CHAPTER 135: BIG DREAMS

"Why are you kicking me out?" Jake asked in a hurt tone.

He was standing in front of my door with his bags in hand and still in his nightwear. Behind me was Mandy, who seemed equally shocked by my actions.

"Because you don’t understand personal space, and you act stupid a lot of the time." I didn’t mince my words. "By the way, I’m not kicking you out. I’m just sending you away for my recovery month. I don’t want to be disturbed."

"Me?!" Jake stuttered, pointing at himself.

He glanced at Mandy, but she looked away and said nothing.

"See?" I raised an eyebrow. "She doesn’t question me and simply does as she’s told."

Jake quickly dropped everything and ran up to me, grabbing my foot as he fell to his knees.

"Please... please don’t do this to me. I have nowhere else to go," Jake begged.

Bam!

I gave him a light knock on the head and rolled my eyes.

"You overdramatic fucker, you’re the son of a billionaire. I’m sure you have empty homes littered across the state," I said.

Jake froze like he’d just been caught lying, then a second later, he tightened his grip on my leg again.

"Those are houses... but here is home," he said.

"What?!" Mandy and I blurted out in confusion.

What the hell is this kid spilling out?

"There, I have guards that follow my every movement. But with you, I feel free and happy. You’re the family I never had," Jake said, blinking cutely with an innocent face.

Our gaze stayed locked for a few seconds of silence before I finally spoke.

"Is this the part where I feel touched by your words?"

"Big brother!!!!!!!" Jake cried as he let go of my leg and hugged my waist.

If I were weak, his weight would have knocked me off my feet already.

Sighing loudly, I turned my gaze to Mandy, who simply shrugged her shoulders and looked away. Reluctantly, I shifted my gaze back to Jake and sighed again.

"You can stay... only on two conditions," I said. He quickly let go, his head snapping up to meet my gaze.

He had an excited, childish grin that annoyed me, but I didn’t complain.

"Anything, big brother!" Jake swore, clasping his hands together.

Calmly, I took a step back to create some distance between us, then used my hand to wipe his saliva from my face.

This kid...

"I’m going into secluded meditation for the entire month. During this time, I don’t want any disturbances—not even for meals," I explained. "Stay away from my room for a month, and most importantly, no visitors. You don’t leave the building, and you don’t let anyone in. Everything you need to survive is here. Can you do that?"

Silence...

My words were met with silence as he pondered on them for a while before nodding.

"I will, big brother," he said. But I didn’t trust him.

"If you break your word, our friendship ends here, and we both go our separate ways for good. I just need you to know what’s at stake."

Jake turned pale with fright.

"I... I understand," he stuttered.

This reaction was authentic. Nodding, I turned around and walked toward the door—only to stop after a few steps and look over my shoulder.

"This secluded meditation will be a constant in my life. As my subordinates, you need to get used to it because it’s never going to change," I said coldly.

"I understand," Mandy and Jake said simultaneously.

With that, I walked into the building, feeling relieved that a major problem had been dealt with.

Bam!

Slamming my room door shut, I locked it before walking up to the bedside table.

Snap!

Turning off the lamp, I headed straight for the changing room.

[Door Activated]

A spatial door tore open, and I left it that way while going through my clothes.

"What am I doing?" I asked myself, glancing at the spatial door, which quickly shut down under my stare.

It’s not like I can’t come back here whenever I want to get a hot bath and change clothes. This isn’t an official expedition, so I can come and go as I please.

There’s no need to pack clothes for the journey.

With that said, I changed into my iconic black leather turtleneck shirt and trousers, along with the black trench coat.

To be honest, I had dozens of identical pairs of clothes filling my closet. It felt like an obsession.

I reached for a drawer and pulled it open, revealing the Rai’ki Gloves, neatly placed side by side. Putting them on, I walked out of the room and opened the drawer on my bedside table, revealing Rai’ki itself, tucked in neatly.

"I’ll get better aether tools after saving up some cash," I mumbled.

After buying a new SUV, furniture, and everything else needed for my home, I still had about ten million dollars.

It may seem like a lot, but aether weapons are really costly.

I’d go broke and still not get the quality of weapon I want.

"Alright... let’s go..." I muttered and stretched out my hand.

Ding!

A notification sound chimed.

It wasn’t from the system. My gaze shifted to the bedside table, and I frowned to see my phone screen lit up.

I hesitated a bit but finally picked it up.

"Message from the Limitless Association of Texas," I mumbled.

I was awarded 500 contribution points for the last mission, with the message stating there was no danger nor resources collected—hence the low reward.

"I guess Kenza left out the part of me helping the people of Solinthar since it wasn’t important to the mission, and no reward came out of that, so it doesn’t count either," I muttered, brows knitted.

Along with the message came a file. When I clicked it open, I was shocked to see it was the ranking list of the United States D-rated Limitless.

I was ranked 30th on the U.S. leaderboard but 4th in Texas.

"Higher ranking means more benefits. More benefits mean more cash and influence. More cash means better gear, and more influence means more control," I concluded in one breath.

"I guess I’ll take this job a bit seriously."

I was only D-rated, yet I was getting a million-dollar monthly salary and a $250,000 bonus for each raid.

I wondered how much more I’d get once I climbed the leaderboard and made it to the S-rank.

With that kind of money, I could restart my mercenary group again—armed with aether weapons.

They’d be the foundation of my army when I finally take Texas as my territory and go against the United States.

"Big dreams..." I muttered before switching off my phone.