2025-12-08 22:42:10
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Table 2
She smiled back. A ghost's smile. The first real one in thirty days.Richard returned to the table, his face a mask of corporate calm. He didn't see the change. He never looked at Emma directly. Only at what she represented.The quartet finished their song. A pause. Then a new piece. Wagner. *The Bridal Chorus.*Too early. The wedding was three days away.But the bandstand wasn't for the auction anymore. It was for an announcement.Richard stood, pulling Emma with him. His hand in his pocket. The ring box.Eleanor's voice crackled through Marcus's earpiece—a tiny bud he'd forgotten he was wearing. *"Theater's over. Time for the main event."*The lights dimmed. A spotlight hit Table One.Richard dropped to one knee.The room gasped. This wasn't on the schedule. This was a surprise. A flex. *See how much control I have? I can propose at a gala and make it look spontaneous.*Emma's hand trembled in his. The microphone waited. The cameras rolled. Richard opened the box.The ring caught th
Table 1
The ballroom was a shark tank with champagne. Five hundred of the city's apex predators, swimming in circles of polished marble and crystal, their teeth hidden behind eight-thousand-dollar smiles. Marcus's tuxedo was a $500 disguise that passed for $50,000 in this light—System-engineered fabric that caught the chandeliers just right, suggesting old money without claiming it.A waiter offered him a flute. Marcus took it. The waiter didn't meet his eyes. Good. Invisible was better than memorable.Table One wasn't a table. It was a stage. A raised platform at the center of the room, surrounded by a moat of space that lesser guests dare not cross. The names on the place cards were embossed in actual gold leaf: *Eleanor Sterling. Richard Sterling. Emma Leyton. Senator Whitmore. Ambassador Chen.*Ambassador Chen. Not Jonathan. A cousin who'd sold the family name for a diplomatic passport and a beach house in Nice. Marcus had met him once at a funeral. He'd eaten all the shrimp.The final pl
Safe house 2
He looked at the corkboard. At the photo of Richard Sterling, his face youthful and arrogant, taken years before the Architect got its hooks in.Then he looked at the photo next to it. Emma. Same age. Same party. Her hand in his, a silver necklace visible at her throat.Marcus folded the bond, tucked it into the tuxedo pocket, and dialed a number on the flip phone. It only had one contact saved: **"CATERING."**It rang three times before a voice answered: *"Mr. Chen. We were told you were deceased. Will you be requiring the usual service?"*"Yes. And tell the chef: extra spicy."He hung up. The gala was in thirty-five hours. The warehouses were safe. The money was clean.Marcus sat on the cot in the corner, the one with springs that sang like a dying cat, and stared at the ceiling. Someone had written there in Sharpie: **"THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS."**He pulled out the Glock, ejected the magazine. Empty. He checked the chamber. Empty.The gun was a prop. The threat was real.**[SYSTEM REB
Safe house 1
The safe house was above a dumpling shop that hadn't updated its health inspection certificate since 2018. The stairwell stank of five-spice and desperation. Marcus counted the steps—twenty-three, same as fifteen years ago—his hand trailing grease on the wall where the railing had rusted through.The door was steel, the paint peeling like sunburn. He keyed in 88675309. The lock clicked. Not electronic. Mechanical. Dad didn't trust anything that needed a battery.Inside, the air was stale with the breath of ghosts. A single room, fifteen by fifteen, with a window overlooking an alley where a kid in fake Yeezys was selling counterfeit Rolexes out of a stroller. The walls were corkboard, layered with photos, strings, and index cards yellowed at the edges.A map of Morrison Corp's org chart. But not the public one. This one had names crossed out in red. **DECEASED**. **MISSING**. **ASSIMILATED**. Jonathan Chen's handwriting, precise as an autopsy report.Marcus's phone buzzed. Unknown num
Line Dead
The sunlight hurt.Marcus stood on the steps of Morrison Tower, thirty stories of glass and hubris at his back, and watched a city that had forgotten his name. His reflection in a passing bus window showed a man in a wrinkled shirt, three days of stubble, eyes too bright with System burnout. A waiter who'd wandered into the wrong neighborhood.**[SAFE MODE ENGAGED]** **[CORE INTEGRITY: 19%—STABILIZING]** **[TEMPORAL ANOMALY DETECTED: 30 DAYS ELAPSED]** **[MISSION ARCHITECTURE REBOOTING…]**The notification flickered. Weak. Not the crisp imperial gold of full power, but the sputtering amber of a dying streetlight. He'd spent thirty days trapped in quantum stasis, wrestling his father's ghost, and the world had moved on without him.A billboard across the street confirmed it. **STERLING-LEYTON GALA—THREE DAYS TO FOREVER.** Richard's face, fifteen feet high, smiling that porcelain-shark smile. Emma beside him in diamonds that could've funded a hospital. The tagline: *"True Love Con
silicon
Sub-level seven wasn't built for humans. The quantum servers emitted a subsonic hum that made Marcus's teeth ache. The air shimmered with static discharge, and every breath tasted of ozone and burnt silicon. His Core struggled to filter the sensory overload. [CORE INTEGRITY: 6%] [WARNING: PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO QUANTUM FIELD RESULTS IN IRREVERSIBLE NEOURAL DEGRADATION] [IMPERIAL SYNCHRONIZATION RESIDUAL: 18 SECONDS REMAINING] They moved through the server cathedral in a low crouch, Nara covering their six with a suppressed pistol that spat ionized rounds. Each shot was silent but left brief, glowing trails in the saturated air. Elena led them along a maintenance conduit, her scar dimmed but still pulsing faintly. "The containment field is powered by twelve redundant quantum generators. We need to sever at least eight simultaneously, or it'll collapse and take Emma with it." "That's not a rescue," Marcus hissed. "That's a demolition." "That's the only way." She stopped at a junc
You may also like
The Ultimate Talent Adam Spencer
ShadowKatake34.4K viewsLiving With The System
Jajajuba32.8K viewsHarem Multiverse Challenge
Helen B.46.8K viewsAncestral Heir System
Dark Crafter46.9K viewsSecretly Godly
Chessman80.0K viewsINFINITE SKILLS SYSTEM: DORIAN FLINT'S RISE TO AWESOMENESS.
Asterion SM.14.5K viewsLustbound: The System Of Temptation
Bimbo tv 294 viewsDemon System
Dandave1.9K views