2026-01-23 23:37:02The ballroom smelled like fear. Not metaphorical fear. Real fear, sharp, metallic, crawling into the lungs. Paramedics rushed in, voices overlapping. “Clear the area!”
“Pulse is weak!”
“Move!”
Hawthorne’s body lay on the marble floor, suit rumpled, dignity erased. Moments ago, he had been untouchable. Now, people stepped around him like inconvenient furniture.
Cameras didn’t stop recording. They never did. Sophie stood frozen, phone slipping from her fingers. “Uncle…” she whispered. “Wake up.”
No response. Derrick didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t kneel this time. The system pulsed gently, like a satisfied heartbeat. ''Ascension state stabilized.''
Luna was already gone. That fact hurt more than the screaming. Agent Mercer pushed through the crowd, eyes locking onto Derrick instantly. “Wallance,” she said sharply. “Don’t move.”
Derrick looked at her. For the first time, she flinched. “Am I under arrest?” Derrick asked calmly.
Mercer hesitated. “You were involved in”
“In a man kneeling?” Derrick interrupted. “Or in him dying from a heart attack?”
Murmurs spread. “Heart attack?”
“Did he kill him?”
Sophie rounded on Derrick, eyes wild. “You did this!”
Derrick tilted his head. “Did I touch him?”
“You humiliated him!” she screamed. “You destroyed him in front of everyone!”
The system chimed softly. ''Humiliation acknowledged as non-lethal influence.''
Mercer frowned. “What did you just say?”
Derrick smiled faintly. “Nothing you can charge me with.”
She clenched her jaw. “You think this ends here?”
“No,” Derrick replied. “I think this begins now.”
The screens flickered. Every screen. Phones, tablets, wall displays. A blue interface overrode them all. Gasps filled the room. “GLOBAL BROADCAST AUTHORIZATION GRANTED.”
Mercer spun. “Who did that?!”
Derrick stared at the interface. “System,” he said internally. “What are you doing?”
''Reputation consolidation phase initiated.''
The screen shifted. A title appeared. DERRICK WALLANCE, PROFILE SUMMARY
The crowd went silent. “This is illegal,” Mercer said.
The system continued anyway. “Subject history loading.”
Images appeared. Derrick delivering groceries. Derrick working night shifts. Derrick kneeling in Hawthorne’s office. Laughter began again, nervous, cruel. “So he really was nothing.”
“A joke with money.”
Then, The feed changed. Hospital footage. A timestamp. A nurse arguing with a clerk. “We can’t proceed without authorization.”
The authorization denial flashed. Then Hawthorne’s override. Then the cancellation. Then a flatline monitor. The ballroom went dead silent.
A woman whispered, “They let him die.”
The system’s voice echoed. “CAUSE OF FIRST LOSS CONFIRMED.”
Sophie shook her head violently. “No. This isn’t”
Another screen appeared. SYSTEM SELECTION LOG
CANDIDATE POOL: 47,219, QUALIFICATION FILTER: EXTREME HUMILIATION + IRREVERSIBLE LOSS
People stared. “Candidate… pool?”
“What is this?”
Mercer whispered, “Oh my God…”
The system continued. “HOST WAS NOT CHOSEN AT RANDOM.”
Derrick’s heart pounded. “What do you mean?” he asked internally.
The system didn’t answer him. It answered everyone. “HOST WAS OBSERVED FOR 7 YEARS.”
Gasps erupted. Seven years. That meant, Before Sophie. Before Hawthorne. Before the accident. The screen shifted again.
A younger Derrick, standing outside a factory, A blue interface flickering briefly in front of him. Then disappearing. “FIRST CONTACT ATTEMPT FAILED.”
Derrick’s breath caught. He remembered. He had thought it was exhaustion. Hallucination. “Why?” Derrick whispered.
The system displayed the answer. REJECTION REASON: EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TOO STRONG
The image froze on one frame. Derrick smiling. An arm around a younger boy. His brother. The room erupted. “So they waited?”
“They needed him broken.”
Luna’s words echoed in Derrick’s mind. You’re not human anymore.
Sophie collapsed into a chair. “You’re saying… this thing waited until my uncle”
“UNTIL HOST WAS EMPTY.”
Mercer snapped, “Shut it down!”
She reached for her device. It sparked. Dead. Every device in the room followed. The system spoke again. “PUBLIC HUMILIATION ACHIEVES MAXIMUM COMPLIANCE.”
A man shouted, “Turn it off!”
Another screamed, “This is evil!”
Derrick stepped forward. “Stop,” he said.
The system paused. Everyone looked at him. “You’re afraid,” Derrick said to the crowd. “Because you see yourselves.”
Silence. “You humiliated others,” he continued. “You decided worth by money, power, bloodlines.”
He glanced at Hawthorne’s body. “So did I deserve this power?” Derrick asked quietly.
No one answered. The system chimed. ''Host inquiry irrelevant.''
Derrick smiled bitterly. “Figures.”
Sophie stood shakily. “You think exposing this makes you righteous?”
Derrick met her eyes. “No.”
“Then what are you?”
He considered. “A warning.”
The lights flickered again. Red this time. ''EXTERNAL OVERRIDE ATTEMPT DETECTED.''
Mercer’s phone buzzed, somehow alive again. She answered. Her face drained of color. “Yes… Understood.”
She hung up and looked at Derrick. “An international task force is on its way,” she said. “They want the System.”
Derrick nodded. “They always do.”
“You won’t survive this,” Mercer added. “No matter how much money you have.”
Derrick looked at the blue interface hovering calmly. “System,” he asked, “what happens when they take you?”
''Host survival probability: 12%''
“And if I resist?”
''Probability of global destabilization: 61%''
The room held its breath. Derrick laughed softly. “So either I die,” he said, “or the world shakes.”
The system chimed. ''Dominion threshold reached.''
A final screen appeared. NEXT PHASE AVAILABLE: CONTROL - DISTRIBUTION - ERASURE
Sophie whispered, horrified, “What does erasure mean?”
The system answered. “REMOVAL OF INDIVIDUALS FROM ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND HISTORICAL RECORD.”
People screamed. “That’s not possible!”
“We’d disappear!”
Derrick stared at the option. His finger hovered. Outside, helicopters thundered closer. Luna’s face flashed in his mind. His brother. The knees on marble. Humiliation. Twice.
The system spoke softly, almost gently. “CHOOSE, HOST.”
Derrick lifted his hand. The screen flickered. And the world waited to see, Who he would erase first.
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Chapter 11: When Everyone Becomes Worthless
Rain hammered the pavement. Derrick lay there, breathing hard, chest rising and falling like he’d just clawed his way out of a grave.No blue screen. No system voice. No weight pressing against his thoughts. Just pain. Real pain.Mara crouched beside him. “Don’t move too fast,” she said. “Your body remembers what it lost, even if the System doesn’t.”Derrick pushed himself up anyway. His hands were shaking. “I can hear them,” he said hoarsely.Mara frowned. “Hear who?”“The world,” Derrick replied.Sirens screamed in the distance. Not one or two, hundreds. Car alarms wailed. People shouted. Somewhere nearby, glass shattered.Across the street, a giant screen flickered violently. Then stabilized. A blue interface appeared. Not one. Thousands. Millions. All over the city. All over the world.Derrick’s stomach dropped. Mara whispered, “It’s started.”On the screen, text scrolled rapidly. COMPATIBILITY TEST: SUBJECT #18,392,104 — PASSEDA man standing nearby froze. “What does that mean?”
Chapter 10: The Choice That Breaks Gods
4… The countdown burned in the air like a brand. Derrick’s finger hovered inches from the projection. ERASE: LUNA VALEAround him, the ballroom had descended into chaos. “Stop him!”“Kill the system!”“He’s going to erase her!”Sophie collapsed completely, sobbing. “Please… she didn’t do anything… please…”Agent Mercer aimed her weapon, not at Derrick. At the blue interface. “Fire,” someone shouted through her earpiece.Mercer hesitated. Derrick noticed. “You can’t,” he said calmly.Her eyes flicked to him. “Don’t test me.”“You already did,” Derrick replied. “The moment you let it watch.”The system chimed. ''COUNTDOWN CONTINUES.''3… Derrick closed his eyes. Luna’s face surfaced in his mind. Not the ballroom. Not the severance notice. But earlier. A memory the system had not shown.Luna laughing in the car. Luna arguing with him about money. Luna saying, 'You’re still human.'His chest tightened. “System,” Derrick said quietly. “You said erasure is mercy.”“CORRECT.”“Then why does
Chapter 9: The Day Humanity Flinched
The helicopters circled like vultures. Their blades thundered through the night sky, shaking the windows of the ballroom. Red lights flashed across faces drained of color.No one moved. No one dared. Derrick Wallance stood before the hovering blue interface, his hand raised, finger suspended inches from the word: ERASURESophie’s voice broke first. “You won’t,” she said hoarsely. “You’re not a monster.”Derrick didn’t look at her. “I wasn’t,” he replied. “Once.”Agent Mercer stepped forward slowly, palms raised. “Derrick. Listen to me.”He glanced at her. She swallowed. “Whatever this thing is, it’s manipulating you. You don’t have to choose.”The system pulsed. ''External influence detected: Fear.''Mercer stiffened. “Did it just?”“Yes,” Derrick said. “It hears everything.”A man near the back shouted, “Turn it off!”Another screamed, “Kill him before he kills us!”Security shifted uneasily. The humiliation was no longer personal. It was collective. The system’s voice echoed again,
Chapter 8: When the World Learns Who You Are
The ballroom smelled like fear. Not metaphorical fear. Real fear, sharp, metallic, crawling into the lungs. Paramedics rushed in, voices overlapping. “Clear the area!”“Pulse is weak!”“Move!”Hawthorne’s body lay on the marble floor, suit rumpled, dignity erased. Moments ago, he had been untouchable. Now, people stepped around him like inconvenient furniture.Cameras didn’t stop recording. They never did. Sophie stood frozen, phone slipping from her fingers. “Uncle…” she whispered. “Wake up.”No response. Derrick didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t kneel this time. The system pulsed gently, like a satisfied heartbeat. ''Ascension state stabilized.''Luna was already gone. That fact hurt more than the screaming. Agent Mercer pushed through the crowd, eyes locking onto Derrick instantly. “Wallance,” she said sharply. “Don’t move.”Derrick looked at her. For the first time, she flinched. “Am I under arrest?” Derrick asked calmly.Mercer hesitated. “You were involved in”“In a man kneeling
Chapter 7: Isolation Is the Crown
“Say something.”Luna’s voice trembled, but she didn’t move closer. Derrick stood frozen, staring at her phone.RELATIONSHIP STATUS: TERMINATED.It wasn’t metaphorical. It wasn’t emotional. It was absolute. “I didn’t do this,” Derrick said slowly.Luna laughed once. Sharp. Broken. “Then who did?”The ballroom buzzed again, whispers returning, laughter crawling back like insects sensing blood.Sophie leaned back in her chair, amused. “Looks like your magic finally has limits.”Hawthorne folded his hands. “The System made a choice,” he said calmly. “And so did you.”Luna looked at Derrick. “You knew this could happen.”“No,” Derrick said. “I knew it might.”“That’s worse,” she replied.The system pulsed faintly. ''Isolation protocol active.''Derrick clenched his jaw. “Undo it.”No response. “UNDO IT.”Silence. Sophie stood and walked closer, heels echoing. “You’re learning,” she said softly. “Power always collects interest.”She circled Luna. “Did you really think you were special?”Lu
Chapter 6: The Second Time on His Knees
The ballroom was silent. Not the polite kind of silence. The predatory kind. Hundreds of eyes fixed on Derrick Wallance as if waiting for him to collapse.The auctioneer cleared his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said cautiously, “we will now proceed with Lot Seventy-Seven.”Derrick didn’t move. Luna’s fingers tightened around his sleeve. “We can leave,” she whispered. “Right now.”“No,” Derrick said quietly. “This is why we’re here.”Across the room, Hawthorne sat at the center table, surrounded by executives, senators, old money. Sophie sat beside him. Smiling. The auctioneer continued. “Lot Seventy-Seven is a private equity stake”“Withdraw it,” Hawthorne interrupted calmly.The auctioneer froze. “Sir?”Hawthorne raised his glass. “I’m exercising my influence.”A murmur rippled through the crowd. The auctioneer swallowed. “Lot Seventy-Seven has been withdrawn.”Gasps followed. Derrick stepped forward. “You can’t do that.”Hawthorne looked at him pleasantly. “I already did.”“Th
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