CHAPTER 13: THE FIRST S-CLASS EXECUTIONER

"That is... different," Mr. Cross, the Cash God, slowly voiced, but then shrugged. "How’s that of any use to me?"

Having piqued Mr. Cross’s interest with that one line, Donny felt relaxed and stepped closer, even helping himself to the seat in front of the desk.

"Can I trust that we can keep this as confidential as possible?" He asked.

Cash God glared at him with a side-eye and dropped his legs from the desk, and then turned to face Donald and Roy ominously.

Roy was quite taken aback to see that Cash God’s left eye was a bionic red eye. And in this dimly lit room, with a cracking fireplace, it glowed with a sinister disposition.

’Is this really a good idea?’ Roy wondered and gulped.

"These four walls are soundproof," Cash God slowly said, steeling his fingers.

Donny nodded and leaned in close. "Good. Because I am sure you are aware of just how much of a storm what I just revealed to you can create. As his elder brother, his safety is my responsibility. Mr. Cross... can I trust you?"

Roy, already wondering why on earth Donny would ask such a provoking question, saw Cash God clench his jaws.

"Can I be trusted? I’m a businessman. All I trust... is profit," Mr. Cross coldly said and smiled.

Donald nodded. "Understandable. How does doubling your net worth sound?"

Mr. Cross laughed, but asked in a serious tone, "Do you know what my net worth is?"

Donald sat back and smiled. "Of course. You’re shy of at least... twenty billion dollars."

Roy saw a cold flash in Cash God’s eyes.

"...I also know there is no one on God’s green earth right now that has enough wealth to dwarf what the resources a Rank 7 and above Gate can offer."

"So what are you offering?" Cash God asked, his voice devoid of any emotion.

A dim shadow assisted by the poor lighting of the room hovered over Donald’s face as he called out, "I am offering you the first S-Class Executioner."

"..."

Roy’s eyes widened in shock when he heard his elder brother make that declaration. He couldn’t tell if he was just saying this to win Cash God over or if he genuinely believed this.

Oddly enough, though, Roy already knew the answer. It was both.

There was a long silence in the room before Cash God dropped his cigar in the tray, stood up, then faced away from them, staring at a wide painting.

"Do you know what this painting is?" Cash God asked.

"I haven’t seen it before..." Donny said.

The light from the fireplace only highlighted the painting’s major parts, which were mostly red.

Roy could see a bead of sweat carefully hidden in the darkness rolling down the corner of Donny’s face. He looked down and saw that Donny’s hands were also shaking, but he maintained an outward stoic expression.

"Of course, you couldn’t have. Its secrecy is essential to its worth. The entire painting is red, and this red you see here is blood," Mr. Cross said as if it were a mere thing.

"The painting is called the Prophecy of the Apocalypse, and it was made by The Oracle, who possessed SEER.exe. She never painted even once in her life before this, and she died before she could even finish it."

The two Mclloyd brothers were quite confused about how this related to the offer proposed, but they decided to be patient—not like they even had much of a choice, though.

"I hardly care for whatever that old woman was droning on about," Cash God said in a passing manner, "But I’m telling you this because this painting is worth twenty billion dollars..."

Donald took a large gulp. He could already see where this was heading.

"...It’s the most expensive painting to ever exist in the history of mankind. But it’s just a stupid painting. So let me ask you again, what do you think my net worth is?"

"..."

Donald had absolutely nothing to say in response.

"It’s always ’what is your net worth’ and never ’how is your net worth’," Cash God said with a sigh and turned to the duo.

"You don’t have to answer. You revealed a secret to me. Although I can’t verify how true it is, I don’t mind sharing one of mine, too," Mr. Cross said. He took a few steps forward and sat on his desk, staring down at Donald and Roy.

"It isn’t widely known, but I also have a system. CA$H.exe. I didn’t allow you to be called up here because of whatever nonsense you told my receptionist. I called you up here because I smelled some serious cash. Now you, tell me more about your system..."

He said, putting his attention on Roy.

"He—" Donny spoke up, but Mr. Cross cut him off coldly, saying, "Hush. Let the kid speak."

Roy had opened his mouth to speak, but now he closed it and frowned.

There were a few seconds of tense silence before Donny glanced at Roy, telepathically communicating that he shouldn’t worry about the minor dismissal and answer Cash God’s question.

Roy voiced, "GAME.exe. As the Player, God’s Abyss is a GAME.exe..."

Mr. Cross wore a thoughtful expression for a moment, but then it morphed to a quick nod of approval.

Roy continued, his tone not sounding too favorable, "What my brother was going to tell you is that although I level up by defeating abyss creatures, it’s actually only when I defeat the final boss of a gate."

Of course, this wasn’t true, but it was part of the things he and Donny discussed with him on the way here. They agreed Roy had to nerf his system’s capabilities to fit its four-character structure.

"Have you defeated any final bosses to confirm?" Mr. Cross asked.

"N-No. I haven’t," Roy pouted. "I only got my system yesterday!"

Mr. Cross accepted the answer and followed up with another question.

"What about your system world?"

"It-It just shows null," Roy answered.

Cash God took a deep breath and stood up.

"You may not believe it, but I am actually quite excited about all this," he said, sitting back down on his throne.

"The world’s richest man is a normie, not an irregular. I have a cash system, but I’m not the world’s richest man. How embarrassing. How disappointing. I need to fulfill my destiny," he said. His ominous cybernetic left eye glowed red.

"So," he focused on Donald, "how much do you need?"

Donald felt a bit defeated, but this was a sliver of hope, and he grabbed onto it!

He said, almost screaming, "One hundred million dollars!"

"Will that be enough?" Cash God asked, casually picking up a metal globe and tossing it from one hand to the other.

"W-What do you mean?" Donald had an inkling, but he didn’t want to overstep.

"Gates go for a lot nowadays. And I believe you’ll be buying quite a few."

"T-Two... hundred million?"

"What about the raid party you’ll hire? Skilled executioners charge a lot. Surely, you won’t want your brother to die because of incompetence."

"Five... hundred million?"

"You were offering to double my net worth. Come on, you’re disappointing me here."

"O-One... billion...?"

Cash God nodded and leaned forward with his right hand extended.

And he said with a generous grin, "I will allocate one billion dollars to this cause. And this is just the start. When we see returns, there will surely be more investment."

The two Mclloyd brothers had the glass in their eyes break, and they stared ahead in disbelief.

Donald snapped out of it and grabbed Cash God’s hand with so much greed as though he was a soul in hell who was offered a droplet of water.

"Deal!!!"