“Is Miles serious right now?” Lesley was in awe as he stared at his brother-in-law. The man stood there with the most confident stance that she had ever seen. She was much more impressed than she was concerned. “Where the heck is he supposed to get $60 billion though? Has he lost his mind?”“I doubt it; far from it, I could even bet.” Jonathan was calm as he kept his gaze on the stage. He trusted in his son-in-law, so he didn’t allow any words around him to shake his heart in the slightest. Instead, he was simply enjoying the show as it was unfolding. He knew for sure that something was cooking.Krone Dodge felt his heart shaking as well. Miles had just declared that he was willing to place $60 billion as the stake for his challenge against Lincoln. This man didn’t look dumb in the slightest, and thus, the jewelry tycoon from Edgewood-Ave City knew that there was a high chance that Miles wasn’t bluffing.Even Lincoln Park’s anger had been doused with Miles’s words. He knew that even K
Caleb was left stunned when he received the same call from his associates. He ended the call involuntarily while the person on the other end of the call was still talking. He couldn’t even be bothered to feel guilty about this as he was filled with awe while staring at Miles, who still stood on the spot with sturdiness.“Who are you, Miles Creek?” These words were uttered in whispers as Caleb frowned at the sight of Miles, which had become quite dazzling. It was becoming increasingly clear that not only was Miles smart and courageous, but but he might as well possess the mountainous background to back it up.Krone Dodge was fuming inside, but he knew there was nothing he could do about this. It was better to accept this challenge than deal with the hassle of having the import channels shut down. However, the rest of the audience was not aware that Miles’s call had taken effect as only those who had some sort of affiliations with the import channels were informed, and they had all kept
“The $60 billion from Mr. Miles Creek has officially been confirmed!”The whole crowd went silent for a couple of months moments before there was a chorused yell. People began expressing their shock or different emotional reactions to this.“Wait! That man really has $60 billion in his account?! I was legit convinced that he was just bluffing this whole time!”“Holy shit! I really shouldn’t have looked down on this man! $60 billion?! That’s a fucking whole lot of money for one man! This is absolutely insane!”“If this guy is that rich, how have we not heard of him among the names of the higher echelon of Dominion City?!”At the certain side of the audience section,“No way!” August gasped out in utter shock. He seemed to be legit in a daze as he stared up at the stage. He clearly couldn’t believe what he had just heard, neither could he digest what he was looking at. “This is impossible!” His voice was professionally calm as he spoke to his partner beside him. “What is going on here?!
Krone Dodge was not calm at all. He was already thrown into the unknown by Miles's surprising displays, but he still chose to believe that Lincoln Park’s ability was superior.Miles smiled at Lincoln Park as he moved to the side. “Please, go first.”Lincoln Park didn’t know why exactly, but there was something about Miles’s smile and stare that made him worry about the chances of him winning. Still, he put on a brave face and walked forward boldly.The first stone was presented before everyone’s eyes and Lincoln began to inspect every corner of the material with seriousness. The crowd had gone silent as they were also awaiting his answer.After a couple of minutes had passed, Lincoln gave his answers to the physical qualities and attributes of this particular gemstone hidden within the ore. After this, the answers known by the examiners here were compared to the ones provided by Lincoln.Once the results were out, Caleb spoke to the audience. “Alright, it’s time to cut through the ore
Krone couldn’t believe what had just happened. He was quite sure that his champion, Lincoln Park, was going to come out of this second challenge victorious once more. The whole time he was feigning calmness, he was anticipating the prize he would win. After all, Miles had ended up adding a second import channel to the stakes, along with $60 billion. Unfortunately, he ended up losing the first import channels and the $5 billion he had won in the first round.“Damn it!” Krone stomped his foot on the floor as he glared heatedly at Miles. He hated this man. He berated himself for not trusting his own guts in the first. Miles, truly, was a cunning man. At first, the Edgewood-Ave jewelry tycoon had suspected that Miles was a crouching tiger waiting to reveal himself, but when Miles had offered that second import channel and $60 billion as stakes for a chance to challenge Lincoln Park, he was pulled in by the greedy, and thus, he ended up agreeing. Plus, Miles had passively threatened him an
“You must be fucking joking, right?” Caleb stared straight into Krone’s chilling glare with no fear and a sneer spread across his face. “You actually have the audacity to demand respect from me? After the multitude is sick and twisted plots you executed today? Your brain must be deeply deprived of oxygen.” He shook his head slightly while making sure that the disdain was evident on his face. “You shamelessly brought your goons into my city to humiliate us. Now that you’ve lost so miserably, you can only blame yourself.” He turned around and was about to head back to his side of the stage when he recalled that there was still something more he wanted to inform the older man. This, he turned around to glare at the man with a cocky smirk. “Oh, by the way, I will be reporting you to the Gemstone Appraisal Association for what you did today, or at the very least, what you tried to do today. They will be the ones to decide what kind of punishment to give you for what you did today.”Krone w
Miles chuckled as he watched this younger man acting his age. “Thank you for the compliment, Lincoln. I appreciate it. As for the weighing capabilities you witnessed, it’s actually a talent that I found in myself. As I grew up though, I utilized it in my family life without realizing that it would come in handy in such a grand way. As you can see, I’m a newbie in the artifact appraisal world, so all that happened today, I guess I can just say that it was all destiny.” He shrugged his showed to convey that it was all a mystery to himself as well.Lincoln Park sighed in slight disappointment, but he nodded his head in understanding. “Alright, thank you for your time, Mr. Miles. Today’s challenge was an eye-opener for me. I definitely need to work harder on my skills, and do so with humility.” He turned around and spoke a few words to Krone before leaving the stage and disappearing out of the hall.Miles smiled as he watched this man leave. What no one here knew was that there was someon
“Mr. Miles Creek, it is time for you to sign up the appropriate papers.” Caleb’s boosted voice through the speakers in the hall brought everyone’s attention back to the stage.Caleb ordered for the appropriate papers to be drafted in minutes and once he confirmed that the stipulations were accurate, had them moved to Miles who was still standing at the center of the stage.After what had happened, Miles had unknowingly gathered a lot of power. When Edgewood-Ave City had won the challenge, with Lincoln Park defeating Justin Fallon, the import channels had already been taken out of Caleb Autumn’s hands. In that situation, Dominion City had already lost the import channels to the regional raw materials that they owned. Also, when Miles challenged Lincoln Park, he didn’t receive any support from Caleb Autumn, while all of Dominion’s important and influential merchants denied him as well. Miles had to create an opportunity for himself by staking $60 billion, along with privately owned impo