Risk Tier

The System didn't lend Theo power. It bought his future.
Five years after the System fell on Earth, most people who survive their first real threat walk away with an ability, free and clear. Theo Marren walked away with a bill. Bleeding out under a collapsed freight lift with no time for standard onboarding, he got an Emergency Continuation Purchase instead, real power, immediately, financed against everything he earns from here on out.
He didn't sign anything. He didn't get a rate he could negotiate. He got a percentage held back before it was ever his, and a System that's polite enough to call it a service.
Now Theo has to get strong enough to survive Dock Nine on whatever's left over, and he's about to find out that Calibration, the city's public qualification event, exists to answer a question he never wanted asked out loud: exactly how much is he worth to whoever wants to buy the rest of his contract.

RISK TIER is Book One of The Holdback Protocol, a LitRPG system apocalypse told by a man who'd rather train through the pain than read the fine print out loud. The scariest thing in this book isn't the monster. It's the terms of service.