During the short span of time Max had been given, his single, precious minute of reprieve, it was an incredibly intense period for him. He was standing on the edge of a precipice, and he knew it. A definitive way to win the fight was what he needed to figure out, and he had to do it before the clock ran out. With the relentless use of the Exoskeleton by his opponent, and with the high probability that everyone else was exhausted from their own individual fights, the pressure was absolute.
Max understood that if he didn’t manage to take down Ramon right here, the man could likely defeat all of the rangers himself. In that scenario, every single thing Max had worked for, every bit of progress he had struggled to build, would have simply disappeared in a single, crushing moment.
So many thoughts went through his head as he stood there, his mind racing at a feverish pace. He had to be realistic: what could he actually do in a single minute? As he sifted through his options, he realized there was an answer. There was one quick way for him to get stronger, something that only he could do because of the unique nature of his power, and that was to earn money.
As he pulled out his phone to check his status, he saw the notification he had been waiting for. He could see that Aron had transferred over 100 million of his own personal wealth over to Max’s account. That was exactly how Max had obtained that sudden boost he felt the last time he stepped back onto the stage.
It was surprising to Max, in a way, that Aron even had that much wealth to begin with. He was doing a job like this, providing protection, but then Max realized the deeper truth. Aron was his adopted brother into the family, and that realization made it more clear that everything Aron had done up to this point was out of a sense of deep obligation rather than him seeing it as just a job. The money Aron had sent was most likely every penny he had saved from his work, combined with whatever the real Max’s parents would have given him over the years.
Max considered his next move. He had used a specific method multiple times before to win difficult fights, and his usual go-to strategy was to gamble. He would typically find an underground casino and bet 10 million on a 50/50 shot, like red or black on a roulette wheel. But that was the issue he faced now. 10 million was the cap that Max could find a casino willing to let him bet in one single go, even among those that operated in the lawless underground.
With the situation as it was now, and the sheer amount of wealth Max had already accumulated, the math didn’t add up for a small bet. If he had doubled the ten million to twenty million, it was unlikely to increase his power to the level he truly needed to crush the Exoskeleton once and for all.
Max’s Current Funds: $1,676,380,000
If the quickest way for him to gain money was what he needed, and he absolutely had to get it within this incredibly short time frame, then there was only one person that came to his mind. There was one person he knew who had a massive amount of money and the power to move it instantly.
Pulling out his phone again, he made the call. He stared at the screen as it dialed, and it only took two rings for the person on the other end to answer.
"This is a first," the voice on the other end said. "I never thought that I would get a call from you."
"Sorry to disturb you," Max said, his voice firm as he watched Ramon across the arena. "But I think it’s best I get straight to the point. This won’t take long, Grandfather."
The person Max had decided to call was Dennis Stern. This was the man who had given him his initial Billion to start his journey with, and he was the richest person that Max knew who he was in direct contact with.
"I have some time," Dennis said.
On his side of the world, Dennis was actually in the middle of a high-stakes board meeting. He was surrounded by fifteen other people in the room, all of them powerful in their own right. At the front of the room, a single man was in the middle of giving a presentation, and he already appeared incredibly nervous under Dennis’s gaze.
Yet, the moment Dennis saw the call from Max, he had stopped everything. He silenced the room just to answer it. Everyone in the board meeting thought the call had to have been extremely important, but they wondered who could have been on the other side of the line. It was confusing to them because everyone they considered important to the company was already sitting in the room.
"Who would father answer the phone to, and so quickly at that?" Marsha Stern thought to herself. She was one of the heirs who worked within the company, and in the eyes of many, she was the next chairwoman destined to take over the entire business. She watched her father’s face, trying to read the situation.
Since time was so short on Max’s end, he couldn’t afford any small talk. He had to get to the point, and he had to do it quickly.
"I need money..." Max said, his voice echoing slightly in the quiet of his corner. "I need 330 million to be exact."
Max waited for the response, knowing that every second of that minute was ticking away. He could feel the eyes of the rangers on him, and the weight of the exoskeleton’s power still lingering in the air. This was the moment where he would either get the boost he needed to transform his standing, or he would be left to face Ramon with what he already had. The transfer of Aron’s wealth had been a start, but 330 million from the head of the Stern family was the true key to reaching a level that no regular person could ever hope to touch.