2026-03-02 23:42:47"Get away from him!" Silas shouted. "If the System has chosen him, we can't touch him. Not here. Not now."
The spectators began to whisper. The word 'Backed' spread through the room like a virus. They weren't looking at a rookie anymore. They were looking at a predator.
Evan didn't wait for them to change their minds. He turned and walked toward the elevator. The guard, who had shoved him only minutes ago, stepped back and hit the wall to stay out of his way.
Evan stepped into the metal box. He turned around to face the room.
Silas was still standing by the table. He looked old. Truly old. Without the House’s protection, he was just a man who had stolen too much time from others.
"See you around, Silas," Evan said.
The elevator doors hissed shut.
As the box descended, the blue light in Evan’s eyes pulsed one more time.
[MATCH COMPLETED]
[RANKING UPDATED][NEW STATUS: TIME-BACKED PLAYER (TIER 1)][MESSAGE: THE BANK HAS NOTICED YOUR TALENT. DO NOT WASTE IT.]
Evan leaned his head against the cold metal wall. He had won. He was alive. He had eighteen years on his wrist.
But he had forgotten his blue bicycle. He had forgotten the sound of his father's voice.
He realized then that the System wasn't saving him. It was just changing the way he was being consumed. In the old life, the House took his time with magnets and lies. In this new life, the System took his soul with logic and deals.
The elevator hit the ground floor.
The doors opened to the rookie pits. The smell of sweat and fear was still there. But as Evan walked out, the crowd parted. The low-level gamblers looked at his glowing wrist and looked away.
Evan walked through the lobby and out into the neon-soaked streets of the city. The rain was falling, but it didn't feel cold anymore. It felt like a challenge.
He looked at the towering buildings of the Time Bank. Somewhere up there, the people who owned the world were watching. They were the ones who decided who lived and who died. They were the ones who had turned life into a currency.
"I'm coming for all of it," Evan whispered to the rain.
Suddenly, his watch chirped. A new notification appeared. It wasn't from the System. It was a private message, sent from an encrypted source.
You think you won, the message read. But you just put a target on your back. Run, Evan Kennedy. The Enforcers aren't the only ones who hunt for time.
Evan looked up. On the roof of a building across the street, he saw a flicker of movement. A figure in a long, white coat was watching him. They weren't an Enforcer. They were something else.
The figure pointed a finger at him, then disappeared into the shadows.
Evan’s heart began to race again. He had more time than he had ever had in his life, but for the first time, he realized that having time made you a prize. And in this city, prizes were meant to be taken.
[NEW OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE THE NIGHT]
[PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: 34%]"Better than fifteen," Evan muttered.
He turned the corner and began to run.
Evan didn’t go back to his apartment. His apartment was a box in a gray building. It was a place for people with weeks, not years. Now that he had eighteen years, his apartment was a trap. The Time Bank would know exactly where he lived. The Enforcers would have his address on their tablets.
He ran through the narrow alleys of the Low Zone. The neon signs above him flickered in shades of pink and poisonous green.
"Hey! You!"
Evan skidded to a stop. Three men stepped out from behind a pile of rusted shipping containers. they were "Leeches"—bottom-feeders who hunted people with high balances. They didn't work for the Bank. They worked for themselves.
They wore dirty rags and had wires sticking out of their necks. Their leader was a man with a missing eye. His bio-watch was dark—he was down to his last few hours. He was desperate.
"I saw you coming out of the High Stakes tower, kid," the one-eyed man said. He pulled a jagged piece of metal from his belt. "You look heavy. You look like you’re carrying a lot of weight."
Evan looked at his wrist. He tried to hide the glow, but it was too bright.
"I don't want any trouble," Evan said.
"Then give us a year," the man said. He stepped closer. The other two moved to circle Evan. "Just one year. You won't even miss it. If you give it to us, we let you walk. If we have to take it... we take it all."
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Chapter 317
"He is not in the waiting pens," Evan said, pointing at the giant screen. "He is fighting next."Rell cursed loudly. "Orion owes a lot of money to the Syndicate bosses. He must have bet his own life to pay off his debt. If he loses this fight, he hits zero. The house takes his soul. We will lose our pilot.""Then we have to stop the fight," Evan said immediately. "We cannot stop the fight!" Marco argued. "Look around you, kid! There are two hundred heavily armed guards in this room! If we jump into the pit, they will shoot us instantly!""Marco is right," Glitch squeaked, hiding behind Evan’s leg. "We cannot fight a whole army."Evan stared at the glass pit. The first fight ended. The bleeding man fell to the floor. The crowd roared with laughter and applause. The heavy metal doors in the pit opened, and automated cleaning robots rolled out to drag the loser away and scrub the blood off the floor. "I am not going to jump into the pit," Evan said. His eyes narrowed. He watched the gl
Chapter 316
One of the massive guards stepped forward and blocked Evan’s path. "Private club," the guard rumbled. His voice was deep and robotic. "Show your Platinum membership, or step away from the doors."Evan did not step away. He looked the giant guard right in the black metal mask. Evan reached into the heavy leather bag. He pulled out one solid gold time-token. It was worth ten years of human life. Evan did not hand the coin to the guard. He simply tossed it onto the red carpet at the guard’s feet. "I do not need a membership," Evan said coldly. His voice carried the fierce, undeniable authority of a leader. "I am here to spend money. Pick that up and open the door."The rich people waiting in line gasped. Nobody threw gold on the ground. Nobody talked to the Colosseum guards like that. The guard looked down at the pure gold token shining on the red carpet. The guard slowly bent down and picked it up. He inspected the heavy coin. He nodded his massive head. He stepped aside and pushe
Chapter 315
The dark, wet alleys of Neon City felt like a giant maze. Evan Kennedy ran as fast as his tired legs could carry him. He held tightly to Glitch’s small hand. Marco ran behind them, holding his broken ribs, panting heavily. Rell led the way. The scavenger girl moved like a shadow, taking them through broken fences, down narrow stairs, and across old, rusted bridges. Behind them, the angry shouts of Vargas’s smugglers slowly faded away. The flash-bang grenades had worked. They had escaped the Rust Pit. Evan held a heavy leather bag in his right hand. The bag was filled with fifty solid gold time-tokens. In his left pocket, he felt the cold, smooth weight of the Black Key. It was the glowing black glass token that would open the door to Sector Zero. Finally, Rell stopped. She leaned against a dirty brick wall in a quiet, empty street. "We lost them," Rell gasped, wiping the cold rain from her forehead. "Vargas will look for us all night. But he will not find us here."Marco leaned
Chapter 314
Evan did not move his hands. "I have fifty gold tokens," Evan said, his voice dropping an octave. "And I bet my life."The crowd around the table gasped loudly.In the Rust Pit, betting your life was a blood oath. If you lost, you did not just go into debt. The winner owned your body. The winner owned your soul.Vargas stopped laughing. His eyes narrowed. He looked at Evan’s fierce, determined face. Vargas licked his lips greedily."Your life?" Vargas whispered. "I accept. Deal the cards."The dealer’s hands were shaking violently. He shuffled the deck.Evan fought the terrible pain in his skull. He slowed time for one final, agonizing second.He watched the dealer’s hands. He saw the scuff marks. He read the top four cards in the deck.Evan snapped back to normal time. He gasped, gripping the edge of the wooden table to keep from passing out. Blood poured freely from his no
Chapter 313
"Place your bets," the dealer said nervously. Vargas tossed a gold token into the center. The other men matched it. Evan pushed his single, free gold token into the center of the wooden table. The dealer handed out the cards. Two cards face down for Vargas. Two cards for Evan. Evan did not even look at his own cards. He did not need to. He had seen the dealer’s thumb slide over the top card. He had seen the tiny smudge of grease. He knew he had a Ten. He knew his second card was an Ace. He had exactly twenty-one. Perfect Blood-Jack. "I will stay," Evan said, leaving his cards face down on the table. Vargas laughed loudly. "You do not even look at your cards, boy? You are a fool."Vargas flipped his cards over. He had a King and a Nine. Nineteen. It was a very strong hand. "I stay," Vargas grinned, showing his silver metal teeth. "Beat nineteen, street rat."Evan slowly reached out. He flipped his two cards over. Ten of Clubs. Ace of Spades. Twenty-one. The men at the table ga
Chapter 312
The dealer, a thin, nervous man wearing a dirty white shirt, was shuffling a deck of real, physical paper cards. The sound of the cards snapping together was sharp and crisp.Marco stepped up to the empty chair across from Vargas. "Is this seat open, gentlemen?" Marco asked loudly. Vargas slowly looked up. His silver metal jaw glinted in the dim yellow light. He looked at Marco’s dirty clothes. He looked at Evan’s torn suit. He let out a harsh, metallic laugh. "This is a high-stakes table, old man," Vargas said. His voice was deep and terrifying. "We play Blood-Jack here. The minimum bet is one gold token. If you do not have gold, go back to the garbage bins outside."Marco did not flinch. He leaned his one good arm on the table. "My young boss here wants to play," Marco said, pointing his thumb at Evan. "We just arrived in the city. We heard Vargas was the only man brave enough to play real stakes. But maybe we were wrong. Maybe you only play with children."The other men at the
