Ten Years of a System Prison

Five days. That was all before this decade-long system quest finally ended.

When my wife arrived with her assistant to sign me out, orderlies were pinning me to the floor. Outside, my six-year-old daughter Elle looked at me with disgust. Hes useless. Lets take him back as a guard dog.

She added, "Uncle Rowan is Ivy League. He deserves you more than this trash."

Valerie stepped protectively in front of them, expecting an outburst like before. But I just leaned on my bad leg, stood, and nodded calmly.

After leaving, I gave her the divorce papers and even surrendered the master bedroom.

Once, Elle wished for a new dad on her birthday. I immediately signed emancipation papers.

When Rowan tossed intimate photos on the table to provoke me, I just handed him a foil packet.

In the bedroom, Valerie demanded angrily how long Id keep this up.

I only left a bottle of lubricant on the nightstand.

She was wrong. I wasnt acting.

I just didnt want either of them anymore.

Valerie threw the items on the nightstand right at my face, her hands covered in fresh hickeys.

"Silas, if you want to play the saint, leave the crystal pendant. Rowan had a shock today and he needs it to calm his nerves."

That crystal pendant was the only heirloom my grandmother left me. I had treasured it with my life. Valerie knew that better than anyone.

She stared at me with absolute certainty, waiting for me to fall to my knees and beg for my dignity like I always did.

Instead, I simply raised my hand, unclasped the chain, and placed the pendant directly into Rowan's palm.

"Is there anything else you want? Ask for it all at once," I said softly.

I was leaving soon anyway. I wouldn't be taking a single thing from this place.

Valerie stared at me in sheer disbelief, a flicker of anger crossing her eyes. "Silas, you better not regret this."

She thought I was throwing a tantrum, playing hard to get to force her to care.

She had forgotten, but the memory was burned into my skin. Two years ago, when I tried to fight Rowan for this exact pendant, she ordered her men to strip me naked. I was forced to kneel in the freezing snow, acting as a live target for their archery practice.

The biting humiliation of that day still made my chest ache.

I lowered my head in submission and turned to leave.

Suddenly, a sharp crack echoed through the room. Rowan had deliberately crushed the crystal pendant in his palm. Blood welled up instantly.

I turned around, about to call for the family doctor.

Before I could speak, an arrow slammed brutally into my shoulder.

I staggered, catching myself against the wall. Before I could even process the pain, Valerie shoved me aside to get to Rowan.

She carefully cradled his hand, frantically yelling for the doctor to hurry.

In the sudden quiet of the room, my precocious daughter stood there, her bow still raised and aimed directly at me. Her face was twisted in disgust.

"You make Uncle Rowan unhappy the second you get back. I have to teach you a lesson."

"You piece of filth, why didn't you just die in the asylum? Having a dad like you makes me..."

"Elle!" Valerie snapped, cutting off her cold words.

Valerie paused her steps, glanced back at me for a split second, then turned and hurried downstairs.

Leaning against her shoulder, Rowan shot me a triumphant smirk. Everyone in our social circle knew Elle was my entire world.

But this time, I just calmly pressed a hand over my bleeding shoulder. My voice was completely dead.

"You haven't been my daughter for a long time."

Under Elle's resentful glare, I placed the signed disownment papers on the table. Then I quietly looked at the child I had once poured my heart and soul into.

Elle was remarkably precocious, carrying herself with the rigid solemnity of a miniature adult. Her only real passion was archery. To support her, I had scoured the country for elite coaches and enrolled her in the most prestigious club.

When she was four, she used to hold up her little training bow, her eyes shining with absolute adoration. "Daddy, when I master archery, I'm going to protect you."

Yet, the very first time she drew blood with a real arrow, it was aimed straight at my heart.

Thankfully, I had long stopped expecting anything from her.

My lack of reaction seemed to irritate Elle even more. She threw the bow on the floor, ran downstairs, and threw her arms around Rowan.

"Don't cry, Uncle Rowan. I already punished that shameless bad man for you. Are you happy now?"

Her voice was sharp and cruel, but I acted like I heard nothing. I just grabbed the first-aid kit from the corner and retreated to the storage room.

Behind me, Valerie's eyes burned into my back. A wave of inexplicable frustration washed over her.

A few minutes later, Valerie pushed open the storage room door, her expression complicated. She watched me struggling to clean the wound on my shoulder and instinctively handed me a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

"Elle is just a kid. Don't hold it against her."

I leaned away, avoiding her touch, and simply whispered an acknowledgment.

Valerie's hand froze in midair. A heavy silence settled between us before a dark fury twisted her features.

"Silas, what kind of tantrum are you throwing now?"

"If you hadn't acted completely spineless before, why would our daughter treat you like this?"

Spineless. I chewed on the word in my head. If she hadn't brought it up, I would have almost forgotten.

Her definition of "spineless" referred to an incident two years ago. She had wanted to give Elle to Rowan to raise, claiming Rowan suffered from severe depression and a child's company would cure him.

I refused with everything I had. The thought of giving my four-year-old daughter to a strange man terrified me.

But my wife backed me into a corner. She told me that if I wanted to keep my daughter, I had to make her assistant happy first.

For Elle's sake, I had no choice.

That day, Rowan stood over me with a sneer. He ordered me to drop to my knees, crawl over to him like a dog, lick his shoes clean, and bark while calling him "Daddy."

Those few agonizing seconds of utter degradation were recorded and posted online. Overnight, I became the internet's favorite joke, mocked as a pathetic submissive dog.

That same day, Elle watched the video on a phone. The adoration in her eyes warped into pure disgust.

She looked at me coldly and said, "You are such an embarrassment."

A faint throb of pain rippled through my chest. I looked at Valerie and pulled a hollow smile.

"You're right. I am spineless."

My complete apathy infuriated Valerie. She slammed the door and stormed out.

When she returned, she ordered her guards to grab me by my injured arm and drag me out.

I was violently forced down in front of Rowan, my palms pressing directly into the shattered glass on the floor.

"Silas, you deliberately gave Rowan a cracked pendant to cut his hand. Do you admit your mistake?"

Mistake. Ever since Rowan showed up, I had been constantly apologizing. Even when Rowan shoved my grandmother's urn into the lake, somehow, it was still my fault.

I pressed my bleeding palms against the floor, closed my eyes, and obediently said, "I was wrong," three times.

Then I looked up at Valerie. "Is that enough?"

Valerie's face turned livid. She grabbed my collar. "Don't give me that tortured martyr look, Silas!"

"Don't think this act is going to make me feel sorry for you!" Her voice trembled slightly at the end.

I didn't argue. I just kept my weight supported on the floor and gently reminded her, "You are holding onto Mr. Rowan with your other hand. Be careful not to hurt him."

Valerie's eyes went red. She pointed a trembling finger at the door. "Get out! Get the hell out of here!"

I nodded, turned around, and started to walk.

But before I reached the exit, Rowan whined. "Valerie, you didn't even avenge me properly. I'm still upset."

Valerie immediately softened, looking back at me while coaxing him. "Then how about we whip him a few times? Will that make you feel better?"

Rowan pretended to hesitate. "Is that allowed?"

"Of course it is," Valerie said coldly. "He's just a watchdog anyway."

A second later, a heavy leather crop lined with sharp metal barbs slashed across my back, tearing away flesh and cloth.

I bit down hard on my lip, swallowing every scream, enduring the agony in dead silence.

Valerie and Elle lounged on the sofa, watching me with freezing indifference.

It wasn't until Valerie casually glanced down and saw the massive pool of blood spreading beneath me that her face drastically changed.

She lunged forward, trying to support my weight. "Why is there so much blood?"

In that exact second, the cold, mechanical voice of the System echoed in my mind.

[Return portal initializing. Host's lifespan has three days remaining. System will now formulate a death trajectory.]

Valerie and Elle surrounded me in a panic, shouting for the doctor.

"Ah!" Rowan suddenly hissed, grabbing his hand. "Babe, my hand hurts so much. I think there's still a piece of glass in it."

Hearing his whine, Valerie instantly shoved me away. She grabbed Rowan's coat and ordered the butler to drive them to the hospital immediately.

The living room fell dead silent. I lay on the freezing floor, my body covered in lacerations. The blood flowed faster, and my bones felt like they were being pulverized inch by inch.

Yet, a slow smile curved my lips.

This was wonderful. Only three days left, and I could finally go home.

I was jolted awake by a doctor's heavy sigh.

Seeing my eyes open, he visibly relaxed. "Mr. Silas, you need to beg your wife for permission to use painkillers. Digging out these glass shards without numbing agents could kill you in your current condition."

I listened to his warning with a wooden expression and shook my head. "Just dig them out."

I didn't care about the pain anymore. I only wanted a quick release.

After the agonizing procedure, I stumbled out of the clinic room to pay the bill.

I accidentally spotted Valerie standing near the entrance. She glanced at my bandages, then picked up a gift bag and walked straight into Rowan's private ward.

As I limped past the cracked door, I heard my daughter's sweet, fawning voice.

"Don't be mad, Daddy Rowan. When you get out of the hospital, Mommy and I will help you punish that bad man."

Valerie looked toward the hallway, but she only saw my retreating back.

When I finally returned to my own sterile room, Valerie was waiting for me with a thunderous expression. "Where have you been?"

I raised the medical receipt as my only answer, then leaned against the bed and closed my eyes.

The hostility radiating from Valerie spiked. She stepped forward and grabbed my wrist.

"What the hell is this attitude, Silas?"

"You haven't been acting right since you got back." Her voice trembled, carrying a sick kind of desperation. "You were never like this. Why aren't you fighting me anymore?"

"Are you cheating on me? Is that why you don't care about me or Elle anymore?"

All her pent-up paranoia finally erupted into the open.

In the heavy silence that followed, a horrific sound pierced the room. It was the sound of my own voice, sobbing and begging for mercy.

The noise came from Rowan's phone. The screen was lit up, broadcasting a video of the sick abuses I had endured while trying to "learn my lesson" in the psychiatric ward.

Every single frame was a living nightmare I was terrified to remember.

Seeing the blood drain from my face, Rowan put on a mask of fake panic. "Oh no, Valerie, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to play this in front of you. My sister was just showing it to me to cheer me up. I forgot to turn it off."

All the blood rushed to my head in a blinding wave.

So Valerie knew. She knew everything.

She knew I was living worse than an animal for two years. She knew I was being tortured until I begged for death.

But in her eyes, my personal hell was nothing more than a funny video to entertain her lover.

I stared dead at the woman I had cherished and protected with my life for ten years, desperately searching her eyes for a single shred of guilt.

But there was nothing. Only irritation at being caught.

A harsh, broken laugh tore from my throat. "Valerie, isn't this exactly what you wanted? Are you not entertained?"

The room spun. Black spots danced across my vision.

Valerie instinctively reached out to catch me, but the pure hatred in my eyes made her flinch and snap.

"It's your own fault, Silas! If you hadn't gone crazy and kicked Rowan into the water back then, I wouldn't have locked you up. At the end of the day, you brought this on yourself."

Behind her, Rowan smugly fanned the flames. "Looks like you didn't learn a thing in those two years, Silas."

"Allow me to refresh your memory."

He waved the phone maliciously, then sent the video directly to my younger sister, Sophie, who had just been transferred out of the ICU.

Sophie was the only family I had left in this world.

The final thread holding my sanity together snapped.

I grabbed a surgical scalpel from the medical tray and lunged straight for his chest. Even if I died today, I was dragging him to hell with me.

But before the blade could even graze him, Valerie shoved me violently to the floor.

Hearing the commotion, Elle rushed into the room. She grabbed an empty IV glass bottle and smashed it directly against my face.

"Die, you psycho! Just die!" she shrieked.

Through a blinding haze of blood, I looked up. Valerie and Elle stood over me, looking down like I was trash.

"Two years in the ward, and you're still completely toxic, Silas. Trying to murder Rowan right in front of me?"

My vision was swimming, but a sense of profound, liberating irony washed over me.

I raised an eyebrow, speaking slowly, letting every word slice through the air.

"Do you want to know my biggest regret in life, Valerie? It's meeting you. And spawning that little monster."

Valerie's face lost all its color. Elle froze, staring at me blankly, unable to comprehend that those words actually came out of my mouth.

After a suffocating silence, Elle tightened her jaw and turned away. "Mommy, he still hasn't learned the rules. You better send him back to that place until he does."

Valerie closed her eyes, her expression hardening into stone. "You're right. Some people are just born with cheap bones. They need to be broken before they learn."

She pulled out her phone and made a single call.

Minutes later, the orderlies from the psychiatric ward marched into the room.

The sheer sight of their uniforms triggered violent tremors through my body. Flashbacks of being electrocuted, starved, and humiliated assaulted my brain.

I clutched my head, scrambling backward until my back hit the wall.

Valerie frowned at my severe trauma response. She stepped forward, trying to pull me into her arms to calm me down, but I shoved her away like she was venomous.

"Stay away from me! Don't touch me!"

That rejection shattered the last bit of Valerie's patience. She rubbed her stinging hand, her eyes darkening as she gestured for the orderlies to tie me up.

Drowning in absolute terror, I grabbed Valerie's wrist. My voice was broken, trembling uncontrollably.

"Valerie, please don't send me back. I'm begging you, please."

"I'll do whatever you want. If you want me to act crazy, I'll act crazy. If you want me to apologize, I'll apologize. Just don't send me back to that place."

It was the very last time I would ever plead with her.

But Rowan simply whispered, "Babe, looking at him is giving me anxiety. Just send him away."

And with those words, Valerie pried my fingers off her wrist, one by one.

I looked at her, tears streaming down my face as I laughed.

It was always like this. Two years ago, it was the exact same.

No matter what I did, I could never outweigh a single sentence from Rowan.

It was Rowan who threw my grandmother's ashes into the lake. I fought back and shoved him into the water. But Valerie refused to listen to a word I said. She threw me in the asylum without blinking.

I let out a soft chuckle, dropping my hands, and let the orderlies drag me away without another struggle.

In that dark, damp cell, just before the electrocution and humiliation began, the System mercifully blocked my pain receptors.

Even so, the next morning, I was dumped back at the front door of our house, barely breathing, like a beaten dog on the verge of death.

When I opened my eyes, Valerie was glaring impatiently, tossing a bottle of pills at my feet. "Enough with the act. If you've learned the rules, come inside."

The second I stepped through the door, Rowan smiled brightly.

"Babe, I want to run a little emotional stability test on Silas."

As he spoke, my sister Sophie, covered in surgical bandages and breathing tubes, was wheeled into the living room by the guards.

My heart slammed against my ribs. I tried to run to her, but Rowan's men forced me to my knees.

"Don't rush the show, Silas. The test is just starting."

Rowan grabbed Sophie by her hair and shoved the phone playing my torture video right into her face. "Since you wouldn't watch the clip I sent, I'll just have to show it to you in person."

Sophie struggled frantically, fresh blood seeping through her fresh sutures. "Rowan, he is innocent! Leave him alone!"

Seeing the tears streaming down my sister's face, I panicked and started begging. "Valerie, you promised me! You promised that if I stayed quietly in the ward for two years, you wouldn't touch Sophie!"

But before my words even landed, the piercing, continuous wail of the heart monitor filled the room.

I stared in frozen horror. Rowan had yanked Sophie's life-support tube clean out.

"Oops. My hand slipped."

"You animal! You fucking bastard!" I screamed, my eyes completely bloodshot as I thrashed wildly, but the guards held me down like a vice.

All I could do was watch my sister take her last, suffocating breath right in front of me.

My brain buzzed with static. A sharp, physical tearing sensation erupted in my chest.

Just as the grief threatened to crush me, the System's voice echoed.

[Host, the return portal is now open. Commencing countdown: 3... 2...]

The mechanical voice blended with Valerie's annoyed reprimands.

Elle stood nearby, irritated by my devastation. She crossed her arms and sneered. "Why are you acting so dramatic? If you're really that sad, go bash your head in and join that bitch in hell."

"She got what she deserved. Who told her to hire thugs to beat up Uncle Rowan while you were locked up?"

I curled into myself, trembling in agony, and slowly raised my head to look at my sister's lifeless body.

"Okay," I whispered. "I'll go join her."

Summoning every last ounce of strength left in my broken body, I launched myself forward and slammed my head full force into the concrete pillar right next to Valerie.