Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System!
Chapter 478 - 478: master

Parker felt his head spinning as he tried to work through the implications. "And here's what's making this even more insane. Right now, changing her frozen mindset would be more difficult than killing all the Olympians. They've convinced her so completely that I'm the villain that breaking through that programming... it's like trying to rewrite the fundamental laws of reality while those laws actively fight back."

"Which is exactly what someone did to create this situation," Zhang Ruoyun said quietly.

"The strings being pulled here go so deep they make my head spin," Parker continued, his voice carrying growing horror. "We're talking about manipulation that spans lifetimes, realities, the very fabric of existence itself. Every god, every champion, every divine blessing—all of it dancing on strings pulled by someone who can see the cosmic chessboard from angles that shouldn't exist."

"But here's the thing that's really fucking with me," Parker stopped pacing entirely. "What if we're wrong about everything? What if it's none of this at all? What if it's nothing this simple?"

Maya's expression shifted to something like cosmic dread. "Unknown forces."

"Forces that can manipulate Existence-level souls when even THEY can't do that. Forces that can orchestrate divine pantheons across millennia like they're moving chess pieces. Forces that can see all of time as a single moment and manipulate it like editing a screenplay." Parker's hands clenched into fists. "What kind of entity has that level of power? What exists beyond the normal hierarchy that could make even us look like cosmic toddlers playing with toys?"

The bathroom fell silent except for the sound of water droplets and three omnipotent beings contemplating the possibility that they were completely outclassed.

Parker felt the universe tilt around him as the scope of the manipulation became clear. "And there's something else. Tessa."

Both women turned to him with expressions of growing dread.

"She has Immortal Tier powers. Time manipulation. She should be able to beat anyone trying to force her into this engagement." Parker's voice grew stronger as the pieces clicked together. "But she can't. And Helena and Noctavine haven't heard shit from the people supposedly guarding her from the shadows."

"Because it's the same entity," Zhang Ruoyun breathed.

"Because I'm dancing on some cosmic puppet master's strings that stretch across lifetimes and realities," Parker said. "A pawn in a game so complex I can't even see the board, let alone understand the rules."

"If you're right, then we're all heading into a well-planned trap tonight," Maya said quietly. "But Parker, if this entity can manipulate Existence-level souls, can orchestrate divine pantheons, can see all of time as one moment... what if they're not even playing the same game we think we're in?"

"There's one more thing we need to discuss," Parker said finally, his voice carrying a weight that made the air itself seem heavier.

"What?" both women asked.

"Nyxavere." Parker's voice carried cosmic dread. "When she finds out what happened to her aunt—that Chione is alive but thinks I'm the villain—she might go to Olympus and destroy everything before I even get the chance to figure out the whole perspective of this game. That would be dangerous and the one controlling things would use it against me and if I'm not wrong they might've calculated that possibility too."

Since Nyxavere herself was Omniscient, the being manipulating the game can't be sure of her actions, what exactly she will do and everything can only be calculated in possibilities as Parker has said.

That was both good and bad as he himself can't know his daughter's actions and she was a child and even with all her powers, her mind... she was still a child.

Maya's eyes widened. "We need to keep her from knowing."

"How do we keep our omniscient daughter from finding out that her favorite aunt is leading an army to kill her father?" Zhang Ruoyun asked.

"We don't, and she won't thanks to Chione's own barrier, unless that very being tells her or if she meets her Aunt," Parker said grimly. "We just hope we can fix this before she figures it out and decides to handle it herself. Because if Nyxavere gets to Olympus first..."

"She'll unravel whatever cosmic web has been spun around this situation, but in reality she would be destroying each clue we can use to figure out what's going on and who's behind this," Maya finished.

"And we might never understand who's been pulling the strings—or what they really want."

The three of them stood in their bathroom, surrounded by luxury that suddenly felt very small compared to the scope of the conspiracy they were uncovering.

"So what's the play?" Zhang Ruoyun asked.

Parker straightened his tie and smiled with the cold precision of someone who'd just realized he was in a game he didn't know he was playing—and might not even understand the rules of. "We go anyway."

"Even knowing it's a trap?"

"Even knowing we might be walking into something designed by an entity that makes us look like cosmic toddlers." Parker's grin was sharp as broken reality. "Because whoever or whatever is pulling these strings just made one critical mistake."

"Which is?"

"They assumed I'd care more about being outmaneuvered than I do about getting Chione back." Parker's voice carried the weight of absolute determination. "They can manipulate gods, corrupt champions, orchestrate divine wars, and play chess with time itself. But they made one miscalculation."

"What's that?"

"They forgot that sometimes the best way to break a web is to let it catch you and then burn everything down from the inside." Parker's expression shifted to something that made reality itself seem to pause. "Even if they can see past and future as one event, even if they can manipulate souls that should be untouchable, there's one thing they can't predict."

"What?"

"What happens when someone with nothing left to lose decides to stop playing by the rules entirely."

But he had so much to lose, only that, at the same time he didn't have anything to lose...

Maya and Zhang Ruoyun exchanged looks that contained entire conversations about cosmic manipulation, unknown entities beyond their comprehension, and the distinct possibility that tonight's engagement party was a trap designed by something that existed outside their understanding of power itself.

"And if this unknown force is expecting us?" Maya asked.

"Then they're about to learn why I'm called the Prince of Existence," Parker said. "Because even if I'm walking into their perfectly orchestrated plan, even if they've been manipulating events since before Chione died, there's one thing they can't control."

"What's that?"

"How far I'm willing to go to get her back."

From downstairs, Nyxavere's voice called up: "Dad? You need to see this. Something's wrong with that House. Not just wrong—impossible wrong."

The three of them exchanged looks that contained the weight of cosmic conspiracy and universal manipulation.

"Time to go spring a trap," Parker said.

The engagement party was about to become significantly more complicated than generational wealth destruction.

It was about to become cosmic revenge served with cocktails and canapés—against an enemy they couldn't even identify.