2025-07-28 23:55:43Jared woke early.
Not because he wanted to, but because he knew what was coming.
He dressed in silence. The system screen hovered quietly in his mind, waiting. It wasn’t intrusive — more like a presence at the edge of thought. The auction countdown ticked in the background, hours shrinking by the minute.
He checked the funds on his phone: ₦420,000. Almost everything he had. No savings, no backup. Just enough to survive, barely enough to complete the mission.
His new wife still lay curled on the far side of the bed, her back to him, breathing even. Not a word since last night. Not even a glance.
He didn’t blame her, not anymore. That had been the trap last time — caring too much about people who didn’t care at all.
He slipped on his jacket and left the room.
Downstairs, the Bai family was already gathered for breakfast in the hotel dining lounge. White tablecloths, fresh fruit, clinking cutlery — all for show. Jared stepped in quietly.
The moment he did, conversation stopped.
Bai Cheng, the patriarch, looked up from his cup of coffee. His expression was carved from stone — disappointment already sitting on his face like it lived there rent-free.
“Jared,” he said without smiling. “You actually showed up.”
“I live here,” Jared replied calmly. “For now.”
One of the cousins snorted into his juice.
Bai Cheng ignored the comment. “Since you’re here, let’s not waste time. I have something you can do for me.”
Here it comes.
“In the warehouse district, there’s a supplier we use. They’re late with a shipment. Go check it out. Take a cab — and don’t come back until it’s resolved. Understood?”
Jared met his gaze evenly. “Sure. Before I go, I’ll need an advance. Three thousand.”
The entire table went silent.
Bai Cheng set down his coffee slowly. “Three thousand? For what?”
Jared smiled faintly. “Transportation. Lunch. Maybe a down payment on my dignity.”
The silence cracked — a bark of laughter from one of the uncles. But Bai Cheng didn’t flinch.
“You want me to hand cash to the Bai family’s son-in-law for a simple errand? Are you out of your mind?”
“No,” Jared said. “Just done playing games.”
“You’ll get nothing from me,” Bai Cheng said coldly. “If you can’t afford a taxi, walk. Maybe it’ll teach you some respect.”
Jared stood without another word.
Before, he would’ve swallowed it. He would’ve smiled, nodded, begged to be accepted. Not this time.
“Thanks for the breakfast,” he said. “Even if I wasn’t invited.”
He turned to leave, but just as he reached the door, another voice cut through the room.
“Wait.”
Elena.
She stood at the entrance, hair wet from the shower, wrapped in a crisp blazer, perfectly put together. Her eyes met his, unreadable.
“I’ll give him the money,” she said, taking out her purse. “Consider it a wedding gift.”
Jared blinked. That hadn’t happened in the last life.
Bai Cheng looked annoyed. “You’d waste your allowance on him?”
“It’s not a waste if it gets him out of the house.”
She handed Jared the cash — ₦3000 exactly — without emotion. Like passing a receipt. Their fingers brushed. She didn’t look at him.
He took the money, pocketed it.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Don’t thank me,” she said. “Just don’t come back empty-handed.”
She didn’t mean the warehouse.
He knew that.
—
By noon, Jared stood outside a rusted office in the outer district. The sky hung low and gray. His shoes were soaked. Mud clung to the edges of his trousers.
But in his pocket was a receipt.
Purchased: 520 square meters of rural land on the outskirts of the city.
The seller hadn’t even asked questions. No one wanted land out there — too far, too empty, too useless.
Jared had smiled and handed over the money.
[Mission complete.]
[+1,000 system points earned.]
[Inventory tab unlocked.]
A jolt ran through him. Not physical — something deeper.
In his mind’s eye, a new screen flicked open.
[Inventory: 0 items stored]
[System Shop: Locked]
[Next Mission available in 6 hours.]
It was real. All of it.
He turned toward the plot he’d just bought — a flat stretch of grass and dry trees behind a crumbling factory. It looked like nothing.
But in three weeks, when the world fell apart, it would be everything.
He took a deep breath and whispered to himself, “Let them keep calling me trash.”
He glanced back toward the city skyline.
“When this world burns, I’ll be the only one with a map.”
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Chapter 85- What the World Is Becoming
POV: JaredI go farther than I ever meant to.It starts small. A longer walk. One more hill. A place I used to avoid because there was nothing there and nothing is dangerous when you are used to things breaking.But the nothing is gone now.There are paths.Not carved. Not forced. They curve the way feet prefer to move, the way water would choose if it had legs. I follow one and realize I am not deciding where to step. The ground already knows.I pass a frame of something that might become a shelter. Three walls leaning into each other, patient. No tool marks. No signs of hands. Just intention, paused mid-thought.I touch the surface. It is warm. Alive in that quiet way stone sometimes is when it remembers heat.There are people.Not echoes. Not visitors who vanish when you look too closely.People with packs and stories and tired eyes that have learned how to hope without making noise about it. They move carefully, like the world might change its mind if they rush.When they see me,
Chapter 84- Proof of Life
POV: JaredThe visitor returns on a morning that feels undecided.Not stormy. Not kind. The sort of morning that could become anything if pushed hard enough.They do not come alone this time.There are two of them now, standing where the ground still remembers Emma’s footsteps. One waits farther back, respectful or wary, I cannot tell. The other holds a narrow case against their chest. Not sealed. Not dramatic. Just carried like something that has already been opened too many times.I do not ask why they are here.I think part of me has been expecting this since the footprint by the river.They kneel. Open the case. Push it toward me.“There’s no point bringing images,” the visitor says. Their voice is softer than before, like they learned something since last we spoke. “Those can lie without knowing they’re lying.”Inside the case are three things.They are arranged without ceremony. No labels. No explanation. Just objects, trusting me to recognize the truth on my own.The first is a
Chapter 83- The Day the Journal Changes
POV: JaredI notice the journal first.Not because I am looking for it. It has learned how to find me on its own. It sits where it always does, near the window, catching the part of the morning light that feels undecided. I pick it up the way I always do, careful, familiar, like my hands remember rules my head did not make.I read the same page as yesterday. I am sure of that. I even remember where I stopped, the way her handwriting slanted when she got tired, the tiny pause before the sentence broke off.That is why my eyes trip.There is a line that does not belong.Not a new page. Not an ending. Something threaded in, quiet and precise, as if it had always been waiting for space.The ink is darker. The letters are steadier. Cleaner than the rest, like her hand did not hesitate even once.I read it again. Slower.I remember more when I’m farther away.The room feels smaller for a second. Or maybe I do.I flip back a page. Then forward. I check the margins, the binding, the spine, li
Chapter 82- Staying Still Means Trusting
POV: JaredTime does not pass the way I expected it to.It does not rush at me. It does not circle back to hurt me on purpose. It moves like the river does when no one is watching. Forward, uneven, sometimes quiet enough that I forget it is working at all.The first days are the hardest. Not because of pain. Because of habit.I keep turning to speak to her. I keep saving thoughts like spare coins, planning to hand them to her later. When I realize there is no later yet, my chest tightens, then loosens. Over and over. Like a muscle learning a new job.I do not break.That surprises me.Instead, I learn the shape of loneliness without panic. I learn that missing someone does not mean I am losing them. It just means there is space now, and space can be lived in.I talk. Out loud.At first it feels foolish, then it feels necessary.I tell the tree by the river about my dreams. The ones where the world glitches and she laughs like it is nothing. The river gets updates too. I explain my day
Chapter 81- The Goodbye That Isn’t One
POV: JaredEmma did not disappear.That was the lie I had been preparing myself for. Light. Noise. Some dramatic tearing of space that would give my grief something sharp to hook onto.Instead, she packed slowly.Not with bags. With pauses.She touched things like she was checking they were still real. The edge of the table. The wall where the shelter leaned a little to the left. The river stone she liked because it fit perfectly in her palm. She left it where it was.I stood a few steps away and did not help. Not because I did not want to. Because helping would have meant participating in the leaving, and I was not ready to be that honest.When she was done, she walked.No announcement. No speech. Just forward, toward the place where the air thinned and the world felt less certain. The visitor waited farther ahead, out of respect or strategy. I did not care which.The grass bent under her feet. Then sprang back up.Every instinct in me screamed to follow.I had chased her across coll
Chapter 80- Emma Chooses Something New
POV: JaredShe did not say it like a sacrifice.That was the first thing that scared me.Emma said it while folding her sleeves, like she was preparing to wash her hands. Calm. Thought through. Already lived with the idea long enough that it had softened around the edges.“There’s a third option,” she said.I waited for the catch. There was always one.She would go with the visitor. Not forever. Not to save everything. Just one breach. One place that was still tearing itself apart. She would help them stabilize it, show them how to listen instead of forcing fixes, teach them how to let broken systems breathe.Then she would come back.No vows attached. No guarantees smuggled into the sentence.Just intention.I opened my mouth and nothing came out.I wanted to argue. I had the words ready. I had them memorized. I could list risks and probabilities and timelines like scripture. I could tell her how fragile this world still was, how fragile she was, how every separation felt like tempti
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Reader Comments
Wow is the world really ending
Knowing what’s gonna happen next, it’s a golden opportunity, Loving this...️