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 105- She Doesn’t Know Me
POV: JaredJared forgot how to breathe.Emma was standing three steps away from him.Alive.Not a projection flickering across a broken monitor. Not a figure made of golden light. Not a fragment of consciousness trapped inside the system. Not someone he had to chase through another reality or reach through a wall of memories.Just Emma.She stood beside the old computer with one hand resting against the edge of the desk, her dark hair falling loosely around her face. The glasses were the same. The slight crease between her eyebrows was the same. Even the way she tilted her head when she was trying to understand something was painfully familiar.There were no glowing threads beneath her skin.No strange distortion around her body.No system interface hovering in the air.Nothing separated her from the world.She was flesh and blood.Jared’s chest tightened so suddenly that he almost doubled over.“Emma.”Her name came out broken.He took a step toward her.Then another.He wanted to la
Chapter 104- The First Jared
POV: JaredThe screens came back one by one.Jared stood in the middle of the server room, unable to move.Every monitor showed him.Not the same him.Different ones.A boy with a missing front tooth.A teenager sitting alone in a classroom.A young man wearing a military uniform.An older Jared with silver in his hair.One version had blood running down the side of his face.Another was lying motionless on a hospital bed.Another was standing beside a woman Jared didn’t recognize.Another was holding a child.Another was laughing.Another was screaming.Some were dead.Some were clearly alive.Some looked like they had lived completely different lives.Jared walked closer to the screens.He saw one version of himself standing in a kitchen, barefoot, cooking breakfast.Another was sitting behind a desk in a company office.Another was running through a burning city.Another was wearing the same clothes Jared had worn during one of the loops.He remembered that one.He remembered dying
Chapter 103- The Man Behind The Glass
POV: JaredThe man stood behind the glass wall.Jared didn’t move.Neither did he.For a few seconds, the only sound in the room was the low hum of the servers.The emergency lights washed the man’s face in a dull white glow.He looked ordinary.That was the first thing Jared noticed.No glowing eyes.No strange markings.No unnatural movement.No golden light surrounding his body.Just a man.Older than Jared remembered him.Maybe in his late fifties.His hair was mostly gray, neatly cut. He wore a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. His hands rested loosely at his sides.He looked like someone Jared could have passed on the street without noticing.And somehow, that was worse.Jared knew that face.Not from one memory.From hundreds.Fragments.A voice speaking through broken speakers.A silhouette standing inside white corridors.A man appearing whenever the system reached a point Jared wasn’t supposed to survive.A man who always seemed to know what Jared had done be
Chapter 102- Run 37
POV: JaredJared was out of bed before the figure could take another step.“Emma?”The woman stood at the end of the hallway.She didn’t answer.Jared’s heart slammed against his ribs.Every part of him wanted to believe it was her.The face was right.The hair was right.Even the slight tilt of her head was familiar.But the eyes were wrong.Emma’s eyes had always moved when she thought. She looked away when she was uncomfortable. She narrowed them when she was trying to understand something. She rolled them when Jared said something stupid.This woman simply stared.Jared stepped into the hallway.“Who are you?”Nothing.He took another step.The figure turned.Then she walked away.“Wait.”Jared followed.His bare feet hit the floor hard as he moved through the hallway.He reached the corner.Nothing.The hallway was empty.Jared stopped.He checked the stairs.The living room.The kitchen.The front door.Locked.The back door.Locked.Nobody.He searched every room in the house.
Chapter 101- The Life That Never Happened
POV: JaredJared went home the next morning.He almost expected the world to resist him.It didn’t.The drive from the hospital was painfully ordinary.Cars moved through familiar streets. People crossed roads with shopping bags in their hands. A bus stopped too close to a traffic light, and the driver leaned on the horn when the car behind him refused to move.Nothing was burning.Nothing was collapsing.There were no infected people wandering through the streets.No alarms.No strange lights in the sky.No invisible pressure pressing against Jared’s skull.The city simply existed.And somehow, that frightened him more than the apocalypse ever had.He stared through the passenger window as Elena drove.Three days ago, he had been standing beneath a tree in a world that should not have existed.Three days ago, he had watched Emma become something larger than one body.Three days ago, he had made the hardest decision of his life.Now there were traffic jams.Now there were advertisemen
Chapter 100- After She Let Go
POV: JaredJared woke to the sound of a machine beeping.Once.Twice.Again.It was annoyingly ordinary.For several seconds, he didn’t open his eyes.He waited.There was always something waiting for him when he woke.A voice.A warning.A command.A strange pressure behind his eyes.Sometimes there had been pain.Sometimes there had been light.Sometimes he had opened his eyes in places that should not have existed.He waited for the familiar sensation to arrive.Nothing did.Jared frowned.He opened his eyes.A white ceiling stared back at him.A fluorescent light buzzed above his head.There was a curtain beside the bed. Pale blue. Slightly wrinkled.An IV line ran into the back of his hand.He stared at it.Then at the monitor.Then at his other hand.Nothing.No golden light beneath his skin.No faint lines moving under his veins.No threads stretching beyond the room.He swallowed.The air felt different.Not cleaner.Not safer.Just…Empty.Jared slowly pushed himself upright.
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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...️