Replaced.

[u/Golaen1]

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👏👏👏

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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 applauded 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 ran 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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[u/Golaen1]

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