2026-01-27 23:35:20The walls of the interrogation room were a dull gray, mirroring the shattered state of Axel’s mind. Under the flickering neon light that stabbed at his eyes, Axel sat with handcuffs locking his wrists to a metal table. The silence inside the room felt far more intimidating than any police shouting.
“So, where do we start, Axel? With the hundred thousand dollars that suddenly appeared, or with the body of the man under the bridge?”
Inspector Vayu tossed a file folder onto the table. He was a middle-aged man with hard lines carved into his face, the type who had seen too many lies to be easily fooled.
“I’ve already told you, sir. I didn’t kill him. He jumped because he lost his wallet.” Axel’s voice was hoarse, almost gone.
“And what a coincidence that right after he jumped, your bank balance skyrocketed. Do you think this is a movie?” Vayu leaned forward, the sharp smell of black coffee on his breath. “People drowning in debt like you usually lose their sense of right and wrong. You took his wallet, he fought back, and you pushed him. Isn’t that how it went?”
“I didn’t rob him!” Axel slammed the table, the handcuffs clanging loudly. “That money … that money wasn’t his.”
“Then whose was it? An inheritance from some overseas uncle? Won the lottery without buying a ticket?” Vayu let out a cold laugh. “Explain the logic, Axel. Legally, you are the prime suspect for money laundering and fatal assault. You’re not walking out of here for the next ten years.”
Axel fell silent. How could he explain the voice in his head? The transparent panel that had promised him a hundred thousand dollars in exchange for five years of his life? Vayu would send him straight to a mental hospital before he finished his first sentence.
“I can’t explain it, sir. But I swear, I wanted to help him. This guilt … it feels like it’s killing me.” Axel whispered, lowering his head.
He closed his eyes, and the image of the old man falling replayed itself again. The guilt was suffocating, like molten lead filling his lungs. Suddenly, the temperature in the room dropped sharply. Axel’s breath turned into faint vapor. Inspector Vayu froze, his movement stopping halfway as he tried to light a cigarette, like a film abruptly paused.
[Guilt is an extremely expensive emotion, Axel Benjamin.]
The voice returned. There was no thunder, no blinding light. Only a neutral, crushing presence in the air.
“You again .…” Axel murmured.
[You were chosen because of the weight on your heart tonight. Regret is the foundation of true value. You feel worthless because you failed to save that life. Now, you have the power to atone for it. But remember, every freedom has a price tag.]
Axel stared at the panel that appeared before him once more. This time, the text glowed a pale white, cold as ice.
[Status: Under Serious Criminal Investigation.]
[Option: Digital Trace Manipulation and Fund Legalization.]
[Cost: 2 Years of Remaining Lifespan.]
“Two more years?” Axel laughed bitterly, tears sliding down his pale cheeks. “You took five years just an hour ago. Now you want more?”
[The system does not force you. This is a free choice. You can rot in prison for a decade, or you can walk out of here now as a free man. The choice is yours.]
Axel looked at Vayu, still frozen in place. Prison would destroy his mother. Prison would end his life as worthless trash. But two years, that was an enormous price for a freedom that should have been free.
“This world isn’t fair, is it?” Axel asked the entity.
[Simple: Money comes in, lifespan goes out. Do you accept?]
“If I take it, will my suffering end?”
[Your suffering is only beginning, Axel. Wealth is a heavier burden than poverty for those with a conscience.]
Axel clenched his teeth. His thoughts went to his mother, who needed surgery, to Elara, the only friend who had ever been sincere to him, who would never be able to bear seeing him behind bars.
“Fine. Take it. Take the two years. Get me out of here!”
The cold sensation returned, this time more painful. Axel felt as if an invisible hand reached into his chest and tore away part of his vitality. His head throbbed, and for a moment, his vision turned gray.
Click.
Time resumed. Inspector Vayu blinked, looking momentarily confused. He glanced at the file in front of him, then at his buzzing phone.
“Hello? Yes, this is Vayu… What?” Vayu’s face drained of color. “The key witness withdrew his statement? And that transfer evidence was a grant validated by an international foundation? How could this data only appear now?”
Vayu stared at Axel with a mix of hatred and fear. “I don’t know who’s backing you, Axel. My superior ordered this case closed due to an ‘administrative error.’ You’re free. You may be able to buy the law, but remember this, I’ll be watching you.”
Axel did not feel victorious. He felt empty. When the handcuffs were removed, he stood on legs that felt heavier than before. He walked out of the police station and into the cold night air. Under the streetlights, he saw his own shadow. It looked more hunched, more exhausted.
He touched his face. His skin felt slightly looser. He had just lost seven years of his life in a single night.
Suddenly, his phone rang. It was Arlo, his friend.
“Hello?”
“Axel! This is bad, Xel!” Arlo’s voice cracked with panic. “Elara was in an accident! She’s been taken to Saint Jude Private Hospital. There’s severe internal bleeding, but the hospital is refusing emergency surgery without a ten-thousand-dollar deposit because her insurance doesn’t cover elite trauma care. I don’t know where to get that kind of money at this hour!”
Axel’s heart pounded violently, this time with stabbing pain. Memories flashed back to when he and Elara were homeless. Elara was the only person who had treated him like a human being when the world saw him as trash.
[New opportunity detected.]
[Mission: Save the Life of Your Closest Person.]
[Cost: Depends on the level of medical difficulty.]
Axel looked up at the dark night sky. He realized a horrifying pattern. The system was not giving him wealth to enjoy. It was trapping him in situations where he had to spend his lifespan on the people he loved.
“Which hospital, Arlo? I have the money. I’m coming right now!”
Axel ran with all his strength, but midway, his steps slowed. He felt short of breath. He tried to inhale, but his lungs seemed to shrink. He stopped in front of a dark shop window, using the glass as a mirror.
Under the moonlight, Axel saw not just a few strands of white hair, but wrinkles beginning to form at the corners of his eyes. He was only thirty-one, but the reflection staring back looked like a man in his forties.
“How much life do I have left?” he screamed silently.
And from the darkness, the system answered in the most terrifying tone he had ever heard.
[Your life value is being calculated. Choose your friend or your lifespan.]
Axel collapsed onto the empty sidewalk. He had to make a decision, and fast.
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CHAPTER 11. PROBABILITY OF DEATH
"You think I would kneel just because you threaten my best friend’s life?” Axel muttered sharply beneath his helmet. His voice was swallowed by the roar of the motorcycle engine he was forcing past its safe limits on the empty streets of Vancouver. At the corner of his vision, the system interface flickered wildly, spewing unstable strings of code. The junk data injection he had executed at the apartment earlier had worked. The system now appeared overwhelmed, like an old computer forced to process thousands of commands at once.[SYSTEM ERROR: EMOTIONAL DATA ANOMALY][CALCULATION PROCESS DELAYED]A faint smirk curved Axel’s lips. The crushing pressure that had gripped his chest slowly began to ease. The overload had not destroyed the system, but it had bought him time. He leaned his bike at an extreme angle as he tore around the curve toward the central hospital district.“You can read statistics, but you cannot write destiny,” Axel hissed. A new warning appeared, the text unstable, a
Chapter 10. A New Threat
Morning on the outskirts of Vancouver greeted Axel with a dull ache in his joints. He woke on the thin mattress of the rented apartment without looking toward the mirror. The laptop on the table was still on, lines of code glowing from the analysis he had done the night before. Axel rose quickly and pulled on a thick jacket to conceal his frail body. He left the laptop and his phone locked inside the room. Today, he would do one thing forbidden by his new logic. He would move without a digital plan.Axel’s steps carried him to a small coffee shop on the corner of a run down street. In front of the door, a middle aged man was kneeling beside an old car that had broken down. Smoke rose from the open hood. The man wiped his oil smeared face with an expression of despair. Axel stopped right beside him without making a sound.“Need help?” Axel asked shortly.The man looked up and studied Axel’s aged face with hesitation. “The engine’s completely dead. I have to deliver this catering order
Chapter 9. The Fatigue Algorithm
The air on the fourth floor of the parking structure suddenly froze, as if time itself had been violently pulled by an invisible gravity. A transparent shockwave erupted from Axel’s body at the exact moment the tip of Goran’s black stone knife touched the skin of his neck. The gaunt man was flung backward, his body slamming into a concrete pillar hard enough to send cracks spidering across its surface. His strange knife flew free, clattering across the damp cement floor before disappearing into the darkness.Axel did not fall. He stood rigid, but inside his head, the sound of bones cracking echoed in rapid succession, like dry branches snapping one after another. His joints were forcibly hardened. He could feel the hydration beneath his skin evaporating, leaving behind wrinkled, lifeless tissue. The calcium in his bones shrank dramatically. He stared at his hands as the skin slackened, its pigment fading into a pale gray within seconds.[DEFENSE MODE ACTIVE][COST: 5 YEARS OF REMAININ
Chapter 8. Traces of the Same Man
Morning at Vancouver General Hospital felt like a broken simulation. Axel woke with nausea churning his stomach. He tried to sit up, but his joints felt stiff, as if the hinges of his bones had rusted solid. He glanced at the mirror on the wall. His white hair looked even more real under the cold neon lights, emphasizing the lines of aging now permanently etched into his face.He reached for his phone on the bedside table. The GPS coordinates to an old downtown parking structure were still blinking. The message felt like a knife pressed against his throat.“Axel? Where are you going?”Arlo’s voice broke the silence. His friend entered carrying coffee, his eyes red from lack of sleep. Arlo froze when he saw Axel forcibly pulling the IV line from his arm.“I have to go, Arlo. Something urgent came up.” Axel said shortly. His voice was heavy, far deeper than it used to be.“Urgent? Look at yourself! You just cheated death!” Arlo slammed the shopping bag onto the table. “Elara refuses to
Chapter 7. The Aging Hero
The hospital lights felt like they were burning Axel’s retinas as he slowly opened his eyes. The sharp stench of antiseptic and the soft hum of the ventilator beside his bed were the first things to greet him. His head felt heavy as lead. Every time he tried to move his fingers, an unfamiliar stiffness and joint pain struck him, pain that had no place in the body of a man in his early thirties.In the corner of the room, a small muted television displayed the local news, a bold headline stretched across the screen:“"PIER WAREHOUSE TRAGEDY: HUMAN TRAFFICKING SYNDICATE EXPOSED.”The image shifted, showing Gerry with his face mangled, and the Boss tightly handcuffed by the Vancouver police. The reporter looked animated, then the footage cut to blurry amateur video capturing the moment the hostages were freed.“Xel? You’re awake?”The voice was hoarse, cracked by tears. Axel turned his head slowly. His mother, Lena, sat beside the bed, gripping his hand tightly. Behind her stood Elara an
Chapter 6. Blood and Decisions
[Temporary Health: Active. Duration: 23:59:59.][Remaining Lifespan: Classified.]Axel no longer cared. He pushed his motorcycle through the freezing Vancouver night, heading toward the isolated outskirts of the harbor. Behind him, two black SUVs pursued at high speed, an elite escort unit he had hired at the cost of one year of his life. They were not just men in suits, they were killing machines sent by an entity that knew no mercy.The old warehouse on the northern pier loomed ahead. Axel stopped, the engine growling low before cutting out. He dismounted, his body feeling unnaturally light, an effect of the Temporary Health deceiving his nervous system.Inside the warehouse, the stench of diesel and rust greeted him. Gerry stood in the center of the room, casually flipping a folding knife with a mocking grin. In a leather chair behind him sat the Boss, the loan shark who controlled the harbor’s black routes. But Axel’s eyes locked onto only one thing, his mother, bound to a wooden
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