The Tycoon meeting room was spacious, circular, and made of reflective glass with brushed gold. From the top of the tower, the ten floors reserved only for the company's executive cúpula breathed power.
A hologram of the world floated above the central table, showing real-time sales data, logistics flow and, of course, the absurd dominance of the LUX facial mask in the Phoenix Empire and beyond.
Lumine had her hair tied in an elegant bun, a tablet beside her with graphs scrolling in real time. She turned slowly in the presidential chair and cast an inquisitive look at the most unpredictable among them.
"Luna." The voice came soft.
Luna, legs crossed on the table as if at home, nibbled a pistachio brigadeiro. She raised an eyebrow.
"Hi, cutie."
"Why... exactly... are all the contracts you propose to the employees who catch your attention so... exorbitant?" Lumine tilted her head with slight irony. "Elena had the $500 million commercial. Now Nayara is going to receive 10% of global participation of her collection. We... lose billions for every product line she launches."
Victória, who until then was fiddling with the engagement statistics in China, stopped and turned slowly. "Sorry, how much?"
"Nayara receives ten percent. GLO-BAL."
"YOU'RE JOKING THAT LUNA DID THAT AGAIN!"
Nikoly, in the back, spat out the energy drink she was drinking. "Elena I still thought was a meme. BUT ANOTHER??"
Luna sighed dramatically, throwing herself back with her hand on her forehead like a renaissance diva. "Guys... do you still care about little paper?"
Lumine narrowed her eyes. "Little paper?"
"Money." Luna replied with a smirk. "We are literally a billion-dollar company — not by accident, right? And we will be trillionaires in less than five years. We don't need money. Victória here is already a billionaire. Nikoly too. Lumine? You're like the Tony Stark of accounting. And me?" She snapped her fingers. "I've lost count of how much money I have."
Lumine pressed her lips. "So... why exactly these proposals?"
Luna looked at the others with an almost solemn air, as if giving a lecture to the Galactic Council.
"Because, if we can change lives, why not do it now? Why not transform brilliant girls, whom no one ever gave a chance, into rich, influential women, with voice and decision‑making power? Did you see Nayara's eyes? Did you see what she did with ONE opportunity? Imagine when there are a hundred?"
Silence.
The three executives looked at each other. And, as if sharing the same brain, or the same luxury Wi‑Fi, they agreed.
Nikoly was the first to murmur. "Okay... this is ridiculously stupid... and brilliant."
Victória smiled sideways. "If it's to ignite the corporate world, let it be with gold gasoline."
Lumine just shook her head with a tired smile. "...You girls are crazy."
Continuing with business, Victória pulled up the marketing sector updates. "We invested the $10 billion as planned. The 10 continents have already received the LUX campaign with events, interactive billboards, and local influencers. The global impact was... perfect."
"Of course it was," said Luna, still stretched in the chair.
Lumine, for her part, slid a graph in hologram showing a world map. "And I used $80 billion to buy properties in over 370 countries. Tycoon's physical stores will be in central locations, with impactful architecture and five‑star service."
Victória almost spilled her coffee on the tablet. "Eighty?? That is more than the GDP of three countries of the Human Confederation!"
"Darling..." Luna winked. "Don't you think our dignity deserves a showroom with black crystal chandeliers and ethereal marble floors imported from the elven continent?"
Nikoly couldn't resist. "Gorgeous and insane. I love it."
Lumine finalized the reports with the most bizarre figure of all:
"Current production of LUX: 83 million units per month."
"Cost per unit: US$ 0.45."
"Average global sale price: US$ 120."
The girls looked at the graph with gross revenue flashing in intense red: 9.96 billion/month.
Victória let out a discreet squeal and wiped an invisible tear. "I love my job."
Nikoly typed furiously on the tablet. "But to maintain this technological leadership, we'll need more investment. The new generation of LUX needs to be at least 20 years ahead of what competitors can even dream of."
Luna raised her hand like in a high‑school class. "I approve. Take another $100 billion from the fund. And if you need more, use my card."
Lumine laughed. "You need to stop handing out that card like it's a party flyer."
Luna smiled maliciously. "But the party is mine, right?"
O hologram at the center of the meeting room trembled slightly, and with a quick gesture of her fingers, Nikoly pulled up a new projection: a complex three-dimensional mesh, filled with blinking red neon filaments, corrupted zones, and yellow alerts.
"Here." She pointed with her finger. "Since our surgical strike on True Beauty's servers, other companies — and when I say others, I mean global billion-dollar conglomerates with histories of blackmail and espionage — have started attacking desperately."
The hologram rotated, revealing entire clusters of denial-of-service attacks, backdoor intrusion attempts, and even infiltrations by external espionage AIs.
"ÆVA neutralized 99% of all attempts with real-time response. But..." She paused dramatically and snapped her fingers. The hologram shifted to a zone of isolated failures.
"The ZERØPHAGE system is overloaded. We're in cyber warfare. They're desperate to discover how we managed to build a technology that obliterated the cosmetics market."
Victória crossed her arms, tone analytical. "Any specific company leading the attacks?"
"Five," Nikoly replied. "But the one causing the most trouble is an AI called SAMAEL, a neural heuristic system with predictive capability. It's trying to anticipate ÆVA's moves."
Lumine assessed the projection with calculating eyes. "They want our LUX's mutable structure algorithm. If they get a sample of the source code, they might develop something similar."
Nikoly laughed, with a gleam of madness in her eyes. "But ÆVA altered its core code to a fractal compression language — translation: no one besides me and ÆVA itself can understand what was done. It's like trying to decipher the DNA of a star."
Luna, who had been playing on her tablet changing Tycoon's login screen background to a gif of a cat with a crown, looked up with a dramatic yawn:
"Sweetie... all beautiful. But how much do you need to keep that psycho AI of yours running without blowing up half of Asia?"
Nikoly didn't hesitate. She opened a panel with projected expenses. "Project ÆVA & ZERØPHAGE NEXT: quantum architecture update, secret node expansion, creation of field sub-AIs, and server hardware replacement with liquid computing boards. Total estimated: $270 billion."
Victória choked. "Dollars?"
"Preferably," Nikoly replied with a calm smile.
Lumine widened her eyes, then sighed and shook her head. "You basically want to build an AI that thinks in eleven dimensions and creates cybernetic clones of itself."
"Almost that." Nikoly winked. "Oh, and I also want a bunker under the ocean with a quantum server immune to magical and technological war. Espionage is getting creative."
Luna smiled, snapped her fingers and said, "Approved. Oh, and if there's anything left, buy an AI with a sexy narrator voice. I'm tired of the robotic login voice."
Nikoly gave a sadistic smile. "Done. The new voice will be named ALARIC. He'll greet you good morning with an aristocratic vampire tone."
Victória, laughing, murmured, "You know Luna only approved that because she thought the name sounded fancy, right?"
Lumine, already reprogramming the fund transfer. "Doesn't matter. With this update, no one will even be able to track Tycoon's digital scent."
Nikoly concluded. "In short: the corporate world wants blood. But they forget that we have a monster in the shadows. And that monster wears a collar named LUX."
Across the city, the ranked match had barely started, and Lisa, eyes sharp, was clicking frenetically with her Jhin, delivering poetic headshots on the map as if composing symphonies of destruction.
The rest of the team was nearby — some watching, others training builds or debating comp strategies.
But the fast rhythm was interrupted by a soft knock at the door.
"Excuse me, ladies."
It was one of Tycoon's executive assistants, dressed elegantly, holographic tablet in hand and a smile as professional as it was sharp.
"The contracts have been finalized. Tycoon's Board has sent them to all of you."
The air seemed to shift.
Silence fell like a curtain.
Even the sound of a kill announced in LoL was ignored.
Lisa ignored the match.
Tifany, Laura, Marisa, and Larissa got up from the sofas or gamer chairs with curious eyes and walked to the large digital-surface meeting table in the center of the room.
There, the tablets lit up automatically, synced with their biometric identities. And then… the contract appeared.
And it wasn't just any contract.
It was a legal masterpiece, with layers upon layers of benefits, luxury clauses, and… absurd figures.
Lisa read aloud, still wide-eyed. "The Seraphim.exe team will have only one responsibility: maintain high competitive performance and seek victories. Each win in an international or regional championship will yield a collective bonus of... one hundred... million dollars?!"
"One hundred?!" Marisa exclaimed, nearly spilling her energy drink. "One hundred million per win?"
Tifany, calmer, already reading the other clauses. "And that's not all. Fixed monthly salary of 100 million dollars per player... plus the same amount for Letícia, our coach."
Larissa, who had been chewing on a donut seconds ago, froze with it in the air. "Uh… sorry, which reality am I in again? Is this... like, real?"
In the end, another notification popped up.
Each player had an individual contract with:
Apple – as the face of the new gamer headset line.
Amazon – with exclusive rights for livestreams.
Chanel – to represent a new beauty collection for women in e-sports.
Each contract was worth $1 million per month.
Simple. Direct. And absurd.
Lisa put her hand on her forehead, still trying to process. "Dude… we became legends before even officially playing as a team."
Letícia, the coach, elegant, with her rigid posture but eyes glowing at the contracts. "Girls. Congratulations."
Laura, unfiltered, murmured, "This... is more contract than a space company CEO gets. And all we have to do is win?"
Lisa responded, firmly. "No. We have to dominate. Reinvent the game. Make the name Seraphim.exe something that echoes for decades as a living legend."
They all looked at each other.
Without hesitation, one by one, the girls touched the digital signature and… confirmed.
Signature complete.
Contract sealed.
And the competitive universe had just earned its biggest earthquake.
The Tycoon assistant gave a slight bow. "As of now, ladies, you officially belong to the highest-paid team in the history of global e-sports."
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