Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 623: The Funds.

Oliver has talent—Dante figured that much from the start of their first sparring session. Even while restricting himself so he would be on the same level as a basic human, Dante still had enough confidence to know that no Level 0 would be able to stand their ground against him, but Oliver proved him wrong.

’To think he wasn’t just some jolly idiot...’

The blonde one had better reflexes than he did the first few times he got beaten by that homeless bastard. Dante was still a bit of a pampered upper-class kid back then, so it wasn’t too strange for someone who lived in a dangerous place such as White Hill to have better fighting skills. Still, for him to be able to stand his ground like that, it ticked Dante off a little.

’It would be hilarious if he figured this out first...’

Dante didn’t offer to teach the blond guy how to fight for shits and giggles. Riot told him before that learning Soul Manifestation could take months, and that’s only the case for those who have mastered their martial arts of choice. With Oliver being a Level 0 Basic on top of being a complete amateur, Dante wanted to test how much he could accelerate the learning process. Doing so required putting immense pressure on his blond underling, pushing him to a point where he might break, but Dante was still intent on going through with it.

’At least that way he would be useful for something.’

"I... I should have killed you when I had the chance."

Sprawled at the center of the arena, soaked in a puddle of his own sweat, Riot panted for air like a drowning man finally pulled back to the surface. Oliver’s turn might have ended, but Dante wasn’t satisfied yet, so he had the big guy accompany him for a few more rounds of sparring.

"Like you ever have that chance." Dante snorted, putting on his jacket.

"I... I can’t keep doing this..." Riot said. "You gotta find someone else."

"If you want a replacement, then find one for me. You can always ask that master of yours to drop by."

"Goddamn it..."

Unlike the wall of muscles, Dante didn’t tire from fighting all day long—physically speaking, of course. Since he hadn’t been relying on his SRE and MLP to enhance his perception, he had thought his mental exhaustion would be minimal as well, but as it turned out, having to focus for long stretches of time was tiring in and of itself, even without him enhancing his mind.

’Who could have guessed?’

"How about..."Riot groaned as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "How about you restart the fight club?"

Dante stopped at the cage’s entrance and looked behind him, raising an eyebrow. Riot knocked on the white floor under him.

"Did you think I built this for no reason?"

Something clicked in Dante’s mind, and he seemed to notice something he hadn’t given much thought to before. Red Rage, Riot’s original gang, was mainly known for the fight clubs they hosted. In fact, the big guy’s fall from grace happened in one of those, when he was challenged by Red Bull and lost. Back when he first saw the arena under the nightclub, Dante immediately assumed that the big guy was trying to bring the same culture of his previous gang into Hollowgrid, yet after usurping him, Dante forgot all about it.

’And I even participated in one of those fights...’

"You already went viral for your fighting skills," Riot said. "Maybe if you put it out there, someone might come and challenge you."

’A total waste of time...’

"Work with Carlos to get it going." Dante turned to leave. "I doubt anyone strong enough would show up."

~[ ]~

As it was already nighttime, Dante felt like going out for a ride to clear his mind, and he would have if some other business hadn’t shown up at his door. An unlikely visitor came looking for him at the Red Oni Club—Glenn Yeun.

Glenn had become Inferno’s unofficial Consigliere, handling the gang’s assets, as well as Dante’s. That night, he came to drop off the papers for a bunch of shell companies that were going to be used for their stock trading plan, among other things.

Even if neither the police nor the BEO dared to mess with him, the business world was full of arrogant and petty people who would undoubtedly make the mistake of trying to kick him down as he tries to climb the ladder, not knowing the kind of mess they would get themselves into. To make sure they don’t figure out more than what he wants them to, Dante was forced to play the same game as them, and he has to play it better.

’With this, you should have everything you need,’ He thought aloud, looking at the tablet in his hand.

[Everything save for the funds.] Volcan replied.

His resident AI was going to be the one doing all the stock trading. From Dante’s perspective, trading stocks was just a fancy type of gambling, and he truly hated gambling. The very idea of staking money on chance brought back some really painful memories he would have preferred to keep buried, but things were going to be different this time. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Volcan was a super AI capable of analyzing data faster than anything his competition could ever achieve, and his diving capabilities primed him for gathering said data much more efficiently. By all means, he should be able to win the game every time he gives it a try, but that wasn’t enough to douse Dante’s fears.

’Tell you what?’ Remembering something, Dante smiled to himself. ’You can use the earnings from that game you made a while back.’

[Are you sure?] Volcan said.

’Yeah,’ Dante replied. ’If you show me good results, I will consider increasing your budget.’

[Understood.]

Dante didn’t think much of it when he made that decision, and because of that, he was completely oblivious to the kind of monster he unleashed.