2025-10-14 08:10:45The morning sun crept through the cracked window, painting Jason’s small room in weak light.
He hadn’t slept. His eyes were red, his thoughts heavy. Stephanie’s message still sat open on his phone. Victor’s threat below it. And the system’s warning glowed faintly — Choice impacts fate. Jason took a deep breath. The air felt thin, as if the world itself was holding its breath. He looked at the silver cross hanging on his chest. “If hope fuels growth,” he whispered, “then I can’t choose hate.” He deleted Victor’s message. Then he typed back to Stephanie. > Jason: I don’t hate you. But I can’t trust you yet. Not anymore. He hit send, placed the phone face down, and stared at the wall. For a moment, silence filled the room — the heavy kind that carries pain. Then the screen on the wall blinked alive again. > System Notice: Decision logged. Integrity confirmed. +2 lifespan days. Total: 67 days. Jason smiled faintly. “So honesty really matters…” --- He got up, dressed in his worn grey hoodie, and walked out. The city was awake now — buses honking, sellers shouting, the air smelling of fried food and dust. He rode his old bicycle to the small repair shop where he used to work part-time before Mark fired him. Inside, the smell of oil hit him. The other workers looked up in surprise. “Jason? You got guts showing your face here,” one of them muttered. Jason didn’t answer. He just picked up a broken fan from the floor and started fixing it. His hands were steady, his mind focused. Minutes passed. Then hours. Finally, Mark’s angry voice came from behind. “I thought I fired you!” Jason didn’t stop working. “I’m not here for you. I’m here to finish what I started.” Mark sneered. “You think fixing one fan will make me forgive you?” Jason looked up, calm. “I don’t need forgiveness from someone who doesn’t respect people.” The whole shop went quiet. Mark’s face twisted with anger. “Get out!” he yelled. “Before I—” A loud spark burst from the fan Jason was working on — and suddenly the fan started spinning perfectly. Smooth, silent, cold air blowing. The workers gasped. One of them whispered, “That fan’s been dead for weeks…” Jason stepped back, surprised too. Then the system screen blinked quietly inside his vision. > System Task Complete: ‘Fix what was broken.’ Reward: $3,500 +5 lifespan days. Total: 72 days. Jason’s eyes widened slightly, but he didn’t smile. He just wiped his hands, left the fan running, and walked away. Outside, the cold wind brushed his face. He felt alive again — a strange mix of pain and power. --- At a small food stand, he ordered bread and tea. The seller, an old woman with kind eyes, looked worried. “Young man, you look tired. You okay?” Jason nodded. “I’m just… starting over.” She smiled softly. “Starting over is hard, but sometimes God gives you one more chance just when you least expect it.” Jason’s chest tightened. Those words hit deep. He smiled back faintly and handed her a few bills. The system blinked again. > Mini Task Complete: ‘Show gratitude in hardship.’ Reward: $1,000 +1 lifespan day. Jason chuckled quietly to himself. “So kindness really pays too.” But then he noticed something strange — people were staring. At him. Or rather, at his phone, which had just vibrated with a bank alert: $4,500 deposited. “Did that just…?” he whispered. He quickly walked away, tucking the phone in his pocket. --- Later that day, Jason returned home and sat at his desk. He opened the system panel again. > Available Features: 1. Task Board 2. Health Status 3. Emotional Growth Log 4. Investment Option (LOCKED) 5. Communication Mode (LOCKED) Jason frowned. “Investment? Communication?” The system’s voice echoed faintly in his mind — soft but cold. > “Your actions determine what paths unlock. Money is only a tool. Use it with purpose.” Jason exhaled slowly. “Then let’s find a purpose.” He thought about the orphanage — the broken roof, the hungry kids. He thought about Caleb, the boy who used to dream of owning a bookstore. He thought about himself — dying with nothing but regret. He stood up suddenly and packed a bag. He had a plan. --- The road to the orphanage was long, dusty, and filled with memories. Every corner held ghosts of the past — the nights he cried, the mornings he woke up to cold rain dripping through the roof. When he arrived, Sister Ruth was sweeping the front steps. She froze when she saw him. “Jason? My God, look at you! You disappeared for years!” Jason smiled weakly. “I know. I’ve… been trying to survive.” She looked at him closely. “You look sick, child.” Jason forced a smile. “I’m fine. Just tired.” He handed her an envelope full of cash. “Please fix the roof. And buy food for the kids.” Her eyes widened. “Jason, where did you—?” He shook his head. “Don’t ask. Just promise you’ll use it well.” Tears filled her eyes. “You always had a good heart.” The system flickered again. > Major Task Complete: ‘Return kindness where you came from.’ Reward: $10,000 +10 lifespan days. Total: 82 days. Jason stared at the glowing number. From 60 days to 82. He was buying more time — but more than that, he was feeling alive again. --- That night, as he walked home through the quiet streets, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned. Victor stood there, leaning against a black car, smirking. “Impressive, Jason. Money out of thin air. You’ve got something I want.” Jason’s heart raced. “How did you find me?” Victor shrugged. “You’re not that hard to track. I see you’ve been giving away money instead of keeping it. What a waste.” Jason’s fists tightened. “At least I’m not destroying people for it.” Victor laughed coldly. “You think you’re better than me? You think that ‘good heart’ of yours will save you? Let’s see how far it gets you when I’m done.” He stepped closer. “Whatever secret you have, I’ll find it. And I’ll use it better than you ever could.” Jason’s jaw clenched. “Try me.” Victor smirked, his eyes cold. “Oh, I will. You’ve just made your first real enemy.” He got in the car and drove off, leaving Jason standing in the rain. The system flickered again. > Warning: Rival detected. Monitoring initiated. Hidden Path: ‘Shadow Network’ unlocked. Note: Rivals can now access fragments of your power. Protect your purpose. Jason closed his eyes, breathing heavily. So the fight had just begun. He looked up at the sky. Clouds were gathering again — dark and heavy. But instead of fear, he felt something new rising inside him. Hope. > “If I’m dying anyway,” he whispered, “then I’ll spend every day living like I still matter.” The cross on his chest glowed softly — a quiet promise that his story wasn’t over yet.
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chapter 9: legacy threat
The night outside Jason’s window was still, almost too still. The city’s pulse, the one that usually roared with sirens and laughter, felt muted—like the world itself was holding its breath for him.Malik’s words wouldn’t leave his head. Victor is your father. The phrase looped again and again until it lost all meaning and then came back sharper, more painful. He sat there in silence, gripping the cross that had started everything. It felt heavier now—as if the metal had absorbed his shame.He wanted to scream, to punch something, to destroy every wall that kept the truth hidden all these years. But the only sound in the room was the slow beeping of the holographic screen and Stephanie’s uneven breathing beside him.Her body was getting weaker. The extensions she had gained by sharing his tasks were fading. Her skin had gone pale, lips cracked, hands trembling even when she tried to smile at him.“Jason…” she whispered. “You’re shaking again.”“I’m fine.”“You haven’t eaten.”He laugh
chapter 8: rekindled alliance
The night Malik betrayed him, the city didn’t sleep. Neon bled across the puddles, and Jason walked without feeling his feet. Every light seemed to whisper a different version of his failure.He had given everything — his last days, his last strength — to a cause meant to outlive him. And now, before dawn, the fund that carried his name was about to vanish into the same dark that had taken his parents.He stopped at a bridge and stared down at the black water. The cross against his chest glowed faint red, like a heartbeat that didn’t trust itself.> INTEGRITY BREACH DETECTEDACCOUNT COLLAPSE IN 06 HOURSJason’s reflection trembled in the water. “Why do you keep giving me hope just to take it back?”The screen flickered once more:> Resolve Test Active.He laughed under his breath. “Then watch me resolve.”He turned from the bridge and headed toward the one place he swore never to go again — the glass tower of V Industries, Victor’s domain. If Malik worked for Victor, maybe the damage
chapter 7: the million gambit
The morning after the storm, the city smelled of wet dust and diesel. Jason crossed the empty street with a cheap umbrella and the weight of the holographic cross pressing against his chest. The screen had flashed its cruel reminder at dawn:> TASK: Amass and spend $500 000 in meaningful aid within five days.REWARD: +15 days of life.PENALTY: Emotional erosion — Stage 2.Five days. A number so small it felt like an insult.He rented a desk in a shared workspace that still hummed from the previous night’s power cut. The ceiling dripped. His laptop fan wheezed. He named his page The Orphan Horizon Project—one sentence of code, a blank donate button, and a mission that sounded impossible.By noon he had called everyone he’d ever met—former co-workers, small charities, classmates who barely remembered him. Most answered with sympathy, none with help.Then a stranger’s voice came from behind him, low and confident.“Maybe what you need is presentation.”Jason looked up. A man stood there
chapter 6: strategic resolve
The rain followed him home, whispering like an echo that refused to die.Jason walked with his hood up, every step heavy, every breath tight. The city still looked the same — neon lights, tired streets — but he wasn’t the same anymore.The system had changed him. Money had changed him. Pain had carved new steel into his bones.And yet, beneath all that, a quiet ember still glowed — a memory of what he once was.He reached his apartment, dripping on the floorboards, and pulled out the glowing cross.“Grandpa,” he whispered, “you said faith marks blood. Maybe this… this is my mark.”The holographic screen flickered awake.> System Notice:Stability restored: 78 %. New potential detected.Generate long-term task?Jason exhaled. “Yes. Something that matters.”> Task Generated – ‘Build Meaning From Pain’Objective: Create a self-sustaining platform that helps at least one hundred orphans within thirty days.Reward: +10 days life, Wealth multiplier unlocked.He stared at the glowing words.
chapter 5 : hidden costs
Morning came, but the sky stayed dark.Jason hadn’t slept.He sat on the rooftop of the old hostel, soaked to the bone, staring at the glowing city that never cared he existed.Victor’s words replayed in his mind over and over like poison on repeat.> “Your mother always said your eyes looked just like mine.”It didn’t make sense.How could Victor know anything about his parents when Jason had been told they died when he was just three?He tried to remember their faces, but all he saw were silhouettes behind smoke — flashes of gentle laughter, the smell of old perfume, and then nothing. Just cold emptiness.His chest ached.And deep inside that ache, the screen pulsed awake again.> System Log:Warning – Emotional stability below threshold.Processing trauma response.Task queue recalibrated.Jason wiped his wet face, muttering, “What now?”The holographic text formed slowly, almost softly, like the screen itself pitied him.> New task: “Transform loss into value. Invest meaningfully.
chapter 4: penalty pain
The city was gray that morning — a dull, merciless gray that felt like it had been painted just to match Jason’s chest.Rainwater gathered in the cracks of the street as if even the sky couldn’t stop crying for him.He sat on the bus, silent, staring out through a window smeared with fog and fingerprints. In his pocket, the holographic screen rested against his thigh like a silent bomb. It hadn’t glowed since midnight, after the task, but its presence made his pulse quicken every few seconds — the memory of its voice echoing in his mind.> “Task failed. One day deducted. Memory penalty initiated.”He didn’t understand what it meant until morning, when he woke up and tried to remember something that wasn’t there.Something small.Something human.He sat up, hand pressed to his head, trying to recall the face of a boy — his only childhood friend at the orphanage. But when he tried to picture him, all he saw was a blur. He couldn’t remember the boy’s name, his voice, or even what they us
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