Chapter 75: The Untamed Reflection
The sedan glided smoothly up the winding, terraced roads of the hill district, its headlights slicing through the encroaching mountain fog toward Xavier’s sprawling private mansion.
Down in the city below, the neon lights of the financial towers were blinking in chaotic, erratic patterns—a physical manifestation of the multi-billion-dollar panic that was still riding in the air.
But up here, the air was crisp, quiet, and thick with the scent of pine.
Xavier and Alexander hadn’t joined April in the car. There was still too much blood in the water down at the Greels enterprise.
Armed with the massive reserves Xavier had just salvaged, he and the elderly Robert Greels were currently executing a ruthless, systematic purge of Harvey Greels’s remaining loyalists.
Harvey was already sitting in a high-security holding cell, his assets frozen, but his shadow forces still needed to be flushed out like rats from a sinking ship if not they would try to get him back on board.
Before slamming the door of the sedan, Xavier had leaned into the window, his dark eyes locking onto hers with a look that was remarkably close to a promise. "Go to the mansion and rest, Miss April. You’ve had an exhausting day. I will return with your gold by morning."
April had simply nodded, completely satisfied with the arrangement. She didn’t mind waiting for her payout, especially since she knew Xavier Reed’s word was as solid as a bank vault.
Now, leaning back into the plush leather of the rear seat, April rested her chin on her knuckles, staring out at the passing treeline. The adrenaline of the warehouse was fully gone, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
She had one final insight left on her system for the day and she knew she wouldn’t be getting my clients asking her for a reading when it’s already so late. Her eyes drifted up to the rearview mirror, locking onto the reflection of Samuel’s face.
Even under the dim dashboard lights, the man looked entirely miserable. His jaw was tightly clenched, his knuckles white against the steering wheel. He was driving with a rigid, hyper-vigilant intensity that felt brittle—like a rubber band stretched far too tight, waiting to snap.
April decided it would do her more good than harm if she used the insight on Samuel.
Insight.
[Would you like to check Samuel Rollins fortune?]
[Number of insights left today: ⅕]
Yes,
[System Notice: Eye of Destiny (Rank 2) Activated.]
[Target Fortune: Samuel (Personal Psychology & Immediate Future)]
The Condition: The target is currently suffering from profound psychological distress, drowning in an intense wave of self-blame and guilt. He views the kidnapping of the host as a personal, catastrophic failure under his direct watch.
The Trajectory: In his frantic desire to overcompensate and become infinitely more cautious, his hyper-vigilance will short-circuit his reflexes. Within seventy-two hours, the target’s paranoid focus will cause a severe judgment lapse, leading to a major vehicular accident and subsequent operational mistakes.
The Remedy: The target requires immediate psychological relief to understand that the incident was entirely beyond his control.
April let out a slow, quiet sigh, the breath fogging slightly against the glass. Samuel cares entirely too much, she thought to herself. But then again... I guess this is my official ticket into his loyalty.
She closed the neon screen, but as she did, her mind began to loop backward, analyzing her own behavior over the last few days.
It was weird. Really, incredibly weird.
In her previous life, before the apocalypse had crushed her own morality into dust, she had never been this detached. She hadn’t been this ruthlessly smart, this unbothered by violence, or this... valuable.
Sure, she could easily chalk it up to the perks of her new life and the system’s awakening.
Being completely detached was a survival mechanism; it ensured she would never foolishly place her trust in the wrong hands or fall victim to a sudden, knife-in-the-back betrayal.
Being hyper-intelligent helped her play her cards flawlessly against financial titans and mafia lords without stumbling into their intricate webs.
And being this immensely valuable just meant that the world’s most powerful men were naturally going to orbit around her, trying to shield her from harm. Like a protagonist.
But it was her slightly unhinged streak that truly fascinated her now—a dark, latent trait she hadn’t actively noticed until she was thrown face-to-face with Nat Collins.
Standing in that damp warehouse, watching a man get his legs pulverized with an iron bat, her blood hadn’t run cold. It had boiled. Her heart had raced with a savage, intoxicating thrill.
In that monster, she had recognized a terrifying equal—someone who viewed the world exactly the way she did, even if his methods were a bit more bloody.
After watching him, she had realized that to live in this world without constantly worrying about her back, she simply couldn’t show her back at all. And if anyone did see her back to hit, she just had to turn around and hit them first, no matter who they were or how many years they’ve known each other.
At times, she didn’t particularly love the cold, calculating thoughts creeping into her head—the instinct to view human beings as nothing more than profitable tools to be used, milked dry, and discarded, because she believed people were also assets. And if there was one thing April appreciated above all else, it was a high-value asset.
Right now, Samuel was an exceptionally valuable asset. He wasn’t lining her pockets with millions like Xavier or Alexander or Nat, but his unyielding, absolute assistance was a rare currency she couldn’t replicate anywhere else in this city.
And because of that... she actually felt a subtle twinge of pity for him.
It was the first time she was genuinely feeling sorry for another human being since her regression. When she had first used the system to read his fortune—discovering his planned proposal and the impending, brutal heartbreak waiting for him—she hadn’t felt an ounce of sympathy.
She had viewed it as a highly entertaining, live breakup drama to spice up her boring day. That was until she realized the woman on the other end was a leech like Mei.
In any case, she was aware that she had grown cold, detached, unapologetic, and frighteningly brilliant. How she had mutated into this version of herself, she didn’t know. But as she watched the gates of the Reed mansion loom closer, she decided she didn’t care. She was thankful for the armor.
"Samuel," April called out, her voice cutting through the soft hum of the sedan’s engine like a small bell.
Samuel’s eyes instantly flicked to the rearview mirror, his posture stiffening further. "Yes, Miss April?"
"Samuel, let me ask you a hypothetical question," she began smoothly, her chin still resting comfortably on her knuckles. "If you had known, the very day before it happened, that your girlfriend Mei was going to break up with you... what do you think you would have done differently?"
