Chapter 6: Bleeding the King

The sterile blue light of the System interface was a constant companion now, a ghost that lived in the corner of Leo’s eye. It had been two weeks since the revelation. Two weeks since the faceless avatar of ‘KingMidas75’ had resolved into the smug, hateful face of Mark Sterling.

The rage from that night had not vanished. It had simply cooled, condensing from a wildfire into a shard of ice in his gut.

Mia and Noah’s birthday had come and gone. There was no bright red Jeep wagon waiting for them. Instead, Leo had stayed up for two straight nights, using his dormant woodworking skills to build and paint a custom toy chest, designed to look like a treasure chest from their favorite pirate cartoon. He’d filled it with a dozen smaller, cheaper toys he’d found at a discount store. When they saw it, their shrieks of joy were genuine, their hugs fierce and real.

Watching them stash their new treasures, Leo felt a pang of love so sharp it almost hurt. But it was followed by the cold, hard reality. His masterpiece of parenting had cost him forty-three dollars. He had forced Mark Sterling to waste nearly a thousand dollars on e-waste, yet he was still counting pennies for birthday presents.

Petty revenge was a satisfying appetizer, but it wouldn't put food on the table. It was time for the main course. His strategy had to evolve. A single big hit was too risky. A campaign, however… a slow, calculated war of financial attrition… that was something he could manage.

He sat at his laptop, the dim light reflecting off his tired but intensely focused eyes. His mission was no longer to just sting Mark, but to bleed him. Slowly, painfully, and invisibly.

He opened his System interface. His new skill, [Advanced Data Forensics - Lvl 1], was his primary weapon. Every night, after the kids were asleep, he would activate it. The initial headache and stamina drain had lessened as he grew accustomed to it, his mental muscles strengthening with use. He ran deep scans on Sterling-Silverlight Investments, on Aura Auctions, on every digital shadow Mark cast.

The System translated the chaos of raw data into a clear picture of Mark’s operation. His bot, ‘Midas.exe’ as Leo had mentally dubbed it, had a predictable appetite. It hunted for specific keywords in high-demand, high-turnover categories. Limited-run sneakers. Swiss watches from distressed sellers. Bulk lots of last-generation graphics cards. These were the items Mark flipped for a quick, substantial profit.

And now, they were Leo’s targets.

His first trial was a pair of "Air Jordan Retro 'Crimson Fury'" sneakers, auction ending in three hours. The picture showed them in pristine condition, still in the box. The System overlay confirmed their authenticity and flagged them as a high-priority target for Mark’s bot.

[Target Profile: ‘Air Jordan Retro’] [Midas.exe Bid Ceiling Estimate: $750] [Market Resale Value: $600]

The bot was programmed to win, even at a slight loss, to maintain market dominance. Arrogant, and exploitable.

Leo went to work. The rhythm was becoming familiar. He used his main account, LVance, to place the initial challenging bid, waking the bot from its slumber. Then, from behind the shield of his Estonian VPN, Junker_Joe123 would enter the fray. It was a phantom dance he choreographed. LVance would push the price to $500. Junker_Joe would jump it to $550. The bot, unthinking, would follow, its 75-cent increments a constant, infuriating tick.

He pushed it to $720, then made both his accounts go silent. The bot, unchallenged, placed its final, winning bid of $720.75.

[Successful Sabotage!] [Enemy Overpayment: $120.75] [Reward: 40 SP, 75 EXP]

It wasn’t much, but it was a start. A small cut.

A few days later, a vintage Omega Speedmaster watch appeared. It was listed with a blurry photo and a typo-filled description, a combination that scared off most serious collectors but was a goldmine for flippers like Mark who could get it authenticated and polished.

Leo’s [Intuition] skill, a passive ability he’d unlocked upon leveling up, tingled. It gave him a gut feeling, a subtle nudge from the System about an opponent’s hidden limits. As he drove the price up past $1,200, he felt a flicker of warning. He was getting close to the bot’s ceiling for this item. He had LVance place one final, aggressive bid, then had Junker_Joe vanish completely. Mark’s bot took the bait, winning the watch for $1,550.75, a solid $400 over its likely resale value after fees and cleaning.

[Successful Sabotage!] [Enemy Overpayment: $400.25] [Reward: 120 SP, 200 EXP] [+1 to Intuition]

His System Points were accumulating. His level was climbing. He was growing stronger, smarter, his every action honed by the System’s feedback. He became a ghost in Mark’s machine, a whisper of bad luck that followed him from auction to auction. He never won. He was never the final bidder. He was just a phantom presence that made everything Mark touched just a little more expensive, a little less profitable.

The true campaign began when he targeted the bulk electronics. These were Mark’s cash cows—lots of fifty returned graphics cards, a pallet of last-gen motherboards. The profit margins were smaller, but the volume was immense. Leo stalked these auctions with a religious fervor. He couldn’t inflict massive overpayment here; the margins were too thin. Instead, he perfected the art of nickel-and-diming his nemesis to death.

He would drive the price up just enough to erase the profit. If Mark’s margin on a lot was $800, Leo would ensure he paid $750 extra for it. Mark still won, the transaction still completed, but his profit was slashed to almost nothing. Day after day, auction after auction.

[Successful Sabotage! Enemy Overpayment: $65.50] [Successful Sabotage! Enemy Overpayment: $110.75] [Successful Sabotage! Enemy Overpayment: $85.25]

The rewards were smaller, but they were constant. In two weeks, he had cost Mark Sterling an estimated twelve thousand dollars in overpayments and lost profits. It was a drop in the bucket for a man like Mark, but even a king will notice a thousand cuts.

Leo could see the effects in the data. The bot’s parameters were being subtly adjusted. The 75-cent increment was sometimes replaced by a full dollar. The maximum bid ceilings were being lowered, more cautiously. Mark was getting paranoid. He knew something was wrong. He just couldn’t see the ghost pulling the strings.

One Tuesday night, Leo was running his now-routine scan when the System flagged an anomaly. It was a new auction, one that didn't fit any of Mark’s established buying patterns. There were no valuable keywords like 'sneaker', 'watch', or 'Nvidia'. The title was innocuous: "Lot of old corporate files and documents, Silicon Valley, early 2010s."

Curiosity piqued, Leo focused on the listing. The picture was a single, grainy photo of a standard cardboard banker's box. It was the description that made his blood run cold.

"…includes various internal memos, project outlines, and one set of original patent application documents for a data-analysis software suite, project codename: 'Archangel'."

Archangel.

The name hit Leo like a physical blow, knocking the air from his lungs. It was his project. His baby. The revolutionary software Mark Sterling had stolen to build his career. Leo had named it himself.

Why was Mark bidding on this? The documents were legally worthless; the patent had been filed and belonged to their old company. To anyone else, it was just paper. But to Mark, the ultimate narcissist? Owning the original draft, the proof of his "genius," would be the ultimate trophy. A final insult to the man he had erased.

The System confirmed his chilling realization.

[Motivational Analysis: Target’s profile indicates extreme narcissistic and possessive traits. Acquiring this item aligns with psychological need for validation and dominance over past rivals.] [Conclusion: Target will perceive this item as priceless.]

A slow, cold smile spread across Leo's face. He had been bleeding the king with a thousand tiny cuts. But Mark, in his infinite arrogance, had just handed him an axe. This wasn't just another auction. This wasn't a skirmish over profits.

This was the perfect trap. A honey pot, baited with the very soul of their shared history. And Leo was going to make the king pay a price that would not just wound him, but cripple him.