Chapter 3: The Iron Harvest

Brown

The +20% boost to my physical reflexes hit me like a pure shot of energy.

I stood on the high balcony of my penthouse in a silk robe. Dark hair blew across my face in the morning wind. Below me, the city buzzed with life. My new senses picked up everything—the hum of power lines three blocks away, a single falling leaf drifting all the way down to the wet street fourteen floors below.

My body no longer felt heavy or slow. It felt strong, solid, and fast.

In my past life, I spent every day trying to make myself smaller. I wore baggy clothes to hide and swallowed Mavel’s mean comments because I thought I was lucky he even looked at me. Now, remembering how he and Ginger dragged my dying body inside to carve me up for their freezer, anger burned in my chest. They treated me like meat. This body was built to survive what was coming.

Seven days left before Day Zero.

I checked my phone. Big red letters flashed across the news app:

CROWN HOLDINGS FILES FOR TOTAL BANKRUPTCY — ALL ASSETS FROZEN.

I opened my bank app. Balance: $4,850.00. That was every cent I had left after my rebirth.

Looking over the balcony, I saw tow trucks already in the driveway. Federal officers stood with clipboards, taking away my sports cars to pay off company debts. I watched without caring. Paper money and fast cars would be useless in a week anyway.

I went back inside and got dressed fast: a fitted black top, dark leather pants, and knee-high steel-toe boots. I threw a dark jacket over my shoulders and looked in the mirror. No hiding. No shrinking. Just calm confidence.

I grabbed my dark-web laptop and my steel blade. I took the back stairs down to the underground garage so I wouldn’t run into the officers in the lobby.

An old dark-gray Ford pickup sat parked in the loading bay. It had been left behind by the building’s cleanup crew. I walked up to the driver’s side, lifted my foot, and kicked the steel heel of my boot straight into the glass.

CRACK!

The window smashed. I reached in, opened the door, slid into the seat, and popped the steering wheel cover with my blade. I pulled two wires together. A spark flew. The engine roared to life. Zero dollars spent. Zero paper trail.

I slammed the truck into gear, drove out of the garage, and headed straight for Mount Ironwood.

My father had a hidden research vault buried deep under the mountain. It was kept under a private family name, so the bankruptcy officers didn’t even know it existed.

I parked the truck in the bushes, grabbed a heavy iron bar, and walked up to a three-hundred-pound steel hatch hidden behind some rocks. In my old life, opening this would have been impossible. Now I planted my boots in the dirt, took a deep breath, and pulled. The rusted metal groaned and swung wide open. I tossed it aside like scrap.

I climbed down the ladder into the cool, dark vault. I skipped the old art and gold and went straight for the defense room.

Inside were three prototype clean-energy fuel cells glowing with silver light, along with a locked tube holding military plans. I carried the heavy gear up the ladder, threw it into the truck bed, and opened my dark-web laptop right from the driver’s seat.

I put two fuel cells and the plans up on a secret trading site. I asked for survival gear instead of cash.

Offers popped up instantly. I ignored the cash ones and picked a private supplier near the docks.

The trade was done in seconds: 10 tons of emergency food rations, five thousand medical kits, four water purifiers, and ten air filters. All of it was being shipped directly to Mount Ironwood’s lower rooms by unmarked trucks.

Just as I shut my laptop, my burner phone on the dashboard started ringing hard.

Caller ID: Hospital

Ginger. Call number thirteen.

I hit speaker and kept driving down the rain-slick highway.

“B-Brown?! Pick up!” Ginger’s hysterical voice blasted out over the loud sound of hospital alarms. “The doctors say Mavel needs emergency surgery right now to fix his leg, but your black card was REVOKED! Crown Holdings went bankrupt! All your bank accounts are locked! They won’t start the surgery without money!”

I kept one hand on the wheel. A cold smile spread across my face. “Is that so?”

“And my landlord just called me!” she cried, gasping. “An emergency debt notice hit my apartment because of that paper I signed yesterday! Since Crown Holdings went down, all the company debt shifted right onto ME and MAVEL! My bank account is frozen! Send ten thousand dollars—please! Mavel is screaming on the bed right next to me!”

I listened to her panic, feeling completely cold inside.

“Mavel said I took up too much room,” I said softly. My voice stayed smooth and icy. “He said he was embarrassed to be seen with me. But he has a smooth, healthy leg, doesn’t he? Tell him to walk it off.”

“WHAT?! BROWN, ARE YOU CRAZY?! HE CAN’T WALK! HIS BONE IS STICKING OUT—PLEASE—”

I ended the call, rolled down the window, and threw the cheap phone out into the rain. In my side mirror, I watched it hit the wet street and get crushed under the tire of a huge truck.

Crown Holdings was gone. Mavel and Ginger were completely broke, terrified, and stuck in a crowded emergency room with millions in debt stuck to their names.

The cold voice of the System echoed inside my head:

[MISSION 01: 85% DONE]

[DEAL DONE: SURVIVAL SUPPLIES SENT TO MOUNT IRONWOOD]

[ENEMIES LEFT BROKE AND IN DEBT]

[SYSTEM SYNC: 35%]

A strong wave of power rolled through my body. Everything around me seemed to move in slow motion.

I pushed the gas pedal all the way down. The stolen truck roared down the highway toward Crowns Holdings Headquarters, I have an unfinished business there.