The Rise Of The Humiliated Son-in-law

The Loading Screen

Rafe cursed under his breath, “Who the hell are you?” and chased after him.

The rain hit the pavement in silver sheets as he burst through the cafe door.

“Rafe? Where are you going?!”

He ignored Amara’s calls, his attention drilled to one person. The system user.

“Hey!” Rafe called out. The man didn’t stop.

He moved fast, dancing through the crowd like smoke, slipping between pedestrians and puddles with so much precision.

Rafe followed, shoving past people, ignoring their protests. His shoes splashed through puddles, breath clouding in the cold air.

The man turned down a narrow side street, glancing back once, his eyes glowing faintly blue.

Rafe’s pulse spiked. He really is a System user too.

“Stop!” Rafe shouted. “You— you know about it, don’t you?”

The man didn’t respond. Instead, he darted across the street as a car honked, brakes screeching inches away.

Rafe barely cleared the next lane, his jacket sleeve brushing against a side mirror. His lungs burned, but adrenaline drowned most of the pain out.

They reached the edge of South Bank, the curve of the Thames visible in the distance. The man jumped over a low fence, sprinting into an alley choked with steam from an open vent.

Rafe followed without thinking. His footsteps echoed off the wet brick walls.

He could hear the man’s boots ahead, steady and heavy, until they suddenly stopped.

Rafe skidded around the corner, nothing.

The alley was empty.

He blinked, chest heaving. “Where—”

A soft clink of metal drew his attention upward.

The man was climbing the fire escape ladder, and fast.

Rafe gritted his teeth. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

He grabbed the ladder and followed, the metal cold and slick under his fingers. Rain made the bars slippery, but he climbed anyway, ignoring his screaming muscles.

Halfway up, lightning flashed across the sky, painting the city in white. For a moment, Rafe saw the man clearly, standing at the top, silhouetted against the skyline, watching him.

“Why are you following me?” Rafe shouted.

The man with nowhere else to run or hide, turned slowly. 

“Because you’re the newest one.”

Rafe’s fingers twitched. “Newest what?”

The man took a few steps closer, enough for Rafe to see his face, lines carved by time and regret, eyes too calm for someone who’d been running.

“The newest user,” he said quietly. “The System doesn’t make mistakes. It picked you.”

Rafe froze. “You know about it.”

“I did,” the man replied. “A long time ago.”

The rain hissed between them. Somewhere below, a car horn blared, muffled by the distance from the roof.

Rafe studied him. He was older, mid-forties, maybe fifties, but something in his expression felt ageless. “Who are you?”

The man smiled faintly. “Name’s Noah Ward. You won’t find me online, or in any record. The System erased that the day I failed it.”

Rafe’s pulse spiked. “Failed?”

Noah nodded, turning his gaze to the skyline. “It gives you missions, doesn’t it? Rewards. Opportunities. Power. It whispers to you like it knows what you need most. You think it's chance. It’s not.”

Rafe said nothing. He couldn’t.

“The System,” Noah continued, “chooses sons-in-laws who have been broken. Humiliated. Cast aside by families who saw them as stains. It watches them. Test them. See if they’ll prove their worth or drown in bitterness.”

He paused, eyes hollow. “We were all the same once. Hungry. Desperate to be seen.”

Rafe took a step forward. “So what are you saying? It’s some kind of… divine punishment?”

Noah chuckled softly. “Divine? No. It’s…it’s more like, deliberate. It feeds off potential and pain. It wants to see how far you’ll go, to matter. How much of yourself you’ll trade to rise.”

Lightning flashed across the clouds. Rafe’s jaw tightened. “And you? What did it make you do, huh?”

Noah didn’t answer immediately. His silence said enough.

Finally, he exhaled, voice low. “At first, it was simple. Make money. Prove myself. Then it asked me to hurt people. People who had wronged me. At first, I justified it. Told myself they deserved it. Until I couldn’t tell who deserved what anymore.”

He looked at Rafe, and in his eyes was the reflection of someone who had seen too much.

“I passed every mission,” he whispered, “until I failed the last one.”

Rafe frowned. “What happened?”

“It asked me to choose,” Noah said. “Between saving my wife or keeping everything I’d built. I hesitated. The System called it weakness.”

A bitter smile touched his lips. “Now I’m here. Not dead. Not alive. Just… stuck.”

The wind howled between them.

Rafe clenched his fists. “You’re lying.”

Noah tilted his head. “You want me to be.”

“I’m not like you,” Rafe said, voice rising. “I’m not going to let some program decide my life.”

Noah smiled faintly. “That’s what I said too. The System doesn’t care what you say. It only cares what you choose. Every mission is a mirror, Rafe. It shows you what kind of man you really are.”

Rafe’s breathing steadied. He felt the familiar ache in his chest, the memory of being called useless, slapped, thrown out, humiliated. His anger surged again, but Noah’s words made it falter just slightly.

“So what now?” he asked. “You came here to warn me?”

“I came here to remind you,” Noah said softly. “You can use it. But don’t let it use you. You’ll start to notice it speaks in patterns. Rewards logic. Punishes mercy. If you let it make all your choices… you’ll wake up one day and realize you’re nothing but its reflection.”

He stepped closer. The rain had slowed now, soft drizzle misting the air.

“Remember this,” Noah said. “The System isn’t the enemy. But neither is it your friend.”

Rafe looked up, but Noah was already backing away.

“Don’t follow me,” Noah said. “It’ll be watching now. Once the System senses two users in contact, it recalibrates. It’ll test you harder next time.”

“Noah!” Rafe called. “Wait—“

But Noah only smiled, a tired, hollow smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Prove your worth, Rafe, get your revenge. But don’t lose your soul doing it.”

Then he stepped backward into the rain, disappearing down the fire escape as the shadows swallowed him whole.

Rafe stood there long after he was gone.

He closed his eyes and whispered, “I’m not like you.”

But even as he said it, he wasn’t sure if he believed it. He wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.

The rain had stopped when he reached the street below. The city glowed under wet lights, reflections stretching like melted gold across the pavement.

He walked aimlessly, hands buried in his pockets, thoughts louder than the traffic around him. Noah’s voice echoed in his mind.

“Don’t lose yourself.”

A soft cough pulled his attention. Near an alley, a homeless man sat huddled against a wall, wrapped in a torn blanket. His hair was matted, his skin pale with cold.

Rafe paused.

The man looked up, eyes weary. “Got any change, mate?”

Rafe hesitated. The System’s faint hum tickled his mind, almost as if watching.

He could walk away. It would be logical and safe. But something in him refused.

He reached into his pocket, pulling out a few notes and a wrapped sandwich from earlier in the cafe.

“Here,” Rafe said, kneeling. “It’s not much, but it’s something.”

The man blinked, confused, then took it slowly. “Why help a stranger?”

Rafe smiled faintly. “Because everyone deserves one last chance.”

The man nodded weakly, eyes glistening. “You’re a good man.”

Rafe stood, brushing off his coat. “Try to stay warm tonight.”

He turned and walked off, unaware that the man was still staring after him.

As Rafe passed a row of shops, his reflection caught on a television display in the window. 

The news was on, bright graphics, loud commentary.

BREAKING NEWS: Former Li Corporation son-in-law, Rafe Miller, rescues struggling café from bankruptcy with innovative social campaign.

His image filled the screen, Him standing with the café owner, smiling awkwardly.

The host’s voice boomed:

“Despite his public humiliation and his wife's recent call for divorce, sources say Miller’s new business idea could revolutionize small enterprises in London.”

Rafe stopped walking. The world around him blurred for a moment.

It was strange seeing himself there. He never really appeared on television. Even though he was married into the most influential family in London. 

He always stayed at the sidelines, while they took all the glory.

But now he made it there by himself, but not as a failure this time, but as someone becoming.

He exhaled slowly, almost laughing. “Guess the world’s finally watching.”

The System flickered faintly in his vision.

[Mission #4 Completed.]

Reward Pending...]

He smiled and turned away.

Across town, in a lavish penthouse overlooking the Thames, Clara Li held a glass of wine in one hand as her mother flipped through the TV channels.

“Honestly,” Mrs. Li scoffed, pausing on the same broadcast. “They’ll make a hero out of anyone these days.”

Clara’s cousin, Jordan smirked. “Look at him. Playing the victim while feeding reporters. Classic pity tactic. Disgusting.”

Clara said nothing, her expression unreadable. She watched Rafe’s image on the screen, cleaner now, sharper. The same man she’d once dismissed as hopeless.

Her father frowned. “Keep an eye on him. I don’t like the attention around that name.” He said to one of his bodyguards.

“And if he stares too much trouble, feel free to kill him.” Mrs Li commanded.

Clara finally turned away, swirling her wine. “Don’t worry,” she said quietly. “He’s still the same man who served drinks at our dinner table. There’s no redemption or second chances for fools like him.”

Outside, Rafe disappeared into the flow of London’s night crowd.

[Next Mission Loading...]

He looked up at the city lights and whispered under his breath, “Let’s see what you want from me next.”

And for the first time since it began, the System didn’t answer.