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Home / System / The Betrayed Professional: Elian Athen's System Awakening / Chapter 10 – Collapse Under the Bridge
Chapter 10 – Collapse Under the Bridge
Author: Clare Felix
last update2025-10-03 23:24:08

The golden command—[AWAKEN.]—had been a spark in nothing, but nothing was ravenous and vast. It had devoured him not, but illuminated the gulf of his descent before he continued to fall. The days after the laughter of children blended together in a grayscale smear of agony. Starvation was a constant, grinding stone in his stomach, but it had become the normal, almost mundane, suffering, like the persistent hum of the generator. The real wound was to his soul, which was hollowed and left empty, a vacancy where a man used to be.

The sky, which had been so hot, brassy blue, began bruising later in the afternoon. Dark grey-bottomed clouds piled up on the horizon, and the air thickened, swollen with the threat of a storm. The city held its breath. To the house and the safe, it was a minor inconvenience. To Elian, it was a death sentence in action.

He had been walking in a daze, his body a zombie marionette whose strings were cut. He was drawn to the underground area beneath the Third Mainl
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  • Chapter 10 – Collapse Under the Bridge

    The golden command—[AWAKEN.]—had been a spark in nothing, but nothing was ravenous and vast. It had devoured him not, but illuminated the gulf of his descent before he continued to fall. The days after the laughter of children blended together in a grayscale smear of agony. Starvation was a constant, grinding stone in his stomach, but it had become the normal, almost mundane, suffering, like the persistent hum of the generator. The real wound was to his soul, which was hollowed and left empty, a vacancy where a man used to be.The sky, which had been so hot, brassy blue, began bruising later in the afternoon. Dark grey-bottomed clouds piled up on the horizon, and the air thickened, swollen with the threat of a storm. The city held its breath. To the house and the safe, it was a minor inconvenience. To Elian, it was a death sentence in action.He had been walking in a daze, his body a zombie marionette whose strings were cut. He was drawn to the underground area beneath the Third Mainl

  • Chapter 9 – Hunger's Bite

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