Apocalypse Trade Monopoly
Chapter 150: : Rewrite Threshold

Chapter 150: : Rewrite Threshold

The moment they crossed through the shimmer of the hidden door, the air changed.

No more synthetic pressure. No more metal-panel trap rooms or looping simulations.

Just... silence.

Real silence.

Like the room itself hadn’t made a sound in years and had no intention of starting now.

Lucas, Ava, and Elias stepped into the circular chamber, each with a different posture—Lucas measured, Ava cautious, Elias... already annoyed.

It was dimly lit, glowing with low, pulsing panels embedded in the walls. Glyphs flickered across glass-like surfaces—an old language of system signatures, deepcode, and failsafe locks.

In the center, suspended in an octagonal pillar of transparent casing, hovered the Rewrite Origin Code.

It wasn’t a chip. Not a drive. Not anything you’d plug in.

It looked like liquid glass, constantly folding and unfolding on itself, occasionally forming the silhouette of something — an eye, a circuit, a tree, a skull — before reshaping again.

Ava exhaled. "It’s alive."

Lucas’s eyes narrowed. "Not quite. But close."

Then the voice spoke.

Not from speakers.

From the room itself.

"Lucas Bai. Ava Zhang. Elias Feng. Access authorized. Rewrite candidates verified. Final negotiation in progress."

Elias muttered, "I hate rooms that know my name."

Lucas stepped toward the center, his boots echoing softly on the stone-metal hybrid floor.

The voice spoke again, lower this time.

"Lucas Bai. You carry your father’s logic. You wear his ambition. Shall we discuss his debt?"

Lucas stilled.

Ava turned toward him.

"Debt?"

Lucas didn’t answer yet. Just lifted his gaze toward the core, voice cool. "Speak."

The code pulsed brighter.

"Bai Senior initiated Sync Root One. He knew it could not be completed. He fed us partial parameters, waiting for something else to emerge."

"You."

Lucas didn’t blink. "And?"

"He signed a permanent wager—access in exchange for legacy override immunity. He paid with genetic registration. That registration was transferred to you."

Ava turned sharply. "What does that mean?"

Lucas’s jaw tightened. "It means if I activate the rewrite now—I’m bound to it. System-deep."

Elias hissed softly. "So you’re the master key."

Lucas nodded once. "Apparently."

The code spiraled faster.

"We will honor the contract. If you finish what your father started, your line is immune from sync rewriting. Forever. You will become the root."

Ava’s system pulsed hard at that.

[WARNING: REWRITE ANCHOR FORMING][IF ACCEPTED, SUBJECT: BAI LUCAS WILL BECOME IMMOVABLE NEXUS]

Ava’s eyes narrowed. "That’s not a deal. That’s a trap."

Lucas looked at her. "I know."

He looked back at the core.

"I want something better."

"Name it."

Lucas exhaled.

But before he could answer—

A scream echoed down the tunnel behind them.

Ava spun, hand already reaching toward her bracer.

The shimmer-glass doorway still stood open—but now there was movement.

A shadow stumbled through.

Covered in blood.

Locke.

Dragging himself forward, panting, half-laughing.

His hands were soaked.

His knife was missing.

He collapsed to one knee just past the threshold, eyes wide with adrenaline.

"She’s dead," he rasped. "I killed her."

Elias said nothing. Just watched him.

Lucas didn’t move.

Ava’s system whispered:

[TRUTH VALUE: 78% – CONFLICTED]

She stepped back slightly.

"Where’s Angle’s body?" she asked coldly.

Locke looked up.

Then smiled.

"Right where I left it. Bleeding. Still."

Lucas moved toward him.

Locke flinched instinctively, then laughed at himself for it.

"I want in," he said. "I didn’t go through all this just to die in the hallway."

Lucas studied him for a long moment. Then gestured slightly toward the doorway.

"Good. You’re in."

Locke blinked. "Really?"

Lucas nodded. "But you need to walk forward."

Locke stepped across the light marker.

And the moment he did—Lucas moved.

Faster than Ava had seen in days.

He grabbed Locke by the front of the shirt, yanked him forward, and slammed him into the glowing edge of the containment column.

The liquid-code pulsed.

Locke screamed.

The energy surged up his arm, into his neck.

He spasmed.

Lucas leaned in, eyes cold. "That was for making her choose back there."

Ava didn’t stop him.

Locke slumped to the ground, unconscious. Or dead. It didn’t matter yet.

Elias muttered, "What is it with you Bai people and dramatic conclusions?"

Lucas turned.

"I’m not finished."

He stepped to the pillar.

The code responded immediately.

"What is your condition, Lucas Bai?"

Lucas glanced at Ava.

Then Elias.

Then back to the core.

"My condition is this," he said calmly. "I don’t want immunity. I want ownership."

The code stilled.

"Explain."

"I don’t want to opt out," Lucas said. "I want to rewrite the rewrite. My version. My logic. One that can’t be co-opted by Collective rot, or puppets in command chairs. I want a seat at the root."

"That is outside contract scope."

Lucas smiled.

"Not if I change the contract."

He lifted his bracer.

The screen flickered—

[MONOPOLY SYSTEM – VALUE INJECTION][OFFER: REWRITE CORE CONTROL / IN EXCHANGE: BAI SYSTEM CODE]

Ava gasped. "Lucas—"

"I know."

"Transaction accepted."

The room pulsed.

The code spun faster.

Lucas didn’t flinch.

Ava stepped beside him, quietly. "What did you do?"

Lucas looked down at his hand.

"My system no longer belongs to me."

"But the rewrite does," Elias said.

Lucas didn’t answer immediately. His hand still hovered near the core, fingers curled into a loose fist like he could feel the pulse of it even without touching it.

The code’s shimmer slowed—less liquid now, more like glass hardening into certainty.

That wasn’t what bothered Ava.

Not really.

What bothered her was how quiet it had become. No threats. No riddles. Just confirmation.

And Lucas.

As always, perfectly calm.

Ava stepped back, crossing her arms as her system pinged low, tired warnings.

[Cognitive Strain Detected – Recommendation: Emotional Venting]

She ignored it. Barely.

"Alright," she muttered. "Time out."

Lucas blinked, just once. "Now?"

"Yes. Now. Because apparently, I’m the only one still catching up."

Elias raised an eyebrow. "Is this about the kill-switch logic or the glowing artifact you almost licked?"

Ava turned toward him, unimpressed. "Don’t help."

Then to Lucas. "Ever since we left the bunker, it’s been like walking through someone else’s game. You always know three steps ahead. You knew the vault, the fake doors, the hidden room, the Game Master—hell, even Angle. You knew."

Lucas didn’t deny it.

"Then tell me something," Ava snapped. "Why do I feel like every time we win, we lose something else?"

Lucas’s jaw tensed. For once, no fast answer.

"I can’t solve a puzzle I’m inside of," she said. "So tell me, Lucas. What’s the cost this time?"

Elias gave a low whistle. "She finally says it."

Lucas exhaled. "The cost is simple."

"No, it isn’t."

"I didn’t lie to you, Ava. I said I’d hold the rewrite. I never said I’d enjoy it."

A long pause.

Then Elias cleared his throat, breaking the tension like cracking old stone.

"Actually," he said, "if you two are done with the civil war, I have an offer."

Ava arched a brow. "Seriously?"

Lucas, grateful for the shift, turned slightly. "Go ahead."

Elias stepped forward, loose-limbed and annoyingly casual.

"I’m not just a soldier," he said. "I’ve been running shadow intel for a coalition of private bunkers. They’ve seen the rewrite unfolding and they’re scared of it. But more scared of who gets it."

Lucas folded his arms. "So what do you want?"

"I want a license deal."

Ava blinked. "A what?"

Elias smiled. "You’re the rewrite’s broker now. Fine. But we both know you’ve got two major limitations."

Lucas didn’t flinch. "Name them."

"One: you’re not trusted by any of the top legacy bunkers. You show up at their gates with god-code and a knife, and they’ll shoot first."

Lucas nodded slightly. "Fair."

"Two: you’re only one person. You don’t scale. You can’t personally approve every rewrite branch unless you want to die of network fatigue."

Ava muttered, "That’s real."

"So," Elias said, pulling a chip from his pocket, "you need regional partners."

He held the chip out.

"Let me be your first one."

Lucas stared at it.

Then at Elias.

"Terms?"

"You give me one region—East Sector. All rewrite requests route to me first. I process, I vet, I forward the clean ones to your system."

"Payment?"

"I install your logic across three major intel hubs. Full defense."

Lucas considered. Then—looked at Ava.

She said nothing. But her eyes were sharp.

He turned back to Elias.

"Accepted. But you answer to me. Not the bunkers. Not your ghosts."

Elias tapped the chip against Lucas’s palm.

"Understood, Master Dealer."

Lucas winced. "Don’t ever say that again."

A second voice cut through the moment.

"You say that like you didn’t plan for it."

The air changed.

They all turned.

Standing just inside the chamber’s flickering door was a man in muted gray.

Still tall. Still calm. Still impossibly unreadable.

Bai Senior.

He looked slightly older than Lucas remembered—but sharper. As if cryo-sleep hadn’t dulled him, only filed him down to a quieter blade.

Lucas didn’t blink. "You made it out."

Senior walked forward, hands folded behind his back.

"I had help," he said. "Turns out having two stubborn sons can stir up miracles."

Ava flinched. "Two?"

He smiled faintly at her, but didn’t answer.

Elias wisely took two steps back.

Lucas watched his father approach the rewrite core—close, but not touching.

"I knew they’d find you eventually," Senior said quietly. "That’s why I built the gates. Not to protect myself. To make sure you survived long enough to choose."

"You made me the lock," Lucas said.

"And the key," Senior said. "That’s what makes you dangerous."

A beat passed.

Then, gently:

"And that’s why I didn’t give you the whole plan."

Lucas tensed. "What didn’t you give me?"

Senior turned toward the core. The light pulsed.

Then dimmed.

Ava’s bracer pinged.

[REWRITE CORE: STABILIZING]

[SECONDARY ACCESS POINT LINKED – BAI SR / HANDSHAKE COMPLETE]

Lucas took a step forward. "You linked to it?"

"Before the fall," his father said. "They needed a human failsafe. I volunteered."

Ava’s pulse skipped.

"You’re the watchdog."

Senior smiled faintly. "No. I’m the firewall. You’re the override."

He looked at his son.

"You can run this, Lucas. You can rebuild it. But I still get to see the shape of what you make."

Lucas stared at him, a hundred thoughts spiraling behind his eyes.