2025-11-26 21:22:40I walked into Jade's dojo at 5:58 PM, holding a roll of athletic tape. My arms still remembered yesterday's pad work, and now they were filing restraining orders.
Jade was already on the mats, wrapping her hands. She looked tired. Not physically, because she could probably run a marathon backward while juggling chainsaws. But her eyes had that distant, weighted thing that comes from too many hospital waiting rooms and not enough sleep.
"You're early," she said.
"I'm on time. You're just chronically punctual." I dropped my bag by the wall and started stretching.
Across the room, Marcus was teaching a class of six guys who all looked like they bench-pressed trucks for cardio. He hadn't noticed me yet. Small blessings.
Jade checked her phone for the fourth time in two minutes. "Danny's nurse says they moved his next round up again. Three days instead of two weeks."
My stomach dropped. "Three days?"
"Yeah." She locked the screen and shoved the phone in her pocket. "So we don’t have two weeks to get fifty grand. We need it in seventy-two hours."
"That's..." I did the math. Failed. Gave up. "A lot per hour."
"It's impossible."
Mira's voice whispered in my head. "You committed to this, rookie."
"Shut up," I muttered.
"I didn't say anything," Jade said.
"Not you. The... my inner voice. It's mean."
She almost smiled.
Then Marcus spotted me.
"Well, well," he called out, loud enough for the entire gym to hear. "If it isn't Evan the Charity Case."
His class turned to look. Great. Audience participation.
Marcus strolled over, arms crossed, biceps doing their usual intimidation routine. "I saw your little funding request online, Cross. 'Help Save Danny Kwon.' Very touching. Really tugs the heartstrings."
"Thanks," I said flatly. "We accept donations in cash or credit card."
"So you're monetizing pity now?" He grinned at his students like he'd just landed a killer punchline. "What's next? 'Click Here to Save a Kwon'? You selling T-shirts?"
A couple of his guys chuckled. One of them muttered something about e-begging.
Jade's jaw tightened, but she didn't say anything. Just kept wrapping her hands in slow loops.
A notification blinked in my peripheral vision.
[Micro-Quest: Clap Back Publicly]
Reward: +1 PRC
Marcus was still going. "What's the target? Fifty grand? That's cute. I make that in a month."
"Cool," I said. "Maybe you could donate some instead of using it all on protein powder."
His smile flickered. One of his students coughed into his fist.
I should have stopped there, but my stupid mouth kept going.
"Besides," I said, "if people are willing to pay to watch your form, they'll definitely pay for Danny. He at least can become useful to society."
The gym laughed. Even the receptionist at the front desk snorted.
Marcus's face went red. Jade's went blank.
[PRC +1]
[RSN with Jade –1: Questioning motives]
Oh no.
Oh no.
Jade turned and walked to the equipment rack without a word. Grabbed two focus mitts and shoved them at me.
"Put these on," she said quietly.
"Jade—"
"Put. Them. On."
I put them on.
She took her stance, and the first punch came fast and hard. I caught it on the mitt, barely. The impact jolted through my forearms like I'd just blocked a car.
"Again," she said.
Another punch. Then another. Left, right, left, right, faster and harder each time. My arms screamed. My shoulders burned. I was pretty sure my skeleton was filing for divorce from my muscles.
"Jade, I'm—"
"Don't." Punch. "Talk." Punch. "Hold." Punch.
Between rounds, when I was doubled over trying to remember how breathing worked, Jade's phone buzzed on the bench.
She checked it. Her whole posture changed, shoulders dropping and jaw loosening.
"They're admitting him tonight," she said. "Infection risk is too high. They want to start prep for the emergency treatment cycle."
"Jade—"
"We need the money by Friday." She looked at me, and for the first time since I'd met her, she looked small. "Evan, we need fifty thousand dollars in three days."
I wanted to say something smart and reassuring that wasn't complete bullshit. "We'll figure it out."
"How?"
"I don't know yet. But we will."
She stared at me for a long moment. "Don't use Danny to score points against assholes like Marcus."
"I know. I'm sorry. That was—"
"It was shitty," she said.
[Micro-Quest Complete: Lesson Learned]
[RSN with Jade: Repair in progress]
I nodded. "I know. I'm sorry."
She picked up the mitts again. "Good. Now hold these before I decide to use your face instead."
***
By the time we finished, my arms were jelly and my shirt was 90% sweat. Jade looked calm again, or at least back to her default level of controlled intensity.
I checked my phone while she packed up.
The funding page had $847.
Three days to raise fifty grand.
I was so screwed.
"Hey," Jade said. "Thanks for coming. And for... trying."
"I'm making more calls tonight. Rico said he'd spread the word to his food truck network. And I texted that comic shop guy—"
"Evan."
I looked up.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "For real."
[RSN +1]
[Jade Kwon — Combat Path]
[Resonance (RSN): 12 → 13]
Before I could respond, my phone buzzed with a notification from the funding page.
New comment: [CLICK HERE FOR A FREE IPHONE GIVEAWAY 🎁🎉]
I frowned. "That's weird."
Another buzz.
[CONGRATULATIONS YOU WON $$$]
And another.
[NIGERIAN PRINCE NEEDS YOUR HELP]
"What the hell?" I scrolled through the comment section. It was flooded with spam, dozens of bot accounts posting scam links, burying the real comments.
Mira's voice chimed in. "Anomaly detected."
"Can you track it?"
"I'm an AI guide, not a digital forensics team. You need actual help for this."
"From who?"
My phone buzzed again. Unknown number.
Unknown: [Your donation page has a leak. You want it patched or do you prefer bleeding money?]
I stared at the message.
"Who's that?" Jade asked.
"I... think it's my neighbor."
Unknown: [This is Clara. 6B. You moved my packages. Now I'm removing your spam problem. You in?]
"Debug-quest unlocked," Mira said cheerfully. "Congrats, rookie."
I typed back: [How bad is it?]
Clara: [Bad. Someone's targeting your page with bot traffic. If it gets flagged as spam, the funding platform might suspend the whole campaign.]
My stomach dropped. Again. It was becoming a habit.
Clara: [I can fix it. But I need remote access to your campaign dashboard and about two hours.]
I looked at Jade. "My tech neighbor says someone's sabotaging the fundraiser. She can fix it, but—"
"Do it," Jade said immediately. "Whatever it takes."
I texted Clara: [You're hired. What do you need?]
Clara: [You and your credentials. Mostly the credentials.]
Me: [Sending now. And thank you.]
Clara: [Don't thank me yet. If I find whoever's doing this, I'm billing them for my time.]
I sent her the campaign credentials and shoved my phone in my pocket.
"What now?" Jade asked.
"Now?" I grabbed my bag and headed for the door. "Now I go home and watch a semi-stranger work while I stress-eat instant ramen and pray we don't end up on the news for fraud."
"Sounds like a plan."
"It's a terrible plan."
"All your plans are terrible," she said. "But they're better than nothing."
I paused at the door. "Jade?"
"Yeah?"
"We're going to save your brother."
She didn't answer right away. Just looked at me with those sharp, tired eyes.
"You better not be lying," she said finally.
"I'm not."
[Quest Updated: Emergency Fundraising]
[Timer: 71 hours, 23 minutes]
[Current Progress: $847 / $50,000]
As I walked out into the cold night air, Marcus's voice echoed from the gym behind me.
"Good luck with your charity case, Cross!"
I just kept walking.
Mira's voice was soft in my head. "You know what's funny?"
"Enlighten me."
"That was the first time you walked away from him without freezing."
I stopped on the sidewalk, surprised.
She was right.
[Personal Growth Milestone: Confidence +1]
[PRC: 6 → 7]
I pulled out my phone and opened the group text with Rico, the comic shop guy, and two other delivery contacts.
Me: [Emergency meeting tomorrow morning. We're raising 50k in three days and I'm out of good ideas.]
My phone buzzed immediately. Clara.
Clara: [Found the source. You're going to want to see this. Come to 6B. Bring coffee. Not decaf.]
I stared at her door number on my phone screen.
Time to find out if my Tech Path neighbor was as good as Mira seemed to think.
[Quest Unlocked: Debug the Disaster]
[New Objective: Meet Clara and identify the saboteur]
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Ch 53. Clara Puts God in a Spreadsheet
The coffee mug lay on its side by the leg of the couch, a slow brown tongue of Jade's terrible coffee crawling toward the rug.Nobody moved to clean it up. We were all still standing inside the word Leona."Okay," Clara said.Her voice had gone flat and far away.She opened a new spreadsheet."Clara," Jade said. "He just told us Leona Hart is in his head. The woman who cornered him at the gala. The one you said gives you a bad feeling.""I know.""So we're going to talk about that.""We are." Clara's fingers didn't stop typing. "Just not now. If I start with Leona right now, I'm going to say something I can't take back, and then the system will probably dock him for my feelings, knowing his luck." She finally looked up. "Let me do the part I can do. Then we do the part I can't."Jade held her stare for a second. Then she dropped onto the couch arm, jaw tight, and let her have it."Title," she said, typing. "Nexus Testing Sheet, version one.""You're versioning it," I said."There will
Ch 52. Consent Protocol
"Don't," Mira said in my ear, sharp. "You just lit up the Tech path. Switch now, and you bleed across the whole network."And here's the thing. Three days ago, I'd have listened. I'd have stalled, hedged, found a clever reason not to pay the price.But the whole point of tonight was that I was done paying with their trust to save my own comfort. So I paid with the stat instead. Module Slot One. Combat Path. Jade Kwon.[Module Activated: Iron Will (Enhanced) — Jade Kwon][RSN destabilization: minor. Network straining.]The world got slower, meaner, and clearer. Jade threw a jab.Two months ago, it would've removed a tooth.I caught it. Slipped, turned, pinned the wrist, and pressed her shoulder to the wall. We froze like that. Her fist in my palm. Her eyes very, very close to mine."Huh," she said."You hit me anyway. A little." My ear was ringing where it had grazed. "For the record.""Growth check. You passed." She didn't pull back. "Do it again."She threw three more. Faster. I caug
Ch 51. My System Is Not a Dating App
Jade's apartment smelled like liniment, cold coffee, and sweat. My hands were still half-wrapped. My ribs had opinions. My shirt was stuck to my back in a pattern I would describe as defeat.We'd done pads at ten. We'd done pads hard because Jade had read the words I need to tell you something last night and decided the correct response was to remove my will to lie through cardio.It worked, mostly. I was too tired to be clever, which for me is basically being naked.Clara was already there when we finished, cross-legged on the pullout couch, laptop balanced on one knee, holding a mug of Jade's terrible coffee she had no intention of drinking. She'd come straight from the hospital. She had the look she got after good news, as if the universe were setting up a punchline."Danny did four push-ups today," she said, not glancing up. "Four.""One more than yesterday," Jade said, dropping onto the arm of the couch, and for half a second pride crossed her face before she stamped it flat."Fo
Ch 50. Not Alone
A/N: Unfortunately, I messed up some chapter numbering, and this chapter should have been chapter 40, but I skipped it due to the numbering issue. I'm sorry, guys. It doesn't change anything plot-relevant, but it is a Clara scene that's important (Clara bond quest ends) and also spicy. Enjoy!Derek was locked up.I kept repeating that fact in my head like a mantra. Derek Vance. In custody. Behind bars. Not standing outside Clara's window. Not sending threatening texts. Not existing in any way that mattered to us.It was late. Almost midnight. The police station had taken forever, and now we were back at the building, standing in the hallway outside our units.Everyone looked like they'd been through a blender set to emotional exhaustion setting.Clara's shoulders were slumped in a way I'd never seen before. Not defeated. Just... tired. Like she'd been holding herself upright for weeks and finally had permission to slouch.Jade was still in combat mode, jaw tight, eyes scanning the hal
Ch 49. New Objective
I picked at a thread on the couch cushion. The questions were stacking up faster than I could sort them, but one had elbowed its way to the front and refused to leave."The other users," I said. "Are they... dangerous?""Some of them.""Cool. Love that. Very casual.""You've been building your Links on sincerity, Evan. That's why your network's stable." Her expression shifted, just slightly, into something I'd almost call pride if I weren't busy panicking. "Not everyone does it that way. Some of them hack the system. Force connections. Fake the sincerity subtly enough won’t register.""They can DO that?""They do do that.""And they get modules too.""They get modules. Some of them have more Links than you. Some have been in the system a lot longer." She let that land. "Which means, yes, right now, on paper, you're behind."There it was. The thing I'd been waiting my whole life for someone to officially confirm. You're behind. Felt like home, honestly."You're behind in quantity," Mir
Ch 48. Fully Rendered
I was on my couch in boxers and a T-shirt that said WORLD'S OKAYEST, scrolling my phone with the laser focus of a man avoiding every thought he'd had in the last six hours.Leona's office. Leona's window. Leona's everything. The elevator with the jazz. The version of me in the polished steel doors that had looked, for once, like he knew what he’s doing.I'd come home, decided I wasn't ready to be a person yet, and poured cereal into a bowl that may or may not have been clean.Spoon. Phone. Cereal. The holy trinity of not processing your feelings.Then the hair on my arms stood up, that ozone-and-licked-battery tang creeping in, and I knew that feeling. I did not love that feeling.[TRUE NEXUS EVOLUTION: STAGE 1 — INITIATED]"Oh, come ON," I said, to no one, with cereal in my mouth.The light in the room bent. That's the only way I can describe it. Like someone grabbed reality and squeezed, and a column of pale blue light poured up out of the middle of my living room rug, the one with
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