Leon had been busy organizing the shelves of his thriving gadget store, the one the system hadbguided him to create. It was no ordinary shop. it brimmed with futuristic designs, high-tech gadgets, and the latest must haves for tech enthusiasts. His employees moved with purpose, attending to curious customers who wandered into the sleek, modern space.
Leon kept a low profile, blending into the background as the owner. He had no intention of drawing attention to himself. Not yet. The chime of the door startled him from his thoughts. He looked up, his chest tightening when he recognized the two figures who stepped inside. Sophia, his ex-wife, and Ethan, the man who had been the bane of his existence. Sophia’s heels clicked against the polished floor as she entered, her eyes scanning the store with interest. “Wow,” she said, glancing around. “This place is stunning. It’s so... trendy. Exactly the kind of shop I’d expect to see in the city.” Ethan smirked, his arm looped casually around Sophia’s waist. “Not bad for a place in this town. Let’s grab something. You’ve been wanting a new tech toy, haven’t you?” Sophia nodded, her gaze flitting over the displays. “Of course. You know I always have to keep up with what’s in.” Leon Carter turned away, pretending to inspect a set of high-tech ear buds on the shelf. His heart thudded as their voices grew closer. “Look at this one,” Sophia said, pointing to a sleek gadget displayed on a pedestal. “It’s so cute! I could totally use this for my morning workouts." Ethan chuckled. “Cute? Babe, you don’t buy tech because it’s cute. You buy it because it’s expensive and makes you look important.” Leon bit back a laugh as he listened. They hadn’t changed. Not one bit. As they wandered the store, Sophia’s eyes fell on Leon. She tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. “Wait a second... do I know you?” Leon turned, giving her a brief glance before looking back at the shelf. “Just browsing,” he said simply. Sophia’s brow furrowed, and then her lips curled into a sneer. “Oh. My. God. Ethan, look who it is. It’s Leon.” Ethan burst into a mocking laughter. “Seriously? What are you doing here, Leon? Stocking shelves? Do you need some spare change?” Sophia giggled, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “What a surprise. The mighty Leon, working in a retail tech shop. I always knew you’d end up like this.” Leon didn’t reply. He simply continued adjusting the display, his movements calm and deliberate. “Hey, don’t ignore us,” Ethan taunted. “What’s the matter? Too ashamed to admit you’re a failure? Sophia rolled her eyes dramatically. “Honestly, this is embarrassing. Why are we even talking to him? He might try to make us feel bad for him. Let’s just call security. Who knows? He might try to steal something.” Ethan snickered. “Good idea. Hey! Security, We got an intruder here!” A guard appeared, his face stern as he approached Leon. “You,” the guard barked. “This isn’t a hangout spot. Leave before I make you.” Leon raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue. He nodded and began walking toward the exit. But the guard wasn’t satisfied. He grabbed Leon by the arm, shoving him toward the door with unnecessary force. The guard was employed by Leon's manager. He didn't know that Leon is his boss. “Don’t come back unless you’re buying something,” the guard snarled as he pushed Leon outside. Sophia and Ethan stood near the entrance, watching the scene unfold with smug satisfaction. As Leon stood outside, brushing himself off, Sophia called out, “Wait! I forgot something.” She reached into her purse, pulling out the wedding ring Leon had once given her. With a mocking smile, she tossed it at his feet. “Here,” she said. “You can have it back. I don’t need it anymore.” Leon didn’t flinch. He simply watched as the ring hit the ground with a soft clink. “Let’s go,” Sophia said, turning to Ethan. She grabbed his hand, and as they walked away, she pulled him close and kissed him, throwing a final dagger into Leon’s heart. Leon stood silently, watching as they disappeared down the street. A passing customer glanced at him curiously, but he quickly straightened up, his expression calm. He wasn’t the same man they used to know. From the shop’s large display window, Leon watched the couple walk away, hand in hand, their laughter echoing in the street. A faint, knowing smile spread across his face. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” he muttered to himself. He turned back toward the shop, his gaze sharp and determined. The Winters family had no idea what was coming. Leon wasn’t done with them, not by a long shot. He would keep playing the part, biding his time until everything fell into place. With that Leon made to walk back to the shop but the security man stopped him. "hey, you don't fit in here, take your leave or I'll bundle you out". He ordered. Leon Carter was becoming furious, didn't his manager tell him whom his boss was before he got him employed to work for him. it was annoying and frustrating but still yet, he kept quite and watched him. Leon disliked the character he display, it made him realized, he prefer the rich over the poor even though him, himself was poor. Leon fired him a stare. He made a call, with that he left the premises as he headed towards his black spot sleek car. he wasn't going to tell him yet. He was going to humble him and make him beg for Mercy. Leon was unhappy not because of meeting his ex-wife Sophia and her rude boyfriend but because the security guard sided his enemy under his own property. He drove away quietly as he headed home.
Latest Chapter
Part 149
The Earth didn’t look different.The skies were still cracked gold above Aletheia. The towers still reached like ribs into the air. The city still pulsed, lived, breathed.But Leon Carter felt it the second he stepped off the Reclaimer.Something had changed.Something had stayed behind.Hope was waiting for them at the eastern gate. Her eyes were heavy, her voice quieter than usual.“There’s been… an incident.”Leon tensed. “What kind?”She hesitated. “Not Archive. Not system. Just… memory.”They followed her to the medical wing.There were three patients.All unconscious.All former users.And all of them had started speaking in their sleep.Not in fear.Not in pain.But in perfect Archive code.Mara scanned the readouts, frowning deeper with every line.“The neural echo signatures are clean. No implant activity. No direct interference.”Leon studied the first patient—an old tech-runner named Veyra who hadn’t logged into the system in over five years.Hope handed him a note. “She wr
Part 148
The city welcomed them in silence.No alarms. No system overrides. No fractured shadows bleeding through the air.Just quiet.Too quiet.Leon stepped out of the glider first, his boots touching the upper deck of Aletheia's citadel. The platform still bore scorch marks from the last surge of Archive interference, but the sky above was clear. Calm. Even the sun looked real.Hope followed, scanning the perimeter with wide eyes.“It's… peaceful.”Mara stepped out next, slower. “Too peaceful.”Leon nodded. “The thread’s gone. The Fracture Engine’s offline. But peace has never arrived without a cost.”He turned to Lyric.She smiled up at him—tired, but whole.And unaware.Of what she had sacrificed.He hadn’t told her.Not yet.Calia ran diagnostics from the main console. Every system came back green.No Archive intrusion.No thread interference.Reality held steady.Hope checked satellite uplinks.No unexpected signals.No fragment pulses.No data anomalies.The Archive was silent.Leon pa
Part 147
The terrain grew more distorted the farther west they traveled.Calia drove the land glider through forests that flickered between seasons, hills that echoed with children’s laughter—but had no children—and plains where time ran in loops. Every five minutes, the birds would fly backward, and the grass would rise instead of fall.By dusk, the land had stopped pretending to be real.They stood at the edge of a canyon that hadn’t existed two days ago.And in its heart was the impossible.A tower.Half-buried.Glowing faintly with red pulse light.Mara scanned the area.“This is it,” she said quietly.“The Fracture Engine.”Leon stared down the slope, memories rippling behind his eyes.This was where Kael first triggered the core—using temporal bifurcation to split their dying world into a thousand chances.“Only she was supposed to remember,” he said. “Not us. Not the system.”Hope tightened her gloves. “So how did the Archive find it?”Lyric answered.“It didn’t. I did.”They descended
Part 146
It started with a flicker.Not in the sky. Not in the systems.In her mind.Lyric sat on the edge of the observatory tower, feet swinging over the city lights, watching her fingers glow.One by one.First gold.Then blue.Then… a thread.Thin.Almost invisible.Stretching from her fingertips toward the stars.She called it the echo line—but she didn’t know what it was yet.All she knew was that it pulled.Leon stood below, in the command bay, watching the tower glow from within.Mara handed him a datapad.“The Archive’s changed.”Leon raised an eyebrow. “How bad?”“It’s not just remembering now. It’s projecting.”Calia joined them. “Projecting what?”Mara’s voice dropped.“Versions.”Leon went still.“You mean… people?”“Not just people. Realities. It’s trying to build timelines again. From fragments. From dreams. It’s starting to believe it’s the real world.”Leon leaned against the console.“Then we’re not living in truth anymore.”“No,” Mara said.“We’re living in the Archive’s dre
part 145
It started with a flicker.Not in the sky. Not in the systems.In her mind.Lyric sat on the edge of the observatory tower, feet swinging over the city lights, watching her fingers glow.One by one.First gold.Then blue.Then… a thread.Thin.Almost invisible.Stretching from her fingertips toward the stars.She called it the echo line—but she didn’t know what it was yet.All she knew was that it pulled.Leon stood below, in the command bay, watching the tower glow from within.Mara handed him a datapad.“The Archive’s changed.”Leon raised an eyebrow. “How bad?”“It’s not just remembering now. It’s projecting.”Calia joined them. “Projecting what?”Mara’s voice dropped.“Versions.”Leon went still.“You mean… people?”“Not just people. Realities. It’s trying to build timelines again. From fragments. From dreams. It’s starting to believe it’s the real world.”Leon leaned against the console.“Then we’re not living in truth anymore.”“No,” Mara said.“We’re living in the Archive’s dre
Part 144
The convergence field lay beyond the veil of what the Archive called memory.But it wasn’t memory.It was potential.The storm of what might have been.Leon stood at the edge of the hollow plain where the stars bent inward and time unraveled like thread. Lyric stood beside him, silent, her hand faintly glowing. They were dressed in grounding suits—stitched with neural dampeners, thought filters, and adaptive code anchors. Still, nothing could fully protect a person from what lay ahead.Mara’s voice echoed through the uplink.“Once you cross, there’s no map. Every step will draw you deeper into your own might-have-beens. Don’t follow them. Don’t become them.”Leon glanced at Lyric.She nodded. “I’m ready.”He wasn’t.But he stepped forward anyway.The air changed.Not colder. Not warmer.Just… untrue.It was like breathing fiction.Around them, silhouettes began to form.Not solid.Not shadows.Versions.Some were monstrous—Leon as a warlord, as a tyrant, as a god with cities burning b
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