Cole Ridge signed up for a college experiment: an AI dating simulator. Easy money. Harmless fun.
It wasn't harmless.
Inside, he lived hundreds of years that never happened and died more times than he can count. Each death taught him something, until the simulation ran out of ways to kill him and gave him a new label: Red Team.
He lived through famine, war and plague, and every road ended the same way: a few quiet people already in position, owning the things the world can't live without.
Now he's awake in a hospital bed, barely strong enough to lift a cup. Everything he learned is still in his head, but his body can only use so much of it. He was at his peak once. He's going to get there again.
Trading from a garage to pay for his recovery, he spots money moving into grain, water and medicine. Patient. Quiet. He's seen this hand before, and he knows how it ends.
He can't save the world. But he can make their patience expensive.
No magic, no system screens. Every edge is earned, and every win costs something.
