Time is not a river.
It's a marketplace.
That's what Kai learned the moment he accessed the Chrono-Trade Terminal. Hovering in his interface, invisible to all but him, it pulsed like a dormant star waiting to flare.
A new tab blinked:
Temporal Echo Access - Level I Unlocked1 Chrono-Trade Seal availableScan initiated: Cross-dimensional trade routes forming…
Kai braced himself. This wasn't about flipping plasma cells or auctioning beast fangs anymore.
This was trading with ghosts.
The Collapse Timeline: ID–∆742
An interface unfolded, a shimmering blueprint of a world that could have been.
A sprawling civilization, spanning twelve star systems, collapsed due to a failed teleportation infrastructure. A hyperlane that folded space had malfunctioned, causing rifts in gravity and annihilating entire moons.
The survivors were few—but their tech?
Revolutionary.
"Item Available: Phase-Stitch Gate Core (Prototype 3.1)"
Generates a short-range interrealm bridge
Fully portable
Cooldown: 7 days
Durability: 1-use
Trade Cost: 1 Chrono-Trade Seal + 800 C.U.
Kai stared at the screen.
Portable interrealm travel.
A way to bring buyers to him—or escape in an instant.
It could change everything.
He hovered over [ACCEPT TRADE].
But the warning popped up.
"Warning: This item does not exist in your current timeline. Importing it may create instability. Proceed?"
Kai chuckled grimly. "Instability's been my life since I activated this damn system."
He hit confirm.
The Delivery
The sky over the Mirage Market darkened for exactly 2.7 seconds.
A ripple, invisible to the human eye, cut through the sector's quantum layers like a knife through silk. Traders across the Verge paused as reality wobbled.
Then, in Kai's storage bay, the Phase-Stitch Core appeared—humming, shimmering with fractured colors, as if unsure it was allowed to exist.
Kai stood before it in silence.
It was beautiful.
Deadly.
And impossible.
Yena stepped in, gun raised instinctively. "What… is that?"
Kai smiled. "Something from a future that never happened."
Market Upgrade Begins
Within hours, Kai's mind was spinning with possibilities.
He called Echo. "I need projections. Can I monetize this?"
Echo blinked on. "Affirmative. Using dimensional transit as a VIP service model… Estimated initial revenue: 110 C.U. per jump. Long-term: scalable."
He grinned.
A realm trader that could literally bring customers across realms?
Nobody had that.
Nobody even dared.
But Kai?
He was becoming that someone.
New Target: Realm Fragment Delta-Rho
Phase-Stitch could only be used once—for now.
He had to make it count.
So Kai began scouting for a place rich in resources but cut off—where merchants were rare and needs were dire.
Echo found one.
A minor realm called Delta-Rho. A collapsed mining pocket where mana dust was abundant, but interdimensional access was all but severed. The locals hadn't seen an offworld trader in decades.
Perfect for his debut.
The Jump
The device lit with pulsing hexagons.
Kai stood on the platform, heart racing, as Yena watched from the side.
"Let's hope this timeline holds," she muttered.
He activated the core.
Reality twisted.
Colors inverted.
Sound vanished.
Then… Kai stepped through the fold.
Arrival: Delta-Rho
He emerged inside a blackened, cracked cavern with floating mineral dust and flickering torchlights. A dozen humanoid miners froze in shock, staring at him like a god descending from myth.
He spoke calmly.
"I'm a trader. I deal in goods you've never seen… and I pay in Cosmic Units."
The leader, a hardened woman with silver eyes, stepped forward.
"Then, trader... welcome to Delta-Rho. We've been waiting decades for someone like you."
Kai smiled.
This was it.
This was how empires began.
Current Status:
Kai Thorne has successfully executed his first Chrono-Trade, acquiring a forbidden teleportation artifact—the Phase-Stitch Gate Core—from a timeline that no longer exists. Using this relic, he accessed the isolated realm fragment Delta-Rho, creating the first official off-world Kai-owned trade outpost.
This marks the beginning of his multi-realm expansion strategy, turning his influence from local to cosmic.
He now stands at:Cosmic Units: 1,316.2 C.U. (after Chrono Trade cost)Earth Credits: 1,228.9Trade Skill Tier: Rank 4 (Chrono-Capable Ascendant Trader)Territory Owned:
Zeta-12 / Mirage Market
Delta-Rho (Outpost Under Construction)Passive Income Stream: +46.5 C.U. per dayTemporal Trade Access: 0 Seals (used)Influence Rating: Inter-Realm – ModerateArtifact Acquired: Phase-Stitch Gate Core (1-use, consumed)
📌 Author's Note:
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— S.A.