Chapter 50. The Collapse

The first scream didn’t come from the ring.

It came from the upper levels—somewhere near the VIP section—and it wasn’t fear. It was confusion.

Jun felt it before he saw it. The sound was swallowed almost instantly by a roar, the crowd reacting not to violence, but to revelation. The big screens above the cage flickered again, showing not the fighters, but spreadsheets, wire transfers, account names.

Dominic Vale’s face appeared mid-sentence, caught in a frozen frame of an old interview, overlaid with the words: “UNSANCTIONED BETS—INTERNAL INVESTIGATION PENDING.”

Jun’s phone buzzed in his pocket. One message, no name.

It’s live.

Cassian.

Jun didn’t bother replying. He was already moving.

From his seat near the press pit, he saw the first ripple of panic spread through the officials. Tech staff shouting into radios, executives pushing through aisles, league handlers trying to kill the feed and failing.

Cassian had set this u