2026-06-25 17:21:15Red light.
It pulsed in Dane’s face like a warning. Like a countdown to execution. [ADORATION: 12/100] [WARNING: DELETION IN 7 DAYS 04:12:33] “Nice,” he muttered. The word tasted like ash. Two by two meters. That was his universe. Block D, Sector 9. Paint peeled off the walls in dirty flakes. The AC had been a corpse for three months. Hot air stuck to his skin, thick and stale. The only light came from the floating stream screen, hanging in the air like a ghost. It showed him back to himself. Hollow eyes. Black bags under them. A smirk carved crooked on his lips. The smirk he wore when he was about to break. Viewer count: 8. Three bots. Five people who clicked by accident. Perfect audience for a dead man. Seven days. That’s all I have. Seven days before they wipe me. “Good evening, losers,” Dane said to the camera. His voice scraped. Seventy-two hours without sleep did that. “Tonight I’m gonna tell you why you should hate me.” The chat exploded. @StarQueen5: die already Dane @NeoFlex: 1 star. you’re trash @GarbageBoy: system should delete you @AdoredFanGirl: I hate your face Every insult hit. Every word was a knife. DING. The Adoration panel in the corner of his vision flashed red. 11/100. Dane didn’t flinch. He’d been bleeding points for seven days straight. That was the game in Neo-Jakarta, year 2045. Money was dead. Adoration was king. Social score. Likes. Followers. The higher your score, the more you lived. Five-star citizens rode levitation trains and lived in sky towers. One-star citizens like him rotted in Block D, eating synthetic porridge, waiting for eviction on the 1st of every month. And at 0… they deleted you. Not death. Worse. Erasure. ID invalid. Bank account frozen. Doors wouldn’t open for you. Hospitals wouldn’t take you. You became a ghost with a heartbeat, invisible to the system that ran the world. Deadline: 7 days. But that wasn’t the worst part. Ting. An emergency notification cut through the air. Not from Adoration. From Mira. Her face flickered onto a small hologram. Sixteen years old. Too thin. Lips pale like she hadn’t seen sunlight in weeks. Behind her, white hospital walls. Sterile. Cold. “Kak,” her voice shook. “I got rejected.” Dane didn’t ask what. He already knew. That morning, Mira had collapsed at school. Neo-Care Hospital. The only one in Sector 9 that still took patients below score 30. The doctor’s words rang in Dane’s head: Kidney failure. Surgery. Three days. Or she dies. Cost: 10,000 credits. Dane’s balance: 217 credits. “Dane, my score is 25,” Mira whispered. Her voice cracked on the last word. “They said below 30 isn’t priority. Sorry, Dane. For troubling you.” The hologram died. Silence swallowed the room. Only the broken fan clicked, tick, tick, tick. Dane stared at the dead screen. His hands trembled. Not from fear. From rage. I have to raise my score. Or make the score meaningless. He pulled up the Adoration dashboard. 11/100. If he went offline for more than 2 hours, the system flagged him as “evading” and deleted him automatically. So he had to stream 24/7. Had to shove his face in front of millions who wanted him gone. That was the rule. Stay visible, or cease to exist. Ironic. Dane hit the livestream button again. The red light blinked back to life. “I’m back,” he said. “And I’m done lying.” He dragged in a breath. This was suicide. Social suicide. But Mira didn’t have time for safe plays. “My sister. Mira. Sixteen. Score 25. The hospital rejected her because she’s not worth enough.” His throat tightened. “She needs surgery in three days or she dies. I have 200 credits. I need 10,000. Please” He never finished. The chat detonated again. @StarQueen: SCRIPTED @NeoFlex: 1-star drama queen @GarbageBoy: begging for sympathy? pathetic @AdoredFanGirl: 1 star. poor baby DING. Adoration: 9. Dane laughed. It wasn’t humor. It was something sharp and broken. “Yeah, I know,” he told the camera. “I’m 1-star. I’m trash. I’m” Ting. Not red. Green. Only he could see it. A notification that didn’t belong to the Adoration system. [BAD REVIEW SYSTEM ACTIVE] [+1 EXP: Hateful Comment Detected] [+3 EXP: 1-Star Rating Received] [Total EXP: 10 / 100 --> Level 1] Dane froze. “What?” A transparent panel materialized in his vision. Like a game interface bleeding into reality. [BAD REVIEW SYSTEM] Level: 1 Hate EXP: 10/100 Skill: - Note: The more you’re hated, the stronger you get. Warning: Genuine love will burn your power. Hated… stronger? It made no sense. But the numbers didn’t lie. Every insult was EXP. Every 1-star rating was fuel. He tested it. “You’re all hypocrite trash,” he spat at the camera. BOOM. [+5 EXP: Insult Detected] [Total EXP: 15/100] Adoration dropped to 8. Bad Review System climbed to 15. Pain shot through his chest. But under the pain… power. A spark. Weak, but real. “So that’s it,” Dane whispered. A grin pulled at his lips. “The more they hate me, the stronger I get.” He didn’t get to think longer. Mira’s hologram blinked again. A voice note. Three seconds. “Kak, thank you for trying. You’re the best, Kak.” Ting. Ting. Ting. The Bad Review panel flashed red. Alarms screamed. [WARNING: GENUINE AFFECTION DETECTED] [SOURCE: Mira Mercer] [EFFECT: -50% POWER] Agony ripped through Dane’s chest like someone had grabbed his heart and squeezed. His knees buckled. Vision blurred at the edges. “What...” [TOTAL LOSS: -50%] Level 1. Gone. Back to zero. Dane collapsed to his knees. The floor was cold against his palms. “Damn it,” he growled. “Damn it, damn it!” Mira loved him. Genuinely. Selflessly. And that love was poison to this system. It drained him. Weakened him. Block her, or watch her die. Choose. Dane looked at the stream. Twenty-three people still watched. Waiting for tears. Waiting for him to beg. He wouldn’t give them that satisfaction. His hand shook as he opened his contacts. Found Mira’s name. Hovered over “Block”. Sorry, Mir. He pressed it. A tear slipped down his cheek. He wiped it away fast. Then he turned back to the camera. His voice was flat. Dead. “From now on,” Dane said, “I’m going to be the most hated person in this city.” The chat went nuclear. @StarQueen5: you’re insane @NeoFlex: 1 star 1 star 1 star @GarbageBoy: die DING. DING. DING. [+3 EXP] [+3 EXP] [+3 EXP] [Total EXP: 24/100 --> Level 1] Strength flooded back into his limbs. His spine straightened. The weakness vanished. Dane laughed. This time it was real. Light. Free. “See?” he said. “This is what power feels like.” --- The next three days were hell for Dane. Heaven for the Bad Review System. He uploaded his first real video. Hidden footage of the Neo-Care Hospital director taking bribes from a 5-star influencer. The caption was simple: “If you have a heart, hate me now.” It went viral. #DeleteDane trended across Neo-Jakarta in six hours. Memes. Hate threads. Death threats. Millions of people unified by one goal: destroy the 1-star named Dane. Adoration: 5/100. Bad Review System: Level 8. New Skill Unlocked: [Sarcastic Retort Level1 – Counter-insult +20% damage] There was a side effect. Neo-Care Hospital’s Adoration score dragged down with him. Viral hate had splash damage. Management panicked. Twelve hours after the video dropped, Mira got a new notification. “Surgery scheduled. Free of charge. For hospital image improvement.” Mira lived. Dane didn’t celebrate. That night, when her message came in. “Dane, thank you. I’m alive because of you." The red warning panel lit up again. He blocked her on every platform before the power drain could hit. No more weakness. No more love. Not until she was safe. --- Day 7. Adoration: 3/100. Deadline: 2 hours. Bad Review System: Level 10. Tier 2 skills unlocked. Dane went live one last time from his dying room. Viewer count: 3.4 million. The entire city was watching the most hated man alive. “If I die tomorrow,” he said to the camera, “remember this. I died because you hated me. And I don’t regret a single second of it.” He ended the stream. Ting. [REPUTATION POLICE: TARGET ACQUIRED] [CRIME: INCITING MASS DISDAIN] [THREAT LEVEL: YELLOW] Boom. Boom. Boom. “OPEN UP! REPUTATION POLICE!” Dane glanced at the window. Two drones hovered outside. Red searchlights swept across the peeling walls. He smiled. Bad Review System: Level 10 – Ready! Time to run ... Glass shattered. Cold air hit his face as he dove through the window and into the dark alley of Block D. Behind him, sirens wailed. Ahead, a city full of people who wanted him deleted waited in the dark.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
28. THE BLOOD TRAIL
The sun had just risen when Dane’s group left Beta’s post.The air was still cold. Thin fog hung between the trees. Behind them, twenty villagers from Ciranjang lay on the ground. The chips on their foreheads were dead. Their breathing was slow, but they were alive. Sera said they would wake up in a few hours, with no memory of the last three days.“Ten more,” said Dane as he walked. His voice was hoarse.“Ten more,” Mira repeated beside him. She carried a bag that held a map, supplies, and the remaining grenades.They had direction now. Sera had updated the map after pulling data from Beta’s post. The next Backup, Gamma, was under Black Lake. One hundred twenty meters deep. Two days’ travel away.But two days felt long if Beta had already sent a signal.---*Day One*They walked all day without incident. The forest grew denser. The trail disappeared more and more. Only Sera knew the direction because of her signal compass.“We have to be careful,” Sera said that afternoon. “Gamma is
27. LEVEL 9 ARRIVES
Ciranjang Village felt like a graveyard that hadn’t been buried yet.Wooden houses stood, but their doors were open. Pots on the stoves still had embers in them. Clothes hung on lines, but no one was wearing them. Only the wind passed through, carrying the smell of rotten wood and something else — the smell of old iron, the smell of electricity.*“LEVEL 9 IS COMING.”*That writing was still on the field ground, scratched with charcoal. The letters were big, rough, as if written by someone in a hurry or in panic.“This isn’t the villagers’ writing,” said Rara as she crouched down, touching the charcoal marks. “Look, the pressure isn’t even. Several hands wrote this.”“That means they were forced,” replied Sera, her face pale. “The Backup didn’t wait for us to arrive. It’s already started looking for the Host.”Dane stared toward the forest in the north. From here, the Southern Mountains were still visible, blue in the distance. Below those mountains, there were eleven more bunkers. And
26. THE WHISPERING MAP
Dane’s group had been walking for five full days out of Neo-Jakarta.Five days without a voice in his head. Five days sleeping on dirt and dry leaves. Five days eating dry rations—boiled sweet potatoes, salted fish, river water they boiled—and walking under a sun no longer watched by Adoration’s satellites. But every step felt heavier, not because of sore muscles or blistered feet, but because they knew: they were walking toward something that didn’t want to be found, and that something was moving toward them too.“According to Sera’s map,” Rara said, unfolding a paper that was already wrinkled and torn at the edges, “the first backup is under the Southern Mountains. An old bunker owned by Adoration’s research division. About eighty meters deep.”“Eighty meters?” Jax grumbled, wiping sweat from his forehead. “What do we use to get down? Rope? Prayer? Or do we just jump and hope we land right on the crystal core?”“With this,” Sera answered, pulling a small tool from her canvas bag. It
25. A PEACE THAT MAKES NOISE
Three months had passed since the dust of Core Assistant 3.0 scattered across the depths of Central City.Three months without a voice in their heads. Three months without numbers floating above people’s heads. Three months where Neo-Jakarta relearned how to live without being rated, without being monitored, without being sorted by stars and Levels.And for the first time in Dane’s life, three months felt… peaceful. A strange peace. A peace that sometimes made his chest tight because he wasn’t used to it._An Ordinary Morning_Dane didn’t wake up because of a notification. Not because of a voice in his head ordering efficiency. But because of the smell of tea brewed by Mira on the ground floor of Sector 1 City Hall.The tea always smelled the same since they were kids. The smell of dried tea leaves stored in an old biscuit tin, mixed with a little palm sugar if there was any.“Your tea,” said Mira as she handed him the cup. Steam rose, condensing in the morning air. “No sugar. Like al
24. Signal From the City
The signal came every midnight.At first, only Dane noticed it. Not because he could hear it, but because he could feel it. There was an itch at his temple, like tiny needles tapping against the bone of his skull. Right at 00:00, for three seconds, then gone.“Host 01,” Dane muttered on the third day. “You’re still calling me.”He sat on the roof of City Hall, staring at a starless sky. Central City was west, dark and silent since they’d destroyed the system’s heart. But now, something from there was calling him home._The First Week After the Server Went Down_Neo-Jakarta was trying to be a normal city.Vendors started opening stalls without fear of being judged. Kids flew kites above the rubble. Mira started remembering small things: Dane’s face when he was angry, the smell of the tea they always drank in the morning, the winding way home to Sector 9.But she didn’t remember everything yet. And Dane didn’t push.“You don’t have to rush,” Dane said one afternoon as they sat by the ri
23. STARTING FROM ZERO
Twenty‑four hours is a very long time when you have to introduce yourself all over again to your own younger sister.Dane sat on the floor inside Sector 1 City Hall, his back pressed against the cold wall. Across from him, Mira prepared tea with stiff, awkward movements. Every now and then she glanced at him, as if trying to recall where she had ever seen his face before.“You said your name is Dane?” Mira asked.“That’s right,” Dane answered. His voice was rough and hoarse from staying silent for too long.“And… do we know each other?”Dane swallowed hard. “We are family.”Mira fell silent. The spoon in her hand stopped stirring. “Family?”“My younger sister,” Dane said softly. “Your name is Mira. You love sweet tea, yet you always say you don’t like sugar. You used to be afraid of the dark, so I would sit right outside your bedroom door until you fell asleep.”Mira stared at him for a long moment. Then she shook her head slowly. “I don’t remember any of that.”Dane nodded. He had ex
You may also like
The understated miraculous Doctor.
Pen thinker 102.7K viewsUnderestimated Son In Law
Raishico310.3K viewsDrakon of the Seven Armies
Maddy Taurus556.7K viewsTrillionaire they never noticed
Alfred ifeanyi76.7K viewsThe God Of The Rust District
Ali Mark149 viewsAfter Prison, I Became The Chairman Of Olympus
Selorm 131 viewsThe Loop Shop
Israel James231 viewsThe Man Called Failure
Vee Laine254 views