Unfortunately, no one understands this pain.

"I see—" Ai's eyes darted around, her tone seemingly perfunctory, yet it still didn't evoke any ill will in people.

The lack of any ulterior motives in the conversation made him feel relaxed. Alkin chatted leisurely in a long-lost—almost forgotten—feeling of ease. Being stared at by the other person's slightly narrowed fox eyes reminded him of the satisfaction of being praised by an adult in his childhood.

He casually asked a question in return.

"And you?"

—If you don't know any of the other members of this small species, or even have any impression of them, it means that they are not well-known in your field, or at least not at the forefront. In a setting like the Golden Banquet, being accompanied by a fellow member who doesn't attract attention can still bring some comfort.

"Me—"

Ai sighed softly, "I came to have a casual meal with someone. They allow smoking inside, but my partner doesn't like the smell of smoke, so we had to come outside. I can't let her smell it when we get back—"

It sounds like the tragedy of a middle-aged family man.

—?

Alkin tilted his head, wondering if he was hard of hearing. After all, it involved contact with a giant corporation—such a serious matter, who would bring family members along?

If you really came here just to eat—who will you be sitting at the same table with?

But before the young man could get any more confused, Ai, having finished a few puffs of her cigarette, slowly stood up from the marble floor.

"It's so annoying, even going out for a meal brings a bunch of unpleasant things."

He muttered complaints that Altyn couldn't understand, stretched, and glanced at the other person casually: "Maybe I can give it a try. I think you're quite pleasing to the eye. How about I choose you?"

—What?

Before Altyn could react, a new change occurred—not far away, a large-bellied figure was staggering and jogging towards them.

With a slight shift of his gaze, in just a moment, Alkin recognized the identity of the shadow, his skin crawling with goosebumps.

Dodge

—The external affairs manager of the Moss Group, the business representative of a giant corporation, is a figure in the public eye, but apart from the reclusive board members, he wields almost the highest level of real power.

Alkin instinctively wanted to go forward, but the next second he stopped in his tracks—because at this moment, the person who was coming forward with a fawning smile was the head steward of this giant corporation.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency."

Upon noticing the presence of outsiders, Dodge immediately changed his tune, "Mrs. Mia sent me to find you—please forgive me."

"Okay, okay—I'll head back right away." Ai waved his hand. He knew the little snake was shy, so he didn't intend to leave for too long. He had just discovered some interesting things here.

Dodge, sensing the situation, shifted the focus. He looked at Alkin, who stood there bewildered and stunned, and said, "Sir—"

Do I know you?

"Alkin".

He woke the young entrepreneur beside him, who was staring blankly into his own thoughts, gently patted him on the shoulder, and then chuckled at Dodge, "I don't have many friends, so I'm happy to make a new one here."

"Your friend is a friend of the Midas clan."

Dodge nodded solemnly, his cold expression instantly vanishing as he faced Alkin, replaced by obvious obsequiousness. He handed over his business card with both hands, saying, "Mr. Alkin, I extend my greetings on behalf of the Moss Group. Please feel free to call me anytime if you need anything."

"————" Alkin stiffly accepted the business card as if he hadn't woken up yet, and Ai Yi casually let go of his shoulder when she saw this.

"Thank you for your trouble." He glanced at Dodge and narrowed his eyes.

As expected of a professional in dealing with external affairs for a giant corporation, the Dodge executive's seemingly abrupt changes in attitude were all done in front of Aye, clearly so that he could see it in person.

This respect was so impeccable that even a fox couldn't find fault with it.

"Alkin, I forgot to say earlier that it was a pleasure to meet you. I hope you won't be offended by my self-proclaimed friendship."

Ai ignored Dodge, whose squinty eyes looked a little eerie. He turned to the young man on the other side who was still not recovered and said softly, "This nest is very large, but few people can gain my friendship. This is a power that you may not be able to fully control for a long time, but I don't care—whatever you use it for, whatever kind of person you become, it doesn't matter to me."

"Just enjoy it to the fullest, use it to reach the glory you envision, to the golden land you understand as the ultimate value—I promise you, I will not take back my friendship until you regret it—until the moment of glory's collapse, until the season of the great nest's dissolution, I will settle your gains and weigh the value you have finally reached."

He took the lighter that had failed to light from his pocket—the primitive flint structure formed the most basic spark plug, and it was quite normal for such a rudimentary invention to fail to ignite nine out of ten times.

"I'm giving this to you. If one day you regret my gift, light it. If the flame doesn't respond, I'll take everything back."

Ai turned around and silently left, watching Dodge see her off.

Arkin looked at the two flint plugs held together in his hand by a cotton swab—on their rough outer shell, four menacing, infinitely ferocious characters were faintly imprinted, as if written by the devil:

Mephistopheles

He stood alone in the darkness in silence for a long time, only to be awakened by the increasingly heavy pounding of his heart—splashes from the fountain landed on Arkin's face, cold yet carrying an inexplicable clarity.

"Sir." Dodge, who had been waiting quietly to the side, broke the silence, and Alkin, who had just come to his senses, seemed to wake up from a dream.

"Who is he?" he asked, as if still clinging to the past. But Dodge explained everything with a slight shake of his head and ended with an ambiguous statement.

"Maybe it's a devil, who knows?"

-

On the other side, Ai Yi, who had just been ushered into the banquet hall, was stopped by the frantic Miya, who grabbed him and excitedly shouted in his ear, "Where did you go? Never mind that, come and see, there are so many delicious things here, things I've never seen before—"

Aiyi could only be dragged along by the small snake with strength A.

Bringing her along on this trip has its advantages. At least she gets to see the food in the upper city. When we get home, the cook Miya might undergo another evolution, and who knows, she might end up being raised by a fox herself.

Either way, it's a huge profit!

"A smell of smoke—" Unfortunately, the next second, Miya sniffed lightly and complained unhappily.

"I met someone interesting and couldn't resist."

Ai smiled but didn't offer any further explanation.

—From morning till night, in the hours following receiving the "super bombshell" information from Agares, Ai actually considered revealing it to the Foundation. After all, if a god who seemed to be full of malice towards humanity were to descend, everything would face an irreversible upheaval.

But Agares said: The beast that defines thought is a being born from the roots of the masses, and as long as "human inferiority" exists, its arrival can only be postponed, not avoided.

He also wondered: what he needed might be such a upheaval—just as the foundation had stood firm amidst turmoil, Golden Dawn also needed such an opportunity to "flip the table" and "reshape" the landscape.

But a sense of responsibility still prevailed.

—At the very least, innocent lives cannot be treated as gambling chips on the table. Whatever the Moss Group intends to do, we need to have countermeasures and must not tie everything to the Foundation.

Ai knew that he was a very insecure person, and like every mastermind behind the scenes, even if he wasn't the one who overturned the table, he had to take advantage of the shadow cast by the tablecloth to devise a final safeguard.

—For example, a "checks and balances" mechanism for the Beast of Exchange.

"Humanity should, and must, find a way out—a spiritual one—in this locked-down future."

The only way to fight against the god of thought is to change the thought itself.

—We need a renewed Enlightenment—to break free from these damned chains of ignorance—from theology, philosophy,

Search in science, aesthetics, literature, and music—hysterically, even if it costs everything, to find this opportunity for advancement.

Holding Miya's hand, Ai closed her eyes.

—I'll start.

"Let the history of civilization burst forth from new creations, and begin a new chapter from the leaping of sparks —"

The pure white secret silently turns to a new page: the messenger of light records his spiraling inspiration, which will be a pure and redemptive story, just as the king of Midas awakens from temptation and finally breaks free from the terrifying power to turn fresh flesh into cold gold. This will be an "epic" of confrontation, where the vitality of the soul confronts the solidification of value.

—The beast of exchange in the theory of material value, the great Hermes—I have chosen a possible nemesis for you, who may tell you: humanity has more than just the value defined by gold; it also possesses the beauty of an independent soul.

"We will never be imprisoned in the prison of materialism."

At the beginning of the story, it needed a symbol to hold the influence, and at this moment, Ai solemnly wrote down the line of "name" that held the expectation.

[Large Group Transformation Plan - Value Theory Rectification Agreement - Draft]:

Faust