[The Astral Tribunal - Cosmic High Court]
The three colossal Arbiters stared at the golden contract hovering over the marble podium. The galaxies swirling around the cosmic courtroom were dead silent.
Agent Vane of the Astral Revenue Service floated off to the side, his gray suit flickering with static. He had been completely outplayed. The ARS was bankrupt, and Victor Thorne was offering a 100 Trillion Gold bailout in exchange for universal market dominance.
"THE ASTRAL REVENUE SERVICE ACCEPTS THE SETTLEMENT," the center Arbiter's voice boomed, though it lacked its previous terrifying authority. It sounded more like a defeated board member.
A beam of pure starlight shot down, stamping the contract with the seal of the cosmos. In return, a small, sleek card made of condensed dark matter materialized in Victor's hand.
[Item Acquired: Universal Trade Monopoly License. Tier: Cosmic.]
"Pleasure doing business with you," Victor adjusted his midnight-blue cuffs, slipping the card into his vest pocket. He didn't gloat. Gloating was for amateurs; professionals simply collected their assets and left. "Agent Vane, try to keep your operational overhead down this quarter."
Victor tapped his gold-nibbed pen. A Pantheon Prime portal ripped open in the center of the courtroom, and Victor, Seraphina, and Elara stepped through, returning to the principal's office of the Abyssal Academy.
"We did it," Elara gasped, collapsing into a leather armchair. "You just bought off the Gods of the universe."
"I secured a vendor permit, Elara," Victor corrected her, walking to his mahogany desk. He placed the dark matter card onto the Tycoon's Ledger.
Instantly, the Ledger expanded. The holographic map of their continent zoomed out, revealing a sprawling, three-dimensional multiverse containing millions of glowing spheres, each representing a different dimension.
Princess Ignis leaned over the desk, her demonic tail swishing with excitement. "Where do we invade first? The Realm of Titans? The Dragon Sanctuaries?"
"We don't invade. We open a retail branch," Victor tapped a glowing blue sphere on the map. "Seraphina. Give me the market demographics for Dimension 814, known locally as 'Aethelgard'."
Seraphina adjusted her glasses, reading the cosmic data off her silver clipboard. "Aethelgard is currently suffering from severe Hero Inflation. Their local deities have summoned over ten thousand 'Chosen Ones' from other worlds to fight a singular Demon Lord. The market is entirely saturated with overpowered, arrogant teenagers wielding legendary cheat-skills."
Ignis frowned. "Ten thousand Chosen Ones? If we go there, we'll be attacked constantly!"
"You are looking at the risk, Ignis, not the opportunity," Victor smiled a cold, calculating smile. "Ten thousand heroes means ten thousand bloated inventories. They spend their days grinding for legendary loot, but they have absolutely zero logistical infrastructure."
Victor pulled his pocket watch from his vest, the sharp click echoing in the office.
"We are going to Aethelgard," Victor announced. "And we are going to introduce them to the most profitable business model in the multiverse: Software as a Service."