Asharub_Pervez

Raen Solis has never known comfort—only rejection, debt, and failure. Trapped in a crumbling apartment in the lower districts of Velden, he survives by doing shady game-boosting gigs and digital scraps, praying each day won’t be his last.

Then one night, a sudden power surge from his worn-down rig knocks him out cold. When he comes to, a glowing interface hovers before him:

[SYSTEM LINKED: SKILL SHOP INTERFACE]
Any skill. Any mastery. For a price.

The Skill Shop System Runs on Cash

Raen and Saelyn stood just outside the city's noisy chaos, where silence returned to the world. Before them stood an aging apartment building, half-forgotten, its dull exterior barely holding together. A small drone buzzed lazily overhead, ignored by both.

"This is the place?" Saelyn asked, arms folded, clearly unimpressed.

Raen gave a casual nod. "Eighty thousand Lux. Out of the city, no rent, no eyes on me. I own it now."

She stared at him. "You bought this?"

"Cheaper than paying rent forever. It's not pretty, but I've lived in worse."

Saelyn didn't argue—she followed as Raen led the way up a narrow staircase to his newly claimed apartment. Inside, it was bare, dust-heavy, and dim, but Raen was already digging into a crate and pulling out his portable schematics and tools.

He set up a flat workspace on the floor and pulled out some blueprints—mechanical arms, exo-limbs, skeletal frameworks. His fingers moved with practiced speed.

"That's it," he muttered, tapping the center of the design. "Autonomous Builder Unit. Something to build, teach, repair—everything."

Saelyn raised an eyebrow, then turned sharply as Raen moved toward the corner, unboxing a crate of sensitive equipment. "Whoa, whoa. Raen."

She narrowed her eyes. "Did you forget we're building a company?"

Raen blinked. "What does that have to—oh." His posture slackened. "Muscle memory, sorry. Guess I defaulted to working out of a tiny room."

"You're not working in this dusty hole," Saelyn said, almost amused. "You'll live here, sure. But your work will happen at the company headquarters. That's where everything you build should be seen."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Right. Yeah. That makes sense."

Saelyn smirked, enjoying his rare moment of embarrassment. "You really were going to start wiring circuits here like some back-alley inventor."

She tapped her comm. "Come on. We're scouting locations. It's time to find a real building—for our organization."

As they stepped back outside, the wind hit his face, and Raen glanced at the quiet skyline. Somehow, this felt like the real beginning—not of an invention, but of something larger.

Blueprints and Ghosts