Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System!-Chapter 477: The Puppet Master’s Game

The engagement party was supposed to start in three hours.

Parker stood in his bathroom, staring at his reflection while trying to decide between the navy Tom Ford or the charcoal Armani. Both cost more than most people’s houses. Both would make the appropriate statement. But only one of them would properly complement the absolute destruction of generational wealth he was about to unleash on the Five Families.

Navy it was.

Behind him, Zhang Ruoyun emerged from their shower looking like she’d been carved from starlight and good intentions. Water droplets traced paths down skin that seemed to glow with inner light, and Parker had to remind himself that punctuality was a virtue even when you could literally reshape time.

"You’re overthinking the outfit," she said, wrapping herself in a towel that somehow managed to look regal. "It’s not about the suit." freeweɓnovel~cѳm

"Says the woman who spent twenty minutes choosing between silver and platinum accessories."

"Those were strategic decisions." She moved to stand behind him, meeting his eyes in the mirror. "This is anxiety."

Maya appeared in the doorway wearing something that probably violated several laws of physics and at least one Geneva Convention regarding the weaponization of beauty. She settled into their reading chair with the fluid grace of someone who’d been watching this conversation develop.

Parker turned to face Zhang Ruoyun fully, his hands stilling on his collar. "Before we crash this engagement party and remake global economics, we need to talk about Chione."

"When are you going to get her back now before they attack?" Zhang Ruoyun asked softly.

"That’s the problem." Parker felt his collar suddenly feel too tight. "The problem isn’t just getting Chione back. It’s that someone orchestrated this whole situation before it even happened."

Zhang Ruoyun went very still. "What do you mean?"

Parker started pacing, his dress shoes clicking against marble with sharp precision. "Think about it. The gods killed Chione for reasons I still don’t understand. Fine. But then they somehow manage to resurrect her soul—her Existence-level soul that should be impossible to manipulate—give her false memories, and convince her I’m the villain?"

"That’s not possible," Zhang Ruoyun breathed.

"Exactly." Parker stopped pacing, running his hands through his hair and disrupting the careful styling. "They’ve found a way to manipulate her into thinking she was some ice goddess who died and was revived to end the tyrant. She’s working for the same people who killed her against the same person she would’ve died protecting if she had her memories."

Maya leaned forward in her chair with the expression of someone who’d figured out a universal-level problem. "Parker, that level of soul manipulation shouldn’t be possible for gods."

"That’s what’s making my head spin." Parker felt something cold settle in his stomach. "Before they sent champions—including Chione—they didn’t know who I was even when they gave me a system. They didn’t know I was a Prince of Existence, didn’t know about my connection to her, didn’t know anything. So how could they have known how to manipulate someone they’d killed to work against me?"

Zhang Ruoyun’s expression shifted to something Parker recognized as cosmic dread. "You’re saying this goes beyond the gods."

"I’m saying the gods are puppets in a cosmic theater." Parker’s voice carried growing certainty. "Someone saw this future, knew Chione would die, knew she’d be resurrected, and has been manipulating the laws of Existence itself to make sure she came back on the wrong side."

The bathroom went silent except for the sound of water droplets and Parker’s growing realization that he might be the biggest pawn in someone else’s game.

"The thing is like this," Parker continued, his voice getting harder as he worked through the impossibility. "After the three brothers killed Chione for whatever reason I haven’t figured, someone stepped up and started playing the strings like a puppeteer. The whole thing led to the gods summoning her spirit back not knowing they were working on someone’s plan."

"Someone who could see past and future as one event," Maya said quietly.

"It’s like one force saw the future in the past before her death," Parker said, his pacing becoming more agitated. "When she was killed, that force manipulated the laws of Existence—even the minds of gods—to call upon the fallen champions and fallen gods and goddesses as their champions again. The whole point was for some entity to cover the fact that the whole thing was to bring Chione and me to different sides."

Zhang Ruoyun made a sound of cosmic horror. "The entire champion summoning was orchestrated."

"Or that force saw the future and past as once and was using the summoning of the champions as they’d seen after her death, covering their tracks in all the champion chaos." Parker stopped moving entirely. "But here’s what’s really fucking with me—maybe it’s none of this at all."

Both women turned to him with expressions of growing dread.

"Maybe none of our hypotheses are right. Maybe it’s nothing this simple." Parker’s voice carried a weight that made reality pay attention. "Because what we’re describing requires power beyond anything that should exist."

Maya stood, moving to face him directly. "Parker, there’s something else you need to consider about Chione’s soul."

"What?" Parker’s attention snapped to her.

"Chione was on the same level as Zhang Ruoyun, only slightly lower than me. More powerful than anyone except you and Nyxavere." Maya’s voice carried the authority of someone who’d mastered the deepest mysteries of existence. "Even with her current quarter powers, Zhang Ruoyun could take on gods and win. Her soul can’t be manipulated by even THEY if she happened to die."

Zhang Ruoyun nodded slowly. "So, with that logic..."

"Even if they managed to kill Chione in her reincarnation before she awakened all her powers, there’s no way they could summon her eternal soul back to life casually like they did with their champions and make her forget," Parker finished, the implications hitting him like cosmic thunder.

Maya’s expression grew more serious. "Because unlike regular champions, each of your companions would immediately remember their memories the moment they start understanding in each of their reincarnations. It’s automatic. Unavoidable."

"So why couldn’t Chione remember when her soul can’t be manipulated by gods?" Parker’s voice went deadly quiet. "When even THEY—cosmic parasites that can corrupt divine blessings and manipulate reality itself—can’t manipulate souls at our level?"

"Someone did the impossible," Maya confirmed. "Someone with power that transcends even cosmic parasites."

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