Chapter 9: The Ghost of San Francisco
The air in San Francisco was different from New York. It didn't smell like old iron or rain; it smelled like expensive coffee, ocean salt, and the silent hum of billions of data packets flying through the air. I stood on the balcony of a glass-walled hotel in Silicon Valley, looking at the Golden Gate Bridge.
I wasn't wearing my old, torn hoodie anymore. I was wearing a white linen shirt and light gray trousers. I looked like a young billionaire on vacation. But inside my pocket, the phone was vibrating with a strange, frantic energy.
[LOCATION SYNC: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.]
[TARGET: HERMES (CEO OF NEXUS SOCIAL).]
[DEBT: 10,000 YEARS OF STOLEN HUMAN TIME.]
[STATUS: HE IS WATCHING YOU.]
"He's watching me?" I whispered, looking at the tiny camera on my phone.
"Of course he is," Sophia's voice crackled in my earpiece. She was still back in the Agency Hub, her fingers flying across her silver keyboard. "Hermes owns the eyes of the world, Ethan. Every time someone looks at a screen, he sees what they see. Right now, you are the #1 trending topic on his app. He's obsessed with figuring out who you are."
I looked at my 'Nexus' profile. It was insane. My follower count was growing by 100,000 every minute. The System had created a fake history for me—'Ethan Thorne, the Mystery Investor.' There were AI-generated photos of me on private jets and in exotic forests. People in the comments were going crazy, trying to guess where my money came from.
"The plan is simple," Sophia continued. "Hermes is throwing a party tonight at his mansion. It's called 'The Infinite Loop.' Only the top 100 creators in the world are invited. You're the guest of honor."
"And how do I collect the debt from a guy who can move faster than light?" I asked, looking at the blue whip coiled around my wrist, hidden by my shirt sleeve.
"You don't catch him," Sophia said. "You make him stop. Hermes is a gambler. He loves a good story. If you can make him interested in your 'Secret,' he'll pause long enough for us to lock his servers."
I took a deep breath. I felt a little sick. I was used to fighting shadow-dogs and angry soldiers. But a God who could read my every thought through my social media data? That was a different kind of war.
I rode a self-driving Tesla to the mansion. The house was a masterpiece of white marble and glass, built right on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Thousands of drones were flying in the sky, creating glowing patterns that looked like Hermes's winged sandals. The music was loud, a digital beat that felt like it was syncing with my own heartbeat.
As I walked inside, the crowd went quiet. Every 'Influencer' there—people with millions of fans—turned to look at me. I could see the 'Value' of everyone in the room through my Architect's Eye.
Popular Fashion Blogger: Value $500,000.
Famous Tech YouTuber: Value $2,000,000.
Ethan Thorne: Value ??? (Hidden).
"Welcome, welcome!" a voice shouted.
A young man jumped down from a floating DJ booth. He was wearing a shiny silver tracksuit and glowing sneakers. He had messy blonde hair and a smile that looked a bit too perfect. He looked nineteen, but when I looked into his eyes, I saw the ancient hunger of a God.
This was Hermes.
"The Mystery Man himself!" Hermes said, walking toward me so fast it looked like he was teleporting. He put an arm around my shoulder, and for a second, I felt a sharp chill. "Ethan Thorne. Or should I call you... the Scavenger?"
My heart stopped. He knew.
"Don't look so shocked," Hermes laughed, his voice high and playful. "I own the data of every junk yard in New York. I saw the footage of you finding that phone. It's a very old model, you know? The Agency hasn't used that version in centuries."
"If you know who I am," I said, my voice low, "then you know why I'm here."
"The Debt, right?" Hermes sighed, leading me toward a private balcony away from the cameras. "Ten thousand years of time. It sounds like a lot when you say it like that. But think about it, Ethan. I give these people a world where they are never bored. I give them a world where they can be anyone! Isn't that worth a few hours of their day?"
"It's not a few hours," I said, looking him in the eye. "It's their entire lives. They don't look at their kids anymore. They don't look at the stars. They only look at you."
"Because I'm beautiful!" Hermes shouted, spinning around. "I'm the fastest thing in the universe! Why would they look at anything else?"
Suddenly, he stopped spinning. His face turned cold. "You want the time back? Fine. Let's play a game. I'll give you five minutes. If you can touch me with that blue toy of yours, I'll pay the debt in full. But if you fail... I get that phone. And I'll use it to hack the Agency itself."
[WARNING: DIVINE CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.]
[TIME REMAINING: 05:00.]
Before I could even blink, Hermes was gone. I heard his laughter coming from the roof, then from the cliff, then from right behind my ear.
"Too slow, Scavenger!"
I pulled out the blue whip and snapped it, but I was hitting nothing but air. He was moving so fast he was creating after-images. There were ten Hermes's dancing around me, all laughing.
"Sophia!" I yelled into the earpiece. "I can't hit him! He's too fast!"
"Ethan, use the Architect's Eye!" Sophia shouted back. "Don't look at his body. Look at the data! He's using the mansion's Wi-Fi to predict your movements. He's hacking your own brain through the phone!"
I closed my eyes. I didn't try to see Hermes with my eyes. I used the System.
Suddenly, the world turned into a grid of blue lines. I saw the Wi-Fi signals, the drone paths, and the electrical currents in the walls. And there, in the middle of it all, was a bright orange spark moving at incredible speed.
That was him.
But even with my eyes closed, he was still too fast. Every time I swung the whip, he was already ten feet away. I had three minutes left. I could feel the sweat dripping down my neck. My $800,000 balance didn't matter. My new clothes didn't matter. I was losing.
"I have to trap him," I thought.
I looked at the giant glass floor of the balcony. Underneath it was the ocean, crashing against the rocks. I saw a 'Weakness' in the glass through my Architect's Eye. If I broke the floor, the sudden drop would confuse his sensors for just one second.
"Hey, Hermes!" I shouted. "You want the phone? Here it is!"
I held the phone out over the edge of the balcony.
"No!" Sophia screamed in my ear. "What are you doing?!"
Hermes stopped. He appeared ten feet away, his silver eyes greedy. "You're giving up already? How boring."
"I'm not giving up," I said, a small smile appearing on my face. "I'm just making a trade."
I dropped the phone.
Hermes dived for it. He was a streak of silver light, moving faster than a bullet. He reached the phone just as it was about to hit the glass.
CRACK!
I didn't hit Hermes. I hit the glass floor with my whip.
The entire balcony shattered. Hermes, caught in his own speed, couldn't stop. He fell through the hole, the phone slipping from his fingers. For one tiny second, he was suspended in mid-air, his gravity-defying sneakers struggling to find a grip.
"Now!" I yelled.
I jumped after him. I didn't care about the 200-foot drop. I didn't care about the rocks below. In mid-air, I grabbed Hermes's ankle and activated my new skill.
[ACTIVATING: THE DEBTOR'S SHACKLE!]
A golden chain shot out of my hand and wrapped around Hermes's chest. The God of Speed froze. His silver eyes went wide with terror as he realized he couldn't move. He was a statue falling through the sky.
I grabbed the phone with my other hand and pressed it against his chest.
[COLLECTION STARTING: 10%... 50%... 90%... 100%!]
[10,000 YEARS OF HUMAN TIME RECOVERED.]
We hit the water together.
The cold ocean swallowed us. I felt the air leave my lungs, the darkness closing in. But as I sank, I felt a massive surge of energy. The 10,000 years of stolen time were flowing through me, turning the dark water into a sea of glowing white light.
[MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.]
[REWARD: 1,000,000 CREDITS.]
[TOTAL BALANCE: $1,800,000.]
[NEW STATUS: THE TIME-KEEPER.]
I kicked toward the surface, gasping for air. I climbed onto a wet rock, my clothes ruined and my body shivering. Hermes was floating nearby, looking like a normal teenage boy who had just survived a shipwreck. His silver tracksuit was gone, and his eyes were a simple, dull blue.
He looked at me, his teeth chattering. "You... you broke my app. The servers are down. Everyone... everyone is looking at each other now."
"Good," I said, standing up. I looked at my phone. It was glowing with a calm, gold light. "Maybe now they'll remember what the sky looks like."
I looked up at the moon. I had $1.8 million in the bank. I had saved 10,000 years of life. But as I looked at the countdown on my screen, my heart sank.
[GREAT RESET COUNTDOWN: 20 DAYS.]
The Gods were getting weaker, but the world was getting more dangerous. I saw a shooting star in the sky, but through my Eye of Truth, I knew it wasn't a star. It was the God of Death, coming to see who was killing his brothers.
"Sophia," I whispered into the earpiece. "I'm ready to go home."
"I'm opening the portal, Ethan," she said, her voice sounding relieved. "But hurry. The God of Death doesn't like to wait."
I stepped into the blue light, leaving the ocean behind. Three down. A lot more to go.