Monday, 1st September 2025...

Ever since he dealt with Kevin, Michael had solely focused on acquiring skills. During this time, he never left the villa.

Every time that he felt mentally tired, he relaxed, either in the swimming pool, or in the entertainment room inside the villa.

Since he was so much determined, he had put in much effort, to the extent that he learned five skills a day, with each skill pushed to the expert level.

With a total of 12 days, he was able to learn a total of 60 skills. With each skill granting him 6,011 SP, he was able to gain a total of 360,660 SP, something that brought his SP balance to a total of 554,486 points.

This was equivalent to $54.4 billion, if the points were converted to cash. This was quite a substantial amount, and even in his dreams, before he acquired the system, Michael had never dreamed of such a possibility.

Even during the time that his parents were alive, Michael had never thought that there would come a day that his account could easily get such a huge amount of money. Of course, that was only if his father did not return to the Santos family.

Unfortunately, both of his parents had died, something that was orchestrated by someone.

Regardless, something that Michael did with the acquisition of the skills was quite simple. He made sure that all the skills that he acquired were conventional.

He mixed both common day to day skills, those that he might need a different circumstances, and those that were related to different occupations.

Of course, each skill that he learned varied, ensuring that while he was earning SP, he would also be versatile. That way, in case there was a need, he would be able to respond effectively.

The advantage that he had was the fact that Onyx could gather all the information that he needed on any field. That allowed him to be able to gain different skills that might not normally be taught widely, or higher level knowledge was not easy to acquire.

With everything done, Michael thought that it was finally time for him to fully acquire Vanguard Corporation. That way, he would proceed with the plan that he had in mind.

But of course, during the past almost 2 weeks, quite a number of things had happened.

First of all, Michael came to know that Kevin had been killed. That was quite unexpected to him, but he did not think much about it. Initially, he wanted that guy to suffer, but unexpectedly, he was relieved so soon.

As for why he was killed, Michael was not really sure, but he could already make some guesses why that was the case.

Regardless, he noticed that, after the death of Kevin, the Dark society began investigating him. They were investigating him so thoroughly to the extent that they even began linking him to the Santos family from the capital.

It was just that, these guys were quite cautious. They did not investigate him openly, as though they were afraid of his background.

Nevertheless, Michael had already secured most of the information about himself through Onyx. That way, it made it difficult for the dark society to be able to obtain much crucial information about him.

Something that Michael noticed was that, despite them investigating him, they were still proceeding with the plan that they had.

They had already replaced the Green family, with yet another family within Brenton city. Deliberate or not, they had made sure that the family that they selected this time was one that was usually quite low-key.

It was not much involved with the underworld stuff, but even then, they did not have major conflicts with others. Additionally, they did not have any relation to the technological industry, nor could they have any conflict with Michael through the supermarket chain.

It seemed that they thought that he was the reason why the plan that they were having was being sabotaged.

As for the plan, even though Michael was not able to get a clear detail on the plan, he still had some clues. It seems that they were planning on taking action on yet another gang.

It was the second largest gang in the province, Crow. Despite it being termed as the second largest, beneath Dark Society, the difference between the two of them wasn't that big in reality.

It was just that, dark society was slightly more influential than Crow, which was why it was considered as the biggest gang in the entire Eastern province.

Most probably, the dark society wanted to take down Crow. If they could take it down, they would be able to gain much more benefits, considering that the area under their jurisdiction would be much wider.

After some investigation, Michael did not find it strange, considering that the two gangs belonged to different factions. Crow belonged to Silent order syndicate, while the dark society belonged to the Blood Reapers syndicate.

Even though the conflict between the two syndicates had never blown out, the clash between the small gangs below the two indicates was usually constant.

With the two behemoths keeping each other in check, it was no wonder that the government wasn't that determined to eliminate them.

After realizing that Crow, which was about to be attacked by Dark Society belonged to silent order, Michael wondered.

If his father had not left home, and had taken a position within the syndicate, would Michael have been concerned about Crow?

When he thought about that, he realized that most probably, that would not have happened. After all, there was a possibility that if he had stayed within the Santos family with his father, he might not have awakened the system.

Moreover, even if he had awakened the system, he would not have paid much attention to some small gangs from a province like the Eastern province.

In the end, Michael decided not to pay much attention to this matter. After all, after some investigation, he realized that it would not affect him in any way. So, he decided to let it go.

On the other hand, Starlight Restaurant chain had also made a move. During the previous week, they had already begun making preparations for expansion, planning to expand out of Brenton city.

As for the five star hotels and the Michelin restaurants within the city, they had already been subdued within just a week.

Benjamin had been able to use the financial advantage that they had, to buy off a few of the restaurants and hotels. As for those that did not agree to sell theirs, they ended up closing down by themselves, or would soon do so, after Benjamin used another tactic.

Of course, in business, there was nothing that was considered fair, and there was nothing unfair as well. At the end of the day, business was a battlefield.

As a result, Benjamin had found the dirt on either those hotels, or the owners, before winning the repetition of those hotels. While that did not lead to the closure of those five star hotels, it had a huge impact on them.

As soon as the information on the dirty secrets that they had was revealed, it completely impacted the business. They lost quite an above customers, including those great clients that had been their patrons for several years.

And of course, those customers all headed for Starlight restaurant chain, considering that its reputation was incredibly good.

It was not just in terms of the quality of the service offered, but even the dishes that they prepared were incredibly delicious. This made it impossible for those that visited Starlight restaurant to think about going to another hotel or dining place.

Good thing though, after all, Starlight Restaurant was a chain of restaurants. Just within Brenton City, it had several branches opened, and the quality of the services and dishes was maintained.

As expected, just within the previous week, business had already begun booming, and it was inevitable that it would continuously get better and better.

With things stabilizing within Benton city, Benjamin thought that it was finally time to start expanding outwards, to conquer the culinary industry of the entire province.

For the previous week, several stores had been acquired in different parts of the province, and the renovation had already begun.

Of course, some people had tried playing some petty tricks, but they were all thwarted by Benjamin.

After all, even though Michael was the one who usually communicated with Onyx, as long as there was anything that involved Michael, either directly or indirectly, Onyx would share the information.

As a result, in case of anything major, Onyx would take care of the intelligence, allowing Benjamin to focus on other matters.

So, those that tried to make difficult for Starlight restaurant chain to obtain new stores in other parts of the province were easily taken care of.

Apart from Starlight restaurant chain, annex supermarket chain had not made much waves. After all, it was not that easy to be able to stabilize things within the province, as compared to within a city.

But still, Damian had already begun making arrangements, preparing to venture directly into the Central province.

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