Chapter 7
591words
He was impatient—eliminate me, and he'd be the sole winner, claiming the prize and escaping this hellhole.
"VESPER!" He'd allied with the military remnants, surrounding my island with a fleet bristling with weapons.
Cain's voice boomed through loudspeakers. "I'm giving you one last chance! Surrender!"
On the screen behind him was my Christmas photo—the one I'd sent earlier.
Sunshine, beach, palm trees, and my silhouette lounging in a beach chair.
"Stop hiding. I've found your little rat hole." Cain's technician manipulated the image, enlarging details and extracting GPS coordinates with military precision.
A solitary dormant volcanic island offshore.
Cain's face twisted with savage glee. "Come out, or I'll wipe you and your pathetic island off the map!"
I watched his confident face on my monitor and smiled.
My fingers danced across the console, inserting a new message into the World Public Screen.
It wasn't text or audio.
Just a crystal-clear middle finger, slowly rising.
Beneath it, two simple letters appeared.
FU.
The smugness on Cain's face froze, instantly replaced by volcanic rage.
"FIRE! FIRE! LEVEL THAT FUCKING ISLAND!"
The order was given.
On my satellite feed, dozens of missiles launched from the fleet, trailing fire as they arced toward the island.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions rocked the island, turning the surface into a smoking wasteland.
But my underground fortress remained untouched.
Cain's carrier docked, and soldiers swarmed ashore. They quickly found the fortress entrance beneath the charred landscape.
They blasted it open and stormed inside.
Cain led the assault team, pushing deeper into the complex.
The resistance he expected never came. The place was empty—just a long corridor leading to a massive vault door.
The door slid open.
Inside was another empty room with only a giant screen that flickered to life as they entered.
My face appeared on screen, wearing a playful smile.
"Cain, you're late."
He stared at me, bloodshot eyes wide with shock. "You're... not on the island? Impossible!"
"Who said I had to be on the island?"
The camera behind me slowly pulled back.
The view no longer showed the room's furnishings. Instead, a deep, boundless darkness stretched out, with a massive azure planet rotating slowly in the void.
Earth.
"Money really is a wonderful thing," I murmured. "Cain can buy an aircraft carrier, but I can buy a one-way ticket to a space station. This is my... final sanctuary."
Cain's pupils contracted to pinpoints.
He finally understood. The color drained from his face in an instant, leaving only a deathly pallor.
A cold electronic voice blared from the tactical computer beside him.
"High-energy nuclear fusion reaction detected..."
"Warning! Warning!"
On the screen next to my face, a bright red countdown flashed to life.
5...4...
"No—!"
Cain let out the final desperate roar of his life.
3...2...1...
BOOM!
In the satellite surveillance footage, the center of the extinct volcanic island erupted with a flash a hundred times brighter than the sun.
A massive mushroom cloud rose skyward, consuming everything in its path.
The fleet, the aircraft carrier, Cain, and all his ambitions—gone in an instant.
The screen signal cut to static.
The world was now at peace.
[Congratulations to survivor Vesper, for becoming the sole survivor of this "Beautiful New World."]
[System begins calculating final rewards...]
[Transfer program activated, countdown begins...]
The cold system voice echoed in my ears as my body began to turn transparent—like a hologram losing power.
The space station before me and that beautiful blue planet distorted, blurred, and faded away.
The final countdown hit zero.
I returned home.
