PART 1: THE ZERO
The neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip didn’t reach the back alley behind the Sterling Grand Casino. Here, the air smelled of stale beer, rotting shrimp, and shattered dreams.
Jack “Zero” Miller was on his knees, scrubbing a stain of unknown origin off the concrete loading dock. He wore a grey jumpsuit that was two sizes too small, with the nametag JANITOR stitched crookedly on the chest.
Three years ago, Jack had been a rising star in the History Department at UNLV. He had a keen eye for antiques and a beautiful fiancée named Clara. Then came Victor Sterling. Victor was the son of a casino mogul, a man who collected people like he collected sports cars. Victor wanted Clara. He also wanted Jack’s scholarship grant. He got both by framing Jack for the theft of a rare coin collection from the university museum.
Jack lost his degree, his girl, and his reputation. Now, he scrubbed the vomit of the people who had ruined him.
“Missed a spot, Zero.”
The voice came from above. Jack froze. He looked up to see Victor Sterling standing on the loading dock, wearing a white tuxedo. Beside him was Clara, looking stunning in a red dress, clutching a glass of champagne. She didn’t look at Jack. She looked at her shoes.
“The gala starts in ten minutes, Victor,” Clara murmured. “Let’s go inside.”
“In a minute, babe. I want to tip the staff.” Victor reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold-plated poker chip. It was a $1,000 chip. He smirked and tossed it.
It didn’t land in Jack’s hand. It landed in a puddle of dirty mop water.
“Fetch,” Victor laughed.
Jack stood up, his knuckles white. “Go to hell, Victor.”
Victor’s smile vanished. He snapped his fingers. Two massive bouncers stepped out of the shadows.
“Teach him some manners. Then throw him in the dumpster. He’s firing up the atmosphere.”
The beating was efficient and brutal. Jack curled into a ball as steel-toed boots rained down on his ribs. He tasted blood. He heard Clara gasp, “Victor, stop, you’ll kill him!” but she didn’t intervene.
The last thing Jack felt was being lifted into the air and thrown. He crashed into a pile of discarded electronics and broken glass inside the massive metal dumpster.
His head slammed against something hard—a jagged piece of a broken neon sign. A sharp shard of electrified glass sliced across his right eyebrow, piercing the skin and grazing his eyelid.
Pain exploded in his skull. A blinding white light seared his vision. It wasn’t the neon signs. It was inside his brain.
He screamed, clutching his bleeding eye, as a robotic, mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
“Bio-metric signature detected. Host verified: Jack Miller. Trauma levels critical. Initiating Emergency Protocol.”
“System: THE EYE OF TRUTH. Installing… 10%… 50%… 100%.”
“Installation Complete. Welcome, User.”
Jack passed out among the trash.
PART 2: THE AWAKENING
Jack woke up to the sound of a garbage truck reversing.
He gasped and scrambled out of the dumpster, falling onto the asphalt. His body ached, but strangely, the agonizing pain in his right eye was gone. He touched his face. There was dried blood, but no wound. No scar.
He blinked.
The world looked… different.
He looked at the dumpster. Suddenly, a translucent blue holographic window popped up in his vision, floating next to the metal bin.
[Item: Industrial Waste Container] [Condition: Poor] [Contents: Trash, Recyclables, 1x Discarded Antique Watch] [Total Value: $4,500]
Jack rubbed his eyes. “I have a concussion,” he muttered. “I’m hallucinating.”
He focused on the text. Discarded Antique Watch?
He climbed back into the dumpster, ignoring the smell. He dug through the bags where the holographic arrow was pointing. At the bottom, wrapped in a greasy napkin, was a muddy, cracked pocket watch. It looked like junk.
He picked it up.
Ding!
[Item: Breguet Grande Complication Marie-Antoinette (Replica)] [Status: Damaged but Functional] [Hidden Attribute: This is NOT a replica. It is the missing prototype #2 stolen in 1983.] [Real Value: $12,000,000]
Jack stopped breathing. He knew this watch. Every historian knew this watch. It was the holy grail of horology. Victor must have thrown it out, thinking it was a cheap knockoff given to him by a drunk patron.
“Twelve… million?” Jack whispered.
He looked around the alley. He looked at a stray cat. [Item: Feline. Status: Hungry. Value: $0]
He looked at his own shoes. [Item: Generic Sneakers. Status: Decrepit. Value: -$5]
It wasn’t a hallucination. It was an interface. A cheat code.
Jack clenched the watch in his fist. He stood up. The shame of the night before evaporated, replaced by a cold, burning fury.
“Victor,” Jack smiled, and for the first time in three years, it was a smile of confidence. “You wanted to play a game? Let’s play.”
PART 3: THE PAWN AND THE KING
Jack couldn’t just walk into an auction house looking like a homeless man. He needed seed money. Liquid cash. Fast.
He pulled his hoodie up and walked to Gold & Silver Dreams, a high-end pawn shop three blocks away. The owner, a greasy man named Lou, was known for ripping people off.
Jack walked in. Lou looked up from his newspaper. “We don’t give handouts. Get out.”
“I’m selling,” Jack said, placing the muddy watch on the counter.
Lou picked it up with two fingers, grimacing. “What is this piece of crap? Look at the glass, it’s cracked. I’ll give you fifty bucks for the gold casing.”
Jack’s right eye shimmered. A blue grid scanned the shop.
[Target: Lou “The Shark” Gellar] [Psychology: Greedy, impatient. Currently hiding a stolen diamond in the safe.] [Negotiation Weakness: He thinks you are an idiot.]
Jack leaned forward. “Fifty bucks? Lou, look at the serial number inside the casing. It’s a 19th-century French movement. Even as scrap parts, the gears are platinum.”
Lou frowned. He opened the back. His eyes widened. He saw the platinum. But he didn’t know it was the Marie-Antoinette prototype. He just saw high-quality parts.
“Okay, okay,” Lou grunted. “Five hundred.”
“I want twenty thousand,” Jack said calmly.
“Get lost!” Lou laughed.
“If you don’t give me twenty thousand,” Jack lowered his voice, leaning in, “I’ll tell the police about the ‘Blue Star’ diamond you have taped to the back of your filing cabinet in the safe room. The one reported stolen from the Mirage last week.”
Lou froze. His face went pale. “How… how do you know about that?”
“I have eyes everywhere, Lou. Twenty thousand. Cash. No receipt. And I leave the watch.”
Lou was sweating. He didn’t care about the watch anymore; he cared about prison. He scrambled to his safe, opened it (Jack noted the combination: 44-19-82), and pulled out two stacks of hundreds.
“Take it. And never come back.”
Jack took the cash. “Pleasure doing business.”
He walked out with $20,000. It wasn’t millions, but it was enough for a suit and an entry fee.
He went to a luxury menswear store. He bought a fitted black suit, a crisp white shirt, and a pair of aviator sunglasses to hide the faint blue glow of his right eye.
He looked in the mirror. The janitor was gone. A predator stood in his place.
PART 4: THE ARENA
Tonight was the “Centennial Blind Auction” at the Sterling Grand Casino. It was Victor Sterling’s pet project. Ultra-rich clients bid on “Storage Vaults”—unopened shipping containers seized from tax evaders, drug lords, and bankrupt billionaires.
It was the highest-stakes gambling in the world. You could pay a million dollars for a container full of old newspapers, or ten thousand for a container full of gold bars.
Jack walked to the VIP entrance.
“Name?” the bouncer asked. It was the same bouncer who had beaten him up yesterday. He didn’t recognize Jack in the suit and glasses.
“Mr. O’Malley,” Jack said, handing over the $5,000 entry fee from his pocket.
“Go right in, sir.”
The ballroom was dripping with opulence. Waiters served caviar. The elite of Las Vegas mingled. In the center, on a raised stage, stood Victor Sterling, holding a microphone. Clara was by his side, looking tired.
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” Victor boomed. “Welcome to the event of the season! Tonight, we sell dreams! We have five mystery vaults. Who feels lucky?”
Jack took a spot in the back, sipping a sparkling water. He activated his System.
“System Scan: Wide Range Mode Initiated.”
Data streams flooded his vision. He ignored the jewelry on the women (mostly fake) and the watches on the men (mostly leased). He focused on the five massive metal containers on the stage.
[Container #1] [Contents: 1960s Vintage Cadillac parts, rusted.] [Estimated Value: $15,000]
[Container #2] [Contents: Illegal Ivory (Contraband). Risk of Arrest: 100%] [Estimated Value: $0]
[Container #3] [Contents: Designer Clothing (Moth-eaten).] [Estimated Value: $2,000]
[Container #4] [Contents: Empty Safes.] [Estimated Value: $500]
Jack frowned. It was all trash. Victor was scamming his own guests. He was selling junk wrapped in mystery.
Then, Jack scanned Container #5.
It was the smallest container. Rusted. Ugly.
[Container #5] [Origin: Estate of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes (Uncatalogued).] [Contents: Surface layer – Old Newspapers.] [Hidden Compartment Detected.] [Item: The original deed to the Las Vegas Strip Land Trust (1946).] [Item: 500kg of Gold Bullion.] [Total Estimated Value: $850,000,000]
Jack choked on his water. Eight hundred and fifty million.
“And now!” Victor announced. “The final item! Vault Number 5! Look at this rustic charm! Who wants to start the bidding at $10,000?”
“Ten thousand!” a Texan oil tycoon shouted.
“Twenty!” a tech CEO yelled.
“Thirty!”
Jack waited. The price climbed to $100,000. The crowd was losing interest. It looked like a box of trash.
“Going once at $100,000…” Victor raised his gavel.
“Two hundred thousand,” Jack said. His voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through the room.
Victor froze. He squinted into the crowd. Jack took off his sunglasses.
Victor’s jaw dropped. “Zero? What the hell are you doing here? Security!”
“I paid the entry fee, Victor,” Jack said, holding up his paddle. “Unless your auction is rigged? Are you afraid of a janitor?”
The crowd murmured. They loved an underdog.
“Let him bid!” someone shouted.
Victor’s face turned red. He laughed nervously. “Fine. Let the rat throw away his life savings. Two hundred thousand from the janitor. Do I hear three?”
“Three hundred thousand,” Victor said himself. “I’m not letting you win, Zero. I’ll buy it just to burn it in front of you.”
“Four hundred thousand,” Jack said. That was every penny he had left from the pawn shop (he had lied about having more). If he went higher, he’d be in debt.
“Five hundred thousand!” Victor sneered. “Come on, scrub! Show me the money!”
Jack smiled. He tapped his temple.
“System. Activate Skill: Bluff Enhancement.”
[Skill Activated: Charisma +500%. Intimidation +200%.]
Jack laughed. It was a relaxed, arrogant laugh. “Victor, Victor. You always were short-sighted. You think I’m bidding on this box because I want it? No. I’m bidding because I know what’s in your private vault upstairs.”
Victor went pale. “What?”
“The ‘Red Dragon’ vase you claimed was destroyed for the insurance money last year?” Jack lied smoothly, though he guessed based on Victor’s fraud history. “I bet the FBI would love to know it’s sitting in your office safe.”
The crowd gasped.
“You’re lying!” Victor screamed.
“Am I?” Jack stepped forward. “Then let me have the box, Victor. If it’s trash, I lose everything. If you bid again, I make a phone call to Agent Miller at the FBI.”
Victor hesitated. He was sweating. He did have insurance fraud skeletons in his closet. He couldn’t risk an investigation over a rusty box of trash. He thought Jack was bluffing, but he couldn’t be sure.
“Fine!” Victor threw his hands up. “Take the trash! Sold to the loser for $400,000! I hope you enjoy your box of old newspapers!”
Victor banged the gavel. “Sold!”
PART 5: THE REVELATION
Jack walked up to the stage. He swiped his debit card. The transaction cleared (barely).
“Open it,” Victor mocked. “Let everyone see your stupidity.”
Jack grabbed the crowbar. He pried open the rusty doors of Vault #5.
Dust billowed out. The crowd leaned in.
Piles of yellowed newspapers from 1950 spilled out.
Victor howled with laughter. “Newspapers! I told you! Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when the uneducated try to play with the big boys!”
Clara looked at Jack with pity. “Jack… why?”
Jack ignored them. He walked into the container. He activated his [X-Ray Vision].
He walked to the back wall of the container. He kicked the metal panel. It sounded hollow.
“He’s kicking the wall!” Victor wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. “He’s lost his mind!”
Jack picked up the crowbar again. He jammed it into the seam of the false wall. With a grunt of exertion, he heaved.
SCREECH.
The metal panel popped off.
Gold.
Rows and rows of gold bars glinted under the stage lights.
The laughter died instantly.
Victor stopped breathing.
Jack reached in and pulled out a leather document tube. He opened it and unrolled the deed.
“According to this,” Jack spoke into the microphone, “this is the original land deed for the plot of land this casino stands on. It was never transferred to your father, Victor. It belongs to the bearer of this deed.”
Jack looked at Victor. “I own your casino. Get off my property.”
The room erupted. Phones flashed. People screamed.
“No! That’s fake! That’s mine!” Victor rushed the stage.
Jack turned his gaze to Victor.
“System Scan: Victor Sterling.”
[Target: Victor Sterling] [Status: Panicked] [Possessions: 1x Pistol in ankle holster (Unlicensed).]
“He’s got a gun!” Jack shouted, dropping to the floor.
Victor, in a blind rage, reached for his ankle. The security guards, seeing their boss pull a weapon in a room full of billionaires, didn’t hesitate.
Three tasers fired at once.
Victor convulsed and collapsed onto the stage, foaming at the mouth.
PART 6: THE NEW KING
One Month Later.
Jack sat in the penthouse office of the O’Malley Grand Casino. He was wearing a suit that cost more than his old yearly salary.
Clara stood in front of his desk. She looked nervous.
“Jack,” she said softly. “I… I was so scared for you. I only stayed with Victor to protect you. You know that, right?”
Jack looked at her. He activated the System.
[Target: Clara Vance] [Affection Level: 10% (Opportunistic)] [Current Thought: “If I cry, maybe he’ll pay off my credit card debt.”] [Truth: She cheated on you because Victor had a Ferrari.]
Jack sighed. He took a sip of his coffee.
“Clara,” he said.
“Yes, honey?”
“Security is waiting for you downstairs. You’re banned from the premises.”
“What? Jack! You can’t do this! I love you!”
“No,” Jack turned his chair to look out the window at the neon city below. “You loved the potential. But you couldn’t handle the reality.”
He pressed a button on his desk. Two guards entered and escorted a screaming Clara out.
Jack looked at his reflection in the glass. His right eye flickered with a faint blue light.
[Mission Complete: The Revenge.] [New Mission Available: Global Market Domination.] [Reward: Immortality.]
Jack smiled. “System,” he whispered. “Accept mission.”
THE END.
