Chương 140: Going Deeper (Into Debt)

"Arthur, the last time you said something was perfectly safe, I got twisted into a straw by a Deity Transformation Scarecrow," Kevin complained.

"Can I really trust you? Can I?" Leo, Mike, and Arthur were on a group call with Kevin back on Earth. Leo needed someone else to help him search the ruins, so he logged off to go find Kevin. Now they were trying to convince him to come down the elevator shaft and help explore the ruins of the Everlasting Empire. Kevin was skeptical. Kevin had concerns.

Kevin pointed out, repeatedly, that the last time he'd followed the three into a profundity, it had been an extremely painful experience that he was not looking to repeat.

"That was different," Arthur tried to explain.

"You could have told me to self-detonate after being teleported into the field of wheat. But no. You wanted me to suffer! And suffer I did!"

"That time I was guessing. This time I'm down here. Walking around. Not dead." Arthur lied.

"See the difference?" Leo cut in.

"Kevin, I killed the Follower guy. After that, the whole city calmed down. All the puppets just went back to being statues."

"What do you mean, 'calmed down'?" Kevin's breathing got faster.

"How not calm was it before? What did you have to calm down? Am I going to get tortured again if I come down there?"

"Nobody's getting tortured. It's beautiful down here, Kevin. Everything glows blue. Spiritstones everywhere." Mike lied.

"Arthur and I are just flying around having fun, finding cool loot."

"Well," Kevin began convincing himself, "if you two are still alive down there. Actually walking around. Not being tortured or twisted into thread."

"A lot of really cool formations down here," Mike confirmed.

"I guess I could come check it out." Leo texted Mike, asking him what he was doing. Mike texted back.

"Creative storytelling."

Kevin got over his reservations shortly after landing in the underground city.

"Holy shit." He spun in a slow circle on the bridge, his eyes tracking the towers rising into the darkness.

"This is so cool! I've never seen anything like this!"

"Where's Arthur and Mike?" Leo gave him a look. Kevin deflated.

"Don't worry, I wasn't lying when I said it was perfectly safe. Kevin, there is so much moolah down here. Warehouses full of it. We just have to go pick it up." The first warehouse they opened contained fourteen hundred stone tablets stacked floor to ceiling on stone racks. Kevin picked one up and turned it over in his hands. Dense columns of hexagram script covered both sides. The characters were tiny, precise, and completely incomprehensible.

"Can you read any of this?" Leo asked.

"Leo, both of us can barely read Common without consulting our copies of the dictionary. And now you're asking me if I can read an ancient language I've never seen before from scratch?"

"So this is useless."

"It's incredibly valuable. We just can't do anything with it yet." Kevin set the tablet back on the rack.

"We'd need linguists, formation masters, probably months of cross-referencing. People who actually went to school for this."

"Oh... okay... so you're saying we are the ones that are useless." They opened the next warehouse. This one contained puppets. Rows and rows of dormant Foundation Establishment tier constructs stood upright in wooden frames.

"Can we pull the cores out?" Leo asked.

"Sell them?" Kevin stared at him.

"Didn't you say these puppets are supposedly guarding something? Something like the scary zombie cultivators down below?" Leo considered this.

"So we should probably leave the ancient defense grid intact."

"I would love to leave the ancient defense grid intact, Leo. Thank you for asking my opinion before ripping things apart." Leo looked down at the spiritual core he had ripped out earlier. He cleared his throat and gently tried to put it back into the puppet's chest cavity. The core sat there for a moment, then slid out, hit the stone floor with a sharp crack, and rolled under a storage rack. Kevin just stared at him. Next they checked what used to be an armory. The weapon racks stood empty.

The storage vaults hung open and cleaned out. Dust patterns on the shelves showed where items had sat for centuries before being removed recently. They checked another dozen buildings over the next two days. They found workshops with tools but no materials. Forges with molds but no ingots. Formation labs had workbenches but no spiritual ink or brushes. The Follower hadn't just looted the city. He had stripped it. Anything that could fit into a storage ring had been taken.

What remained was either bolted to the floor or impossible to understand. Unfortunately, "impossible to understand" meant that the pair couldn't make heads or tails of what they found.

"I have good news and bad news," Kevin announced on the third day. He sat on a stone bench in what they'd started calling the plaza, surrounded by a few knick knacks they picked up that looked useful.

"Good news first."

"I think I've identified a pattern in the hexagram script. These clusters here," he pointed at a sequence of characters repeated across several tablets, "show up on every puppet we've examined. They might be a standard initialization sequence. If I'm right, it could be the key to understanding how the whole sixty four rune system is structured."

"That's great. What's the bad news?"

"I need about four hundred hours of GPU time to verify it. And a team of at least three Gold Core level formation masters. And maybe a linguist." Kevin looked up from the tablets.

"Basically, we need money to make use of any of this." Leo sat down next to him on the bench. They stared at the glowing blue buildings in silence.

"There's always the fortress," Leo said. They both looked at the central building. The only structure in the city that glowed red. The one with four Deity Transformation constructs standing guard inside.

"No," Kevin said.

"I didn't even suggest anything."

"You already asked me three times if I wanted to go inside. And the answer is no." Leo looked at the fortress. They already checked every single other building. The only things they'd found were unreadable stone tablets and dormant puppets. They hadn't found any clues about jiangshi, the signature zombie cultivators of the Everlasting Empire, nor any information about the Enlightened's plans or Cloudpiercer's ambition.

The Follower had said something about marching against the spiritual beasts, but Leo didn't know how much he could trust the man. The truth was somewhere inside that fortress, where four Deity Transformation constructs stood guard. If it had been any other location, Leo could have walked in himself. Died. Respawned. Learned something from the failure and tried again. That was how he'd approached every other problem in the Azure Profound Continent. Stolen story; please report. But this time was different.

If they died in the ruins now, they probably wouldn't be able to return. The Imperial Court would have resealed the tunnel by now. This was a challenge he could not brute force through infinite attempts. And to be perfectly honest, Leo wasn't ready to lose his remaining teammate. There were so many formations to study, decipher, and learn, and Leo didn't have the time to do it himself. Nor the will to do the mind numbing data entry work.

The best thing they could do was translate the text, figure out how to activate some puppets, and use them to explore the fortress. Leo sighed.

"Okay. Let's go ask someone for money." Kevin nodded. It wasn't a happy nod. They logged off.

New York City Leo and Kevin stood outside the JPMorgan Chase building on Wall Street. The morning crowd flowed around them. A pair of Foundation Establishment finance bros walked past on the sidewalk, talking loudly about quarterly projections and spiritual qi derivatives. A Gold Core executive stepped out of a black sedan. His spiritual pressure made the nearby interns flinch as he strode toward Goldman Sachs.

Overhead, a Porsche flying car banked between skyscrapers and docked into a private sky garage forty floors up. Another followed, a Tesla model trailing faint Qi exhaust. This was Wall Street. The heart of American capitalism. Where money and cultivation intertwined so tightly you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. Leo tried not to think about what they were getting themselves into. The problem was that he was already thirty million dollars in debt from his Foundation Establishment body refining.

He really wasn't excited about the prospect of sinking deeper. Leo looked at Kevin, the forty year old jobless bachelor from Queens. Kevin's shoulders slumped.

"Fine. Let's get humiliated."

The loan officer typed something into her computer. She was a Foundation Establishment woman with black hair in a neat bun and reading glasses perched on her nose. She had the calm, patient demeanor of someone who'd processed a thousand loan applications and denied ten thousand more. A small placard on her desk read "How Can I Help You Today?" Kevin fidgeted in his seat.

"Relax," Leo whispered.

"You said you have good credit."

"I do have good credit." Kevin shot back.

"I pay all my credit cards on time. Every single month. Never missed a payment." The loan officer finished typing and turned to face them.

"Alright, Mr. Miller. Let's take a look at your financial profile." She clicked through several screens.

"Your credit score is excellent." Kevin's chest puffed out. He shot Leo a smug look.

"Now let's review your income and assets." More clicking. Her smile began to flatten.

"I see here that your employment status is listed as... self-employed?"

"That's right." Kevin nodded eagerly.

"I do formation work. Consulting, mostly. Some contract jobs."

"Mmhmm." She scrolled down.

"And your current annual income from this formation work is..." She squinted at the screen.

"Irregular."

"Well, it varies." Kevin nervously looked left and right.

"Some months are better than others. You know how consulting is."

"I see." She pulled up another window.

"Let's look at your tax returns from last year." The loan officer adjusted her glasses. Her brow furrowed.

"Mr. Miller, I'm seeing some inconsistencies here that I need to ask about."

"Of course." Kevin's voice cracked slightly.

"Happy to clarify."

"Your return shows income from formation services." She turned the monitor so Kevin could see.

"But I'm not seeing any corresponding business expenses."

"Expenses?"

"Cost of materials. Equipment depreciation. Spiritual Qi deductions." She adjusted her glasses.

"Formation work requires significant Qi expenditure, doesn't it? That's a standard business deduction. Your return shows none." Kevin's mouth opened. Back when he was drawing formations to make money to purchase his flying sword, he used the abundant T2 spiritual qi found in the Azure Profound Continent. This wasn't exactly something he could explain to the banker.

"I... my accountant handles that."

"Your accountant filed a return showing pure profit with zero operational costs." Her tone remained pleasant, but her smile was gone.

"Either you've discovered a way to draw formations without using any resources whatsoever, or there may be some documentation issues we need to address." Kevin looked at Leo. Leo looked at the floor.

"I'll speak to my accountant," Kevin said. The loan officer nodded slowly. She closed that window and opened another.

"Even setting aside the tax questions, Mr. Miller, I'm not seeing the financial profile we'd need for the loan amount you're requesting. No current employment. No significant assets. Irregular income that, even at its highest reported month, wouldn't support the debt service on a substantial business loan."

"But my credit score..."

"Your credit score shows you pay your existing obligations on time. That's commendable." She folded her hands on the desk.

"But it doesn't demonstrate the capacity to take on new debt at this level. Based on what I'm seeing, the most I could approve would be a personal line of credit. Perhaps ten thousand dollars." Kevin deflated.

"And frankly, Mr. Miller, if your income claims are accurate, you could earn that in a week of formation work." She tilted her head slightly.

"If you're being honest about your margins." Silence filled the office.

"Okay, fine. Kevin, you were right." Leo said.

"Lord JP Morgan isn't going to loan you money." Kevin slumped deeper into his seat. Leo turned to the loan officer and smiled politely.

"How about me? I just signed with the New York Giants. First pick in the draft." He flashed his teeth. Her expression shifted.

"Well." She began typing.

"That changes things considerably. Professional athletic contracts are excellent collateral for business loans. Let me pull up your financial profile." Leo shot Kevin a triumphant look. Kevin grinned right back.

"Let's start with your credit rating, Mr. Chen." She clicked. Leo leaned forward to peek at the screen. His credit score was 100. Leo's eyes went wide. He sat up in his chair. Amazing. Finally, things were going his way.

"Oh wow." The loan officer raised her eyebrows. Her tone carried genuine surprise. Leo laughed.

"Pretty good, right?" He was already mentally cataloging what they could do with the loan. GPU rentals for formation analysis. Hiring specialists to decipher the hexagram scripts. Maybe even licensing the formations to the military to improve their drones. Kevin looked at the screen. His face did something complicated.

"Leo, I don't think that's how it works."

"What do you mean?" Leo gestured at the monitor. The loan officer removed her glasses. She cleaned them with a small cloth from her desk drawer.

"Mr. Chen, the credit rating scale goes up to 850." Leo's grin froze.

"I've been in this position for twenty five years." She shook her head slowly, almost to herself.

"The lowest score I've ever personally encountered was 314. A gentleman who had defaulted on seven credit cards and a boat loan." She looked at Leo with curiosity.

"The scale ranges from 300 to 850. I genuinely didn't know the system could generate a number below the floor." Kevin started coughing to try to cover up his laugh.

"There has to be a mistake." Leo pointed at the screen.

"Run it again."

"The system doesn't make mistakes, Mr. Chen." She began pulling up additional windows.

"Let's see what's contributing to this score." The first window displayed Leo's reported income.

"Your tax filing shows... insufficient income to require a return." She looked at him.

"You didn't file taxes last year."

"I'm eighteen. I was in high school."

"That would explain it." She moved to the next window. The second display showed Leo's current debt obligations. Leo stared at it.

"Why does it say 30. 8 million?" Kevin leaned over to look. His eyebrows climbed.

"Lord Ross told me I would only be 30 million in debt from the body refining process." Leo jabbed his finger at the screen.

"That's $800k more than it should be."

"Interest, Mr. Chen." The loan officer tapped the screen.

"Your debt has been accruing since May." Kevin went pale.

"Eight hundred thousand dollars. In interest. In five months." Kevin stood up. Then he pulled at his shirt collar. Then he started fanning himself with both hands.

"Is it hot in here?" He looked around the office.

"It feels really hot in here. I think I need some water. Or air. I definitely need air. Can we open the window?

"Kevin." Leo raised a hand. Kevin sat back down. He shook his hands, trying to calm down.

"I'm fine," he said, in a voice that suggested he was absolutely not fine.

"I'm completely fine. Eight hundred thousand dollars in five months and I'm completely fine. This is fine. Everything is fine." His leg shook so violently that the loan officer's pen holder rattled on her desk.

"Kevin." Leo grabbed his shoulder. Kevin flinched. He looked at Leo with wild eyes.

"Why are you freaking out? You're the one freaking out. I'm the one thirty million dollars in debt." Kevin blinked. He looked at Leo. He looked at the screen showing Leo's debt. He looked back at Leo.

"Right." He swallowed.

"Right. This is your problem."

"Yes."

"Your crippling, life-destroying, generational debt."

"Yes."

"So why am I the one having a panic attack?"

"I genuinely don't know." Kevin exhaled slowly. He released his death grip on the armrests.

"Eight hundred thousand dollars of interest in five months is crazy!" Leo complained, turning back to the loan officer.

"If you don't like it, you can dispute it with Lord Ross." Her tone suggested she did not think that was a good idea. Leo had a flashback of a bloodied scalpel. And a chill ran through him. The banker folded her hands on her desk.

"Mr. Chen, I'm afraid that regardless of your professional contract, a debt-to-income ratio of this magnitude makes you ineligible for any form of lending from our institution."

"But I signed with the Giants."

"And your first paycheck will begin addressing your existing obligations." She smiled gently.

"Perhaps in a few years, once you've established a payment history and reduced your principal balance, we could revisit this conversation." Leo looked at Kevin. Kevin looked at Leo. Arthur was a penniless retiree. Mike didn't have control over his own finances. They were going to need to ask Vivian for help.