Chapter 203: System Quest—Revenge
Night fell over the Reed estate, casting long, peaceful shadows across the sprawling stone courtyard.
Before April prepared to head out for her evening stall at the black market, the estate slowly cleared.
Dr. Oliver Baxter was the first to depart, his tablet crammed with fresh data on spatial physics and psychological turnarounds, eager to return to his private lab to analyze his findings and prepare friendly questions for April to answer during their survey the next day.
Alexander left shortly after, heading back to coordinate his grandfather’s green-dome garden project and oversee their private security detail.
Xavier remained in his top-floor study, buried under a mountain of late-night corporate restructuring, logistics supply orders, and perimeter defense approvals.
Emily stayed behind at the estate, tucked safely into a warm, luxurious guest suite under the attentive care of Xavier’s top staff and guarded by a heavy perimeter team just in case someone came after her when no one was looking.
For the first time in twenty-six years, she was sleeping on soft sheets, completely free from fear.
Down in the garage, Nat leaned against the hood of his SUV—yes, he didn’t drive his G-Wagon today—watching April adjust her dark leather coat.
"You sure you can handle the stall tonight, little seer?" Nat asked, his eyes gleaming with an easy, confident charm.
"I’ll be fine," April replied flatly.
Nat held out his hand, accepting the last batch of ’Miracle Water’ vials she had brought along. "Alright then. I’ll hold onto these for now. We need to starve the market, let the rumors build, and when we re-open the auction right before the final deadline, those desperate rich bastards will throw every cent they own at your feet."
A subtle, calculating glint touched April’s eyes. It was a solid business strategy—one that would inflate her already massive fortune into absolute absurdity before the financial system collapsed.
Satisfied, April made her way to the secluded, dimly lit alleyways of the black market. Setting her crystalline orb on top of her familiar wooden table, she sat down behind the velvet cloth, ready to deploy her newly upgraded level-three Eye of Destiny insights to the curious customers.
Just then, a sudden, violent surge of static buzzed inside her skull. The translucent blue interface didn’t just appear—it flared with a blinding, blood-red hue that pulsed with an ominous, deafening chime.
[CRITICAL SYSTEM UPDATE!]
[PROCESSING WORLD LINE METRICS... 100%]
[System Notice: All key pieces have been put in place.]
April’s brows pulled together in deep, immediate confusion. All pieces? Pieces for what?
Before she could process the cryptic phrase, the system interface shuddered violently, throwing red warning text across her vision like an emergency broadcast:
[SYSTEM ALERT: GLOBAL TIMELINE ACCELERATION DETECTED!]
[Previous Apocalypse Timer (42 Days) — CANCELLED.]
[Recalibrating Systemic Countdown...]
[NEW TIME REMAINING UNTIL ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: 22 DAYS, 00 HOURS, 00 MINUTES.]
[System Note: Secure all that is needed to survive this apocalypse quickly. Time is running out.]
BANG!
April’s hands slammed onto the wooden desk with enough force to rattle the orb, the sharp cracking sound echoing down the dark black-market alleyway. She stood to her feet, her heart hammering violently against her ribs.
She stood frozen, her chest heaving as she stared at the glowing red numbers hovering in the air.
How is this possible?! April’s mind screamed, her composure shattering into raw, unadulterated shock. The apocalypse timeline was adjusted?! It jumped forward by twenty whole days?!
She tried to query the system, frantically searching for an explanation, a cause, or a variable line—but the red interface remained utterly silent, offering nothing more than the cold, ticking clock: 22 DAYS.
Just what in the world was going on?
Before she could even pull her hands off the wooden desk, another sharp, metallic chime echoed inside her mind. The blood-red interface flickered, shifting into a heavy, dark-bordered panel that hovered directly before her eyes.
[QUEST INITIATED]
A quest?
April stared at the glowing header, her breath catching in her throat. The system had never issued quests before. In all her time using it, it had acted strictly as an analytical tool—providing survival advice, fortune forecasts, and status notes. But now, an active task was flashing right in front of her.
Was this some sort of system upgrade?
[Note: Quests are assigned to eliminate hindrances to the Apocalypse Trials and remove anomalous variables that must not be present when the threshold is crossed.]
April’s brows furrowed tightly, her distress deepening by the second.
Apocalypse Trials?
What did that even mean? In her previous life, it had simply been a viral outbreak—a sudden, brutal collapse of humanity where the dead rose and devoured the living.
There were no ’trials,’ no grand cosmic variables, just blood, starvation, and zombies. What were all these cryptic, disturbing updates hinting at? Was the impending apocalypse something far worse than a mere biological disaster?
The interface flared again, revealing the actual text of the assignment:
[QUEST: REVENGE]
[Objective: Eliminate the following families before the apocalypse begins.]
The Gabriel Family — [COMPLETED]
The Le Moreno Family — [PENDING]
The Morgan Family — [PENDING]
[Special Note: In your quest to exact revenge on the Morgans, Liora Morgan must not be harmed.]
April’s brown eyes narrowed as she read the final line over and over.
Liora must not be harmed?
April had never planned on going after Liora in the first place. Liora had never crossed her, nor had she participated in the abuse her family had inflicted on her. But why would the system issue such a specific restriction? Was it because Liora was the central figure—the protagonist of this world’s narrative web?
None of it was making sense.
When she had first awakened with this system, April had assumed it was merely a survival aid meant to give her a surviving chance against the end of the world and have powerful backers by telling them their fortune and making them see her as an indispensable asset.
But now, it was actively pushing her to clear the board, altering a global timeline, and issuing strict directives.
What was this system really? What did it ultimately want from her?
She stared at the floating, crimson text for a long, silent moment, her mind racing through a hundred different theories. But before the spiral could pull her under, a shadow fell across the velvet cloth of her stall.
"Is the seer open for a reading tonight?" a muffled voice asked from beneath a dark hood.
April slowly let out a quiet, steadying breath. She blinked, forcing the glowing interface to fade into the background of her consciousness.
For now, she would bottle up the suspicion. The system had never given her answers through force, and spiraling in the middle of the black market wouldn’t change the fact that the clock was now ticking down at double speed.
The system had never lied to her, nor had it ever led her astray—every update, no matter how jarring, had ultimately served to protect her.
If it was demanding the elimination of these families—which she already planned to do to begin with—then she would carry out the quests and see what lay beyond the threshold.
"Sit down," April said flatly, her voice returning to its cool, unshakeable rhythm as she pulled out her cards. "What would you like me to divine for you?"