She Used Me for a Dare… Now I Own Her Mother

The heavy steel door slid open with a quiet hiss, and Alex walked down the wide stairs into the basement training facility, with Viktor following right behind him.

Even from the hallway, the dull thuds echoing through the walls were noticeably heavier than usual.

?Stepping inside, Alex immediately noticed the changes. The standard training gear they had used back when they were just Enhanced cultivators was completely gone. At the Apex Realm, their physical strength had multiplied so much that ordinary steel weights and standard punching bags wouldn’t have lasted five minutes.

In their place, Viktor had already brought in high-grade equipment meant to withstand serious punishment... heavy alloy resistance dummies, hydraulic shock pads, and reinforced floor plating designed to absorb kinetic impact without shaking the villa above.

In the center of the room, the four men were putting the new setup to the test.

Andre was driving heavy, bare-knuckle strikes into an alloy dummy, each punch landing with a loud, hollow boom that made the hydraulic pistons hiss under the strain.

Across from him, Damien and Dimitri were sparring at blistering speed, their footwork leaving light scuff marks on the treated floor. Near the back racks, Pavel was casually testing his grip on a solid steel bar, testing how much pressure it took before the metal began to bend.

The moment they sensed Alex stepping past the threshold, everything stopped.

They immediately dropped what they were doing and snapped into a crisp, disciplined line, standing tall and bowing their heads.

”Boss!” they greeted together.

Alex walked over at an easy pace, his hands casually resting in his trouser pockets. His sharp eyes scanned across the four of them, reading the subtle currents of energy pulsing beneath their skin. The clumsy roughness of Early Enhanced had vanished entirely, replaced by the dense, pressurized circulation of true Apex cultivators.

”At ease,” Alex said, stopping a few paces before them with an amused smirk. ”How is the new power treating you?”

Andre was the first to let out a low chuckle, rolling his broad shoulders. ”It’s like waking up in a completely different body, Boss. My bones feel denser, my reaction time is three times faster, and every punch feels like it has a mortar shell behind it.”

”The control was tricky for the first few hours,” Dimitri added, wiping sweat from his brow with a clean towel. ”We shattered two sparring posts before Viktor made us dial back the output. But our channels have stabilized now. We’re getting the hang of it.”

Pavel stepped forward half a pace, his youthful face flushed with energy and an irrepressible grin tugging at his lips.

”To be honest, Boss... punching steel dummies is already getting boring,” Pavel said, rolling his wrists. ”We’ve been cooped up down here all morning running repetitive drills. My hands are itching to do something real. We want to test this on actual targets.”

Viktor gave Pavel a stern side-eye, but Alex simply laughed.

”Don’t worry, Pavel,” Alex said, his tone turning smooth and quiet, carrying a subtle edge of sovereign authority. ”The boring part is officially over.”

The four men perked up instantly, their eyes locking onto him.

”You’ve spent enough time in the dark, training and waiting for scraps from the old underground,” Alex continued, looking each of them in the eye. ”The foundation is laid. The property is secured. The time has finally come for you to take on real missions.”

He paused, letting the weight of his words settle in the quiet hall.

”I am officially establishing the first core branch of Eclipse Holdings: the Special Operations and Tactical Security Division. This won’t be a group of street thugs or back-alley enforcers. You will handle targeted kinetic strikes, high-stakes reconnaissance, asset security, and the complete subjugation of anyone who steps into our territory.”

Alex tilted his head, his gaze sweeping over the four Apex fighters.

”So, let me ask you directly. Are you ready to step out of the shadows, join Eclipse Holdings, and serve under my banner?”

There wasn’t a single second of hesitation.

”Yes, Boss!” Pavel shouted, his eyes blazing with excitement.

”We’re with you all the way,” Damien stated with firm, unyielding conviction.

Andre cracked a wide, predatory grin, while Dimitri nodded hard, placing a closed fist over his heart. To them, there was no decision to make.

Alex had dragged them out of the dirt, wiped away their past, and granted them the kind of martial power ordinary cultivators spent lifetimes chasing. They would march into hell if he pointed the way.

Alex smiled, thoroughly satisfied with their response.

He then turned his gaze toward Viktor, who stood beside him with his hands clasped behind his back, steady as a monolith.

”And you, Viktor,” Alex said, his voice dropping into a measured, deliberate cadence. ”Are you ready to take the head position, hold the command seal, and lead this division?”

Viktor snapped to attention, snapping his heels together as he met Alex’s eyes with absolute resolve.

”I am ready, Sir,” Viktor answered without a breath of doubt. ”I will lead them to crush every obstacle in your path.”

The moment Viktor’s words locked into the air, a familiar chime resonated deep within Alex’s mind.

[DING!!]

[MAIN MISSION: BUILD YOUR EMPIRE — PHASE 02]

[Mission Objectives:]

1. Establish at least one official operational division under Eclipse Holdings.

2. Appoint one qualified Division Head.

3. Assign at least three qualified core members to the division.

[Completion Reward: Sovereign’s Gaze: Eye of Insight ]

[Failure Penalty: System Support reduced for 7 days]

[Status: COMPLETED!]

?[Distributing Completion Reward: Sovereign’s Gaze: Eye of Insight]

?A subtle hum reverberated in his consciousness as a prompt surfaced before his vision.

?[Reward Ready for Assimilation: ’Sovereign’s Gaze: Eye of Insight’]

[System Notice: Integration involves direct ocular neural restructuring and sensory alignment. Transient sensory disorientation may occur during binding.]

[Do you wish to initiate integration now?]

[ YES / NO ]

?Alex looked at the blinking options for a fraction of a second.

?He was standing directly in front of his newly formed vanguard. He had no intention of letting his vision blur or triggering a visible optical flare while commanding his men in the middle of a gym. A reward like this was best absorbed in private, where he could test its parameters in complete quiet.

?With a slight, deliberate intention, he selected

[ NO ].

?[Integration deferred. Skill stored in System Buffer.]

?Alex dismissed the translucent interface with a calm flicker of his thoughts.

?The division was formally born, his vanguard was hungry for action, and the rewards were safely secured in his vault.

?He looked back at the four men standing before him, his demeanor shifting back to calm, easy authority.

”Good,” Alex said quietly. ”Get cleaned up and rest your bodies. The city has been quiet for too long... and tomorrow, we start taking what’s ours.”