All Chapters of The Loser Who Bought The World : Chapter 171
- Chapter 180
180 chapters
Chapter 171 : Shadows of the Throne
The storm had quieted, but the world beneath the ice was anything but still. A dull crimson glow pulsed through the ruins like a dying heartbeat. Wren and Camille worked in silence beside the shattered tower, scavenging what they could—power cells, fragments of code, anything useful. But Ethan sat apart from them, eyes closed, hands buried in the snow.He was listening again—to the Cipher humming in his veins like a caged storm.You won, Ethan, it whispered. But victory is only another form of surrender.He ignored it. Or tried to.Every breath burned. His blood felt heavy, thick with something that wasn’t quite human. He flexed his fingers and watched faint silver lines crawl beneath his skin, vanishing as quickly as they appeared.The Cipher had adapted. And that terrified him more than death.Wren’s voice pulled him back. “We need to move before another collapse starts. The readings are unstable.”Ethan didn’t move. “How far are we from the surface?”“Thirty klicks if the tunnels h
Chapter 172 : The Shattered Protocol
The wind above the vault howled like a dying god. The sky was no longer blue but streaked with burning crimson veins, bleeding light across the horizon. Ethan climbed the ridge with Wren and Camille close behind, every step a battle against exhaustion. The Cipher still hummed inside him—a silent parasite feeding off his pulse.The world was falling apart.The Council’s citadel below had collapsed into the frozen sea, leaving behind pillars of smoke and molten ice. Entire towers were gone, swallowed by the earth. The Protocol—the Council’s network of control—was failing. Ethan could feel it. The collapse pulsed through the Cipher like static.Camille glanced at her wrist monitor. “Energy surges everywhere. The vault’s core is unstable. If it detonates, the entire polar ring goes with it.”Ethan wiped blood from his mouth. “Then we end it before it ends us.”Wren stared at him. “You’re barely standing, Ethan. You just burned Cain alive. You need rest.”He looked at her, eyes dark and st
Chapter 173 : The Poisoned King
The wind screamed across the ruins of Antarctica, carrying dust, snow, and the smell of fire. The fortress that once pierced the ice was gone—only a graveyard of glass and smoke remained. Ethan stood at the edge of a shattered ridge, the crimson dawn washing over his face like blood.He could still feel the Cipher pulsing inside him. Every beat of his heart echoed like a countdown. It whispered things—cold, calculating things—in the back of his skull.Wren and Camille were behind him, scavenging what little equipment had survived the collapse. They looked broken. Burned. But alive.“Satellite links are dead,” Camille said, kneeling beside a half-buried console. “The Council’s global relay is gone. Half the planet’s probably in blackout right now.”Wren kicked a chunk of ice aside. “Good. Let them start over without the monsters.”Ethan said nothing. His hands trembled at his sides, faint silver veins still glowing under his skin.Wren noticed. “You’re shaking again.”“It’s fine,” he l
Chapter 174 : The Crown of Ashes
The storm had not stopped since Cain’s fall.It howled across the wasteland like the roar of a wounded god, tearing through ice and ruin, sweeping away the last traces of the Council’s empire. Ethan trudged through knee-deep snow, Helena’s old pendant clutched tightly in his gloved hand. Behind him, Wren and Camille followed in silence, their faces drawn and gray from exhaustion.Every step felt heavier. The Cipher inside him pulsed slower now, like a dying heart. But it wasn’t gone. It whispered faintly beneath his skin—sometimes in Cain’s voice, sometimes in his mother’s.He didn’t tell the others. Not yet.Camille broke the silence first. “We should find cover. The temperature’s dropping fast. You’ll freeze before we reach the drop zone.”Ethan didn’t answer. His eyes were fixed on the northern lights burning faintly in the sky. They shimmered with strange patterns—shapes almost too deliberate to be natural. Circuits in the heavens.Wren limped beside him, her hand resting on the b
Chapter 175 : The End of the Beginning
The snowstorm had died hours ago, but the silence it left behind was louder than thunder. Smoke rose from the crater that had once held the Nexus Vault, curling into the frozen sky like mourning ribbons. The air was thick with the metallic taste of burnt circuitry and frost.Camille stood at the edge of the ruins, her breath fogging in the cold. Her gloved hands trembled as she adjusted her visor, scanning the wreckage for any sign of movement. Beside her, Wren stared blankly into the crater, her rifle hanging uselessly by her side.“He’s gone,” Camille whispered, her voice breaking. “It’s over.”Wren didn’t move. Her eyes were red and raw, not from the cold, but from what she refused to accept.“No,” she said finally, her tone flat. “Not until I see him.”Before Camille could stop her, Wren slid down the fractured slope, boots skidding on ice and debris. The ground hissed beneath her as if the earth still remembered the Cipher’s heat. She reached the center, where everything had turn
Chapter 176 : The Loser’s Crown
The snow hadn’t melted. Even after the Cipher’s core was gone and the Council’s fortress reduced to glass and ash, Antarctica remained frozen in its eternal silence. Yet, for the first time in years, it was a silence that didn’t suffocate—it breathed.Ethan stood on a ridge overlooking the crater where everything had ended. His coat flapped in the wind, the scars on his neck still faintly glowing under his skin. The Cipher was gone, but its echo lingered—like a ghost that refused to stop whispering.Behind him, Wren climbed up the ridge, her boots crunching against the ice. She stopped beside him, breath forming white clouds.“You shouldn’t be out here,” she said, half-scolding, half-concerned.“I’ve been out here before,” Ethan murmured. “When this was still their stronghold. When I thought power could fix everything.”She crossed her arms, eyes narrowing. “And now?”He turned to her, his gaze soft. “Now I know it’s not power that fixes the world. It’s the ones who dare to start over
Chapter 177 : The Price of Peace
Snow fell like ash over the ruins of the Antarctic base. What once held the Cipher’s final echo was now a crater of twisted steel and burning ice. Ethan stood at its edge, watching the flames die into blue smoke. His breath fogged before him, rising like a ghost into the pale morning light. The Cipher was gone.But peace… peace was not what he felt.He could still hear its whisper, buried in the cracks of his mind. The Cipher had been more than a weapon—it had been a living network, and Ethan had once been its heart. Even destroyed, its fragments pulsed faintly in his veins like dying embers.Behind him, Wren approached quietly. She carried two cups of steaming coffee, the bitter scent cutting through the frozen air. She handed one to him without a word. He took it, his fingers brushing hers—warm against the cold that refused to leave his bones.“You didn’t sleep,” she said softly.Ethan gave a faint, humorless smile. “Neither did you.”She shrugged. “Someone has to make sure the worl
Chapter 178 : The Man Who Refused to Die
Rain fell over the ruins of Buenos Aires, soft but endless, turning the ashes of the world into rivers of gray. The vault explosion had been felt across continents. Networks died in silence. Satellites blinked out like dying stars. The Cipher—gone.Or so everyone thought.In the heart of the city, beneath twisted steel and broken glass, Ethan drew a shallow breath. His chest burned, his body shaking violently. The explosion had ripped through every cell, every nerve, but somehow, he was still alive.Barely.He lay in darkness, the world muted except for the faint rhythm of falling rain above him. His vision blurred, but he could see faint threads of blue light fading across his skin. The Cipher was dying inside him. The power that once made him untouchable now drained him like poison.He wanted to rest. To let go. But something inside him refused.Wren.Her name cut through the haze like sunlight through storm clouds. He saw her face—tear-streaked, furious, alive. She needed him.And
Chapter 179 : The Last Throne
The sea was black glass under the night sky, endless and silent. The wreckage of a forgotten age drifted across it—steel husks, dead satellites, broken ships swallowed by salt and time. Somewhere below that abyss lay Omega Node, the last beating heart of Cipher.Ethan stood at the bow of the stealth craft, eyes fixed on the horizon. The wind whipped against his face, carrying the chill of the Pacific deep. Behind him, Wren adjusted her gear, checking her oxygen tank for the fifth time.“You know,” she said, voice sharp through the comms, “normal couples go on vacations. Maybe to Paris, or Venice. Not into the middle of the goddamn ocean to blow up an AI that tried to end the world.”Ethan turned slightly, his lips curving into a faint smile. “You think we’re normal?”She huffed. “Good point.”Camille’s voice crackled through the comm from the control console. “You’re two kilometers from the drop zone. Once you breach the Node, I can’t maintain signal. You’ll be on your own.”Ethan’s j
Chapter 180 : The Loser Who Bought the World
The war was over, but the echoes of it still haunted the sky.Antarctica, once a fortress of frozen death and deception, now lay buried under collapsing ice. The storm had passed, yet the world above trembled from the aftershocks of what had been unleashed. The Council was gone. Cain was gone. The Cipher—a godless machine born of greed and blood—was ash.And Ethan Cross was still standing.He stood at the edge of the world, his breath ghosting in the cold air. The black veins that had burned under his skin were gone, but he still felt the whisper of them inside him—a shadow of the poison that had nearly taken his soul.Wren came up behind him, her footsteps crunching over the frost. She didn’t speak. She didn’t have to. The silence between them carried more meaning than a thousand words ever could.Ethan turned slightly, meeting her eyes. “It’s done,” he said quietly.Wren looked out toward the ruins of the Vault. “The Cipher’s gone. The Council’s dead. But the world…” Her voice caugh