2025-11-15 17:56:09Leon didn’t sleep after the system awakened.
How could he? That cold mechanical voice still echoed at the back of his mind, sharp as broken glass: [REBIRTH SYSTEM ACTIVATED.] His life had collapsed so brutally that something—not human—had chosen him as a “prime candidate.” And yet morning came like always, dragging him back into the world he still had to endure. The warehouse buzzed alive with forklifts, workers shouting, machinery rumbling. Leon stepped onto the floor with stiff legs and sore shoulders, head low, eyes heavy from a night without rest. He expected exhaustion. He didn’t expect to run straight into Mason Briggs. The supervisor stood near the timeclock, arms crossed, a grin already spreading across his face. Mason’s smile wasn’t friendly. It was the type that belonged to someone who loved watching things break. Especially people. “There he is,” Mason said loudly, drawing the attention of the nearby workers. “The stray dog reporting for duty.” A few workers chuckled. Others avoided looking at Leon entirely—fear or pity, neither mattered. He’d grown used to both. Leon kept walking. Mason stepped in front of him. “Not so fast.” He tapped Leon’s chest with two fingers. “We need to talk.” Leon’s jaw tightened, but he stopped. “About what?” Mason’s grin stretched wider. “Your future.” That word stung. Leon didn’t have a future—not by this world’s standards. Mason continued, lowering his voice but keeping it loud enough for others to hear, “I’ve been watching you… trying to fit in here. Trying to keep your job. Trying not to cry at night in that storage room.” Leon’s muscles stiffened. Mason noticed—and smiled deeper. “Yeah. You think I don’t know? Cameras are everywhere, Hale. Even in that filthy corner you sleep in. Management knows. HR knows.” He paused. “They’re just waiting for the right reason to kick you out.” Leon exhaled slowly through his nose. “If they want me gone, they can just say it.” “Where’s the fun in that?” Mason leaned closer. His voice dropped into a whisper Leon could feel more than hear. “Watching you struggle is better.” Leon clenched his teeth. “Why? What did I ever do to you?” Mason shrugged casually, as if the answer were obvious. “You exist.” Leon held his gaze. “That’s pathetic.” A dangerous glint flashed in Mason’s eyes. “Oh, you’re growing a spine now? Since when?” He stepped so close their shoulders nearly touched. “You think you matter? You think you can talk back to me?” Leon didn’t respond. His silence only fueled Mason further. The supervisor’s voice dipped lower—colder. “I like watching people like you fall apart. The privileged ones. The pretty boys who used to have everything. You all beg the same way in the end.” Leon’s hands balled into fists at his sides. Mason chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’ll give you something to beg about soon.” He leaned in again, breath hot with cruelty. “You’re getting fired, Hale. And I’ll make sure it happens before the end of the week.” Leon froze. A cold spike pierced his chest. “You don’t have that authority,” Leon said quietly. Mason’s grin widened. “No—but I know how to create mistakes. How to trigger warnings. How to make people like you look incompetent.” He took a step back. “Every crate you lift? Every form you sign? Every second you’re late from break? I’ll record all of it. I’ll twist all of it. And when I’m done—HR won’t just fire you.” He tapped Leon’s forehead. “They’ll blacklist you.” Leon felt something inside him tremble—not fear, not sadness, but a dangerous spark of rage he’d been burying under exhaustion. Mason wasn’t finished. “You know what the best part is?” he said, laughing. “I don’t even need a reason. Guys like you don’t last here. You’re weak. You’re fragile. You’re broken.” He spat the last word with satisfaction. A metallic chime suddenly echoed in Leon’s skull. [SYSTEM ALERT] Host emotional state: SURGE — anger, humiliation, containment. Recommendation: Do NOT engage physically. Host is in Survival Phase 1. New Mission Available: ENDURE THE THREAT. Mission…? The system’s voice faded, but the message lingered like frost. Leon inhaled deeply. Then he lifted his head and looked Mason in the eye—really looked at him—calmly, steadily, without flinching. This alone made Mason’s smile falter. Just slightly. “You done?” Leon asked, voice even. Controlled. Mason blinked, surprised. “What?” “I asked if you’re done,” Leon said again. “Because I have work to do.” The surrounding workers stiffened. Mason’s face darkened instantly. “You think you can talk to me like that?” Leon didn’t look away. “I think you’ve said enough.” For the first time since they met, Mason lost the smile. He stepped back, eyes narrowing. “Watch yourself, stray. One wrong move—just one—and you’re finished.” Leon walked past him without another word. Mason stood frozen for a moment, then shouted behind him, “This isn’t over, Hale! I’ll break you! You hear me?! YOU’RE DONE!” Leon didn’t slow down. He didn’t look back. But inside him, something had shifted. Mason thought he was breaking Leon. He didn’t know the truth: Leon Hale was already broken. Which meant there was nothing left Mason could destroy. But there was something new rising inside those shattered pieces. Something colder. Sharper. Stronger. The system whispered quietly in his mind: [Mission Accepted] [Survive Mason’s Threat — 48 Hours] Reward: Attribute Unlock] Leon exhaled slowly. Let Mason threaten him. Let the world crush him. It wouldn’t matter. He wasn’t alone anymore.
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Ch. 14 — The Emotional Threshold
The bridge was silent.Too silent.Leon sat hunched against the cold metal railing, his body drained, his eyes swollen from crying — something he never thought he’d do again. The night air stung his face, but he barely felt it.He was numb.Completely, utterly numb.But inside that numbness… something stirred.A tremble.A pulse.A vibration like the faint thrum of a distant machine warming up.He squeezed his eyes shut, gripping his head with both hands.“Stop…” he whispered. “Just stop…”His thoughts weren’t thoughts anymore.They were fragments.Shards.Pieces of a shattered self.Vanessa’s laughter.Mason’s insults.Eveline’s venom.Alexander’s eyes as he signed the disownment papers.The flash of cameras.The cold warehouse concrete.The river.The brokenness.The emptiness.Everything hit him at once — a tidal wave of years of pressure collapsing inward.His breathing sped up.His pulse raced.His fingers dug into his scalp so hard he felt the sting of nails against skin.“Stop…
Ch. 13 — A Night of Despair
The storm eased sometime after midnight, but the cold didn’t lift.It wrapped itself around Leon like a second skin as he dragged himself across the cracked pavement, still shaken by the strange flashes of light and sound that had echoed through his mind.Had he imagined it?Was it a hallucination from exhaustion?The rainwater dripping from his hair made it hard to think.Harder to breathe.He didn’t go back to the warehouse.He couldn’t—not yet.Instead, his feet carried him toward the old iron bridge crossing the river at the edge of the industrial district. A lonely place. Quiet. Forgotten. Like him.By the time he reached the midpoint, the storm had died completely, leaving only the hiss of wind over the dark water.Leon gripped the railing with both hands, knuckles white.The river below was black—so dark it swallowed the reflection of the city lights. The current moved slowly, like something alive, waiting.He stared down at it.For a long time… he didn’t move.---His shoulder
Ch. 12 — The Broken Man
tThe rain came down in sheets, turning the streets into rivers of cold water that splashed against Leon’s ankles as he walked.No umbrella.No jacket.No destination.Just pain.Just emptiness.Just the weight of another humiliating day.He limped slightly—the result of a fall earlier that afternoon. Mason had “accidentally” knocked a crate off a high shelf. Leon barely dodged it, but the second crate Mason shoved after it struck Leon’s shoulder, sending him crashing onto concrete.The bruise spread down his arm like a blackened spiderweb.The supervisor only smirked.“Try not to die on shift, Hale. Paperwork annoys me.”Leon hadn’t answered.What was the point?Now, hours later, the injury burned with every step, pulsing like a reminder of how far he had fallen.Thunder cracked overhead, but the storm was nothing compared to the one raging inside him.His breath fogged the air as he crossed under a flickering streetlamp. The yellow light illuminated the soaked bandage wrapped around
Ch. 11 — The Collapse Begins
The rain hadn’t stopped.By the time Leon returned to the warehouse, his uniform clung to him like a second skin, soaked through with cold and humiliation. The night shift lights buzzed overhead, casting long shadows across the empty loading bay.His steps felt heavier than they should.His chest tighter than it had ever been.He moved like a man carrying a mountain.---The storage room—his “home”—was dim and damp. A thin mattress lay in the corner, barely better than cardboard. Leon shut the door behind him and leaned his back against it, sliding down slowly until he was sitting on the floor.His body ached, but the real pain wasn’t physical.It pulsed from somewhere deeper… a place he didn’t know could hurt this much.He dropped the envelope—the final inheritance papers—onto the ground. It landed with a soft thud, like dirt hitting a coffin.Leon stared at it.“That’s it,” he breathed. “They’ve completely erased me.”His voice sounded foreign—even to himself.He had lived his whole
Ch. 10 — Eveline’s Final Knife
The warehouse break room smelled of old coffee and metal dust. Leon sat alone on a cracked plastic chair, his body still aching from the twelve-hour shift Mason had deliberately stretched just to “test his limits.” His palms were raw, his shoulders burning, his pride almost gone.Almost.He stared at his phone—one of the only things he had left that still worked since his accounts were frozen. A single message notification blinked.From: Family Attorney – UrgentHis pulse kicked hard.He opened the message.> “Leon, you need to come in. There has been a final decision regarding the Hale inheritance.”A cold weight sank into his stomach.Final decision.Something told him it wasn’t going to be in his favor.---Thirty minutes later, Leon stood outside the glass-paneled office of Mr. Whitford, the Hale family attorney. Rain drizzled down his hair, soaking through his cheap uniform. He didn’t bother wiping it off.Inside, Mr. Whitford looked uneasy—almost guilty.“Leon,” he said, rising
CHAPTER. 9 — Mason’s Threat
Leon didn’t sleep after the system awakened.How could he?That cold mechanical voice still echoed at the back of his mind, sharp as broken glass:[REBIRTH SYSTEM ACTIVATED.]His life had collapsed so brutally that something—not human—had chosen him as a “prime candidate.”And yet morning came like always, dragging him back into the world he still had to endure.The warehouse buzzed alive with forklifts, workers shouting, machinery rumbling. Leon stepped onto the floor with stiff legs and sore shoulders, head low, eyes heavy from a night without rest. He expected exhaustion.He didn’t expect to run straight into Mason Briggs.The supervisor stood near the timeclock, arms crossed, a grin already spreading across his face. Mason’s smile wasn’t friendly. It was the type that belonged to someone who loved watching things break.Especially people.“There he is,” Mason said loudly, drawing the attention of the nearby workers. “The stray dog reporting for duty.”A few workers chuckled. Other
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