All Chapters of AWAKENED ADRIAN LACANSTER : Chapter 661
- Chapter 670
697 chapters
CHAPTER 661
Adrian stood up slowly. He didn't look tired; he didn't even look excited. He calmly pointed his finger toward Station Six, the desk where Ghost-Code had been disqualified earlier. "While you were busy trying to kill the man," Adrian said, his voice cold and steady, "you forgot to watch the money. I mirrored my data to that empty station’s backup drive three minutes ago. I wasn't even using this computer when you attacked it." The face-slap was total. Viper collapsed into his chair, realizing he had just deleted his own life for nothing. The audience erupted. Those who had bet on Viper were clutching their heads in regret. "Shit!" a man in the front row yelled. "If I had bet on Michael, I would have become a millionaire tonight!" The MC’s voice returned, though it was shaky. "The... the winner of the Gold Key is... Michael!" The crowd roared, but the celebration lasted only a second. As the Gold Key began to lower from the ceiling on a silver chain, a thunderous voice boomed th
CHAPTER 662
Above him, the sky wasn't filled with stars, but with cascading streams of data that fell like silent, golden rain. This was the Nexus. The Dimension of Pure Data. Here, the laws of physics were dead; only the strength of one's will and the complexity of one's code mattered. A shadow began to rise from the data-ocean, growing taller and wider until it blotted out the golden sky. The Green Shadow materialized as a fifty-foot digital giant, his form composed of shifting emerald smoke and ancient, glowing circuits. His mask was a mountain of light, looking down at Adrian with cold, terrifying hunger. With a flick of his massive wrist, the Shadow commanded the ocean. A data-tsunami—a wall of crashing, jagged code a hundred feet high roared toward Adrian, intending to shred his consciousness into a billion pieces. Adrian didn't move. He stood with his hands behind his back, his expression as calm as a summer pond. As the wave reached him, it didn't crush him; it simply parted aro
CHAPTER 663
Across the arena, high up in the Master’s Booth, a muffled explosion rocked the stadium. A thick cloud of green smoke billowed out from behind the glass, followed by the smell of burning plastic and expensive copper. The Green Shadow, the invincible legend stumbled out of the smoke-filled booth. His mask was cracked down the middle, his expensive suit was scorched, and he was coughing violently, clutching the railing for support. He looked small. He looked human. And most of all, he looked terrified. The audience was frozen in a silence so deep it was deafening. They looked at the broken man in the booth, then back at the "janitor" sitting calmly in the center of the floor. They had just seen a god fall and a new one take his place. Adrian stood up, his eyes locked on the trembling figure of the Shadow. The Gold Key, still hanging from its silver chain, began to lower once more. Adrian reached out and caught it with a single hand, the metal gleaming brilliantly under the stadium
CHAPTER 664
On the other side of the city, Adrian sat in the driver’s seat of his high-end sedan. The Gold Key sat on the passenger seat, glinting in the light of the streetlamps. He tapped his earpiece, dialing Lilith. "I have it," Adrian said, his voice calm despite the adrenaline still humming in his veins. "I have the Gold Key. I’m heading home now to bridge the servers. By tomorrow morning, we’ll have the names of every person involved in the Aura Media scam." "That’s incredible news, Adrian," Lilith’s voice came through, sounding breathless with relief. "I didn't think you could actually..." Suddenly, the line erupted into a harsh burst of static. "Hello? Lilith?" Adrian frowned, checking the dashboard. The signal bars on his screen dropped to zero. "What is going on?" A heavy, magnetic thud echoed through the cabin. Every door locked simultaneously. Adrian reached for the handle, but it was frozen solid. Suddenly, the entire dashboard and the ambient interior lighting shifted f
CHAPTER 665
Marcus’s voice came through like a jagged blade. "I hope you are calling me to tell me that he is dead?! I don't want to hear about 'efforts' or 'attempts,' Shadow. I want a corpse.""He’s gone, sir," the Shadow replied, a shaky pride returning to his tone. "He was completely crushed in the wreck. At 180 kilometers per hour, there isn't enough left of him to put in a coffin.""Good," Marcus hissed, the sound of a luxury pen scratching against paper audible in the background. "Clean up the mess. I don't want anything to be traced back to me. And keep that Gold Key safe. Shut down that nonsense hacking tournament and disappear. Is that clear?""Yes, sir. Trust me, I will take care of everything."The night air was thick with the scent of burnt rubber and gasoline. A sleek black van pulled up to the curb, its headlights cutting through the swirling smoke of the crash site. The Green Shadow stepped out, his cracked mask catching the flickering light of the flames. Behind him, two of Marc
CHAPTER 666
He didn't sleep. He spent the rest of the night copying every transaction, every email, and every offshore account number.The next morning at Global Corp, the atmosphere was like a funeral. News of the horrific car crash on the outskirts of the city had spread like wildfire through the breakrooms and locker rooms.In the locker room, Vanessa was sobbing into a paper towel. "It’s not fair," she wailed. "He was the only one who stood up for us. I knew this place had bad energy. It swallowed him up!"The other janitors nodded solemnly, their heads bowed. "No senior staff dared to bully us when Michael was around," one whispered. "What are we going to do now?"Upstairs, Lilith was a wreck. She paced her office, her hair disheveled, her eyes puffy from crying. She looked at the news report on her tablet andthe image of the charred oak tree. "No, no, no," she whispered, her voice breaking. "This is my fault. I sent him to his death. How do I live with this?"A soft knock came at the door.
CHAPTER 667
"It’s not what I think?" Lilith hissed, leaning over the trembling woman. "You’ve been stealing from me for years! I watched my father’s legacy start to crumble, I watched my employees worry about their jobs, and all the while, you were buying designer bags with my blood! I will teach you a lesson you will never forget."Adrian’s eyes narrowed as he watched the data on the screen. His brow furrowed in a deep, sharp line. Something was wrong. As he scrolled through the final traces of the offshore accounts, he realized the digital trail had been severed. Every link relating to Marcus Thorne had been scrubbed clean. The Green Shadow must have worked until his final breath to erase Marcus’s signature, leaving Fiona’s name as the sole owner of the accounts.Marcus had used her as a human shield.Fiona, realizing she was sinking alone, turned her tear-filled eyes toward Marcus. "Marcus! Help me!" she wailed, reaching for his arm. "We did this together! You promised we would be safe! Don't
CHAPTER 668
The news of Fiona’s arrest moved through the Global Corp headquarters faster than an electrical surge. Every floor was pressed against the glass partitions, every elevator bank was crowded with employees whispering in hushed, frantic tones.As the police led Fiona through the grand lobby, the cuffs rattling against her wrists, the silence was deafening. This was the woman who had walked these halls like a queen, whose heels had clicked with the rhythm of absolute power. Now, she was disheveled, her face streaked with mascara and her head bowed in a disgrace she never thought would find her.Vanessa stood by the janitorial closet, clutching her mop. She watched as Fiona was pushed toward the glass revolving doors. A part of her felt a surge of cold, righteous satisfaction; Fiona had once looked Vanessa in the eye and promised that one day, she would be the one dragged out of the building like trash. The irony tasted like honey. But another part of Vanessa felt sorry for herUpstairs,
CHAPTER 669
He was led into a small, cramped meeting room. The walls were grey and peeling. Fiona sat at a bolted-down metal table, her hands cuffed to a steel bar. When Marcus entered and closed the heavy door, the rattling of her chains was the only sound in the room."Baby, I'm so sorry," Marcus said, his voice dripping with a fake, honeyed warmth. "I hope they didn’t hurt you?""Hurt me?" Fiona barked, jumping to her feet as far as the chains would allow. Her eyes were bloodshot and wild. "They have done nothing but hurt me! How dare you show your face here? You denied me! You stood there like a statue and watched them drag me away like a dog! I did all of this for us! We were supposed to be a team!"She began to sob, the sound echoing harshly off the concrete walls. "I thought you loved me. You said we were going to the top together. And then you abandoned me to the wolves. How could you?"Marcus stepped forward, reaching out to cup her face in his hands. He looked into her eyes with an inte
CHAPTER 670
Marcus grabbed Jonah by the collar, his eyes bulging. "We are on edge, Jonah! I was nearly exposed in front of the entire board today! If I hadn't been ten steps ahead, I’d be in a cell next to Fiona, and you’d be out on the street looking for a job. So, when I ask you to do something, you do it!"Jonah bowed his head, his voice low. "Understood, sir. I'll handle it personally."Jonah got to work immediately. He was a professional, and he knew that even a ghost leaves a footprint. He began monitoring Adrian’s every move. He noticed that after a long shift of "mopping," Adrian would walk toward a quiet street where a black SUV with tinted windows was always waiting to whisk him away.Jonah followed the car at a distance, tracking it to a quiet, upscale neighborhood. He positioned his people around the area, a gardener here, a jogger there, a nondescript car parked at the end of the block.Adrian noticed the change instantly. He saw the gardener who spent three hours trimming the same h