All Chapters of THE ANOMALY: RISE OF A BILLIONAIRE: Chapter 11
- Chapter 20
55 chapters
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The rain still hadn’t stopped when the truck carrying Jake arrived at Damian’s tower complex. The building rose like a blade through the fog of Ashborne—each of its windows glowed faintly, like a hundred eyes watching.As soon as the vehicle halted, two men in black uniforms swung open the rear doors.“Out,” one said flatly, his eyes sharp with suspicion.Jake jumped down, carrying the black bag that held the Erevos drive and the nano module. Beneath his jacket, the experimental weapon he’d found in the warehouse remained tightly concealed. He could still feel its faint pulse against his spine.Vex clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on. The boss doesn’t like to wait.”The hallway to Damian’s office was long and silent. Every footstep echoed. Jake studied the ceiling cameras, counting the intervals between their rotations—a habit he’d never lost: always know when you’re being watched, and when you’re not.They stopped before a massive steel door marked Division Command. Vex knocked twi
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The letter “E” stabbed into his eyes like a blade. There was only one person reckless enough to send a direct message through Damian’s encrypted network—Elara.Jake opened the control panel, disabled the room’s cameras, and plugged a cable from his personal terminal into the small drive in his pocket. The screen went dark for two seconds before a stream of code began to race across it.“Come on, Elara,” he muttered under his breath. “If you’re really alive, show yourself.”The door creaked open behind him.Jake instantly yanked out the cable, closed the terminal, and stood up straight.“Come in.”It was Sable—the silver-haired woman with eyes sharp enough to cut steel. Damian’s personal hacker.“Boss sent me to check your comm system,” she said flatly. “He says your signal’s acting weird.”Jake’s expression didn’t waver. “Weird how?”“Like there’s an incoming signal—but not from any internal network.”“Probably just an Erevos bug,” Jake replied quickly.Sable stared at him for a long
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The internal alarm jolted Jake awake before dawn.His body was drenched in cold sweat. For a moment his vision blurred, until the room’s automatic lights flickered on—casting harsh white over walls of cracked metal.He stared at his hands. Beneath the skin, faint blue veins pulsed, glowing softly as if electricity flowed through his blood.“Vanguard…” he whispered.The pulse grew stronger. He inhaled sharply, forcing the pain down as it crawled from his chest into his arms.When he finally stepped into the hallway, it was already swarming with people.“Jake! Hurry! Damian wants you in the tactical room!” shouted Vex, sprinting from the opposite end.Jake nodded, following him. Each step hurt—like the bones in his feet were grinding, adjusting to a rhythm that wasn’t human. He bit back the pain, pretending nothing was wrong.By the time he reached the tactical chamber, Damian was already there—standing before a massive holographic map of Ashborne’s lower districts. Beside him stood a d
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Darkness.Nothing but a low hum filled Jake’s skull. The air stank of metal and ozone—like the aftermath of lightning. He opened his eyes slowly. Everything was a blur.The ruins around him still burned. The chamber where the Erevos generator once stood was now nothing but twisted steel and scorched concrete. The walls had peeled away, the dangling cables hanging like black veins.Jake tried to move, but his body refused. Every muscle screamed in protest.When he finally forced himself upright, a thin line of blood dripped from his ear. He wiped it with trembling fingers—then froze.The blood glowed faint blue.“...what…”His voice was hoarse. He stared at the faint shimmer at the tip of his finger. My blood?Beside him, Lira lay unconscious. Still breathing—shallow, but steady. Jake dragged himself closer and checked her pulse.“Still alive. Thank God…”A broken system console in the corner suddenly crackled to life—spitting fragmented audio through the static.“Synchronization… succ
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Thick smoke still blanketed the ruins of the Erevos facility when the deep whine of engines echoed from above.Searchlights cut through the darkness, illuminating the three survivors—Jake, Lira, and Vex—standing amid shattered concrete and twisted steel.“Damian’s rescue unit,” Lira muttered flatly. “Guess we’re really going home.”Jake didn’t answer. The light glinted in his eyes for a moment—blue, faint, unnatural. He looked away before anyone noticed. Not yet.A tactical helicopter descended between the broken walls. Two men in black armor stepped out first. One raised his hand.“Jake Caleb, Vex Nolan, Lira Vaughn—by direct order of Lord Damian, you are to be escorted back to the tower.”The tone was too formal, too cold for a rescue. Jake recognized it instantly. This wasn’t an extraction. It was a summons.Vex sighed under his breath. “I hate that phrase, ‘by direct order.’”Lira eyed Jake. “You think he’s not just gonna shoot us the second we land?”Jake’s expression didn’t chan
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The morning air in Ashborne smelled like metal. Fog clung to the towering spires, as if the city itself were breathing—but not alive.Jake stood in the main hangar, wearing a plain black tactical jacket stripped of all insignia. Beside him, Vex checked over a light rifle, humming an off-key tune.“Diplomacy,” Vex muttered. “Weirdest word I’ve ever heard from Damian’s mouth. Usually he prefers the word invasion.”Jake holstered his weapon. “If Damian says diplomacy, it means someone’s going to die—and it won’t be him.”Vex smirked. “Let’s just hope it’s not us this time.”In front of them, the tactical helicopter hummed steadily. Sable stood by the hatch, tablet in hand, her eyes fixed on the data feed.“The target faction is called The Marrow,” she said evenly. “Remnants of the old military corps. Damian wants cooperation, not war. So—”Jake cut in, “—so I’m supposed to play nice.”Sable’s stare was glacial. “Or pretend to play nice before you shoot.”She turned to Vex. “You’re assign
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The sky over Ashborne was still veiled in ash when Jake’s helicopter landed on Crowne Tower.The whirring blades echoed off the steel walls, a low metallic hum that sounded like regret carried by the wind.Damian was already waiting on the landing platform, dressed in his flawless black suit—untouched by rain or dust, as if the world itself refused to stain him.Beside him stood Sable, tablet in hand, eyes cold and sharp, like someone who always knew too much but never said it aloud.As Jake stepped down, Damian spoke without expression.“Welcome back from your diplomatic mission.”Jake removed his helmet. “Negotiations failed. The Marrow was hit by Erevos.”Damian raised an eyebrow. “You blame Erevos?”“Who else flies drones that precise?”A thin smile crossed Damian’s face. “Good question.”He circled Jake slowly, inspecting him from head to toe.“You look surprisingly intact for someone who just walked out of hell.”Jake met his gaze. “I’ve gotten used to coming back from places I
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The old lift groaned as it descended, rattling every few meters.The flickering light reflected the dirt and sweat on Jake and Lira’s faces—two ghosts trapped between metal walls and darkness.Outside, nothing but the deep black of the sublevels.“How long have you known about Elara?” Lira asked quietly.“Since before all this started,” Jake replied. “She was the first to warn me about Damian. I thought she was just a bitter ex.”“And now?”Jake glanced at the wrist display on his arm—a faint holographic map showing the city’s buried network. “Now I know she’s the only one who still tells the truth.”The lift stopped with a violent jolt. The doors creaked open, revealing a corridor shrouded in mist and the smell of rust and damp concrete. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped rhythmically.Lira raised her weapon. “You’re sure this is the right route?”Jake stepped out first. “If it wasn’t, we’d already be dead several floors ago.”They walked carefully past decaying walls marked wi
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“Welcome,” said a voice — echoing, infinite — “to yourself.”It came from everywhere at once, vibrating inside Jake’s skull. He turned, and there stood Damian — or what used to be him. Half of his body shimmered like living metal, the other half still human shadow.“You followed me in,” Jake said coldly.Damian smiled faintly. “Of course. I built the door. I only needed you to open it.”Jake stepped forward, but the ground rippled like liquid data with every movement, sending out rings of distorted memory — Lira’s face, Vex’s laughter, Elara’s trembling hands. Each image flickered and dissolved into the code.“Why, Damian?” Jake asked. “Why do this?”“Because the real world is too small for what we’ve become,” Damian replied softly. “Erevos understood that. They didn’t build the network for control… they built it for rebirth.”“Rebirth as what? Monsters?”“As perfection.” His tone was calm, reverent. “And you, Jake… you’re the bridge to it.”Before Jake could respond, the air — if it
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Three months after the explosion, Ashborne was no longer a city — it was a scar.Once alive with neon and machinery, now it lay wrapped in dust and silence, like a giant carcass missing its heart. Towers had collapsed, roads were split open, and amid the ruins, people wandered — learning how to live without the system they’d once worshipped.Jake moved through the remains of the old market, a long gray coat draped over his shoulders, hood low over his face. No one recognized him.Now, he was Arden Vale — a new name stitched together from the fragments of data that had survived the collapse.He stopped at a makeshift stall piled with old circuitry. The vendor, a gray-bearded man with cybernetic eyes dimmed by age, looked him over.“Looking for something, son?”“Analog transmitter,” Jake said. “Type 7-B.”The man frowned. “Ancient stuff. Nobody uses that anymore.”Jake gave a faint smile. “That’s why I trust it.”The vendor studied him for a moment, then nodded toward the back. “Wait th