Apocalypse Trade Monopoly
Chapter 148: : The Game Without Code

Chapter 148: : The Game Without Code

The door hissed open with no announcement.

No guards. No command.

Just silence.

Lucas exchanged a glance with Ava.

He stepped forward first. Ava followed.

As they crossed the threshold, a low hum vibrated through the floor. Cold. Ancient. Like entering a server that hadn’t rebooted in a decade.

The door closed behind them with a click so final it sounded like a trap cage situation.

Inside, it looked nothing like a military facility.

It looked like a vault repurposed by someone who thought games were morality.

A giant square room. Seamless metal floor. Four platforms. A massive display screen built into one wall—off for now. In the center: a console with two handpads.

One glowing red.

One blue.

Ava’s bracer flickered once—

[SYSTEM ACCESS REVOKED – LOCAL SEAL ACTIVE][EMERGENCY SYNC LINK: OFFLINE]

Lucas’s system buzzed the same alert.

No override.

No brute-force logic path.

They were sealed.

Lucas stepped toward the console, crouched beside it. "Old gen tech. Static logic gates. Looks like decision-based control schema."

"In English?"

"It’s a game," he said. "A rigged one."

A voice rang out—too smooth, too empty.

"Welcome to Synchronization Trial: Variant 2-A."

Ava stiffened.

"Your systems have been sealed. Recovery is conditional. You must pass two layers of cooperation testing to reclaim your individual network permissions."

Lucas straightened.

"Each trial requires full consent. Separate choices. Divergent outcomes. One correct. One incorrect. You will not be told which is which."

The screen blinked on.

A set of instructions loaded.

CHALLENGE 1: TRUST WITHOUT SIGHT

"One of you will be blind. One of you must lead. The wrong word ends the trial. Permanently."

Ava’s jaw tensed. "Seriously?"

The red handpad began to pulse.

Lucas shrugged. "I’m not getting stabbed by a quiz machine. Pick a color."

"I always take red."

He rolled his eyes. "Of course you do."

She stepped forward and pressed her palm to the red pad.

Lucas took the blue.

Instant blackout.

Ava saw nothing. Not black. Not blur. Just... off.

"I’m blind," she said.

Lucas’s voice was calm. "I see everything. The floor tiles are changing. There’s a grid forming. Four paths. Traps on three."

A tone played from the screen.

"You have ninety seconds."

"Give me words," Ava said. "No directions. Just verbs."

Lucas smirked faintly. "That’s dangerously trusting of you."

She lifted her foot. "You’ve got eighty seconds."

"Forward."

She stepped once.

"Left."

Another.

"Forward again."

Silence.

"Lucas?"

"I’m thinking. There’s a delay in the trap reload."

He circled left around her. He didn’t touch her. Couldn’t. The rules didn’t say it, but they both knew: physical interference would disqualify the run.

"Forward."

Another step.

The screen blinked yellow.

"Final decision required."

Lucas exhaled. "Ava."

"I’m here."

"You’ve got to trust me."

"I already did."

Pause.

"Right foot. One step."

She moved.

The lights snapped on.

[CHALLENGE COMPLETE – 1 OF 2 PASSED]

The door on the other side of the room opened with a mechanical sigh.

Ava blinked, vision returning in a slow wave of grey static.

Her system didn’t reboot.

Yet.

Lucas walked to her side. "Didn’t know I was that convincing."

"I knew you’d play the board," she said. "You like to win."

He smiled. "Flattering."

They stepped into the next room.

It was smaller.

Colder.

The walls were lined with mirrored glass. Their reflections flickered oddly, not quite synced to their movements. Glitched echoes.

At the center: two chairs.

One old. Wooden. Sturdy.

One metal. Surgical.

On the screen:

CHALLENGE 2: TAKE THE COST

"One of you will sit in the chair and take a system feedback surge.The other will receive full bracer reboot.Only one. You choose.You may not take turns."

Lucas didn’t blink. "I’ll take the hit."

Ava turned to him. "You always do that."

"Because I can."

"Not without your system. You’re still wounded—your core hasn’t finished integration."

"Which is why you need your system back more than I do."

She stared at him. "You’re assuming I need it to help you."

"I’m assuming you want to survive this war without bleeding out in a hallway."

Her jaw clenched. "You’re not a martyr."

"I’m a strategist."

Ava stepped toward the chair—

Lucas grabbed her wrist.

They both froze.

"No tricks," she said.

Lucas’s voice dropped. "If I take it, we win. If you take it, I won’t let you walk the next mile without backup."

"You think you’re going to stop me?"

"I think I’d try."

She stared at the chairs.

Then back at him.

"I’m not sacrificing you."

"I’m not sacrificing you either."

And then, quietly—tiredly—Lucas stepped past her.

He sat in the chair.

The metal one.

Lucas moved first, slipping past Ava without force, but with the finality of someone who already knew the odds. He dropped into the chair like it didn’t scare him, even as the metal clamps hissed shut over his wrists and ankles.

[SURGE INBOUND – 5 SECONDS]

"Lucas—"

"Win," he said.

The lights above flared hot white.

Energy cracked across his chest, sharp and wrong. A pulse spike followed—hard enough that Ava flinched without meaning to.

Lucas arched against the restraints, jaw clenched tight as his veins lit like fire-wire. The chair screamed under his weight.

Then—flatline.

The lights dimmed.

[SYNC GRANT TRANSFER COMPLETE – ZHANG, AVA][SYSTEM UNSEALED – ACCESS FULLY RESTORED]

Ava’s bracer flared awake on her wrist, soft blue light crawling up her fingers like the return of oxygen to blood.

She didn’t hesitate.

She ran forward, unlocked the clamps with a single override swipe.

Lucas slumped forward.

Still breathing.

Still—

The room blinked red.

That wasn’t part of the script.

[ERROR – TRIAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED][MANUAL INTERVENTION DETECTED][ALTERNATE MEASURE ENGAGED]

Ava froze.

Lucas lifted his head slowly.

"What now?" he rasped.

The walls around them shifted. Slid downward like falling teeth.

New panels rose. One behind them. Two more to the sides. Steel gleaming like it meant something.

Across the room, the voice returned. No longer clean. No longer even.

Glitched. Distorted.

"You failed."

Ava’s eyes narrowed.

"You said complete."

"You cheated the scenario. You chose sacrifice too early. You were supposed to break."

Lucas spat blood onto the floor.

"I don’t play games with fixed ends."

"Then you will fight."

The center floor opened.

A square platform rose—maybe ten meters wide.

In its center?

A mirrored version of Lucas.

And Ava.

Not glitch clones.

Perfect simulations.

Their reflections looked up, eyes glowing pale white.

Lucas exhaled. "Oh. That’s clever."

Ava was already scanning the room. "Full sync replicas. System memory ghosts with projection overlays. They’ve got our reflexes."

"Yeah," Lucas muttered. "But do they have my charming personality?"

The mirrored Lucas pulled a blade from his coat—identical to one Lucas carried, but with a cold stillness that didn’t fit the man beside her.

The mirrored Ava raised both hands—light flickering between her palms, not her system but a hardwired mimic.

They moved.

Fast.

Ava ducked first—narrowly missing a concussive strike from the fake’s hand.

Lucas took a side-step, parried his double’s blade with a kick and stumbled back. He wasn’t recovered. Not fully. And the clone didn’t care.

Ava triggered her bracer—

[SYSTEM ACTIVE – BLUEPRINT ACCESS GRANTED]

She dropped a magnetic pulse mine behind her double—watched it flash. The mimic Ava staggered, dazed for a half second.

Lucas took that second.

One strike.

Hard elbow.

The mirror cracked.

The fake Ava’s cheek split open—but instead of blood, wires sparked. Data.

"They’re real-time projectors," Ava said, ducking behind a wall slab. "We’re not fighting code—we’re fighting constructs."

Lucas grunted, bleeding again. "Then let’s unplug them the old-fashioned way."

He spun, flung a charge forward.

But the mimic Lucas caught it—snapped it back, redirected it with his other hand.

The blast slammed into the wall behind them.

"Not ideal," Ava muttered.

The screen blinked again.

[ADAPTIVE RESPONSE DETECTED][DIFFICULTY ESCALATED – LIMITERS REMOVED]

The fake Ava extended both hands.

Blue energy arced outward.

Not blueprint logic. Just force. Raw, system-mimicked force. The kind no one should be able to manifest without corrupting their neural matrix.

Ava’s system screamed.

[WARNING: PHANTOM CODE DETECTED – SYSTEM BLEED LIKELY]

"They’re rewriting as they fight!" she shouted.

Lucas wiped blood from his jaw, eyes sharp now.

"Then we stop thinking like players."

He ducked left—ran for the sidewall, scaled a pipe column, used it to leap from the platform edge straight onto his double.

The two crashed hard—Lucas drove his blade into the clone’s shoulder and twisted. Metal sparked. The thing laughed.

Lucas didn’t hesitate—he yanked the blade sideways, disarming it in one motion.

Ava charged her own bracer—burned two small discs and launched them at her double’s feet. The mimic jumped—

Too late.

The trap activated midair.

Electro-static wrapped around the clone’s torso, yanking it down hard enough to crater the floor.

Ava jumped after it—drove her elbow straight into the thing’s throat.

The feedback nearly numbed her arm.

"Lucas, I think they’re learning."

Lucas rolled off his own double, blade clutched backward. "Then we give them a bad lesson."

He moved first—threw the stolen blade into the wall.

Not at the clone.

At the panel behind the mirror Ava.

It struck a seam.

The wall pulsed.

Flickered.

A hum rippled through the floor.

[CONTROL NODE: DESTABILIZED]

The fake Ava paused—glitching.

Ava grinned.

"Found your battery."

She pivoted, slammed her palm against her bracer—

[BLUEPRINT INITIATED: MULTI-FIELD REVERB]

A wave burst from her system—targeting the node behind the real Lucas’s clone.

It struck.

Hard.

The floor beneath the clone lit up.

Then cracked.

Then exploded.

The mimic Lucas dropped—glitched—screamed.

A static howl.

Then collapsed.

The Ava-mimic surged forward—final attack, blind.

Ava caught her by the collar.

Spoke softly.

"You’re not me."

And drove a pulse-spike into her chest.

The clone vanished in a burst of light and shredded projection.

The room darkened.

Breathing. Silence.

Lucas straightened slowly. One arm clutching his side.

"Still hate games," he muttered.

Ava walked to him, offered a hand.

He took it.

The system voice returned—no longer cold.

Not glitched.

But curious.

"You broke the simulation."

Ava nodded. "Because it wasn’t a test. It was a trick."

"There are no correct answers."

Lucas looked at the shattered wall.

"You’re just seeing who breaks first."

"Not anymore," the voice said. "Proceed."

The next door opened.

A single hallway. Dark.

Beyond it, nothing visible.

Lucas stared at it.

Then at her.

"You still want to walk into this?"

Ava shrugged.

"No. But I’d rather walk in with you than let someone else finish our level."

They stepped through the door together.

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