Apocalypse Trade Monopoly
Chapter 112: – Let Me Show You Risky

Chapter 112: – Let Me Show You Risky

Ava was about to had Lucas another energy bar when Lucas reached into his coat pocket.

Not the visible one. The hidden seam inside the lining—double-stitched, sealed with microthread. He pulled out a small, round object. Fist-sized. Matte gray-black with veins of dried red streaking its edges like old rust. It pulsed faintly, low and slow, like a dying heartbeat.

Ava froze.

"Is that—"

"Raw core," Lucas said, examining it like a wine snob judging a bottle that might kill him. "Never activated. Risky volatile."

Cassi swore. "That’s the kind they put in for People who failed their sync trials."

Lucas looked almost thoughtful. "Yes. I kept it for emergencies."

He didn’t hesitate.

He put it in his mouth.

Ava lunged halfway forward before logic caught her by the sleeve. "Are you insane?!"

Lucas didn’t answer. His jaw clenched down hard, cracking through the brittle shell. A faint hiss escaped his lips as faint red light pulsed behind his teeth.

His neck arched like every nerve was catching fire at once.

The pulse from the core hit fast—his bracer sparked, sync lines along his forearms glowing sharp gold as if the veins themselves were transmitting data. His pupils constricted, and a thin rivulet of blood ran from one nostril down to his lip.

He looked high-voltage. Wired. Barely human.

Then it stopped.

The core was gone.

He exhaled like a machine venting pressure. Steam curled from his skin.

Ava stared at him. "Lucas—"

"I’ll be up in ten hours," he said calmly, like he’d just taken a nap. "Give or take, depending on internal rerouting."

"You swallowed a live system trigger like a snack."

"I’ve done worse with worse options."

She dragged a hand down her face. "Your internal organs better have an insurance plan."

Lucas handed her what was left of his gear—belt, bracer, a half-melted coat plate.

"Fix it," he said. "Make it better. The core’s gonna push my baseline—might as well match the exterior."

Ava sighed through her nose. "I don’t get paid enough to deal with this."

"I thought you wer partners," Cassi muttered.

Lucas slumped against the side panel of the hummer, closing his eyes now for real. Whatever the core was doing inside him, it was starting. His body twitched once—muscle spasm along the ribs, nothing serious. Not yet.

"You’re lucky you’re pretty," Cassi grumbled. "That was the dumbest thing I’ve seen you do and I’ve watched you bluff a mutant boss with a paperclip."

Ava didn’t look up as she pulled his bracer apart with practiced hands.

"To me," she said, calm and sharp, "he’s always been like this."

Cassi snorted. "Reckless?"

"No. Too damn smart. That’s the problem. He calculates every risk and then still takes the one that burns best."

Cassi glanced in the mirror.

Lucas’s head had tilted back, face slack, lips still faintly red from blood and core residue.

"I give him six hours," Cassi said.

Ava pulled a solder strand from her kit. "I give him five."

Then, without looking up, she whispered, "System—full scan subject."

Her eyes flicked as the overlay blinked to life in her vision. Lucas’s vitals populated across her view like a diagnostic ghost hovering in the air.

[SCAN: LUCAS BAI][SYSTEM STATUS: CORE UPTAKE – ACTIVE REWRITE][PHYSIOLOGY: 18% Stress Load / 62% Neural Overlap / Stable][EST. UPTIME: 4.8 Hours ± Margin 0.3]

Cassi snorted from the front. "One day we’ll bet on something fun. Like cards."

Ava was already pulling Lucas’s bracer apart—the left one first. The right was half-fused shut from the blast earlier. She could salvage the primary core, maybe upgrade the chip interface if she pulled power from the backup spool embedded in the wristplate.

As she pried open the microframe, Cassi glanced back again.

"By the way," she said, tapping her comms panel. "Just got a network ping from one of my trader feeds. It’s official—military just rolled out new issue bracers."

Ava paused. "New tech?"

"Level Two and up. Linked modules. Net access, auction boards, banking interfaces, internal shop linkups. Full civilian overlay."

Ava blinked. "They’re commercializing interface tech?"

"More like consolidating. You don’t need terminals stations anymore. You’re the terminal."

Ava glanced at Lucas, still half-conscious, twitching once as his body adjusted to the core.

"Let’s see what they’re working with."

Her fingers twitched again.

[SYSTEM: INTERFACE SYNC DETECTED – DEVICE: CUSTOMIZED BRACER MK2][UPDATE OPTIONS AVAILABLE: YES][REBUILD MODULE TREE? Y/N][NOTE: CURRENT HARDWARE LIMITING OUTPUT POTENTIAL]

Ava exhaled slowly through her nose.

"Well, well," she muttered, shifting her focus. "Looks like we’re not just fixing things today."

"What are you doing?" Cassi asked warily.

"Upgrading," Ava replied. "If they’re using that new platform, I can spoof the kernel routing. I’ll rewrite his bracer to look like military issue. Give him access to their backend shop. Maybe steal some premium modules while we’re at it."

Cassi gave a low whistle. "I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. If they trace you—"

"They won’t," Ava said, eyes flicking through subroutines. "Their code is flashy but lazy. More show than structure. I can wrap it in a decoy shell."

"You’re kind of terrifying."

Ava didn’t look up. "I’m kind of tired of being broke."

Bits of Lucas’s gear clattered into her lap—burnt casing, half-cracked interface nodes, a backup coil with just enough juice for one good transfer.

She reached into her pack, pulled out a spare module she’d been working on—unlabeled, experimental, ugly as sin but wired with her system’s blueprint thread.

She pressed it into the bracer’s slot.

[MODULE INSERTED – UNKNOWN TYPE DETECTED][RECOGNIZED BY SYSTEM: ’CUSTOM NODE – SPECTRUM DEVIATION’][LINKING TO SYSTEM HOLDER: LUCAS BAI...][SYNC PULSE STABLE]

The bracer blinked.

Lights stabilized.

The panel on the side flicked open—no spark this time. Just clean, humming power.

Ava sat back, flexing her fingers.

"He’s going to owe me," she said.

Cassi laughed. "If he wakes up."

"Oh, he will," Ava said, watching the pulse on the bracer. "And when he does? He’s going to have more access than half the bunker’s command staff."

The bracer gave a low chime.

Then Lucas moved.

Not a twitch. Not a groan.

He snapped forward like something had yanked his spine from the inside.

Ava recoiled instinctively—then froze.

His arms tensed, every muscle locking under his skin, and then began to bulge—cords of muscle thickening, tightening. Veins surged, glowing faint gold beneath the skin like they were lit from within. His jaw clenched hard. Too hard.

"Lucas," Ava said, but he didn’t hear her.

He arched again, teeth bared, and she saw it—his tongue caught between his molars, jaw grinding like he was trying to bite through steel.

"Shit—"

Ava dropped everything and lunged.

She shoved one hand between his teeth, fingers pressing his tongue flat, the other bracing his jaw open just wide enough to keep him from crushing it.

His body kept jerking—twitching in full-system overload. Sweat poured down his chest. Muscles writhed beneath his skin, growing, reshaping, burning through calories and pain like fuel.

Ava gritted her teeth, holding him down with her knees as much as her grip.

He was burning hot. Like a forge. Like the core hadn’t just rewired him—it was rebuilding him.

In real time.

"Oh my god," she whispered.

Behind the wheel, Cassi didn’t stop. She kept driving—eyes forward, lips tight.

But her voice came through steady.

"You good back there?"

Ava didn’t look away. Couldn’t.

"I’ve got him."

"I’m not pulling over. If he explodes, I’m listing it as a passenger malfunction."

"He’s not going to explode."

"Then he’s going to owe me a favor. Big one."

Lucas’s hand shot up—half-blind reflex. Ava caught it, redirected, pinned it flat to the seat.

His eyes fluttered open for a split second—gold, glowing, wild.

Then closed again.

Ava slowly pulled her hand from his mouth, flexing her numb fingers.

Lucas slumped back, steam rising off his shoulders, breathing rough but steady.

Cassi glanced back once. "He done cooking?"

Ava stared.

"He’s... bigger."

Cassi grunted. "Great. One more thing he gets to be smug about."

Ava didn’t answer. She just sat there, hand still tingling, pulse still racing.

She’d seen power before.

She’d never seen it grow in front of her.

Lucas Bai was going to wake up changed.

And they’d all feel it.

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