Chapter 50: Pay to Win

Before Preston could even register the ambush, his assassin was chained with three overlapping crowd-control abilities.

Suspended in the air, Preston watched in horror as Jude turned his throne around and executed Preston with a single critical strike.

[First Blood!]

"What the hell?!" Preston screamed, slamming his fist onto his desk. "How is their Jungler already mid?! He hasn’t farmed a single neutral objective! Was he just sitting in that bush for three minutes?!"

The Apex professional Jungler had abandoned his own progression, ignoring the rest of the map just to act as Jude’s invisible secret service agent.

Sitting across the room, Jude adjusted his gaming headset. "I’m adding an extra million dollars to your final payout."

The Apex Jungler cheered so loudly the audio peaked. "Thank you, Mr. Lawson! I’ll camp this lane until the servers shut down!"

Hearing the CEO’s bribery, the other three Apex rioted on the communications channel, sick with jealousy.

"I literally just lost a million dollars! I’m going to murder their bottom lane!" the Support player wailed.

Preston, hearing the shouts echoing across the room, felt like he was genuinely losing his mind.

This was supposed to be a competitive exhibition of skill...

Instead, Jude Lawson was corrupting the sanctity of the arena, treating the map like his own personal Wall Street trading floor.

"This is shameless!" Preston yelled.

He pinged his own Vanguard Jungler. "Get to the mid-lane right now! We are diving him together! I will not let this boomer disrespect me!"

"Understood, boss!" the Vanguard Jungler replied. "I’m flanking from the river now!"

Respawning with a vengeance, Preston coordinated a two-man pincer attack.

As Jude stepped forward to claim a minion, Preston and his Jungler collapsed on the position.

Jude remained calm, utilizing a defensive dash to glide backward into the safety of his turret’s firing range.

Suddenly, the Vanguard Jungler seemingly panicked.

Instead of retreating from the ambush, the player "accidentally" missed his escape ability, tumbling far too deep under the orbital defense turret.

Trapped by the turret fire, the Vanguard Jungler stood still, allowing Jude to execute him.

[Double Kill!]

Preston stared at his screen, his brain short-circuiting...

He ripped off his headset and screamed across the Vanguard seating arrangement. "Are you braindead?! What the hell was that dive?! You’re a salaried professional and you just walked under a turret and gave him a free bounty! Are you playing with your feet?!"

Across the aisle, Jude chuckled darkly.

He leaned forward and typed a quick message into the global all-chat, visible to every single player.

[Shareholder Prime]: Incredible stunt work, Vanguard Jungler. Since your boss insists on abusing you for his own failures, I’ll gladly cover your hazard pay. One million dollars. DM me your routing number.*

Preston’s entire roster froze.

"What... what is he typing?" the Vanguard Support whispered in shock. "He wants to reward our Jungler with a million dollars?"

The Vanguard Jungler, however, was already moving...

Without hesitating for a fraction of a second, the professional quickly opened a private direct message channel to Jude’s account and typed in his offshore banking details.

Jude smiled. He picked up his phone from his desk, tapped into his holding company’s liquidity portal, and wired exactly one million dollars to the provided account.

Suddenly, the Vanguard Jungler’s personal cell phone vibrated on his desk.

He glanced down at the banking notification.

Preston saw the Jungler’s shaking hands and felt dread pool in his stomach.

His own player had just been financially assassinated in the middle of a live match...

"You bastard!" Preston roared. "Everyone! Abandon your lanes! Top, Support, ADC! I want a full five-man rotation on the mid-lane right this second! I don’t care about the objectives, I don’t care about the turrets! I will not leave this room until I kill him at least once!"

Sensing the incoming threat, the Apex communications channel erupted into a frenzy of greed.

"Boss, they’re rotating!" the Apex Top-Laner screamed, mashing his global teleport key. "I’m coming in hot! Keep your wallet open, my million is secured!"

The first teamfight of the exhibition match erupted in the center of the arena.

However, it was a slaughter...

The Vanguard roster was disjointed, stressed by their screaming boss, and operating with a Jungler who was sabotaging his own skill-shots.

The Top-Laner absorbed every single lethal projectile aimed at Jude.

The Support layered endless defensive shields over Jude’s character model. The Jungler pinned Preston to the floor.

Untouchable within his fortress of professional bodyguards, Jude rained down critical damage from his obsidian throne, melting the Vanguard roster into ash.

[TRIPLE KILL!]

As the announcer’s voice boomed through the facility, Jude laughed.

"Clean execution, gentlemen." Jude said. "Add another million dollars to everyone’s tab.

Preston Vanguard was having a meltdown...

Watching the first major objective slip through his fingers, he ripped off his designer headset and began eviscerating his own players.

"You braindead amateurs!" Preston roared, spittle flying from his lips. "What the hell was that rotation?! You call yourselves salaried professionals?!"

The four Vanguard athletes sat in silence, their eyes fixed on their monitors.

Listening to the pathetic tantrum across the room, Jude swirled a bottle of sparkling water and laughed softly.

Suddenly, Jude’s chat interface chimed.

It was another direct message from the Vanguard Jungler.

[Vanguard_Roamer]: Mr. Lawson, the rest of my roster is listening to this abuse on our comms. Our ADC, Support, and Top-Laner have had enough. If you are willing to cover their hazard pay, they will gladly deliver you the victory right now.*

Jude’s smile widened. He didn’t waste time typing a long-winded response.

[Shareholder Prime]: Provide their offshore routing numbers. One million dollars a head.*

Within thirty seconds, a rapid succession of banking credentials flooded Jude’s private message box.

He glanced over the top of his monitor at Preston Vanguard, who was still red-faced and screaming at his roster, oblivious to the fact that his team had just been bought out from under him.

Soon enough, a Preston forced his squad to regroup for a second, decisive engagement near the map’s primary neutral objective.

Given the gold deficit they had just suffered, this upcoming clash would undeniably decide the final outcome of the exhibition...

As a quasi-professional, Preston knew that losing this teamfight meant a guaranteed loss of his hundred million dollars.

"Listen to me!" Preston barked. "I am going to win this exhibition! We are fighting to the death right here! If any of you die before Lawson does, I will see to it that one million dollars is deducted from your annual stipends!"

Gritting his teeth, Preston commanded the charge into the neutral river territory.

His only imperative was to assassinate Jude’s marksman.

"I don’t care how many defensive shields they stack!" Preston yelled into his comms. "Focus everything on Lawson! Kill the Core DPS! Even if we all wipe, I want to see his screen turn gray at least once!"

As the Vanguard team breached the river, Preston hung back slightly, waiting for his frontline to absorb the initial wave of crowd control.

Before Preston could even activate his offensive cooldowns, his four teammates marched forward in a single-file line directly into the Apex artillery fire.

They walked into the center of Jude’s area-of-effect damage, absorbing maximum punishment until all four of their health bars hovered at a single pixel.

Sitting on his throne, Jude simply tapped his mouse button four distinct times.

[First Blood!]

[Double Kill!]

[Triple Kill!]

[Quadra Kill!]*

"Boss, boss! You only need one more for the Server Wipe!" the Apex Top-Laner screamed, mashing his keyboard.

"Do not let the Vanguard heir escape! Trap him!" the Support player roared. "I’ll take point! I’m going to lock his character to the floor, whoever steals the boss’s final kill is dead to me!"

Before Preston could even process the betrayal of his own roster, the entire Apex squad swarmed his position.

True to his word, the Apex Support flashed forward.

The rest of the team whittled Preston’s health down, pulling their punches at the exact last second to leave him wounded.

Jude navigated his champion forward with casual grace. Before he was even fully in range, he tossed out a single attack.

Preston watched as his screen faded to black.

[VICTORY!]

Jude leaned back in his chair, watching the Vanguard base explode into fragments.

[Corporate Dominance Task Completed!]

[Wager Secured: +$100,000,000 liquid capital.]

[Rewarding +2 Liquid Capital Sign-Ins, 1x High-Tier Corporate Asset Cache.]

Jude didn’t even care about the hundred-million-dollar wager he had just won from Preston; that was just petty cash.

What truly mattered was the cascading sequence of system injections preparing to flood his offshore portfolios!

[Executing Liquid Sign-In 1: +$150,000,000 successfully routed.]

[Executing Liquid Sign-In 2: +$210,000,000 successfully routed.]

In the span of five seconds, nearly four hundred million dollars materialized in Jude’s primary holding account.

Jude stood up, buttoning his jacket.

"Gentlemen, an exceptional performance across the board," Jude announced. "As promised, I have bought out Le Bernardin for the evening. We are celebrating this victory with a Michelin-starred banquet."

Jude then turned his gaze across the aisle toward the Vanguard side.

"Furthermore," Jude added, a smile touching his lips. "If there are any Vanguard athletes who are currently dissatisfied with their toxic management, you are more than welcome to join us for dinner. Apex Media has plenty of capital to go around."

As soon as Jude opened his mouth, the four Vanguard professionals immediately stood up, tearing off their jerseys...