Raen sat frozen.
The system interface had vanished, leaving only the soft glow of his old dual monitors. No missions. No quests. No spoon-fed path to glory.
Just silence.
"So that's it, huh?" he muttered. "You give me power... but I still have to crawl for scraps?"
His jaw clenched. His throat tightened.
He opened the usual sites — grimy freelance boards where desperate devs and washed-up coders scraped for underpaid gigs. Places he knew too well.
But something had changed.
He could understand everything now. The messy descriptions, the tech jargon, the rushed client demands — it was all clear. Predictable. Easy.
[Job Posting — BlackCircuit Freelance Board]▸ URGENT: Drone Fleet Optimization
Budget: 290 LuxClient: KlinX Co.Time Estimate: 1–2 daysStatus: Unclaimed
Raen didn't hesitate. He claimed it, downloaded the files, and got to work.
The code was trash. Patch on top of patch. Recursive loops everywhere. AI that ran like a drunk hamster on rollerblades.
Raen barely blinked. His fingers danced.
The knowledge didn't just sit in his brain — it moved with him. Like a second set of instincts. As if he'd lived with this code for years.
Four hours passed like mist.
Then—
Upload Complete.Client Response: [LIVE DEPLOYED]Rating: ★★★★★Payment Transferred: +290 Lux
Raen leaned back, eyes wide.
[Balance Updated: 290 Lux]
He didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
"...Four hours," he whispered.
His hands trembled slightly. Not from exhaustion. From disbelief.
"Four hours. That job… should've taken two days. And they paid me 290 Lux... just like that?"
He looked around his room. The dark curtains. The peeling walls. The pile of unopened bills.
His voice cracked.
"I've broken myself… for years. Skipped meals. Slept under my desk. Took jobs that paid less than nothing. And now…"
He swallowed the lump in his throat.
"...Now I write one damn program and they pay me more than I've made in weeks."
The anger rose. Hot and sharp. But it wasn't the system he was mad at now.
It was the world.
"So this is what it's like… to not be worthless."
His breath slowed. His back straightened.
"Alright, then. If this system's gonna put a price on skills—then I'll make sure the world pays me what I'm really worth."