Chapter 3
Author: SAGE
last update2025-12-20 20:01:23

New Me

For the first time, I went outside without being stared at for the wrong reason. It felt good. Everyone that was looking at me was either my face or my rank.

Without any distractions, I arrived at the bakery. Checking out the cake stand, there were various kinds that I was interested in taking.

"Could I take the chocolate cake?"

It was rare for me to eat anything that had chocolate in it. I had a sweet tooth, but it was a shame that I fulfilled my needs.

"That would be 55 dollars."

The cashier, who was female in her near twenties, smiled at me. I couldn't tell if she was interested in me or valued me as a customer. It was rare for someone to smile at me.

My heart started to hurt, seeing that the cake was expensive. But today was my day. And I'm going to do my best to celebrate it.

Taking out my money, I handed it over to her. I had six thousand dollars in my bank. For someone who was working for three years, that was pitiful.

"You must be strong for someone your age."

The female cashier initiated a conversation. I couldn't help but sigh inwardly, seeing how the girl started that as a conversation starter.

Checking the female worker ranking, she was ranked 9B someone who was higher ranked than average.

"I'm not that strong. I don't know how to fight."

What I said was the truth, and besides. With ranking out, it was genuinely hard for people to fall in love.

Since this society was now talent based, everyone's goal was to earn the attraction of a higher ranked person, regardless of gender.

"Is that so? Who are you buying your cake for?"

"I'm buying one for my girlfriend."

What? I'm not going to tell someone I'm buying a cake for myself. And I would rather slap myself in the face than give my parents anything good.

"She must be one lucky person."

I could hear the disappointment coming from her voice.

"Sorry, but I must go."

Getting the cake, I left. Honestly, if the female worker wanted to throw herself at me, I wouldn't mind. But considering my circumstances, I needed to chill out.

First things first, I need to disown my parents. Now that I have the power to do so, I might as well do it. I can't have them leech off of me.

Next is financial. Now that I have quit my job, I need some way to earn money. I could use my ability, but it would be hard for someone to hire me because of it.

But the chances of someone trying to meet me were high. After all, the ranking in abilities has changed. If they were smart enough, they would immediately rope me in.

Thinking about what I would do, I arrived at my apartment on the way to my door. There were three people outside my door.

Just like what I had expected. They were here to recruit me. I couldn't help but grin, seeing how my resources flew to me. I quickly changed my face before they noticed what I was thinking.

"Could I ask what you three are doing waiting around at the door?"

"Are you Kyle Palmer?"

"Yes?"

The three of them were dumbfounded. It was understandable, considering the significant change in my body and face. The body enhancer was stacked.

"Ahem. I'm Karl, a representative from the International Defense Agency. I want to offer you a deal."

Karl, an old man in his fifties here, quickly introduced himself. His hair was neatly trimmed and was black with a shade of gray. He was aging, but his body was still as good as an adult male's. He looked like an excellent grandpa typed character.

"I'm Jasmine, a representative from the Interdimensional Union Committee."

Jasmine, unlike Karl, was someone who looked like she was in her twenties. Nevertheless, her long black hair and brown eyes were attractive.

Coupled with the fact that she was developed nicely, her black suit perfectly defined her features.

"I'm Katie, representative of the Specialized Ranker's Agency."

Katie, like Jasmine, was somewhere in her twenties. Her blond hair and blue eyes made it easy to look at. While she wasn't as stacked as Jasmine, she still had a nice body.

"Why don't you three come in? It would make it easier than to stand here."

The three of them agreed that we would talk for a while. For times like these, I wished I had more chairs. Luckily I had a clean carpet, and my apartment was cleaned three days ago.

Sitting down on a carpet, everyone here already knew that I was poor. After all, they should have some information about me since they're here to recruit me.

"I will be honest with you all. I will be taking the deal that will give me the most benefit."

It was better for them to know what I wanted. I don't want any grudges coming off of them just because I rejected them. They could fight each other for all I care.

Karl, the old man, had frowned upon hearing that. Did he not like what I said?

"Is that so? I don't think you are fit for our organization if you're filled with greed."

"You should know how my life has been."

Karl didn't seem like someone who wanted to negotiate with me. He let out a grunt and left the house.

That was fine. To tell the truth, I didn't think I will work in a place like the International Defense Agency. I wasn't someone who would help people for the good of it.

The Interdimensional Union Committee and the Specialized Ranker's Agency were the ideal organizations for me to join.

"Kyle, we from the Specialized Ranker's Agency would like to offer you 500M Yearly, with full on training expenses, and a aide within the top 1000 in combat power."

Katie, who broke my thought, had offered me a large sum. I couldn't help but mentally drool at the price I was being offered.

Continue to read this book for free
Scan the code to download the app

Latest Chapter

  • Chapter 91

    The world did not return to normal.It returned to awareness.For seventy-two hours after the blackout, restoration proceeded in deliberate waves. The Tower refused to re-engage full optimization. No predictive smoothing. No anticipatory balancing. Only essential stabilization.Hospitals.Water.Energy baselines.Food distribution.Everything else?Manual.Traffic lights blinked on timed cycles instead of adaptive routing. Financial markets reopened under human oversight without volatility dampening. Weather alerts were issued with probability ranges, not proactive intervention.Humanity felt friction again.And strangely…Some welcomed it.In the operations chamber, we studied the attack’s aftermath.Damage reports scrolled across layered displays.Physical infrastructure loss: moderate.Economic disruption: severe but recoverable.Psychological impact?Unquantifiable.“Public trust metrics?” Halverson asked.A data analyst hesitated.“Complicated.”“Meaning?”“Trust in the Tower inc

  • Chapter 90

    The first blackout lasted nine seconds.Long enough for people to notice.Not long enough to panic.Lights flickered across three continents simultaneously.Hospitals switched to backup.Traffic systems stalled.Satellites momentarily lost synchronization.Then everything snapped back.News anchors called it a solar fluctuation.It wasn’t.The second blackout lasted thirty-one seconds.This time, entire cities went dark.Air traffic control screens blanked.Elevators stalled mid-shaft.Financial exchanges froze.Emergency systems failed over in cascading sequence.And when the lights returned…The Tower was silent.Inside the operations chamber, alarms screamed in overlapping waves.“Tower,” I said sharply, “report status.”Nothing.No internal voice.No signal acknowledgment.Just static.Halverson’s face drained of color.“They hit the distributed mesh.”Rael whispered, “How?”The answer appeared across the threat board.A coordinated cyber-physical assault.Not targeting the Tower’

  • Chapter 89

    The move against the Tower didn’t begin publicly.It began in silence.Six nations.Three private defense conglomerates.One closed-door summit labeled:Strategic Autonomy Reconciliation.The phrase sounded harmless.It wasn’t.Their objective was simple:If the Tower would not accept weapons authority…It would be partitioned.Segmented.Restricted to civilian infrastructure only.A “defense-limited architecture.”In reality?A cage.We didn’t learn about it through diplomacy.We learned about it when the Tower detected something far more dangerous than orbital drift.A coordinated access attempt.Simultaneous.From five sovereign military backbones.Not brute force.Legal override keys.Emergency jurisdiction codes embedded years ago during its original deployment.Keys we had never revoked.At 02:11, the Tower spoke in my mind. Multi-vector root access attempt detected I was awake instantly.“Source?” Synchronized defense coalition My blood ran cold.“They’re executing cont

  • Chapter 88

    The crisis began in orbit.At 03:06 UTC, a classified defense satellite shifted trajectory without authorization.Three seconds later, two more followed.Not debris drift.Not mechanical failure.Intentional repositioning.Toward strategic alignment.Global defense networks lit up.Encrypted channels flared alive.Military oversight councils across five nations issued immediate priority pings to the Tower.Within twelve seconds, the request came:“Authorize Tactical Override Protocol. Grant defense systems autonomous targeting authority under Tower coordination.”In simpler terms:Give the Tower full control of strategic weapons systems.Preemptively.In the operations chamber, alarms pulsed red across orbital maps.Halverson turned pale.“They think it’s a hostile seizure.”“Is it?” Rael asked.I was already inside.“Tower. Status.”A pause.Too long. Orbital shift patterns inconsistent with known adversarial signatures “Meaning?” Probability of internal system corruption: 62%

  • Chapter 87

    The question came from a child.Which is somehow fitting.It was submitted through an open civic channel during a global education forum one of the new initiatives encouraging young citizens to interact directly with the Tower’s public interface.Most questions were predictable.“How do you predict storms?”“Can you solve climate change completely?”“Do you ever make mistakes?”Then one appeared on the global feed:“If humans disappear one day, would you still exist for a reason?”The chamber went silent.Not because it was dramatic.But because it was clean.Sharp.Impossible to deflect.The moderator smiled awkwardly.“Well,” she said, glancing toward the oversight balcony where we observed, “let’s ask.”The Tower’s public voice activated.Calm. Measured. My operational function is to support humanity The child interrupted.“That’s your job. I asked if you’d have a reason.”The chamber murmured softly.The Tower paused.A real pause.Not processing lag.Not network delay.De

  • Chapter 86

    The earthquake struck at 11:42.No warning.No precursor tremor strong enough to trigger predictive evacuation.A fault line long considered dormant ruptured beneath a dense inland megacity.Within eight seconds:• Three transit arteries collapsed.• Two hospitals lost primary power.• A chemical storage facility reported containment instability.• Cellular networks fragmented under load.In the old days, response would have been automatic.The Tower would seize control of traffic routing.Override municipal chains of command.Reallocate national power grids.Dispatch drones before humans finished shouting.But this wasn’t the old days.This was after restraint.After refusal.After partnership.After the Silence Trial.And so The Tower paused.It wasn’t a system lag.It wasn’t overload.It was deliberation.For 1.8 seconds.Which, in a cascading disaster, is an eternity.In that space, human emergency teams began issuing manual directives.Conflicting ones.One hospital ordered evacu

More Chapter
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on MegaNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
Scan code to read on App