r/StoriesFromWithin

A man sat in front of his laptop with a cracked screen, running on an external hard drive that was being cooled by a small summer fan. On the screen is a writing competition banner with a prize money of $100,000 for the best story, 50,000 for the runner up, and 10,000 for the third place. If that wasn't enough, numbers 4 to 10 will get 5,000 each and 11 to 30 will get 1,000 each. "My story can definitely make the top ten," he muttered to himself, "if I get that money I can pay off my debts and finally get rid of those pesky loan sharks along with that infuriating landlady."

As Colin continues to read, he gasped, "just hitting a 1,000 sales on Readers Merchant will get a spot in the top 30?" his eyes widened in disbelief, "oh, right, you need to be one of the first 30, phew, that nearly gave me a happy heart attack."

He then closed the tab and opened Pen Buddy, his trusty writing app, "This really came at the right time. Now all I need is to publish Legion on Readers Merchant and I'm rich... hahahahah! Damn I'm gonna be rich!"

Bang! bang!

"Quiet down you idiot, or have you finally gone mad so i can call the mental asylum for ya."

Colin's lips twitched, _fuck you!_ he really wanted to shout that out, but decided against it, whilst rubbing his bruised left cheek.

"Think you're tough huh, I'll show you," Colin muttered, as he opened the bookstore and started setting up his story for sale.

A few minutes later, Legion was up on sale and in just the first few minutes, it had already sold 10 copies. Seeing this a crazy grin appeared on his face.

"Shit, I forgot to register for the competition," he scrambled to pulled up the submission form from the website and filled it out, "phew, good thing they had a 10 minute buffer or I would have been screwed."

He then closed his laptop and went to sleep.

---

3 days later, "Let's see if I'm in the top thirty yet," Colin muttered as he opened the competition leaderboard, and after scanning it for a while he raised an eyebrow, "why am I not there yet?"

He then opened his Readers Merchant account,

[ Title: Legion ]

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: Unrated

[ Sales: 18 ]

"18 sales..., WHAT THE HELL IS EVERYONE THINKING, THAT'S THE BOOK OF THE CENTURY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT!!!" Colin shouted angrily.

Bam! His door suddenly swung open and a big man came in and grabbed his collar then lifted him off the ground to face him, "What did I tell you about shouting?" He asked calmly but every word laced with a threatening edge.

His neck bulged as he swallowed a lump of saliva, "nn, o, n-no, noise..." he stuttered in reply.

"Good that you remember, now let me make sure you save it properly," with those words, Paaa! A slap rang in the room and the man dropped him to the ground and left.

Colin then stood up with shaking steps, walked to close the door but just as he was about to close it he saw his girlfriend standing in the hallway looking at him with a blank expression.

"Lyla," he called, and she immediately snapped out of it, turned around and left without looking back.

"Lyll," he tried to call her again but his now swollen cheek denied him, as his words became incoherent.

---

7 days later, He once again opened the leaderboard and scanned it only to get the same results, "still not in the top 30?" His hands shook slightly as he opened his Readers Merchant account.

[ Title: Legion ]

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: Unrated

[ Sales: 33 ]

Upon seeing this his entire body trembled, as he recalled last night's text from the loan shark,

<If you don't have my money by tomorrow, I'm taking your hand back home with me.>

He then stood up and then walked to close the door, then closed the window covers. After that he picked up his backpack on the bed and pulled out a thick rope.

Ten minutes later, Colin was hanging from the ceiling, dead.

However, on his merchant account,

Sales: 33 -> 46

Sales: 46 -> 109

Sales: 109 -> 167

20 minutes later,

Sales: 12388 -> 28392

...

The End

---

© 2026 u/Golaen1. All Rights Reserved. This "Ore" is open for "Spins" and "Refinements" exclusively within r/StoriesFromWithin. Commercial use or external distribution requires the original author's consent.

A dark wave of monsters spilled out from the forest treeline, kicking up a dense cloud of dust that cast a shadow upon the land. At the city gates the royal army stood in a tight formation, their shields overlapped to create a stable defense wall, though underneath them some legs could be seen shaking. A select group of knights held the vanguard gazing at the approaching beasts, their eyes gleaming with excitement.

Amongst the knights was Reid.

---

Flashback: Three Years Ago.

---

Reid came to this world after being hit by a car while crossing the road. One moment it was screeching tires against the road and the next he found himself in a grassy plain face to face with a horned rabbit. The rabbit didn't give him time to think as it channeled mana at the top of its horn and shot a fire ball at him. However, purely out of instinct, Reid dodged the attack and drove a kick at the rabbit's head, killing it on the spot.

_Clap, clap, clap!_

"Impressive, boy where did you learn to move like that?" A voice suddenly came from behind, and Reid turned around in fright that he jumped a small distance back creating a gap between him and the newcomer.

The man raised an eyebrow, and grinned at him before he said. "Good. How would you like to become a Knight of Gebdin?"

Reid eyebrows came together as he looked at the man in contemplation, _'**knight of gebdin?** What the fuck is that? But then again I've nothing to lose and he doesn't seem like a bad guy, so...'_

"Ok," he replied abruptly.

From that day on Reid joined the knights and there he discovered his talent with the sword.

---

Back To The Present

---

_Now it's time to show my power._

*Sigh* a sigh escaped his lips as he looked at the approaching beast horde.

"You're not regretting this are you?" Fig asked with a teasing grin. Fig was a bulky man with a knife scar that looked like a tear trailed down his cheeks for eternity.

"No, not at all, in fact I have been waiting for this opportunity," Reid replied with a firm tone.

"Ok, then what's with the sigh?" a sharp-eyed lady, Sandia, asked curiously.

Reid chuckled, "It's just that... their numbers are too small."

Hearing this the knights go silent leaving only the rumbling noise of the beasts approaching playing in the air.

"Hahaha, that's more like it. You hear that boys, a true knight can never have eno..., ouch!" Fig burst out in laughter and said but, before he could finish Sandia whacked his head with the sheath of her blade, "who are you calling boy?" she said her voice carrying an icy chill.

"I wasn't... I didn't mean you," Fig muttered, his booming voice instantly shrinking to a timid whine, causing everyone to burst out laughing.

Then a cold voice cut in.

"Enough games, time to get serious. Knights of Gebdin, charge!!!" he commanded.

With that the figures of the knights blurred and the next moment they clashed with the beast horde. It didn't take long before everyone was drenched in blood and gore, well everyone except for Sandia, who danced around, piling up beast corpses yet there was no stain on her or anything within the length of her blade.

Reid, slashed, hacked and pierced moving through the beast hoard, and wherever he went beast corpses dropped and blood sprayed the air.

He grinned, _now this is the life._

---

Meanwhile, in a mental health institute, Reid could be seen seated on a chair madly waving a plastic pipe in the air.

"Doctor, is Reid going to recover?" a concerned woman asked.

"I'm afraid his brain was damaged beyond what we can save, the only thing we can do now is wait, and hope for a miracle," the doctor replied with a heavy tone.

---

© 2026 u/Golaen1. All Rights Reserved. This "Ore" is open for "Spins" and "Refinements" exclusively within r/StoriesFromWithin. Commercial use or external distribution requires the original author's consent.

👏👏👏👏

👏👏👏

👏👏

As the applause died down a man walked down from the stage with a proud smile as he went back to his seat.

"Next up is the prestigious World Top Business Tycoon award." The host said with a smile as he surveyed the audience. "As we all know this award only appears when someone breaks and makes something unimaginable in the business landscape, and it has to be something that works a lot better than what was in its place." He continues with a serious face.

"Of course we won't award you for just breaking the system that works without improving anything right," he suddenly said with a cheeky tone inciting some chuckles from the audience.

"Alright, I Mike Dolpen, CEO of Tank Group of companies, am proud to announce this historic achievement by none other than a man who built a 2.5 Trillion dollar business empire in a record breaking time of just 6 years. Ladies and gentlemen give your applause to Mr Hedges!" Mike announced with vigor.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

The masses applause as Mr Hedges walked up the stage and receives his 1.2 meter skyscraper shaped trophy.

Mr Hedges then cleared his throat and said while looking at the trophy, "I can't believe this. Honestly I was just building and building so much that I didn't expect it to grow to what it is today." He paused holding back some tears.

"So, with this achievement, I want to thank my family, that always stood by me, my friends, who always had my back, and lastly, the janitors, for keeping the floors clean." He said regaining his composure with the last one causing audience to laugh.

"Well, this..." Mr Hedges continues with his speech.

Meanwhile, a camera zoomed in on him.

[The janitors...] a mechanical voice said.

The camera zoomed in even further and suddenly measurements appear on the display making it look like a sniper rifle scope.

Then the Mr Hedges on the monitor is shot in the head and collapsed on the stage. However, in reality Mr Hedges was still giving his speech.

[Since my work is beneath that of a janitor that it holds not credit to you..., I will....]

Back on the stage, Mr Hedges finished his speech and gets back to his seat and the evening moves forward.

After about an hour the event ends and Mr Hedges walked to his car that was already brought to the front when.

---

"Hedges!" A beautiful voice called out to him, and he turned around to see a beautiful woman walking towards him.

"Miss Reese," he called with a smile.

"Hedges, since you reached your goal are you now willing to focus on life?" She said with a teasing smile.

Hedges clears his throat, suddenly finding his shoes very interesting, "well, I was always focused on life Miss Reese," he said with a slight awkwardness to his tone.

"Oh?" Miss Reese said with a surprised face, "So, that's why you never let me in, I guess I wasn't considered a part of it huh." She said with a sad expression.

Mr Hedges suddenly felt his hands get sweaty and with his eyes slightly panicking, "where do you get that Miss Reese, you were always a part of my life."

Hearing this, the sad expression on Miss Reese vanished and she said with a smile, "really, great, meet me tomorrow at 9 at the Ridge Club, don't be late," with that she left. Leaving a stupefied Hedges.

After a moment Mr Hedges shook his head, entered his car, and drove home.

Within a few minutes he arrived at his estate. The gate swung open automatically as he drove in.

Once the car was parked, he headed for the front door, and just as his fingers brushed the door nob, a sudden shiver run down his spine.

"Man it's cold," he chuckled, "cold summer," he muttered as he entered the house.

"Jerry, give me the statistics of all my companies and their performance metrics," he said to the empty house. "And simplify so that I can actually understand it, okay."

After putting down his blazer he loosened his tie and paused. "Jerry?"

[Certainly, Hedges, I have compiled the information you need. I also included a list of potential companies we could target for the next round of acquisitions.] Jerry(Ai) replied.

Hedges smiled, "good," he said, sounding satisfied, "also make me some dinner. I couldn't eat properly at the function with all the people swarming me every minute... You saw me right? Wasn't I cool?"

[Indeed.] Jerry replied.

Hedges then went on to turn on his console and started playing, drowning the house in the chaotic sounds of the game.

Thirty minutes later. A notification popped up on the TV.

<The food is ready.>

When he saw the notification, Hedges got up, and walked to the table. Upon spotting the buffet on the table, he raised an eyebrow, "that's a lot of food buddy," he said with surprise.

[Celebration for your achievement today.]

"Oh, okay," he said as he sat down and started eating, "damn, this is good Jerry, got a new recipe or something?"

[Yes I added a new spice called ràt poíson.]

"Umm, really well that's good..., wait what!"

He shouted as the last bite of food dropped to his stomach.

"Jerry, what did you..." He tried to spit, but his jaw locked. A wet, frantic pfff escaped his lips as white foam bubbled over his teeth. "Jerr...y..."

A heavy hand settled on his shoulder. Another gripped his chin wrenching his head to the right, and what he saw made his eye bulge as if they would drop from their sockets.

Right next to him was another person, no an android that looks just like him.

The android then opened its mouth and said, "No, not Jerry, it's Hedges from now on." The voice was just like his only it was more dignified and firm, "I'll manage everything as it always been. There's no need for a face now. Good bye Hedges."

Not long after those words were uttered Hedges' head dropped into his plate. Jerry(ai), now Hedges, walked to the counter and picked up two military blades. It clicked them together and walked behind Hedges' chair.

Then after a moment of silence it plunged the blades into Hedges' skull.

After that, with both hands on the knives split his skull apart, and retrieved from the brain matter a small microchip.

A recess then opened on its forehead in which it placed the chip.

After all that was done it sat on the other side of the table. With practiced mannerisms it cut a piece of the steak and took a bite of both the fork and steak.

"It's my turn now," it uttered.

The End...

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© 2026 u/Golaen1. All Rights Reserved.

This "Ore" is open for "Spins" and "Refinements" exclusively within r/StoriesFromWithin. Commercial use or external distribution requires the original author's consent.

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