The campus, once a playground of fake smiles and curated facades, now buzzed like a disturbed beehive. With every breath, it felt like the walls were whispering. Everyone had something to hide—and Elias had begun digging deep.
The boy no one cared about, mocked for his tattered shoes and secondhand phone, now stood at the edge of a storm he was creating.
---
7:02 AM – Trending Campus Feed
> #ExposeThemAll
#CampusLeaks
#EliasKingUncovered
#TruthOverStatus
No one knew where the leaks were coming from. But students were suddenly afraid to check their socials. A freshman had gone viral for a fake pregnancy stunt. A popular lecturer's affair with a married parent exploded across DMs. Even the head of security had been caught collecting "nude insurance" from female streamers in exchange for fake drug test results.
The entire system was rotting—and Elias's watch pulsed with a glow so cold it almost felt alive.
Task Progress: 68% Complete.
Scandal Scale: Rising.
Public Influence Index: Surging.
---
10:10 AM – Lecture Hall B-3
Elias walked into class and the silence was deafening. Students stared. Some in awe. Some in disgust. Some in fear. Even the lecturer, Mr. Tembo, paused his lesson.
"Mr. King," he said with dry lips, "I suppose we're honored you joined us today."
"Don't be," Elias replied, dropping into his chair. "Today's going to get a lot worse."
Mila shifted uncomfortably beside him. She hadn't spoken since the tunnels. The surveillance room, the files—they'd changed her. She couldn't pretend anymore.
"I saw myself through their eyes," she whispered to him. "Like I was nothing more than a storyline."
"We're all just stories to them," Elias muttered. "Until we start writing our own."
---
1:45 PM – Rooftop, West Wing
Leah Moire sat alone, knees pulled to her chest, eyes lost in the sky. She was on the Redlist—marked dangerous. She wasn't surprised.
She'd hacked the system once. Got caught. Got labeled.
Now she was watching from the shadows, quietly reaching out to Elias.
"I know you found the Core," she texted him. "But you're being watched too. The system has eyes. Don't trust everyone."
He responded only with a question:
"What's beyond the Core?"
Her reply chilled him:
> "There's another level. Below it. That's where the real monsters live."
---
3:33 PM – Campus Gala Office
Inside a gold-trimmed boardroom, chaos reigned.
Ava was breaking down.
"Everything is crashing!" she cried. "My sponsors are threatening to drop me! My parents are asking if I'm pregnant. I never even—" Her voice cracked.
Troy clenched his fists. "Elias is doing this. He's turning us into circus animals."
Professor Luwanda's voice came through the speakerphone. "Control the damage. Control him. That boy is a virus."
But in that very moment, the projector flickered to life. A video started playing.
Ava and Professor Luwanda.
Together.
In a hotel room.
The sound cut out—but the expressions were enough.
Someone screamed.
Ava collapsed.
---
5:55 PM – Behind the Campus Mall
Local thugs met with a man in a black coat. He handed them a photo.
"His name's Elias. 18. Broke. Student ID: 019786. You'll find him around Lecture Block C or near the rooftop garden. Make it look like an accident."
They didn't ask questions. They just nodded.
But someone else had been watching them from the shadows.
Mr. Blaine.
The janitor.
He smirked, then pulled out his old walkie.
"Code Scarlet. Target marked. Activate Phantom Protocol."
---
9:10 PM – Elias's Dorm
He didn't lock the door anymore. He wanted them to come.
He stood shirtless at the window, bruises from earlier fights still aching. His eyes burned with something new.
Not rage.
Conviction.
The watch beeped.
Final Task Activated: Collapse One Empire Before Midnight.
Reward: "God-Key" – Unlocks the Hidden Room Beneath the Core.
Failure Consequence: Immediate Exposure. Blacklist. Expulsion. Isolation.
Elias cracked his knuckles.
He smiled.
"I'm going to break your little kingdom," he whispered to the sky, "and I'll do it with nothing but the truth."
The clock was ticking.
And a revolution had already begun.