Unlimited Transaction System

System Bug and Evolution

My breath caught in my throat. Inside the SUV's cabin, which had suddenly become suffocatingly tense, I stared at Elena as she slammed on the brakes without warning. The tires screeched violently across Arkadia's rain-slick asphalt, triggering instant panic.

In front of me, the dashboard display continued flickering erratically, projecting a blood-red warning that pulsed relentlessly across my vision.

[WARNING: Your Device Has Been Infiltrated by a Primary Competitor System (High Level). Consciousness Synchronization Is in Danger.]

"Arkan! What's happening?!" Elena shouted. Her voice, usually as cold as ice, cracked with panic. Her hand moved instinctively, drawing a semi-automatic pistol from beneath her blazer while her sharp eyes scanned beyond the windows. The cabin had gone dark after the vehicle's electrical system completely failed.

"He's... he's inside my head, Elena!" I groaned, clutching both sides of my skull.

Agony crashed into me, as though a burning needle were being forced straight through my skull. That heavily modulated digital laughter still echoed inside my consciousness, mocking the hollow victory I had just celebrated over Hendra.

I gasped for air as cold sweat soaked through my expensive dress shirt.

"Damn it! Bastard!" I cursed, fury mixing with overwhelming terror.

For the first time since obtaining this System, I felt completely exposed. I felt like prey being herded into a cage.

"We have to get off the road right now. This is an open area, we're easy targets!"

Elena didn't wait for my response. Using her tactical expertise, she manually restarted the SUV after its computerized systems had been crippled. The black vehicle shot through the rain now pouring over Arkadia, racing toward the safehouse, my private office on the top floor of a hidden building on the outskirts of the Financial District.

The moment the office's reinforced steel door locked behind us, the tension refused to fade.

The System's notification chime, once the sound of triumph, had become a shrill, continuous alarm that pierced my ears.

I stood frozen before the main monitor displaying Arkadia's real-time stock exchange.

Beside me, Elena remained alert, her blue eyes sweeping the room as if an invisible enemy could emerge from the walls at any moment.

"Something's wrong," I said, my fingers flying across the mechanical keyboard as I tried tracing the distortion left behind by the intruder. "My ten-minute prediction model isn't linear anymore. Someone deliberately injected anomalous data into the exchange."

"A bot attack from another System user?" Elena asked, stepping closer, her jaw tightening.

"No. This is far too sophisticated for a beginner's bot attack."

I narrowed my eyes, ignoring the pounding in my temples.

"Someone on the other side found a vulnerability in the frequency I use to connect the System to market data. They aren't blocking the signal, Elena. They're manipulating the time loop inside my System's database."

Suddenly, the System interface projected onto my retina flickered violently.

Its usual calming neon blue dissolved into a deep blood-red glow.

My heart pounded uncontrollably.

The fear that had gripped me inside the SUV slowly vanished, replaced by burning rage and an intoxicating desire to fight.

You want to play games with me?

Then I'll show you what happens when you provoke the wrong predator.

This was no longer just a malfunction.

It was an evolution forced into existence by pressure.

[SYSTEM ERROR DETECTED... INTEGRATING UNAUTHORIZED DATA PACKETS...]

[WARNING: Evolution Mode Triggered. You Are Bypassing the Standard Logic-Market Protocol.]

[New Status: 'Insider Trading System' Has Evolved Into: 'Market Oracle V.2.0'.]

"Arkan, get away from the screen! Your face... your eyes are turning red!" Elena cried.

The office suddenly shook violently, as if a small earthquake were rattling the concrete foundation. The monitor's light seemed to drain the oxygen from the room, gathering into swirling particles that spiraled around my hands.

"Arkan! Listen to me!"

Elena grabbed my shirt jacket, trying to pull me away, but her strength was no match for the invisible energy field surrounding me.

"Don't touch me, Elena! Let me... LET ME PULL THE DATA!" I screamed hysterically.

My head felt like it was about to explode.

Data from thousands of publicly traded companies on the Arkadia Exchange flooded my brain.

I saw everything.

Falsified financial reports.

Fabricated dividend promises.

Even the secret merger plans hidden by Arkadia's Four Great Families deep inside their most secure vaults.

In that agonizing trance, I was no longer limited to seeing ten-minute fluctuations.

I saw the patterns of global capital flow, the web of debt binding the Four Great Families together, and the tiny fracture where a single business decision could trigger a domino collapse of bankruptcies.

After five minutes that felt like an eternity in hell, the trembling finally stopped.

The monitor displayed stable green charts once again.

Perfect.

I gasped for breath, my body drenched in cold sweat.

Collapsing into my chair, I stared at my trembling hands.

They still shook, but they were filled with a strength I had never felt before.

"You... you almost died right in front of me," Elena whispered.

Her voice trembled, an incredibly rare crack in the composure of the former cold-blooded agent.

She holstered her weapon before handing me a bottle of mineral water with equally tense hands.

I emptied it in a single gulp.

"I'm more than fine, Elena. The System... it just forced a synchronization with the underground web. It's not limited to ten minutes anymore. I can now predict market behavior across three phases: short term, medium term, and long-term leverage."

I turned toward the monitor, a predator's smile spreading across my face once again.

"Hendra's real estate company, the one I completely gutted this afternoon, is suddenly showing signs of an abnormal rebound. Someone's quietly injecting mysterious liquidity into it."

Elena narrowed her sharp eyes.

"Look at this pattern. Hendra isn't acting alone. The Dirgantara Dynasty has its hands in this. They're using the bankrupt company as a sacrificial shell to conceal a much larger money laundering operation."

"That's incredibly risky," Elena replied after a quick analysis. "If the authorities catch on, the Dirgantara Dynasty is finished."

"That's exactly what makes it beautiful!" I laughed mockingly.

"They think they're safest hiding behind a shell that already looks dead in my eyes. They've forgotten that I now have an Oracle watching every single cent moving through the Arkadia Exchange."

[QUEST UPDATE: Use 'Market Oracle V.2.0' to target the next weakness.]

[Target: Strategic assets of the Dirgantara Family in the energy distribution sector.]

[Warning: Every move during this phase will attract the full attention of the 'Shadow Cabinet.' Your physical security is at its lowest point.]

"Shadow Cabinet," I whispered.

The name rolled off my tongue like an ancient curse.

"They've finally realized there's a wild variable disrupting their chessboard."

"What's our plan?" Elena asked, her tone firm again as she took position beside the door. "Tell me before that bastard System user scrambles your brain again."

"Buy every government bond backed by Dirgantara assets immediately," I ordered, my eyes gleaming with ruthless intent. "Use the entire five hundred billion dollars we earned from crushing the Three Pillars this afternoon. We'll lure them into expanding their position, and once they've committed all their liquidity to that distribution project, we'll pull the rug out from under them."

Elena smiled coldly, instantly understanding my intentions.

"Trap them inside their own investment before we drive the asset's value down to zero?"

"Exactly."

My voice was icy.

"We'll destroy them using their own economic weapons. No bullets. No chaos in the streets. Just a computer cursor pressing the sell button."

Yet beneath my soaring ambition, a heavy weight settled in my chest.

This System.

These new features.

The evolution that had just occurred.

Everything had happened far too quickly.

It was as if someone had designed this program not merely to help me win, but to turn me into a weapon of destruction that would level Arkadia until nothing remained of the old ruling powers.

"Arkan?"

Elena's voice softened unexpectedly as she approached my chair.

"You... your eyes are frightening. Are you still thinking about that intruder's attack?"

I looked deeply into her blue eyes.

There was genuine fear there.

Not fear of our enemies.

Fear of the man standing before her.

"Elena, tell me honestly. If one day I'm no longer the Arkan you know, if this System slowly erases my humanity, will you still stand by my side?"

She remained silent for a long moment.

The silence between us felt heavier than the thunderstorm raging outside.

She stepped closer, placing her warm hand firmly on my shoulder.

"I'm a former agent, Arkan. I know exactly what it feels like to lose your identity and become a weapon for people with more power than you."

She met my gaze without hesitation.

"If that System ever truly takes your soul... I won't let you become the monster they want. I'll pull the trigger myself to stop you."

Her words struck my heart far harder than the tidal wave of market data ever had.

But they also became the anchor that kept me sane.

"Then let's finish this before I become that monster," I said as I locked the main dashboard.

"What's our first move tonight?"

I rose from my chair and walked toward the massive glass window overlooking Arkadia's sprawling metropolis.

The city lights below resembled a golden labyrinth, promising both unimaginable wealth and certain death.

"I'm calling every watchdog employed by the Great Families. They wanted to meet the new player, didn't they? Tomorrow, I'll make them understand that this market has new rules now. Rules they no longer control."

The dim glow returned to my retina, confirming the financial war I had just declared.

Outside, the storm grew even more violent, as though anticipating the flood of financial blood I would unleash the following morning.

I shut down the monitor with a decisive touch.

The real battle had only just begun.

Yet just as the monitor's light faded and the silence of the night settled over the room, a strange vibration pulsed through my wrist.

It wasn't my phone.

Nor was it a System notification.

I looked down.

The analog mechanical watch on my wrist, which contained no digital components whatsoever, suddenly had its second hand spinning backward at an insane speed.

At the same time, my reflection in the darkened window stopped mirroring my movements.

The reflection remained perfectly still, staring back at me with a horrifying grin while its eyes glowed blood red.

At the corner of my vision, new text slowly appeared, written in a trembling, archaic font.

[CONSCIOUSNESS SYNCHRONIZATION: 89%... THE COMPETITOR USER HAS ACCEPTED THE TRANSFER OF YOUR SOUL AS THE STAKE FOR THE NEXT SESSION.]

The breath I had just drawn caught in my throat.

The Competitor wasn't attacking my System from the outside.

He had already planted his seed inside my soul from the very moment the System began evolving.