[The Galactic Core - Sector 0]
The Revenant dropped out of warp space. The bridge of the Dreadnought fell completely silent. Even Admiral Valerius, a veteran of a thousand cosmic wars, stopped breathing.
Hanging in the void before them was the center of the galaxy. A Supermassive Black Hole. It was a terrifying, spinning disk of superheated gas and blinding light, swirling around a sphere of absolute, perfect darkness. It was a tear in reality that consumed stars, time, and light itself.
"Dawn," Alex stood at the front of the observation deck, his hands casually in his pockets. "Status."
"Gravitational pull is at 4,000% of standard safety limits and rising, Sir," Dawn's avatar flickered with static as the sheer mass of the anomaly interfered with her processing. "If we cross the Event Horizon, the atomic structure of this fleet will be spaghettified in 1.4 seconds."
In the corner, Lady Vesper was frantically typing on a terminal. As the newest intern of the Pantheon Group, she was earning her keep. "The decryption keys from my ancestor are guiding us," Vesper reported, her violet skin pale with terror. "There is a 'safe path' through the accretion disk. But it's just a navigation route! It doesn't change the physics! User 001 survived the jump because he had a Tier-4 dreadnought. We only have Class-B Void-Cruisers!"
"The hull is already buckling, Boss!" Valerius shouted over the blaring alarms. "We need to turn back!"
[The Paywall]
Alex didn't blink. He looked at the swirling abyss of the Black Hole. "Vesper. Does this path lead to User 001's Vault?"
"Yes!" she screamed over the noise. "But we won't survive the trip!"
"I didn't conquer the Galactic Core just to get stopped by a heavy rock," Alex opened his newly upgraded Tier-3 System Interface.
The Tier-3 Store was entirely different from Tier-2. It didn't sell ships or factories. It sold Cosmic Laws.
[System Store - Tier 3 (Universal)]
Item: Supernova Suppressor. Cost: 1 Billion GC.
Item: Dark Matter Forge. Cost: 5 Billion GC.
Item: Chronos-Gravity Inverter Field. * Description: Reverses the effects of localized gravity and time dilation. Allows safe passage through singularities.
Cost: 3,000,000,000 GC.
Alex looked at his newly injected liquidity balance. [Current Balance: 10,000,000,000 GC.]
"Three billion just to open a door," Alex sighed. "User 001 better have left something good in his will."
"Buy it. Apply the field to the entire fleet."
[Transaction Authorized.] [Expenditure: 3,000,000,000 GC.] [Current Balance: 7,000,000,000 GC.]
[The Descent]
A blinding pulse of platinum light erupted from Alex's watch, washing over the Revenant and the escorting Void-Cruisers.
Instantly, the violent shaking stopped. The blaring red alarms faded to a calm blue. "Hull integrity... stabilized?" Valerius stared at his readouts in utter disbelief. "The gravitational pressure outside is enough to crush a moon, but the ship feels like we're parked in drydock. How is this possible?"
"I paid the toll," Alex said simply. "Take us in, Admiral."
The Revenant plunged into the darkness. They crossed the Event Horizon. For a terrifying minute, there was nothing but absolute, blinding darkness. No stars. No light. No sound.
Then, the darkness broke.
[The Vault of User 001]
They didn't emerge into a crushed core. They emerged into a perfectly preserved pocket dimension hidden inside the singularity.
"By the Void..." Vesper whispered, dropping to her knees.
Floating in the center of the pocket dimension was a Dyson Sphere—a mega-structure built entirely around a captive, pure-white star. The sphere was made of flawless, polished gold. This was the legacy of the First Tycoon.
"Dawn," Alex's eyes narrowed. "Scan for the Genesis Crucible."
"Scanning..." Dawn replied. "Energy signature confirmed, Sir. The Genesis Crucible is located deep within the central chamber of the Dyson Sphere. However..."
Dawn's voice hitched.
"However what?" Luna stepped forward, her hand resting on her void blades.
"We are not alone, Sir. The Precursor's warning was accurate. User 001's wealth... it attracted a parasite."
[The Hunger]
The white star inside the Dyson Sphere suddenly flickered. Shadows moved across the golden metal of the mega-structure. They weren't just shadows; they were physical masses of anti-light, thick and viscous like oil.
The shadows coalesced, peeling off the Dyson Sphere and forming into a shape so massive it dwarfed the Revenant. It had no face, only a gaping, jagged maw that consumed the light around it.
[System Warning: FATAL.] [Entity Detected: The Cosmic Predator (Apex Class).] [Status: Awakened by high-density capital expenditure.]
A psychic roar echoed through the bridge, causing Vesper and Valerius to collapse in agony, clutching their heads. The beast wasn't an alien. It was the physical manifestation of "The Hunger"—the creature that had eaten the First Tycoon a million years ago. And now, it smelled Alex's 7 Billion Galactic Credits.
Alex didn't collapse. He stood tall, the Tycoon's Aura shielding his mind. "So," Alex adjusted his cuffs, staring down the cosmic horror. "You're the tax collector."