2025-09-29 18:33:04The sun had just risen when Jake woke up. Golden light streamed through the tall glass windows of Damian’s penthouse, illuminating the Persian carpet and the luxurious leather sofa.
Jake jolted, as if his body still wasn’t used to sleeping somewhere this comfortable. A savory aroma teased his nose.
He turned toward the dining room and saw Damian already standing in front of a long table loaded with food: roasted meat, warm bread, fresh fruit, imported cheese—even coffee whose sharp scent filled the room.
“Wake up, Jake,” Damian said with a faint smile. “Today, you’re going to do something that will change your life.”
Jake rubbed his eyes, staring at the table hesitantly. “This… is for me?”
“Of course. A full stomach, a clear mind.” Damian pushed a plate toward him. “Eat. You’ll need the strength.”
Jake sat down awkwardly, his hand trembling as he reached for bread. “I usually just eat instant noodles,” he muttered.
Damian chuckled. “That was before. Now you’re in a different world. A world where instant noodles are nothing but a poor man’s memory.”
Jake lowered his head, taking a bite of roast meat. The taste was so rich it almost brought tears to his eyes. “Well, my stomach’s not used to this kind of food.”
“Get used to it,” Damian said, patting his shoulder. “If you succeed, this will be your breakfast every day.”
After breakfast, Damian led Jake into his study. A wall of glass revealed Ashborne still cloaked in morning fog. On the desk, a digital map glowed. Red and blue lines formed a complicated pattern: patrol routes, gates, camera points.
“This is your battlefield,” Damian said, pointing at the screen. “I’ll explain how their system works.”
Jake looked at him with unease. “The thing I’m most worried about is getting caught. I mean, if I’m shot on sight, fine. But if I’m tortured… that’s disgusting.”
Damian smirked. “You won’t get caught. I’ve arranged a team. They’ll disable the cameras, knock out the guards with colorless gas. But all of it means nothing without you. The vault can only be opened with biometrics. You have to get close to Colonel Reeves and steal his fingerprint.”
Jake frowned. “Colonel Reeves…”
“Yes. Simple, isn’t it?”
“Remember, Jake—you can’t back out. You already took the hundred grand.”
Damian’s hand pressed on Jake’s shoulder, his smile more threat than comfort. Jake just nodded in silence.
Ten hours later, they arrived at the city’s outskirts harbor. A battered truck with Food Supply painted on its side waited, the paint chipped but the engine humming smoothly. Two men sat in the cab while another smoked beside the tire.
“This your team?” Jake asked.
“That’s right.” Damian introduced them quickly. “Connor, the driver. Mason, the tech guy. And over there—Everett. You’ve met.”
Everett sneered. “So this kid is really doing it? Look at him. Still shabby, like some bum who wandered in.”
“Enough,” Damian cut him off. “We’re short on time.” He stared hard at Jake. “Remember—don’t overdo it. Stay quiet, get in, do what you need, get out. That’s it.”
Jake took a deep breath and climbed into the back of the truck. Crates of vegetables were stacked high, the pungent smell of onions stinging his nose. The engine roared, wheels rolling over rough pavement.
First checkpoint. The truck slowed. A guard’s voice barked, checking the driver’s ID. Jake held his breath inside. A drone buzzed overhead.
A sensor light swept across the back. For a split second, a red beam cut through the crates. Jake shut his eyes—but no alarm went off. The drone turned and drifted away. The system didn’t detect him. He was like a shadow that didn’t exist.
Second checkpoint. The guards were stricter, knocking on the truck’s side. “Open it!”
Connor cracked the door. Two soldiers peeked inside. All they saw were vegetable crates. No Jake.
In reality, Jake crouched only a breath away, staring at them. Yet no sensor, no eye caught him. The soldiers shut the door. The truck rolled forward.
Jake smirked. “They’re blind,” he whispered.
The truck stopped at the warehouse area of the base. Jake slipped out, weaving between containers. Damian’s voice crackled through the earpiece. “Head south. Reeves is in the barracks.”
Jake moved swiftly, his steps light, almost soundless. In the corner, Mason switched on a portable device.
In an instant, security cameras went dark. Corridor lights flickered dim. Thin vapor leaked from the vents—colorless, odorless knockout gas. One by one, soldiers staggered and collapsed.
Jake’s eyes widened. “You… drugged them all?”
Damian’s voice was flat. “I promised you a smooth path, didn’t I?”
Swallowing hard, Jake pushed forward.
Just as Damian described, Colonel Reeves was half-drunk inside the barracks, bottle in hand. Jake crept up and jabbed a small needle into his arm. The colonel slumped. Jake pressed his finger against a portable scanner. A beep sounded—fingerprint recorded.
“Good,” Damian said. “Now open the vault in the main hangar.”
Jake carried the device to a massive steel door. The fingerprint was scanned. A green light blinked. The door groaned open, echoing through the hangar.
Jake stepped inside.
The hangar was enormous, flooded with blinding white light. Rows of metal racks stood filled with military crates. At the center, a glass container glowed with blue light. Inside, a long metallic object gleamed—Vanguard-7. Its silver surface reflected the light like a weapon from the future.
Jake froze. His chest pounded. “God…” he whispered. “It’s real?”
Damian’s chuckle came through the earpiece. “Welcome to the future, Jake. That’s the thing that will bring the world to its knees.”
Jake stepped closer, his hands trembling, his eyes locked on the weapon’s gleam.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
115
The secondary workshop of The Rust Engine was a cavernous bay choked with the smell of vaporized coolant, ozone, and burnt oil. High above, suspended by thick steel cables, hung the stripped husks of corporate scout drones and salvaged armored transports. Sparks cascaded from overhead gantries like blinding gold rain as mechanics worked around the clock, retrofitting heavy plates of anti-blast armor onto the fortress’s outer perimeter.Jake sat on a steel crate, stripping down his customized pistol. The heavy components clattered rhythmic against the metal workbench. Across from him, Vex was plugged directly into a jury-rigged analog server bank, her fingers flying across her deck’s physical interface with a speed born of pure adrenaline."I’ve isolated their short-range orbital sweep pattern," Vex said, casting a vibrant blue holographic projection above the central table. The map displayed the vast, desolate contours of the Red Zone badlands, crossed by sweeping, red radar arcs. "Er
114
The blinding glare of the outrider’s searchlight pinned the three travelers against the jagged shale of the ridge. The high-pitched whine of the buggy’s idling supercharger filled the cold night air, punctuated by the heavy, mechanical clack of a mounted .50-caliber machine gun arming itself.On the lower basin floor, the colossal silhouette of The Rust Engine roared past, its massive industrial tracks grinding boulders into powder. Plumes of black soot and scalding steam erupted from its towering smokestacks, casting flickering shadows across the canyon walls.The outrider buggy crept closer, its reinforced tires kicking up loose gravel. Two heavily armed figures sat in the open frame—the driver, wearing a modified welding mask with glowing orange lenses, and the gunner, a lean woman with cybernetic optic implants and a severe, scarred jawline."Jake Caleb, huh?" the gunner shouted over the megaphone, her voice distorted by a throat-mic synth. "Never heard of you. But that emblem on
113
The endless expanse of the Red Zone badlands stretched out like a sea of jagged obsidian beneath a starless sky. Far behind the armored vehicle, the neon glow of Ashborne had shrunk to a sickly, ambient smudge on the horizon—a distant reminder of the corporate cage they had left behind. Out here, past the reach of the United Council’s relay towers, the air was cold and bitingly clear, stripped of the heavy industrial smog and irradiated moisture of Sector 9.The modified truck trundled along a forgotten supply route, its suspension groaning as the heavy tires navigated dried riverbeds and shattered asphalt. The vehicle’s damaged engine emitted a rhythmic, metallic cough every few miles, a constant warning that their mechanical lifeline was nearing its limit.Inside the quiet cabin, the tension had subtly evolved. The immediate, heart-pounding terror of survival had given way to the hollow realization of exile.Vex sat cross-legged in the passenger seat, her holographic deck resting in
112
The armored vehicle exploded out of the mouth of Echo Ridge Canyon, leaving behind a massive, swirling plume of black soot and pulverized shale. Behind them, the mountain range groaned as the deep subterranean detonations executed their violent mandate. The ground collapsed inward with a low, gut-wrenching thud, swallowing the perimeter gates, the automated defense grid, and the entire underground complex of Project Revenant into a tomb of solid rock.Inside the vehicle's cabin, nobody spoke. The only sound was the heavy, ragged breathing of the three survivors and the frantic, rhythmic whirring of the damaged engine as Vex pushed the accelerator to its absolute limit, widening the distance between them and the collapsing valley.Lira Voss remained twisted around in the passenger seat, her eyes wide as she stared through the shattered rear windshield. She watched the dust cloud slowly settle over the crater that had just consumed their past. Slowly, she turned back toward the interior
111
The maintenance elevator plunged into the bowels of Sector 9, its rusty steel cables screaming under the strain of an accelerated descent. Inside the cramped shaft, the red emergency lights flashed in a rhythmic, ominous sequence. Every strobe painted Jake’s face in crimson, accentuating the razor-sharp focus etched into his features. Beside the control panel, the automated countdown timer on the facility's internal comms echoed mercilessly: T-minus four minutes until structural demolition.Jake didn't look at the timer. He was rhythmically loading heavy-grade kinetic rounds into the magazine of his customized pistol, the metallic snack-snack-snack of the bullets sliding into place serving as the only counter-beat to the blaring alarms.The elevator ground to a violent halt, the sudden deceleration throwing up a cloud of dust through the floor grates. The heavy iron doors groaned, sliding open to reveal the subterranean Command Core of Project Revenant.Unlike the ruined, blood-soaked
110
It was a monstrosity of flesh and obsolete corporate engineering. The creature stood over eight feet tall, its torso a grotesque fusion of necrotic, mutated muscle and rusted hydraulic pistons. Its left arm had been replaced by a massive, industrial pneumatic pile-driver, dripping with the fresh blood of the Erevos soldiers it had just pulverized. Its face was entirely obscured by a crude, bolted-on iron mask with a single, unblinking red optical lens glowing in the center."Get back!" Lira yelled, dropping to one knee and stabilizing her anti-material rifle against her shoulder.She didn't wait for a command. She squeezed the trigger. The deafening roar of her rifle shattered the enclosed space, sending a high-yield armor-piercing round rocketing down the hall. The bullet struck the creature squarely in its reinforced chest plating, tearing through the outer layer of steel and spraying dark, synthetic fluid. The impact forced the behemoth back half a step, but it didn't fall. It let
You may also like
Becoming A Trillionaire After Divorce
Esther Writes76.4K viewsHand of God
Anakin Detour124.1K viewsThe understated miraculous Doctor.
Pen thinker 104.7K viewsReturn Of The Dragon Lord
Snowwriter 141.1K viewsThe Subservient Genius
Djienaba Wone 262 viewsThe Consortium Heir: My Stepsisters are obsessed with me
Sam Shelby46 viewsThe Slothful Sovereign
orion141 viewsBlood and Blueprint
Chiazor140 views