The violet HUD in Arthur's vision wasn't just flickering; it was bleeding into his reality. The school hallway, usually filled with the mundane scent of floor wax and teenager anxiety, now smelled like ozone and burnt copper. The air near the chemistry lab began to warp, distorting the lockers like a funhouse mirror.
Arthur looked at Julian, who was still on his knees, clutching the legal papers. Then he looked at the Man in White. The Man wasn't even watching the lab. He was watching Arthur's face, waiting for the moment the "Ghost" broke.
"Boss? You've gone pale. Your eyes..." Sarah's voice was sharp. She couldn't see the timer, but she could see the faint violet ring in Arthur's pupils glowing with terrifying intensity. "Something is coming. I can feel the 'static' in my teeth."
"Sarah, get to the chemistry lab. Now," Arthur commanded. His voice sounded like two stones grinding together. "My mother is in there. Don't ask how I know. Just get her out of that room. Use force if you have to."
Sarah didn't hesitate. She was a professional. She turned and sprinted, her boots thudding against the linoleum as she shoved past confused students.
[The Devil's Choice]
Arthur looked down at his Samsung. The screen was a battlefield. On the left, his digital empire: $1,020,000.00. On the right, a black icon shaped like a Thorne crown, labeled [SACRIFICE].
"Tick-tock, Arthur," the Man in White whispered, his voice appearing directly inside Arthur's skull. "Energy is finite. You saved yourself on the football field. You broke the Senator's fate. The System is a scale, and right now, you're too heavy. Either your mother's life pays the debt, or your progress does. You can be a King, or you can be a Son. You cannot be both."
Through the lab's reinforced glass window, Arthur saw his mother. She was laughing at something the counselor said, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. She looked so normal. So safe. She had no idea that a "Random Event"—a freak gas leak and a faulty electrical socket—was seconds away from erasing her existence.
[The Override]
"I don't accept the trade," Arthur hissed.
The Man in White tilted his head. "The System doesn't negotiate, Arthur."
"Then I'll hack the System."
Arthur ran. He didn't go for the fire extinguisher. He ignored the alarm. He focused every ounce of the Ghost Reach ability he had unlocked at the docks. He reached into the air, not to grab a person, but to grab the probability of the explosion.
[WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED SYSTEM INTERFERENCE!]
[PENALTY: PHYSICAL BACKLASH]
As Arthur gripped the vibrating violet air, he felt a sensation like a thousand needles being driven into his nervous system. His vision blurred. A thick trail of blood began to leak from his right nostril, staining his expensive charcoal coat.
"You're killing yourself!" the Man in White shouted, finally stepping away from the wall, his composure breaking. "You're a Level 1 Anomaly trying to stop a Level 10 Scripted Death! You'll burn out!"
"Then let me burn!" Arthur roared.
He reached the lab door just as the spark jumped. The "Event" triggered. A roar of fire began to expand from the center of the room. But instead of letting it explode outward, Arthur thrust his translucent hand into the heart of the flame.
Using Ghost Reach, he began to compress the fire. He folded the heat, the pressure, and the kinetic energy into a tiny, vibrating sphere between his palms. The pain was transcendental. He could feel his skin blistering, not from the fire, but from the raw data overload.
[The Liquidation]
[CRITICAL ERROR!]
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE DETECTED]
[OFFER DETECTED: TOTAL ASSET LIQUIDATION]
The System saw his resolve. It stopped fighting his hand and started fighting his bank account.
Arthur watched the numbers on his HUD spin backward so fast they became a blur.
$1,000,000... $500,000... $100,000... $0.
Outside, the armored SUV Sarah had driven simply dissolved into pixels. The luxury suite lease in the city was wiped from the servers. The legal papers Julian held turned into grey ash that slipped through his fingers. The Senator, currently at a press conference, suddenly stopped mid-sentence as the blackmail video on the internet vanished, replaced by a "404 Not Found" error.
The explosion in Arthur's hand vanished with a pathetic pop.
[The Aftermath]
Arthur collapsed against the lockers, his lungs screaming for air. His suit was a charred wreck. His $1,000 phone was a piece of melted plastic in his pocket.
The hallway returned to normal. The "static" vanished.
His mother walked out of the lab, looking slightly dazed. "Arthur? Honey, what happened to your clothes? And your nose is bleeding!"
"I'm fine, Mom," Arthur croaked, leaning his head back against the cold metal. "Just a... chemistry mishap."
The Man in White walked up to him. He looked at Arthur with something close to respect—and genuine fear. "You gave it all back. The money, the power, the influence. You're back in the mud, Ghost. You have nothing."
Arthur looked at his mother being led away by a concerned Sarah, then looked at the Man. He opened his hand. In his palm was a tiny, glowing violet spark—the remnant of the explosion he had tamed.
[NOTIFICATION: QUEST COMPLETE]
• Reward: 'Market Intuition' (MAX LEVEL).
• New Title: The Architect (You can now build 'Systems').
• Secret Skill: Timeline Echo (See 5 seconds into the future).
"I don't need a million dollars to win," Arthur said, his eyes glowing with a violet light that made the Man in White flinch. "I just needed to know that I could beat you. Now I know. And next time, I won't be paying with money. I'll be paying with your existence."
The Man in White vanished without a word, leaving Arthur in the middle of the crowded hall—broke, bleeding, but for the first time, truly powerful.