Chapter 143: The Twenty Four Hours Ultimatum
Chapter 143
Immediately after those words, a heavy silence settled over the room. Nobody spoke or moved. The air in the big dining room felt so thick that breathing was even kind of hard. Even the rich, mouthwatering food on their plates suddenly lost all its flavor.
This was one of those moments where Alex hated being weak. A deep, bitter anger burned in his chest, making his fists tighten under the table.
If he weren’t weak, then no one would even have the nerve to threaten him or the people he cared about. If he already had the world shaking power of the higher rank, then a trashy, second rate bully like the Kades wouldn’t dare say his name, let alone threaten his woman.
But right now, in the cold, dangerous world of the Awakened, he was still nothing but a rising fighter. Who was forced to helplessly listen to a senile old man threaten one of his women.
Finally the chairman broke the silence through the phone speaker. His voice was smooth, cold, and sounded completely dead.
"Listen closely. I’ll make this as simple as possible and give you an ultimatum. I am going to give you exactly twenty four hours. Within that time span, you will provide that boy, Alex Walker, to me. Or else..."
Immediately after saying that, the line went dead. The crazy man did not bother waiting for any reply. It was crystal clear that he did not care about their excuses, their protests, or their arguments.
He had simply delivered his terms, and cut the call immediately after.
For a few seconds, the only sound being heard was the sound of their own breathing and the low hum of the mansion’s air conditioning. Nyx slowly lowered her phone and placed it back on the table.
The atmosphere felt so heavy that even the staff members standing in the distance looked uncomfortable. Doris was the first to break the silence.
"So... what exactly are we going to do now?" Everyone turned toward her. She set down her fork and frowned. "The Kade Family has already set an ultimatum."
Her gaze shifted toward Alex.
"So unless Alex can somehow magically enter the Ascendant Realm within twenty four hours, which is definitely impossible considering he only broke through to the Vanguard Realm not too long ago, I honestly don’t see any way of getting us out of this."
"An Ascendant Realm powerhouse is on a completely different level. Even if all of us combine our strength right now, we are just vanguard Realm fighters."
"To an Ascendant Realm master, we are nothing but ants. It takes years, sometimes maybe even decades, to cross the gap from Vanguard to Ascendant. Twenty four hours? It’s literally impossible."
Nobody immediately answered. Because unfortunately... She wasn’t completely wrong. An Ascendant Realm expert especially from the Kade family was not something they could casually ignore.
Nyx slowly raised her hand and rubbed her forehead tiredly. This was one of the rare moments where the cold, unshakable leader looked genuinely tired. But she quickly forced her face back into a calm mask.
"For now... I don’t know what to do."
Her words surprised everyone. Nyx was, well, how would I put it... usually the type who always seemed to have a plan for everything. So hearing her say this was really surprising.
"I might not know how to solve this problem right now, but I should be able to come up with something foolproof before the deadline. I will look through some of my resources and see if I can use any method to delay them."
Her eyes flashed with a dangerous, protective light as they settled on Alex.
"But make no mistake. No matter what happens, we are not going to hand Alex over to the Kade family. That is not an option. If they want a war, we will give them a war, even if the odds are stacked against us."
Jade’s expression softened slightly. Doris nodded almost immediately and said.
"Good."
Because despite her usual attitude toward him, she clearly wasn’t willing to sacrifice Alex either. After all, no matter how she tried to forget about it. He was the man that took her first time.
And women tend to never forget about those who they shared their first time with. It was kind of a universal truth.
Alex looked up at them. Never in his life has he felt so touched. And that seemed to strengthen his resolve even more, that he would definitely not let anything happen to any one of them. No matter what!
Jade, who had been sitting quietly for a while now, leaned forward, and finally spoke.
"What if I talk with him?" She suggested.
Everyone looked toward her. Jade sat quietly for a moment before continuing.
"With his help, the Kade family would be wiped off the face of the planet before the twenty four hours are even over."
Alex immediately understood she wasn’t talking about Chairman Kade. She was talking about someone else. Someone more powerful, and enough to destroy the Kade Family entirely.
Nyx immediately shook her head, bluntly rejecting the suggestion.
"No."
Jade frowned.
"Why?"
"Because it wouldn’t work. He wouldn’t be able to help us." The younger girl looked confused, but Nyx just continued calmly. "Especially not with them keeping a close eye on him. The moment he takes a move to help us, it’ll create problems far larger than the Kade Family. So we are on our own for this one, Jade."
Eventually, Jade nodded. Though she didn’t look happy about it. She still understood what Nyx was saying.
Alex listened to the girls talk, but he wasn’t really focusing on their words. Internally, a completely different set of thoughts were running through his mind.
He knew that reaching the B Rank, the Ascendant Realm, wasn’t actually as far away as they all assumed. For a normal Awakened, yes, it was a difficult mountain to climb in a single day.
But he wasn’t an Awakened like them. He had a literal cheat code wired directly into his soul. Besides, the amount of Desire Energy he needed wasn’t impossible to obtain.
Difficult?
Yes.
Impossible?
No.
If everything went according to plan... Then he might actually have a chance. After all, the desire energy was already four hundred and twenty five out of six hundred.
So if his calculations were correct, then he probably needed to sleep with two more women within twenty four hours. And luckily he already knew exactly who the first woman was going to be.
Pushing his chair back, Alex stood up, drawing the attention of everyone at the table. He looked directly at Nyx, his expression deadpan and serious.
"Nyx, if you don’t mind I need to talk to you alone for a minute. It’s kind of important."
Nyx blinked, slightly surprised by his sudden request, but thankfully, she did not question him in front of the others. She gave a short nod, stood up from her seat, and followed him out of the dining room.
They walked quickly down the long, winding hallways of the mansion, passing through various places until they finally reached a secluded, quiet balcony overlooking the vast mansion grounds.
The morning sun was warm, but the breeze that accompanied it, felt incredibly cold.
Once they were far away from the others, Alex turned around to face her. He did not waste any time beating around the bush. He looked straight into her cold amber eyes and made his plan clear.
"Nyx, I need you to do something for me. I want to meet Annie alone in the underground prison right now."
Nyx stopped in her tracks, looking at him with a deeply puzzled expression. Her perfect eyebrows knitted together, and her gaze turned cool, trying to read what was currently going through that brain of his.
Annie was a dangerous captive, a mixed blood Korean and western woman who was part of the Heukryeon organization and had tried to kill them in South Korea, before they managed to defeat her, and lock her away in the heavily reinforced cells beneath the building.
Even though Alex could handle her, leaving him alone with a volatile, hostile Awakened prisoner during a crisis made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
"Why? She is highly unstable at this period. And while her powers are a bit restricted, she is still much of a threat, and her hatred for us runs deep. Why do you need to see her alone right now when we have a crisis hanging over our heads?"
Alex took a step closer, his expression earnest. He couldn’t tell her about the system, the harem slots, or the exact way his Desire Energy worked. It was a secret he had to carry alone for now.
"I can’t really talk about the exact details for now, but you have to trust me on this. If we want to have any real chance against the Kade family powerhouse tomorrow, it is really important that I meet with Annie."
Nyx stared at him for a long agonizing moment. Her insanely intelligent mind was clearly weighing the risks, trying to find the logic behind his bizarre request.
