2026-01-27 23:54:48The 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 and Arlo, their expressions hard to define, a mix of overwhelming relief and restrained horror.
“Mom .… are you okay?” Axel whispered. His voice sounded heavy, rough like sandpaper scraping.
“I’m safe, my son. Because of you .… because of you, everyone is safe.” Lena kissed the back of Axel’s hand, her tears soaking into the sheets.
Arlo stepped forward, trying to lighten the mood. “This is insane, Xel. You became a celebrity overnight. The police found dozens of captives in the warehouse basement. And guess who one of them was? Julian Sterling’s only daughter, the real estate tycoon. The media is calling you the ‘Guardian Angel of the Docks.’”
Axel remained silent. His eyes were fixed on the television screen. A beautiful young woman, the conglomerate’s daughter, was being interviewed, her eyes swollen from crying. “That man… he was covered in blood, but he never stopped. If it weren’t for him, I don’t know where I’d be now. I owe him my life,” she said, her words appearing as subtitles on the screen.
[Incoming Notification.]
[Reward from Julian Sterling: 50,000 USD credited to your account. Total balance: 70,000 USD.]
[Analysis: Funds acquired through legitimate effort or reward (Non-System Loan).]
[Balance Bonus: Lifespan Increase +5 Months.]
[Status: Recovered from Critical.]
A sudden warmth flowed through Axel’s bones. The stiffness that had been choking him slowly eased, though it did not disappear completely. He took a long breath, his lungs feeling slightly more open. But that small miracle could not hide what the people around him could plainly see.
“Xel ….” Elara stepped closer. Her eyes trembled as she stared at the deep lines on Axel’s forehead. “The doctors said they don’t understand your condition. They said you suffered severe trauma, but the aging you went through, it doesn’t make any medical sense.”
Elara picked up a small mirror from the bedside table and handed it to Axel with shaking hands.
Axel looked at his reflection. He gasped, nearly dropping the mirror. The man in the glass had hair that was nearly half white. The skin around his eyes sagged, and fine wrinkles traced the corners of his mouth. He looked like a man in his sixties who had just survived a grave illness.
“What did they do to you in there, Xel?” Elara’s voice rose, filled with fear and accusation. “Why does your face look like this? What kind of drugs did they inject into you?”
Axel swallowed, his mouth bitter. “I… I don’t know, El. Maybe stress… or a hard impact.”
“Don’t lie to me!” Elara snapped, tears spilling down her face. “Don’t treat me like I’m stupid! Human hair doesn’t turn white overnight from stress or a concussion! And that money… Arlo said you suddenly have hundreds of thousands of dollars? You even paid my hospital bills. Where did it come from, Axel? Did you sell your life to those monsters?”
“El, calm down. Axel is still sick. Don’t pressure him,” Arlo tried to hold Elara’s shoulder, but she brushed him away.
“Answer me, Axel!” Elara cried, her face flushed. “Look at your mother! She’s terrified seeing her son turn into an old man overnight! What are you really hiding? Tell me!”
Axel turned his face toward the window, staring at the gray Vancouver sky. How could he explain that every dollar entering his account was a heartbeat he had pawned? That his heroism was nothing more than a bloody transaction with an unseen entity?
He swallowed again, the bitterness lingering. “I just did what I had to do, El.”
“What does that mean?”
“I can’t explain it right now.”
Elara sobbed, covering her face with both hands, then ran out of the room. She could not bear to look at Axel any longer.
Arlo looked at Axel for a long moment, his gaze filled with suspicion and pity, before following Elara out. Only Axel and his mother remained in the room. Lena stayed silent, gently stroking her son’s white hair with trembling hands.
“I don’t care about everything you went through, Axel,” his mother whispered softly. “I just want you to be safe and healthy again. Rest now, my son. You can tell me later. Let your body recover first.”
That night, while his mother slept on the hospital sofa, Axel tried to close his eyes. Suddenly, a cold sensation crawled up the back of his neck. His cracked phone screen lit up on its own, without any message or call notification.
It was not his balance. Not a system command. It was a short message.
On the black screen appeared a set of GPS coordinates blinking red, followed by a brief message typed manually, as if sent by someone watching him at this very moment.
“Five extra months? Cheap, for a hero. Meet me at this address tomorrow morning, or I’ll tell Elara the real price of that expensive shirt you’re wearing.”
Axel jerked upright, the wound in his abdomen throbbing violently. He stared at the slightly open hospital room door. In the dark hallway, he caught a glimpse of a tall man with slicked-back hair, smiling at him before vanishing behind the wall.
“Who are you?”
Cold sweat broke out across Axel’s skin. His heart pounded, not from illness, but from a new and terrifying realization. He was not the only one bound by a contract with the Devil. Another system holder had found him, and that person knew exactly how to destroy Axel without ever laying a hand on him.
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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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