Chapter 2

Ten minutes later, the butler hastily gave me a black vest and a pure silver tray, sending me to serve blood wine to that "distinguished guest" who had forced his way into the main hall. Apparently, he had specifically requested my presence for reception. I had no complaints about this—a bit of leftover work before clocking out couldn't disturb my good mood about soon receiving eighty billion dollars.

Walking through the corridor, the atmosphere in the main hall had already dropped to freezing.

Matriarch Eleanor and the Crescent Clan elders were silent as cicadas in winter. In the center of the hall stood a young man with an extremely oppressive build, dark red pupils full of murderous intent. Pure-blood Alpha, Caleb.

My "wife" Serena stood nearby. Her knuckles were white from gripping, desperately maintaining a cold facade, but deep anxiety showed in her eyes. The clan had originally found me as a live-in son-in-law because this wolf Caleb was too ambitious—nominally courting, but actually wanting to swallow the Crescent Clan whole through marriage. Now that his bloodline had evolved again with greatly increased power, he no longer needed to be hindered by any so-called marriage alliance.

I carried the tray over like a qualified background prop.

However, Caleb's aggressively invasive gaze instantly locked onto me, like looking at a dead fly crawling on a dining table.

"This is that human shield?" Caleb sneered, striding forward aggressively. The intense scent of Alpha cedar and blood hit me directly.

I stopped, maintaining a standard smile: "Good evening, Master Caleb. Please have some wine."

Caleb didn't take the wine. Instead, he pulled out a check and document from his jacket, slamming them onto my silver tray with a "smack." The document covered the wine glass, brooking no argument.

"A mate dissolution contract, two million dollars." Caleb looked down at me condescendingly, his eyes cruel. "Sign it and get back to your human slums. If I find you within five hundred meters of Serena tomorrow, I'll crush your spine directly."

I stared at the paper on the tray. Two million severance pay. In my workplace experience, this was called "unilateral forced termination compensation." I silently calculated in my mind—my about-to-be-credited final stock options were worth eighty billion dollars. This arrogant Alpha young master was now trying to buy out my final twelve hours with one forty-thousandth of my total assets. Honestly, this severance pay was somewhat insulting.

"Arthur, sign it."

Serena suddenly spoke up. She quickly stepped between me and Caleb, using her slender back to slightly block Caleb's direct intimidating presence. Serena bit her teeth, not looking at me, her extremely suppressed voice trembling with urgency: "Take the money and leave the manor immediately tonight! Go now, there's no need for you to stay here anymore."

I looked at her tense profile. For three years, she had been cold as ice toward me, as if I were a mass of air. But I knew clearly—when I was locked out in winter and nearly froze, it was she who had a maid "happen" to open the door; when I was injured and coughing blood from high-level pressure, the magic potion by my bedside was also placed by her.

She was proud yet awkward, thinking she could preserve herself with an icy shell. Now, she even wanted to use this clumsy method of "colluding with outsiders to drive me away" to save me, a powerless human, from Caleb's murderous hands.

She was trying to save me.

Unfortunately, in my system's assessment, this behavior would only be classified as: 【Same-faction HR privately advising employees to resign voluntarily to reduce company losses】.

I don't make losing deals, and I definitely wouldn't voluntarily breach contract twelve hours before clocking out.

"As you wish, Miss Serena." I looked past Serena's trembling shoulders, my gaze not lingering for a moment. Then, carrying the tray, I directly bypassed both of them, my tone as flat as automated customer service:

"Sorry, Master Caleb. You've placed miscellaneous items on the dining service tray, which interferes with my service workflow. Additionally, terminating labor contracts requires internal OA procedures, not a piece of waste paper from external personnel."

As soon as these words left my mouth, the hall fell deathly silent. Matriarch Eleanor gasped in shock. Serena froze in place, desperate blankness flooding her gray-blue eyes—the lifeline she had painstakingly laid out was trampled by me in public.

"How dare you bypass me?!" Caleb exploded in rage. A human with no magical power and inferior genes had not only ignored his death threat but treated his lofty charity as "miscellaneous items"!

"KNEEL DOWN!!!"

Accompanying his roar, the pure-blood Alpha magic power within Caleb erupted like a tsunami! A visible dark red mental pressure, like a substantial sledgehammer, exploded indiscriminately in all directions with him as the center.

"Crack—!" The floor-to-ceiling windows around the hall instantly shattered into spider webs. Several Beta servants with lower bloodlines didn't even manage to scream before their knees buckled, blood flowing from all seven orifices as they prostrated themselves.

"Caleb! No!" Serena screamed in terror, desperately trying to rush over and create a magical barrier to protect me.

But it was too late. I was at the center of this pressure, with 100% killing intent precisely concentrated on my head! Caleb wanted to use the most brutal method to directly crush me into pulp right in front of Serena.

【Ding—】

【High-level Alpha mental attack/physical oppression intrusion detected!】

【Wage Worker System protective barrier automatically activated. Absolute immunity enabled.】

【Assessment result: Any damage to host = 0】

That terrifying storm that could make all werewolves tremble and was sufficient to shred ordinary people became like a gentle morning breeze across Manhattan the moment it touched my body—it couldn't even lift the corner of my vest.

I held the tray steady—so stable that the crimson liquid in the wine glass didn't even ripple.

I stood in the center of the violent pressure storm, slowly turned around, and looked at the bulging-veined Caleb and Serena, who had frozen mid-leap, with a slightly puzzled expression like watching a street performance.

"Master Caleb," I leaned forward slightly, my tone full of sincere confusion, "Is this a traditional greeting ritual for you high-level Alphas? Or are you rehearsing some kind of acrobatics for tomorrow's ceremony? I have to say, it's quite loud."

Deathly silence.

All the werewolves still struggling against the pressure now stared at the unharmed me with ghostly expressions.

The fury on Caleb's face instantly froze, replaced by twisted disbelief. His full-power oppression as a pure-blood Alpha had been treated as acrobatics by an ordinary human?! This was like a fierce tiger roaring at an ant, only for the ant to not only survive but ask if the tiger was clearing its throat.

Serena's hand suspended in mid-air stopped. She stared at me intently, the terror in her eyes gradually transforming into incomprehensible shock. In her perception, I was a human who would shatter at the slightest touch. But now, this man standing calmly in the eye of the storm felt utterly foreign to her. That absolute indifference made her heart skip a beat.

"You... this is impossible..." Caleb stared at me, his pupils contracting violently—the ultimate humiliation of having his pride ground into the dirt.

"Enough, Caleb!" Matriarch Eleanor finally recovered, gnashing her teeth as she shouted him down. If she let him demolish the Crescent Clan's load-bearing walls, tomorrow's full moon ceremony would become a joke.

Caleb abruptly withdrew his released magic power, his chest heaving violently. He fixed his deadly stare on me, the contempt in his eyes having transformed into substantial killing intent. Since pure mental pressure couldn't kill me, he planned to switch to physical destruction.

"Good... very good. It seems your cheap bones are hiding some unspeakable dirty tricks." Caleb grabbed the dissolution contract and slammed it hard on the marble table.

He surveyed the entire room, his voice like a tolling death knell: "Tonight's midnight full moon ceremony! I will personally activate the moonlight array and preside over this contract's dissolution ritual! I want to crush you completely in the array before all the continental clan representatives. Serena, prepare to regain your freedom."

The full moon array. In that ancient barrier, mental oppression would transform into real physical execution. And this execution was inescapable. Serena's face turned pale as paper—she knew that once on the array, even the clan elders couldn't save me.

Facing this certain-death "termination letter," I simply glanced calmly at the system panel in the lower right corner of my retina.

【Time remaining until mission completion and departure from this plane: 11 hours 40 minutes.】

"Looking forward to your assessment tonight, Master Caleb."

I pulled up a perfect workplace fake smile, no longer paying attention to the nearly out-of-control Caleb or Serena's nearly collapsing expression. Carrying the tray, I stepped over the glass shards scattered on the floor and calmly withdrew from the hall.

Midnight tonight? No problem—perfectly timed for the moment I clock out. And the original owner who would take over my mess had a much worse temper than mine.