Chương 292: Chapter : 292

The strategy room went completely, uncomfortably silent. The girls had fought through monsters and dungeons, but fighting a billionaire's paper shredder felt completely impossible. Ken stood by the doorway, leaning his shoulder against the wooden frame. He let out a long, highly dramatic groan that completely shattered the depressing atmosphere in the room.

"Oh, come on," Ken complained loudly, rolling his eyes.

"Are we really just going to sit here and let a sweaty guy in a suit win because he knows how to use a paper shredder? That is the most boring ending to a mystery ever." Naomi glared at him.

"Do you have a better idea, farm boy? He has an army of augmented mercenaries and a wall of lawyers!"

"I have a fantastic idea," Ken smiled goofily, crossing one foot over the other.

"It is a classic movie trope. When the evil CEO asks you to leave his office, it means he is about to start deleting his computer files. But deleting a massive corporate server takes hours. It takes all night." Ken pointed a lazy finger at the map of the capital city on the table.

"He thinks we are good, law-abiding Royals who are going to wait for a warrant," Ken said casually.

"He thinks we are going to respect his fancy legal injunctions. So, why don't we just not do that?" Princess Iris turned to look at Ken. Her violet eyes widened slightly.

"You are suggesting we break into the Benjamin Group headquarters."

"I am suggesting a highly aggressive, unscheduled corporate audit," Ken corrected her playfully.

"Listen, he is going to spend the entire night moving those files into his most secure vaults, right? He is packing everything into neat little boxes. That is very nice of him! He is doing all the organizing for us!" Ken stood up straight, offering a surprisingly sharp, completely confident grin.

"If we wait for the courts, the evidence vanishes," Ken stated flatly.

"But if we show up tomorrow morning, right at the crack of dawn, before the legal injunctions take effect? We catch him right at the end of his all-nighter. We walk right through his front door, completely ignore his receptionist, take the elevator up, and grab the boxes." Sayma's jaw actually dropped.

"Ken, that is highly illegal! It is a direct violation of corporate sovereignty! If we raid his building without Upper Council approval, we will be treated as hostile invaders! And he has thirty augmented mercenaries waiting for us!"

"Who cares about thirty mercenaries?" Laxmi shouted, suddenly jumping to her feet. The fiery brawler's eyes were completely lit up with pure, adrenaline-fueled excitement.

"Ken is an absolute genius! We just kick the front doors open and fight our way to the top floor! I have been wanting to set that arrogant guy's desk on fire since this morning!"

"It is an incredibly reckless plan," Zinia warned, though a tough, competitive smile was already spreading across her face.

"Those mercenaries have military-grade cybernetics. It will not be a simple fistfight. It will be an absolute war in that lobby." If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Naomi looked down at her twin daggers. She thought about the three hundred thousand lives lost every year to magical cancer. She thought about Dr. Carrion being murdered in his lab just to protect a profit margin. She thought about the Vice Director laughing in their faces.

Naomi looked up, her green eyes blazing with unstoppable resolve.

"I am with Ken," Naomi declared firmly.

"I don't care if there are thirty mercenaries or a hundred. I am not letting that monster get away with mass murder just because he can afford good lawyers." The entire room turned to look at Princess Iris. As the Royal Candidate, she had the final say. If they executed this raid and failed to find the evidence, she would be permanently disqualified from the Succession War and likely sent to prison for authorizing a terrorist attack on a civilian corporation. The risk was absolutely astronomical.

Princess Iris stared at the glowing blue screen of Sayma's terminal. She thought about the heavy, suffocating rules of the Empire. She thought about the corruption she wanted to tear down. Iris reached down and drew her silver rapier from its sheath. The polished metal caught the lamplight, gleaming brightly in the dim room.

"The law in this Empire protects the powerful," Princess Iris said, her voice dropping into a tone of absolute, chilling authority.

"It is designed to give monsters like the Vice Director time to hide their sins. I refuse to play by his rules any longer." Iris looked at her elite vanguard, her expression completely fearless.

"Get some sleep tonight, everyone," Princess Iris commanded.

"Rest your bodies and prepare your weapons. Tomorrow at first light, the 13th Unit is executing a hostile corporate takeover."

"YES!" Laxmi cheered at the top of her lungs, punching the air. Zinia cracked her knuckles loudly. Ira offered a single, sharp nod of her head. Sayma quickly closed her laptop, a fierce, determined look replacing her usual polite nervousness. Ken let out a massive, highly dramatic groan, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Wait, first light?!" Ken whined loudly, instantly ruining his cool strategist moment.

"Are you kidding me? Dawn is entirely too early for an office brawl! I was just trying to sound dramatic! Can't we execute the hostile takeover at, like, 11: 30 AM? After I've had my coffee?"

"You can sleep in the elevator tomorrow, farm boy," Naomi laughed, lightly shoving his shoulder as she walked past him toward the door.

"But you are coming with us. You came up with the plan, so you have to be there to watch us execute it."

"This is the worst idea I have ever had," Ken complained, slouching his shoulders and shuffling out of the room.

"My brilliant brain is actively sabotaging my sleep schedule." As the team dispersed to prepare their gear for the massive dawn raid, the atmosphere in the crumbling estate was no longer heavy with defeat. They were filled with dangerous, unstoppable purpose. Ken walked down the dusty hallway to his room, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. A small, secret smile touched the corner of his lips.

"Thirty augmented mercenaries," Ken thought to himself, his dark eyes flashing with a cold, lazy amusement.

"That Vice Director really thinks a bunch of metal arms and shiny guns can save him. He has absolutely no idea what kind of monsters he just invited into his building." Ken closed his bedroom door and flopped face-first onto his lumpy mattress, fully intending to get at least eight hours of sleep. Tomorrow morning, he was going to have to walk through an active war zone, and he needed all of his energy to make sure he looked completely, effortlessly bored while doing it.

The 13th Unit returned to the Benjamin Group headquarters the very next morning. They didn't use the front door this time. They marched straight through the lobby, past the trembling receptionist, and into the private elevator before anyone could stop them. Iris's expression could have frozen a volcano.