All Chapters of Seconds To Zero : Chapter 11
- Chapter 20
104 chapters
CHAPTER 11
Silas began to act. He twitched his hand. He looked at the door. He looked like a man who had made a mistake. He was playing the part of a scared gambler.In the first timeline, Evan had said "No." He had tried to be safe. And the House had moved the ball anyway, killing him.Evan looked at the red screen. He looked at the 15% win probability."Give me a moment," Evan said."Time is the one thing we don't have, boy," Silas teased.Evan focused on the System. Help me, he thought. Calculate the cheat.The blue text scrolled across his eyes.[CALCULATING...][DETECTION: ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD DETECTED UNDER TABLE SURFACE.][SOURCE: HOUSE INTERFERENCE OVERRIDE.][WIN PROBABILITY: 0.00% (FORCED LOSS)]Evan felt a cold rage. The House didn't just have an advantage. They had the result already written. If he played the game, he would lose. Period.What can I do? Evan thought.The System responded.[OPTION: STABILIZE OUTCOME][DESCRIPTION: OVERRIDE LOCAL GRAVITY SENSORS TO MATCH USER BET.][CO
CHAPTER 12
"Get away from him!" Silas shouted. "If the System has chosen him, we can't touch him. Not here. Not now."The spectators began to whisper. The word 'Backed' spread through the room like a virus. They weren't looking at a rookie anymore. They were looking at a predator.Evan didn't wait for them to change their minds. He turned and walked toward the elevator. The guard, who had shoved him only minutes ago, stepped back and hit the wall to stay out of his way.Evan stepped into the metal box. He turned around to face the room.Silas was still standing by the table. He looked old. Truly old. Without the House’s protection, he was just a man who had stolen too much time from others."See you around, Silas," Evan said.The elevator doors hissed shut.As the box descended, the blue light in Evan’s eyes pulsed one more time.[MATCH COMPLETED][RANKING UPDATED][NEW STATUS: TIME-BACKED PLAYER (TIER 1)][MESSAGE: THE BANK HAS NOTICED YOUR TALENT. DO NOT WASTE IT.]Evan leaned his head against
CHAPTER 13
In the past, Evan would have screamed. He would have begged. But the 18 years in his blood felt like fire. It made him feel faster. It made him feel dangerous.[COMBAT MODE: INITIATED][SCANNING TARGETS...][WEAKNESS FOUND: LEAD TARGET HAS A BUM KNEE. LEFT SIDE.]The System’s voice was a cold comfort."I'm not giving you a second," Evan said.The one-eyed man lunged. He was fast, driven by the fear of his own death. He swung the metal shard at Evan’s throat.Time slowed down.It wasn't a rewind. It was just Evan’s brain working at a higher frequency. He saw the man’s muscles tense. He saw the way the man’s weight shifted to his good leg.Evan stepped to the left. He moved before the man even finished his swing. The metal shard whistled through the empty air.Evan didn't just dodge. He counter-attacked. He drove his fist into the man’s ribs—the same spot where the Enforcer had kicked him in the timeline that no longer existed.Crack.The man let out a choked gasp and fell to the ground
CHAPTER 14
High above the city, in a place where the air was filtered and the lights never flickered, sat the Great Exchange. It was a tower of glass and black steel. Inside, there was no noise. There were only the sounds of cooling fans and the soft tapping of fingers on holographic glass.This was the heart of the world. This was where time was managed.In a small, dark room on the 90th floor, three men sat in front of a giant wall of data. The wall was covered in moving lines of gold and red. Each line represented a life. Each flash represented a transaction."Stop the feed," a man named Kael said. He was an analyst. His job was to find people who cheated the system. He was thin, and his eyes were bloodshot from staring at numbers for twelve hours straight.The screen froze."Go back to the Level 4 High Stakes Arena," Kael commanded. "Focus on the match between Silas the Veteran and the rookie, Evan Kennedy."The other two analysts leaned in. They watched the recording. They saw the digital b
CHAPTER 15
Evan walked for thirty minutes. His vision blurred and cleared, blurred and cleared. He felt like his brain was a radio that was losing its signal. He kept seeing things that weren't there—the blue bicycle from his deleted memory, a ghost of a child riding through the rain.He finally reached a large, white building. It was the Central Medical Ward. It was the only building in the district that had constant power. It was where the rich came to live forever, and where the poor came to die when their time ran out.Evan walked through the sliding glass doors. The air inside was cold and smelled of bleach and old metal.A robot at the front desk looked up. Its eyes were two red sensors."Identify yourself," the robot said. Its voice was smooth and fake.Evan held up his wrist. He pressed it against the scanner.Beep."User: Evan Kennedy. Balance: 18 Years, 3 Months. Access granted to Level 2 Wards."The robot’s eyes turned green. "Welcome, Mr. Kennedy. How can the Bank assist your health
CHAPTER 16
"The Bank wants your years, Evan," the doctor interrupted. "They don't care if the person lives or dies as long as the years are paid. The five years you just sent? They are being burned up twice as fast just to keep his heart beating. His body is fighting the very time you gave him."Evan grabbed the doctor’s coat. "There has to be something. A different surgery. A better medicine."The doctor shook his head slowly. "There is only one thing that can fix Chronos-Decay. But you can't buy it with years. You can't find it in a hospital.""What is it?" Evan asked."Pure Time," the doctor whispered. "Time that hasn't been through the Bank. Time that hasn't been digitalized and taxed and traded. The stuff they used to have before the Great Exchange. The stuff that comes from the Source."Evan stared at him. "The Source is a myth. It’s a story people tell to keep from going crazy.""Maybe," the doctor said. He looked tired. He looked like he wanted to go home and sleep for a century. "But ri
CHAPTER 17
The rain in the South District did not fall. It drifted. It was a thick, gray mist that tasted like copper and old smoke. Evan stood in the doorway of the Clockmaker’s Shop. Behind him, the man on the floor was dead. His hand was still warm, but his time was gone.In front of Evan, the girl held a gun. It was a small, black weapon. Her hand did not shake. She wore a heavy leather jacket that was too big for her. Her hair was short and dark, sticking to her forehead in the damp air.She looked exactly like the girl on the blue bicycle. But Evan couldn't be sure. That memory was gray now. It was like a photo left in the sun for too long."Who are you?" the girl asked. Her voice was sharp. It cut through the sound of the ticking clocks on the walls."Evan," he said. He held up his hands. He did not want to look at the gun. "The man on the floor... he told me to come here. He said I need to ask for the 25th Hour."The girl’s eyes narrowed. She looked at the dead analyst on the floor. Then
CHAPTER 18
"I bet the memory of my father's last smile," Evan said. His voice was a whisper.Jax turned a dial. "Accepted. Initiating Ghost-Hand."Evan felt a sudden, horrible coldness. It started at the back of his neck and moved into his right arm. He looked down. His arm was shaking, but then it stopped. It became perfectly still. It didn't even move when he breathed.He felt a part of his brain go quiet. It was like a light in a room had been turned off."Begin!" Jax shouted.The disc began to spin. It was moving so fast it looked like a solid plate.Evan’s hand moved.He didn't think. He didn't aim. He was a passenger in his own body.Clack.The needle dropped. It went through the hole.Clack.Again.Clack.The crowd in the Gear-Box went silent. They had never seen anything like this. Evan’s hand was moving like a sewing machine. It was a blur of silver and skin.Five seconds left. Five hits.Clack. Clack. Clack.The pain in Evan’s head was exploding. His vision was turning red. He felt the
CHAPTER 19
Evan stepped in front of Mara. He didn't feel fear. He didn't feel anything. "I'm not property," Evan said.Julian smiled. It was a beautiful, terrifying smile. "Oh, but you are. You are the vessel for the Prototype. And you’ve been a very bad boy. Betting with memories? That is a dangerous game, Evan. You’re running out of things that make you human."Julian held out his hand."Give me the Key, and I will let the girl live. I will even let your father have his five years in peace. He will die quietly in his sleep."Evan looked at the Key in his hand. Then he looked at Julian."I don't care about the girl," Evan said.Mara flinched. She looked at Evan like he had stabbed her. "Evan? What are you saying?"Evan didn't look at her. He kept his eyes on Julian. "And I don't care about the man in the hospital. Not anymore."Julian’s smile widened. "I see. The Machine ate the best parts of you, didn't it? Excellent. That makes this much easier.""But," Evan continued, his voice dropping to a
CHAPTER 20
The elevator did not stop at Level 100. It did not go to the golden halls of the Boardroom. Instead, the metal box shook violently. It began to drop. It moved so fast that Evan and Mara felt their stomachs rise into their throats.The screen above the door changed. The message from Malakai Vox stayed for a moment, then faded. It was replaced by a single, glowing number:LEVEL 0."Level zero?" Mara whispered. She gripped the railing of the elevator. Her knuckles were white. "The Exchange doesn't have a Level zero. The basement is the lowest part. We were just there."Evan did not answer. He was staring at the doors. His head was spinning. The empty hole in his mind—the place where his father’s smile used to be—started to throb. He felt a strange sense of knowing. He knew what the air would smell like when the doors opened. He knew the exact shade of white the walls would be.The elevator stopped with a soft thud. The doors hissed open.The smell hit him first. It was not the smell of t