Raen was running on fumes.
His room stank of energy drinks and overclocked desperation. But he didn't care. His Lux counter was growing, and he was five jobs away from hitting twenty.
That meant a new skill.
"I don't even know what I want next," he muttered. "But I'm unlocking something."
A notification popped.
Private message. Encrypted. Anonymous sender.
User ID: [X@V3K1]Saw your recent output on the freelance net. Fast. Quiet. No questions?
You want 1,200 Lux for a single job?One day turnaround. You take it or not.
Raen paused.
The message had no signature. No trace. But 1,200 Lux?
"Shady," he muttered. "Probably illegal.""Definitely accepting."
He clicked accept.
The job spec loaded.
Raen's eyes narrowed.
A request to modify a smart home's behavioral analytics algorithm. Optimize energy usage, they said.
"But why is there a module labeled 'facial drift prediction' in a power-saving script?"
He didn't ask questions. He just wrote code.
—
Hour 1:
Everything seemed clean—basic AI adjustment layers. Then a message popped in:
Client:Strip out all third-party security logs. Replace with dummy packages.
Raen frowned.
"That's… not normal."
—
Hour 3:
Client:Remove user location pings. I don't want anything tracked remotely. Local only.
"Okay, this is 100% shady now."
—
Hour 5:
He ran a silent check.
The system logs showed the smart home used to belong to a minor gov official in EuraTech District.
"What the hell did I just sign onto?"
But the payment was already half in.
[+600 Lux Received][On Completion: +600 Lux]
His hands hesitated on the keyboard.
"Just code, Raen. You're not the law."
He stripped the last logs, streamlined the code, and packaged it in a neat, encrypted build.
[Job Submitted][+600 Lux Received][Total Lux: 3,020][Job Count: 15]
Raen leaned back, stretched, and exhaled hard.
"That client gives me the creeps."
He rubbed his eyes and pushed his chair away from the desk.
"Still... only five jobs left."
His head dropped back.
Ding.
His phone lit up.
A group chat notification from a long-dead thread flickered across the screen.
[GROUP: Lost Pixels]"Yo, is this Raen? You're not gonna believe what just happened..."
Raen's eyes narrowed.
"...What now?"