“The Billion-Credit Burn”

  "Whatever. Let the billions burn. We need to stay alive first."

  Aryan gritted his teeth, the words tasting like ash. He clenched his fist and looked around, nodding grimly to his team members. They were all in the same position—kneeling, paralyzed, draining away.

  Amara fought against the immense gravity. She slowly dragged her right hand up, fighting the air pressure that felt like solid lead, until her fingers brushed the earpiece Jay had insisted they wear.

  "On count three," Amara whispered, her voice strained but clear over the comms. "Skate on ice."

  The other nine members raised their eyebrows. Even as their life force flowed out of them like oxygen into the smiling woman, they recognized the command. It was the signal to dump everything into the movement skill.

  Without dey, Aryan and Amara locked hands on each other's shoulders. They took a deep breath.

  Inside the System Space, the massive digital billboard flickered.

  The counter was falling too fast. Even Sam stopped speaking.

  "Ah! It burns!" Aryan screamed inwardly.

  "Carry on! Don't stop!" Sam shouted, watching the numbers freefall. "You are pying with thunder! You can thank me when you aren't dead! Continue!"

  Without another word, the two tightened their grip. The invisible, transparent liquid—the physical manifestation of their wealth—flooded into their veins. It didn't feel like power; it felt like molten gss forcing its way through their bloodstream.

  "Now. Release it!" Nine commanded.

  "Three!" Brother Five shouted over the comms.

  BOOM.

  All eleven members poured their Dark Matter into the tectonic pte, the board, at once. But the fuel source from the two was different. It was a billion credits of concentrated, votile energy.

  The crimson board underneath them glowed blindingly white and shot forward.

  It wasn't a movement. It was a teleportation of mass.

  ZOOOM.

  They tore through the forest, the trees blurring into a tunnel of green and brown.

  Inside the System Space, the money counter was spinning so fast it was a blur.

  "Our money! It's all going away!" Tears streamed down Aryan’s face, mixing with the blood from his nose. "We worked so hard for that!"

  "It's okay! We will earn it ter, Aryan!" Amara shouted, though her face was twisted in agony.

  As more energy surged through them, their bodies began to fail. Their veins bulged, glowing blue under the skin. Their organs expanded against their ribs. Tiny tears opened in their pores, misting the air with blood.

  "Greed! Wake up!" Nine sprinted back and forth in the System Space, screaming at the nebu. "Slow down the time within their bodies! If you don't, they explode, and you die with them!"

  The Greed Vessel stirred.

  "You better understand the consequence of waking me," the Greed hissed.

  A pulse of ancient energy flooded their systems, reinforcing their cellur walls and slowing the internal clock of their hearts.

  SNAP.

  The board accelerated again.

  They were moving at lightning speed, tearing through the dimension. And yet... the drain didn't stop. Even miles away, the connection to the smiling woman remained. She was still inhaling their life force remotely, enjoying the appetizer, as her eyes still shut tight.

  Inside the System Space, the first billboard reserve hit zero.

  Sam and Nine moved with terrifying synchronization. They grabbed a second digital billboard—their reserve funds—and smmed it into the slot.

  "Don't stop! Move faster!" Sam roared. "Your veins are safe for now thanks to Greed, but you need to break the tether! Feel the money faster!"

  “You’re fast,” Nine snapped. “Not fast enough. Move.”

  Aryan and Amara pushed harder. The board leaped forward, crossing impossibly vast distances in seconds—skipping impossible distances through warped space.

  The next board started at fifty billion and emptied to zero in seconds.

  Sam and Nine smmed the third and final billboard in with another fifty billion dolrs.

  Finally, in the distance of the forest, the woman opened her eyes. She wiped her mouth delicately and smiled.

  “Acceptable,” she murmured.

  She let the connection snap.

  PING.

  The drain stopped. The money counter halted.

  Sam and Nine froze in the System Space, staring at the bance. They didn't move. They just looked at each other, then checked the external sensors to see if she was following.

  “She wasn't following us. She was maybe full,” Sam said.

  “Whatever. Don't rex,” Nine said.

  The remaining members on the board gasped as the pressure vanished. The tectonic pte drifted out of the forest zone and slid onto a barren, rocky pin.

  The momentum died. The board skidded to a halt.

  THUD. THUD. THUD.

  All eleven members colpsed at once, their chests heaving, their bank accounts empty, but their hearts still beating.

  The Colpse

  "I thought we were dying as soon as I came here," Jay wheezed.

  He tried to push himself up, his hands trembling against the scorching hot surface of the tectonic board. But his legs were like jelly. He wobbled for a second before his knees buckled, and he colpsed hard against the stone.

  "Don't struggle," Aryan murmured, not even opening his eyes. He was lying ft on his back, staring at the alien sky. "Just sit on the board. If you move, your heart might actually stop."

  "Yeah... just sit for now," Jay agreed weakly. He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to cool down his overheating body. The friction of the travel had left them all feeling like they were burning from the inside out.

  For a moment, silence reigned. The only sound was the ragged breathing of eleven people who had just outrun a god.

  Then, Jay’s voice broke the quiet again.

  "We just moved through life and death," he said, his voice raspy. He looked at Aryan, Amara, and the silent wall of Hunters. "You could have thrown me off to save energy. You didn't abandon me."

  He paused, his eyebrows tightening in a mixture of gratitude and fear.

  "So I owe you one. Seriously."

  He looked at the desote, rocky wastend surrounding them. The fear in his eyes spiked.

  "But..." he whispered, his vision starting to blur. "Don't abandon me now either. Please. Thanks."

  Before he could finish the sentence, his head lolled forward.

  THUD.

  Jay colpsed completely. His eyes shut, his body went limp, and he slumped against Hunter Seven’s boots. He was out cold—totally spent.

  Aryan turned his head slowly to look at the unconscious guide.

  "Great," Aryan sighed, closing his eyes again. "Now we have to carry him."

  Far behind them, the forest exhaled.

  The hunt wasn’t over.