Waller flashed a card, and they passed through.
Inside the upper section, everything screamed luxury. Even the elevator was massive—twenty times the size of the sardine can ones in the lower section. The walls were velvet-lined, smooth glass with scrolling holograms of advertisements, weather updates, and new discounts in high-end stores.
They arrived at the 54th floor—Upper Section’s main common floor.
The mall hit Xavier like a wall of glam. Everything was shining. Every store looked like it belonged in a movie. No flickering lights. No second-hand junk. Elevators whispered when they moved. The floor didn’t creak when walked on it. Even the damn air smelled expensive.
Lilia whistled. "Now this is more like it."
Xavier looked around, nodded slowly.
Then he turned to Waller. "Hey, quick question. That 500k deposit— I will be honest, I don’t want to increase my transaction count. Think I could just buy something in the shops and pay 500k extra as the deposit through the mall’s terminal?"
Waller narrowed his eyes. "Trying to run something shady?"
Xavier shrugged. "Not shady. Just... tactical. If you want, I can add in a few thousand bucks for you as a... gesture of goodwill."
Waller scratched his beard. "As long as the shop owner doesn’t mind, and the amount’s exact, I don’t care."
"Cool," Xavier said. "Then let’s shop."
The store was massive. Too clean. Too quiet. Too perfect. The walls were shiny, the shelves were lined with tech that looked like it was pulled out of a sci-fi movie, and every store clerk had this robotic smile like they were on something.
Xavier picked up a new phone first. Sleek. Jet black. Compact when folded, wide as a book when open. 3D interface, holographic screen, quantum chip. Basically indestructible. Just what he needed after that last one got smoked in the fight.
He had nothing else he really needed, but walked around anyway. Checked out the gear, the weapons display, even poked into the exotic perfume section for no reason. It was that kind of place.
"Hey," he turned to Lilia. "You want anything?"
Lilia blinked. "Really? I can?"
"Yeah," Xavier said casually. "Buy whatever you want. Go nuts."
And just like that, she was gone.
Disappeared into the shops like a spirit on a mission.
Xavier smirked and leaned on the rail by the escalator.
’Since my limit is now 700k per day,’ he thought, ’even if she burns through 200k, I still got 500k to drop for the deposit.’
Then a thought crossed his mind—what if the shop owner didn’t agree to process the deposit through the store terminal?
He shrugged it off. ’If that happens, I’ll just pay using the 10 mil stash I got saved up. No biggie.’
"Yo."
Waller’s hand landed on his shoulder like they were old war buddies.
Xavier gave him a side-eye. "What?"
"Come here," Waller whispered, guiding him to a corner. He pretended to be admiring some overpriced jackets as he talked low.
"That girl with you," he said, "your girlfriend?"
Xavier frowned. "No."
Waller leaned in. "Listen, kid. Don’t give girls that much financial freedom. I’m tellin’ you. Today it’s new clothes. Tomorrow it’s diamond implants and pet lions. Then they find someone with a better ride and poof—you’re left with a loan and blue balls."
Xavier didn’t say anything.
Waller scratched his chin. "I’ve been there. Gave this girl everything. Even took a loan to get her a hovercar. Then one day—she ran off with my fuckin’ cousin."
He was about to dive deeper into his sob story, but Xavier cut him off.
"If a girl ever betrays me," Xavier said, calm as hell, "I’ll kill her."
Waller froze. Looked at Xavier like he’d just sprouted horns.
"That’s... uh, a little extreme, ain’t it?"
"I don’t care about the trouble," Xavier said, voice firm. "Not just girls. Anyone. Even friends. If they betray me... they’re dead."
Waller opened his mouth, closed it, then said, "You look too damn innocent to say things like that."
Xavier just smiled.
A few minutes later, Lilia returned—arms full. Bags, boxes, a few cases. She looked satisfied like she’d just won a war.
"I got some stuff for Lyra too," she said, smiling as she showed Xavier what she got.
Xavier nodded. "You done?"
"Yep!"
They walked to the counter to pay.
Xavier gave Waller a look, and Waller got the message. He leaned in to whisper something to the shop owner.
At first, the guy frowned. "That’s not how transactions work," he said. "If I process 500k through my terminal and send it to you, I’ll have to mark it. The logs—"
Xavier leaned in. "I’ll pay you a few thousand extra. Just list it as an accidental extra zero. Say it was a system glitch. Nobody checks minor shit like that."
The owner paused. Thought. Then nodded. "Fine. But I want it clean."
"No problem."
The total bill came to 69k.
Xavier’s half was 43k—he’d picked up two cyber-glasses worth 20k each.
They were top-tier.
With features like- Real-time translation of any language, Augmented Reality overlay for building layouts, enemy positions, and digital tagging, x20 zoom with no loss of clarity, Night vision, thermal vision, and bullet trajectory prediction, Instant facial recognition with threat analysis, Remote control compatibility for drones and bots, Voice-commanded combat mode with auto-lock targeting system.
Xavier bought one for himself, the other for Oliver.
He punched in the amount: 690,000.
Ten times the real bill.
The shop owner raised his brow but didn’t say anything. The transfer pinged. The owner took 69k, sent 550k to Waller, and kept 71k for himself.
Xavier gave 50k extra to Waller, as he had promised. While the owner got the most out of it, 71k.
Waller clapped Xavier on the back. "The apartment will be ready by night."
Xavier nodded.
Xavier then turned to the shop owner and asked him to get the items delivered to their new apartment at night.
They walked out together, then split at the junction near the upper section exit.
Xavier told Lilia to go back to their little rat-hole apartment on the second floor and spend the last day there.
"Where are you going, though?"
"To meet some friends."
And then, Xavier went to the Midnight club, where Angel and Oliver were waiting for him.