My Infinite Investment System

Chapter 24: The Fund

Ryan woke beneath a registry ward with his ribs wrapped in silver mesh, his left hand fixed inside a brace that pulsed whenever he tried to flex it.

The room smelled of antiseptic, burnt mana, and rain brought in by boots crossing the clinic floor.

Nia sat beside the bed with the captured authorisation packet sealed inside a transparent evidence sleeve.

Mika occupied the narrow window, one shoulder against the glass while she watched collectors from the repossession squad give statements to two registry officers.

"How long was I unconscious?" Ryan asked, testing the fingers that still answered slowly.

"Four hours," Nia said, lifting the liability display so he could read it, "your delayed account collected the first portion before the medics could stabilise the nerve damage."

[Deferred Liability: 38]

[Collection Method: Musculoskeletal / Neural]

[Early Repayment Available: No]

The numbers remained quiet, though the brace tightened whenever Ryan inhaled too deeply.

He remembered the staff beneath his ribs, the boss core breaking, then the strange weakness that had pulled his spear from his hand after the dungeon cleared.

"The skill saved me from the first impact," Ryan said, turning his eyes toward the ward seal, "so why did it wait until outside air to collect?"

"Because your account recognised the dungeon as an active hazard zone," Nia replied, opening the medic report, "the collection waited until the immediate combat condition ended."

Ryan disliked the answer because it sounded fair enough to survive an argument.

The first interval closed before he could sit upright without the brace pulling at his ribs.

[Deferred Liability: 38 -> 21]

[Motor Function: 61%]

The brace released one notch, but Ryan still could not close his left hand around the edge of the blanket.

"Can you buy that kind of skill?" the senior medic asked, checking the readout beside Ryan’s shoulder.

"I bought an alternative that charged a recruit," Ryan said, keeping his voice level, "the defensive skill arrived through a different contract."

The medic frowned at the wording, yet she did not ask about a mechanism.

"Your records describe an unstable defensive skill with a repayment clause," she said, placing the report on Nia’s tray, "keep the output low until the account finishes collecting."

"Predatory credit usually hides the repayment schedule," Nia said, closing the report, "this one printed every risk where the user could see it."

Ryan studied the ward light until its pale ring stopped swimming.

’Pain kept its own ledger during recovery.’

"Visible does not mean generous," he warned, "it only means the trap expects informed consent."

Mika turned from the window with a tablet balanced against her hip.

"The repo leader signed a statement confirming that Seven-B preserved his equipment after you disabled the recovery tool," she said, "his squad also admitted that they used our formation to clear their exit."

That admission gave the club a clean incident record, but it did not explain the billing packet recovered beside the route key or why its seals matched a clinic chain absent from Ryan’s former audit.

Nia opened the evidence sleeve once the registry officer approved the seal and placed the packet beneath a second camera.

Inside, invoices from three shell core clinics shared a procurement route with the recovery vendor.

{Original Audit Missing Recovery Allocation: $418,000}

{Shell Clinic Invoices Identified: $263,400}

{Compact Equipment Fees Identified: $91,700}

{Shared Procurement Route: Verified}

"Those clinics received the money before the guild terminated your contract," Nia said, tracing each transfer code with a gloved finger.

"The audit showed income without recovery allocation," Ryan replied, reading the figures twice, "someone moved the missing funds through medical suppliers, then billed the guild for equipment it never received."

Mika enlarged the procurement map until the same administrator appeared beside every shell company.

"The administrator also handled emergency finance for Northstar Special Situations Fund," she said, tapping the centre node, "the fund bought your former guild’s lender debt three days after your firing."

Northstar’s display connected eleven special-purpose funds, each carrying a separate collection policy with its own collection trigger.

’Debt had been purchased for access to the audit.’

Ryan felt the clinic brace tighten before the pain reached his chest.

"They bought the debt because the audit made the guild vulnerable," he said, lowering himself against the pillow, "now they can call the missing allocation a recovery failure."

"They can call it whatever survives a hearing," Nia replied, "we need the transfer records before anyone calls it fraud in public."

The registry officer returned with a second folder, this one stamped with notices from suppliers who had withdrawn ordinary support.

Credit from the beverage wholesaler had been suspended for the next two deliveries.

Meanwhile, the lighting lessor had demanded its equipment after the next booked event.

The insurer had cancelled compliance coordination for dungeon-grown ingredients after learning about the dispute.

Each notice arrived within the same hour with Northstar’s reference number attached.

"Northstar did not need to attack us inside the dungeon," Mika said, scrolling through the timestamps, "it only had to make every supplier fear being associated with Seven-B."

The ward light dimmed above the bed.

Ryan remembered the repo leader’s calm voice beside the sealed route.

"A local event is easier to blockade than a public investigation," he said, "so they expect us to cancel before the evidence becomes expensive."

Nia placed the supplier notices beside the clinic invoices for one combined evidence photograph.

"Then we hold the event with cash terms," she said, "we pay before delivery, record every serial, and make the blockade visible through a successful service."

The Goddess packet remained unopened beneath the evidence sleeve throughout the registry review.

Ryan had kept it separate because its labels were too strange for an ordinary supplier file.

{Morale Restorative}

{Serving Guidance: One Heroic Party}

{Allergen Field: See Prophecy}

[Response Received: Food Safet]

[Administrator Note: Morale Items Are Not Medical Devices]

"That is not a menu," Mika said, leaning over the packet, "it is a warning written by someone who expects heroes to ignore instructions."

"The packet came from a Goddess channel," Ryan said, watching the brace display, "we follow the guidance after the registry confirms the ingredients are legal."

The registry officer checked the attached permits, then authorised a limited purchase through a private grower with a cash-before-delivery clause plus a registry witness.

Mika’s tablet gave a sharp tone before she could celebrate the approval.

{Stabilized Pathway Retention: 92% -> 71%}

{Degradation Trend: 3.8% per High-Load Event}

{Current Safe Output: D}

{Projected Failure Threshold: 5 Events}

Mika read the reassessment without blinking while the pathway graph collapsed beside her.

’Survival no longer meant safety during high load.’

"The core held because Ryan spent the return field on the boss," she said, "my pathway lost nineteen points after the high-load sequence."

"Then we stop treating your output as free," Ryan replied, "the next event gets a ceiling, a reserve, and a medical exit."

She looked ready to argue, but Nia placed the supplier plan over the reassessment.

’Her power could build the night without consuming her first.’

’The event needed a margin no lender could collect.’

Phase two required more than a single successful night to survive Northstar’s financial pressure.

{Phase-Two Working Estimate: $186,000}

{Current Unrestricted Operating Cash: $46,000}

{Near-Term Royalty Minimum: $1,200}

{Largest Booked Night: Projected Net: $38,600}

{Unfunded Requirement: $100,200}

"The first night cannot cover phase two," Nia said, "but it can prove that our service survives a coordinated withdrawal."

Ryan opened the Exchange panel with his good hand and reviewed every reserve before spending anything.

[Return Credit Balance: 240]

[Emergency Inventory Token: 80]

[Supplier Credit Extension: 120]

[Risk Transfer: Temporarily Unavailable]

The disabled skill line made the panel feel smaller than the money gap.

"Use the emergency inventory token for the missing ingredients," Mika said.

"No," Ryan answered, turning toward the packet, "we keep that reserve for a failure the supplier cannot replace."

Nia read the private contacts attached to the Goddess channel.

One legal grower could provide dungeon-grown drink ingredients under a cash-before-delivery contract.

Elsewhere, a private power-core broker could deliver sealed cores before the event crew arrived.

Another temporary gear lender could provide equipment without demanding ownership or future premiums.

The shield user required refrigeration cores for a single event.

The mining operator could deliver mineral herbs through a cash courier.

Every contact refused premiums, ownership claims, and endorsement language in the written terms.

"They are selling access, not allegiance," Nia said, comparing the terms, "that makes the blockade harder to explain."

"It also makes the invoices clean," Ryan said, "we pay each supplier in cash, then keep the receipt trail beside the event result."

At 4:12 p.m., the ordinary supplier refusal arrived through the same booking channel.

The VIP list sold out two minutes later through a private booking channel.

Northstar’s fund expected Ryan to choose between a cancelled night and a risky one.

He closed the ward display with his thumb after checking the reserve balance twice.

"Book the grower," Ryan said, "we will answer the blockade with a service nobody can repossess before delivery."

The registry officer removed the evidence seal from the packet and signed the limited-use permit beside Ryan’s medical report.

Ryan’s brace tightened once more, then released as the liability account prepared its final collection interval.

[Deferred Liability: 21 -> 0]

[Risk Transfer: Repaid]

[Reactivation Condition: Motor Function Above 80%]

The left hand remained weak, but the next decision belonged to the club rather than the debt.