[System Notification] Assets transfer completed!
Leo's hand moved swiftly.
He tapped "Okay".
[System Notification] Total assets value is 100 million Philippine pesos.
"I have that kind of money?" The words tumbled out as his eyes widened. The numbers glowed against the translucent screen, each digit more impossible than the last. Even as Eman, he never knew exactly how much money he had. "As long as they are profitable," he always told himself. Numbers on spreadsheets. Investments growing in the background. Never this concrete figure staring back at him.
[System Notification] Convert assets value?
His finger hesitated above the prompt. The weight of a lifetime's work condensed into this single choice.
He tapped "Okay".
[System Notification] Calculating PHP to gold coins ratio…
[System Notification] 1 PHP = 10 gold coins
"Ten gold coins for every peso?"
The conversion rate defied logic. His merchant's instincts screamed at the imbalance, yet the system displayed it as fact.
"That's insane!"
[System Notification] Converting assets…
The screen pulsed with ethereal light. Numbers cascaded like a waterfall of digits, each one representing years of careful planning, sleepless nights, calculated risks.
[System Notification] 1,000,000,000 gold coins received.
The number was staggering.
Leo stumbled back to the table, his legs unsteady. His heart pounded against his ribs like a caged bird desperate for freedom. He lowered himself into the chair, but the moment his body touched the worn wood, reality crashed over him.
One billion.
Gold coins.
"No, no, no..."
The whisper escaped through clenched teeth. He turned back to the floating window, holding his breath as if the numbers might vanish if he exhaled too hard. His finger traced the air, following each zero.
One.
Two.
Three.
The counting continued, each digit another layer of impossibility stacked upon the last. His mind struggled to process the magnitude. When his finger reached the ninth zero, something inside him snapped.
"Nine!"
The exclamation tore from his throat. He launched upward, muscles coiling and releasing in pure instinct. The chair crashed backward, wood striking wood with a sharp crack that echoed through the empty room.
"Living in the capital? Pft!"
His voice rang with manic energy. The words tumbled out faster, fueled by adrenaline and disbelief.
"Who needs to scrape by in some cramped apartment when I can buy a castle and still have enough gold to feed us for a lifetime?"
His palms slammed against the table. The impact sent vibrations up his arms. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the cool air. His body trembled not from fear but from the sheer overwhelming possibility of it all.
Slowly, deliberately, he retrieved the fallen chair. Its legs scraped against the floorboards as he set it upright. He sank into it like a man collapsing after a marathon, spine pressing against the backrest.
His arms fell limp.
Dead weight at his sides.
A deep sigh escaped him as his head tilted back, eyes finding the rough-hewn ceiling beams above.
To think I could reclaim the wealth I'd built in my past life... this changes everything...
The thought crystallized something else. A memory sharp as broken glass.
The Share the Pain perk.
Gold coins could fuel it.
Energy surged through him again. He straightened, fingers dancing across the interface with renewed purpose. The perk menu appeared. Amanda's name glowed among the target list. He selected it without hesitation.
The familiar message box materialized. His hand found the duration slider, dragging it to its limit.
One hundred years.
Maximum.
He tapped "Activate using gold coins."
[System Notification] You are about to use 10,000,000 gold coins to raise the success rate to 100%. Do you want to continue?
Ten million. A fraction of his newfound fortune, yet still more wealth than most would see in a dozen lifetimes.
He tapped "Yes".
[System Notification] Syncing 100 years for about 60 seconds. Please secure your location before proceeding.
The warning hung in the air like a premonition. Leo adjusted his chair, wood scraping against wood until he found the perfect position. Not too close to the table. Not too far from support if needed.
His emotions churned like a storm-tossed sea. Anticipation mixed with dread. Hope tangled with fear. He was about to experience a century of another person's existence compressed into a single minute.
Can I endure everything?
The question echoed in the silence. What would a hundred years feel like? Every joy, every sorrow, every mundane Tuesday and life-changing moment. Would it break him? Transform him? Leave him a stranger in his own skin?
Time stretched.
Slowed.
What if I uncover truths that should have been left untouched?
The room held its breath with him. No wind stirred the curtains. No distant sounds penetrated the walls. Only his heartbeat and the whisper of his breathing filled the space.
He closed his eyes.
Drew strength from somewhere deep within.
Determination carved itself across his features like stone taking shape beneath a sculptor's chisel.
One final breath.
Deep.
Centering.
He tapped "Proceed."
The screen flickered. A timer materialized, numbers spinning backward like a clock unwinding. Sixty seconds to contain a century. His heart matched the countdown's rhythm, each beat marking another second closer to the unknown.
Then it hit.
Paralysis.
Complete.
Absolute.
His muscles locked as if encased in ice. An invisible hand squeezed him from all sides, pressure building until breathing became a conscious effort. His vision shattered like a mirror struck by lightning. The world exploded into countless fragments, each shard a window into Amanda's past.
They spun around him in a dizzying cyclone. Faces blurred past. Voices layered upon voices until individual words dissolved into meaningless sound. A child's laughter melted into a woman's scream. A gentle touch became a brutal strike.
Too fast.
Too much.
The images refused to slow, refused to clarify. His mind grasped at them like trying to catch smoke with bare hands. Each attempt left him more disoriented than before.
What have I done?
Colors bled together. Sounds merged into a cacophony that threatened to split his skull. Not his experience. Hers. Yet flowing through him as if he'd lived every moment.
His vision darkened at the edges. Amanda's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. Laughter bright as sunshine. Cries sharp as broken glass. Defiant shouts that rang with steel and determination.
All of it drowning beneath an ocean of sensation.
I can't...
The first seconds blurred past in a haze of motion and emotion. Nausea rose like a tide, churning his stomach until bile burned the back of his throat.
...take this anymore...
Every injury she'd suffered blazed across his nerves. Sword cuts that had healed decades ago opened fresh wounds in his perception. Broken bones that had mended sent phantom fractures through his skeleton. The accumulated damage of a warrior's life compressed into heartbeats.
What if I can't...?
The question fragmented before completion. His consciousness cracked like thin ice beneath too much weight. The memories intensified, showing no mercy.
No reprieve.
What if I die here instead?
His body convulsed. Control slipped away like water through clenched fingers. He toppled from the chair, knees striking wood with bruising force. Coughs wracked his frame. Copper flooded his mouth.
Blood.
His stomach rebelled completely. Vomit splattered across the floor as his body tried to purge the impossible influx of sensation. But there was no escaping what flowed through the connection.
The injuries felt heavier now.
Deadlier.
Each one a weight added to an already crushing burden.
Motion and emotion blurred together until he couldn't tell where one ended and another began. Time lost all meaning. Had seconds passed? Minutes? Years?
At forty seconds, his body seized harder. Muscles contracting and releasing in violent spasms. Yet the sync continued its relentless advance. The final decades of Amanda's life crashed through him like a battering ram.
Zero.
The timer hit bottom.
Everything stopped.
The screens vanished. The sensations cut off as abruptly as they'd begun. Leo lay sprawled on the floor, a broken puppet with severed strings. His chest heaved, pulling in desperate gulps of air. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, tracing a crimson path down his chin.
[System Notification] Sync with Amanda completed.
His body twitched. Once. Twice. Random muscle firing as his nervous system tried to remember its own patterns.
[System Notification] Calculating synced years.
The notifications continued their emotionless progression. Facts and figures while he fought to remember his own name.
[System Notification] Successfully synced 100 years.
One hundred years of life. Of love and loss. Of triumph and failure. All of it now woven into his being.
[System Notification] Congratulations, receiving successful sync reward.
[System Notification] Increasing all stats by 1000.
The room fell silent except for his ragged breathing. Occasional tremors ran through his limbs. The taste of blood lingered on his tongue.
Then something shifted.
The change rippled outward from him like a stone dropped in still water. It swept across the room, through the walls, beyond the house. An invisible wave of pure force that expanded with terrifying speed.
Miles away, a merchant counting coins suddenly collapsed behind his counter. A blacksmith's hammer fell from nerveless fingers as its wielder crumpled beside the forge. Children playing in the streets dropped like cut flowers.
The wave continued its expansion. Through villages and towns. Across fields where farmers fell among their crops. Into forests where hunters found themselves on their knees, bows forgotten.
Even seasoned warriors felt it. Men and women who'd faced death a hundred times suddenly discovered they couldn't stand. Their strength, their training, their iron will all meant nothing against this invisible pressure.
The force recognized no borders. No allegiances. It simply was, and everything in its path bent or broke beneath its weight.
In the epicenter, Leo remained motionless on the floor. Unaware of the chaos spreading outward. Lost in the aftermath of a century that wasn't his own, yet now belonged to him completely.