Two weeks.
That's all it took for Kai's name to move through the underground like wildfire. Not on posters. Not on streams.
Whispers.
"Some guy brought a ghost horse to Ridge Run."
"Didn't even use a whip."
"Didn't say a word. Took the pot. Gone."
Every night after, his phone lit up. Offers. Buy-ins. Syndicate reps pretending to be ranchers. One even offered him $80,000 just for a breeding license on Dust.
Kai didn't even reply.
He was already planning the next merge.
This time, he bought six horses. All mid-tier racers, all with potential, none too expensive. He didn't even lead them into pens. They stepped onto merged ground, and the system scanned them before they stopped moving.
[MERGE: Horse A + Horse B = Tier 2]
[MERGE: Horse C + Horse D = Tier 2]
[MERGE: Horse E + Horse F = Tier 2]
[MERGE: Tier 2 + Tier 2 = Tier 3]
One remained: a towering black beast with muscle like armor and gold threads spiraling across his veins.
Tier 3 Merge Horse: 'EMBER'
Traits:
– Adaptive Pulse Stride
– Opponent Pressure Aura (lowers nearby horses' stamina recovery)
– Competitive Lock-In: cannot lose focus within 10 meters of rival
Kai took Ember to a high-stakes track in the next state. Buy-in: $25,000. Prize: $100,000.
He didn't scout. He didn't test. He didn't care.
He showed up with one horse, one trailer, and a bag of aura feed.
When Ember lined up next to the competition, the other jockeys laughed. No one had ever seen him. No branding, no colors, no team.
Then the gun went off.
And Ember erased everything.
He didn't run like Dust. Dust was speed and smooth. Ember was aggression, weight, and authority. He crushed the competition so hard, two horses quit mid-race.
Kai stood by the winner's gate in silence while they handed him the payout.
Someone from the track whispered to the side:
"We need to find out who the hell that guy is."
Too late.
Kai was already gone.
Back at the farm, he used the winnings to expand the race merge pen—now double-sized with a second training loop, aura therapy bays, and soil designed to analyze every step pattern and auto-merge floor panels if degradation was detected.
Everything fed into itself.
The lettuce? Still selling out.
The eggs? Maxed.
The cows? Quietly producing premium meat.
And Kai? He was merging racing bloodlines that no one else could even imagine.
He didn't need attention.
He needed dominance.
Profit Summary – Chapter 27
Race Winnings: +$100,000
Syndicate Offer Refused (No License Sold)
Merge Lettuce + Eggs: +$25,000
Expenses – Six Horses: –$18,000
Merge Fuel + Transportation: –$7,000
Infrastructure Expansion: –$12,000
Net Profit: $88,000
Kai's Total Net Worth: $2,590,000