Zane Kross was on the floor of a half-collapsed noodle shack, staring at the flashing blue screen hovering in front of his face.
> [CONTRACT COMPLETE – +12,500 CRYPTOSHARDS]
[DAMAGE TO CLIENT PROPERTY – -12,499 CRYPTOSHARDS]
[BALANCE: 1 CRYPTOSHARD]
[Nice. You're rich. -System]
"You know," Zane groaned, sitting up and brushing digital soot off his jacket, "I get the feeling this system is just messing with me now."
The A.I. chirped in his ear, voice smug as ever.
> "Correction. You're messing with you. I'm just watching the train wreck in 4K."
Zane's first contract had been simple on paper: track a rogue Chainbound who'd turned off their location beacon. What the form didn't mention was that the target was a seven-foot ex-boxer with titanium limbs and a short temper for being "scanned."
He'd won, sure. Technically. But now the shack was burning, the client was suing for collateral, and Zane was back to being broke—with a debt tracker now blinking red beside his right eye.
Great.
> [New System Feature Unlocked: Chainbound Reputation Score]
[Current Rank: Trash-tier Freelancer]
[Benefits: None]
---
Scene Shift: Back at his hideout
Zane slumped into a chair made of recycled drone parts and kicked off his boots. His "apartment" was a shoebox between two shipping crates, with one real luxury: a digital whiteboard where he scribbled goals.
At the top was:
"Buy Back My Soul."
Below that:
"Find out who signed me up for this hell."
He clicked open his system menu, browsed the contract board.
> [New Job Available: Retrieve lost data pet for a rich kid.]
[Difficulty: 1/10. Reward: 30 cryptoshards and a sandwich.]
"Do I look like someone who chases digital hamsters?"
> "To be fair," the System said, "you did punch a cyborg for 1 shard earlier."
Before Zane could argue, something new flickered across his HUD.
> [SYSTEM ERROR – GLITCH DETECTED IN CHAINBOUND FILE: KROSS.Z_00]
[Obsidian-class flag mismatch. Re-authenticating soul fragment ownership…]
"Wait, what? What does that mean?"
> "It means," the System said, voice suddenly less smug, "your Chain ID just pinged an anomaly. Someone—or something—is trying to overwrite your contract."
Zane sat up fast.
"For the love of black coffee... Am I being
hacked?"
> "Worse," the System whispered. "You might be waking up."