Chapter 51 – Ghosts of the Last Order
[Flashback: 12 Hours Earlier – 3:12 PM]
Underground Parking Garage, Level B4 – Private Horizon Terminal
The fluorescent lights above buzzed softly, casting pale reflections off the sleek vehicles parked in tight rows. The scent of fuel and tire rubber lingered in the still air. Gerard crouched beside a matte-black motorcycle, helmet hanging from one handlebar as he slid a magnetic drive into his wrist comm port.
The system flickered to life with a chime.
> [System Mission Received: "Silence the Slanderer"]
Objective: Terminate target – Dr. Huo Qiming
Details: Former chief medical officer at Shèngzhì Mental Health Institute. Instrumental in falsifying documents related to Patient Li Xian. Currently engaged in discreet media deals to spread misinformation about Li Xian's 'violent psychosis' post-discharge.
Bonus Objective: Make it look like suicide or silence him so thoroughly no narrative is left behind.
Reward: $50,000 + Stat Boost + Bonus Skill (Based on Performance)
Gerard's eyes scanned the attached files. Images, confidential memos, payment transfers—all connecting Dr. Huo to Madam Wei. There were falsified diagnostics, audio recordings of hushed negotiations, and most damning of all, a handwritten note from the patient file:
> "Displays delusional behavior. Claims stepmother is attempting to murder him. Subject is paranoid, hostile. Recommendation: Indefinite psychiatric care."
The echo of those words struck Gerard harder than he expected. His jaw tightened.
The memory wasn't his, but he remembered. Or rather, Li Xian remembered—and now so did he. Being forced into a hospital bed, ignored, silenced, diagnosed into helplessness. His cries for help were labeled symptoms. His grief, weaponized.
A predator in a white coat.
"I'll make sure you don't speak again," Gerard muttered, sliding on the helmet and straddling the bike.
---
[Flashback: 4:09 PM – Qingxi Business Plaza, Parking Level 2]
Dr. Huo exited the elevator with the gait of a man accustomed to power. Designer briefcase in hand, white coat exchanged for a tailored navy blazer, and a Bluetooth earpiece crackling with background noise from a media exec.
He was negotiating another exclusive—likely another segment about the 'dangerous mentally ill' and the triumph of institutional medicine.
He didn't notice the footsteps behind him. Quiet. Purposeful.
A silver blade flicked upward, severing his Achilles tendon in one clean swipe.
Dr. Huo crumpled with a strangled yell, his voice echoing through the garage before Gerard clamped a cloth soaked in chloroform over his face.
By the time the sedative kicked in, the former doctor was zip-tied in the trunk of his own car.
---
[Flashback: 4:31 PM – Unknown Location]
A dim storage unit. Insulated walls. Plastic tarps. An IV of truth serum. A chair bolted to the ground.
Gerard stood across from Dr. Huo, watching the man slur his way through denials, confessions, and finally, resignation.
"Did my father come see you before he died?"
"Y-yes... he... threatened to expose... the files..."
"And then?"
"Next day... he was gone. Heart attack. She paid me... more after that."
"She always pays well," Gerard muttered.
He left the room exactly fifteen minutes later. Dr. Huo's body would be found a week later, hanging from a noose of cable, tongue missing, media contacts wiped clean.
No one would question the suicide. Not when the narrative he'd built was so thorough.
---
[Present – 4:21 AM]
Gerard's Safehouse – Inner District
The blue glow of the system still flickered in the darkened room. Gerard sat shirtless on the edge of his bed, the chill of the night air brushing against his skin, sweat clinging to his temple despite the silence.
He'd been diving deeper into the Memory Archive, pulling on threads buried in the dark folds of Li Xian's mind.
Sixteen. That was when the world had ended. His father's death. The diagnosis. The betrayal.
The way Madam Wei had stared down at him, triumphant behind her pitying smile.
He could feel it now. The horror of being buried alive in padded walls. The torment of watching reality twist under pharmaceutical haze.
> [System Alert: Emotional Resonance Detected]
System Affinity with Host: Deepening
New Title Unlocked: "Echo of the Condemned" – Gain +10% reward bonus for missions connected to personal memories
Gerard blinked slowly.
So this is what it meant to merge.
It wasn't just about stealing someone's body. He was becoming Li Xian—piece by piece, memory by memory. And in return, Li Xian was being rewritten by Gerard's brutal precision.
He stood, pulled on a black shirt, and moved to the console near the wall. The safehouse interface flickered to life. Blueprints of the city. Known contacts. Surveillance feeds.
And in the corner: the next mission already blinking.
He tapped it open.
> Mission Available: "Crack the Chains"
Objective: Uncover and dismantle the Wei Family's secret inheritance clause related to Li Xian's discrediting.
Details: Requires physical infiltration into Wei Holdings' subsidiary archive.
Time Limit: 72 hours
Reward: +3 INT, $120,000, and unlock personal legal reclamation path.
"Time to finish what he started," Gerard whispered.