Hoarding Goddesses' Affection

Chapter 001

Ninety days.

That was exactly how long it had been since the deafening screech of heavy tires and the crushing impact of a freight truck had abruptly concluded his previous existence. Ninety days since he had been a man who navigated the treacherous, invisible currents of corporate boardrooms and high-society romances. Now, he was Leo Shaw—the only biological son of the wealthiest family in Forest City, reborn into a reality that defied every logical law he had ever known.

Standing in the absolute darkness of his private balcony at the Shaw family estate, Leo rested his hands on the cold, wrought-iron railing. The night air of The Grand Dominion was heavy, carrying the distinct, metallic tang of ozone and the distant, muted hum of the city's massive Spirit Energy Screen.

He wasn't looking at the glittering skyline of Forest City, nor was he marveling at the luxury that surrounded him. His dark, unfathomable eyes were locked onto the private training courtyard directly below.

In the center of the reinforced Spirit Ore arena, a tempest was raging.

Sia Shaw, his legally adopted older sister, was conducting her midnight training routine. She was a Double-S talent, a terrifying anomaly of nature. As she moved through the forms of the Thunder God Armor technique, she didn't just manipulate electricity; she became it. Searing arcs of cobalt-blue lightning violently whipped around her lithe figure, scorching the indestructible paving stones and ionizing the air until it cracked like a whip.

To the rest of the world, she was a demigod, the ultimate insurance policy for the Shaw Group’s multi-billion-dollar empire. To Sam and Joy Shaw, their parents, she was the perfect future bride for Leo—a strategic genetic and political merger designed to keep the power within the family.

But to Leo, coldly observing her from the shadows, she was a terrifying reminder of his own utter insignificance.

Leo slowly turned away from the balcony, letting the heavy, soundproof glass doors slide shut, cutting off the deafening crackle of the lightning. He walked toward his expansive mahogany desk and picked up a thin, physical file folder. It bore the seal of the West Martial Military District’s premier medical facility.

He opened it, his eyes skimming over the detailed biological scans and the stark, red-stamped conclusion at the bottom of the page.

Subject: Leo Shaw. Metahuman Potential: B-Tier (Estimated). Notes: Spirit-Forged pathways are dormant and narrow. Subject lacks the primary genetic markers for High Ascendant evolution.

"B-Tier," Leo whispered to the empty, opulent room. The sound of his own voice was smooth, carrying a chilling lack of emotion.

In the old world, money was the ultimate equalizer. A billionaire could bend the laws of society, control governments, and shape reality. But over the past ninety days, Leo had meticulously studied the history of The Grand Dominion, and he had come to a horrifying, absolute realization: in a world governed by the Spirit Revival, wealth was nothing but a fragile illusion.

What good was a billion dollars if a Tier-8 Mutant Beast from the Skyfield Forest decided to tear down the city walls? What good was corporate leverage if a rogue high-tier metahuman decided they simply wanted to take what the Shaw family had built? The Shaw Group survived not because of their business acumen, but because they paid exorbitant taxes to the military and because of the terrifying deterrence provided by people like Sia.

They were a flock of fat, golden sheep, huddled behind a fence guarded by wolves.

And if Leo followed the path of the original owner of this body—a cowardly, spoiled brat who used his family's money to bully those weaker than him—he would be the first sheep to be slaughtered. He would be targeted by rival legacy families, assassinated by the Fiend Sect, or simply crushed in the crossfire of a world that worshiped absolute violence.

Alternatively, if he accepted his parents' grand design and quietly married Sia, he would be reduced to a glorified accountant and a breeding stallion. He would spend his life managing spreadsheets while his "wife" fought his battles, forever living in the shadow of her cobalt lightning.

To a man whose previous life had been defined by absolute control and the psychological domination of his peers, both options were worse than death.

Leo tossed the medical file onto the desk. He walked over to the floor-to-ceiling mirror in his dressing room, staring at his reflection. The face looking back at him was young, aristocratically handsome, and pale. It was the face of prey.

"If the rules of the game require absolute power, and I have none..." Leo murmured, leaning closer to the glass, his dark eyes narrowing into predatory slits. "...then I must ensure that no one even realizes I am playing."

The survival logic of a mortal in a world of gods was brutally simple: Become invisible. Become irrelevant. Starting tomorrow, the cowardly, easily frightened Leo Shaw would cease to exist. But he would not replace him with a sudden, arrogant genius. That would attract too much attention. It would draw the suspicion of the academy instructors, the jealousy of the legacy scions, and the scrutiny of his own family.

Instead, he would forge a new mask. He would become the "Slacker."

He would be the rich kid who had finally realized his own mediocrity and chose to comfortably coast on his father's wealth. He would sleep during physical conditioning, skip the tedious practical exams, and spend his afternoons lazily wandering the academy gardens, occasionally flirting with the female students to maintain the illusion of a harmless playboy. He would offer no threat to the ambitious, no challenge to the strong.

But beneath that mask, in the absolute darkness of his own mind, he would become a monster of a different kind.

Leo turned his gaze toward the massive, heavily encrypted server bank he had installed in the corner of his suite. Over the past month, he had used dummy corporations to purchase access to the highest-level restricted databases of the Spirit Martial Academy and the West Martial Military District.

If his body was capped at B-Tier, he would compensate by weaponizing his intellect. He would memorize the exact anatomical flaws, the reproductive cycles, and the elemental weaknesses of every single Mutated Flora and Beast recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. He would dissect the kinetic flow of every martial art taught in the academy. He would learn the political fault lines of the Azure Dragon Academy, the financial debts of the Lewis family, and the psychological traumas of his own instructors.

Knowledge was a blade that required no Spirit Power to wield. He would horde information like a dragon hoarding gold, patiently waiting for the nine months to pass until the Awakening Ceremony.

He didn't know what the future held. Perhaps he would find a legendary Precious Medicine to rewrite his genetics. Perhaps he would find a way to h****k a high-tier artifact. He had no system, no divine bloodline, and no golden finger. He had nothing but a terrifyingly lucid mind and an infinite capacity for ruthlessness.

"Sleep well, gods of The Grand Dominion," Leo said to his reflection, the corners of his mouth curving into a slow, chilling smile that completely transformed the delicate features of his face into something deeply sinister. "Enjoy the sunlight while you can. Because the moment I find my lever... I am going to break your world in half."

He reached over and hit the light switch, plunging the room into total darkness. Tomorrow, the lazy, brilliant, untouchable top scholar would be born. The ultimate hunt had officially begun.