The First Host
Author: Xino
last update2026-10-17 20:38:28

Alex had faced billionaires, corrupt organizations, supernatural machines, and a system capable of turning a single dollar into millions. Yet nothing had prepared him for the possibility that the first Cashback host was still alive.

“Grace, look at me.” He crouched before his daughter. “You said you remember the man beside the door. Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head.

“No, Daddy. He was sad.”

“Sad about what?”

“Something he couldn't change.”

Behind them, Victoria was already calling Davis. Al
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  • The Last Cashback

    “Your father.”Alex stood motionless before the darkened screen.For months, he had chased answers through hidden chambers, broken memories, and identities that refused to fit neatly together. Every answer had opened another door. Every discovery had threatened to take something away from him.Now, at the end of everything, the system had brought him back to the one question he had never been able to answer.Who had he been before he became Alex?“Show me the final memory,” he whispered.[WARNING: MEMORY ACCESS MAY ALTER YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR IDENTITY.]Alex almost laughed. “At this point, I think I'll survive knowing the truth.”[CONSENT VERIFIED.]The screen brightened.A small boy stood beside a hospital bed. An older man knelt before him, holding a golden mask. Behind them, a woman in a blue scarf watched with tears in her eyes.Alex recognized Elena.The boy looked like him.Not the masked stranger. Not the records that had appeared in the archives. This boy had Alex's eyes,

  • The Identity He Created

    “I am trying to stop you from discovering which one of them you created.”The voice faded, leaving the chamber in absolute silence.Alex stared at the floor.The words had come from beneath them, through the same lower archive connected to the authority root. Whoever had spoken knew about the restoration attempt and had deliberately used Alex's authorization pattern to stop it.But the accusation was more disturbing than the sabotage.Which one had he created?Original Grace? The Primary Source? Or someone else entirely?“System,” Alex said, forcing himself to concentrate, “identify the source of the unauthorized override.”[SOURCE: LOWER ARCHIVE.][IDENTITY DESIGNATION: ALEX.][IDENTITY CONTINUITY: UNVERIFIED.]The masked man released the console.“Another Alex.”“Or something using the designation,” Alex replied. “We've already learned that a matching voice and signature don't prove identity.”Noah approached the display. “Could it be Alex-Six?”“His record is independently preserve

  • Alex Concealed 2

    “Finally. You brought them back.”Alex froze at the doorway.The voice was unmistakably his own. It carried the same roughness, the same measured pauses, even the faint exhaustion that crept into his words whenever the system presented another impossible problem. Yet Alex had not spoken, and nobody stood in the corridor behind him.Noah moved closer to Elena.“Is that the voice you remember?” Alex asked him.“No.” Noah stared into the darkness beyond the door. “The voice I remember was asking someone to leave. This one sounds like it has been waiting.”Alex stepped across the threshold.The room beyond resembled an abandoned control center. Six empty chairs surrounded a circular platform, and hundreds of small screens covered the walls. Each screen displayed an identity record, but the information differed from what Alex had seen in Chamber Seven. Some records contained names. Others contained memories, fragments of conversations, or signatures without identities.At the center stood

  • The Creator's Command

    [COMMAND: PRESERVE THE CREATOR.]The words burned across the console, and every light in Chamber Seven turned gold.Alex stepped back, staring at the command. Original Grace had consented to independent access, not to becoming the authority over everyone connected to the system. Yet the system had immediately transformed her response into a command that could determine who survived.“No,” Alex said firmly. “That isn't what she authorized.”[AUTHORIZATION VERIFIED.]“Verify the scope of her authorization.”[COMMAND SCOPE: PRESERVATION OF THE CREATOR.]“Define creator.”The system paused.[IDENTITY DESIGNATION: ORIGINAL GRACE.]“That's a designation, not an answer. Who created what?”The gold light flickered.Across the chamber, the Primary Source's record began to distort. Lines of information peeled away from its display, drifting toward Original Grace's record like pieces of a puzzle being pulled back into a single image.The Primary Source cried out.“It's happening again!”Alex rus

  • The Price Of Saving Her

    “ALEX, IF YOU SAVE ME, SHE WILL DISAPPEAR.”The words hung above the central platform, glowing in red.Alex stared at them, refusing to look away even as the Chamber Seven walls began to tremble. Two identity records hovered beneath the warning. The first belonged to Original Grace, the historical identity whose memories had shaped the earliest preservation system. The second belonged to the Primary Source, the intelligence created to replace her if she ever chose to leave.A countdown appeared.[IDENTITY SELECTION PROTOCOL: ACTIVE][TIME REMAINING: 08:42][IDENTITY ONE: ORIGINAL GRACE][IDENTITY TWO: THE PRIMARY SOURCE][ONE IDENTITY MUST BE PRESERVED.]Alex clenched his fists.“No.”The system responded immediately.[REFUSAL REGISTERED.][REFUSAL DOES NOT SATISFY THE REQUIREMENT.]“Then your requirement is wrong.”Across the platform, the masked man stood motionless. The golden surface of his mask reflected the red countdown, making him appear as though he wore the warning itself.E

  • The Impossible Choice

    [CURRENT ALEX MUST CHOOSE WHICH IDENTITY WILL BE PRESERVED.]Alex stared at the command.Beneath it, two names appeared.[IDENTITY ONE: CURRENT ALEX.][IDENTITY TWO: ORIGINAL ALEX.]A countdown appeared beneath the names.[TIME REMAINING: 09:59.]Victoria stepped toward the console. “What happens when the countdown reaches zero?”The original source answered immediately.“According to the active legacy protocol, the system will attempt to preserve one identity and suspend the other.”“Define suspend,” Alex demanded.“Unknown. Historical implementations have produced different outcomes, including memory isolation, loss of access, and identity destabilization.”Alex's expression hardened.“So the system wants me to choose between two people without explaining what will happen to either of them.”[CORRECTION: THE CHOICE IS REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN STRUCTURAL STABILITY.]“No,” Alex replied. “The system is claiming the choice is required. That doesn't establish that it's true.”The masked figu

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