​I stopped walking, a heavy lump forming in my throat. I had spent the last decade of my life obsessed with profit margins, quarterly reports and hostile takeovers. I had built a financial empire. But nothing...absolutely nothing had ever felt like this. Watching a starving child taste a hot, nutritious meal for the first time, knowing that I was the reason they were smiling... it shifted something fundamental deep inside my chest.​"Boss," Shan said softly standing beside me. He was watching the same child. "This is... I mean, I’ve managed charity drives before. We wrote checks. But seeing this... It’s different."​"It is," I agreed quietly. Midnight trotted up to my side, rubbing his head affectionately against my shin.​I turned to Shan, the corporate gears in my mind finally clicking into perfect alignment. The vision I had been searching for since I woke up in this human body was suddenly crystal clear.​"Shan, pull up the files on the Eastern Sector Green Expansion Project," I

"Are you absolutely certain the perimeter grid is fully automated, Shan?" I asked raising my voice slightly to be heard over the idle whine of the transport jet's massive engines.​"Triple redundant, Boss," Shan tapped his tablet with confidence as he stood near the boarding ramp. "The defense turrets are online, the water filtration system is running at maximum capacity and the interim council has been sworn in. We are leaving them with enough supplies to last the winter and the second wave of engineers will arrive next Monday."​I nodded slowly.​We were standing at the edge of the newly paved airstrip, looking back at the valley. It didn't look like a slum anymore. The smell of death had been entirely scrubbed from the air.​But it wasn't the buildings that made me stop. It was the people.​Thousands of them had gathered at the edge of the tarmac. They stood in respectful rows. They had come to say goodbye.​"I still can't believe they named it Allure," I murmured watching the cr

"Unlock the door, Shan," my voice cut through the silence of the underground corridor.​"He's been throwing tantrums all morning, Boss," Shan's fingers flied across the biometric keypad mounted on the wall. "Screaming about his lawyers, demanding a phone call. Our boys didn't engage. Just let him tire himself out."​The door groaned, its hydraulic locks disengaged with a hiss. ​Inside, Arsh was bound tightly to a bolted steel chair. Synthetic straps secured his wrists and ankles keeping him entirely immobilized in his generic gray jumpsuit. On either side of him two of my largest private security operatives, Marcus and Jaxon stood with their rifles resting casually against their chests.​Midnight trotted into the room right beside my leg. He stopped a few feet away from the chair, sitting back on his haunches to observe the prisoner with a look of extreme feline judgment.​"We meet again," I smirked, stepping fully into the light.​Arsh’s head snapped up.​For ten seconds, he looke

The door of my study clicked shut as Shan hurriedly backed out.​The second the brass latch locked into place, the gravity in the room completely inverted.​"Meowwwwwww...!"​The air spun ripped the breath right out of my lungs. The luxurious penthouse study dissolved into an eternal light blinding us. Midnight and I were literally circulating in the air in a zero-gravity centrifuge. ​Zilu... your system sucks, Midnight’s telepathic voice groaned in my head. He was pinwheeling through the void right next to my head, all four of his paws splayed out in an attempt to find a floor that simply didn't exist.​"Hahahahaha... I know, right?!" I laughed out loud. The roaring wind of dimensional transit teared the words from my mouth.​It was terrifying but beneath the fear an ancient thrill resonated in my chest. I need to survive this nightmare. I need the System's rewards. Only by pushing through these brutal localized hellscapes could I gather the strength to find the other shattered pie

The creature lunged.​I rolled hard to the right.​SMASH.​"Move!" ​I scrambled to my feet. I held my combat knife out in front of me. It felt like holding a toothpick against a bulldozer.​"Zilu! Stab him in the eye! Or better yet, run!" Midnight yowled in my mind. He jumped onto a high wooden shelf. His fur was standing straight up.​"I can't run! The back door is locked!" I yelled back.​The monster slowly turned its head toward me. ​"Aris! Stop!"I snapped my head to the side.​Maya stepped right out of the shadows. She dropped her heavy crowbar. It clattered uselessly onto the floor. She held her empty hands up in the air. Tears streamed down her face.​"Maya, get back!" I roared. "Are you crazy?!"​She didn't look at me. She kept walking toward the eight-foot-tall nightmare.​"Aris, it's me," Maya choked out. Her voice was shaking. "It's Maya. You know me. We were going to leave the city together. Remember?"​The monster stopped. Its red eyes twitched. It tilted its ruined hea