Raen stood in the middle of the empty warehouse, staring at his notes and sketches like a general reviewing battle plans.
He was excited. Hungry to create something.But then… reality tapped him on the shoulder.
Rent.
He let out a groan and rubbed his face.The landlord would be at his apartment tomorrow. His rent for that moldy box was still unpaid — and even if he was moving out, he wasn't about to leave on a bad note. Not now that he had 600,000 Lux.
"Let's tie up the loose ends first…"
—
Later that day…
Raen walked up the creaking stairs of his old apartment, carrying a small box and his phone tucked under one ear.The hallway smelled like dried noodles and regret.
He slipped a rent envelope under his landlord's door — with a little extra, just to shut him up.
Then he went into his unit and took a long look around.Peeling wallpaper. Water-stained ceiling. That cracked monitor he couldn't afford to fix.
He grabbed what little he had — mostly tech parts, notebooks, and wires — and threw them into an old duffel bag. His custom PC, the one that got him electrocuted and half-resurrected by the system, sat in a worn-out tower case. He lifted it gently like it was an old comrade.
"Let's go home."
—
On the way out, he stopped by his friend's place and handed over the borrowed laptop with 100 Lux in a sealed envelope.
"Appreciate it. Saved me back there."
His friend blinked. "You good, man?"
Raen gave a faint smirk. "Getting there."
—
Back at the warehouse, the place already felt different.Like it had accepted him.
Raen set his broken rig down on the wide metal table at the center of the lab. It looked tiny in the middle of all that space.
"Alright," he muttered. "Time to make this official."
He opened the system screen.
[ Skill Shop System Active ]
▸ Programming Mastery – Owned▸ Language Mastery – 10,000 Lux▸ Mechanical Systems Mastery – 20,000 Lux
Balance: 600,000 Lux
[ Purchase Language Mastery for 10,000 Lux? ][ Purchase Mechanical Systems Mastery for 20,000 Lux? ]
Raen hovered for a moment — then tapped both options without hesitation.
-10,000 Lux-20,000 LuxBalance: 570,000 Lux
A low hum tickled the edge of his skull.
Knowledge rushed into his mind — but unlike programming, which felt like logic gates and scripts, this was raw structure.Mechanical Systems flooded his brain with visions:
Pistons, circuits, hydraulics, kinetic equations.CAD schematics. 3D printers. Drone schematics. Servo control code.Then came something else — not just how to build hardware, but how to make it think.
Raen's eyes widened.
"Wait… I can write code that… breathes?"
He sat down slowly, heart hammering. With Programming Mastery, he could design digital intelligence. Now, with Mechanical Systems… he could give it a body.
"I can build things that move. That adapt."
He stared at his old rig in the middle of the empty lab.Broken. But not dead.
"What if I rebuild you… and give you a voice?"
He grabbed a marker and wrote one word on the whiteboard by the wall.
PROJECT: VOXFRAME
He didn't know exactly what it would become.But now, for the first time in his life—
He could create something no one else could.