Apocalypse Trade Monopoly
Chapter 114: – Feedback Loop

Chapter 114: – Feedback Loop

Ava sat curled up sideways on Lucas’s lap, his arms loose around her waist. She wasn’t relaxed—but she wasn’t resisting. She hadn’t moved since she whispered "It wasn’t a complaint" which was five minutes or so ago.

And he hadn’t said anything back.

Not because he didn’t have thoughts—he did. Too many. Too fast.

But the moment felt glass-thin.

If he moved the wrong way, it might shatter.

So he let her sit.

Her eyes stared past the cracked windshield, out into the broken world rolling by in flickers of sunlight and collapsed storefronts.

She wasn’t seeing it.

She was seeing him.

And most disturbingly—what part of her hadn’t hated what he had done.

Then—

[SYSTEM UPDATE DETECTED]

[INITIATING PHASE 2 MODULAR UPGRADE – BIOPHYSICAL PACKAGE]

[TRIGGER SOURCE: BLOOD EXCHANGE – EXTERNAL MUTATION]

[INTERFACE ALERT: PAIN THRESHOLD EXCEEDED]

[BEGINNING FULL-BODY RECONSTRUCTION]

[WARNING: USER IS NOT IN STASIS]

Her vision blurred.

Her heart slammed once against her ribs like someone had fired a shotgun in her chest.

The world tilted—skewed sharp right.

She didn’t even hear herself gasp.

Lucas felt it before she spoke.

Her back arched slightly in his lap, muscles going tense under his hands like drawn wire.

He didn’t ask. He knew.

She was spazzing.

"Cass," he said flatly. "Keep driving."

"What’s happening?" Cassi’s tone snapped sharp. "Is she—"

"Drive," Lucas snapped. "And mind your own business."

Cassi muttered something, but her hands stayed on the wheel.

Ava’s head dropped forward, her breathing shallow and fast.

Lucas adjusted her carefully, one hand bracing the back of her neck, the other locking around her ribs. He wasn’t gentle—but he wasn’t cruel either. Just steady. Like bracing a structure mid-quake.

Then it hit.

Her whole body convulsed—a ripple running down her spine like lightning had just threaded through her nervous system.

Ava sucked in air through clenched teeth, her jaw locked, eyes wide and glowing faint blue.

Lucas didn’t flinch.

"Pain?" he asked, already knowing.

She nodded once—more like a spasm than an answer.

"All of it at once," he muttered. "Makes sense. You’re not a fighter."

She tried to glare at him, but her body jerked again and her nails dug into his forearm, hard enough to break skin.

He didn’t pull away.

"You don’t overuse your body," Lucas said calmly, more to himself than her. "You preserve it. Efficient. No wear. So your system upgrades everything immediately. No delay. No adapt curve."

"Shut—" Ava hissed, voice choked.

He adjusted her in his lap, held her tighter, one hand slipping under her thighs to keep her from sliding off as another wave hit.

Ava clenched her teeth harder.

"Let it happen," he murmured, voice low in her ear. "Don’t fight it. You’ll make it worse."

"Easy for you to say," she growled.

"No," Lucas said. "It’s not. I’ve broken bones slower than this."

Then—

It snapped.

Her body bucked once, then locked.

Every single muscle from neck to heel seized, not like pain—but like transformation. The tension wasn’t unnatural—it was sculpted. Precision rewiring of fiber, density, tension load, mobility ranges.

Her system wasn’t just healing.

It was rebuilding.

Ava arched once—no sound, just pure, brutal silence—and then collapsed forward into Lucas’s chest, breath ragged.

Steam curled from the back of her neck.

Lucas adjusted again, his fingers under her chin, checking her pupils.

Still conscious.

Barely.

"Vitals?" he asked.

Ava exhaled.

[UPDATE COMPLETE]

[BIOPHYSICAL PACKAGE: ACTIVE]

[MUSCLE DENSITY: +42%]

[CORE STABILITY: +60%]

[NEW FRAME DETECTED – LEAN BUILD OPTIMIZED FOR SPEED + STRENGTH]

[NOTE: BODY RESHAPE ACTIVE – PAIN LEVELS NORMALIZED]

[PHYSICAL EXTERIOR: UPDATED]

Ava blinked.

Everything felt... wrong.

And right.

Her body wasn’t sore—it felt like it had just run a thousand sprints and was now itching to keep going.

She shifted—

And felt the difference instantly.

Her arms felt tighter. Shoulders more square. When she glanced down—

Her shirt stretched slightly over her ribs. Flat, tight. No softness anywhere.

She lifted the hem.

There it was.

A six-pack.

Visible. Defined.

She blinked again. "What the hell."

Lucas’s voice was half amused, half tired. "Congratulations. You’ve been upgraded."

Cassi finally dared a glance back. "She done twitching?"

Lucas didn’t answer.

Ava sat up slowly, pushing herself off of him—and that’s when she noticed it fully.

Her frame had streamlined. Same height. Same bones. But leaner, tighter, sculpted like her system had taken her blueprint and run it through elite combat training.

Her limbs felt lighter. Faster. Her center of gravity had shifted.

Even her posture had changed.

She felt like a weapon.

Like something that had been refined.

Ava looked down at her hands.

Flexed.

They obeyed like they already knew more than she did.

"This isn’t normal," she said slowly.

Lucas leaned back against the side panel, watching her with sharp, unreadable eyes.

"It’s not," he agreed. "But we’re not normal."

She turned to face him fully now. "What caused it?"

His brow furrowed just slightly. "The blood exchange. My guess? My system is still mutating post-core. When I bit you, it triggered something—probably a handshake between mutation signals. Your system interpreted it as a hostile trigger and leveled the playing field."

"So it gave me a combat-grade frame because it thought you were a threat?"

Lucas gave her a slow smile.

"I am a threat."

She smacked him on the arm.

And winced when it didn’t bounce.

Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Too firm for you?"

"You’re the worst."

"And yet you’re sitting in my lap," he pointed out.

Ava glared—but didn’t move.

Then, quietly: "You think this is permanent?"

"I think you’re stronger than you were an hour ago. I think your system likes me. And I think you’re going to scare a lot of people when you walk into the next market with a build like that."

Ava exhaled, long and low.

This wasn’t just an upgrade.

This was a shift.

Her body was catching up to her mind.

And now?

She had no excuse to play it quiet anymore.

Lucas leaned closer, his breath warm. "You should test it."

She didn’t answer.

Not with words.

She grabbed the edge of the seat frame, flexed once, and snapped the steel handle clean off like it was wet cardboard.

Lucas blinked.

Ava tossed the bar to the floor, deadpan. "I’m not fixing that."

Cassi snorted from the front. "You two done with your supermutant puberty arc?"

"Shut up," they both said in unison.

The hummer rolled in silence for three full seconds before Cassi leaned her elbow out the window and said, "Okay, but seriously—what the hell just happened to her?"

Lucas didn’t look away from Ava. "System reaction."

"No kidding," Cassi muttered. "She went full seizure-into-supermodel in under five minutes. That wasn’t a normal mutation event. That was a biotech commercial with a pain kink."

Ava groaned. "Please stop talking."

"I’m trying to understand the mechanics," Cassi said, eyes flicking to the rearview. "Is this like, contagious? Do I need to start biting people now?"

Lucas finally turned toward her, golden eyes half-lidded. "If you bite someone and your system upgrades instead of getting you banned from three more black markets, I’ll be impressed."

Cassi snorted. "That’s not a no."

Lucas sighed, shifted slightly. "My system changed after the core. I think it’s broadcasting low-level mutation signals—unintentionally. Pheromonal, maybe neurological. When I bit Ava, it triggered a cross-system handshake. Her system interpreted the data as hostile. So it overcompensated."

"By giving her abs and an attitude?" Cassi asked.

"By optimizing her for survival," Lucas said. "Her body matched the threat level. Me."

Ava raised an eyebrow. "Wow. Humble."

"Just accurate," Lucas replied, deadpan.

Cassi blinked, then whistled. "So what now? We going to start infecting people with sexy combat upgrades?"

Lucas leaned forward just enough to meet her eyes in the mirror. "If that happens, we start charging for it."

"You’re not serious."

"I’m always serious about monetization."

Ava rolled her eyes. "Lucas Bai: economy-first demigod with a side hustle in body horror."

Lucas smirked faintly. "The future’s flexible."

Cassi gave a long, dramatic exhale. "We’re all going to die, aren’t we?"

"Probably," Lucas said. "But now we can do it with better stats."

Ava sighed and pulled her hood up.