(add me, please! Tap "Add to Library" before the stock price spikes.)
Avery's fingers hovered over the pharmacy shelf—CEO logic wrestling with survival paranoia—before she plucked the Blood-Nourishing Herbal Tea.
Never again, she vowed. In her last life she'd died with seven digits still stuck in a digital vault. Money only mattered when you spent it on you. Otherwise? Just numbers.
She'd already flat-lined once. This time Avery Blake had rules: finish the original soul's wish, then live clean. Early to bed, early to rise. No smoking, zero liquor, and absolutely no corporate-induced coronaries.
As for that "13 months to live" pop-up? Please. With her IQ she'd smash every KPI and still book spa days.
Keystone City's arteries pulsed neon. Rain pooled in gutters, mirroring holo-ads like drowned ghosts.
"System," she muttered, eyes on the glowing sign of NovaStar Dojo, "that logo's a straight-up Luminite buffet. Did they wire rare ore just to look fancy?"
[POPULATION ANALYSIS]Awakening Probability: 0.02 % ± 0.005Keystone City Esper Density: 21.7 % of Novagen UnionNote: High density correlates with Luminite deposits.
The sign sputtered as she passed—energy surged into her like stolen lightning.
Fluorescents in the budget-hotel lobby hummed at a frequency that made her molars itch—another Esper bonus. She slapped her Black Card on the desk.
"Level check?"
[STATUS]Energy Reserves: 89 % ➞ 217 %Projected Breakthrough: Low-Tier → Mid-Rank in ≤ 48 h
"Run the physique-versus-power analogy again."
Your body = Power Plant• Physique = Generator size (C-rank = coal plant)• Esper Rank = Output wattage (currently Low-Tier)Upgrade both for maximum ROI.
"So better hardware means faster absorption?"
[AFFIRMATIVE] – Suggest locating Source Energy …
"Hold up—people here don't even know how to absorb Luminite, do they?"
[…] z-z-z …
Avery grinned and flopped onto the bed. "LUSTRA, you're my premium cheat code."
She pressed her palm to the nightstand; wood fibers cracked like spider silk. Mid-Rank might let her punch through a bank vault just to check her balance.
The dossier from Nyra lay heavy across her lap. LUSTRA's earlier brief had been a press release; this was a classified psychological autopsy—and her name headlined every page.
An hour later she exhaled through her nose.
"So the original Avery Blake wasn't just unlucky."Sixty-percent shareholder. Legal owner of the Blake estate. Yet every cent funneled to her "guardian."
"Richard Blake," she whispered, "trophy husband or blood-sucking parasite?"
Silence. Then, like a spreadsheet clicking into balance, she smirked.
"No audit needed. If someone wants Avery Blake dead…"Outside, a neon sign fried itself in the rain. "…it's one of those three back home."
[LUSTRA.Log]Subject status: Increasingly functional—possibly homicidal.Monitoring: Continuous.