All Chapters of Zero Logic: The Hunter Gambits: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
12 chapters
Chapter 01. GOOD AT THE FELT
The smoke from a Cuban cigar, priced at a factory worker’s annual salary, drifted lazily through the air. It created a thin haze that refracted the light from the crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling of The Sapphire Dome. This was no ordinary VIP room. It was the heart of Las Vegas greed, a place where money no longer served as currency but merely as a scoreboard in a contest of wills between grown men. Oliver Warner leaned back in his leather chair, his expression flat. He looked as if he were waiting in line at the post office rather than wagering five million dollars in the center of the table. Across from him sat Mr. Henderson, a Texas oil tycoon with a triple chin, sweating like a pig that realized it was headed for the slaughter. "Are you going to call or fold, old man?" Oliver tapped his index finger against the mahogany table. "I have dinner plans in half an hour, and honestly, watching you sweat is ruining my appetite." Henderson growled, his hands tre
Chapter 02. The 168-Hour Verdict
The first thing Oliver felt was not pain, but an unnatural cold. It was as if the blood in his veins had been replaced with liquid nitrogen. Then, a second later, the pain hit him like a freight train out of control. "Argh... Fuck!" Oliver tried to scream, but his voice came out like a rusty iron grater. His throat was bone dry. His body felt heavy, as if the gravity in the room had been multiplied tenfold. He tried to lift his hand, but it felt like trying to hoist a slab of concrete. "Hold him down! Increase the morphine dose to 10 milligrams! Fast!" Frantic voices echoed around him. The steady beep-beep-beep of the EKG monitor raced wildly, matching the rhythm of Oliver's heart, which felt as though it were about to explode. Oliver forced his eyes open. His vision was blurry, spinning. He saw a sterile white ceiling. He smelled a pungent scent of antiseptic mixed with... the smell of rotting meat? No, that was the smell of his own body. "Mr. Warner? Can
Chapter 03. The Toothless Predator
"You have two choices, Miss Saw-Tooth," Oliver said. His voice was steady, but his breath was shallow, sounding like an asthmatic at the end of a marathon. He gripped the TV remote as if it were a live grenade. "You bite me now and I make sure we both die a pathetic death, or you back off and let me breathe." Bella, or whatever creature was wearing the skin of the nurse named Bella, chuckled. The sound creaked like a rusted door hinge. She straightened her posture, but her murky yellow eyes never strayed from Oliver’s throat. "Empty threats from a man who can’t even lift a glass of water," Bella sneered. "What are you going to do? Throw that remote at me? Oh, I’m terrified." "It’s not the remote, idiot," Oliver hissed. "It’s this cable." Oliver’s trembling left hand was not holding the IV line. Instead, it gripped the power cable of the EKG monitor beside him. The monitor was linked directly to the hospital’s central alarm system. "You said you’re a 'Low-Level
Chapter 04. The Physics of Death
The sound of a body hitting the tracks from a height of ten feet was sickening. It was the sound of a trash bag full of wet meat being dropped from a second story window. A heavy thud was followed by the dry, snapping sound of breaking bone. Oliver Warner crawled to the edge of the platform. His breath came in ragged gasps, and his eyes searched the darkness of the pit below. He remained on the ground not because he chose to, but because his legs had finally surrendered. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping him from losing consciousness. "One," Oliver counted again, his voice trembling. "Two. Three." Silence. "Dead?" Oliver muttered hopefully. "Come on, System. Tell me she's dead with a snapped neck." However, the holographic screen in his vision provided an answer that made his stomach churn. [TARGET STATUS: ACTIVE] [HP: 85% (REGENERATING)] From the darkness below, a low growl emerged. It wasn't a groan of pain, but a sound of pure, unadulterated
Chapter 05. An Invitation From Hell
The night air in Las Vegas usually smelled of money, gasoline, and cheap perfume. But tonight, for Oliver Warner, the air smelled like his own insides. "Heugh!" Oliver knelt in the alleyway behind the abandoned train station, retching stomach acid onto the cracked asphalt. His body shook violently, not from the cold, but from the physiological crash following the adrenaline high. He had just killed a living thing. He had just watched the body of an intelligent creature explode into a meat slurry against a steel wall. There was no glamour in the kill. No heroic background music. There was only the sound of snapping bone, the copper tang of blood, and a wave of nausea that now choked him. "Dammit." Oliver wiped his mouth with a silk handkerchief that was now filthy with dust and bloodstains. He tried to stand, leaning heavily on his stolen cane. His knees felt hollow. "I thought killing a monster would feel like hitting the jackpot. Instead, it feels like swallowing
Chapter 06. The Economy of Souls
The moment Oliver stepped through the golden gates of The Purgatory, the first thing that hit him wasn't the visual opulence, but the noise.It wasn't the cacophony of slot machines or drunken cheers found in human casinos. This was a low-frequency roar, a constant hum that vibrated through his ribs. It was the sound of thousands of souls being wagered, won, or obliterated in a matter of minutes."Incredible," Oliver muttered, his eyes sweeping across the expanse.The scale of the room was nonsensical. It was perhaps three times the size of a football field, with a ceiling that seemed to vanish into a swirling purple mist. High above, VIP balconies drifted without supports, where winged entities sat looking down like bored deities.On the main floor, hundreds of gambling tables were scattered about. There were roulette wheels with spinning balls of fire. Baccarat tables where the cards were made of thin metal sheets. Dice games where the dice were thrown by stone giants.Oliver limped
Chapter 07. A World of Numbers
"AARGHHH!" Oliver’s scream died in his throat, surfacing only as a long, agonizing groan. He clawed at the left side of his face, his nails digging into his skin until it bled. It didn't feel like laser surgery. It felt as if someone had poured molten lead directly into his eye socket, letting it boil before it froze instantly. The world around him spun. The cold marble floor of The Purgatory felt as though it were undulating like the deck of a ship in a storm. "Breathe, Mr. Warner. Don't die just yet. If you die in the lobby, I’ll have to pay for extra cleaning fees." The voice of Vork, the goblin concierge, sounded distant and echoing. Oliver panted, tears reflexively streaming from his right eye. His left eye remained clamped shut, throbbing wildly in sync with a heart pumping pure adrenaline. "Bastard..." Oliver hissed, spittle dripping onto the floor. "You said... it would hurt... but you didn't say it would feel like a drill in my brain!" "Knowledge i
Chapter 08. Zero Percent
CRASH! It wasn't the sound of an ordinary collision. It was the sound of total annihilation. Half a million dollars' worth of high-end machinery was crushed into a sardine can in a fraction of a second. Oliver’s prized Rolls Royce Phantom crumpled at the roof. The windshield disintegrated into thousands of lethal shards. The suspension shrieked as it snapped, and the tires blew out in unison, forcing the chassis to kiss the asphalt with a bone-jarring thud. Amidst the swirling dust and the steam escaping the shattered radiator, a figure stood atop the wreckage. The vampire was nearly eight feet tall. He bore no resemblance to the chiseled, brooding vampires of teen cinema. His skin was the ashen gray of a headstone, and his muscles coiled around his frame like tensed steel cables. His face was a bat-like nightmare, featuring an upturned, flat snout and a maw filled with fangs that dripped thick, viscous saliva. His membranous wings folded against his back, lett
Chapter 09. The Price of Memory
The tip of the silver bolt shimmered coldly in the fading moonlight, hovering less than two inches from Oliver’s left eye. He could see his own reflection in the polished metal, a face scorched, bloodied, and utterly exhausted. "I’m going to ask you one more time," the woman’s voice said. She sounded flat and emotionless, like a schoolteacher reprimanding a naughty student who had brought a grenade to class. "You are human, yet your aura reeks of Purgatory. And you just tried to immolate a Feral Vampire using a gas pipe. That is either the tactic of a madman or someone very desperate." Oliver tried to swallow, but his throat was raw and parched from the scalding smoke. "I... cough... I prefer the term visionary," Oliver rasped. He attempted to shift his body away from the bolt, but the agony radiating through his frame pinned him to the pavement. "And please, Miss Robin Hood. If you're going to shoot, just shoot. Don't just point it. It’s making me cross-eyed." Cla
Chapter 10. The Kennel
The journey to Claire’s hideout passed in an awkward silence, filled only by the hum of the Jeep’s tires against the asphalt and the classic rock filtering through the radio. Oliver leaned his head against the cold window, watching the Nevada desert landscape on the outskirts of the city. They had left the glitter of the Strip far behind. Out here, Vegas was nothing but an expanse of dust, cacti, and ancient, slumbering gas stations. "Where are we going?" Oliver finally asked, breaking the quiet. "Are you going to dump my body in the desert?" "If I wanted to dump you, I would have done it in the alley," Claire replied without looking at him. Her eyes remained fixed on the dusty road. "We’re going to a safe house. I call it The Kennel." "The Kennel? Charming name," Oliver remarked dryly. "What are the facilities like? Is there a jacuzzi? A minibar?" "There’s a musty folding cot and a supply of expired canned food," Claire answered flatly. "And walls lined with p