godslum: The Landlord System

Chapter 5: Kill Order

Aaron looked at the man on the roof across the street. The man held the big book. DEEDS. He wrote in it. He didn’t look up. But Aaron felt the writing like a knife.

*SYSTEM: KILL ORDER ACTIVE. ALL REGISTERED LANDLORDS CAN SEE YOUR LOCATION. REWARD FOR YOUR DEATH: VELLI STREET TENEMENT.*

The words were cold. The Hearth God was gone. The warm feeling in Aaron’s chest was gone. Now there was only silver. Like a coin. Like a price on his head.

Selene stood next to him. Her face was white. “He never comes out. Not for anyone.”

“Who is he?” Aaron asked.

“Mayor Harris,” Selene said. “But we call him the Prime Landlord. He owns the Book. The Book owns the city. If your name is in it, you live. If he crosses it out, you die.”

Downstairs, the fighting stopped. Selene’s men in white armor stood in the lobby. The floor was broken. Glass was everywhere. Three Reapers were dead. Their bodies turned to smoke. Two ran away.

“Sector clear,” one of the armored men said. “Casualties: zero. Building damage: high.”

“Good,” Selene said. “Secure the block. No one comes in or out without my word.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The men ran out. Cars started outside. More of Selene’s people were coming.

Aaron sat on the stairs. He was tired. His arm hurt where the scythe cut him. Blood was on his shirt. Brick Skin was gone. He felt like a normal man again.

Lily came to him. She touched his arm. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” Aaron said.

Maria pulled Lily back. She looked at Selene. “Who is she?”

“A friend,” Aaron said. But the word felt wrong.

Selene looked at Maria. “I’m the woman keeping you alive tonight.” She looked at Aaron. “We need to talk. Now.”

They went to the roof. The night was cold. The city lights were small below. Across the street, the roof was empty. The Prime Landlord was gone.

*SYSTEM: CORPORATE SHIELD AVAILABLE. COST: $10,000 PER HOUR. CURRENT BALANCE: $0. PAYMENT DUE OR SHIELD FAILS.*

Aaron stared at the words. “It costs money now?”

Selene heard him. “Yes. The Hearth God gave you power for free. He liked you. I don’t give anything for free.” She took out her phone. “I’m paying for your shield right now. Ten thousand an hour. You owe me.”

“How do I pay you back?” Aaron asked.

“You fight for me,” Selene said. “You help me kill the Prime Landlord. When he’s dead, I take City Hall. You take half the city. We both win.”

“You said you couldn’t kill him,” Aaron said. “The Book won’t let you.”

“It won’t,” Selene said. “But you can. You’re marked. That means the Book knows you. If you get close, you can touch it. Burn it. Break it. Then the rules are gone.”

Aaron looked at his hand. The key tattoo was silver now. It felt cold.

“What happened to my powers?” he asked.

“The Hearth God left you,” Selene said. “You chose me. He doesn’t like that. But you got something new. Corporate Shield. It’s not as strong. But it can be bought. And I have money.”

She pointed down. A truck stopped in front of the building. Men carried boxes inside.

“Food. Water. Medicine. Guns,” Selene said. “For your tenants. Free. For now.”

Jamal came up to the roof. He had a gun in his hand. One of Selene’s men gave it to him. “We good?” he asked Aaron.

“No,” Aaron said. “But we’re alive.”

Mrs. Chen came up next. She had a cup of coffee. She gave it to Aaron. “The lady downstairs says we’re safe. Is that true?”

Aaron looked at Selene.

“For tonight,” Selene said. “My men will hold the building. But the Kill Order is real. Every landlord in the city saw your name appear in the Book. Every slumlord, every boss, every gang with a deed. They will come. For the building. For the reward.”

“How many?” Tom asked. He came up with a hammer.

“Two hundred,” Selene said. “Maybe more.”

The roof got quiet.

“We can’t fight two hundred,” Maria said. She held Lily.

“We can,” Selene said. “If we’re smart. If we make this building worth more dead than alive.”

“What does that mean?” Aaron asked.

“Fortify it,” Selene said. “Make it a castle. I’ll pay. You use Corporate Shield. We turn this slum into a tower. One that bites back.”

*SYSTEM: NEW QUEST. FORTIFY THE TENEMENT. USE MONEY TO BUY UPGRADES. CURRENT BALANCE: $0. SELENE KAINE CREDIT: $500,000.*

Five hundred thousand dollars. Aaron never saw that much money in his life.

“Why help me?” Aaron asked. “You said you’re not a real landlord. The system doesn’t like you.”

Selene looked at the city. “Because I’m tired. I’ve been playing the game for ten years. Buying, selling, evicting. I have everything. And I have nothing.” She looked at Aaron. “You’re new. You’re honest. The Hearth God chose you for a reason. Maybe you can end this. End the Book. End the Prime Landlord.”

“Why not just kill me and take my building?” Aaron asked.

“I could,” Selene said. “But the deed would go back to the Book. The Prime Landlord would give it to someone else. Someone worse than me. Someone worse than you.” She smiled. It was small. Real. “I’d rather bet on you.”

Aaron didn’t trust her. But he didn’t have a choice.

“Okay,” he said. “What’s first?”

“Doors,” Selene said. “Windows. Walls. We make this place hard to break.”

She took out a tablet. She tapped it. “I’m sending you access to the Corporate Shield store. You buy what you need. I pay.”

Aaron’s vision changed. Words appeared. A list.

*CORPORATE SHIELD STORE*

*STEEL DOORS: $10,000*

*BULLET PROOF WINDOWS: $25,000*

*AUTO TURRETS: $50,000*

*REINFORCED WALLS: $100,000*

*ROOF MISSILE SYSTEM: $250,000*

Aaron stared. “Missiles?”

“For big problems,” Selene said.

Aaron bought steel doors first. *-$10,000. SELENE CREDIT: $490,000.*

Downstairs, the front door changed. It turned to solid steel. It locked with a sound like a bank vault.

The tenants gasped.

“Bullet proof windows,” Aaron said. *-$25,000.*

The windows in the lobby turned dark. Thick. Strong.

“Now they can’t see us,” Jamal said. “And we can’t see them.”

“You don’t need to,” Selene said. “Cameras are next. Then turrets.”

Aaron kept buying. The building changed. It got harder. Colder. Like a bank. Like a jail.

*BUILDING HEALTH: 62% → 85%. FORTIFICATION LEVEL: LOW → MEDIUM.*

Lily tugged on Aaron’s shirt. “I don’t like it. It feels scary now.”

Aaron knelt down. “I know. But it will keep you safe.”

“Will it?” she asked.

Aaron didn’t answer.

At 3 AM, the first attack came.

*SYSTEM ALERT: HOSTILE LANDLORDS DETECTED. NUMBER: 12. WEAPONS: GUNS, BATS.*

Selene’s men on the street fired first. Gunshots. Shouts. Then silence.

“Twelve down,” a voice said in Selene’s ear. “More coming. They’re not pros. Just small time owners. They want the bounty.”

“Hold the line,” Selene said.

She looked at Aaron. “This is the start. By morning, the real ones come. The ones with powers. Like you had. Like I can’t have.”

Aaron looked at his hand. The silver key. “Can I get my old powers back?”

“No,” Selene said. “The Hearth God is gone. But you can get new ones. Better ones. If we kill the Prime Landlord. If you take the Book.”

“Why would I want the Book?” Aaron asked. “It sounds evil.”

“It is,” Selene said. “But it’s also control. Right now, the Book says who lives and who dies. Who owns and who rents. If you own the Book, you make the rules.”

Aaron thought of Marco. Of the 1,439 ghosts in his walls. Of his dad, freezing in a garage.

“Could I burn it?” he asked.

Selene looked surprised. “Burn the Book? No one ever tried. It might destroy the whole system. No more landlords. No more tenants. Just… people.”

“Good,” Aaron said.

Selene smiled. “Then we agree.”

At 5 AM, the second attack came.

*HOSTILE LANDLORDS: 30. POWERS DETECTED: FIRE, STRENGTH, SPEED.*

This time, it wasn’t just guns. A man ran at the building on fire. He hit the steel door. The door held, but the heat was strong. Another man picked up a car and threw it. It hit the window. The window cracked but didn’t break.

*CORPORATE SHIELD: DAMAGE TAKEN. REPAIR COST: $15,000. AUTO-PAID BY SELENE.*

“AUTO TURRETS!” Aaron shouted. *-$100,000. TWO TURRETS PLACED.*

Metal boxes rose from the roof. They turned. They fired. Not bullets. Light. Blue light.

The fire man screamed and fell. The strong man dropped the car and ran.

The attack stopped.

*HOSTILES RETREATING. 18 DOWN. 12 FLED. BUILDING DAMAGE: 5%.*

Sunrise came. The street was quiet. Broken cars. Broken bodies. All gone now. Selene’s men cleaned fast.

Aaron was on the roof. He hadn’t slept. He felt empty. No Soul Rent. No Hearth God. Just money. And debt.

Selene came up. She had coffee. She gave him one. “You did good.”

“They’ll be back,” Aaron said.

“Tonight,” Selene said. “And they’ll be stronger. The Prime Landlord will send his best. His Reapers. Maybe himself.”

Aaron looked at the City Hall in the distance. The sun hit the gold dome. It looked like a crown.

“How do we win?” he asked.

“We don’t,” Selene said. “Not by hiding. We go to him. We take the fight to City Hall. Today. Before he gets more men.”

“With what?” Aaron asked. “I have 23 tenants and some guns.”

“You have me,” Selene said. “And my army. And you have this.”

She held out a piece of paper. It was a deed. Not for a building. For a street.

*DEED: VELLI STREET. OWNER: AARON WOLFE. GRANTED BY: SELENE KAINE. EFFECT: YOU CONTROL THE STREET. ALL BUILDINGS ON IT.*

Aaron took it. The paper was warm.

*SYSTEM: NEW TERRITORY ACQUIRED. VELLI STREET. SOUL RENT TYPE CHANGED: CORPORATE TAX. YOU NOW GAIN MONEY FROM TENANTS, NOT POWER. MONEY CAN BUY POWER.*

Aaron felt sick. He was a businessman now.

“Congratulations,” Selene said. “You’re not a slumlord anymore. You’re a corporate lord.”

Downstairs, the tenants were waking up. They looked at the steel doors. At the guns. At the broken windows.

Lily saw Aaron. She didn’t run to him. She hid behind Maria.

Aaron felt the loss. More than the Hearth God. He lost her trust.

*SYSTEM: NEW QUEST. RAID CITY HALL. KILL THE PRIME LANDLORD. TIME LIMIT: 12 HOURS. FAIL: ALL TENANTS DIE.*

Selene put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s time, Aaron. Do you want to be king, or do you want to be dead?”

Aaron looked at his building. His people. Then at City Hall.

“Get your men ready,” he said. “We go at noon.”

Selene smiled. “Good. Oh, and one more thing.”

She pointed down the street.

A man walked toward them. He was old. He had a wrench. He wore a dirty mechanic’s jacket.

He looked like Aaron’s dad.

“Dad?” Aaron whispered.

The man looked up. His eyes were gold.

*SYSTEM ERROR: HEARTH GOD DETECTED. STATUS: DEAD. THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE.*

The man smiled. Blood ran from his lips.

“Hello, Landlord,” he said. His voice was like a house settling. “You betrayed me. Now I’ll take back what’s mine.”